A bit delayed, but this was June’s Fairyloot box which had two books and a magical vibe to it with some darkness too (or at least that’s how it felt to me). Starting from the left and going to the right:
Print. I think something to do with Sarah J. Maas? (you can see how little I care for prints in general, sadly)
The main book, Forest of Souls. I am increidbly excited to read it since I heard about it, so definitely happy to have it.
Also included an early copy of The Gilded Ones which has also been high on my list so all good books!
A Shadows Between Us pin.
And a gorgeous Starless Sea patch. I am just sad it isn’t a sticker or something more useful than a patch because they just go in a box to be admired when I remember they exist. Why are book boxes obsessed with sending patches?
A teapot tea strainer. It is a bit small and doesn’t have a lot of space for the tea to swish around so as cute as it is, it feels a bit not fit for purpose.
A pair of socks for the Bone Season.
Tarot cards as per usual.
The theme card.
And an elemental set of coasters.
Sadly the biggest most exciting items for me where the books. The rest wasn’t as great or useful to me and it made me sad because it didn’t match the theme as well as I expected and also it just didn’t make me smile the way I hoped. But maybe it hit everybody else’s themes and fandoms? (I think part of the thing is that the books I love aren’t big fandoms, like for example Mexican Gothic and Gods of Jade and Shadow, or the Spellslinger series… )
For my stop in this blogtour, I will do a spoiler free review of the book. This will be hard since there’s so much going on in the book.
As a disclaimer, this book was provided to me by the publisher so I could be part of the blog tour. This does not affect my views of it (and I also have a hardcover copy of it that wasn’t from the publisher).
French Revolution, interesting abilities, aristocrats in hiding trying to make a difference, and lots of schemes, yes, please!
You will find all of that, plus a lot of treason, intrigue, and interesting characters in Kat Dunn’s Dangerous Remedy. We start with a grand escapade which is set in a prison. The mission is to recover a prisoner that they’ve been told shouldn’t be. Will they be able to pull such an intense mission or not?
And what happens once they realise that what they had been told about the mission wasn’t true at all, putting them into an interesting dilemma?
My favourite part of the book was the characters, they have these grand ideas and all the secrets and motives. The ones they share with the group and the ones they keep close to their heart (and the question is if the heart ones are good for the group). Obviously, this causes some interesting questions and there is also the romance between two of the main characters that will cause some interesting disruptions in decision making, clouding judgement sometimes. All good elements to consider for the group dynamics.
It was also fascinating to see the concept of “but what if reality wasn’t exactly as it is but just a tiny bit more interesting in such a way that it involves almost a human Frankenstein experimenting part into it and it throws our cast into a bit of backstabbing, doubting and pondering where trust should be while they’re at the same time trying to fight off the outside?” Trouble not just from others but in their own ranks is like adding an extra dollop of mischief to the mix.
Oh and don’t forget that there is bi representation, that one of the characters has some interesting electric/electricity powers (I want to know more of this part) and that there’s a lot of trying to save the day when the day refuses to be saved.
If you are intrigued by the French Revolution, Frankenstein kind of ideas, heists, treason and high stakes, then this is a book for you to look into and enjoy. I recommend getting some pastries and coffee to go along with your read to set up the mood.
After reading Gods of Jade and Shadow, I knew Silvia was an author I would keep loving in future books, and Mexican Gothic just settles that even more.
If you are interested, I did a live tweeting thread as I read it with all my opinions, and the memories it brought back as I read.
If you’re feeling lazy and your question is “is this a legit Mexican Gothic novel?” then the answer is ABSOLUTELY! As a Mexican with family from nearby the area that inspired the book and that lived for a third of my life or so near abandoned mining towns, this book struck deep in my memories of Mexico, of my childhood and teenage years and the stories my family would tell. Yes, there aren’t really any tacos, sombreros or anything that screams Mexican to a foreigner, but from a subtle mention of a Zote bar of soap to other elements in the story, it was as Mexican as can be and even better.
This is how you do great own voices representation, and how you write a POC book. You don’t need to go guns blazing stamp in your face that this is indeed about Mexico, you just subtly reveal the depth of Mexico by the small hints, by the story. The gentle hints at a life lived in a country both by someone of Mazatec origin (one of the many native people of Mexico) and by colonist (English) attempting to make money out of cheap labour and taking away our silver, are superb.
Now for the actual story, we start with Noemí having her socialite life disrupted by an odd letter from her cousin and she’s suddenly thrown into this gothic decript house where things are just a bit too odd and she can’t seem to understand fully well what’s going on.
We kow something is dodgy with the Doyle and the way they are treating her cousing and her too, and yet, what is wrong exactly because you can’t just say “they’re dodgy” as grounds for say a divorce or for sending your cousin to a psychiatrist.
If you need to compare to something this is like a wonderfully modern lavish Rebecca but 10 times better, with the horror part of it developing gently around you until suddenly you’re overcome by it and you need to read until the end because how can you not find out what is exactly going on.
Now, for sanity and to warn other readers, one trigger warning I HAVE to give is sexual assault, attempted many times, but the main attempt was quite intense (extremely well written) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Which it is absolutely meant to. And given the context and the way it was written, it had a powerful effect on me but not as badly as such scenes would have in other books. Other items to consider into your content/trigger warnings: gaslighting, manipulation, colonialims, heavy racism, eugenics.
So now I will take about the racism/eugenics and hard topics part. As I read Mexican Gothic I had moments of anger due to the view the Doyles have on race and the superior vs inferior being (this becomes a major plot point and it is done with a masterful weaving of threads to form a spectacularly spooky rebozo) but I also cheered for the intensity that Noemí mustered and how she had a way of speak her mind. She did not stay quiet. And I loved her for it.
I keep praising Silvia’s writing but you can see she has honed her craft. The writing is that of someone with experience and knowledge, she can weave that tale and have you deeply wrapped in it. And the story can be brutal, it can hurt you deeply and yet, you will love it because it does exactly what it needs to do and even more. It is a credit to her mastery of words that despite how much anger I mustered about the topics in the book, I came out of my reading it satisfied.
All I can say from here is that everyone should read this book. Even if you aren’t into Gothic books, or horror, or Mexico, honestly, you need to read this because it is absolutely a master book worth every word in it.
PS. that mouse in the picture came from Tequisquapan, México. It’s a nice little reminder of my country without it being too in your face.
Time to unbox a circus or at least performance based Owlcrate box for June! I particularly like the way the items seem to match each other for a good theme picture. Starting on the far left and going towards the right:
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles. Apparently kinda Moulin Rouge type of book, peaked curiosity.
Chocolate Orange scented batch bomb which did not smell like chocolate orange even when I used it in the bath but it was nice.
Authors Letter
Collectible pin related to the book, which I don’t know yet the meaning since I haven’t read it.
A weekly tracker, bullet journal style that is a pad with a lot of sunshine yellow. Not my thing but I like the idea.
A set of Shakespeare pencils, which aren’t all that fascinating since it’s just pencils with some writing on them. This is probably one of those items I wish book boxes would do less frequently. Maybe send us a really nice fountain pen, or at the very least some nice fineliners or something instead of pencils.
Bones Coffee, this is some of the best flavoured coffee I’ve ever had so I can’t wait to try this one out!
There were also some stickers for the book, which I left at the bottom of the box and rescued much later than the picture was taken.
And finally, a pencil/money tin, with a circus theme. I like it but I already have a money jar and well, no need for a pencil tin so alas not an item for me.
I have to say, this wasn’t their strongest box in my liking but I can see the appeal and the coffee makes me happy enough so at least there’s that. I do know some themes are not for me and this was probably not as good (which is funny since I do circus arts, so I should’ve been all over this box). Oh well!
This was included in a Book Box Club box and I was cautious. I have read The Chaos Walkign trilogy and did not like it, so wasn’t sure how to go about this one but I mean it has dragons, so I had to give it a fair chance.
My best summary is that this is a conspiracy during the Cold War with a very American/US view of the world, but with magic and dragons. If you like conspiracy theories and that type of books, this is definitely up there, it has a lot of the elements for it, which is probably why I wasn’t so keen. And obviously the outlandish things can actually exist in the book because dragons and magic.
The writing style still didn’t sit too well with me as it isn’t character driven yet it requires you to be with the characters for it to move through the plot, so it’s hard as you can’t engage as much and it just the magic, dragons and cosnpiracy taking it through and it wasn’t enough for my liking.
However, the whole dragons and magic concept was fascinating and it was probably my favourite part of the book same as the whole prophecy and the little twists regarding the main character around it (without spoiling, it is not about our main character). It did take me a while to get into liking them because it starts with an obvious “it’s Russian, it’s evil or spying on us” view and that wasn’t a great start to get me liking it (I did give it the benefit of the doubt but it still kinda fell flat).
I probably would’ve enjoyed it more if this was a full fantasy, not based on the Cold War and America vs Russia and more just nations warring and the dragons caught in the middle. That would’ve been probably my favourite approach and given this a star more.
Somehow I took the pictures for this and completely forgot to actually upload the unboxing, which is very sily of me. Oh well, le’ts unbox June’s Illumicrate which was all about hidden glamour (or at least that’s the vibe it gave me, who knows maybe I got it a bit wrong?).
Starting on the far left with the theme card:
In the Shadows theme booklet.
The main book is The Court of Miracles, the naked cover is stunning, and I am intrigued by the book but not a big fan of Les Mis, so we shall see if I like it.
Metallic bookmark.
An odd tea towel (the fabric and size were a bit different than usual) for Game of Thrones and Arya’s kill list.
A Sarah J. Maas foiled print, which I found an owner for it.
Villains series inspired mug which is stunning and I am so so pleased by it.
Collector’s pin, I am liking these more than the weird magnetic coins.
A fan with a quote from Nevernight (I liked the timing of getting a fan during the hot week in the UK, so this was very welcomed)
Authors letter.
All in all it was a good box, quite fancy and I like the timing for some of the items. The mug is utterly stunning and I am happy for that.
A friend gifted me this book out form my wishlist and I had it there because it has foxes and the artwork looks adorable!
A short cute book celebrating diversity (even if it is mostly with animals) and being different. It is in a way a readalong, an activity book and just cute to look at. Each set of pages has some information about the animal in the opposite page and then the idea is to find the one that is not like the others (hints of what makes it different are in the description).
At the end you also have more activities ifyou want to, and you could read this along, or hand to a child to just be mesmerised by the many animal sin the pages and the subtle differences (or the poignant ones) and what makes them special. Or play a “which one do you feel like right now?” I can see a lot of potential of keeping younger children absorbed in it and the little details.
All in all, a cut ebook for searching, celebrating differences and just larning a tiny bit about animals.
Giant Days Volume One by John Allison, Lissa Treiman (Illustrator), Whitney Cogar (Colors)
Rating:
At some point I got a sampler for this and then on a whim bought the first volume. Completely forgot about it. And recently I was doing a clear up and organising of my graphic novels/comics and this one popped up. I decided that since it looked short I’d give it a read and decide if I was actually into it or not.
You can guess what the result was… (I have somehow now purchased up to volume 13).
The three girls that share a dorm room/area are as interestingly differnet as can be. Innocent ray of sunshine, “normal” and drama queen. And well, this is a delightful mix. I giggled a lot and also I found it refreshing that the drama queen isn’t trying to be one and even bets against causing drama intentionally or not (it doesn’t go well for her bet), our normal girl isn’t that normal (woops, even if she tries) and the cute innocent sunshine has a bit of gloom and bad luck around her.
I like their weird adventures and the relationship between them which made this a fun read, the artwork worked well to give a laidback college vibe and keeping it fun even fi topics range from lighthearted crushes to mental health and drugs.
I obviously will keep reaidng once the next volumes arrive, so expect more reviews to come about Giant Days!
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls. Edited by Hope Nicholson.
Rating:
I bought this on a whim, because I consider myself a geek (and nerd) “girl”. And my curiosity was picked. This did not disappoint.
The anthology starts with a set of cartoons from Margeret Atkinson and it goes on with a mix of short stories, essays, comics and illustrations about the many aspects of being a girl and geek. It is about the spaces we made, and then got taken and had to reclaim. But it is also about gleefully enjoying going into a comic store and being the odd one out but still loving the comics loads.
The book covers a wide range of experiences and of course not all of them rang for me but I could still enjoy them, and there were some I read and felt like they had been watching me as I grew up. Giggles, concern and sometimes a lot of nostalgia ensued.
And part of me wished I had seen this book when I was younger, I would have felt less like the only one going through it and more like part of a bigger thing, in a better way. It’s hard to capture all the stories into a single review but I had a soft spot for some of the comics in it and just enjoyed reading about others visiting shops, conventions, and more.
It is nice to know that some things never change, but that others do and they can be better, more open to others, more accepting.
I can recommend this anthology as a pick and mix read that you can read one or two stories, maybe a comic or two, and drop then come back to it for some more fun stories later on.
June’s Book Box Club definitely felt like they took the condition of the world into stride and wanted to give us all a pick up, a lifeline saying “you can be courageous and kind” and that they care, so let’s see what was inside. Starting from the top right corner and going clockwise:
A cute banner with watercolour art, I generally do not keep banners or prints but this one immediately went on to the side of one of my bookcases. I guess it felt right for me…
Vegan rainbow sweets, I love it when sweets and treats are included in the box.
Clubhouse invite
A patch/decal that says Courage Dear Heart and has a nice desing, it makes me think of a cool tattoo design or something.
The theme card, very vibrant and alive!
A tiny cute planter which I think is adorable (just be careful as it doesn’t have drainage holes)
And to top the tiny planter, some seeds. This is one thing I like in some book boxes, they add things that go together, like value add, in this case you don’t just get a planter, you get something to plant in it.
The main book which is The Short Knife. It wasn’t in my radar at all and it sounds quite interesting so looking forward to buddy reading it.
A print with a quote from the book.
All in all, this is a cute box and it lifted my mood and spirits plus was a gotcha in that the book was completely out of my radar and I love that.
