“The world starts with a story. So do dynasties and eras and wars. So does love, and so does revenge. Everything starts with a story.” The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to an aging lord at a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. But they’re forgetting things they ought to remember, and the lord’s mad young son wanders the grounds at night like a hanged ghost. I read somewhere that someone believes that each of these is an examination of different types of writing and genre. I can totally see that now that they mention it. This one is th ..read more

“My greatest fear is not that I will find some sort of half-animal creature, wild-eyed and untamed. It is that I will find a genuine monster: someone perfectly human but with a heart of stone, turned cruel from enduring years of cruelty. What if they are not a tool enslaved by the Protectorate but a willing blade? What if they are proof of what I should have known all along—that there is something broken inside me, only waiting for the right environment to bring it out?” From Goodreads: Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s inves ..read more

“It’s easy to go along with a system. It’s harder to create one. You have to choose it, over and over, when you’re building it.” Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds. And stepping through those doors exacts a price. This is one of my favorite books in the series. It expands upon the world, but in turn also really doubl ..read more

“History is only a story told by those with power to justify why they have it. The truth does not bend to power’s whims.” Stolen from Goodreads (because I don’t trust myself not to give away too much): The Aleke is cruel. The Aleke is clever. The Aleke is coming. 500 years after the events of The Lies of the Ajungo , the City of Truth stands as is the last remaining free city of the Forever Desert. A bastion of freedom and peace, the city has successfully weathered the near-constant attacks from the Cult of Tutu, who have besieged it for three centuries, attempting to destroy its warriors and ..read more

“Magical girls exist because justice does not.” Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge. But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone. I have to admit that I didn’t read the description of this too well. I like going into books not knowing a whole lot because the ..read more

“You see, the desert, in its way, is a school. It taught me that life is filled with lies. There are the shallow lies that can be uncovered by a light wind. And there are the deep lies whose roots extend further down than the eye can see. Lies we don’t uproot because we are afraid of the emptiness they will leave behind.” They say there is no water in the City of Lies. They say there are no heroes in the City of Lies. They say there are no friends beyond the City of Lies. But would you believe what they say in the City of Lies? In the City of Lies, they cut out your tongue when you turn thirt ..read more

“The greatest city in Gallacia is fine, I suppose, but I didn’t feel the need to linger. Imagine if an architect wanted to re-create Budapest, but on a shoestring budget and without any of the convenient flat bits. While fighting wolves.” Alex Easton has agreed to host Ms. Potter in their hunting lodge in Gallacia, but when they returns home they find that the lodge’s caretaker has passed away. Needing to find a new caretaker, Angus goes into the village and brings back a widow and her grandson. While they set up everything they need to host a proper British lady, rumors are floating in that ..read more

“small and sick and afraid three of my favorite flavors” A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives under the Hollywood sign. They watch the hikers and their strange habits each day, gleaning bits of information from them continuously. However, when a man-made fire forces them down out of the mountains and into the city, they have to confront a carousal of temptations and threats. There they must confront the ultimate question: Do they just want to eat humans or become one? This is a wild trip, but I think for me it was less wild than it could be because I opted to listen to it rather ..read more

“On the border between the north and the south, the nights cast long shadows, and sometimes, the only thing you can do to drive back the things that live in darkness is to tell stories.” Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass–and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honoring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve. But as Chih an ..read more

“Because the people here think they’re helping us. They think they’re heroes and we’re monsters, and because they believe it all the way down to the base of them, they can do almost anything and feel like they’re doing the right thing.” Cora returns from the Moors, but not entirely herself. When she learns that there is another school for Wayward Children, she takes the chance to transfer. She hopes that the change of schools will help with her trauma, but she soon discovers that not all doors are welcoming. I have generally loved this series. Even Across the Green Grass Fields which is gener ..read more