#Binti series

[totally-ikea]

Yeah I like science fiction, Star Wars is pretty cool.

ANDY WEIR 🥶🥶🥶🥶💯💯💯💯💯🗣️🗣️🗣️🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️NNEDI OKORAFOR🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊💯💯💯💯🥶🥶🥶🥶

[ellyann]

Binti the Series Guarantees Adventure this May

Let’s fall into adventure. Binti is an amazing series that I got into this May. Read it in one sitting, falling into Binti’s world. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to…

[joncronshawauthor]

The Charm of the Rogue: Unpredictable Characters in Fantasy

Fantasy is filled with brave heroes, wicked villains, and wise old mentors. But some of the most memorable characters are the rogues—those lovable scoundrels and rapscallions who charm their way into readers’ hearts. Who doesn’t love a witty, wildcard rule-breaker? Let’s take a look at what makes fantasy rogues so dashingly appealing. What is a Rogue? While definitions vary, a fantasy rogue…

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

On the Third Fish, I had accidently found myself in the middle of something. This time I was that middle.

Binti: The Night Masquerade (by Nnedi Okorafor)

[specialagentartemis]

Black Women writing SFF

The post about Octavia Butler also made me think about the injustice we do both Butler, SFF readers, and Black women SFF writers by holding her up as the one Black Woman Writing Sci-Fi. She occupies an important place in the genre, for her creativity, the beauty and impact of her writing, and her prolific work... but she's still just one writer, and no one writer works for everybody.

So whether you liked Octavia Butler's books or didn't, here are some of the (many!!! this list is just the authors I've read and liked, or been recommended and been wanting to read) other Black women writing speculative fiction aimed at adults, who might be writing something within your interest:

N. K. Jemisin - a prolific powerhouse of modern sff. Will probably have something you'll like. Won three Hugo awards in a row for her Broken Earth trilogy. I’ve only read her book of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? and it is absolutely story after story of bangers. Creative, chilling, beautifully written, make you think. They’re so good and I highly recommend the collection. Several of her novels have spun out of premises she first explored through these short stories, most recently “The City Born Great” giving rise to her novel The City We Became. Leans more fantasy than sci-fi, but has a lot of both, in various permutations. 

Nisi Shawl - EDIT: I have been informed that Nisi Shawl identifies as genderfluid, not as a woman. They primarily write short stories that lean literary. Their one novel that I’ve read, Everfair, is an alternate-history 19th century that asks, what if the Congo had fought off European colonization and became a free and independent African state? Told in vignettes spanning decades of political organization, political movements, war tactics, and social development, among an ensemble of local African people, Black Americans coming to the new country, white and mixed-race Brits, and Chinese immigrants who came as British laborers.

Nnedi Okorafor - American-Nigerian writer of Africanfuturism, sci-fi stories emphasizing life in present, future, and alternate-magical Africa. She has range! From Binti, a trilogy of novellas about a teenage girl in Namibia encountering aliens and balancing her newfound connection to space with expectations of her family; to Akata Witch, a middle-grade series about a Nigerian-American girl moving to Nigeria and learning to use magic powers she didn’t know she had; to Who Fears Death, a brutal depiction of magical-realism in a futuristic, post-war Sudan; to short stories like "Africanfuturism 419", about that poor Nigerian prince who’s desperately sending out those emails looking for help (but with a sci-fi twist), and "Mother of Invention" about a smart house taking care of its human and her baby… she’s done a little bit of everything, but always emphasizes the future, the science, and the magic of (usually western) Africa.

Karen Lord - an Afro-Caribbean author.  I actually didn’t particularly like the one novel by her I’ve read, The Best of All Possible Worlds, but Martha Wells did, so. Lord has more novels set in this world—a Star Trek-esque multicultural, multispecies spacefuture set on a planet that has welcomed immigrants and refugees for a long time, and become a vibrant multicultural planet. I find her stories rooted in near-future Caribbean socio-climatic concerns like "Haven" and "Cities of the Sun" and her folktale-fantasy style Redemption in Indigo more compelling.  And more short stories here.

Bethany C. Morrow - only has one novella (short novel?) for adults, Mem, but it was creative and fascinating and good and I’d be remiss not to shout it out. In an alternate-history 1920s Toronto, scientists have discovered how to extract specific memories from a person—but then those memories are embodied as physical, cloned manifestations of the person at the moment the memory was made. The main character is one such “Mem,” struggling to determine who she is if she was created from and defined by one single traumatic memory that her original-self wanted to remove. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative, and very interesting.  (Morrow has some YA novels too. I read one of them and thought it was okay.)

Rebecca Roanhorse - Afro-Indigenous, Black and "Spanish Indian" and married into Diné (Navajo). I’ve read her ongoing post-apocalyptic fantasy series starting with Trail of Lightning, and am liking it a lot; after a climate catastrophe, the spirits and magic of the Diné awakened to protect Dinetah (the Navajo Nation) from the onslaught; and now magic and monsters are part of life in this fundamentally changed world. Coyote is there and he is only sometimes helpful. She also has a more traditional second-world epic high fantasy, Black Sun, an elaborate fantasy world with quests and prophecies and seafaring adventure that draws inspiration from Indigenous cultures of the US and Mexico rather than Europe. She also has bitingly satirical and very incisive short stories like “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” about virtual reality and cultural tourism, and the fantasy-horror "Harvest."

Micaiah Johnson - her multiverse-hopping novel The Space Between Worlds plays with alternate universes and alternate selves in a continuously creative and interesting way! The setup doesn’t take the easy premise that one universe is our own recognizable one that opens up onto strange alternate universes—even the main character’s home universe is wildly different in speculative ways, with the MC coming from a Mad Max-esque desert community abandoned to the elements, while working for the universe-travel company within the climate-controlled walled city where the rich and well-connected live and work. Also, it’s unabashedly gay. 

And if you like audiobooks and audio fiction (I listened to The Space Between Worlds as an audiobook, it’s good), then Jordan Cobb is someone you should check out. She does sci-fi/horror/thriller audio drama. Her works include Janus Descending, a lyrical and eerie sci-fi horror about a small research expedition to a distant planet and how it went so, so wrong; and Descendants, the sequel about its aftermath. She also has Primordial Deep, about a research expedition to the deep undersea, to investigate the apparent re-emergence of a lot of extinct prehistoric sea creatures. She’s a writer/producer I like, and always follow her new releases. Her detailed prose, minimal casts  (especially in Janus Descending), good audio quality, and full-series supercuts make these welcoming to audiobook fans. 

-

Nalo Hopkinson - a writer who should be considered nearly as foundational as Octavia Butler, honestly. A novelist and short story writer with a wide variety of sci-fi, dystopian futures, fairy-tale horror, gods and epics, and space Carnival, drawing heavily from her Caribbean experiences and aesthetics.

Tananarive Due - fantastical/horror. Immortals, vampires, curses, altered reality, unnerving mystery. Also has written a lot of books.

Andrea Hairston - creative and otherworldly, weird and bisexual, with mindscapes and magic and aliens. 

Helen Oyeyemi - I haven’t read her work but she comes highly recommended by a friend. A novelist and short story writer, most of her work leans fairytale fantastical-horror. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a collection of short fiction and recc’ed to me as her best work. White is for Witching is a well-regarded haunted house novel. 

Ashia Monet - indie author, writer of The Black Veins, pitched as “the no-love-interest, found family adventure you’ve been searching for.” Magic road trip! Possibly YA? I’m not positive. 

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This also doesn’t include Black non-binary sff authors I’ve read and liked like An Owomoyela, C. L. Polk, and Rivers Solomon. And this is specifically about adult sff books, so I didn’t include Black women YA sff authors like Kalynn Bayron, Tomi Adeyemi, Tracy Deonn, Justina Ireland, or Alechia Dow, though they’re writing fantasy and sci-fi in the YA world too.

And a lot of short stories are out there in the online magazine world, where so many up and coming authors get their start, and established ones explore offbeat and new ideas.  Pick up an issue (or a subscription!) of FIYAH magazine for the most current Black speculative writing.

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 8b

Akata Witch (The Nsibidi Scripts #1) by Nnedi Okorafor

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * * *

Akata Witch weaves together a heart-pounding tale of magic, mystery, and finding one's place in the world.

Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she's albino. She's a terrific athlete, but can't go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing--she is a free agent with latent magical power. Soon she's part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be enough to help them when they are asked to catch a career criminal who knows magic too?

Ursula K. Le Guin and John Green are Nnedi Okorafor fans. As soon as you start reading Akata Witch, you will be, too

Date added: 2017

Goodreads: 4.03

Storygraph: 4.01

PRO:

Liked Okorafor's Binti series

Magic school quartet?!

Entire series available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

CON:

YA/MG, younger than I typically look for these days

[fernthewhimsical]

Hopepunk Primer pt. 3

How to practice Hopepunk

Find joy in the small things. The flowers growing through concrete, the way the sunlight hits the grass. There is beauty and joy in the small things, but it takes a bit of training to find them. Mindfulness or a gratitude journal (or even a Tumblr sideblog) helps with this training. Hope can be learned, I promise.

Be a pebble. [8] Imagine a tall glass that is half-full with water. Imagine you are a crow. You try to drink the water but you can't reach, the glass is too deep. So you take a pebble and throw it in. The water level rises slightly. Other crows come in with pebbles, and with each pebble the water level rises until finally you all can drink from the glass. There is a lot of focus nowadays in activism circles to be aware of every horrible thing that is going on in the world and to work on each and every one of them. The tough reality is: we can't. We're only human and right now we are all very prone to burn-out. We can't bring change if we are burnt out or have compassion fatigue. So be a pebble. Stay small, perhaps even stay local. If everyone focuses on one thing and focuses their efforts and energy there, we will make it. We'll make the water rise so everyone can drink. Be a pebble.

Stop doom scrolling. It's ineffective and only serves to make us feel more hopeless and demoralized.

Be responsible for your own internet experience. This is related to doom scrolling. Unfollow people who make you feel hopeless and like the fight is useless. Block trolls and don't engage them. Find people who make you feel inspired, invigorated, hopeful. Blacklist tags, block, delete.

Look into hopepunk media. Be inspired by the stories told. Some examples are movires: Lord of the Rings, Mad Max: Fury Road, Pacific Rim. Series: Sense8, the Good Place, Star Trek. Books: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, A conspiracy of truths by Alexandra Rowland, the Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Music: Torches by X Ambassadors, This Yeah by the Mountain Goats, Be More Kind by Frank Turner.

Build/Find your Community. Share what you have, ask for what you need. We're in this together. If you grow your own fruits and vegetables share them with friends and neighbours. Exchange favours like doing a grocery run or offering to watch the kids for a night. Make a tiny library or give & take cabinet. Share skills and resources. This can be done both online and in person, but making a difference locally is easier with boots on the ground, so to speak.

Create. Live authentically. Do things just to do the thing. So much needs to be "content", these days. So much needs to be a "side hustle" or "monetized". Resist. Create because it makes you feel good. Because you want to. Create bad art, sing off key, swing your arms wildly and call it dancing, write edgy poetry, create Mary Sue self-inserts. Live.

Resist capitalism. Reuse, recycle, repair, thrift, make, trade, etc.

Vote. If you really want to make a difference get out there and vote. Especially in the US they do not want you so rebel and vote. Not just for the president. Voting locally for your representatives will have more of an influence.

Unionize. Alone you beg, together you negotiate. Only together can we make change

Spread hope. Do random acts of kindness, compliment people, share positive things that happened, spread love and joy where you go.

[8] Be a pebble

Further reading:

Alexandra Rowland's Hopepunk Manifesto What is Hopepunk by Vox.com Hopepunk-Humanity blog on Tumblr Hopepunk: A Genre, Philosophy and Movement by Lexi Drumonde (Video) Intro to Hopepunk by Morgan Hazelwood (Video)

Part 1: Intro and history Part 2: Philosophy of Hopepunk Part 3: How to practice hopepunk and further reading Part 4: Extra! Hopepunk and magic

[thunderandsage]

books read in 2024, with notes

Problém tří těles (The Three Body Problem), Liou Cch'-sin

loved it, beautiful suspense, the video game aspect was very cool, felt that the last section where we see the trisolarans’ perspective makes it better thematically but weakens the dread that was so prevalent otherwise

Arabian Nights, transl. Haddawy

delightful, had some extremely raunchy parts that i wasn’t expecting, honestly it’s fascinating to see the convergence of so many literary impulses side by side

Červotoč (Carcoma), Layla Martínez

a shorter weird horror about cycles of trauma in three generations of women in a house with skeletons both metaphorical and literal within its walls

Kluci ze hřbitova (Cemetery Boys), Aiden Thomas

the plot was a bit predictable but the romance was sweet and yes, i did cry at the end a bit

Děti duny (Children of Dune), Frank Herbert

honestly i think herbert really struck gold with his writing of sibling relationships, the contrast of alia and paul’s dooms and leto ii and ghanima’s adventures were the highlight here

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

for a “problematic novel” i felt that nabokov does an excellent job of reminding us of hh’s monstrosity even if it is told directly through his pov, loved the literary references from edgar allan poe to carmen—always elegant but with the edge of almost satirizing intellectualism itself

The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson

honestly a perfect book to read even when you’re feeling burnt out—the nonlinear and rambling style makes it very interesting to read without taxing you too much, and the discussions of queerness and sexuality and art were throughly enjoyable

Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake

love this chaotic mess of a man, who’ll tell you about the chemical structures and scientific methods on one page and then describe taking lsd and brazenly admitting to apple theft on the next

The Wounded Sky, Diane Duane

as a fan of duane’s young wizards series, this is a fascinating window into the transition from her star trek novels to original writing, the banter is infectious, the alien characters delightful and the scifi jargon jargoning

EDIT: the lovely Ms. Duane herself clarified that the original fiction came first, my bad!

Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor

as a fan of the first book who felt that more time was needed to explore binti’s trauma, this book gives that narrative its space, and also delivers an honestly heartbreaking story about returning home but it’s not home not really because you changed but you love it but did it love you or did it only tolerate you when you fit its ideas of who you should be? the line “you used to be such a beautiful girl” made me bawl

The Devourers, Indra Das

the simple version of the summary is “iwtv but werewolves in mughal (?) era india,” it does fall into the trap of trying to make things edgy by indulging in game of thrones-style “grit”, but at the same time its a dream-like exploration of legacy and queerness

Wild Seed, Octavia Butler

a reread technically, but still holds up, butler does not hold back when it comes to fucked up power dynamics and the implications of having powers tied to genetics, anyanwu and doro remain some of the most fascinating depictions of immortals

Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler

a shorter and more transitional work, i feel there could have been more detailing of the patternist society but on the other hand we see doro get his just desserts and it is amazing after all the shit he pulled in wild seed

Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

butler’s attempt at writing a horror slasher?

Bluets, Maggie Nelson

dreamy and indulgent, i generally just really love how nelson mixes up intellectualism and horniness like a cocktail and makes it amazing

Vicious, V.E. Schwab

amazingly paced with wonderful asshole characters, featuring a found family that probably shouldn’t have found each other and unapologetic vengeful sentiments

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

if you can ignore the voice in your head chanting “i would have done a better job hiding the books than montag,” this is an honestly life-changing examination of the importance of literacy??? the montag and beatty argument made me start annotating like i was in ap lit again

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

stories so bright and vivid you’ll be mad that movies purporting to be “realistic depictions of medieval times” are always gray and misery-filled

When We Cease to Understand the World (Un Verdor Terrible), Benjamín Labatut

while the “prussian blue” chapter remains my favorite, the whole thing is a really good examination of the tangle of scientific progress and human atrocities, though the titular chapter did drag on and verge more on “melodramatic biopic” territory rather than the dry menippean satire that the rest of the book is

[kug-the-carrot]

Really hate that when I want to look at the very few Murderbot videos on YouTube I am forced to see the thumbnail of that guy complaining about TMBD in order to praise another series

I mean he's allowed his opinion obviously but I know he already made a separate video on tmbd being "overrated" so let Binti stand on its own for fucksake. Binti is a wonderful book, it is so rich and beautiful, but it's completely different thematically, the things it has in common with TMBD are being an award winning sci-fi novella and being published by Tor

Like why are we pitting two bad bitches (gn) against each other

[aleyalea]

About me.☘︎ ݁˖

MDA20009 Digital Communities

Hi, my name is Nur Aleyah binti Haswie Fazly but for short you guys can call me Aleya. I am a first year first semester Media & Communication in Swinburne Sarawak.

Whenever free time, I like cooking & baking (I have attached some of the photos below). Also, I love to read, listen to music mostly read the lyrics and watching movies & series. Not to forget, I like to scroll Twitter (X) because I want to keep update about the latest current issues.

As you guys know, this blog only for educational purposes. I am so excited and can't wait to explore more about this unit.

Stay tuned for more updates in the future! ⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆

[shimmer-like-agirl]

All Time Fave Five

Tagged by @ghostoffuturespast 💜💜💜 and I’m actually going to do something you tagged me in! I’m so bad for forgetting about these.

Rules: Make a poll with five of your all-time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favourite!

I purposefully avoided any Cyberpunk 2977 characters so I can prove I have interests outside this game 😛 I wanted to try to vary my faves by picking ones from different media types

I don’t know who of you have already been tagged or have already done this, but no pressure @baublekute @lavnderkiwi @starlightcleric @dani-the-goblin @luvwich

[bookcub]

Hii, I'm currently making my way through a pretty heavy 13 book fantasy series rn and in the lookout for some novellas to break it up. I was wondering if you had any recommendations?

Oh yeah, sure no problem!!

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow is like is the mutiverse of Sleeping Beauty and very fun and friendship focused! Pretty fast paced as well

P. Djeli Clark has three novellas that are set in 1912 Cairo. I only read his full length novel, but everyone else claims the novellas are even better. There's an investigator of magic and she solves and prevents crime! First one is A Dead Djinn in Cairo

I'm not super into scifi, but if you want very soft scifi with low stress, Becky Chambers is known for her work. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a human and robot discussing philosophy for most of it.

Of course, any of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire is a series of related books about children who travel to magic lands and then travel back to their first homes. These have a loose order to them but many can be read as standalones. Every Heart a Doorway is the first one.

I haven't read Binti by Nnedi Okorafor in forever but I remember really enjoying it! It's a hard scifi tale set in space!

Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk is a noir esque fantasy novella that's very mysterious and has an interesting tone.

Hope this is a good list to start! I find graphic novels also helpful breaks if you need any of recs for those, let me know!

[lionofchaeronea]

The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett - I quite like it, it kinda goes into the (poor) english aristocracy marrying wealthy american girls and the differences in expectation of treatment and such.

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori - a manga series, don't know if your into that, but carefully researched, beautiful art (especially the textiles) of the time period and place, in areas around the silk road/russian steppes - Kazakhstan is one place I know the author visited.

The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo

Black Water Sister - Cho Zen

The Midwife's Apprentice - Karen Cushman

The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer

Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George

Blackbird House - Alice Hoffman

Geisha of Gion - Mineko Iwasaki - one of the main people Arthur Golden interviewed for his book. She wrote this to counteract his "white guyification" of what she told him.

Literary Studies for Rhetoric Classes - Bernard L. Jefferson - found this one at a thrift store I just really enjoyed a lot of the pieces in it.

The Story of My Life - Helen Keller

Sirena - Donna Jo Napoli

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

Binti - Nnedi Okorafor

What Happened to Lani Garver - Carol Plum-Ucci

The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett

The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 - Diana Preston

Trudy's Promise - Marcia Preston - a very close look at one mother separated from her son when the Berlin Wall goes up.

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice - a very sad novel as it was written in response to when Anne Rice lost her child. A good close look at grief and loss and apathy.

Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff - the show missed the point... the author wrote this inspired by when he and a black friend had been talking and he realized that because of skin color that while they occupied the same space, they lived in "different countries"

The Marvels - Brian Selznick

Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepeteys

Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet - Kashmira Sheth

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky (or anything by him really)

The Ramsay Scallop - Frances Temple

Doomsday Book - Connie Willis - time-traveler finds herself back during the start of one of the sweeps of the black plague - it's pretty sad

Fifth Chinese Daughter - Jade Snow Wong

*some of these are middlegrade but I feel middlegrade is sometimes not appreciated enough as literature. ^_^'

*also sorry for the very long list....

No apologies needed. I really appreciate the recommendations.

[screwzara]

Boboiboy: So Ali how come you don't use I.R.I.S. anymore?

Ali, sheepish: Well *proceeds to explain the VERY traumatising events of Ejen Ali The Movie: Misi Nero*

Ali: And then I kinda saw my mom -

Bbb, horrified *hysterical whisper shouting*: Oh my god do I call Malaysian CPS, should I call Malaysian CPS?!

Yaya, Ying, Gopal, Fang, horrified as well and maybe going into medical shock: YES, YOU SHOULD!

Bbb: Should I call my MOM!!?

Ali, who seriously believes that M.A.T.A won't stand a chance against the righteous rage of Karin Hannah binti Muhammad Hussain AKA Most Terrifying Attorney In South East Asea AKA Auntie Kar: Wait abang, just take a deep breath and -

Bbb: STOP. DOES YOUR DAD KNOW YOUR MOM DIED LIKE THAT?! MY PARENTS TOLD ME SHE DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT. DOES YOUR DAD KNOW ANYTHING????!!!?

Ali, desperately trying to stop a civil war between his family and M.A.T.A: NO, but please don't tell them. Have mercy abang M.A.T.A won't survive them!

BBB, scared, shocked and angry: I don't want them to survive!

Bbb: *Starts screaming in Koncho*

Ali: *Tries to calm BBB in Koncho.

Meanwhile the young agents are kinda watching the ordeal like Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Alicia wonders if her father will loose his job because of this.

Meanwhile the Mentor -Bakar, because Bbb makes a good point. Know who Auntie Karin is and are preparing to be sued.

What do you think?

*laughing my ass off*

Bbb bouta get M.A.T.A shut down XD

But his reaction is reasonable, M.A.T.A is dead fr

I imagine the M.A.T.A agents didn't know who bbb's mom(is the name you mentioned her canon name or am i missing something? Sorry) was so they got confused then Uncle Bakar later came in and quietly explained to them who she was(god I'm dying from laughter rereading this conversation)

Edit: bbb's friends also likely don't know who his mom is(cuz i've never seen him talk about his mom in the series that much) so imagine their surprise when they find out who his mom is

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (11/06/23)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (6/10)

This book has very little space for the kind of story it tries to tell, and it does its best. For an almost space opera-like plot, with intergalactic academies, alien conflict, and ancient tech, less than 80 pages is ridiculously small. As such, a lot of this book feels really rushed. A lot of worldbuilding stuff, such as the history between the Meduse and humans, what Binti’s edan is, and how otjize is so special, is just never explained. I definitely found this book interesting; there’s a major tone shift a third of the way through, and I loved the message of understanding differences and peaceful conflict resolution. However, everything is wrapped up too neatly, especially concerning Binti’s emotional state. Trying not to spoil too much, Binti goes through an incredibly traumatic event and has a very important aspect of her changed without her knowledge or consent, but she seems just fine at the end. I appreciate the attempt to wrap up such an ambitious story for a novella, but I would’ve much preferred a more open ending concerning that.

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid (6/10)

This book started out very strong. The writing style really has that drifting, surreal style that fits a book trying to emulate gothic horror, and I really liked where the plot is going. I love books where the main character can't figure out if they can trust themselves or not, and the whole idea of discovering the secrets behind a truly impactful novel was so interesting. It was a little slow, but I was fine with that. Unfortunately, the ending is all kinds of rushed. The main antagonist is defeated very easily with virtually no explanation as to how, and although there's a character that the entire story practically revolves around, she only shows up at the end once everything is said and done to fill in the holes. Then there are multiple issues, plot and character wise, that are just never resolved. Unfortunately, the ending kind of ruined it for me, otherwise this could've been a 4 star read.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (9/10)

After over a year, I'm continuing the Wayward Children series, and I'm loving it so far. This book functions as a prequel, telling the story of Jack and Jill in The Moors. I loved the very obvious classic literature influences, namely Frankenstein and Dracula, and Jack and Jill are both amazingly complex characters with an incredibly interesting relationship. I will always have a soft spot for Jack, and her unexpected romance was one of my favorite parts of the book. I'd say the only thing I didn't like was that Jill is so unlikable to me. I really wanted her to face some consequences after what she did, and while I can see how she became this way, it doesn't mean she should get away with it, especially considering the context of the first book. However, the series is unfinished and has multiple books I haven't read yet, so perhaps we'll see them yet again!

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (CR, 43%)

I'm really enjoying this one so far! After so much intense fantasy and sci-fi, it's like a little palate cleanser. I love how this book takes tropes usually used in contemporary romcoms and repurposes them for the historical setting. There's also a fair amount of worldbuilding, since this is a very different history from what we know. I'm glad it's established to be that way, because there is some pretty blatant messing with the timeline, but I appreciate it since it brings more diversity than historical romances typically have.

Lodestar by Shannon Messenger (CR, 43%)

There are things happening in this book, and I don't like it! I've grown fairly attached to these characters, and I'm constantly stressed about them. I feel like stakes are rising rather quickly in this installment, like more is happening than in the others. One thing I noticed during this segment of reading was that I quite like the addition of Tam. Linh is still sort of a half-formed character to me, but I really like how blunt Tam is and how he still has the perspective of an outsider on Sophie's group and their dynamics. He seems to say things none of them think of, and I like how he shakes things up.

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (CR, 42%)

I know, I know, I've been working on this one for a while, but it's a very dense book! I've put it aside for now in exchange for Gwen & Art, since I have to review that one, but I'm hoping to finish this before the November halfway mark.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (CR, 16%)

I’m finishing up my reread of The Infernal Devices, and this one is not that great so far. While I love the smaller interactions between Jem, Tessa, and Will, virtually everything so far has been interpersonal conflict despite the fact that a madman with a clockwork army is just out there somewhere. Like, did they forget they have like actual jobs to do? It’s mentioned that a good amount of time has passed since the last book…and you’ve done nothing? I know you’re all in the most complicated romantic relationships teenagers can be in, but please, think of the world.

[chainofclovers]

tagged by @waywardted and @itsagutthing, thanks friends!

last song: "Pictures of You" by Drugdealer with Kate Bollinger UGH WHAT A GREAT SONG

currently reading: Just finished The World Keeps Ending and the World Goes on by Franny Choi (me? Reading a whole poetry book? In 2023? Things are shifting!?!?! It was a great collection)...Next up is Binti by Nnedi Okarafor, I think! Or Normal People by Sally Rooney because I deeply crave @itsagutthing's approval 😅😂.

currently watching: Rewatch of Taskmaster series 7.

tagging: @boglady @ellydash @dollsome-does-tumblr @telanu @ohtendril (also I have seen many a tag going around so if I overlapped sorry and just do this if you want whether I tagged you or not)