sproutedpages's reviews
90 reviews

PET by Akwaeke Emezi

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Blessed by the Cupid Distribution System by Robin Jo Margaret

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adventurous

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Thank you so much to author Robin Jo Margaret for allowing me to be on their permanent ARC team! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own. This novella releases July 23rd, 2024!

A sweet, lighthearted (and spicy) sapphic romance between Iris, an autistic trans woman, and Jaya, a cupid (in this novella, a divine species that act as a sort of professional workforce following in the footsteps of the mythological Cupid).

Blessed by the Cupid Distribution System feels somewhat like a sapphic companion to Robin Jo Margaret’s previous novella, In the Care of Magic. The two novellas don’t share very many elements, and ultimately depict quite different relationship structures, but I enjoyed both novellas for similar reasons (well-written sex, and explorations of unique relationships between interesting characters).

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Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Lucy Undying by Kiersten White

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Lucy Undying contains the more expected luxuriant prose typical of vampire novels, alongside a modern approach and setting. In how it chooses to explore its sometimes-epistolary narrative style, Lucy Undying falls somewhere between Interview with the Vampire and Dracula, and is similarly told through several perspective characters (accounting for the variance in prose and tone). At times the prose is very compelling (“I cannot bring myself to care about or trust in a distant God, fickle and unreachable and unknowable.”), but at other moments falls quite flat (“Calm your tits, Iris.”), generally faltering when attempting modern inclusions.

The characters themselves are incredibly charming— and in particular, Lucy and Vanessa. A novel with just the transcriptions of the faux-therapy session(…s?) with Vanessa, and entries from the journal of Lucy Westenra, would honestly have been captivating enough, narratively, to stand on its own. It is within these sections that (I think) author Kiersten White’s writing is strongest and most engrossing.

Thank you to Kiersten White, Del Rey, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own.

Content Warnings

Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 1 by Kamome Shirahama

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

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adventurous challenging inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is incredibly rich in its worldbuilding, and with a narrative voice that is especially satisfying to read. Oral storytelling is a vital component of this novel, being the way that a considerable amount of expository worldbuilding is conveyed. There are lengthy stretches of exposition, but because these moments are most often presented as educational moments to Anequs, the protagonist, it very rarely feels like a hindrance to plot progression.

Though decidedly set in another world, this novel feels very much like an alternate history fantasy novel, as there are many clear parallels to real-world events, cultures, places, etc. There is also exploration of the disparity in colonizer and indigenous views of societal expectation, community, and utility, and the struggle to retain cultural identity in the face of (violent, subsuming) modernization and colonization. Nampeshiweisit (Masquisit dragoneers), Anglish dragoneers, and their distinct approaches to working alongside dragons, provide a really interesting fantasy vector for further exemplifying this.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is particularly remarkable in how effectively Moniquill Blackgoose manages to portray the European-inspired fantasy elements as foreign and confusing , despite the likelihood of readers having already had an overexposure to European-inspired fantasy media, European mythology, etc.

Thank you so much to author Moniquill Blackgoose, Del Rey, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this novel to read and review! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own.

Content Warnings

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A Sorceress Comes to Call is a Regency era reimagining of The Goose Girl, originally written by Dorothea Viehmann and collected by the Brothers Grimm. Rather than centering on a naive princess taken advantage of by her mother’s waiting maid (as in the original story), A Sorceress Comes to Call explores distorted parental authority and warped expectations of children’s obedience and subservience, through use of the source fairytale’s themes.

This novel is highly character driven, and details the myriad of abuses that Cordelia, the protagonist, endures (and sees enacted on others) at the hands of her mother, Evangeline. The cast that eventually surrounds Cordelia and Evangeline are so charming despite this, and their characterization is really well written— even the tertiary characters, like Master Strauss (who has a fixation on horses).

T. Kingfisher’s talent for writing macabre fantasy is obviously well-suited to reimagining fairytales like those collected by the Brothers Grimm, and A Sorceress Comes to Call reflects this. In narrative voice and tone, this novel resides somewhere between A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and Nettle & Bone, two of T. Kingfisher’s other novels (and I will say that, in this regard, I still favor her novella Thornhedge).

Thank you so much to T. Kingfisher, Tor Books, and NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected digital galley! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own. A Sorceress Comes to Call releases August 6th, 2024!

Content Warnings