Crash Test Girl: An Unlikely Experiment in Using the Scientific Method to Answer Life's Toughest Questions by Kari Byron
If you get to know [people] a little better and work up a degree of human warmth toward them, you can judge them without the influence and control of unseen forces. — Kindle location 1081
The Fever King by Victoria Lee
The US has been ravaged by war and disease (and war over disease) and Noam Álvaro is sixteen and the child of Atlantean (Georgia, that is, not Atlantis) illegal immigrants to Carolina who is involved in the Atlantean Rights movement — until he, too, falls sick with the Fever. Unlike most of the population, however, Noam survives — and wakes up a technomancer, with the ability to talk to computer systems and all manner of technology. And then things get worse.
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
Brennan’s world of dragons and Scirlandish nobility and the Fish Out of Water trope is worth reading, but I don’t think I, personally will bother reading the second unless I get very bored. I think my biggest issue is (pseudo)Victorian fatigue.
Dragon Called (Deadweed Dragons, Book 1) by Ava Richardson
If the dragons from this book call you, reject the call and change your number. Actually, that’s not entirely fair. The dragons, from what I read, were fine. It was everything else that needed a lot of work. I gave up on page 139, read the last three or four pages (kind of like I did with Jane Eyre in high school, tbh) and tossed this on the “read” virtual shelf. It needs a good line editor for a start.
The Hazel Wood: A Novel by Melissa Albert
When Alice was born, her eyes were black from end to end, and the midwife didn’t stay long enough to wash her. (Kindle loc. 221) My mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways. (loc. 37) Holy cats, you guys. This book and my reaction to it are probably going to fall down around my ears like a pack of playing cards or a straw house, but for the moment I am in love.
Jade City (The Green Bone Saga Book 1) by Fonda Lee
Summer had barely begun and already the city of Janloon was like a spent lover–sticky and fragrant. (Kindle loc. 125) And with that line, Fonda Lee’s book grabbed me at the end of the first paragraph and didn’t let go.
