DID IT! I CAUGHT UP WITH MY REVIEWS! 

This is the last batch of my mini-reviews, and with it I should’ve done at least a mini review for everything I read last year. Also it feels great referring to 2020 as last year.

The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord

For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning – and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.

Although I love Robin Miles as a narrator, something did not work for me this time, her voice was too soothing, so much so that I just calmly drifted off whenever I was listening to the book. I ended up restarting it from the half-way mark because I was so lost. It was easier to follow the second time around, but I’m still confused about a lot of the larger interplanetary politics. Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy the narration, I thought the voices and accents were great, just complete zone out, unprecedented levels of zoning out. This never happened to me before. 

At the forefront of the book we have Rafi, a teenager on the brink of adulthood, who’s always an outsider, often perceived as dangerous trying to find his place in the world. He’s often helped by his friend Enteman (audiobook – spelling – no clue) who’s got a lot of semi-shady business connections and likes to act like he knows it all. I really liked the relationship between them and the other people who help Rafi along the way, that was the part of the book I was able to follow. It may sound like a YA book from the coming of age bits, but it doesn’t fit anything else that I’d normally associate with YA so I’d call this firmly adult. Then the next layer is the wallrunning game, a really big deal sportsing thing, that I couldn’t quite get the hang of. And then there’s The Galaxy Game, which is how the sportsing is tied into all the galaxy’s politics and economy and how schemes are in motion and things are going on. These all passed me by completely without leaving any impression. Which is a shame because it seemed very interesting, the world is well developed, different kinds of humanity that had evolved slightly differently, some with psychic powers, (but from the same seeds) on different planets, with lots of history between them. Just none of it stuck to my brain at all. 

This is not at all clear on Goodreads, but the book is apparently a sequel (though I guess not direct) to The Best of All Possible Worlds. I think if I’d read that first the familiarity with the setting would’ve helped me a lot. It was free through the Audible Plus catalog thing when I listened. 

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.

Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age.

A powerful memoir for fans of Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson and American Street by Ibi Zoboi.

This was one of my most surprising reads of the year. It starts with the main character going through so many traumatic and abusive events, I was sure it wouldn’t be my kind of book. But it had such a distinct style, and the way it’s narrated is so gripping, often with a cadence like poetry, that even when I wasn’t enjoying it I couldn’t put it down. It ended up being so powerful, beautiful and hopeful that I loved it. 

The blurb mentions Magical Realism, so I was expecting a lighter touch of magic, but it’s really a big part of the book, and the magic itself is powerful and real. There isn’t a magic system or other magical creatures or other things you might be used to from urban fantasy novels though. 

This book is heavy, a non-exhaustive content warning list would include repeated instances of rape, drug abuse, violence, car accident. It delves deep into growing up a black girl in today’s society, the risks and hardships, pain and violence that can come with that, and it’s heavily autobiographical. It really is one horrible thing after another and I was about ready to give up at a certain point, but then I read the reviews on goodreads and they said things like “this is such a hopeful book”. So I was confused because everything I’d read till then was squarely what I’d shelve under the-opposite-of-hopeful. I kept reading and the resilience the protagonist has is breathtaking. She’s gets taken apart and not only does she put herself together bit by bit she has the strength to uplift those around her too. 

Really loved this one and strongly recommend it, maybe taking into account that you might have to be in a certain kind of reading mood for it. 

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

A tale of love, money, and family conflict–among dragons. A family deals with the death of their father. A son goes to court for his inheritance. Another son agonises over his father’s deathbed confession. One daughter becomes involved in the abolition movement, while another sacrifices herself for her husband. And everyone in the tale is a dragon, red in tooth and claw. Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchmen and family retainers, of courtship and country houses… in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which the great and the good avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby. You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw. 

This was so much fun. I’m a huge dragon fan, and would read just about anything with dragons, and dragons in historical settings even more so. 

I didn’t read the blurb before, and my version of the cover says “the Pride and Prejudice of the dragon world”, which friends have pointed out is not entirely accurate, so I was expecting manners, but very importantly, not cannibalism. It’s in the blurb, it happens in the first few pages, and then more, it’s a big deal and a constant threat. It took me a long time to get used to, but I liked how it was examined and challenged in the story.

The novel was delightful, I loved the characters, and loved to hate some of them. Very much wanted to punch some characters but they are big scary dragons so not the best idea. Was fascinated by dragon society and things like how much they convey through the fashions of hats. They did a good job of being both human and alien.

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

‘Holy wood is a different sort of place. People act differently here. Everywhere else the most important things are gods or money or cattle. Here, the most important thing is to be important.’


People might say that reality is a quality that things possess in the same way that they possess weight. Sadly alchemists never really held with such a quaint notion. They think that they can change reality, shape it to their own purpose. Imagine then the damage that could be wrought if they get their hands on the ultimate alchemy: the invention of motion pictures, the greatest making of illusions. It may be a triumph of universe-shaking proportions. It’s either that or they’re about to unlock the dark terrible secret of the Holy Wood hills – by mistake…

I’m comfort-rereading the Discworld series, a book every few months. Although Moving Pictures features none of my main favorite characters, I like the idea of it a lot. “What if the Discworld started shooting movies”  it’s a lot of fun, and I always love how Pratchett gives real-world concepts a magical, and in this case sinister, spin. The story is also very isolated and self-contained, I think you could probably read it anytime in the series. 

There was one beloved character that I was frankly surprised to be so happy to see: Cut-Me-Own-Throat-Dibbler! He’s usually off to the side, selling whatever he’s calling food at the moment, but here he’s one of the main cast, one of Holy Wood’s movers and shakers. And it was kinda great seeing his entrepreneurial success. 

I’ve forgotten about the chapter-less structure and between that and my lack of attachment to the main leads, I read this pretty slowly, just a few pages here and there. It was still lots of fun and comfy to read, but not among my favorites.

The Sunken Mall by K.D. Edwards

Brand and Rune will generally do anything to avoid equinox shopping, but they’re determined to buy their ward, Max, gifts to make him feel like a member of the household.

That’s when the principality Ciaran tells them about the Sunken Mall. In the early days of translocating buildings to the city of New Atlantis, there were…mistakes. There’s a myth – which Ciaran claims is real – of an entire mall that was lost during Christmastime in the 80s. Ciaran knows the location: it’s hidden deep in the island bedrock, undisturbed for decades.

What could go wrong?

***This is a free novella published by the author. MOBI, ePUB, and PDF versions are saving in a Google Drive folder: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folder…

The Sunken Mall is a novella in the Tarot Sequence and it probably does not make any sense without having read The Last Sun. It’s a fun interlude, very fast-paced and I laughed out loud so much. It was maybe not as polished as the full-length novels but pure balm for 2020. And I think it makes for a great Christmas read because it’s basically a very dangerous and eldritch holiday shopping trip. It’s free too! So really, if you’re familiar with the series go read it. 

As usual in Edwards’ writing the character interactions are a joy, and going back to the series is like meeting up with close friends, reading about them being themselves makes me go awwww. I just love the way they care for each other and in this novella they’re doing something out of their comfort zone to make Max feel loved and like he belongs. I think the relatively low stakes, compared to the full-length novels, also helped make this feel like such a perfect comfort read. The atmosphere of the 80s was cool and creepy, and made my 2020 self go — ohhh, shops, remember shops? 

Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

( maybe spoilers for Silver in the Wood)

This second volume of the Greenhollow duology once again invites readers to lose themselves in the story of Henry and Tobias, and the magic of a myth they’ve always known.

Even the Wild Man of Greenhollow can’t ignore a summons from his mother, when that mother is the indomitable Adela Silver, practical folklorist. Henry Silver does not relish what he’ll find in the grimy seaside town of Rothport, where once the ancient wood extended before it was drowned beneath the sea—a missing girl, a monster on the loose, or, worst of all, Tobias Finch, who loves him.

This was the second book in the Greenhollow Duology and it went in an unexpected direction. The novella is set sometime after the first one, and it opens with Silver alone and sulking, I really liked seeing his transformation from quite the dandy to fully “of the wood”. He’s dragged out of his dark mood by a summon from his mum, who needs help with a case. We get less of Mrs. Silver in this book than I’d have liked, but we do meet a surprising and competent young lady, who mostly makes up for it.

Drowned Country was practically dripping with atmosphere, first a ruined mansion taken over by the forest, then a gothic abandoned church on a hill, and finally the mysterious, ancient drowned land from the title. 

I liked the relationship between Henry and Tobias in this one too. There was a lot of mystery in why they’d gotten to this point. And when it was revealed I had to agree with the injured party. It was fun coming back to these characters.