#S.A. Chakraborty

[viinas]

Whenever @eerna commissions me to draw her latest Special Girl I always know I'm going to have a blast.

[novelconcepts]

Another year, another absurd amount of books read (296, because if I wasn't reading or writing this year, my brain was on fire). I was asked again for my top books of the year, so here we go: 2023's top 10, in no particular order.

This was the first book I read of the year--literally, vacated the hangout with my wife and sibling-in-laws to sit on their couch upstairs and eat through it. Do you love The Fall of the House of Usher, but wish for a nonbinary protagonist and a lot more mushrooms? This is the book for you! (T. Kingfisher is fucking rad, I made a concerted effort to only list ONE of her books on here, but honorable mention goes to The Twisted Ones for fucking me upppp.)

A gay, post-apocolyptic Pinocchio retelling involving copious robots, found family elements, and a cool-ass treehouse. Klune always hits for me with his unrepentant queer family dynamics and sense of humor. Honorable mention to the first two in the Green Creek series (although that's got a lot more...adult elements in among the werewolves, you've been warned).

I thiiiink I found this through The Homo Schedule podcast (PSA: if you missed out on Jasmin Savoy Brown and Liv Hewson doing a podcast together, now you know better), and it wrecked my shit. Tons of trigger warnings, as this is a memoir about abuse within a queer relationship, but it's so beautifully written. I personally suggest listening to the audiobook first, then standing anxiously behind someone at a book warehouse sale, hoping they'll set down the only paperback copy so you can swipe it.

A fantastical-historical reimagining in which the KKK is filled with literal monsters, and Black women are resistance fighters armed to take them out. Visceral and intense, and truly an excellent horror story.

Just. Such a soft time travel story about a daughter and her father and cherishing the time you get with loved ones. I was thoroughly unprepared for how lovely I found this one. It's very kind.

Spooky house, take-no-shit redhead, protective sibling elements, bisexual recluse with a sword who really just needs a nap. I haven't found a Harrow book yet I haven't slapped five stars on. She's so good at character and atmosphere, and I'm always surprised at how fast her stories race by.

The whole Daevabad trilogy (of which this is the first book) is just magical. A girl from the mortal world finds herself embroiled with the centuries-long prejudices and wars of djinn in a fantastical city. It's one of the rare stories of its kind that does have a love triangle, but doesn't feel like a love triangle; it's far less interested in the insufferable "who gets picked" than it is in the actual horrors these people are both perpetrating and coping with. It's an intoxicating ride.

Fuck You, TERFS: the book. Given that fact, there's obviously quite a lot of transphobia to deal with, but it's very clear that those people are wrong, and it's a super-engaging (and super-oh-god-what-comes-next) witchy time populated with queer, protective, interesting characters I'm excited to see again in the follow-up.

Have you ever wanted a haunted house story with visceral imagery and a rather lovely twist? Gailey has you covered. As much as I enjoyed The Echo Wife, I think I actually loved this one more, and it makes me so excited to see what else they've got up their sleeve.

One of my final reads for the year, when I was just churning through hardcovers at the speed of sound. I love this book. I recognize it won't be for everyone, but it takes so much of what I love about IT (one of my all-time favorite books, despite its flaws) and twists it through the lens of an author who escaped the Mormon church. It's horrific, it's fantastically abstract in places, it explores childhood and memory, imagination and abuse, and almost every character is queer. It's a great "I simply cannot sleep until I've finished" read.

[cryptrees]

Beginning and ending of the trilogy

[bookaddict24-7]

✨Currently Reading and Loving ✨

[newnamesamecharlotte]

For while the pious claim money doesn’t buy happiness, I can attest from personal experience that poverty buys nothing. It is a monster who’s claws grow deeper and more difficult to escape with each passing season, with even the slightest misstep setting you back years, if not forever.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

[malicedafirenze]

Unfiltered readalong thoughts about the Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty below the cut

Recommended if you like: Djinn, Arabian Mythology, Healing Magic, Complicated relationships, messed up family dynamics, slow burn romantic subplot, not knowing whether that‘s a corruption or redemption arc, fire magic, water magic, powerful female leads who aren‘t fighters, complex female villains, generational trauma and revenge for oppression, enemies to lovers to enemies, enemies to friends to lovers, palace intrigue and violent coups

Proper review here

I loved it, lots of spoilers in the rest of this post

[raspberrybrain]

but the turbans

I want to draw fanart of the Daevabad Trilogy so bad but I'm so ignorant about the clothing styles. Spessifically turbans are causing me issues. There are so, so many types! And they all seem to mean something important! Ad in the fact that this isn't current fashion, but historical fantasy fashion and I'm at a loss.

Anyone know key words I should use to do my research on what different characters might be wearing?

[anxiouswizardart]

Alizayd al Qahtani as Qaid

[inspiredbyabook]

lit meme: series or books [2/10] ↝ the daevabad trilogy by s.a. chakraborty

i do not believe ambitious men who say the only route to peace and prosperity lies in giving them more power—particularly when they do it with lands and people who are not theirs.

[prosedumonde]

Souvent, les choses les plus puissantes ont une origine des plus modestes.

S.A. Chakraborty, La Cité de Laiton

VO : “Often the mightiest things have the humblest beginnings.”

[ninja-muse]

I may have read The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi towards the start of the month, but it remains my top read for April. Guys, it's so much fun! There are pirates and heists and a conniving grandmother and a Mistress of Poisons and explosions and things with too many tentacles and sarcasm and…. I won't go on. I don't want to spoil, only wet, er, whet your appetite.

Basically, this is pure Chakraborty in its sheer zip and "Oh, I guess this is happening" and its attention to historical detail and the way it brings to past and the characters to life—but it's a very different book from the Daevabad trilogy. You're not going to find a lot of political machinations or power struggles here. You're not going to have the same sense of epic scale or breadth of time. You're not going to have multiple POVs or plot threads. It's a woman on a boat, trying to either find someone or not die, thank you, depending on the chapter.

Which is to say, if you liked the Daevabad trilogy, you'll very likely like this, and if you didn't like the trilogy or it didn't catch your interest, you should give this one a shot. And I think I might like it better myself?

[bookaddict24-7]

AUTHOR FEATURE:

﹒S.A. Chakraborty﹒

Five Books Written By this Author: 

The City of Brass

The Kingdom of Copper

The Empire of Gold

The River of Silver

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

___

Happy reading!

[camreadsum]

You guys were right!!

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi!!!!!!!!!!!

Buff Pirate mommy, are you kidding me?! It's like this book was written for me specifically!!

Sister Shanon, MashaAllah, the woman that you are!!!

[desdasiwrites]

– S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

[writerlunawinters]

You don't stop fighting a war just because you're losing battles. You change tactics.

S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

[samcat18]

Sometimes the most annoying part of a fantasy novel is ~2 hrs before the end, where all of the inconsistencies the characters have noticed that are worldbuilding mysteries are going to have to wait until the big finale to be revealed, but in the meantime i am putting more pins in my big conspiracy board going