April Books

Title, Author (format - if other than print) - recommendation source - my thoughts

1. King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo - Grishaverse book - Not going to lie.  I bought this when it was released, and made it barely 20% of the way through before giving it up as boring.  I've since talked to a lot of other people who agree that these books don't come near the quality of any of the previous Grisha books.  Having watched season 2 of the excellent adaptation of Shadow & Bone, I wanted to spend a little more time with the characters so I picked the book back up.  And it took until about the halfway mark for it to get interesting.  Sigh.  There were things I enjoyed - including a couple of sections that filled in the backstory for two characters - but it very much feels like Bardugo is just writing these because her fans wanted her to, and not because she had any great ideas.  Also, it took back part of the ending of the original trilogy in a way that I find irritating.  I do have the second book in this duology. It is long.  I groaned when I saw how long and haven't even tried to read it yet.  

2. The Foxglove King, Hannah Whitten (Audio and print) - preorder from an author I like - I really want to say I loved this book.  Whitten is a talented writer and I adored her first duology.  BUT, I found myself more annoyed than anything else by the time I finished the book.  For all that our main character is kind of a standard fantasy plucky heroine, she has very little agency throughout the story.  Indeed, she is used by just about everyone else, and it turns out that every action she's taken has been orchestrated by someone else.  Yes, I'll probably read the next book.  I hope that Whitten redeems herself.  The worldbuilding, by the way, was top-notch, although I do want to note that again Whitten has built a story around corrupt religion.  

3. Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (audio and print) - reread - It's been probably two decades since I read this book, and its just as good as I remember.  I primarily read through audio, which really emphasized how frenetic the portions set in the 'modern day' are...to the point where it was unsettling.  (Which is, perhaps, the point.)  The one thing that hit differently?  The modern-day sections are set during a massive outbreak of an unknown flu, and frequently reference another fairly recent pandemic - and the book just hits a bit differently now that we've all lived through that.  

4. A House With Good Bones, T. Kingfisher - preorder - This book was a delight!  Gothic horror, but with a hefty sense of humor and a main character who is anything but the usual precious heroine of Gothic novels?  I absolutely loved it!  I only discovered Kingfisher fairly recently, and this book makes me want to dive into everything she ever wrote.  And goodness, I adore Sam.  And I love that Kingfisher put her in a larger body in a way that was free of fatphobia or bias.  And I love Sam's job.  Just read it.  It's fun.  

5. Lone Women, Victor Lavalle - preorder because I adore Lavalle - Wow.  Just wow.  I don't even fully know what genre this is.  Fantasy?  Horror?  Western?  All of the above?  So lyrically written, so beautiful.  Reminded me of a specific tv show I love, which I'm not going to list here because I don't want to give any potential spoilers.  The sense of anxiety and dread over what was happening was palpable - but that's because of the deep historical context behind it which made it all too real. I loved the ending, which we apparently owe to Lavalle's wife, who discussed the book with him every evening during the writing process.  I'm glad he listened to her.  It was right and perfect.   

6.  Skeleton Song, Seanan McGuire, Wayward Children short story - A sweet story about Christopher, not sure it was necessary.  But oh, so beautifully written.  

7.  The Undertaking of Hart & Mercy, Megan Bannen - Took a chance because I kept seeing it - I'm really glad I took that chance because this book was ultimately a dose of sweetness that I didn't know I needed in my life.  Two lonely people find each other - with some really interesting worldbuilding, the bonds of both born into and chosen family, and some pretty important lessons about healing and growth thrown into the mix.  It was a really fun and uplifting read!  (And darn it, I kept having to go to work when I wanted to be finding out more about what happened to Hart and Mercy....)