Unfortunately, my reading did not fully rebound in February. Despite being a bit better recovered, my reading speed still seems to have taken a hit! I was hoping to at least reach six books for the month (if not more,) but only hit four again.
(A nice cover for the anthology.)
We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023 edited by Darcie Little Badger; series editor Charles Payseur
2024
Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror (various subgenres) - various relationships - ebook anthology
4/5 [This is a rounded average of my ratings for the 14 individual stories.]
This is the first book I’ve read from the “2025 Pride” storybundle. (A different company, but similar to Humble Bundle.)
One of the things I’ve wanted to do this year is read more short stories. I typically stick to novel and novella-length works, and my experience with short stories has been hit or miss. I do really admire the ability to write something impactful or interesting or just plain good that’s also very short, so I look forward to trying to read more of them.
This was a decent collection. I appreciate the diversity of authors and story types. I’d say it skews a lot more (though not exclusively) toward f/f stories, and more fantasy than other genres of spec-fic, though there’s a decent amount of sci-fi, and just a few horror. There are also several stories that fall into more than one genre category, which is always a personal favorite.
I think the stories on the whole got better as the collection went on. There weren’t any stories that I didn’t like at all; the lowest rating I gave any was a 3/5. Most fell in the 4 range, with only one that I rated a 5/5. Most of these were by authors I am not familiar with, and I’d be willing to look for more by them in the future.
One disappointment was that there were a
lot of spelling, grammar, and formatting errors. I don’t know how many of these were issues in the stories themselves in their original form (in which case the collection editors may not have been able to do anything about it), or how many may have been introduced as part of reformatting them for a new collection. (Formatting in particular may have been due to that, though I would hope that a reformat wouldn’t introduce spelling/grammar problems.) It was enough to be noticeable and frustrating, and was more obvious in some stories than others. I tried for the most part not to factor that in too heavily in my ratings of the stories, except for when it caused actual confusion. I certainly know that typos happen, but come on. As a consumer, I am
really bothered by how often this is an issue in professionally published work. I have gone back and forth on docking a half a star from my overall rating because of how repeatedly frustrated by this I was, but decided not to.
Despite being short stories, this turned into a really long review, because I reviewed each of the 14 stories individually, since my feelings about them were all quite different. I tried (and failed) to keep it short, ha.
“A Promise in Bronze” by Ash Arya
Fantasy (subgenre: historical) (f/f)
3/5
Kalaa, the owner of a food shop, quickly falls for foreigner Mishrakeshi when she comes to the city. The women’s relationship deepens, as Mishri takes a job as an apprentice metalworker, and slowly starts to acclimate to the culture of the city.
My thoughts, spoilers:
This story was cute, but I think kind of suffers for how short it is. We are mostly told how the two feel for each other, when I think it would have been a bit more impactful to see it develop. Maybe hypocritical, as I have multiple oneshot fics I’ve written with the tag “slow burn speed run,” but that was a bit of the vibe here; it wanted the impact of a slow burn growing romance, and we got snapshots of the two of them over a longer stretch of time, but it only had a short wordcount to do it.
I like the conceit of the story. In the end, a bronze figure that Mishri made of Kalaa as a gift is rediscovered thousands of years later as an artifact from an archeological dig, named “The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo Daro,” with the context of the women’s love story entirely unknown.
This is a real artifact, and I assume the inspiration for the story, which I think is neat. However, I think that perhaps instead of that solely being the closing line of the story, it too would have been more impactful with a little bit more context or as a proper framing story. (As it is, you would have to already know or look up the fact that the artifact is real. I had heard of it before, but still looked it up to make sure I wasn’t misremembering.)
There’s also a grammatical error in the very first sentence, which is the very first sentence of the book as a whole, and that kind of started the whole collection off on an iffy note.
“Mama uat-ur” by Z. K. Abraham
Sci-fi/Fantasy (subgenre: post-apocalyptic) (f/f)
3.5/5
Temesghen lives in a Stack; an isolated, concrete building, rising out of the water of the drowned world. These are supposed to be the only safe places left for people to occupy, but life here is tightly and cruelly controlled, the residents forced into long hours of sometimes-dangerous labor. Tamesghen has seen a water-dweller out in the sea surrounding the Stack, and risks severe punishment to sneak down to see her again.
My thoughts, spoilers:
I liked this one. This was a story that did feel suited to its length.
I always enjoy things that are on that sci-fi/fantasy cusp, so a post-apocalyptic setting where the seas have risen to the point that there’s little (if any) habitable land, plus migratory mermaids? Love it.
Temesghen has a fairly straightforward, but strong enough character arc: she wants freedom from the confines of the Stack, which makes sense, as she did have a full and rewarding life before.
The romance between Temesghen and Helena, the waterwoman, is… meh. It’s very much insta-love/love at first sight. While it may be aiming for a bit of a fairy tale vibe with that, the narrative really seems to want you to fully believe they’re meant to be together and in love, but I can’t quite buy into it all the way. There’s certainly an element of Helena representing the freedom that Temesghen is longing for, but I don’t feel like we get enough of a sense of who Helena is as an individual to feel much about her beyond that. Having their apparent romance be the resolution to the plot ended up feeling a bit weak.
“The Birds I Pull” by Sharang Biswas
Fantasy (subgenre: magical realism, contemporary) (m/m)
4/5
The narrator outlines different experiences in his life, by the different birds that come out of his chest based on his feelings.
My thoughts, spoilers:
This story is very short, and ends with a bit of a gut-punch.
It’s hard to say a whole lot about it, because it is so short, but the prose is lovely. The narrator has a pleasantly snarky and slightly rambling voice that I enjoyed.
After being pretty funny in tone, the end is a whiplash to very sad. I suppose it’s open to interpretation just how sad; my reading was that it ends in a death, though I suppose it could be read as just the end of a relationship.
“Sentience” by Nkone Chaka
Sci-fi (nonbinary main character)
3/5
The universe has long benefitted from the presence of the library; a sentient planet that has continually amassed a nearly-endless store of knowledge. Now, after millennia, the library has announced its intention to destroy itself, wanting to end its own existence. Salmik, a researcher, is horrified, and while they intend to go to the library’s grand send-off, they also intend to try and convince the library not to go through with its planned end.
My thoughts, spoilers:
This one is a bit longer.
I started off really liking this one, but wasn’t wowed by the ending.
I very much sympathize with Salmik at the start; to me, the thought of so much collected knowledge all being destroyed (especially as the library will not allow that knowledge to be removed prior to its destruction) is terrible! I have strong feelings about the importance of archival and preservation! So I very much understand their core issue.
At the same time, I have strong feelings about right-to-die as an extension of bodily autonomy. If a sentient being reaches a point where it no longer wishes to exist (and particularly here, where it’s a planet that has had an extraordinarily long existence,) it should have the right to make that decision. (A right that is reiterated as a given in this setting.) So I also sympathize with the library, despite what a loss it will represent.
To me, this was a really enjoyable sort of moral tension, regarding the idea of the rights of an individual vs their value to society as a whole, because those are warring moral feelings for me!
Smaller positive detail: I like the descriptions of the festival that serves as the death-party for the library. It’s celebratory, which I like, even though Salmik hates it.
It was a surprise to me, after Salmik mentions their two visits to the library, paired with their adamance that the library can’t be destroyed, that when we find out the details about those visits… they actually hated the experiences! They felt like the library was malicious, and they came away terrified and didn’t want to return.
But this also leads into their true source of horror and hatred of the library’s decision: their mother’s remains are in the library, as Salmik brought her there to die.
While I understand this personal connection, and it’s an interesting (and potentially unflattering) revelation about the character, to me it cheapened the thing that I best sympathized with and found interesting and engaging! I was so all-in on that tension between “this being has the right to cease existing, and shouldn’t be compelled to stay purely for its value to others” and “but that value is irreplaceable; the information it contains already saved countless lives, and its loss will be incalculable.”
Instead of Salmik’s journey to communicate with the library trying to reconcile those two ideas, it just made it into something else. It was no longer about that sort of individual autonomy vs collective good, now it’s individual autonomy vs “but I want you to give me, personally, something I’m emotionally attached to and feel I have a right to.” It kind of felt like a bait and switch on what I thought was being set up. Sure, I think it’s an easier conflict to morally reconcile, but it’s also not the conflict I wanted to grapple with.
In the end, Salmik leaves dissatisfied and angry, while I thought that the library’s “last gesture” was a bit sweet, if not what Salmik desired.
Another downside was that there were a few passages that I had to read multiple times to make sense of, so I wish a few things had been phrased a bit more clearly. However, it is also possibly “user error”; I was reading this fairly shortly after I was home from the hospital, and it could have been my brain fog at fault.
I really liked the start of this one, but was disappointed in the end feeling much smaller than the start. I wish I’d liked it better.
“The Ng Yut Queen” by Eliza Chan
Fantasy (subgenre: contemporary) (f/f)
3.5/5
Decades ago, Ada prayed to the goddess Guanyin for all kinds of things: to be the May Queen, to have honey-blonde hair… and now the goddess has come to answer her prayers. While Ada does her best to keep the goddess entertained as she visits, she starts to think about what she was
really longing for when she made her wishes.
My thoughts, mild spoilers:
This one is quite cute, and I did enjoy it!
The trope of “that thing you wished for, but uncomfortably literal” is always fun. As is introducing a deity to modern life. The goddess just absolutely killing it on social media was great.
Ada and her obvious crush on her friend Lou is also sweet, and I’m glad to see that relationship develop, even just over the length of the short story.
One thing I liked was the use of texts between Ada and Lou, including showing what Ada typed but deleted before sending. It was sweet, and gave us good glimpses into Ada’s thoughts. It was a good blend of showing and telling!
EXCEPT. I’m 99% sure the first text conversation is messed up; partway through the conversation it accidentally switches which of them is speaking, so the texts that are obviously from Lou show up as Ava’s, while Ava’s responses show up as being from Lou. This was VERY confusing as I was reading the early section. I figured it out relatively quickly, but especially at the start before I was well-acquainted with the character voices it threw me off and left me with the wrong impression.
I’m trying not to harsh any story individually for the spelling/grammar/formatting errors, or at least not too much, but in this case it actually changed the understanding of the story in a way that really impacted reading it. If it weren’t for that issue, it would have been an easy 4/5.
“Baobab Lover” by Kwame Sound Daniels
Fantasy (subgenre: contemporary, urban fantasy) (f/nb)
3.5/5
The narrator is a dryad, who came to America from their original tree in Zimbabwe. They work a late shift in a diner, where they meet a necromantic student named Sofia, and slowly begin to get to know each other.
My brief thoughts:
This one was also very cute!
I enjoy the narrator’s voice, and perspective of still being a tree, even as they have a human body.
There’s not a lot of plot: it’s pretty much them getting to know Sofia, but I enjoyed it. It’s quite short, but each little interaction reveals more about the characters in a nice, easy way.
“Braid Me a Howling Tongue” by Maria Dong
Fantasy/horror (subgenre: cult, captivity, monster) (f/f)
4.5/5
Captured, muted, and taken from her tribe, the narrator (eventually nicknamed “Not Do”) is brought to a strange compound full of young women. Here the women are made to work through their days, weaving and cooking for the soldiers in the compound. But there are other rules to their lives there, including days they’re sent to flee and hide throughout the compound, trying to stay away from a monstrous beast that will hunt and kill them. Not Do begins to suspect more about the way the compound works, and she longs to save not only herself, but one of the other girls, Kalen, especially once Kalen seems to become an intentional target.
My thoughts, some spoilers:
This is one of the longer stories, and one of my favorites in the book.
It’s one where information is doled out fairly slowly, but always comes at the right time narratively. Not Do, unable to speak to the other girls because her tongue was cut out, is a fascinating character to be in the perspective of. She’s naturally smart, but she’s forced to be observant because she can’t actually ask about anything. I think this credibly makes it so that she figures out things that none of the other girls have, because she’s sort of forced to.
There’s information that we never fully get, but that’s okay for this story, I think. I’d love to know more about Not Do’s life before (where she was apparently a powerful mage, before her ability to speak was taken away,) and what her tribe was like. I’d also like to know what the deal with the compound actually is. It seems to be some sort of cult, but why? Where did they come from? What is their intention? What is the monster? I’m happy to be left wondering, even as I want to know those answers.
“Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected” by Carson Faust
Fantasy (subgenre: contemporary, witchcraft)
4/5
After her brother, Callum, is murdered, shot to death by one of his lovers’ wives, Della can’t quite accept that her brother is gone. Della turns to her Auntie Ina, a woman estranged from the family because of her strangeness and possible talent for witchcraft. Auntie Ina is willing to show Della how to bring Callum back… though there’s always a cost.
My thoughts:
This is another one I really liked!
I find I don’t know quite what to say about this one. I like the themes of family and guilt. There’s also a lot about reconnecting: with cultural roots, with someone you never had the chance to be close to, with someone you lost. Those themes and feelings were very strong, and I enjoyed the way they carried through.
It’s also enjoyable because the story feels extremely grounded in a lot of ways (talking about the cost of Callum’s cremation; losing a job due to grief; family dramas) even while the fantastical elements (Auntie Ina’s witchcraft) are present and end up feeling almost equally mundane, as the tone and style of the prose treats it as so matter-of-fact.
“Morning Star Blues” by Tessa Fisher
Sci-fi (f/f, trans main characters)
3.5/5
Kelsey and Ashley are on a mission to Venus, studying it in the hopes of finding evidence of life on the planet. After an unfortunate past event on a different mission, current missions are designed to try and prevent the members from risking any romantic or sexual entanglements; it was assumed that with proper hormonal supplementation, this would not be a risk for Kelsey and Ashley, both trans women. Kelsey finds herself very much falling in love with her crewmate… and they have to decide how much they’re both willing to risk.
My thoughts, spoilers:
This was cute!
I feel like I don’t have much to say about it, except that it was very cute. I appreciated that the women (mainly Kelsey, who is our narrator) have their scientific goals in mind as well. While the story arc is very much about their relationship, and the science they’re out there to do really is mostly background, I’m happy that it’s there.
The bit about them singing together was extremely sweet.
There is some seriousness lurking. There’s the fear of being found out, the fear of consequence, and the fear of a past event (that neither of them had anything to do with) reflecting poorly on them now. (Particularly poignant but unfair, as it’s a trans woman fearing that her love for another trans woman would be treated the same way a cis man assaulting a woman would be.) As such, most of the real conflict winds up being internal. (I’ll spoil that while much of that fear is externally imposed, and there is a genuine reason for worry, it all works out okay in the end.)
Overall a fairly light and sweet story.
“Parásito” by Ana Hurtado
Horror/sci-fi (subgenre: parasite) (implied f/f)
4/5
On a field trip into the rainforest, Emi eats an ant, and feels something strange slide down her throat. Back at the university, Emi discovers that Professor Torres has been trying to coerce her best friend, Irene, into a relationship with him. When the university refuses to take his behavior seriously, and with Irene fearing for her grade, Emi wants to find a way to help her… even as her own health begins to decline.
My thoughts, minor spoilers:
I enjoyed this one!
I don’t think it’s subtle that it’s up to you whether the title refers to the literal parasite that infects Emi, or the professor who makes it a habit of preying on his female students.
There’s a good sense of slow-growing dread about what we know is happening to Emi, as well as a less-slow growing anger about Torres, and how obviously this is not an isolated incident, but something he’s been enabled to do for far too long. The end isn’t fully happy, per se, but certainly has an element of satisfaction.
This one is one that I’d say feels the least queer of the stories that are included. It feels like Emi may have romantic feelings for Irene, but it’s a bit ambiguous.
“Mandy and Lulu Welcome Walter” by S. M. Hallow
4.5/5
Fantasy (f/f)
Vampires Mandy and Lulu are happily settling in to their eternity together… until Lulu brings home a cat. According to Lulu, Walter has spent all of his lives so far with her, and Mandy’s dislike of cats certainly can’t apply to her beloved
Walter, who may be onto his ninth and final life.
My thoughts:
This story was a lot of fun.
Mandy’s narration is nearly Valley-girl ish, and was entertaining to read. (I read it aloud, just because it was fun to.) It’s very much like you’re listening to a friend spill some tea.
This one is very short, but has a really fun conceit that suits the length perfectly. Much longer, the conversational style probably would stop being so enjoyable, and the plot of being won over by your lover’s cat wouldn’t have sustained any real interest. However, I like the hints about Lulu’s time with Walter’s previous lives, which gives a sense of an equally improbable and entertaining history.
“Three Nights in Orissa” by Sean Robinson
4/5
Fantasy (subgenre: high fantasy) (m/m)
Orrin is a fairly new king, having to face down Althair—the Red Queen—a conqueror who has brought her army his city, after having swept over everything else in her path. He has enough magic to hold her back… for a time. As he tries to fight to protect his city during the days of the Red Queen’s siege, by night he tries to comfort the citizenry, before holing up in a tavern where he endeavors to be anonymous. Here he meets and is drawn to Jerrod, a stranger to the city. He knows it won’t be long until he is unable to hold off the invading force, yet feels compelled to spend what time he can with Jerrod, showing him the city he loves.
My thoughts, at least one big spoiler:
The high fantasy setting of this one was enjoyable. It also feels very much like there’s a broader story, and we’re just seeing a few days out of it, but that there was plenty that led up to it, and plenty that will continue after.
I also really liked the complicated generational conflict that we get to see glimpses of. Orrin’s mother, Vast, was apparently a great queen… but a vicious one. Initially it seems like she’s being spoken of admiringly, but it also seems that her “strength” is why they’re in the situation they’re in; the city once had both a unicorn and a phoenix as guardians that would have protected them. Both fled the city because of her cruelty.
Big spoiler: Jerrod ends up being the unicorn, which I did really like. He is also Althair’s general.
On the downside, I thought it was obvious that like Jerrod was the unicorn, that Althair was the phoenix… but that’s never actually confirmed or even suspected by Orrin. I wanted there to be a reckoning with that! I wanted him to have to truly face that both the city’s guardians were now trying to overthrow it! It’s not terrible for this to be something that the reader simply has to suspect and deal with, but it was something I wanted to see matter on-page, especially with the way the story ends!
“Please Mind the Poltergeist” by Tehnuka
3.5/5
Fantasy/horror (subgenre: supernatural) (f/f?)
When Vani’s friend Miriam goes on a long-term field assignment, Vani jumps at the chance to housesit for her. She’s eager to get out of her parents’ house, where she’s been stuck as she contends with a chronic illness that limits what she can do. She’s already been warned that it’s more ghost-sitting than house-sitting; the resident poltergeist likes to throw things, move the furniture, clog the drains, and more. As Vani is forced to continue dealing with her illness, she and the ghost begin to make peace, eventually finding companionship with each other.
My thoughts, spoilers:
This story is quite sweet, and I like the way that chronic illness is compared to the idea of a haunting, connecting both to the mourning for a life that can’t be regained, and a sense of being trapped and handling loss. It’s a much more compassionate comparison than the more common ways I see horror use illness and the paranormal to amplify each other.
On the other hand… this whole thing really just felt like this comic by charminglyantiquated. It’s not completely one to one the same; the chronic illness aspect is not in the original comic, and this story doesn’t start with the life or death stakes of the comic. However, the plot beats are extremely similar, as human and entity go through the arc of antagonism to grudging truce and tolerance to helpfulness to potentially being in love. Even some of the specific details, like writing on the mirrors and sharing cups of cocoa, are the same.
Now, some of that could very well be that those are perfectly common enemies-to-lovers plot beats, and something like writing in the steam on a mirror is pretty bog-standard poltergeist fare. I’m sorry if it turns out that this author did not ever actually see or read that comic, but it felt extremely similar to me the whole time. I would probably give it a 4/5, except that it felt so too-similar to something I’d already read and loved.
“A Record of Lost Time” by Regina Kanyu Wang, translated by Rebecca F. Kuang
5/5
Sci-fi (background f/f)
In the nearish future, a rare element discovery leads to a piece of revolutionary new technology: FastForward. This brain implant allows its users to speed up their processing and perception of the world, functionally living their lives at a higher speed, making everything else appear to be moving in slow motion. The boost in productivity that it affords makes it incredibly appealing, and more and more people choose to adopt the new technology.
An influencer, a percussion player, a corporate consultant, and a tourism guide share their experiences with the tech, now that FastForward has become omnipresent, as an initially unknown side-effect speeds the world toward its end.
My thoughts, spoilers:
We closed out on my favorite of the lot!
This one is very Black Mirror, and another example of a story that I think was perfectly suited to its length.
I like the different perspectives that we get from the different characters, and how FastForward impacted them individually.
It’s full of obvious capitalistic warnings. How far will people go in the name of productivity? In the name of having more time? But beyond that, I appreciate that the ultimate point (or one of them) is that the choice inherently impacts everyone else. It’s more than just opting in or out for yourself; the more widespread the adoption, the more it impacts the world around it, even for those who never chose to use it themselves. At the extreme, this is speeding up the passage of time toward the ultimate end of the world.
I can certainly choose to read a lot of allegory into it, when it comes to things like widespread AI use, which negatively impacts the environment (and arguably the culture) as a whole, and the consequences can’t be avoided even by those who actively would prefer to avoid it.
You could also compare it to surveillance: you may choose not to opt in to apps that want to film you and track you, you may choose not to opt in to meta glasses that record everything you’re doing and looking at, you may choose not to opt in to a doorbell camera that tracks everyone and everything in range… but that doesn’t opt you out of everyone else’s recordings that may include you.
Or social conditioning: you can do your best to avoid toxic attitudes, but when you’re steeped in them, you can’t escape their impact.
There’s real pressure to join: in the story, opting in to FastForward is the only way to slow down the end of the world to your own perspective, to give yourself more subjective time… yet the more people who get the implant, the faster it approaches.
This one was great, and I was glad for it to be the one the book closed out on.
Overall, this was a good collection! While some of the stories definitely felt stronger to me than others, even the ones that I didn’t love had aspects that I liked. A couple of them will probably stick with me, and I hope to see more from some of these authors in the future.
(The monstrous dog approaches!)
The Sun Dog by Stephen King
1990
Horror (subgenre: supernatural, artifact) - physical novella - read with Alex
3.5/5
Kevin Delevan gets exactly what he wanted for his fifteenth birthday: a Polaroid Sun 660 camera. Eater to try it out, he takes a picture… but instead of printing out a picture of his family, what develops is an image of an unrecognized street and a strange dog. Subsequent pictures seem to show the same scene, until it becomes obvious that the more pictures taken, the closer the dog is getting, and it is clearly preparing to attack. Kevin is certain that the camera must be destroyed, in order to stop the evil, monstrous dog’s approach.
Junk and antique store owner and local loan shark “Pop” Merrill has always been willing to ruthlessly pursue a chance to make money. He sees an excellent opportunity in Kevin’s Polaroid, even as he willingly disregards the danger it represents.
My thoughts, some spoilers:
I enjoyed this story. I do like horror stories that are of the “hey, wouldn’t it be fucked up if..?” variety. Why does the camera do that? What world is the camera ‘looking’ in on? Where is the dog from and why does it exist? Who cares! It’s just fucked up!
The characters feel… maybe slightly stock, but they’re good examples of the stock they are. Kevin is the sort of innocent that shows up in a lot of King’s work, and in other horror of this kind. He so obviously doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the middle of all that’s happening, and is merely a victim of being the one who got the strange camera; it could have been anyone. (Well… theoretically. Given the end, maybe he just needs to avoid technology forever.) On the other side, we have Pop, who is a garbage person who is aware that he’s awful (but thinks everyone else deserves it) and is perfectly happy to be awful as long as it benefits him in some way. They’re obvious foils, but it works.
It’s also nicely set in its time period. Polaroids and newfangled VCRs! Fun vibes. I like how this could be a “fear of technology” story, but with older tech. The setting certainly isn’t surprising for King, as frequently there’s a lot of warped nostalgia informing his settings, but I liked it.
Much of the horror is great (again, love the ‘oh, it’s just fucked up’), and there’s a definite sense of building dread, as the dog gets closer and closer. It does a good job of starting as a fairly vague menace, and then building up just how threatening it is.
However, this story did the same thing that I started to be annoyed by in Duma Key, where it’s so heavy-handed with the foreshadowing that it actually sort of removes the tension. It wasn’t quite the same thing this time, but it accomplished the same end for me. In Duma Key it tended towards statements that boiled down to “little did I know it would be the last time I’d see her alive,” therefore killing any tension regarding the character’s fate. In The Sun Dog, it was more that the characters would repeatedly mention that they noticed something, but then refuse to say what. Sometimes this would drag on for multiple chapters. “Kevin had noticed the thing around the dog’s neck, and was terrified by it.” “Pop hadn’t noticed the thing around the dog’s neck, but now that Kevin pointed it out, he wondered how he hadn’t seen it.” “Kevin drew his father’s attention to the thing around the dog’s neck, and it filled him with dread at what it meant.” Then, several chapters later, we find out what the thing was. It didn’t feel at all natural for the characters to take notice of it but to obscure what it was, to refuse to name it, especially multiple characters deliberately avoiding it in the same way. It made me very aware that I was reading a story and that it was trying to manipulate me to make me desperate to find out what “it” was… but instead it just made me kind of resentful at the attempt, and then by the time the thing was revealed I was just annoyed, haha.
To be fair, we read this over a couple of months (we read for about twenty minutes at a time on nights when Alex is cooking.) It might not have felt so dragged out if we were reading it more quickly. But still… even if we’d read those chapters closer to each other, this particular example would still have stretched on too long.
This was also a pretty decent “The end… OR IS IT” type ending, so appreciate that.
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
(I love these covers.
When Taylor gave me this book for Christmas, they also gave me a copy of
What Moves the Dead, so remarked on the "if I had a nickel for every fucked up rabbit on the cover of a book I'm giving you...")
Book 2 of the
Alex Stern trilogy
2023
Fantasy/Horror (subgenres: dark, dark academia, supernatural, demonic) - (m/f) - physical novel
5/5
Alex Stern has managed to stay at Yale, and as a representative of Lethe. However, her position might not last for long, as Lethe’s new leadership takes a very dim view of her doing anything beyond the most basic requirements of her role in managing the other houses’ rituals. This especially applies to any of her attempts to reach and free Darlington from where his soul is trapped in Hell. Alex, of course, has no intention to obey, and every intention of saving him.
Her role is also tested as a string of murders start on campus; murders that have an apparently supernatural component to them.
Alex and Dawes research a supposed ritual to enter Hell, the steps of which are hidden on campus, though the previous attempt to use it seems to have ended poorly. Opening the gates of Hell doesn’t only create an entrance, but also an exit.
My thoughts, some spoilers:
As is often the case with trilogies, I think I like the first book, Ninth House, slightly more, if only because it stands better on its own. Even so, Hell Bent gets five stars from me, and I really enjoyed it.
I would say that this book treads closer to truly falling within the horror genre than Ninth House did. That one had horror elements, for sure, but always felt more like a dark fantasy than true horror. Hell Bent is more a mix between fantasy and horror, focusing a lot more on demonic monstrosity.
The worldbuilding and setting are still very strong. I love the way it blends the real-world setting and the fictionalized aspects of the world. It also still does a good job, I think, of treading the line between “magic can solve it” and “but is it worth it?” The magic can do a lot… but it’s very rarely convenient or easy.
I liked getting more page time with some of the characters who were introduced in the previous book: Dawes, Turner, Tripp, Mercy, Darlington. It’s interesting to see the different backgrounds they all have, and how it’s brought them to the same place, and the ways in which they have similar drives within them, but are very different people.
One of the primary themes, which was present in the first book, but gets ramped up in this one, is the deep desire to find and be a part of something magical or secret. That’s one of the driving motivations for several of the characters: that secret desire to find another world behind the back of a wardrobe, or to discover a hidden magic that’s always been a part of you. Even just the desire to know that there’s something “more” to the world. I think a lot of fantasy fans can relate to that! These books have done a great job of showing the tension between that desire, and the ugly reality of what that secret world actually entails (at least in this story.) There is a secret world of magic… and the quest for the power it can bestow leads to the same sorts of evils that accumulating mundane social or political power leads to, just magnified and sometimes a bit more literal. It’s also often clustered in the same hands as that mundane power.
Sort of along with that, while these books would fall under the “dark academia” subgenre, and I think are in a lot of ways excellent examples of it, I also think that they’re being pretty critical of that aesthetic and what it would truly look like. It does focus a lot on what types of people (again, connecting to the real-world setting of secret societies at prestigious universities) would accumulate power and what they would use it for. There’s a lot of disgust at the rituals and what the intentions behind them are. It also doesn’t shy away from some really horrible aspects of real history, including the history of slavery in the region, and ways in which those structures of power and exploitation have stayed the same. (And I do not think that those real horrors are being downplayed by their inclusion in a work of fantasy fiction.)
I also, perhaps regrettably, am into the whole Alex/Darlington dynamic. Fucked up supernaturally compelled not-quite-romantic-or-sexual-yet-but-it’s-something femdom apparently works for me. -_-
While I don’t think that the twists in this one were quite as good as the ones at the end of Ninth House, I think they were still pretty good. It was clear that someone was leading them on, and getting the reveals about who/what/how/why was satisfying; the way in which Alex was able to help Darlington; going back with a better understanding later of the meeting between Alex and [redacted] and what was actually going on… all good stuff.
I really have very few complaints. I sort of missed getting to actually see the other societies this time around. They’re on the periphery, and we get told about some of their rituals, but don’t really get to see any. There’s pretty little of them directly on-page, and that was a bit of a shame. At the same time, I wouldn’t have wanted them to be included just to be included, and derail or distract from the plot we were focused on.
I am looking forward to the third book, coming out in September!
(These also have fantastic covers. Very creepy, love them.)
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
Book 3 of the
Sworn Soldier series
2025
Horror (subgenre: monster) - (background m/m) - physical novella
4.5/5
Alex Easton would be perfectly happy to leave any and all supernatural or unexplained happenings to other people to deal with. When Denton, the American doctor who helped with the situation with the Ushers, writes to kan* with an issue of his own, kan still feels compelled to help. If anyone understands what it was to face an unknown horror, it would be Denton. He’s asked for Alex’s help finding his cousin, who disappeared while investigating the family’s mine in West Virginia. The cousin’s letters to Denton described strange occurrences around the mine—strange lights, sounds, and figures being sighted—but then finally the discovery of a breathtaking cavern full of some unknown material. Alex travels to America to help him investigate. Their party soon discovers all the same things Denton’s cousin warned about, as well as unexplainable attacks on animals and people in the area. Whatever is in the mine seems to be more than just an animal or a human intruder.
*Alex’s native language has many sets of pronouns, including ka/kan, used exclusively for soldiers, which supersede any previous pronouns an individual might have used.
My thoughts, some spoilers:
I enjoyed this one! While I still enjoyed the second book, this one felt like more of a return to some of what I liked best about the first book.
Mild spoiler for both this book and the first, but I liked that this story returned to being about a sort of scientific/cryptid creature, as opposed to the more overtly paranormal folkloric monster of the second book. I like both types of creature, but the “vaguely scientific (even if it strays into pretty speculative biology,) simply unknown to science” cryptid sort is one I encounter less often. I think the one in the first book was more horrific, but I appreciate their similarities, and the way in which this one gets a different outcome.
I still like Alex’s sort of deadpan reactions to the world. Ka does not want to deal with emotional anything, and will go to great lengths to avoid it. Watching ka repeatedly notice Denton and Ingold’s relationship and then resolutely refuse to acknowledge it as none of kan business was entertaining.
The setting is fantastic! I love me some spooky abandoned mines, and this was an excellent one. (There are some similarities to the famous Ted the Caver creepypasta, which I mean as a compliment. The mingled awe of discovering some amazing unknown thing and the claustrophobic and isolated horror of being trapped underground is great!)
There are also two parallel mysteries: what’s happening in the mine, and what’s happening with the animal attacks in the nearby town. Those came together satisfyingly!
Really no complaints about this one.
Pretty lucky this month in terms of enjoying everything I read again!
Despite being a ways into March at this point, I have not finished anything additional.
I am currently reading four books:
-
Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett (my current main read, part of the Pride storybundle)
-
Our Bloody Pearl by D. N. Bryn (my current ebook side-read, which has been slow going)
-
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (reading with Alex)
-
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (reading with Taylor)
After this, my plan remains pretty much the same:
-
The Hobbit-
The Map and the Territory (Pride storybundle ebook)
-
The Fellowship of the Ring-
These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (Pride storybundle ebook)
-
The Two Towers -
Be the Sea (Pride storybundle ebook)
-
Return of the King- The next Incryptid book (coming out the day before my birthday),
Butterfly Effects, will get to jump the line. It’ll probably land after
The Hobbit.
- When I am done with my current ebook side read, I will probably let the
Game Changer series (or at least the first three books, which I own) jump the line to side-read status.
It’s fairly clear that I will not be finishing up the above by the end of March, which was my original, admittedly ambitious goal. I am holding out hope for it to happen by the end of April, but that still seems a bit on the ambitious side. I’ve been doing more reading, spending more time per day on
Point of Dreams, but it turns out that it’s a relatively long book, ha. And of course all the Tolkien books are long and not quick reads by any stretch, and I do not want to rush them.
Upsettingly, the TBR has now grown to an obscene 676 books.
This is partially due to another horror ebook humble bundle (
Dread and Darkness) that I purchased, which includes 52 books. Four of those I already had (some of the Stephen Graham Jones titles,) but there were a few others (other Stephen Graham Jones titles,) that were already on my wishlist, so I failed to resist. The rest of the increase has mostly been due to cheap sales on individual books.
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duskpeterson
