Disclaimer: Life at the end of the school year has gotten ridiculously busy so prompt review writing has gone out the window as my mind travels more to escapism than creative thought. From my reading of this book, nine days ago at the time of writing, I do not remember many specifics. I do remember feeling relieved that not only did I remember most of the important plot beats from the first book but also that I continued
to enjoy the narrative and the complexity of the relationships Shannon continues to build.
I enjoyed this hybrid genre book more than I expected to. The author blends memoir, nature nonfiction and creative nonfiction in this book where she tells her story through the lens of research into a tragic bear attack in 1991 that killed two people. The creative nonfiction portion comes in when she tells the hypothetical story of the bear’s journey that season that lead him to that island where the attack happened that ultimately lost him
his life. The author also shares her passion for bears with sections describing many different aspects of bears. This sort of a mix usually does not work for me but it did here. At first I wondered about the bear portions adn if she had put that together from autopsy reports – which seemed far-fetched-but once the author mentioned her experience writing fiction, specifically a work based on the 1991 attack, that portion clicked into place. Overall, I really enjoyed this work.
I remember being pleasantly surprised by the first book despite its heavy romantasy marketing (mis-marketing in my opinion) and the fact that every major player conveniently paired off. I left the series tentatively on my list to continue; I would DNF if it turned steeply towards romantasy. Thus, I headed into book two with mild trepidation, ready to DNF but found myself
hooked. All the same pairings still existed but they did not form the forefront of the plot. In fact, Corland used proximity or distance – depending on the pair – to further the character development. Also, what she did towards the end to one of the primary players completely shocked me because most of the time people believe that main characters are relatively safe. I will definitely pick up what I believe to be the conclusion to the trilogy.
I found myself fascinated by the narrative but frustrated that the author attempted to shoehorn it into a biography. The narrative functions as a history of women in early pre-Golden Age, Hollywood, using one woman, Helen Gibson, an incredible rodeo rider and stuntwoman, as the narrative linchpin. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and insightful snark – yes, there is such a thing – peppered throughout. I just wish that either
the marketing or editing had leaned into the historical more than the biographical.
After four mild hits in a row just prior to reading this book, I got a dud in this one. The characters end up stuck in an old abandoned house with a child ghost demanding that they play games to get out of the house or at least that’s what the kids think. I struggled with this story for a couple reasons. First, the author created a difficult-to-like main character who also struggles with her relationships with the other characters.
Second, the way that the house twists and warps to fit the various games had no coherence in its worldbuilding and ultimately resolved in a rather anti-climactic resolution. I do not recommend this one.
Disclaimer: I do not remember why I found myself so distracted while I read but I do remember frequent distractions that hindered my ability to craft an adequate review. I could likely easily pick up this book again in a few years and feel like I read a new book. I do remember that I found myself amused enough to keep this in my collection and will likely attempt a reread eventually.
I did not expect to find myself sucked into and captivated by this work. I love unexpected pleasant surprises. Collingham does a brilliant job guiding the reader through the centuries of the British Empire through the study of how the imperialists coopted native foodstuffs and also imposed their own cuisine on those they conquered. SO many times Collingham made profound insights and simply moved on, leaving those truths like a mike drop of reality. I highly recommend this book.
This book hits hard. Stecher uses the science fiction trop of time travel to show the profound effects of trauma and grief. In this story, the main character discovers a door in her treehouse that if she enters she can skip forward three days. Her body continues on and behaves normally but when she returns she has no memory of that time. This door appears at a time when the main character starts to struggle with the loss of her father as
well as the near loss of her beloved grandfather who has just finished chemotherapy. At first her best friend shows interest in the phenomenon but starts to pull away as she uses the door more and more, missing his own struggles. Then things start to go wrong and her choices lead her to missing incredibly important and heartbreaking events. The main character clearly struggles with depression, embodied by the treehouse door, a technique used so well by the author. This is a difficult but critically needed work.
T. Kingfisher’s writing most definitely works for me. This book proves it, especially since I confused myself into thinking I had picked up Swordheart, another one of her works that I still need to read. Kingfisher combines some lighthearted absurdism like a bezerker knight who knits socks with some horrific monsters with smooth ceramic faces that comes to life when placed on recently beheaded corpses as well as bumbling
awkwardness between the two main characters and love interests. These types of combos do not work for everyone but they worked for me, even the romantic portions, surprising for someone like me. I will definitely continue in this series.
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