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moonytoast's reviews
253 reviews
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is a unique historical fantasy that draws the reader into the struggle between the hubris of man and the unbridled resolve of nature, as the infamous The Trans-Siberian Express traverses a dangerous path across the strange and changing landscape of the Wastelands—yet there are secrets regarding the last crossing, when something went horribly wrong. Brimming with intrigue and sublime terror, this book is a twisty, breathtaking journey across a fantastical landscape perfect for fans of Annihilation.
In an alternate Victorian-era world where a vast expanse of land in Asia has been abandoned and isolated from the rest of the world after strange Changes were noticed in the land, creatures, and other lifeforms, the only way to travel from Beijing to Moscow is on the Trans-Siberian Express: an almost mythical express train that boasts luxury and impenetrable power to its many customers. The Trans-Siberian Express has made countless crossings over the decades it has been operating, but something happened on the last journey... something went wrong to the point there are questions whether the train is truly safe. Aboard the following crossing are an odd cast of characters heading for Moscow: Marya, a grieving woman with a borrowed name and a mission to uncover secrets the Trans-Siberia Company wants buried; Weiwei, a child of the train desperate to ignore the fact that everything has changed since the last crossing; and Dr. Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist who is willing to risk it all to prove his fanatical theories about the Wastelands as a new Eden.
As they each slowly begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding the last crossing and the Wastelands, it becomes clear that something fundamental has changed and that—as much as the Company ensures that the train cannot be breached by the dangers outside—they are not alone and the Wastelands may have already begun its work on them all. Despite the slow build of this book in the first half as it lays the groundwork for the status quo of the train and the character’s motivations, the narrative kicks into high momentum once the main line breaks and the Trans-Siberian Express must traverse “ghost rails” long abandoned by the Company.
I have to be frank: I adored the writing style of this book. Brooks manages to create a world flooding with life and breath and sound and color in a way that inspires a similar sublime terror and awe at the Wastelands as the characters aboard the Trans-Siberian Express. Its unique environmental horror of a strange, changed landscape removed from the influence of man and with its own natural laws was deeply evocative and reminiscent of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, which I also love. The various imagery of mimicry, mutual observation, and a hivemind landscape felt strangely haunting, like peeling back the layers of skin and sinew on an animal carcass only to find it still alive and thrashing against its constraints.
Expertly blending fantasy, mystery, horror, and science fiction, The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is a thrilling debut novel that will take you on a mesmerizing adventure that you won’t want to disembark after reading.
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Bullying
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Forced institutionalization
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook Books for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!
Do you like: Dark academia? Lesbians? Vampiric debauchery?
An enticing mixture of the gothic and erotic, An Education in Malice breathes new life—a second life, if you will—into the subgenre of dark academia and the classic vampire tale. Heavily inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, the novel explores the carnal nature of vampirism as well as the blooming complexities of desire, devotion, and love.
Set against the backdrop of Saint Perpetua’s College in Massachusetts, An Education in Malice follows two protagonists—Laura and Carmilla—who find themselves thrown together under the wing of their elusive poetry professor, De Lafontaine. While they begin as rivals, they are quickly pulled inexorably into the orbit of De Lafontaine’s world of dark obsession and ancient, bloody secrets.
The writing style begins with a more pragmatic, diaristic tone and transforms into an obsessive interior focus as Laura and Camilla descend into the depths of their audacious desire and devotion to each other. Combined with lush prose, S.T. Gibson crafts a pulse-pounding, atmospheric novel in its setting and characters that pulls you in for it to sink its teeth into you. While it is more immersive vibes than cohesive plot, that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad piece of fiction and I still enjoyed the story.
Perfect for fans of Carmilla and The Secret History, An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson is brimming with intrigue and insatiable hungers. This book is the incarnation of the vivid imagery of Florence and the Machine’s discography mixed with the unabashed raunchiness of Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Murder
Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.5
a must read for those interested in psychology, the history of racialized treatment in the pyschology field and its impact on the current relationship of black people to the mental health system, the connection between mental institutions and the carceral system, and the impact of places like crownsville on everyone who moved through that place. EVERY psychology department at PWIs need to have this book on their curriculum for students to read!!!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Sexism, and Vomit
Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness
Moderate: Ableism and Medical trauma
The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
informative
slow-paced
3.0
this would have been DNFed so quickly had i not been listening to the audiobook and already familiar with the timeline of events in 1692, because this book has moments where it diverges from the story to discuss some minute detail to the point that it makes it so easy to forget where you are in the history of the Salem Witch Trials… wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who hasn’t had the events of 1692 as a hyperfixation or special interest due to its density of prose and meandering pace (a good alternative: the first season of the Unobscured podcast by the creator of Lore, which has interview excerpts from a multitude of historians as well as the author of this book and is still thorough—though much more approachable)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5