Seanan McGuire: "Inkpot Gods"

Title: Inkpot Gods [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Alchemical Journeys (4th of 5 books)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural
Year: 2026
Age: 16+ (the book is geared towards adults, but can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Fascinating concept. Rich mythology. Characters who transcend the page.
Cons: The dual timeline with a foot in the 19th century may not sit well with everyone. In the "present" timeline there's a lot of exposition/recapitulation (though it's required in order to bring a new character up to speed).
WARNING! Death in childbirth, dismemberment, body horror/flensing, self-harm, stabbing, near-drowning, animal death, misogyny/sexism, suicidal thoughts.
Will appeal to: Fans of the series who loved Book 3 more than Book 2. Readers who enjoy a creative, exciting twist on concepts made flesh, gods incarnate and the heart of creation. 

Blurb: More than a century has passed since Asphodel Baker refined the process allowing her to imbue alchemically created life with power More than a century since she built the Impossible City on the ruins of Olympus. And now, so long after her exit from the world, the descendants of her dark alchemy - who exist in a reality that inches ever closer to the hellscape of her imagination - step into a place of birth, of discovery, of horror, to make amends for the sins of the past. Can the gods of today defeat the evils of their maker, or will the legacy of the most powerful alchemist the world has ever known prove to be their undoing?(Amazon excerpt)

Review: This series is FABULOUS (except for Book 2 LOL), and I'd be happy to read it for the rest of my life, but alas...we're approaching the ending. Only one book to go! Catch up while you can (the final installment will only come out in 2028...). Thank me later 😉.

DOUBLE ANGLE

While Book 4 in the Alchemical Journeys series is a direct sequel to Book 3, and at the same time draws on the events of Book 1 (the second installment was, for all purposes, a "sidequel"), it also broadens the scope of the story in two different ways. In the past, we're treated to an insight into the life of Asphodel Baker, the first female alchemist, to whom a number of our protagonists owe their non-human existence; in the present, we're introduced to Lilianne, a trans woman and a budding alchemist herself, whose life becomes entwined with the rest of the cast's due to a...meet-cute with one of them 😁, and who's in for a shock or two (more like a dozen) and a lot of reckoning to be done.

Asphodel's villain origin story was a blast to read (and a real eye-opener). Leave it to McGuire to write a despicable character in a way that makes you almost sympathise with them, all while you never forget how monstrous they are (in this particular case, the period-accurate misogyny helps a great deal with the sympathising part). Asphodel is a complex villain, and if her transition from innocent, wronged little girl to evil schemer is a bit abrupt, it's not like this impacts the story as a whole. Lilianne counterbalances the "villainous alchemist" trope and adds her own coming-of-age arc to the mix, one in which her identity and her pursue of alchemy are cleverly connected. (Before you ask: she has a supportive - and incidentally, magical-adjacent - family, so hers is mostly a story of trans joy, though McGuire doesn't shy from mentioning the trials that come with reinventing yourself on a physical level in a very vocally hostile society. Then again, the story is set in 2018, prior to the horrendous backlash the US trans community has experienced in the last couple of years). [...]

Leslye Penelope: "The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass" (ARC Review)

Title: The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Leslye Penelope [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller or Mystery, Sci-Fi
Year: 2026
Age: 16+ (the book is marketed to adults, but the protagonist is in the NA age range, and parts of the novel are set in her or her sister's past. See the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Interesting blend of magic and technology with an intriguing mystery core. Puts a strong sibling relationship front and center.
Cons: Requires some suspension of disbelief. A couple of twists aren't hard to figure out. The main character comes across as younger than her age. Too much focus on lust/potential romance.
WARNING! Blood, violence, injuries, death, illness (sickle cell disease), kidnapping, earthquake-like events, bugs, snakes. Alleged mental illness (delusions/obsession), forced hospitalisation, racism, anorexia/fatphobia (mentioned), OCD, masturbation.
Will appeal to: Those who can appreciate a magical twist on the Millennium Bug crisis. Those who enjoy sibling narratives with strong characterisation.

Blurb: In April 1995, Zahara watched her twin sister, Annica, get hustled into a stranger’s car and disappear - only to return to a world where no one has heard of Annica. Not her mother. Not the police. No one. Four years later, as the world braces for the looming Y2K crisis, Zahara finds evidence proving her sister was real and hires a private investigator to dig into her family’s shadowed past. When the investigation leads to two charismatic men who once served with her father in Vietnam, Zahara realizes she and her sister may be pawns in a dangerous power struggle with unthinkable consequences. To find Annica, Zahara must face the truth about her family, her memories, and the power lurking within her. But the sisters’ reunion comes at a price - one that could bring about the end of the world. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

PECULIAR PATCH-WORLD

A number of books are capitalising on the '90s nostalgia lately, but TIUOZD is one of the rare exceptions where the time setting is actually integral to the story: the plot deftly incorporates the Y2K (Millennium Bug) scare, when half the world was afraid technology would stop working (or at least mess up big time) as soon as the computer clocks hit 00:00 on January 1st 2000. While - based on the synopsis - I was anticipating your typical multiverse scenario, the story went in a direction I didn't expect, weaving Caribbean folklore/magic and technology, sisterly love (of course) and family secrets, past, present and future, in a very satisfying way. If the explanation behind Annica's disappearance and the retconned world it spawns needs some suspension of disbelief, it nevertheless creates the path for a wild, high-staked adventure that I haven't seen the like of in any other story - and if it takes some time to get there (the real, sometimes madcap action isn't introduced until the last third of the book), that doesn't mean it isn't time well spent. Along the way, we get glimpses of Zahara's experience as a Black ballet soloist, while a number of flashbacks recount Annica's battle with sickle cell disease and the rise of her hacking abilities, and their father's brush with the supernatural while he was serving in the Vietnam war - with the author making use of chats/computer entries and tape recordings as narrative devices for the latter two narrators. [...]

Offbeat Offline: July 2026 (A Big PHEEEEEW)

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? Unforgiving, relentless heat, but on the other hand, a clean bill of health. I spent the month glued to my fan, didn't read much in terms of new books but did a lot of rereading...what else? Uh, nothing. No going out (except for grocery shopping and one dye job) and no housekeeping (except for the bare minimum), because again...THE HEAT 🥵. Anyhow, let's start with the bookish stuff as usual...

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #70 Abigail Rose-Marie, E.G. Young, Chelsea Iversen

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm STILL writing long reviews too - but for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis, and I took to writing them also for novels that I can do justice to in a less wordy fashion, in order to ease my reviewing burden. In addition to that, I sometimes write minis for books I don't want/don't have the time to review in full at the moment, but plan on rereading and writing "proper" reviews for later. Lastly, just be warned - this feature is VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #69 Melissa Albert: "The Hazel Wood" Series

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm STILL writing long reviews too - but for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis, and I took to writing them also for novels that I can do justice to in a less wordy fashion, in order to ease my reviewing burden. In addition to that, I sometimes write minis for books I don't want/don't have the time to review in full at the moment, but plan on rereading and writing "proper" reviews for later. Lastly, just be warned - this feature is VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

(The Hazel Wood #1)

★★★★

17 y.o. Alice has spent her whole life running from bad luck with her mother and obsessing over her estranged grandmother, the reclusive author of a dark fairy-tale collection; until her mother disappears, and she (aided by a fan of her now dead grandma's) goes in search of her in a world that isn't supposed to exist, where the stories have teeth and can eat you alive...

***

Rated 4.5 really.

This was my third Albert book, and for a while I was wondering if it would be the first that I wouldn't love. The worst thing I can say about it is that, to me, everything that came before Alice's crossing into the titular wood and the Hinterland (the portal realm where her grandma's stories are set) felt like a long prologue - compulsively readable, gorgeously written (if with some purple spikes), but in the end, lacking that element of novelty that this jaded portal-fantasy reader was craving. Yes, the Hinterland inhabitants are stalking Alice in her reality, and yes, they're creepy. Yes, she's hell-bent on finding her mother, who's supposedly held captive in the same realm. Been there, read that. Except...when Alice finally sets foot (well...not exactly 😁) into the world where her grandmother's tales come from, first the story becomes spellbinding, then everything clicks into place and OH! that was actually GENIUS! There was a reason for Alice's perpetual rage and standoffishness. The bad luck was actually...something else. The main twist - as usual with Albert - was completely earned, but impossible to fathom, and it changed EVERYTHING. Also, in retrospect, the couple of stories from the Hinterland compendium that we were told earlier in the book didn't feel like weird interpolations anymore. In the end - very much like Albert's The Children, though in a different fashion - The Hazel Wood is an ode to the power of creation (in all its beauty and cruelty), very meta yet heartbreakingly human, and if that's your jam, congrats! you've just been introduced to your new favourite author. (Bonus points for the Doctor Who references, AGAIN - see The Bad Ones).

Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But I didn't want to go in too deep about this one to avoid spoilers, and it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.

The Night Country by Melissa Albert

(The Hazel Wood #2)

★★★★

Two years after fleeing the Hinterland, a still haunted Alice is struggling to live a normal life, until some of her fellow escapees who took refuge in New York start being murdered and her very life seems to be in peril - while an old, dimension-hopping friend is on a collision course with her, and their meeting could either spell doom or salvation for the human world.

***

Rated 4.5 really.

(No spoilers about Book 1...which will be tricky AF - but in case you haven't read it yet, I'd rather not reveal anything major...the very mini blurb above is purposely cryptic and more than a bit skewed).

I'll be honest: if my favourite part of The Hazel Wood was the alternate-universe stuff (and THAT twist of course), the same goes for The Night Country - though in this case there's more than one world involved, if briefly (OK, only one world that really matters, but we get to visit a few and we're introduced to a bunch of super-cool Hinterland artifacts, so 😁). And by the end, the alternate-universe stuff in question will have you on the edge of your seat. So, if you're like me, you shouldn't miss this book for that reason alone. But there are plenty of others, too: a protagonist doubting herself and questioning her place in the world(s) (that's as far as I can go without giving anything away); a cast of secondary characters doing the same, but lacking her emotional anchor to the human one, which is where things get messy; a string of murders with an unfathomable explanation; an intense reunion (though to me the romance felt a bit like an afterthought, given what happened in Book 1); twists that are earned but you can't see coming; and luscious prose that - as usual with Albert - can flirt with purple here and there, but never gets in the way of the story. Plus of course THAT premise, the one I can't talk about, the one that sets this duology apart from similar stories - the one that amps up the reader's emotional investment. Bottom line: darker and more violent than The Hazel Wood, but at the same time poetical and whimsical, TNC is yet another ode to the (equally double-edged) power of storytelling, and to those characters who jump from the narrative a tad more literally than one would expect. Except, even if you've read Book 1, you're not ready for the spin it puts on it...

Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But I didn't want to go in too deep about this one to avoid spoilers, and it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.

Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert

(The Hazel Wood #2.5)

★★★★

Twelve gruesome fairy tales set in the Hazel Wood series universe, some of them working as origin stories for its characters, yet completely enjoyable on their own...only, don't go in looking for happy endings.

***

I may be biased, because I read and loved the Hazel Wood duology...but I ended up enjoying this collection a lot more than I thought I would, considering that 1) I'm not a huge fan of fairy tales, and 2) short story is far from my favourite format. But Albert has a way with words, and the gift of making you care for her characters even in so short a page count. It doesn't hurt that these stories have the typical flavour of classic fairy tales (minus the happy ending), yet at the same time their mythology is fresh and creative. All the main characters are female, often wronged or abused in some way, always trying to regain their agency whatever the cost, sometimes becoming villains in the process - but you can't help sympathising with them all the same (more so if you've read the rest of the series and learned the even uglier truth about their world). I have but a couple of observations: apparently, these tales aren't big on diversity (which can be explained with their adhering to the classic-fairy-tales rules, but still), and they aren't so earth-shattering to potentially inspire the cult following that they generate in the Hazel Wood narrative universe. Anyway, whether you've read The Hazel Wood and The Night Country or not, whether you live on a (dark) fantasy diet or are just a dabbler, I bet you'll find a lot to love in this book.

Note: definitive review (due to time commitments, I've decided not to write full-length reviews anymore for short stories, novellas and anthologies, except in special cases or unless they're part of a series. Also, since I had already written mini reviews for the novel-sized first installments in this series, it would only make sense for me to do the same with this companion book...).

So, have you read/are you planning to read any of the above? And if you have, what do you think of them? Do you post mini reviews? Do you like to read them?