I finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones and I have... so many things to say. What a book. Incredible. So well written and haunting and creating something totally new in horror books I did not expect. Where do I even begin with this one?

The book is told in epistolary style, a series of journal entries within journal entries. We follow a woman in 2013 researching an old journal she found from a dead great-great-x grandfather of hers. It's about his life as a Lutheran pastor in Montana in the early 1900s and his encounter with a mysterious indigenous stranger named Good Stab.

From there, a cat-and-mouse tale begins.

Between Good Stab and Arthur, Good Stab and the Cat Man, and so many other characters. The web is intricately woven and expertly tied off. Jones is an incredible, thoughtful, emotional writer who makes us contend with a very real history we sweep away in America. What colonizers did for decades to the indigenous tribes in our country is nothing short of massacre, genocide, and annihilation. Not only of the indigenous people, but of everything that made them what they were. Their histories, ways of life, identities... colonizers of the American West in particular shredded and ruined so much indigenous life that the one overarching feeling I carried was shame.

I know that sounds preachy, but Jones deftly shows his reader and fearlessly makes you witness the reality of it all without feeling like it's preaching at you. He understands the complexity of modern racial and ethnic identity, the layers and layers on how we all ended up here in America, and he still unflinchingly says, "Yes, I know this, and still this is the story of my people."

I can't know what it's like to be an indigenous American. I know what it's like to be a descendant of Irish immigrants who came over in the early 1900s and a father who emigrated from the UK in the 1970s, but that's all. Jones gave me the opportunity to walk alongside an indigenous character and see what it was like for them to lose their land, their homes, who they were, their histories... it was heartbreaking and devastating.

And he used a fully reimagined concept of vampires to do it.

Yes. Vampires.

This is a vampire story that makes vampires terrifying again. Drinking blood from animals changes you differently than from humans. The identity he crafts gets weaker and weaker as he mixed blood from his people with colonizers and animals and you see how the blood changes him over time. It was an incredible metaphor for the diluting and loss of indigenous tribes in such a beautifully haunting, visceral way. We listen to Good Stab tell his story and Arthur slowly realize the role he played in it.

Then we see Etsy, his current-day granddaughter, unravel the threads of what he did and why Good Stab decided to tell Arthur his tale. She pulls apart the horror of knowing her kin could be part of this erasure and how she seeks forgiveness and restitution in a way that actually means something. Then we, the reader, are left understanding that what colonizers did to the American peoples can never give the restitution they deserve or require for what was done to them.

Jones shows his readers how the massacre of buffalo was the death sentence of the tribes. The careless, thoughtless ways men destroyed the once-prolific source of life into extinction and how it demolished a nation we claim to love as our own. Too many people don't know about how and why the buffalo were nearly extinct in the 1800s and Jones aims to correct that in this haunting, terrible story.

He made me consider myself, my role in the world, and stare into a national history that I might feel removed from, but is still a part of me whether I like it or not just as the suffering of indigenous people is a part of them whether they like it or not.

Beautiful. Incredible. And my favorite quote should tell you what kind of book you're getting into.

"I was America's worst nightmare. I was an Indian who could not die."

So. Everyone says this is where it starts. Heir of Fire. That's where it gets good, right?

I hate to admit it, but I am going to agree. They're right. The TOG girls are correct. This book grew up the story so much and gave Celaena all the workings of a redemption arc I needed to see to stick with her. This felt like a much more grown up fantasy story where Maas was finally able to break into the pulse of her story.

SJM hit her stride here. There's still some prose and writing choices I personally find clunky or awkward, but that's personal preference and not on her at all. I really enjoyed the new characters so much and the way she split out from Celaena so we could see the broader world and feel more connected to the other characters was handled well.

Her threats feel threatening, her characters are finally coming into their own, and you can just tell she figured out where the heart is in this whole thing. Part of my problem looking back is that to write and communicate strongly you need experiences in the world that teach you more about that. SJM being so young shows because she just doesn't have any experience in the wider world and literally hasn't lived through enough general life to be able to write strongly to any one thing. That's okay! By the time she wrote Heir of Fire, though, she had been at it for a while and was escaping a (self-admitted!) sheltered upbringing that likely impacted a lot of her early writing.

Back to the story. This was way stronger and much more compelling to read. Celaena regularly failed and learned she wasn't really as good as she thought, nor had any of her arrogance been earned. Rowan was a good foil to her because he possesses the competence she thought she had and proved to her she actually doesn't have shit. I prefer to see characters fail and grow, Celaena definitely did in this one. We stop hearing her talk about being the best or how great she is or how fearsome she is and she just tries to find herself outside of a title or a role when she recognizes neither of them mean anything in her new circumstances.

I loved how Dorian actually developed a personality in this one. He no longer reads like whiny wet lettuce and is coming into himself as an empathetic and righteous person. He's learning his morality and what matters to him, which in turn makes him actually expressive and interesting!

This remains a Chaol apologist house, I make no apologies. I will write a bigger thing on him when I'm done so I'll keep this brief. Chaol is also young, people forget that. He's 22. Celaena gets a lot of grace for being young, but he doesn't get the same. 22 is very young. He doesn't know how to process big hurts and changes in a mature way because he is still a young man learning about a world in flux. He reacted poorly to Celaena killing people despite knowing she killed people because he does what every human reader does - he considered her job in the abstract, not the literal. Your partner tells you what they do for work and you form a belief about them in the work context that supports what you know of them in a personal context. Then you see them do their job and you actually understand what it is they do, it changes how you see them or consider their job now that you KNOW-know. Chaol's whole life has been built on what he believed to be immutable truths - magic is bad, Adarlan is good, I have to protect everyone because it's my job. Now, he has to dismantle all of those as someone who can only watch things change and has no role participating in that change. Chaol is the one character who gets the most hate because he's the one character that refuses to let readers escape from human behavior. Chaol is how most regular people and readers would behave and facing that reality jars our suspension of disbelief and so we resent him for making us see ourselves as we are and not who we want to be.

Okay.

Thesis done.

MANON. I loved her so much. She's the RBF queen of this series. I find her compelling and empathetic and human and painfully real for such a brutal upbringing. I cannot wait to see where her arc takes her and how/if she comes back.

Aedion is such a fun addition to the cast. I like him a lot, very fond of him. He's a character I'd crush on so hard if he were age-appropriate. Alas, I am an elder and thus I leave his character for the youths. I like his single-minded sense of loyalty and how his greater cache of memories illustrates more about the old Terrasen kingdom.

I liked seeing Celaena develop her magic and try to learn her roots instead of ignoring or fighting them. Her embracing her identity as Aelin felt natural and organic. I especially liked watching her struggle with the fallout and subsequent depression and anger that something like all of what she's been through would give her. SJM did a pretty good job of showing us the emotional impact instead of letting her just be fine and okay and move on and be so strong it doesn't affect her. I find characters that go unaffected by the human elements of their behavior very bland. She allowed Celaena to fail and grow and learn and I didn't hate it.

I do want to say that I dislike Celaena so much because I was her growing up. Undeservedly arrogant and blind to my own incompetence. It took a thrashing from life to get me out of it and humble myself. I love watching Celaena get drop-kicked by the world because I think its necessary to making her into a good, better person. NOT because I enjoy watching a character suffer.

I'm much more inclined to the series now and am actually looking forward to Queen of Shadows. I like the trajectory and it feels like the story finally has heart. Into the heart of Adarlan we go!

As a palate cleanser between Throne of Glass books, I sat and read a novella called The Soft Touch by Daniel Polansky. I was so fortunate to be gifted an advanced copy by Grimdark Magazine, an outfit of The Broken Binding, because I think this is going to be my favorite novella of the year.

How have I never heard of Polansky before this?! After I finished it, I went and snatched up his entire catalogue. His writing is so sharp and fun and charming! This world of Low Town he's created? Fascinating. It's an urban grimdark London-inspired capital city full of a social rot that manifests in inventive ways.

Polansky gives us Wren.

Wren, my darling. My love. Wren is my new book husband. I have such an adoration for this character.

In this world of thugs and gangs and violence and constant erosion of society, Wren refuses to succumb to the plague of pessimism. He rarely kills and laments death as a loss no matter the victim, he remains stalwart in his belief people are inherently good, and he thinks it's possible to save the world without making it worse. Wren is the defiant optimist I love who chooses to be charming, funny, delightful, and keeps his head up when everyone else tries to drag it down.

I called this novella "grimlight hopecore" and that's what it is. In a world of grimdark, gut punch, sad, desolate landscapes of fantasy, Polansky dares to believe that hope is still the most powerful weapon in the human arsenal. I loved watching this story unfold and enjoyed Polansky's deft prose and quick wit so much I bought his whole catalogue. Truly, I am about to become Polansky's one woman marketing team.

I can't wait for this to come out and everyone to see what an incredible writer this man is. I will be making damn sure they hear it from me.

I'm not going to spend too much time on this post because I think we all know it's mostly going to be a rehash of my thoughts from Books 1 and 2.

For context: the novellas were the first things Maas wrote about these characters and it definitely shows. They are rough to get through. Especially the first two. I tried so hard to suspend my disbelief, but God was testing me and I hope I passed. The writing in AB was a bit juvenile at first, but cleaned up better in the last 3 novellas. I will also remind people, it reads juvenile because it was because she was a teenager and God forbid a teen write like a teen. It's fine. I'm just pointing it out so older readers go in knowing what to expect.

We all know I find Celaena... trying on my patience, so say the least. These novellas didn't help her cause, but they did make me more empathetic to her. The same theme of undeserved arrogance that makes her seem incompetent remains, blah blah blah.

BUT! But.

I think the last novella set up the potential for that whole Adarlan's Assassin exhausting repetition to actually have a very interesting twist to it. I won't say much because I could be wrong, but I really hope I'm not because I think that would be a very creative way to take it. I'm leaving the door open for Maas to make me fist pump about it is what I'll say.

Back to the novellas as a whole. The first two were so tough I almost soft DNF'd the entire book and planned to revisit it later if I ever developed a taste for Celaena as a character. I just disliked her so much that I didn't want to know more about her, so an entire book about her back story was never destined to hit immediately for me. Thanks to the SJM girlies on Threads who watched me crash out in real time while I read the book and really held my hair back while I word vomited into the void. You folks were true gangsters. You listened to me bitching and moaning and hating, but you met me with encouragement and alternative perspectives and without judgment. I think I really needed that. We made this book a group project and I owe you folks the rest of the series for your efforts.

I did actually like Novella 3. I thought that story was actually great. It showed Celaena being out of her depth, not as good as she talks, and how she's actually super deficient in a lot of essential skills. The fourth was one I had to dig deep to suspect my disbelief for, but you need to read it to get number five to work. Five was definitely the one that made me empathetic for Celaena. I thought that helped soften my hard heart against her quite a bit.

I can't say for certain if it was worth it or if reading it third was the right choice yet, though. I will revisit this post and this book once I'm done with the series. Until then, on to Heir of Fire.

Not "air fryer" like the unfortunate caption on my video.

Okay. Full disclosure: as I write this, I am halfway through Heir of Fire (Book 3) and I've finished the novellas. I'm going to do my best to critique ONLY book 2.

This was definitely a tonal shift from Throne of Glass for me. I get the feeling Maas is trying to soft retcon some things in the story and doing her best to do so without losing what's already been published. I felt like with a few minor tweaks, this could have been book 1, actually.

Her writing definitely matured a bit in this one. Crown of Midnight feels like she is actually finding her own voice and not worrying so much about writing like she thinks she should instead of how she actually does. There's more depth to her characters and bit more polish to the prose that really makes that unnameable glimmer in her first book start to come to life.

That said, I do find Celaena just as unfathomably annoying as I did in book 1. I know now it's a part of the story and I feel like not enough people mentioned that to me at first so consider me mentioning this to you, dear reader. You aren't supposed to like Celaena at first. She is insufferable and undeservedly arrogant, but I think when Maas wrote her at 16 she just wrote her like she wasn't because in her teenaged mind that was true.

I'm sorry, I struggled with the constant reminders of her age and how she's great at being an assassin while continuing to kill approximately zero people. She remains led by volatility and her emotions in a way that's not conductive to the role at all. When you choose to use the word assassin, it brings with it certain expectations. Celaena... does not meet those. Ever. She remains unstealthy, easily snuck up on, and the same host of other things.

Mort the talking doorknob was unexpected and... kind of out of place to me. I dislike the use of Elena's spirit for convenient progression in a plot that otherwise felt plodding to me. It definitely meandered a LOT in the first two thirds, but I think that was Maas trying to sweep up some things she wanted to soft retcon and tee up the last third. THAT was where it took off for me.

The plot twist was not exactly a twist to me, I called in back in book 1, but also I'm over the age of 30 and this is a YA book. If it got past me, I'd be worried it wasn't written truly for young adults and I'd be irritated on behalf of YA folks who deserve literature written about them by them for them. Period full stop.

Something I want to be clear about again is this: I am having a delightful time. Because my expectations were CLEAR, I get to just lean in and be an observer and be a little silly and goofy with it! I'm not reading this expecting lifechanging prose and deep, tangible character work. I'm reading this because these books are fun and have a massive claw in so many people. I get to lean back and have fun in criticizing and rolling my eyes and enjoying the experience! I read these first three like I watch bad movies - with biting commentary, copious frustrated groans, and great affection. It's a combo you either understand or don't. It's the same reason people see The Room all the time in local theaters and throw spoons at the screen!

Chaol continues to be a house favorite for me. I think his plot is the most mature and adult so I find it most compelling. He has a deep sense of honor and integrity to his king and prince, but he is also a loyal partner and gets torn between the two. I dislike the miscommunication causing all of that to shatter, but again I think SJM was doing a light reset on things which explains why the Celaena/Dorian plot fizzled in under five pages and the Celaena/Chaol thing resolved in the same book. Her trajectory for the character clearly changed. As it should, since she originally conceived it at 16!

"She was Adarlan's Assassin, dramatic entrances were her specialty" was a line that did almost give me a stroke though. Girl, that's the opposite of an assassin? Also we're just dropping in and merc-ing people left and right because we're emotional about our boyfriend being kidnapped? This is... arguably the worst plan you've ever had. Still drives me up a wall, but in a fun way I love to grief about if that makes sense.

One thing I feel is important to address, though, is Nehemia. There's so much criticism of how SJM killed off the only character of color to further the journey of the white protagonist. I think that criticism is fully valid, the cast isn't exactly diverse (how many shades of blond hair and blue eyes are there left to describe) and I always find a lack of diversity hurts a story rather than helps. I do also feel like context matters a lot. I don't think SJM consciously or maliciously offed a character of color thinking of the ramifications beyond "I am changing the way this story will be experienced and this character no longer fits into that story". I will say in Heir of Fire she really does try to leverage that loss for Celaena in a meaningful way so it truly feels impactful and important. She was clearly trying to honor this character despite having changed the direction for her.

I can only speak from my perspective as a white woman, but I absolutely would be devastated if I were a woman of color and my only representation in this extremely popular story got iced out. That would hurt me and my sense of belonging in these books. It might not have been malicious or intentional, but it would still hurt. Maas was young and just shaping herself as a writer, she probably didn't even think about that kind of impact and likely didn't have or consider that her success would ever be so big it could have that kind of impact. It's a very privileged perspective to have for a white woman, I do agree. I hope folks can try and meet her with a grain of grace and in the best spirit it can be, but I don't have any place to tell readers of color how to feel about this choice.

Since this book, the conversation around characters of color has evolved tremendously - for the significantly better, in my opinion - and when Crown of Midnight and Throne of Glass came out, the landscape around fantasy and racism looked very different. Readers of color deserve to be represented in magical fairy realms. They deserve to be benevolent queens, magical lost princesses, Fae sorcerers, and everything in between. I wish SJM had handled that character differently or considered diversity more in her later books to at least make up for that change and acknowledge her readers of color. All that I can do is point out the context and validate that I understand why people feel the way they do about that decision.

At the end of this book, I definitely get the feeling SJM is pushing us into a new direction for her story while trying to honor her original plans and frankly... I'm here for it. The ending 1/3 was a lot stronger and opened the window to a wider world and bigger story. It did leave me excited to see what comes next!

But first, we slog through Assassin's Blade.

Okay. Let's get a few things straight.

1. I knew going in that this would be her weakest book. It's her debut, of course it is. That's fine! I expect a debut to have blind spots, that's standard for all authors. It doesn't mean I won't point out things I disliked or found lacking. I'm positive she already received this feedback in spades. It's nothing anyone hasn't already heard.

2. I AM having fun with the books, they ARE fun reads at the very least and sometimes a fun read is exactly what you want. Not everything has to be a Pulitzer prize winning masterpiece to have value. I'm not going to compare TOG to something like The Name of the Rose, that's insane, they have different goals.

3. Criticism is not the same as hating. Critiquing a book is NOT hating on that book! It's pointing out weaknesses and offering suggestions for improvement. Hating is just being mean for no reason.

4. I know the context of her story - she was 16 when she wrote it, but 26 when it was finally published. It's okay and fair to hold her to the standard of a 26 year old and not a 16 year old when critiquing this book. She had 10 years to tidy up some things, I get to be critical of that.

5. I am going in FULLY blank slate. I don't know ANYTHING about the story or the throughline plot or the characters. I know literally nothing about TOG. I don't have the knowledge of the later books, I only have what I am reading right now to go off of and form opinions on. I am allowed to form my opinions based on what I do know and not what I do not.

OKAY! Now that that's out of the way, I want to reiterate that I am having fun! I think because I had so many people tell me the story was weak and kind of poorly written, I could just lean in and ignore all the spots that weren't great to just enjoy myself with the story. I actually feel like that's an advantage to me.

I've picked up this series to better understand what it is people find so alluring about TOG and why it's got such a devout following. I am actually really glad I've decided to go on this quest and figure it out because I think I have an idea why the writing is so connecting for people. I'm going to say something and either you'll get it or you won't, but if you do you'll clock it as a compliment:

In the early '00s to the mid '10s, there was a very specific style to fanfiction writing. I'd call it the Golden Age of Fanfiction. We absolutely devoured that style and those fanfics because they were so addictive and fun, not because we thought they were the next Shakespeare. Something about the style just resonated! SJM writes this book in that style. She captures the fanfiction style and turns it into original fiction, which is rarely done effectively, but she pulled it off. The writing feels like something a friend of mine wrote, which makes me feel more connected to the material and not just to the author. This is a compliment! I mean it in a positive light!

However, it also does mean that from a fiction writing perspective, the writing is pretty weak. Maas writes like she thinks a writer should write, not how SHE writes, if that makes sense. Which, duh, this is her debut novel and she was 16, she hasn't found her voice yet. Her dialogue is clunky, there's a lot of strange adjective choices that don't align with the tone of a sentence, but I want to focus on my biggest critique. There's so much telling that's in direct conflict with what she's showing that it's frustrating to read a character like Celaena.

Hear me out.

So far, not loving her. Let's get to why, though.

SJM constantly tells me Celaena is Adarlan's Assassin, the greatest assassin in the world, she is the best assassin in the empire, etc. but then she shows me that Celaena is:

• Regularly snuck up on (Playing the piano, anonymous sweets by her bed)

• Doesn't assess a room (REALLY assess a room--who's in it, where are they, what are they doing, etc.)

• Has poor impulse control (Loses her temper, ruled by anger, can't calm down, etc.)

• Isn't very stealthy (Phillippa straight says she's incredibly clumsy for an assassin, don't come for me)

• Fails to perceive pretty obvious interactions (Not noting Cain's ring, not connecting the murders, etc.)

• Doesn't adjust to the crowd she is with (Catty with other women at court, trading barbs with Kaltain, etc.)

• Has no grasp of human behavioral patterns (Chaol instructing her to stay in the middle of the pack, why wouldn't she both know that AND understand that before him?)

None of this is the behavior of the "world's greatest assassin". It also makes Celaena come across as undeservedly arrogant, incapable of self-reflection, and deeply incompetent at her job. I am overly critical of Celaena over Dorian or Chaol because Celaena is the FMC and both Dorian and Chaol are never positioned as "the greatest X" or "the world's best Y". If you're going to position a character as the greatest at something, they'd better back it up with their actions. She, unfortunately, does not and it makes her character unlikeable in a way I don't find fun or enjoy.

To give you an example, I love Fang Runin from The Poppy War so much. She is severely unlikeable and makes my blood boil, but I love her because she doesn't ever claim to be the best or strongest. She's just extremely angry and traumatized.

"Sarah, she's only 18." Yes, and it shows in her behavior. Again, my criticism stems from being told repeatedly how amazing she is while simultaneously seeing none of her actions match the claim. I'd be much warmer to Celaena if we never positioned her as "the world's greatest assassin". Even if we'd just called her Arobynn's heir apparent or something, I'd have taken a lot more of her in stride.

I also struggle with the perfect character trope thing. I know it's a story written when Maas was young and I'm in my 30s so I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but the trope is just exhausting to me. Unfortunately, Maas has two characters that suffer from perfect character syndrome - Celaena and Dorian. Both of them tell me all the time how beautiful they are and how gifted and perfect and flawless they are. There's nothing to grow from. There are no acknowledged flaws for them to contend with. So like... why do I care about them? They don't need me to root for them or care about them because they're perfect, so there's no risk to them not winning or getting what they want. It makes me bored as a reader to not feel like there's any stakes.

Chaol is literally just some guy. Like. I don't have a lot to say about him. He's pretty inoffensive because he's kinda a snore. He's my favorite so far in the series because he's not dramatic or showy or theatrical and doesn't internalize how hot and perfect he is all the time. Chaol wins the medal because he's just the least frustrating. That's not exactly a glowing review of the man.

"So why are you reading if you hate it so much?!"

The thing is I don't hate it! I have VALID CRITICISM of the characters based on their behavior and what information I possess right now in the first book because that is all I know about them for now. Yes they may change and grow on me, I expect them to! If they don't, that's worrisome! But for now as it stands with my only exposure to them being this? That's how I feel.

Maas does have that sparkle to her writing that feels really unformed in this book. It's her first one in a seven book series that's her debut novel, so the fact of the matter is she IS unformed at this point in her new career! I can say that about the writing because it's true! But I want it to be very clear that I can absolutely see this electricity in her writing that hooks you and keeps you wanting to read more. I crushed the first book in less than two days. If I was hating it, I wouldn't have breezed through it like that.

The first book feels like reading my way through a CW show, for example. Which, again, is NOT meant as an insult. Capturing that addictive style and making me frustrated, but still want to keep reading and chew though the book is not easy to do. There's some magic to the writing that is hard to explain, but keeps me wanting more of it. I think that's actually really special to the book and makes me excited about the rest of the series because there is no option but to improve from here. If she already has the sparkle and just needs shaping, writing more will only make her shine.

The story itself feels a little messy and more like a device for romantic scenes or specific character scenes than a cohesive story at times. I think, however, that's because it was. That's alright, but it does show. For example, Chaol after the fourth violent murder tells Celaena "I hope this doesn't become a pattern." I sighed and had to take a second. The billiards scene with Dorian was a tough read, it felt very forced. There's not a lot of building chemistry between characters so every romantic interaction was a bit difficult for me to swallow and I found myself rushing to the end of them all because none of them together ever clicked for me. Celaena had more chemistry with Nehemia than Chaol or Dorian, I'm sorry.

My thoughts an opinions are solely based on this one book by itself, not the greater sum of SJM's career or other series or the later books in this one. I can only speak to this one story as I have experienced it right now. I am positive she improved from here and there's a reason for her success! I'm only analyzing this one singular book on its own, not the greater sum of its parts.

This is a price of admission book. That's the best way to explain it. To access the greater series that everyone loves, you pay the pound of flesh that is the first book in the series. Most people - including TOG megafans - have described the first two books for me as the price to pay so I can get to the part where it really becomes special. I am more than willing to pay that price. We pay it for male authors all the time and nobody says boo, we can pay it for female authors, too. There's a disproportionate expectation of perfection for women authors that we don't hold men to and I refuse to do that with SJM for this series. She gets to have a cost of admission just as much as every other beloved series has.

I do want to remark about my revisiting the weakness of this book before I stop yapping, though. Let me be super clear:

It's a seven book series. EVERY longer series has weak books that just fall flat. All of them. It's just a law of averages - seven books is a lot, they can't all be masterworks. If SJM has that set of weak books early on in her first two novels ever published? I think she's actually winning, here. It's not hating or mean or divisive to call a book or two in a long series like TOG weak or not well written, every long series suffers from that eventually no matter who the author is or what genre it's in. Containing a book or two that's weak just means SJM writes like any other author with long running series.

In conclusion, I don't feel particularly passionate or attached to the characters and I feel like the writing and plot fall apart sometimes. It always comes back together, however, and the writing style is effervescent in a way I think is really fun. I picked this up to understand the series and why people love it so much, not because I thought it was the next The Name of the Rose. Sometimes a book is just fun and this book, separate from the series as a greater whole, is just fun.

I like it, I see the appeal (especially if I were younger and close in age to YA readers), but I still have critique that I feel holds water and is reasonable. I'm in this knowing it's the price I pay to get to the books she wrote when she figured out her style. I actually enjoy knowing I get to watch SJM evolve from here and witness her trajectory change into a much stronger writer. TOG shows she clearly has whatever magic it is that makes for a widely appealing story and I am very excited to see how it ends up taking shape.

Dang, May was a decent month for reading. I ended up at 16 total books and I want to write a little bit about them! 16 is a lot so I won't go into too much detail. In the future, I'll be sharing longer-form reviews that give a lot more of my takeaways so be on the lookout for those!

Toothsucker by Kaden Love

I was fortunate to listen to the audiobook of this and I enjoyed it a lot. The narrator had the perfect cadence for the book. It surprised me! It wasn't what I expected and significantly more cyberpunk than I realized. The world is fun, weird, gross, and weaves in a lot of political themes. Kaden is clearly just having a blast writing this and I feel like authors who have fun always make something incredible.

Headlights by C.J. Leede

I could write a dissertation on the beauty of this book. Truly. I read the ARC, cried my eyes out, and preordered a signed copy. This book lives in me. It did something to my brain. Leede has a magnetic writing style I couldn't stop devouring. How she threaded in folk horror to her work was creative and considerate. Her characters and how they're connected, their pasts, and the way they find meaning in each other, however, was so beautiful. Also, I am having a hard time explaining why a woman eating a man's finger during sex is heart-achingly romantic.

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

I don't understand why people didn't adore this book. I mean, I do, but I don't. Kuang is incredibly good at making it less clear what it means to be a hero. This book showed the horror of genocide and the aftermath of Rin's destructive meltdown at the end of The Poppy War, plus the lingering ghost of Altan coloring her view of the world. Kuang is fantastic at showing Rin's imperfections and giving us depth and color to Nezah that made me fall in love with him - yes, even in the ending. Every character is their own ecosystem of motivation and an exploration of nature versus nurture. I LOVE her character work.

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

This was my favorite in the series, just fantastic. It's bleak, but its raw and visceral and real. Rin isn't a moral paragon and I think people disliked that, but I absolutely loved it. Rin begins to realize she has no foresight and no plan, she struggles in the way a young person with too much power and no guidance would struggle. She has nobody left to turn to and has to figure it out, which makes her struggle and suffer in personal ways. It turns the war from abstract to overt and she has to contend with the different facets of having power. The power of a god, an army, a country... and she does not handle it well. I thought the ending was deft, Kuang tells you how it has to end the entire time and people just weren't paying attention.

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

Holland mt love. My absolute perfect book husband. This book was an extraordinary sequel and gave us such a fun experience. Schwab is a master of character work, it's impossible not to fall in love with all of them. I really enjoyed how she showed Holland's history and why he is the way he is. I think he is one of the most complex, beautiful characters I've read in a long time. I could write a treatise in his defense. He didn't have what Kell had and if he did, he would have been extremely similar. Holland knew only suffering in his world and still he only ever sought to change it for the better.

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

A phenomenal final entry into the first era. Just amazing. Deep characters, meaningful arcs, all knots tied with enough left to come back. I love how fantastical and whimsical this world is while feeling threatening and deep. I stand by all my previously sung praises for Holland, they could never make me hate him. It could only ever end one way, even if it broke my heart. Still, no matter what, I will always be delusionally hopeful Era 2 might change something about it.

Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

This was a significant bar-raise from Malice and Valor. I know The Faithful and the Fallen is a crowd favorite, but I'm only finding it alright. Nothing about it sticks to me. I liked Shadow of the Gods, but I don't get the cinematic click everyone else seems to. It's fun, predictable, with distinct characters, but nothing about it really blew me away. I like Orka, but she isn't a favorite in my house. I'm not sure if Gwynne's writing style is just not for me?

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

I wanted to love this. I did. I loved Iron Widow so much, it was a neck-breaking fever dream that played out like a dramatic anime in my mind. Zhao just bogged this down in so much theory and interjected way too much modernism that it drowned the story for me. Eventually, hearing the fifth iterative explanation of communism versus socialism just turns to white noise in my head. Plus, the introduction of the Emperor and the disappearance of Yizhi and Shimin for most of the story made my interest in the three of them fade.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

Okay this was exactly the kind of weird medieval cannibal lesbian nun book I was hoping for. Starling makes you work for it. People described it as "slow", but I disagree completely. Starling makes every sentence matter, she forces you to focus and pay attention to what she is saying. Her commentary on weak leadership, the fallibility of man, isolation, duty, honor, disconnection, community... all of it was perfectly captured in this claustrophobic horror novel. Plus, I would let Ser Voyne do unspeakable things to me, but she would never. Too much honor.

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

This book is AMAZING. Sci-fantasy peak. I can't believe more people aren't reading and loving it. This trilogy is incredibly inventive and creative, the world is realistic and strange. Rollins built characters who are insightful and a villain that truly shocked me to my core. I didn't expect a surprise villain because who does that?! Rollins is known for his sci-fi thrillers, so I think people expect this to be the same, but I assure you it's anything but. I can't wait to continue this series!

The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten

How I wanted to love this, but I only felt okay about it. I loved The Foxglove King and enjoyed The Hemlock Queen, but this one felt a bit messy and crowded. The added perspective for Alie was great, I wish it had been included starting in Book 2. I didn't love the ending, but I loved that we got to see so much change and see how Lore's enduring love for her men carried her through the worst losses of her life. I wish we had more explanation about why Lore's arc ended the way it did, the Fount's motivations felt dubious to me. However, I still read it in two days and Whitten has a beautifully addictive style of writing no matter what.

The Daughters' War by Christopher Buehlman

Galva dom Braga is my book wife and I will follow her to the ends of the earth. Buehlman wrote something so special that this book is basically family now. The tone is completely different from The Blacktongue Thief, first in the series, but it should be and it works wonders for this story. His world is so gritty and intense, it's creative and sharp and still funny in a different way. Galva's story is a harrowing, tragic explanation about who she is and how she came to be the Ispanthian warrior we know and love. I adored this book. This book was magical. It feels like listening to a story at a campfire and I urge people to try this series.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

What a unique read this was! I love foxes and all the mythology around them, but Choo did something fantastical with it. This story was not just about Snow overcoming her grief and her thirst for revenge, it was about the subtle differences in fox mythology around East Asia and how the British occupation was slowly erasing the cultural identity of so many countries. Bao's tale wasn't just solving the crime of a peculiar death, it was teaching readers about cultural practices and regional differences and how women were oppressed in more ways than just foot binding in China.

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

This book was a miraculous work of weird fiction. I am so emotional about it it's bizarre. What masterful storytelling and unbelievable prose! Ennes is a stunning writer that manages to make stab wounds into poetry. This world wove art and politics together until they were not separate from one another. They showed you how tyrants are born in a slow drip, not a flood. So much more went into this. The ease around trans identity, control versus love, how sociopolitical rot destroys a society, our unresolved mistakes always come back to us, and so much more. I can't even speak about the characters because to do so is to reveal the story, which I would never want to do. I didn't expect a story about extermination to move me like this.

House of Chains by Steven Erikson

Erikson really flexed on his readers with this one. He proved he can hold a single character POV in his hands and simply chooses not to because that's not what the story demands. This book was a real open-faucet torrent of his background in archaeology and anthropology. He has so many poignant things to say about cultures formed on the bones of each other, changing worlds and ever-changing societies, etc. Plus he managed to pull off one of the greatest redemption arcs I've ever read. Lookin' at you, Karsa.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Convinced RJB isn't capable of writing anything short of fantastic. This mystery was wild and the world is so bizarre and fun, I never want to leave it. I love how Bennett's goal isn't to solve this world's ills or take out its Empire or change the leviathans, it's just to show you a glimpse of the bigger way the machine of it functions. We learn a bit more about Ana and who she is every book through these mysteries that feel like a fever dream. Dinios Kol remains my disaster bisexual son who misses the love of his life and just won't admit it to himself. The problem is that if he won't, Ana will.

This was an amazing month for reading! I got through a lot of books and only didn't squeeze ONE from my original TBR into the mix. I am so fortunate to have walked away loving so many of them this month, too. I actually changed The Works of Vermin from a 4.5 to a 5 because it sat with me that much. I had TWO 5-star reads this month:

• Headlights by C.J. Leede

• The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

June will be a deviation from my regularly scheduled reading programming as I'm doing my very first read through and analysis of Throne of Glass! I'm calling it June of Glass! Which is ridiculous!

I'm looking forward to analyzing what about this series speaks to people and trying to piece together how Sarah J. Maas was able to captivate a generation of woman readers from multiple ages and bring them into reading again. Be on the lookout for my analysis of the first book - Throne of Glass.

Allow me to introduce myself.

I'm brand new to Bindery and very excited to be here! One of my favorite things to do is recommend books to people and speak earnestly about what I'm reading. I love video reviews, but I also love written reviews and hope to provide a bit of both to this app.

On my Instagram and TikTok page, I have a lot of fun sharing slideshows and videos and all that good stuff, but I'd love to be able to write out more about my Why behind each recommendation I give to folks. I also end up trimming down my reviews like crazy before I get into the more meaty, analytical stuff I want to opine on. Since a lot of folks already get access to my social media short-form content, I want to make this something a little different.

This page will likely go through some evolutions while I figure out exactly what Different looks like in this case... so bear with me! I love the idea of being able to write out more about my thoughts and continue to yap about things I've read in more detail, but I know it can evolve into a lot more. Someday in the near future I want to host a Fable book club, write out a full treatise on why Malazan is a romantasy series (kidding... kind of), and post transcripts of interviews I plan to do with creators and authors. We'll see what the future holds for this page, I'm just excited to be here!