Offbeat Offline: March 2024 (Plus Announcing the First Hiatus of the Year)

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? The hubs got some of the money he was waiting for but didn't make any progress on the walking front; I read some good books but got a stiff neck, and the dumpster fire house is screaming for vengeance. I'm tired and angry, but what's new? especially since, after 19 months spent tending to my bedridden husband, I can't see the end of the tunnel yet. Also, I have a ton of ARCs for review (well, five, but at the rate I'm reviewing, they might as well be a ton)...so I decided to take a hiatus this month. In the meantime, here's the rundown of my March...

Ryan Leslie: "Colossus" (ARC Review)

Title: Colossus [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Ryan Leslie [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi, Multiverse
Year: 2024
Age: 18+ (please note: it's definitely an adult book as a whole, but readable by mature teens - there are a couple of preludes to sex scenes that either happen offscreen or not at all, and the horror factor shouldn't be a huge issue, given the amount of very dark YA horror out there. See the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Epic, visionary, intriguing blend of fringe science, parallel realities and horror.
Cons: Complex. Requires suspension of disbelief (which is pretty much the norm with sci-fi anyway). Some characters aren't exactly likeable. The ending is open to interpretations.
WARNING! Horror and gore/body horror/bodily fluids. Violence/murder. Drugs/suicide. Heavy drinking.
Will appeal to: Those who have a thing for parallel realities. Those who enjoy tense and imaginative science fiction that pushes the limit.

Blurb: Economics professor Clay West has always explained the world through the lens of his profession. But after his girlfriend Karla takes Dying Wish - a drug that supposedly reveals the nature of reality moments before it claims your life - Clay is devastated. No amount of rationalization can explain Karla's actions. Distraught, Clay joins a mission into the dark emptiness of space where answers are promised to reside. But when the ship begins to malfunction, Clay and the surviving crew members suspect there's more to the mission than they've been told. They've been lied to, and they're drifting into dead space. Clay's memories of Karla haunt him even more than the ship's chaos, and there's something wrong with his memories: he has too many. The ship's Al tells Clay his false memories are a normal side-effect of the hibernation, but to Clay, the memories suggest something far more insidious. He's been on this ship before... (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary eARC from the author, since I had already enjoyed and reviewed his debut novel The Between in 2021. This didn't influence my review in any way.

LARGER THAN LIVES

On his site, Ryan Leslie states that it took him ten years to complete this novel, and let me tell you, I'm not at all surprised. Colossus is an ambitious blend of genres and ideas, spanning Earth, space and parallel universes/converging realities, clones and AI wars, science and philosophy, and last but not least, love and loss. It could have gone very well or very badly, but luckily, the result is impressive, and far less challenging that one might think (I mean, it's still a complex book, but you won't get lost while reading it). Putting his own twist on quantum science and the many-worlds theory, Leslie came up with a story where the scientific angle is just as prominent as the human one, since the two characters/forces that clash during the course of the novel and ultimately engage in a life-or-death battle are - net of the science and the technology that laid the groundwork for such a battle - the product of very human emotions. And I found it fit that the author would devote the first two thirds of his story respectively to the hero's and the villain's genesis (though Clay's section is a mix of real-time plot and flashbacks) - I mean, the general consensus seems to be that Part 2 is a tad too long, or too complex, or less intriguing, but after a couple of chapters, I started to vibe with it, and I ended up finding it both necessary and enjoyable...not to mention, funny at times. The last third is kind of an acid trip in the best way (which I suppose it indeed is, since the infamous Dying Wish makes an apparition 😂), a poignant yet sharp climax steeped in quantum physic and wrapped in a horror nightmare, and if you're into this sort of stuff, it's guaranteed to make your pulse race. [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #49 Grace Curtis, Rebecca Rook, Ai Jiang

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 NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

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

Mallory Pearson: "We Ate the Dark" (ARC Review)

Title: We Ate the Dark [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None so far (though according to a Goodreads reviewer, the author has - had? - a duology in mind)
Author: Mallory Pearson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Afterlife, Multiverse, Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 16+ (technically an adult book, but it can be read by mature teens. See the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Visceral and lyrical (if dark) celebration of found family, queer love, female friendship, and everything in between.
Cons: Metaphor galore - some of them over the top or bizarre. Open ending, with loose threads that were likely left for a potential sequel to pick.
WARNING! Horror and gore, violence (not of the sexual kind), near-drowning, fire, darkness (in the literal sense), claustrophobic spaces, evil spirit possession, extreme grief. 
Will appeal to: Those who love a story that crosses the space between all-consuming friendship and queer love. 

Blurb: Five years after Sofia Lyon disappeared, her remains are found stuffed into the hollow of a tree bursting through the floorboards of an abandoned house in the woods. The women who loved her flock home to the North Carolina hills to face their grief. Frankie, Sofia’s twin, is in furious mourning. Poppy is heartbroken. Cass has never felt more homesick. And Marya knows something the rest of them don’t. Determined to find Sofia’s murderer, they share more than a need to see justice done for their friend. As Sofia’s secrets unravel, so do those of the woods, and the women soon realize that Sofia might not be who they thought she was at all. And that whoever - or whatever - killed her is coming after them. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to 47North for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

SHADES OF LOVE

Let's address the elephant in the room first, because it's not like it's a secret: We Ate the Dark has a low average rating on Goodreads. Now, I don't mean to invalidate my fellow readers' opinions...but I'm surprised at the number of bad reviews this book is receiving. I get where most of them are coming from (more about that later), but at the same time, I found a lot to love in this story, and I'm going to tell you what it is.

Look, I may be a tad biased, because Pearson put together a lot of my favourite elements for this story: ghosts, haunted houses, alternate universes, a murder mystery, and a found family of women who just won't quit. But there's a lot more in here that I didn't expect and quite liked. Three old friends whose paths diverged after one of them disappeared are brought together by a shocking discovery (another trope I can't seem to tire of), and set on getting justice for one of them, all while trying to forgive and forget the hurt they've inflicted on one another, yet at the same time remember what they used to be for one another. Plus a newcomer with a gift that's more of a burden manages to get accepted into their circle, and does her best to make them realise she belongs with them. Cycling through the voices of all four girls (not to mention the missing twin's and a separate female character's), We Ate the Dark is first and foremost an exploration of female friendship and queer love and the liminal space between the two, from teenhood to new adulthood. I've never had relationship like those in the book, and yet the author was able to make me believe in each and every one of them. While there's no evident homophobia in the story, at least one of the characters tries to forge a more "traditional" sexual identity for herself, setting the whole tragedy in motion. But it's a different tragedy than you'd expect, and the focus of the story remains on the bond among women, the nuances of their relationships, the family that fails you and the one you make for yourself. And here's where Pearson's writing excels, down to the phenomenal single chapter in first person plural. [...]

Gwendolyn Kiste: "The Haunting of Velkwood" (ARC Review)

Title: The Haunting of Velkwood [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Gwendolyn Kiste [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural
Year: 2024
Age: 14+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age in the present, but it can be read by mature teens. There are far more graphic YA books out there)
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Original take on the haunted house trope (where the house is a whole street). Riveting, atmospheric and suspenseful. Heartbreaking, but hopeful as well.
Cons: Could have used a little more worldbuilding and character development.
WARNING! Violence, domestic abuse (off-page), pedophilia/sexual abuse (off-page), homophobia, bug horror. 
Will appeal to: Fans of literal and psychological hauntings with a mystery (or more) to crack. Readers who favour dual narratives (past + present), female friendships/would-be-romances and sisterly relationships.

Blurb: The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter - and only one has in the past twenty years, until now. Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she’s just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she’s been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Saga Press (Simon & Schuster) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

STEP UP THE GHOST

A haunting like no other. After a mysterious incident, a whole street vanished in plain sight (or, it didn't exactly vanish, but since then it has existed inside of a blurred bubble that nothing and no one can access...with a few exceptions), giving a brand new meaning to the expression "ghostly neighbourhood"...and its resident became ghosts themselves - or did they? It makes for an exciting premise and a fantastic setup, and for the most part, the story lives up to them (I have but a couple of minor quibbles that I'll come back to in the second part of my review). First one, then two, in the end all three of the estranged childhood friends who escaped the fate that befell their homes are able to enter the ghostly vicinity - but of course, at a cost; and with each trip, a new piece of the puzzle is revealed. Now, if grown-apart adults returning to their childhood lair, secrets and mysteries, and super-eerie locations/manifestations are your jam, this alone would be worth the admission fee; but like all the best horror stories are wont to do, The Haunting of Velkwood ultimately packs a lot more into its slight frame. [...]

Offbeat Offline: February 2024

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? A beloved series got a new installment...and my husband finally ventured out of the bed (but don't get too excited - he's only taking a few step inside per day to build up strength at this stage, with very meager results). I'm trying to conquer the to-be-read-and-reviewed pile, and though I've had little success for now, at least I seem to have gone past the "I don't wanna" or "man, this stuff is SO hard" stage...words seem to flow better. Let's hope it sticks...

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Spring? (March-May)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS SPRING? (MARCH-MAY)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...(I got a few of these in eARC form though! See below). Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the spring books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...and yikes, March is PACKED with awesome-sounding books...             

B.C. Johnson: "Deadgirl: Daybreak" (ARC Review)

Title: Deadgirl: Daybreak [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Deadgirl (4th of 5 books, but there's also a novella about a side character that is chronologically book 2.5 in the series - though best read after book 3 if you want to avoid a spoiler about its ending)
Author: B.C. Johnson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Imaginative plot. Unique, mind-blowing afterlife concept/visuals. Flawed yet lovable characters who manage to feel realistic in the middle of mayhem.
Cons: Very dark in places (though tempered with funny dialogue/inner monologue). More of a slow-burn than the previous installments. Features some questionable characters' choices.
WARNING! Horror, gore and heartbreak (both for the characters and the readers). Underage drinking. A couple of nudity/underage sex scenes (though not graphic/detailed, mostly happening offscreen). An instance of infidelity. An animal sacrifice. Lots of language.
Will appeal to: Those who love afterlife scenarios. Those who enjoy a mix of laughter and tears, action and strong feelings. Those who like brave, resourceful teens who don't pose as heroes.

Blurb: The final year of high school approaches, and Lucy is ready to break. Too many of her friends have died. Too many monsters have taken their bite. And now Lucy must face her greatest challenge of all: the end of everything she knows. With high school disappearing and the world before her, Lucy must make her choice on what's to come. But with the rise of an old enemy who's been stalking her for three years - and a rapidly dwindling supply of allies - can Lucy even make it to graduation? And more importantly, does she want to? (Amazon excerpt)

Review:  First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. And the author being B.C. Johnson, you all know I've been campaigning for his first Deadgirl book with all my might since 2012, when the original version came out. Also, B.C. Johnson and me have stayed in touch, if sporadically, for the whole time. I'm not what you would call a friend of his though, only a fan of his work. And an unbiased one. As usual, this review is the love child of my penchant for quirky, uniquely worded books and B.C. Johnson's ability to deliver them.

THE LONG GAME

Seven years have passed since the last Deadgirl installment (or six, if you count the Daphne novella in 2018...not like one year makes a huge difference), but B.C. Johnson hasn't lost his touch. It's funny, because Daybreak is a bit of a slow burn compared to the other books in the series, especially since the first 100 pages include lots of domestic scenes (if a funeral can be considered "domestic", but you know what I mean) and the main plot seems to revolve around the protagonists' alliance with a certain faction, which isn't my favourite thing to read about. But all this turns out to be a necessary premise to the most exciting (and heartbreaking...and heartwarming - usually, with Johnson, the two go hand in hand) part of the story. Which is why, upon turning the last page, I went back and reread the whole thing, and enjoyed the hell out of it. It doesn't hurt that the afterlife where Lucy has been spending lots of her time since becoming a (still very human) phantom is everything I - the afterlife junk - crave for in a story and more. The Grey is imaginative, visually stunning, almost videogame-like at times, teeming with danger yet interspersed with pockets of love (literally) and beauty. Plus, hands down home to the best scenes in the book - and the most poignant. [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #48 Seanan McGuire, Aliya Whiteley, Paul De Filippo

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 NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

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

Scott Alexander Howard: "The Other Valley" (ARC Review)

Title: The Other Valley [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Scott Alexander Howard [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist (with a prominent time-travel angle, but not of the Sci-Fi kind)
Year: 2024
Age: 18+ (there are two versions of the protagonist, teen and adult, and on the whole I would categorise the book as "adult" - also because we spend more time with the lead's adult version - but it's accessible to younger readers)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Imaginative, heartfelt, thought-provoking twist on the time-travel trope.
Cons: Quiet, sometimes sad, sometimes harsh and gloomy. Also, please note: for unknown reasons (though according to someone on Goodreads, it may be due to a new trend???!!!) the ARC lacks any quotation marks or indications of direct speech (no idea about the finished copy). I was able to follow the characters' exchanges without any problem, but if that's something that bothers you, you've been warned. Not that I liked it, but it didn't impact my judgement or enjoyment of the story.
WARNING! Drowning, bullying, sexism, misogyny, abuse, corporal punishments.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy narratives that play with time and what-ifs. Those who like to speculate about the relationship between cause and effect.

Blurb: Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town. Except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to  for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A DIFFERENT DRUMMER

In the modern publishing landscape, The Other Valley is one of a kind. You might call it a time-travel book, except there's no actual time travel involved, nor it is a sci-fi novel: as a matter of fact, it would be more accurate to call it a speculative book with a multi-temporal perspective, since the actual interaction of characters from different time planes is kept to a minimum (by the way, if you're wondering about the consequences, the worldbuilding in that regard allows for a clever and inventive solution). Also, Howard created a world that feels dated, yet he made sure not to suggest a particular time frame for the events he depicted (nor he hinted at a specific - if fictional - setting, though some of the characters' names and the title of "gendarme" would fit with the French-speaking areas of Canada, the author's country). Last but not least, there's no explanation whatsoever of the three-valley setup, and no reference to its connection - or lack thereof - with the world outside, and it's just as well. The events unfold inside of a closed system, a (not-so-magical) bubble that helps you suspend your disbelief and adds a sense of doom, caused not only by the lengths the valleys' authorities go in order to prevent the residents' future selves from changing their past, but also by the stagnant, melancholic feeling that pervades the valleys themselves, where there hardly seems to be a chance for the status quo to get altered even in the present. [...]

Offbeat Offline: January 2024

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? Confirmation of the house loan disaster, but also good news on the blood count front. My mother in law fell again, but this time with minimal consequences, phew. I saw the second half of Around the World in 80 Days with David Tennant, and received great bookish news with regard to a favourite series. But my month was unproductive as heck on all counts...

Announcement: Having to Discontinue My Blog Newsletter

Hello sweeties,

just a quick post to inform you (or remind you, since I've already mentioned it in a recent monthly recap) of a change that will affect my email followers: starting next month, I'll be forced to stop sending you email updates when a new post goes live ☹️.

Since the Blogger "Follow by  Email" gadget was retired in 2021, I've relied on MailerLite in order to send blog updates to my (few) email followers. The company advised its users to purchase an email domain, but allowed free ones, so I was able to use Gmail to send my campaigns. But in October I got an email from MailerLite saying that Google and Yahoo had announced new rules "to combat spam and enhance inbox safety", which means that...

Bulk email senders are now required to adhere to authentication protocols by authenticating their email domain (the domain address used for sending). [...]  So with these new rules, you won’t be able to use a free email domain as your sender address. You will instead need to purchase your own domain.

So, in brief: since I have a free email domain and sure as heck I'm not going to purchase one, I won't be able to send newsletters anymore (the new rule will be implemented next month). It's not a MailerLite issue: it's a Google issue, which means it's a Blogger issue, which means...we Blogger users are left to fend for ourselves once more 😤. Anyhow, I don't have the means to fix this situation, so you will have to find a different way to get alerted of my new posts. I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, and I hope you'll be able to follow me regardless. Thank you for your understanding and support!

Krystal Sutherland: "The Invocations" (ARC Review)

Title: The Invocations [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Krystal Sutherland [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural
Year: 2024
Age: 14+ (please note: this is dark YA - you may want to take a look at the WARNING! section)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Modern, fascinating, empowering and (briefly) trans-inclusive take on witchcraft and women's oppression.
Cons: Needs a good dose of suspension of disbelief.
WARNING! Body horror/mutilations, multiple kinds of violence (no rape/sexual harassment though), death/killing, near-death, fire, blood and gore, bodily fluids. Misogyny, stalking, familial abuse (again, not of the sexual kind).
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy an all-female story with found-family vibes and a touch of F/F romance. Those who like a dark-magic-fueled plot imbued with social commentary.

Blurb: Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to bear - that her sister was murdered by a serial killer and there is precisely nothing she can do to change it. Jude Wolf might be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul is now slowly turning necrotic. Enter Emer Bryne: the solution to both Zara and Jude's predicaments. The daughter of a witch, Emer sells spells to women in desperate situations willing to sacrifice a part of their soul in exchange for a bit of power. But Emer has a dark past all her own - and as her former clients are murdered one-by-one, she knows it’s followed her all the way to London. As Zara and Jude enter Emer's orbit, they'll have to team up to stop the killer - before they each end up next on his list. (Goodreads excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Penguin Random House/Nancy Paulsen Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

SISTERS ARE DOIN' IT FOR THEMSELVES

After the excellent House of Hollow, Sutherland delivers another pull-no-punches, yet at times lyrical supernatural horror with a trio of strong female protagonists and a coming-of-age (or more like...coming-into-one's-powers) angle. Yet, despite these common traits, The Invocations brings a great deal of novelty to the table, and if personally I was more enthralled by its predecessor both due to the story and the often luscious prose, there's a lot to love in this ode to magic and accidental sisterhood.

First thing first, The Invocations is one step ahead of House of Hollow when it comes to its explicit (and inclusive) stance on feminism and womanhood, and its commentary on patriarchy and toxic masculinity. Sutherland provides a fresh take on witches and demon-binding, while giving a reason why only women can become cursewriters and including trans women in the deal. She puts together three characters from totally different walks of life - reckless billionaire daughter Jude, orphaned geek/grieving sister Zara and magically-gifted outcast Emer - who start off as allies by necessity (and with disparate agendas), but end up forging a strong bond and kicking patriarchy and misogyny in the teeth together, if at a price. As usual with Sutherland, the horror and supernatural angles are top-notch - but the real horror here is the men's sense of entitlement and the violence they inflict on women in order to perpetuate their privilege, not to mention, the way women play into their hands sometimes (for instance, despite her rebel attitude, Jude craves her father's love and approval so much as to perform dangerous magic on herself in order to get them, and isn't above suggesting that Zara use her feminine charms to speed their investigations). [...]

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovic: "You're Breaking My Heart" (ARC Review)

Title: You're Breaking My Heart [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovic [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Urban Fantasy/Portal Fantasy, Multiverse
Year: 2024
Age: 12+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Wild, imaginative, at times poetical journey into a teen's grief and sense of guilt. Ode to family and friendship.
Cons: A little confusing at times. Might pose some problems to readers who need all the answers.
WARNING! Death by gun/school shooting (off-page). Near-drowning.
Will appeal to: Those who like a snarky, yet vulnerable lead. Those who enjoy coming-of-age stories with grief as a catalyst set on a fantastic backdrop.

Blurb: Harriet Adu knows that her brother's death is her fault. I mean, it's not actually her fault, but it still kinda is, isn't it? She would do anything to live in a world where she could take back what she said that morning. Then a strange girl shows up at Harriet's high school – a girl who loves the same weird books Harriet does, who doesn't vibe with anyone at school the same way Harriet does – and that different world suddenly seems possible. The girl speaks of a place underneath the subways of New York, where people like them can go and find a home. A place away from the world of high school, grief, cool people, and depression. A place where one may be able to bend the lines of reality and get a second chance at being a better person. Will Harriet open the door? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Levine Querido (Chronicle Books) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

MAKING WEAVES

First off - I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. Not only it successfully merges different genres (coming of age, magical realism, portal fantasy, multiverse) by way of regular narrative and experimental devices (see the late chapter that reads like a sitcom, not to mention the switch from 3rd person to 1st person in Ch.11), but it manages to tell a heartfelt, insightful story about grief and regret and facing your demons.

Harriet is a self-deprecating, acerbic Black teen living in New York, who's gradually distanced herself from her older brother Tunde, their cousin Nikka and their friend Luke, until Tunde dies in a school shooting on the very day she ended one of their arguments with "I wish you were dead". Nine months after, now enrolled in the same school Nikka attends and suffering from serious Tragic New Girl syndrome, almost-15 Harriet still blames herself for her brother's death, and would do anything to take those words back. Rhuday-Perkovic looks compassionately (yet humorously) at family and school conflicts, as well as internal ones, only to move the latter on the backdrop of a fever-dream scenario (think Alice in Wonderland, but with a deeper, more cohesive and more straightforward meaning) that promises confort if you're willing to pay a price, and that ultimately forces Harriet to make a choice. [...]

Seanan McGuire: "Mislaid in Parts Half-Known" (ARC Review)

Title: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Wayward Children (9th of ?? books)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room on the blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closest I could get)
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: An imaginative look-in-reverse at one of the most common fantasy tropes. Both funny and emotional. Gives us better insight into the portal universes and the doors' workings. Provides closure for a few characters.
Cons: More fragmented than most of its predecessors.
WARNING! Bullying/manipulation. Characters confronting past trauma.
Will appeal to: Readers who like a mix of adventure, humour and heart (with a side of heartbreak) and the found-family trope. Everyone who's ever felt out of place, but doesn't necessary dream of a happier world than the one they live in...

Blurb: Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. When the school’s (literally irresistible) mean girl realizes that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, Antsy is forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise. Along the way, they will travel from a world which hides painful memories that cut as sharply as its beauty, to a land that time wasn’t yet old enough to forget - and more than one student's life will change forever. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Tor/Forge for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A while ago, I decided I wouldn't write full reviews anymore for certain types of books, including novellas. But since I've been reviewing this series in full from the start, I'm making an exception here, and I intend to go on doing so for all its future installments. So, I'll keep writing a mini review after my first read, and a full one after my second.

WE ARE FAMILY

If I have a bias when it comes to the Wayward Children universe, it's towards stories with an ensemble cast, especially if going on a quest (OK, so maybe I didn't love-love Book 1, but that one was peculiar, and the series still had to find its footing somehow). They merge two of my favourite tropes - found family and alternate worlds - and they usually feature at least a couple of characters that I love fiercely, so I tend to write more enthusiastic reviews when all these things are involved. This is precisely what happens with MIPHK, where old fan favourites Cora, Sumi, Kade and Christopher and later additions to the group Antsy and Emily are forced to flee the school and reckon with the past of some of them, all while touching base with a familiar face and righting some wrongs in the process. For a book so short (160 pages), the 9th installment in the Wayward Children saga delivers with a vengeance, and despite the rather large cast, you never feel like one of the kids doesn't get enough attention, though the main focus is on Antsy and her peculiar relationship with the doors (established in the previous installment, but explored in more detail here). The found-family dynamic is spot-on, and so what if "family" is a broad term here, that may or may not include talking birds and ancient predators 😉. [...]    

Offbeat Offline: December 2023

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!

Hello sweeties! and Happy New Year! 🎉

What happened last month to yours truly? Appalling house loan news, a shitty birthday (don't ask), Christmas laryngitis (because of course 😬), but also new money incomes and a whole lot of David Tennant 😍. I also tried to knock some review books off my list, and to actually WRITE some reviews...with meager results. In the meantime, my hair has reverted to shitty. Oh, and I saw my cousin again after...15 years? And of course I got tired a lot...