Category: books

Book Review | Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allen Poe

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Really, what sort of an introduction can you make for Edgar Allen poe? His horror feels, at times, ubiquitous. It’s difficult to escape references, at least this time of year. Still, that exposure seems reserved, commonly for a select few stories and poems. This is, admittedly, an older anthology of his poems and stories- one I’ve had for a good many years but had yet to read cover to cover, instead picking out bits as they caught my interest. I wish I had been less picky before now.

If you are familiar with the work of Edgar Allen Poe, you’ll know it’s wordy, but ultimately elegant, his horror a creeping thing, claustrophobic and unsettling, with themes including insanity, premature burial,illness, and the unknown. There is plenty of that in this anthology, with ‘The Raven’, and ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, and ‘The Tell-tale Heart’ all included, but you’ll also find some of his other writings, his science fiction and mysteries. Almost all (with perhaps the exception of two adjoining stories) flow into each other, connected by some thread or theme within the pieces, making the collection a journey rather than a patchwork quilt.

Secondly, the quality of the book itself is very nice. It’s a large one, not something you’d carry around in a book bag, but due to that the font is a very accessible size and the illustrations are large enough that details aren’t lost. It’s a sturdy text, cloth-covered hardcover with glossy pages. Additionally, the forward by Neil Gaiman isn’t the dry and academic prose one normally expects from a ‘classics’ anthology, but rather something readable in and of itself.

One thing that can be said of Poe, however, is that his writing is not always the most accessible. His narrators run the gamut from academics to sea-farers to madmen and certain pieces feel the weight of those narrative choices. They can be overly-verbose and rambling at the worst of times. Heck, the verbosity is often just as prevalent in his easier stories. Sometimes you just want to dip into the story, take the narrator by the collar, and growl ‘get on with it already’. This anthology held several stories that left me feeling that frustrated.

Still, as a whole, it’s a nice grouping, with a nice variety to choose from. If you are a Poe fan looking for a new anthology, you’d be well-served if you managed to find this collection.


Book Review | The Collection by Bentley Little

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Title: The Collection
Author: Bentley Little
Publication Date: 2002
Length: 449 pages
Genre: Horror, short stories
TW– weapons, violence (extreme), gore, cannibalism, dismemberment, decapitation, death, murder, blood, corpse, death of an animal, pregnancy, birth, sexual content, incest, molestation, rape, domestic abuse, child abuse, slurs (mental capacity, little people, ethnic), racism, sexism, ableism

Well, turns out my luck from last week hasn’t held out. When I saw this book at a thrift store a couple of months ago I was rather excited- it’s not every day you see a horror anthology around my neck of the woods. There were a few reservations- I’d tried one of Little’s novels a couple of years back and his style of horror just didn’t do it for me. Still, I figured that short stories and novels were different enough beasts that I might really enjoy this. You can probably already tell how that went. 

The collection is just that, a collection of unrelated stories- only bound together by their genre- horror, or perhaps in some cases dark speculative fiction. You’ll find stories ranging from the discovery that George Washinton was a cannibal, to a sex-cult surrounding a tire-iron once touched by James Dean, to revenge-filled zombies. Despite the description, that last one is probably one of the most down-to-earth stories in the bunch. 

I will say, despite my issues with the book, there’s one thing that Bentley Little has in spades, and that’s imagination. The book is full of fantastical scenarios and bizarre what-ifs, implausible though they may be (i.e. George Washington’s thing for human flesh). If you can let go of your suspension of disbelief well enough there are some really interesting ideas that he played around with here.

That if, however, is a big if. A humongous if. Because it seems to me that Little doesn’t really know when to quit. The strongest stories, in my opinion, were the ones that didn’t try to be scary, because it didn’t feel forced. While at times Little has a good handle on his horror, often he winds up in wtf-land, and not in the good way either, hopping straight out of the realm of horror and winding up in the absurd instead. Now, I admittedly like absurd, most of the time, but this book elicited more eye-rolls from me than anything else. There’s only so many stories you can read with cannibal-cults and incest and sentient rapist pillows before it’s all just too much. 

This is, I think, partially due to the fact that I never felt myself invested in the characters. And while I know it can be difficult to build that connection in the amount of space a short-story lends, everyone felt vaguely cookie-cutter-ish. They rarely seemed to lose the sense of being figurines, moved around solely for the sake of the plot. 

So, that being said, if you’re already a fan of Bentley Little’s style of horror, you may enjoy this one. If, one the other hand, you prefer your horror a little more subtle or insidious, or just not full of some of the items mentioned in the trigger warnings section, you may want to go elsewhere. 

Book Review | Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by Deborah & James Howe

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Title- Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery (#1 in Bunnicula series)
Author- Deborah & James Howe
Illustrator- Alan Daniel
Publication Date- 1979
Length- 98 pages
Genre- middle grade, paranormal, animal story, humor
TW- threatened violence, mention of alcohol, attempted murder, starvation, slur (for Roma)

Normally, when I write a book review, I try to cover a book I haven’t read before and, aside from a few exceptions, I lean towards at least YA reading Level- this one is neither. I first ran into the Bunnicula series when one of my older cousins gave me Howliday Inn when I was a kid, and at this point it’s an old favorite. But after The Shining I needed something a little lighter.

The story begins when the lives of two family pets, a dog named Harold and a cat named Chester, are disrupted by a new addition, a small bunny found one stormy night. All seems normal, until dried white vegetables, with two tiny fang shaped holes, begin to show up in the kitchen and Chester pins Bunnicula as the prime suspect. 

Bunnicula is a fun story, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously, more along the lines of The Munsters rather than something by Stine or Pike. It’s thoroughly lighthearted in tone, beginning with the premise of Harold being the books author and extending to Chester’s attempts to thwart Bunnicula (which includes a vampire pantomime and the results of confusing ‘steak’ with ‘stake’).

What really drives the story, in many ways, is the interactions between sarcastic, paranoid Chester and down-to-earth Harold. The authors succeed in leaning into animal stereotypes without it being overdone, the result being a bickering that bounces back and forth like a tennis ball.

If I had a complaint, it would be the fact that Bunnicula, the titular character, is a silent figure and largely passive. Of course, rabbits aren’t known for being vocal animals, still in a world of (at least among each other) talking animals, the silence feels strange, and I’m left wandering how an active Bunnicula would affect the story.

Initially, I wasn’t sure how the story would hold up under an adult eye, but I was pleasantly surprised to see  that I enjoyed it almost as much as when I was a kid- only some of which I attribute to nostalgia.

Book Review | The Shining by Stephen King

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Title- The Shining
Author- Stephen King
Publication Date- 1977
Length- 659 pages
Genre- horror- supernatural
TW- smoking, alcoholism, drinking (heavy), drunk driving, drug use, sexual imagery, strong language, Child abuse, violence against children, violence towards animals (a dog is kicked, if I recall correctly), domestic violence, weapons, violence (graphic), major injury, dental trauma, murder, attempted murder, mention of decapitation, corpse, blood, gore, suicidal ideation, mention of institutionalization, mental illness, medical treatment, seizures/seizure-like episodes, ableism, racism, sexism, homophobia, slurs (sexist, racist, ablest, homophobic), insects

What better way to start October by hitting one of the Stephen King classics that have been sitting, unread, on my shelves. Admittedly, this one probably would have been a better mid-winter read, but at least it’s not The Stand. Unfortunately, I also knew enough about this one to be sufficiently spoiled, but I’ve found ways to avoid letting spoilers ruin the experience. 

And this one was definitely an experience. Just in case you’ve managed to avoid spoilers for The Shining and know nothing about the story, it follows the Torrance family as Jack (the father) attempts to get his feet under him, taking a job as caretaker for the Overlook hotel after losing his job at a private school (partially due to his previous alcoholism and largely due to his temper). It  doesn’t take long for the dark nature of the hotel to come to light, especially considering the extra-sensory abilities of Jack’s young son, Danny, and the family struggles to retain their lives and their sanity as winter closes in around them. 

Horror, I have found, is not an easy genre to write in. Or at least not easy to write well. The balance in tension is difficult to maintain, too little and it falls flat, try too hard and boy does it show, falling into corniness. I never encountered either problem, reading The Shining. There is a creeping sense of dread that permeates the story, even before the Overlook Hotel becomes a constant figure, and one of the reasons I wish I had read this book during the winter is the overarching feeling of isolation and claustrophobia. Yet amongst that are small snippets of normalcy, growing ever fainter as the darkness encroaches in on the family, slowly tearing them apart. 

Part of the reason the story, and the slow unraveling of the Torrance family, is so effective is that you care about the characters. It’s one of the most glaring differences between the novel and what I’ve seen of the Kubric film. Danny is an endearing kid, without feeling cutesy for the most part, clearly struggling to figure out how his own gift (or curse) works; a confusing world is made all the worse by adding in adult elements he’s not yet ready for. And Jack is such a tragic figure, in many ways. He’s so incredibly flawed, and sometimes you just want to punch him, but you can see how much he loves his wife and son, and that makes his descent into madness so much worse. Especially since he’s so aware of his own flaws, and his struggles with them are  part of the foundation of his character. It’s heartbreaking to see those flaws pulled like loose strings, letting him slowly unravel. 

Unfortunately, the story is rather marred at the beginning by what I would consider to be a sloppy usage of point of view. Within a single scene the point of view will go from one character, to another, and then back to the first again. The shifts often feel abrupt, with no warning other than the fact that the two characters are both in the same scene. It’s especially frustrating when the perspective shifts from an adult voice to Danny’s, considering the difference between the ways adults and children see the world. To make matters worse, these shifts often happen over a very short amount of time, with the second perspective at times taking up only a few paragraphs out of a several page section. Although I could see the reason that King would want, in those scenes, to have the two perspectives on events, it still felt lazy. 

Overall this was a fairly minor problem, however, in a book that was, otherwise, incredibly well-crafted. I fully intend on pulling it off the shelves again this winter, when the storms creep in, and the cold and isolation inherent in the book can have full effect.

Book Review | Beach House by R. L. Stine

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Title: Beach House
Author: R. L. Stine
Publication date: 1992
Length: 210 pages
Genre: ya, horror
TW: Violence, blood, body/corpse, life-altering injury, death, murder, abduction, jealous/ potentially abusive relationship, bullying, possible classism

Beach House is the story of two sets of teens, and the murders/disappearances that reach across forty years, connecting their summers. Normally, when writing a summary or book review, I feel like I have trouble condensing the story down into a few sentences. That’s certainly not the case with this book. Take from that what you will.  

The plot utilized is an interesting premise, not a revolutionary one but certainly with the potential to make a good story. And the author does make some attempt to ground the story in its respective time-frames – making the distance between the two time-periods felt well enough, while also showing the similarities between the two. It was actually the shifting between settings that caught my interest, initially. Split between a contemporary setting in the 1950s, there’s room to play around with parallels between the two sets of characters and events. I know what can be done with non-linear storytelling, so I had hopes for the story.

Unfortunately the execution (pun not completely intended) leaves a lot to be desired. In this case, that nonlinear structure actually weakens the story significantly. The problem largely lies in the fact that the length of the book is still fairly average, thus each set of characters really gets about half the amount of time as they would if the story were completely devoted to them. While the stories are connected, they’re also largely separate until the end of the book, so there are two individual stories that never fully have the time to come together with much in the way of detail.

This not only affects the plot, however, but the character as well. With at least ten of them it’s difficult to set many of them apart, and they all sort of bleed into each other- simply displaying various shades of jerk. Speaking of, there’s little in the way of sympathetic characters in this book, running the gamut from  mean to jealous and borderline abusive at times- and that’s without mentioning the murderer. Unfortunately, this is one of those books where the girls are all afraid of their boyfriends/potential boyfriends but just keep going back anyway. I actually can’t think of any male characters who didn’t get the ‘suddenly dangerous and looming’ treatment. 

In addition, there’s so much that’s either implausible or made no sense whatsoever. This includes everything from small details (a literal torch used in the house, having never heard of Elvis Presley) to the entire plot twist at the end of the story, which went far beyond the normal suspension of disbelief required by a teen thriller/slasher novel. it was out there, even for an R. L. Stine book,  and I remember some doozies from my time reading Goosebumps.

Overall, I had hopes but Beach House just ended up being a super-flawed story that totally went off the rails at the end.

Book Review | The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Publication Date: 1999
Length: 206 pages
Genre: Epistolary, Diary Fiction, YA, coming-of-age
TW: Depictions of sex, rape, child abuse (molestation), mention of violence that led to death, violence, strong language, smoking, alchohol, non-consensual drugging, discussion of death (close family member), mental illness, ptsd, hospitalization, slurs (homophobic, sexist), homophobia, racism

The things about being one of the ‘weird kids’ is that reading a book with one as a protagonist will forever feel awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes, the better the book the stronger the discomfort. And boy did this book leave me suffering from second-hand embarrassment. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower introduces us to Charlie as he begins his freshman year, coming out of a year in which a close friend killed himself and navigating the strange and treacherous world of high school- befriending a group of seniors that open up a whole new world for him. He tells his story to an anonymous reader, through a series of ongoing letters. 

I loved the structure that this book took, something riding the line between epistolary fiction and a diary. We, as a reader, don’t know who Charlie is, and neither does the recipient of his letters. The two never meet and the communication is solely one-way, so the writing acts more as a self-exploration, even more so than an obvious attempt to connect with the outside world. 

Thankfully, the author doesn’t shy away from the consequences that come with this structure. Charlie is an awkward character, and this comes out in his naivete and his at-times-surprising oversharing. Additionally, his writing is stiff and clumsy at first, sounding exactly like a novice writer. It makes the beginning of the novel a little difficult at times, but it really does allow the reader to see just how much he grows through the course of the book. 

A lot of this growth is due to the group of seniors that he befriends. They’re an interesting mix of characters (with lgbt rep) and I appreciated the fact that none of them felt like character ‘types’. Chbosky is very good at capturing that strange mixture of wisdom and immaturity that comes from being a teenager, and applying that to his characters. They are people, warts and beauty marks and all. 

If there’s one thing that I might complain about, it’s that the realism was at times set aside for whatever reason. Charlie’s family feels fairly normal- yet in some respects his parents are the epitome of hands-off. Evidently there is no such thing as a curfew for this kid, as going out to a party at nine oclock on a school night, and being out of the house at any given point in time is no biggie. This interaction with the older group of kids was vital to the book and Charlie’s maturation in a lot of ways, but Charlie’s strange hours are never addressed at all, where I would expect it to at least cause some level of parental tension. And that part felt like a stretch, especially in a book that is so grounded in realistic depictions of topics. 

Despite this problem however, and the second-hand embarrassment Charlie kept putting me through all week, I really liked the book. It was one that stuck with me for a few days, pulling at my thoughts. I always know I’ve found a possible favorite when the book refuses to be put down even after the last page.

Book Review | Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

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Title: Norse Mythology
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publication Date: 2017
Length: 299 pages
Genre: mythology, religion, fantasy, short stories, retellings
TW: (I’m not sure this is complete- my bad for not putting this together until finishing the book) sexism, violence, death, blood, cannibalism? (blood used to make mead), loss of limb, end of the world 

Okay, to be honest, until about ten years ago, mythology never held much interest for me. I mean, the stories were fine, but I could never get past the typically dry writing style and the lack of dialogue (or lack of interesting dialogue at least). Plus, while there was, seemingly, a glut of info about the Greek and Roman gods, finding the tales from other cultures wasn’t so easy.

Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, essentially a short story collection spanning the Norse story of creation to Ragnarok (the end of the world…ish), is for me, a remedy to all of those issues. 

The writing here lacks the dryness I’ve encountered with many mythology collections. The writing style isn’t quite as colorful as Gaiman’s usual work, but he still describes the world of the Norse gods well, while in a conversational style. Those unfamiliar with Norse mythology won’t have any issue with accessing the stories, as the pieces are all set up and easily connected. Here, the stories themselves take center stage, as if they were being told around a fire at night. 

Additionally, the characters come alive on the page, largely due to the dialogue. Once again, Gaiman utilizes a more everyday tone, rather than the overly high-spoken or didactic lines that I’ve seen used when the writer’s trying to make the characters seem impressive. In doing so, the gods seem a bit more relatable, though the events are still at times bizarre, in the best way. 

That’s not to say that the book doesn’t have some issues of its own to deal with. I found the writing style to be almost too simplistic, Gaiman tending towards sentence saw structure that seems more fitting for a middle grade book, rather than one geared towards adults. I would have liked a bit more complexity. I also wished he had stretched himself a bit further concerning characterization. I must admit that at least one character (later in the book, at least) is a little short on motivation. I would have liked, if they’re going to bring about the ruin of everything, to  have a reason for it at least, instead of essentially getting stuck with a ‘because they’re evil’ sticker. 

Overall, I found the book enjoyable and a good introduction to Norse mythology, but had expected more from the author, given their other works.

Book Review | The Adventure Zone- Murder on the Rockport Limited! by McElroy and Pietsch

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Title: The Adventure Zone- Muder on the Rockport LImited!
Author: Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Carey Pietsch
Illustrator: Carey Pietsch
Publication Date: 2019
Length: 240 pages
Genre: Fantasy, humor, Graphic novel, mystery, adventure
TW: violence, death, murder, decapitation, dismemberment, corpse, blood, serious injury, near death experience, weapons, does killing a monster count as animal death?, minor in peril (kinda), alcohol

Okay, so normally I don’t hop straight into the second book of a series (despite my best friend’s insistence this is a good practice) but since I’ve listened to the whole of the TAZ balance arc at this point, I figured it would be fine. 

For those of you not so familiar with The Adventure Zone, here’s a quick run-down. The Adventure Zone (from which this book is adapted) is a real play D & D podcast created by the McElroy brothers and their dad. The campaign this story is based upon follows the (mid)adventures of the dwarf cleric (kinda) Merle Highchurch, Human fighter Magnus Burnsides, and Elf Wizard Taako as they join a mysterious organization called the Bureau of Balance and are sent around to collect ultra-powerful magical artifacts. This particular arc takes place on a train, as they try to solve a mystery, collect the artifact they’ve been sent after, and keep the people in charge from finding out none of them are named Leeman Kessler. 

I was hopeful, going into this book. After all, the story had become a favorite of mine this summer. I binged the second half of the Balance arc within the span of a few weeks. However, I know things can go awry during the adaptation process. I’ve been burned before. 

Thankfully, the book didn’t let me down. It kept the humor of the original, while managing to add in some of the elements relevant to the overarching plot. Heck, it even kept in the occasional commentary from Griffin, the DM, which was unexpected, in that you don’t normally have the ‘voice of god’ popping into the narrative. There’s certainly a breaking of the fourth wall here, in a fun way. 

I’ll be honest that ‘The Murder on the Rockport Limited’ was never my favorite arc of The Adventure Zone while listening to the podcast. It certainly had its good moments, but it didn’t really catch my interest as well as some of the other parts of the story, like the Crystal Kingdom and Eleventh Hour, but I genuinely got sucked in this time around.  The story is tighter in graphic novel form, and it overall definitely improved the story, allowing all the gems to show through- it’s actually a pretty good mystery, and who wouldn’t love the boy detective Angus McDonald.

One of the things I have to complement the book on the most, I think, though, is the art. It’s perfectly complementary to the story, the drawings lively and animated (not literally of course) enough to match the characters and the comedy, without feeling overly goofy.

There were times, however, that the pacing felt a little off, the shifts between scenes or panels a little abrupt. Those times were few, thankfully, but when the hit I found myself flipping back through to see if I’d missed a page somehow. 

All in all, I’ll definitely be getting the first and third volume of the series, and waiting anxiously for the rest of the story to be published. 

Book Review |Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality by Rhett and Link

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Title: Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality- A Field Guide to Curiosity, Creativity & Tomfoolery
Author(s): Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal
Publication Date: 2017
Length: 269 pages
Genre: nonfiction, humor, memoir, 
TW: (to be honest I didn’t keep track on this one as well as I could have…) Um… mentions of hospitals, alcohol, death (of a character, and pets) and discussions of death and funerals. 

This is one of those books that are kind of hard to categorize… kind of like the writers. If you are in any way familiar with Good Mythical Morning, and its creators, Rhett and Link, then you’ll have some inkling of what I mean. If you aren’t then I suggest taking a short trip over to youtube and clicking on a video. Preferably one that involves these two, but you do you. Part Memoir, part coffee-table-book-esque journey with oddball/almost-surreal humor, the book takes the reader through the different ways find the mythicality in anyone- such as unique ways to say ‘I love you’, embracing immaturity, and speaking at your own funeral.

One of the appeals to Rhett & Link is the balance that they manage to strike in what they do. Having been friends since first grade they work well together as a streamlined comedy team, yet they also have their own unique voices- their differences being clear within just a few minutes of watching them. Sometimes, however, people’s voices don’t translate well to a page, losing the vibrancy and individuality that makes them… well, them. Thankfully, that was not a problem here and the Rhett & Linkness still flowed through the book. They even managed to hold onto that balance spoken of before- some sections being completely cowritten, while others are put together solely by one or the other, allowing their individual voices and stories to shine through.

And, of course, while the comedy is a major pull- it wouldn’t be a Rhett & Link book without it- the best part, in my opinion, were those stories. I’m already familiar with a lot of it, since some of the same material was part of a kind of docu-series they made prior to the release of their novel last year, but there are stories I hadn’t heard before, and besides, stories are always a little different any time you tell them. There’s a scrapbook quality to the book, with older candid photos and notes, illustrating stories not only from their time growing up in Buies Creek NC but also behind the scenes bits from more current years- such as the story of Craig the office Python. 

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t come back to the coffee-table-book comment from earlier. This book, beyond even the candid photos and pictures from GMM, is full of visual components- whether that be an illustrated guide to creating a show-stopping dance circle or guide to five ‘best worst inventions’ or the ads for ‘TestiKill!- Hours of Pain-Free Fun!’ and ‘Matlock Reloaded’. It’s a strange mixture of stuff, for sure. 

If you aren’t at all familiar with Rhett & Link, you may not get as much out of this book, of course, but I think even those who’ve never been exposed to them would get some amount of pleasure out of the book. The humor within the pages doesn’t require familiarity, nor do the stories, really- though it would definitely help.

Book Review | The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

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Title: A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
Author: Mackenzi Lee
Publication Date: 2017
Length: 513 pages
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, LGBT, Mystery, Romance
TW: Violence, blood, serious injury, murder, body horror, corpse, skulls, bones, abduction, hostage situation, incarceration, threatened institutionalization, child abuse, medical procedure, needles, drugging someone against their will, seizures, lifechanging injury, alcohol consumption, smoking, mild sexual content, suicidal ideation, c-ptsd, sexism, racism, references to/mentions of slavery, slurs, homophobia, ableism

When I picked up this book, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I mainly just noticed the quirky cover and thought, ‘I need to read some more reasonably current YA lit’ and, after a cursory glancing at the story blurb, picked it up from the used bookstore. It was another of those books that I nearly put back down- after all, I’ve got to big of a TBR stack (or box(es) rather) already and I’ll be honest in that YA just has never been my thing. No offence to the hordes of people who love it; it just wasn’t ever my thing. It only took about ten pages for me to start adjusting my thinking.

To quickly sum up the premise of the story, Monty (our upper-class English protagonist) has once again gotten into trouble and his behavior on his Grand Tour of Europe will be the deciding factor in his future. And so, what was originally meant to be a time of vice and frivolity with his best friend (and crush) Percy, turns into a dry chaperoned affair with his little sister in tow. It doesn’t stay dull for long, however, when Monty once again lands himself (and his companions) in trouble; trouble that will chase them across Europe from one danger to another.

Monty, if you can’t tell already, is thoroughly exhausting. He’s incredibly immature, constantly gets himself into hot water, and is a selfish, privileged ass. And I love him so much. He is so incredibly flawed, and somehow that’s endearing because he’s just as aware of it as the audience is and he’s trying to fix himself, no matter how slow the progress at times seems to be. It felt realistic though, in his constant slipping back into old ways of thought or action, because that’s the way progress is.

The author does a wonderful job, overall, of filling the story with rich complex characters- a diverse group of characters to boot. We’re presented with a bi protagonist, a poc main character (Percy), nuanced intelligent women (including our third main character Felicity), as well as representation for chronic illness (epilepsy) and possibly the ace community. All of the possibly connected issues are, thankfully, handled with care.

That’s not to say she never veered into stereotypes- using Monty as an example, he’s a flirt and almost perpetually a damsel-in-distress- though the first is at least partially a defense mechanism and there’s a textual reason behind Monty’s cowardice/inability to physically stand up to people. Thankfully, this issue doesn’t come up often, and is somewhat minimized by having a cast of characters that so often fly in the face of people’s expectations. The teenage rebellion is strong with this group, in a delightful way.

The best part about the story, beyond the characters, is the fact that it was just plain fun.  As previously stated, I often veer away from YA, partially because by the time I started reading it when I was younger, I ran into a lot of standard boy meets girl romance blahness, with not a lot of mystery or adventure to be seen. This story has it in spades- highwaymen, pirates, a mystery that must be solved… the adventure elements and the romance elements dance around each other wonderfully. Never too much of one or the other.

Not that the story wasn’t without flaws. The acknowledgement that, in this world, alchemy is a real thing, was very sudden, with little lead-up. I’d assumed I had assumed that it would be in the same sense of historical accuracy as the other various medical mentions (a la bleeding, or having a hole drilled in your head- and yes that was an actual medical procedure- thought thankfully not used in the book). So when the more fantastic elements of the story were introduced I was left feeling a little frustrated. Thankfully, my ability to suspend disbelief is fairly agile- if yours isn’t quite so, this part of the story may bug you a little.

Overall, however, I am so glad to have found this book. I’ve heard it’s the first in a series and I think I’ll be doing a little adventuring of my own soon, trying to hunt down a digital copy of the next book via my local library.