Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
What you must never forget about this one is that you’re still in Wolf Hall. That’s trite, I know! But I can’t think of what else to say because as I reoriented my perspective on reading this, its power really hit me. I read Wolf Hall five years ago, at a different period in my life and thought it was just ok. Appreciated what it was doing but I didn’t have the focus to engage with it like I should have. Time and age tend to confer […]
Trick r' Treat: 15th Anniversary Collection by Michael Dougherty & Various
With the theater re-release renewing my love for the property, and the sequel film still way off in the horizon, I jumped at the opportunity for any more Trick r’ Treat content and put my hand in for this omnibus collection when I saw the Kickstarter announced. My collection always felt like it was missing a copy of the comics, and this compiles both comics, plus a brand new, exclusive story. How could I not pull the trigger on it? The existing stories still hold […]
Dead Country by Max Gladstone
Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence series is one of my favorite examples of fantasy world building. Gladstone took the core idea of ‘what if soul-stuff could be traded?’ and built a magical system—known as The Craft—out of it. He then expanded further and asked ‘So what if a world’s sole currency is well, the soul? What would this mean for the financial system? What kind of corporate world would develop around this? Imagine a metropolis or two arising out of this system? How would they operate?’ […]
Queen of Dreams by Kit Rocha
Queen of Dreams is so fun. It opens with Ash, Zanya, and other members of the High Court preventing soldiers from burning an old woman as a witch. Rot in The Sheltered Lands is being spread by the regents who took control after Zanya murdered the evil king. There are intrigues, preparations for war, gods fighting gods, lovers sparring using their full abilities, lovers loving to their full abilities, and endless buckets of hope. The world building in this series is amazing and I am so […]
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris
Cbr16bingo Pride (Emil Ferris is bisexual and several of her characters are LGBTQIA2S+) Book 2 of My Favorite Thing is Monsters (MFTIM) finally dropped this year, 7 years after Emil Ferris’ outstanding and much acclaimed debut graphic novel. As ever the art is stunning — colorful ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper with amazing detail and homages to horror comics on every page. MFTIM is 10-year-old Karen Reyes’ story of events from spring and summer of 1968 in Chicago. It’s the story of her family’s […]
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 1 by Emil Ferris
Cbr16bingo Dreams graphic novel features dream sequences, nightmarish horrors and main character’s dream is to become a monster (werewolf) I reviewed this graphic novel for CBR9 and loved it. The second volume has only just dropped this year and a re-read was needed as I’d forgotten most of the plot over 7 years. This is a story of monsters and horrors, but of course the scariest things are not supernatural but very real and human. Through gorgeous detailed art and skillful storytelling, Emil Ferris creates […]
