To the Bone by Alena Bruzas

I think the last book I read that disturbed me like this was TENDER IS THE FLESH. TO THE BONE is a very dark anticolonialist work of historical fiction set in Jamestown during the "Starving Time," where 75% of the population died due to a blend of factors, including lack of supplies, overcrowding, and corruption.

Our narrator, Ellis, is an indentured girl serving a wealthier family. Her employer is abusive and alternates grooming with physical abuse. Her mistress is bed-bound and also subject to her husband's rages. Ellis's only solace is a young girl named Jane, who also lives at the settlement, although her employer has forbidden her from seeing her.

This is not a romance and there are no real happy endings. This is a brutal deconstruction of how colonizers literally and metaphorically devour the lands that they seize, and the lesson is a brutal and unhappy one. I thought the writing was beautiful and the story important, but I don't think I'll be reading this again. It's too depressing and sad.

4 out of 5 stars

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

When I first heard the synopsis for EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE, it sounded a lot like Little Shop of Horrors (and I can see others have already made the obvious jokes), but apart from a cannibalistic plant that lives in a flowershop with its enabler, the two are vastly different stories.

EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE is set in Ireland and features an ill-fated throuple between Shell, Neve, and Baby. Baby looks like an orchid but he's actually so much more and he's obsessed with Neve. He loves her so much that he wants to be with her forever-- by consuming her whole. Shell, meanwhile, is a thirty-something slacker and what the layman would probably refer to as an "unlikable character." She is also in love with Neve-- or thinks she is-- and this soon-to-be-toxic obsession pushes her to make choices that will doom them both.

The writing and social commentary in this book are excellent and it was just the right amount of weird to be interesting rather than silly. It features a heavy amount of body horror and, of course, plants committing murders, but I would say that the violence tends to feel more camp than it does brutal (trust me, I'm a wuss). I've read some banger sapphic horror novels this year and I'm happy to report that I can count EAT THE ONES YOU LOVE among them.

Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy! 

4 out of 5 stars

Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett

I think ANNA OF BYZANTIUM might have been one of my first introductions to a ruthless, morally grey heroine. It's so sad that it's out of print because this was one of those books I read and reread over and over (which is why I still have my original childhood copy). The story is kind of modeled after one of those old-school epics that follows the main character from childhood into adolescence. Anna Comnena has been groomed for the monarchy since she was in the cradle, but her fortunes change with the advent of a new younger brother and potential rival, and her scheming grandmother's will for the throne.

Picture Game of Thrones for little kids, and that's basically what it is. Barrett does not spare the reader the horrors of ancient rule, or shirk from describing the brutality and machinations of emperors who act cruelly out of both desire and necessity. Nor does she gloss over the realities of slavery and how being so wholly in another's power is doomed to always lead to harm, no matter how "kind" someone thinks they are as a master. It has so many amazing lessons and talking points and it's a damn shame that it's out of print.

I've been meaning to revisit this one for a while now and I'm so glad I did. It helped while away an afternoon of being bedridden with the flu, and I enjoyed almost as much as I did the first time.

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

How To Survive This Fairytale by S.M. Hallow

HOW TO SURVIVE THIS FAIRYTALE is a brilliant work of fairytale horror with interlocking characters and also a fascinating look at generational trauma, identity, agency, and love. I grabbed it purely on impulse when I saw Hedone's Thread post about how some of their books would be leaving KU, even though I'd never really heard of any of the titles before, and as soon as I started this book, it was all I could think about. I currently have the flu and I was curled up on my bed, white-knuckling my laptop as I read the book on my app, desperate to see what would become of Hansel in his bizarre and compelling story.

The book takes a "choose your own adventure" approach, sometimes showing how different outcomes would pan out before moving on to the "correct" one. The last book I read that did this was Vivian Vande Velde's HEIR APPARENT, which was a video game that gently poked fun at stock fantasy tropes. I loved this approach there too and had always been looking for something similar, but I never found it until reading HOW TO SURVIVE A FAIRYTALE.

I'd recommend this to people who loved 10th Kingdom and Once Upon a Time, who read Angela Carter and Tanith Lee, who love queer love stories and shape-shifting as a metaphor for a trans "coming out." This book was all of that and so much more and I will absolutely be reading anything else this author writes because I loved this book more than words can really say.

5 out of 5 stars

Wicked as They Come by Delilah S. Dawson

DNF @ 25%

I just read BLOOM by this author and it was fantastic. When I found out that she was writing books during the aughts-early 2010s paranormal boom, I was THRILLED. And it's a morally grey vampire romance? Say less.

The beginning of this book was really great. I'm actually sad that so many people are hating on the heroine because I thought she was really sympathetic and relatable. A hospice nurse who just went through a bad and abusive divorce, whose nana is dying of cancer? Of course she'd be prickly and hesitant to commit. Like, duh.

Where the book lost me was the way the world building was set up. At first I was digging the portal fantasy/Alice in Wonderland vibes, but steampunk is not my favorite and I just found some of the writing passages too clunky to really get into the story the way I wanted to.

P.S. This book uses the g-word a lot if you don't want to see that. It's not used particularly offensively (imo) and the world it's used in is alternate Victorian, so it makes sense given the context, but I know some people are particularly sensitive about this word's usage.

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Manchineel by Jessica Carrasquillo

How weird is it that I've read two books this year where people got murdered with manchineel fruits this year? I had literally never heard of this plant before and now I feel like I'm seeing it EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, THE MANCHINEEL was exactly what I look for in a spicy romantic suspense book: I love books that have this inevitable, claustrophobic feeling of doom hanging suspended over the characters like the sword of Damocles. And Elyse, with her history of trauma and her newfound obsession in the talent agency lawyer who's supposed to help grow her social media presence, is like a match in the powderkeg that is this book. You know there's going to be an explosion and that it's going to be BIG.

I think this book reminded me a lot of WATCH THE GIRLS by Jennifer Wolfe and PRETTY THINGS by Janelle Brown-- not because the plots were similar but because all three books are about beautiful, dangerous women who are willing to do anything to get what they want. While reading, I kept asking myself if Elyse was a sociopath. There's a belief that sociopaths can't feel love but they do-- just in a different way, and usually because they feel an affinity for their love interest that reminds them of themselves. Ben, with his similar background of poverty, abuse, and being "othered" was a kindred spirit to Elyse, just more successful-- as if he were a reflection of what she could have been herself.

Whether or not you like Elyse, or think that she's a sociopath or just incredibly warped and made desperate by trauma, this is a fascinating read with a compellingly toxic romance. I don't normally like cheating romances at all but if I am going to read one, I like it like this-- where everyone is flawed and toxic and desperate and none of the ugliness is swept under the rug. When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about it, and the characters. I imagine I'll be thinking about them for a while. Jessica is such a talented author and I can't wait to read more of her work, if this is what I can expect from her.

5 out of 5 stars

The Bone King and the Starling by Elizabeth Stephens

One of my friends has been trying to get me to read Elizabeth Stephens for the longest time and after reading THE BONE KING AND THE STARLING, I clearly need to snap up her backlist because this book was soooo good. It reminded me a lot of a more violent and explicit version of Elizabeth Vaughan's WARPRIZE, with heavy dashes of a non-rapey Khal Drogo, set in an alternate Norse fantasy kingdom where mammoths roam across the ice.

The plot of this book is pretty simple. Starling is a Black thrall living in a viking community. Her mother was taken for her beauty but her father was a douche, and when she was orphaned, she basically became a slave-ward in this viking community lorded over by indolent and corrupt lords who starve their town into poverty by embezzling the lion's share for themselves. I guess they heard about Trump's trickle-down economic plan.

When Calai, the bone king, comes to the village, he is disgusted by the living conditions and the squalor. He also does not support slavery at all. I feel like if you're going to write slavery into a fantasy novel, this is the best way to do it, as it is not romanticized at all, and ends with a violent uprising against the oppressors. As soon as we get a taste of Calai's wrath, I was just sitting there kicking my feet, waiting for him to burn everything down to the ground for his lady AND BOY DID HE.

If you love hot warrior heroes, sweet heroines, and books where they're both virgins(!!!!), this book has all of that, as well as touch her and die, who did this to you?!, and "my wife."

4 out of 5 stars