Category: Fiction

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

In the world of The Book Eaters, there are supernatural people who exist by consuming books, the content of which then stick with them throughout the rest of their lives. This small group has other members who, instead of books, eat other people’s minds. This second group they call, “dragons”.

Devon, a member of the first group, is a young woman who is married off to produce children. Once she completes this task, she is sent back to her home, only to do it all again a few years later.

The marriages and child-bearing are carefully managed by society because the book eaters are a dying race. This is intolerable to Devon, who wants to remain close to her children, but who is instead cruelly separated from them like the other young mothers.

The story begins with Devon and her young son, Cai, on the run from the knights- book eaters who control the dragons and facilitate the book eater manner of life. It develops into a life and death struggle for Devon. How can she save her children when she can’t manage to save herself?

“Love doesn’t have a cost. It’s just a choice you make.” pg 205, ebook

I really liked Sunyi Dean’s imaginative creation of people who eat books. The descriptions of what she imagined literature tasted like were fascinating and my favorite part of the story. I also liked the idea of carrying around every book one has ever read in your mind like some sort of living library.

The book was well-written, but I didn’t care for what Dean did with her characters once she established them. I just didn’t connect with it.

As a mother myself, it was difficult to read about children being taken away and/or treated poorly. The story turned out to be a lot darker than I initially thought it would be.

Recommended for readers who enjoy dark fantasy.

The Paradox of Getting Better by Raven Lyn Clemens

The Paradox of Getting Better by Raven Lyn Clemens

The Paradox of Getting Better is about a young person who is struggling with mental health issues. These struggles are symbolized in the comic by strangely shaped bodies and surreal art.

The artwork itself is done in pencil with words crossed out and rough edges with lines coming off of it. There’s a definite style to this comic. It didn’t resonate with me.

I understand this is an indie comic, but I wanted to see a little more polish to the presentation. As it is, the book felt like an art project in its early stages- more like a book proposal than a finished project.

The writing in this comic is fantastic by the end. However, at the beginning, the main character can’t even speak in words. They just keep saying, “XXXX”, over and over.

I get this is supposed to represent an inability to communicate in the midst of a mental health crisis, but it didn’t quite work. The family members of the individual were able to understand what the sufferer was saying, but the readers weren’t. It didn’t feel fair. I wanted to understand that person too.

This work is very imaginative. I liked the shapes the author incorporated and I also liked the message in the final panels.

If you’re going to read this one, I recommend borrowing it from your local library. Thanks for reading!

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

In The Mountain Between Us Ben Payne and Ashley Knox are in a plane crash in the middle of nowhere. As they fight to survive, the reader learns about their pasts and probable futures.

It is a survival story and also a romance.

“I dumped the bottle and looked around as best I could. Nothing but snow and mountains.” pg 65, ebook

I picked up this book because my book club is going to be discussing it on Monday. It’s not my usual type of read, which veers strongly towards science fiction and fantasy.

That being said, I expected more from this book- more adventure, more near death moments.

At first, I was reminded strongly of Hatchet by Gary Paulson, which I read in grade school. I remember enjoying that book quite a lot and learning about survival techniques along with the protagonist.

The Mountain Between Us has some of that, it’s true, but it is mainly about what’s going on in Ben’s mind. I found the story to be repetitive after the first hundred pages or so.

The romance in this story is way over the top, which I suppose romance readers may like. As for me, an occasional romance reader if at all, I found myself cringing at some of Ben’s revelations.

There’s a twist at the end which I won’t spoil here, but I saw it coming from the way author Charles Martin wrote some of the passages. I wish it had been sign-posted a little less.

Overall, there’s quite a few things for book clubs to dissect. There’s the survival aspect, relationships, the beauty of the outdoors, the disconnect between modern society and nature, and what it means to be human. I think we’ll have a lively discussion.

Recommended for readers who like their romances syrupy with a wilderness aspect thrown in.

This book has been made into a movie. I’m curious as to how they adapted the story.

Thanks for reading!

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

“Here is something I learned in Empis: good people shine brighter in dark times.” pg 250

Charlie is a typical teen- plays sports and helps his father out around the house. But one day, after helping a neighbor after an accident, Charlie enters a world that is not our own. And discovers an adventure that he wasn’t looking for.

The incomparable Stephen King has written a mammoth fairy tale (600 pages in my digital version!). I thought it was too long.

Not that I mind long books. It sort of felt like King started the book thinking it was going to be about something different than it turned into.

The reason I feel that way is because the first quarter of the book takes so long to establish Charlie’s character and real world connections.

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I wanted to just get on with it. Then, when we finally made it to Empis, events went too quickly!

King uses quite a lot of foreshadowing which was ok at first, but then it started to become too much. I realize he was trying to build tension- it was just over-used.

“Remember when I said at the outset that no one would believe my story?” pg 494, ebook

I enjoyed any part of the story that had Radar the dog in it. She was my favorite character. King really took his time developing her and her reactions to the world around her, which was fun.

King is at his best when he’s describing the eerie atmosphere of the other world and its unfortunate denizens. Like I said, those parts went too quickly.

Other than my small gripes, this was a well-written story and worthy of its Good Reads nomination. Readers who like Stephen King for his horror should read a different book. This is definitely more fantasy than horror.

DPS Only! by Xiao Tong Kong

DPS Only! by Xiao Tong Kong

Vicky lives with her brother, Vergil, who is a renowned e-sports player of the game “Xenith Orion.” Though Vicky loves to play video games too, she is too shy and self deprecating to tell him.

When an opportunity arises for Vicky to join an e-sports team of her own, she takes it, and uses a mask to conceal her identity. But she knows, it is only a matter of time until her secret comes out.

What will she do then?

I very much enjoyed this coming-of-age graphic novel. Readers get to see Vicky really coming into her own in the video game scene, while handling her personal relationships, particularly the one with her brother.

Photo by Florenz Mendoza on Pexels.com

This story touched on the potential sexism of e-sports. So few young women play, and when they do, they can draw all sorts of negative or toxic attention. Vicky avoids some of this with her costume, but other parts of it she can’t escape- like when one of the members of her brother’s team presses her for her phone number, though she doesn’t want to give it.

Or the negative comments arising from spectators to the tournament which are specifically directed to a female member of another team who isn’t hiding her gender behind a mask.

I experienced this type of thing first-hand in some of my gaming days. I was big into EverQuest in the early 2000’s. Luckily for me, that was before head-set communication during gaming was a thing, so, even though I played female avatars, most of the people I gamed with just assumed I was a guy.

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It was easy for me to hide. I never felt like I had to, like Vicky, but looking back on it all now, it saved me from negative attention for years.

News articles about e-sports have reported women comprise about half of casual gamers but only a handful of professional gamers. Here’s hoping more young women find the courage to follow their dreams!

The video game portions of this book were the most difficult to follow. It cut quickly from one character to the next with little explanation of what is going on except the kill.

Other than that, I thought this book was well done.

Highly recommended for reluctant readers, fans of video games, and readers who enjoy graphic novels.

Thanks for reading!

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint writes the mythological story of Ariadne from her and her sister Phaedra’s points-of-view.

“I took that story with me in the coming days and turned it over, like the stone in a ripe peach: the sudden, unexpected hard shock in the center of everything.” pg 14

Like Circe, Ariadne gives the female figures in the classic tale a voice, something they have never had in the original telling.

“The cold green of his eyes. Like the shock of the chill waters when the seafloor drops away unexpectedly beneath your feet and you realize that you have swum out far beyond your depth.” pg 34

For those not familiar with the myths, Ariadne was in charge of the Minotaur’s labyrinth on Crete. Theseus relied on her for help when he confronted the monster, who was also Ariadne’s half-brother.

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What happens next is the main part of this story. The labyrinth encounter is finished in the first 100 pages, which surprised me. I expected it to be longer.

Saint touches on the unfair nature of many of the classic myths towards women, which includes the story of Medusa and any number of Zeus’s mortal lovers. Zeus took lovers again and again, and his wife visited all sorts of nasty revenges upon them. But that didn’t stop Zeus’s prowling.

Ariadne is somewhat empowered in this story- she realizes the unfair treatment- but at the same time she isn’t able to do much to change her own fate, or the fate of her beloved sister Phaedra.

The gods and goddesses are bound by fate as well. This is most easily seen in some of the stories Dionysus tells about his time among mortals. I could see book clubs having a great time discussing the roles of fate and free will in this story.

I think Saint could have gone a little further in her interpretation of the myths, she stays pretty close to the original telling. It still makes for a beautiful story, but it could have been even better.

Recommended for readers interested in Greek and Roman mythology.

Thirsty Mermaids by Kat Leyh

Thirsty Mermaids by Kat Leyh

Three friends from the sea go on a magical adventure on the land- and can’t recall the magic to return to the sea.

Thirsty Mermaids is a fun tale for teens or the young at heart that explores the themes of friendship, self sufficiency and belonging.

At first, the merfolk and sea witch believe they don’t have any skills that could translate to jobs on land. But after exploring what they are already inclined to do, they find their way into situations that fit them quite well.

The sea witch’s task, to find a way to break the spell, is more difficult. She has to go on a soul-searching mission which, as we all know, is one of the hardest tasks of all.

The artwork of Thirsty Mermaids is quite similar to Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy, another graphic novel which I love. The reason for this is because Kat Leyh is a co-author of Lumberjanes.

Both works share messages of acceptance and body positivity, the kind of messages which always deserve reminders.

I enjoyed this graphic novel very much. Highly recommended.

Chivalry by Neil Gaiman (Author), Colleen Doran (Illustrator)

Chivalry by Neil Gaiman (Author), Colleen Doran (Illustrator)

Chivalry is a delightful fantasy short story by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by the talented Colleen Doran.

The story itself is simple: an elderly woman discovers the Holy Grail at a second-hand shop and takes it home. A knight comes questing for the grail and she is unwilling to give it up.

Does everything end up happily ever after for everyone in our tale? Read and see…

I loved the artwork of this story. Doran uses beautiful colors to highlight the art. Some of the pages are done like medieval folios, they were my favorite.

In the notes at the end of the book, Doran shares she wanted to make the whole book like an illuminated manuscript but she discovered that was unworkable. The pages she did do in that style are breath taking.

Highly recommended for fantasy and comic book fans.

Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, Book One) by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko

Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, Book One) by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko

The reader joins Sasha Samokhina as she begins her magical training at a school where no one tells her what they are teaching.

Later that evening she was supposed to attend prep courses at the university. Sasha did not go. She lay on her bed, textbooks thrown aside, and thought, What’s the point? Because clearly the world did not work the way she imagined before.” pg 29, ebook

Through pain and suffering, Sasha slowly finds her way in this new world. If she fails, real world consequences follow, so she doesn’t dare to fail.

But what is it, exactly, that she’s learning? Discovering that is one of the joys of this book.

“Attention, students,” continued Portnov just as softly. “You are at the beginning of a journey, during which all of your strength will be required. Physical and mental. What we will be studying is not for everyone.” pg 70, ebook

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A friend pointed out to me that this book has quite an eastern European feel to it. I knew as I was reading it that the tone was dark, but as soon as he said that I had to agree.

This is not your typical magic school. It isn’t kind, gentle, or forgiving.

“What will happen if we don’t learn it?” Sasha asked. All three girls fell silent. The question that had tortured them all day was now out in the open.” pg 76, ebook

That being said, the magic system itself is one of the most unique I have ever read. The reveal is very slow, but I thought it was definitely worth the wait.

Recommended for older teens or adults because of some disturbing content.