Book Review: Until the Last Petal Falls by Viano Oniomoh

When Eru was eleven years old, he met an unforgettable boy.

Only a few weeks after, he forgot all about that boy.

Ten years later, after his parents’ sudden deaths, all Eru wants is to find a way out of the village he was supposed to leave behind, and escape the abuse of his grieving grandmother. When he receives a summons from Able Mummy, the wife of the High Chief, it seems all of his prayers have been answered.

Able Mummy needs his help. But she and the High Chief have a secret.

Once Eru uncovers the truth, he finds that the fate of the village, and that of the boy he’d been made to forget, could lie solely in his hands.

Cosy, sweet, and intimate, Until the Last Petal Falls is a character-driven Nigerian queerplatonic retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

 

Of all the genres I love fantasy the most; of all the fantasy stories I love fairytales the most; of all the fairytales I love Beauty and the Beast the most, and of all the retellings out there I love diverse and LGBTQ+ retellings the most, so I added this book to my TBR list with a quickness. I heard about Until the Last Petal Falls through Bookstagram, and bought the ebook during a stuff-your-kindle sale. I broke my "no shopping on Amazon" rule to buy this as it's not available anywhere else. 

I really liked this book. The setting (modern-day Nigeria but with gods and witch doctor magic) was very interesting to read about, as was the way Oniomoh reinvents the tale as old as time. Like all* Beautys, Eru hands over his life and future to help someone else; like some other Beasts, Esioghene goes from angry and closed-off to open and loving. Both men are aromantic, and the queerplatonic relationship that develops between them is very sweet and tender. Most of the general BatB characteristics are there: big palace/house hidden by magic, roses with petals falling counting the days, curses, etc. I would consider this book to be cozy despite the difficult things the characters go through (both are abused).

Score: ★★★★⯨ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0
Read in: February 21
From: Amazon

Genres/classification: fantasy, cozy fantasy, fairytale retelling, modern retelling, not quite fabulism but close, adult book I think, monster romance only without the romance

Tropes: forced proximity, magically bound to each other, found family, love conquers all, true love breaks the curse, love saves the day (all platonic love btw)

Representation: aromantic (both MMCs), gay queerplatonic relationship, all the characters are Nigerian as the book is set in Nigeria, ace vibes as well imo; author is (as far as I can tell) a Nigerian LGBTQ+ woman

Trigger warnings: child abuse, neglect of a child, domestic abuse, physical & verbal abuse, abusive & controlling parents and grandparent, depression, grief, parental loss (I think it was due to a car accident but I may be wrong), manipulation/deceit, memories magically erased

*ok probably not all

Book Reviews: Legendborn and Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

I had bought these two Legendborn series ebooks by Tracy Deonn last year because they were on sale and I had heard good things about them, and finally read them this February for Black History Month.

Legendborn (first book)'s summary, which gives away quite a lot of the plot:

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

WOW HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK!!! Run, don't walk!! This book is so so so good! It combines the typical teen chosen one learning about a secret magical society story with Arthurian legend and the Southern Black American experience, creating something so amazing and unique. Fascinating and exciting and magical and scary, grounded with history, grief and pain; I'm going to be thinking about these books forever. 

Bree is grieving and angry and flawed; I felt for her and rooted for her all the way. I loved learning about the magic and the Legendborn stuff, even if the groups and titles and hierarchy were confusing. There's a chart explaining them all at the end, which of course I didn't realize until I finished the book, but it was not formatted for ebook so it wasn't really readable anyway. 

There's also a touch of folklore that was folded in; I'm not precisely sure whether to categorize it as Southern, American, or Black; it may be 2 or all of the above. I liked all the representation (lots of side/minor LGBTQ+ characters) and found it funny that there's an in-world explanation as to why they're all teenagers/in their early 20s. As if Bree doesn't have enough on her plate, there's a cute teen boy love interest (or 2). I personally would be way too busy and stressed out to crush/flirt/fall in love, but book teenagers will be teenagers. It's basically inevitable.

I decided to put all the representation, tropes, and trigger warnings for these books at the end of this post, so scroll down for those.

Score: ★★★★★ out of 5 stars (yes, all five! That hasn't happened in ages)
Spice score: 0
Read in: February 9-10
From: B&N Nook

Bloodmarked (second book)'s summary, which is rather spoilery:

All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new:

A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion.

But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.

Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected.

When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death.

If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.

This is a continuation from the first book (which doesn't end on a cliffhanger but is definitely not resolved), so most of my feelings and thoughts are the same. This one adds to the series' demonology, which I found interesting, and there are some new characters. Kind of more horrifying in how Bree is treated by the society. This book stressed me out so much I developed stomach pain, lol. Worth it. I loved these books so much I don't even care about there being a love triangle. You blew my fucking mind; sure you can have a little cliché love triangle as a treat.

The third book doesn't come out until March 4 which I am so impatient for despite that not being much of a wait. Still tho! I'm going to try to borrow it from the public library but there'll probably be a huge waiting list for it, which I'm a bit worried about (I don't want to waaaaaaaait).

Score: ★★★★⯨ out of 5 stars  (I took half a star off for being too sad)
Spice score: 0
Read in: February 18
From: B&N Nook

Tropes: young protagonist loses a parent then learns they have magic, "I had no idea magical power ran in our family", chosen one, "we'd never thought YOU could be our chosen one", secret magical society that hides themselves and the truth about magic/magical creatures etc. from regular people, typical straight love triangle, girl is torn between blond nice boy and dark-haired bad boy, "this magic/power is unlike anything we've ever seen", battle teens, oppressive highly structured hierarchical institution/organization, snarky demon with golden eyes (well it's a trope to me)

Representation: Black/African American (specifically being Black and Southern), Asian lesbian side character, nonbinary side character, white-passing biracial Hispanic & white side character, several side characters are LGBTQ+ including one teen/college-age lesbian couple

Trigger warnings, which of course are spoilery: past rape (it's clearly rape and named as such but not described), murder, slavery, physical violence, death, blood and gore, teen is imprisoned, drugged, and interrogated; racism, newborn baby is abandoned to die (it lives), kidnapping, grief, parental loss, fantasy violence, supernatural horror, memories are wiped/manipulated magically, spirit possession, police encounter (no one is hurt), childbirth

Narnia bloggin'

The Chronicles of Narnia was the first fandom I ever participated in online, having loved the books since I was seven, and it's still very near and dear to my heart (just look at my Instagram handle). I used to be very active on the NarniaWeb forums around the time of the first Disney movie (TCoN: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) through probably a bit after the second (TCoN: Prince Caspian) or third (TCoN: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). More clearly, this was 2005-ish to around 2009/10. It was about the only social life I had at the time, until my last two years of undergrad; I think I was in grad school when I finally stopped reading and posting in the forums for good, although I still think of them and the people I met on there fondly. The NarniaWeb admins still send me a birthday message every year despite me being inactive. 

In terms of how I see the Disney movies, I liked the first one the best (LWW), Prince Caspian the worst, and VotDT the mediumest. There were of course additions to LWW that I didn't like, little remarks and actions for the kids that were annoyingly precious or modern or childish (clearly added to up the drama and cater to modern American audiences), and the (IMO) unnecessary waterfall scene. I was most active in the NarniaWeb forums during the making of Prince Caspian, poring over and freaking out about movie news for probably a year and a half with other die-hard Narnia fans, which whipped me into a frenzy probably no movie could have lived up to. Prince Caspian, which strayed even farther from the source material than its predecessor and was given even more unnecessary and egregious additions such as the Susan/Caspian kiss (I shudder and C.S. Lewis rolls in his grave), was a huge let-down that disappointed me greatly. I was busier during VotDT's making, not reading or participating in the forums as much, partially because of school, having IRL friends, and due to the disappointment I had incurred. I enjoyed VotDT more because of this; if you expect nothing, there is room to be pleasantly surprised. I heard from my most recent CSL class professor that CSL's stepson put a stop to the Disney Narnia movies after the third because he felt they were straying too far from the Christianity of the books (my professor knows him personally). I of course would have liked to see more Narnia books turned into movies, but understand fully. He was right to do so, I think.

All this is to say: I've heard that Netflix is going to make new Narnia movies and possibly a TV show/s. This of course makes me a bit nervous but rather intrigued. Greta Gerwig is going to be the director, which I'm not totally on board with but trying to have an open mind about. I liked Lady Bird okay, liked Little Women quite a lot, and loved Barbie, but I'm not sure how her brand of feminist introspective teen-girlhood and young womanhood is going to fare. TCON has a few strong, well-rounded female characters, but they do not spend any time thinking about what it means to be a teenage girl/young woman in society and the way cultural and parental expectations effect their attempts to be themselves and live their lives the way they want. The closest to do so was Susan, and look where that got her. I didn't like Disney/Walden's attempt at this (introspective teen-girlhood), which consisted of having Susan be awkwardly talked to by a boy in the beginning of Prince Caspian, much to her dislike; this was clearly supposed to be a foil or something for her "relationship" with Caspian, which was barely (and badly) developed anyway. I'm not sure what the point of it was (the boy trying to talk to her in England); was it to show how Susan preferred muscular hot older guys to nerdy skinny boys? Was it an attempt to show character growth and maturing (Susan didn't like boys and then she did)? Was this their attempt at laying groundwork for what happens to Susan at the end of the series??? 

While typing this, I just remembered how they added a character to VotDT (a sailor's young daughter who stowed away on the ship to be with her dad) in order for the film to have another female character besides Lucy and the star's daughter (who is there for five seconds and isn't even named in the book) and to pass the Bechdel test, lol. I know the books are just so male, and there's not really a way to change that in a way that will keep everyone happy (far from it). IMO, the best way to do it is to make some minor characters female. Doctor Cornelius could be Doctor Cornelia, the seven lords Caspian tries to find in VotDT could be the seven lords and ladies, etc. This will make a lot of people angry but who cares. I'm sure the diversity that was "added" to the background characters made people upset; look at the blowback the current LOTR prequel TV show got for their Afrolatino elf (whom I love of course). As the books are set during the 1940s in our world and a classic fantasy European medieval era-inspired world, plus were written in the 1950s, there are period-typical attitudes towards gender roles. I'm curious to see how Greta Gerwig deals with these without making the changes too focus-pulling.

The Disney/Walden movies' director, Andrew Adamson, put in his boyish love of the battles and fighting in the Narnia books, expanding and inflating them to mythic LOTR-like proportions. I obviously feel the battles and fighting and war etc. have their place, but it was unnecessary to inflate them and add more; this made the movies feel like kiddie-LOTR or LOTR-lite. There are as many views of Narnia as there are readers, I guess. I personally liked the fantasy and magic stuff the best, as well as the history that is only hinted at but never fully told. I know Greta Gerwig loved the TCON books as a kid, as did most of us; hopefully the adaptations she helms will be balanced and not too much of anything.

I do think it makes sense to turn Voyage of the Dawn Treader into a TV show; the stories are very episodic anyway and would translate nicely into TV episodes. The Silver Chair would also work decently well as a TV show, as would The Last Battle. The other books, I feel, would not, although LWW and PC have of course already been turned into BBC miniseries (TV shows with only one series, usually of 4-6 episodes) as well as movies. 

One thing I am really looking forward to is new Narnia merch. When the Disney movies came out, I was in college and had very little money, so I couldn't buy everything I wanted to. This time I have plenty of money to spend on frivolities, but my fear is that Netflix won't put out any official Narnia merch. I can't recall seeing any official merch for most Netflix shows, apart from a few shows' merch on Hot Topic/Boxlunch. Well, there's always fan-made merch. 

~

A new set of illustrated covers for the TCON books were announced; they remind me a lot of Cliff Nielsen's excellent cover illustrations as they're both dynamic and computer/digitally illustrated, only the new ones look extra dramatic. I mostly liked them, until someone online pointed out that they look AI-generated, and my stomach sank. After scouring them and finding Digory's case of AI-hand, I commented on the official Narnia Instagram post about the covers asking if they were AI-generated, and both the artist and his daughter replied that they were not (kind of embarrassing but I did comment somewhere very visible, so). I do kind of agree with some of the other comments that all fantasy covers look kind of the same nowadays. I don't think I'll buy a set of the new covers books brand-new, unless I find a great deal or something, and my guess is that it'll take a few years after they are published for copies with these covers to make their way to thrift stores and secondhand bookshops if I want to buy them the way I've bought the others (aka individually and slowly depending on what the thrift stores have at the time).

I was intrigued by the artist adding Easter eggs to the cover illustrations in the form of the planetary symbols for the planet each book falls under according to Michael Ward and his Planet Narnia/seven heavens theory. I don't subscribe to it but I was brought much closer to agreement by a classmate's presentation on that theory in my CLS class (Dr. Ward also gave a presentation on his planetary theory to my CSL class since my professor knows him as well). For Owen Richardson (the new book covers' artist) to use the books' assigned (by Dr. Ward) planetary symbols show that he loves the Narnia books enough to read books about them; I am comforted by this knowledge.

Someone else pointed out online that they're using the Disney logo/font for the new books' titles, and won't that look dated, especially by the time the Netflix movies come out? I like the Disney font a lot but I rather agree; it'll be cool to see what Netflix does with the titles design.

Book review: A Sorceress and Scones by Allie Leigh

The rumours should have been enough to send her running, but when the opportunity to study magic under the Lady Elliane presents itself, Korinne can't say no. Even if people do think the lady sorceress has terrifying fangs, fearsome claws, and a tendency to eat hearts.

She'd planned to focus upon her studies, but life at the sorceress's castle isn't what she'd expected. Though she hides herself away, Elliane doesn't live alone. There's Arycelle, a spirited girl from beyond the valley, and Wick, a demon who seems more interested in performances and pastries than any sort of eldritch pact. Along with living shadows, poetic statues, and an opinionated stove, Korinne isn't sure what to make of the strange world she's stumbled into.

But when Elliane, Arycelle, and Wick learn of her feelings for Ninette—a sweet baker and her dearest friend—they decide to take responsibility for ensuring she gets a happily ever after, and Korinne finds she has much more than magic on her mind.

I downloaded this book from B&N Nook for free late last year, and decided to read it for Black History Month as the girl (Korinne) on the cover is Black; however, the author is white and Canadian, which I didn't realize, so I don't think this counts. 

This book was less cozy than suggested by the summary, although it's cozy enough that I don't really feel I was tricked. The fantasy world this book is set in is race- and queer-normative, although social classes are a thing and Korinne's bastard birth status dictates her life and what she can wear. The pain Korinne feels at being shunned by her father (as if she chose to be born! screw that dude) is a big part of her character, even indirectly driving some of the plot. Elliane's outsider status is also painful to her, and Korinne, Elliane, Arycelle, and Wick (a demon child with no evil but plenty of rambunctiousness) form a found family. 

Korinne's struggles with her magical studies take up a large part of the book. The castle with its sentient statues and oven has Beauty and the Beast vibes, while the living shadows made me think of soot sprites. The part about the friends trying to get Korinne  together with Ninette is smaller than it sounds, but still sweet. What I wouldn't give to eat some of her pastries. There's some really cool magic towards the end that I really liked but won't talk about because it's a spoiler.

Overall, I really liked this book despite the sad/angry-making stuff and I do recommend it. I can't wait to read the (unpublished) sequel, which sounds like it deals with Arycelle's and Wick's story. The cover is beautiful, although for some reason isn't showing up right now.

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0
Read in: February 2
From: B&N Nook

Tropes: their friends ship them and try to get them to confess/date, being sent on an errand specifically so they'll run into their crush, etc., magical castle with sentient objects/appliances & invisible/non-human servants

Representation: sapphic pairing, Korinne appears to be Black, Arycelle? appears to be a woman/girl of color (the world is fairly colorblind/race neutral), background LGBTQ+ characters

Trigger warnings: manipulation, betrayal, implied psychological torture through dreams, terminal illness, emotional trauma and pain, othering, sick fantasy animal

Book Review: More to Love by Georgina Kiersten

An Unexpected Love

For Jamir Cunningham, a relationship is the last thing on his mind.  After inheriting his grandparents' bookstore, Jamir has been completely focused on running the business. And if he's lonely, that was between him and the books. Yet, from the moment Emmy Park walked into his life, Jamir was immediately captivated by the plus-size Korean.

A Fresh Start

After his recent divorce, former Olympic wrestler Emerson "Emmy" Park moved to Texas to get a fresh start. After taking a job as an assistant wrestling coach at a nearby university, he stumbles across Jamir's bookstore. Emmy is instantly attracted to Jamir.  Unfortunately, he is big and burly with a resting bitch face and thinks he has zero chance with the gorgeous Black man. However, when a sudden encounter shows them how good they can be together. Is the simmering attraction between them enough for them to see past their differences and finally give in to their desires?

This was my first read of February. As it's Black History Month no matter what anybody says, I specifically tried to choose books with Black characters. I bought this ebook during one of those "stuff your ereader" sales last year. 

The leads meet because Emmy likes to sit in Jamir's bookstore and read during his lunch hour. Jamir is instantly attracted to Emmy and kind of follows him around the bookstore trying-to-be-stealthily; Emmy thinks Jamir stares at him because he's a big, tall Korean. I found the manner in which they get to talking rather contrived; Emmy forgets his beloved copy of Pride & Prejudice at Jamir's bookstore (he really takes his own book to read at a bookstore? ok...) so he goes there during a rainstorm (just wait til the next day??) and Jamir urges him to dry off  in his apartment above the store, sparks fly, etc. 

I found the romance cute, and I liked the relationships the men had with their family and friends. Both men have their own problems to deal with in their jobs and personal lives, but there really wasn't much in the way of an obstacle to their relationship apart from some silly contrived drama towards the end. 

Weirdly, I found the non-romance writing to be kind of awkward while the ~romantic~ writing wasn't; usually it's the other way around. There were also several editing errors and typos in my ebook (and in the summary, which I had to fix). The line in the summary calling Emmy a plus-size Korean, plus the way Jamir's attraction to Emmy's size was described (slightly/borderline chaser-y), made me a bit uncomfortable; those sensitive to how fat characters are described may not like it. No fatphobia though.

Sometimes you just want a simple fluffy romance book, and the fact that there's a bookstore is the icing on the cake. Overall I liked this.

Score: ★★★½ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶🌶🌶 out of 5 chilies
Read in: February 1
From: B&N Nook

Tropes: idk what it's called but that whole "the weather makes the romance/encounter" happen, forced proximity, close proximity, "he's probably staring at me because I look strange/my odd looks", athlete x nerd, "no, [family member], I'm giving up on YOUR dream", the ex tries to get them back in the third act

Representation: Black man MC, Korean man MC, fat MC, I think both are bisexual so bi4bi

Trigger warnings: the author has a list at the beginning of the book so I'll just redirect you to what I wrote in the second to last paragraph about the way the fat MMC was talked about, also I didn't like how Emmy's boss was such a jerk and yelled all the time

Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England -- until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.

Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France.

But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear.

Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

I FINALLY finished my reread of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I started last year with the 20th anniversary readalong. I mostly kept up with the reading schedule (albeit a week or so behind) until I didn't, pausing for over a month until I finally finished it halfway through January.

**mild spoilers throughout**

I would say the main plot is "autistic magician and ADHD magician have a friend breakup" if it weren't so contrary to the feel of the book, but that is basically what happens. Mr. Norrell is so obviously autistic in the way he is written: his special interests are books and magic, and he is very rigid with his rules; he has no social skills and doesn't follow social customs, and he gets overwhelmed at parties. I would argue that Mr. Strange has ADHD because he flits from career to career until he lands on being a magician, which quickly becomes his main focus in life over even his wife; he hyperfocuses on his magical studies and makes impulsive decisions on big things like moving mountains and stepping through mirrors to unknown lands without a game plan.

There are many characters in this book besides the eponymous ones; the second tier consists of menservants and ladies, and they are quite well-rounded characters, even if they are trapped by their social statuses (and for most of them, by the fairy villain). The sole character of color is Stephen Black, whose mother was enslaved; he goes through so much stuff that his story's ending is rather sad, to me. The women are controlled and let down by the men in their lives, and their agencies, lives, and voices are taken away. There are lots of duos in this book: the two magicians, the two kings, the two nameless slaves, the two ladies, the two menservants, the two big eras of English magic, doing magic versus reading about it...

SUCH a good book and so excellently written. The Regency England setting makes it familiar (apart from the magic, everything seems to be as it was in our universe, such as the Napoleonic wars), but the magical history stuff is so different and interesting. The fairytales mentioned in the footnotes feel familiar too, especially if you grew up reading Western fairytales a lot like I did. The atmosphere of the magic, how big and wild and ancient it is, is just wonderful; it puts me in mind of what C.S. Lewis called Northerness (and affected me much the same). 

If you've already read this book, this article I found on Pinterest compares JS&MN plot points and themes to Bible characters and stories (heavy spoilers!). It's utterly fascinating, and I can't believe I didn't realize some of those connections myself: the word(s) made flesh! The longing for the departed/absent king! I think C.S. Lewis would have liked this book.

You can read my first review of JS&MN here; interestingly enough, I first read it on its 10th anniversary year.

See my Pinterest moodboard for JS&MN here.

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: no spice
Read in: November 4, 2024-January 19, 2025
From: thrift store purchase (old)

Tropes: taken by fairies, the student has become the master, forced proximity LMAO

Representation: Black man secondary character, several working class and poor minor to very minor characters, the neurodivergence mentioned above (it is a headcanon but I am correct)

Trigger warnings: murder, gore, dead bodies, war, slavery (past, discussed), racism, death, animal endangerment, injuries, and death; body horror, kidnapping (by fairies), magical stalking, period-typical sexism & classism, supernatural horror, women let down and betrayed by men, Lord Byron (jk)

2024 Reading Stats

Here are my reading stats for this year.

• Total books read during this year: 52
• Total books that I started to read but didn't finish: 3
  
• physical books read: 20
  
• digital/ebooks read: 32
  
• physical books started but unfinished: 2
  
• ebooks started but unfinished: 1
  
• Library books read: 1 (a free book I read and put back lol)
  
• Library books started but unfinished: 0
  
• Books I loved: 11
• Books I liked: 26
• Books I felt neutral about: 10
  
• Books I disliked or found meh: 4
  
• Books I hated: 1. I hated it so much I didn't even count it in my stats
  
• Books I felt strongly about but can't classify as love or hate: 0
  
• Books purchased: 43 BUT that's not counting all the ebooks I bought with a Barnes & Noble giftcard I got from my work insurance's stupid logging health stuff app
• Books purchased that I actually read: 15  (see note above)
  
• #1 most loved book this year (not counting my rereads):
  
• most loved general fiction: Endpapers
  
• most loved fantasy: the Meddle & Mend series
  
• most loved mysteries: A Charm of Magpies series
  
• most loved young adult book/s: Most Ardently, The No-Girlfriend Rule
  
• most loved children's book/s: all the kids' books I read this year were rereads, oops
  
• most loved nonfiction: How to Keep House While Drowning

I read slightly fewer books than last year (that is, 2023) but still more than my reading goal of 50 books, so I'm happy. One of the books I didn't finish this year is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I started rereading for the 20th anniversary read-along; I hit a wall and took a break (of several months lol), but I finally finished it in mid-January. The other was a nonfiction book, a genre I have a history of DNFing even if I am very interested in the subject matter. The unfinished ebook is actually a Jeeves book that I started reading due to Letters Regarding Jeeves, which for some reason stopped sending chapters or anything at all in October. I'm sad about that. 

I only counted my book purchases that were not gifts and not bought with a giftcard; I have no idea just how many ebooks I bought or downloaded for free. I don't super care. I think it helped that I went to the thrift store way fewer times in 2024 than I did in 2023; I really was making an effort to purchase fewer physical books. 

Here are some of the charts from the excellent reading log google sheet from BookRiot that I use every year:

Here's my genres read breakdown. Nearly half of all the books I read were fantasy! Despite me counting the A Charm of Magpies series as my favorite mysteries, I put them down as fantasy in the google sheet as it only allows one genre to be selected; this is probably the case for several of the books I read. Interestingly, my second-most read genre, Romance, has the same exact percentage as "last" year's! 2023's second-most read genre was General Fiction, my third-most read genre in 2024, so the two obviously switched places. 

In terms of form, 96.4% of the books I read were prose, AKA all but two (1 poetry book and 1 short stories collection).

July was my best reading month, with a whopping 16 books read! Junior high reading behavior. 

click to embiggen

Author/Artist Gender: The amount of female authors I read went down slightly (from 54.2% to just under half), and the amount of male authors I read went down as well (from 35.6% to 29%), giving the nonbinary authors category room to more than double (8.5% last year)!! The "other" category is for probably just one book with two authors of different gender categories. 

Nation of Origin: Roughly the same as "last" year, with a slight decrease for USA and slight increases for UK- and Canada-set books, probably because the two books I read set in the Netherlands were not counted in the stats 🙄

POC Protagonists (should be Protagonists of Color) vs. White Protagonists: increase in white protagonists, decrease in protagonists of color :(

Weirdly, the placements of the charts shifted, so the POC Authors (authors of color) vs. White Authors chart isn't visible in the above screenshot. Also an increase in white authors and a decrease in authors of color :(

Queer Authors/Artists: over a third of my read authors were queer or LGBTQ+! "Last" year it was under 30%! 

I don't know if this is a glitch in the stats, but HALF of the books I read had queer/LGBTQ+ protagonists!! "Last" year it was 31.5%! 

Like last time, the Trans Authors/Artists pie chart cannot be trusted (partially because I read a ton of books by Sarah Wallace and they counted each one as an individual author). 7 of the authors I read were trans and/or nonbinary (8 if you count Emily Dickinson lol)! "Last" year I read 5 trans & nonbinary authors.

I read 8 books with trans protagonists, over twice as much as "last" year's 3! 

A fourth (25%) of the books I read had disability rep; "last" year it was 18.5%!

I read zero translated books this year, weirdly enough.

Only 9.1% of the books I read were nonfiction, down from "last" year. 

Nearly 3/4ths of the books I read (72.7%) were for adults; it was only over half "last" year. Consequently decreased percentages for young adult and children's books read: 18.2% for YA (was 25.5%) and 9.1% for children's books (was 21.8%!). 

Only about a fifth (20.5%) of the books I read in 2024 were published that year, a jump from "last" year's nearly 15%.

I really need to make an effort to read more books by and about people of color! Overall a great reading year though. I finally got a library card from my local public library, so hopefully that will keep me from buying so many books.

Flash Fiction Reviews for November and December

Fortune's Flower by Anthea Lawson - ebook, historical romance  ★★★⯪   🌶🌶🌶

A botanical illustrator and a poor adventurer try not to fall in love (and fail) while looking for a rare flower in Tunisia. I want to say this was maybe the 1830s or '40s? Definitely in the Victorian era. She's looking down the barrel of an arranged marriage to a rich snob to avoid spinsterdom once the trip is over while he needs to find the flower to win his grandfather's inheritance before his jerk cousin does. The setting and trip were interesting and at times exciting (I want to visit Tunisia now), but I felt that the villain didn't get nearly enough comeuppance. Still, a good read. I actually read this one as part of a free historical romance omnibus ebook.  Trigger warnings: adult man flirts with a teenage girl to get her to fall in love with him so he can use her in his nefarious plan and forcibly kisses her, forced marriage threat, period-typical sexism, Orientalism & racism

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl - paperback, middle grade, low fantasy   ★★★⯪

This one is an old childhood favorite. I was so into the Roald Dahl books. I just had to reread my childhood copy after watching the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie by Wes Anderson (good but its own thing, not necessarily a good adaptation even though some lines are lifted verbatim from the book). A fox constantly steals poultry from three local farmers and it enrages them to the point that they sink tons of time and money into trying to kill him. How Mr. Fox gets himself, his family, and their burrowing animals community out of that situation is still very fun to read. I was shocked to see how short the book is; it's practically a short story! It was over so soon. I feel like I spent hours in that book as a kid. Oh well. Great story but Dahl's usual fatphobia and lookism rears its head: it is possible to make villains that aren't fat or ugly or super skinny or whatever, you know. One of the villains is a Little Person, which is also problematic; Dahl focuses way more on the other farmers' appearance though. Trigger warnings: animal mutilation, hunting/attempted murder of animals, starvation, the word dwarf is used for a Little Person, fatphobia, lookism

The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall - ebook, YA, coming of age/romance   ★★★★⯪

Hollis, a quiet, overlooked fat girl, joins an all-girls' Dungeons & Dragons (called Swords & Sorcery in this book) group in an attempt to get closer to her loser boyfriend because he and his even worse friends won't let her join their group due to their no-girlfriend rule. The way the boys overlooked and treated her made my blood boil, but she and the girls in the S&S group (most of whom are LGBTQ+ and/or neurodivergent or mentally ill) become fast friends, and she gains self-esteem and blossoms. She and one of her friends, Aini, start shipping their characters and flirting in-game as their characters, but it's just for the game, right? 👀 I loved this book so much, but I felt like the awful boys didn't get the comeuppance they deserved, hence the half star. Highly recommended! Trigger warnings: homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, on-page anxiety attack, ableism, internalized ableism, sexism, bad boyfriend (ask me for specifics)

Christmas Crime in Kingfisher Falls by Phillipa Nefri Clark - ebook, mystery, adult  ★★★⯪

Charlotte moves to Kingfisher Falls, a small Australian town, to work in a bookshop she will eventually take over when the owner retires. She witnesses the first in a string of Christmas tree thefts and falls afoul of the corrupt sheriff, who suspects her and starts stalking her. A solid and twisty mystery, but the small town drama and decades-long grudges, plus the corruption of the sheriff and town governance, made me angry. Weird writing style that felt sort of careful and old-fashioned and didn't work for a modern-day mystery, I felt. Charlotte is in her early? forties and feels simultaneously like an old lady and an older teenager (not letting herself date a guy she's attracted to, which kept being brought up for some reason). I did not enjoy this. Trigger warnings: stalking, a woman is nearly choked to death by a man, police intimidation, police corruption, smash and grab-type theft, bullying and scapegoating, poverty, asshole Karens

Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens - ebook, YA, fantasy, romance  ★★★★

Ellery, along with their cousin and her girlfriend, gets swept into the orbit of Knox, a magical immortal teen guy that Ellery accidentally saved from wraiths, in a land that is always winter but never Christmas. They have to figure out how to stay safe from supernatural beings, keep them from dragging Knox back to the Other World, and figure out why it's stayed winter for five years. This book is set in a world much like ours (malls and smartphones) but also has gods and goddesses in a way that feels kind of like Greek and Roman mythology; very American Gods vibes. The latter fourth of the book also has Orpheus and Eurydice vibes. Despite all that supernatural drama, teens stay teen-ing crush-wise. I liked this a lot! Trigger warnings: stabbing death, magical and physical violence, magical murder, religious trauma

Finally Fitz by Marissa Kanter - ebook, YA, romance  ★★★★

Influencer Fitz is psyched to follow her girlfriend Dani to New York for a fashion designer workshop and to be with her in NYC, but Dani dumps her for focusing on her content creation instead of Dani. Heartbroken, Fitz stumbles into Levi, her estranged childhood best friend, on the subway. Levi is kind of in the same boat, so Fitz suggests faking a relationship to get back at both their exes. Fitz and Levi are having fun going all over NYC on cute 'dates', but Fitz is struggling to come up with project ideas for her fashion workshop. This book also deals with mental health, burnout, social media obsession, sibling relationships, "Jewish feelings" (direct quote), estranged childhood best friend who stopped talking to you feelings, etc. Levi is such a cinnamon roll. Also there was a character named Em Rojas, which is basically M. Rojas. I liked this bi4bi romance very much. Trigger warnings: depression, burnout, mental illness, feeling like you're not enough

Make My Wish Come True by Rachel Lippincott & Alyson Derrick - ebook, YA, romance, Christmas

Cute sapphic Hallmark Christmas movie with fake dating romcom on the outside, more estranged childhood best friends feelings plus they've been in love with each other the whole time and one of them is a neglected and abused teen actress AKA super sad on the inside. Whew. I did not expect the sad stuff so I was unprepared. I liked the small Hallmark Christmas movie-y town and the cute holidates though, and the happy ending. The horrible [spoiler] should have been thrown in jail though. Spoiler-y trigger warnings: neglect, an adult controls, isolates, and manipulates a vulnerable, neglected teen; adult gives teen alcohol & drugs or at least just facilitates their underage alcohol and drug use

I also reread Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories by L.M. Montgomery and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, as is my custom every holiday season.