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The Prey of Gods

by Nicky Drayden

This is an Afrofuturist novel that weaves together elements of sci-fi and fantasy to create a story of five main characters, who are tangled up in the dangerous, fantastical rise of the old gods.

My Rating: 4/5

If I had to describe this in the simplest way possible, I'd say that the book was really fun to read! You get to follow five characters who are VERY different from one another, and see how somehow their paths intersect into this crazy, larger-than-life story, and end up in ways that they absolutely could never anticipate in their wildest dreams. There are so many twists and turns of varying levels of hilarity, absurdity, and questionability, and it can get so weird, in ways where you really have to have fun with it and go along for the ride.

I ultimately did enjoy this book a lot, but I wasn't confident enough in my liking of this book to give it a 5/5; I also have some criticisms which I feel were substantial enough to knock it down to a 4/5 at least for me.

Content warnings (which might be spoilery) and full review under the cut!

The content warnings for this book include death, sexual assault (including brief depictions of SA on children), child abuse, animal death, drug use, medical procedures, and torture.

Let's start with what I liked about this book, of which there was a lot. One specific thing I want to shout out is the author's ability to develop character voice. Giving five different POV characters a unique voice is hard, but Drayden does it and she does it well. I especially like a lot of the chapters in the POV of Nomvula, who is a child, somewhere between 6-10 years old (I can't quite remember). Nomvula genuinely narrates like a child - a child that has been through a lot of trauma and hardships, sure, a child with strong moral fiber, but a child nonetheless. Other POVs that are worth mentioning are Muzi, a teenage boy, and Stoker, a politician - their character voices both reflect their respective personalities and way of speaking based on their ages and roles in society.

Drayden's writing style was unique, in a way I almost struggle to describe, because while its not flowery or prosaic, I also feel like "concise" is the wrong word to use. It's crisp but it's also very animated, which ties into what I said earlier about her strong character voice. It adds to the overall funky vibe of the story, and helps the book stand out against those written by authors who employ a more traditional, typical style of writing.

The plot itself has a lot of fun twists and turns, including a more sci-fi plotline that I won't reveal to you. From the start, the book is weird, and I mean that in a positive way. You have to laugh and enjoy the absurdity of some of the things written, and the good thing is that those absurd sounding things still tie into the plotline, and make sense later. Speaking of plotlines, one of the fun things to see is how the five characters become involved in the same crazy events by the end of the novel. Even at the beginning of the novel, there are tiny threads that show how the characters are loosely connected to each other; by the time the action ramps up, the five characters are at the heat of the conflict, probably wondering how the hell they ended up here.

Each character came from a unique background, and it is a very diverse cast in terms of race and other identities - there are gay characters, trans characters, and disabled characters. I think plugging diversity as a feature of a story can be dicey, because I think that runs the risk of tokenism, but in this story the characters and their various identities are done well - their experiences aren't angst fodder, but they do impact the characters and therefore the whole story in profound ways. There isn't any in-your-face messaging about their identities or any other social issue, for that matter, which I think is important because ultimately, our identities are deeply personal and should mean more for a character than just being a way to preach to the audience.

So while the majority of the things I have to say about this book are positive, there are some things I didn't love that I do have to mention.

One thing is that while I appreciated the author's brisk writing style, I do think it led to certain pitfalls when it came to character development or introspection. There were several instances in this book where I felt like a character changed their mind on a certain thing or had "character development" so quickly that it gave me whiplash. I didn't feel like there was very good buildup to all of these character developing moments - quite literally I felt as if someone had snapped their fingers and the character had changed their mind. I was able to overlook it because I enjoyed the overall story, but I really wish that the author had allowed for more gradual development and introspection for the characters. I attribute this to the writing style because I feel like the way Drayden writes really isn't introspective in general - the text doesn't really try to get deep into the characters' heads, which is fine, but there are some parts where this is sorely needed. There is one specific scene where the change in a side character's attitude to one of the main characters was so abrupt that I think it was, plainly, just badly written, but I won't say more because spoilers.

There were also one specific thing that peeved me enough to mention it here, which is that at one point in the second half of the book, Nomvula, the character who is under 10 years old, starts talking to older characters in a way that's very "wise beyond her ages". There's no reason for this to occur, especially since in previous chapters she clearly talks like a child. I absolutely detest child characters talking like adults, and it makes zero sense to me that Nomvula would start acting like another character's emergency therapist, talking about grief or some shit, while she is quite literally fighting for her life and also about seven years old.

In general, I think that there were certain heavier topics that the book should have addressed with more deliberation and depth. For example, one character is a politician, and while the book's main purpose isn't social commentary, there's clear corruption and all sorts of political mishappenings in the government they work in. Given that, I think the way the author wrote their political career and attitudes towards politics came across as naive - the character had a level of sincerity and optimism towards politics and the governing system that definitely doesn't exist in real life. This is just one example - there are other aspects of both character and world-building that I think should have been explored more to give the story additional depth.

Overall, though, I think this is a good book that I'd recommend to anyone who likes interesting, funky types of storytelling. I think it's important to read these sort of non-traditional styles to make sure we aren't bound by made up constraints of genre or any other standard we have for "good writing", and this book in particular created a fun and compelling narrative that I think can be enjoyed by a wide group of people.

[wanttotalkaboutbooks]

The Luminous Dead

by Caitlin Starling

This is a horror/thriller novel about a woman who takes a dangerous job to explore a cave, guided by only her suit and the voice of her handler. There are only two characters: her and her handler. There are mysteries and secrets she has to uncover about her mission while trying to survive the cave system.

My Rating: 5/5

I loved this book so much. I was skeptical going in, especially regarding the book's ability to creep me out, but when the action truly got going...wow. I read this at night with the lights on in my room, but I was so into it that I didn't put it down until 4 AM (I read it within 24 hours). I was genuinely scared; the author beautifully wove suspense and atmosphere together to depict the truly terrifying circumstances that the main character had to survive.

My full review may contain mild (nonspecific) spoilers so honestly I'd highly recommend actually reading the book before continuing further. I can't emphasize enough how much I genuinely loved it, I genuinely got so into the book and it's probably the first novel that's ever freaked me out this much.

Content warnings (because they're spoilery) and full review under the cut!

The content warnings for this book include: injury, death, depictions of dead bodies, questioning of reality, and hallucinations. Mentions of vomiting and medical procedures. There are a lot of scenes in dark and/or tight/closed off spaces. Please be safe while reading!

As I said before, I started this read a little skeptical. There was nothing immediately remarkable about the book, nor any immediate red-flags. The writing is good but unassuming, not particularly stylistic or tonal. The main character, Gyre, could be considered quite normal, and nothing about her or her handler, Em, indicate much about what direction this book could go. It's equally likely to end up a flat, if maybe mildly unsettling story as it is to be a genuinely good novel, I thought. I've never really felt the grips of terror in a book that'd make me want to cover my eyes like in a movie, I thought.

I'm so happy I was wrong.

The build in tension is slow. Of course, we know right away that Gyre's mission is dangerous, but she's competent enough, if underqualified. We know that Em isn't telling us everything there is to know, so we expect some twist, probably something that will ramp up the danger tenfold. Slowly, as Gyre creeps deeper into the cave system, the novel pushes the tension further and further. In that sense, the reader is able to follow Gyre's journey on an emotional level, from a real but ultimately familiar suspense to a disorienting fear as more unknown variables start to factor in.

The author does such a good job depicting Gyre's mental state as her journey through the caves continue - ultimately, you experience what she is experiencing, terror, doubt and all. The writing is concise and straightforward, but this makes Gyre's (and the readers') emotions all the more poignant; the terror that you are meant to feel isn't obscured by flowery language. The author's clear writing makes her descriptions very effective as well, because you are placed directly in the environment, and you experience everything Gyre experiences. Because the language isn't flowery or open to interpretation, your brain processes the words very quickly, which means when something occurs in a split-second, you as a reader are able to react in the same moment as Gyre. By this, I mean that this is the first book I've read which managed to jumpscare me. It was thrilling; I didn't know books could do that.

The characters themselves are well written. They aren't revolutionary or even really unique, to be honest, but they fit well within the story, and by the end of the book their individual and shared storylines and character development made sense. Em's backstory is key to a lot if not all of the book's twists and turns, so I won't tell you any specifics, but I thought the way the author went about her story was...an interesting decision. I'm in two minds about it - part of me thinks that the build-up warranted something more dramatic, but another part of me thinks that I'm glad the reveals weren't extremely shocking or dramatic, so that they didn't take away from the main plot which is the treacherous cave exploration. You could call into question the author's decisions over these things, but I think that ultimately, the characters fit into the story so snugly that any complaints are just nitpicking.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Gyre and Em's relationship gives us a nice probably-kind-of-toxic, messy wlw subplot that develops throughout the story. It was one of the reasons I picked up the buck, and though it isn't prominent in most of the story (because both characters have bigger things to worry about) it adds an extra depth to their relationship, a little more spice and drama, which I think added to the crazy emotional journey that Gyre went through in those caves.

Again: I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you like gripping stories that develop fear through atmosphere (and if you do read it because of this book review, let me know what you think!)

[wanttotalkaboutbooks]

Iron Widow

by Xiran Jay Zhao

I'm aware that everyone and their mothers have read this book and I'm super behind. I'm also aware that people will deride this one as just another TikTok YA novel - which isn't entirely inaccurate, but I prefer to judge a book by its own merit anyway.

The book is advertised as a Pacific Rim meets Handmaiden's Tale, with a feminist plotline, polyamorous relationship, and Chinese mythology worked into the worldbuilding.

I unfortunately accidentally went onto Goodreads and came across the reviews for this book, which mostly were either overwhelmingly positive or negative with no in between, and I fucking disagree with both those views so hard that it makes me mad which is why I'll probably be refuting those arguments in the stuff below.

My Rating: 3/5

I'm tired and it's late by the time I'm writing this. I want to emphasize that I did like reading the book - it has that rating for a reason! I enjoyed the experience! My full review is...critical, but that's mostly because it's easier to pick apart criticisms than to point out what was done well. I don't want to deter anyone from reading and I'd always generally recommend reading a book for yourself before looking at any in-depth reviews.

EDIT: After thinking about it I knocked this book down to a 3/5. I think I had much more criticism than praise for this story so giving it an above average rating is a bit unfair.

Full review and spoilers under the cut!

Plot and Characters:

I don't have much to say about the plot, which is overall a positive thing because I can articulate criticisms a lot better than I can compliments. The story was mostly solid and well-paced. It bent to the characters' motivations and personalities in a way that was reasonable. The layers of the world were slowly peeled back in a way that revealed certain truths to the reader while continuing to make them wonder about others, right till the very end.

Overall, I found the writing of the characters to be average. The three most important characters are all archetypal, and though their backstories aren't explored in-depth, I think they are represented well with how they interact with the plot of the book. Even though the protagonist, Zetian, is very much a Strong Female Character, she isn't immune to the world around her and is forced to depend on others for help. She is Special and Unique but not overly so - there are precedents for people with her aptitudes and living people who are "better" than her. She's also not remotely perfect with how she speaks and interacts with other people, and it's not uncommon for her to be very harsh to someone who has suffered under the same systems as she has. Fundamentally, Zetian is an angry girl full of rage against a world who has hurt her, and is willing to enact imperfect, violent vengeance. If this doesn't sound like something you would like, then you won't enjoy this book.

(Some of the criticisms lauded against the book and against Zetian in particular were that she's meant to seem super badass and heroic but in reality she's selfish and violent - because of her violent actions against people who harmed her. Her family, who mutilated and abused her, for example. A fellow pilot who killed a man she loved, as another example. This opinion is fucking bullshit and the people who say this had no place reading the book, because the entire point of the book is that she is violently angry and wants revenge. It's in the summary. She isn't perfectly emblematic of feminist theory. If you aren't going to empathize with the main character, if you aren't going to put effort into understanding why a character acts the way they do, then why are you reading fiction?)

I do wish that there was more relationship development between the three primary characters and that it was handled with a bit more subtlety, a bit more nuance. Sometimes it felt a little like they were jumping from one set of feelings to another, and I think the book would have benefitted from a more gradual shift in emotions and attitudes. Honestly, ultimately, I feel like the relationship between these three characters feel flat towards the end. This is especially true for Yizhi, the "main" love interest - by the end he just seems to...unthinkingly support Zetian without any other influencing factors. It's debatable whether this is in character or not. Also, I think the "character sees another characters memories and starts to understand them" trope is a cop-out.

Fundamentally, though, I enjoyed reading this book! Once I got going, I wanted to know what happened next, and I do think that's the most important part of storytelling.

Style, Tone, and Voice:

The writing in this book is pretty decent, but I won't lie, I think it falls into the same trappings as pretty much any other YA book, which is that the "voice" is...bland, for lack of a better word. Don't get me wrong, Zhao uses some really pretty imagery and their use of figurative language is frequent, but it's honestly a bit heavy handed.

Most notably, again like a lot of YA books I've read, this is another story written in 1st person by someone who...doesn't utilize first person very well. First person POVs are meant to be a direct line into the character's thoughts, but here there's a noticeable disparity between how the character speaks versus the prose. Zetian speaks in a brusque and colloquial manner, but her narration is more prettied up. There's nothing inherently wrong with this writing style, but it would have worked much better if it was in a 3rd person POV.

Overall, I do like the way the book is written - its descriptive, it's not mind-numbingly boring, it's engaging. It's not what I would want from a 1st person POV, but we can't have it all.

Diversity and Social Commentary:

I'm not actually going to comment much on the diversity considering it's a book written by a Chinese author, set in a country analogous to China, and I am not Chinese. I think it was really nice to see the heavy influence of Chinese mythology on the worldbuilding, and it made for some really cool imagery, especially with the mecha-formations. There's queer rep in the poly couple formed by Zetian and two boys. That's nice, I love to see it.

What I will comment a lot about is the feminism, because it's the crux of the plot. It is supposed to be a feminist novel - Zetian's whole goal is to destroy the system that values the lives of boys over girls. The plot does achieve this - by the end of the book, Zetian and her two closest allies have figured out why girls are constantly being sacrificed, and Zetian is one of the most powerful pilots in existence, and not afraid to use that power to completely tear down the military structures.

I think the feminist message could have been represented better. Unfortunately, some of the negative reviews made a really fucking good point that stood out to me: by the end of the novel, Zetian doesn't have a decent relationship with a single female in her life. Her two closest allies throughout the book were men. Zetian doesn't get along with any of the women she knows because they're all subservient and upholding the power structures she's trying to dismantle, and I think you have to sympathize with that on some level - she's been repeatedly let down by the women in her life and some, like her grandmother, have actively harmed and mutilated her. Still, it's a fairly big oversight that the female character in a feminist novel completely fails to connect with any other female character by the end of it. Like there's not a single other woman in this universe who agrees that the patriarchy is bad? The only woman Zetian has a good relationship with is her dead sister, who we don't even know anything about.

Iron Widow also has another issue that I find pretty commonly in YA where it just...states everything. This is a thing I find extremely fucking annoying - an author should not outright tell the reader everything in explicit terms, we should be allowed to come to conclusions ourselves. Zetian shouldn't have to straight up tell the reader that, like, women are used for their bodies that that's Bad; it's something that should implicitly come across in the writing. It's just straight up boring and irritating when authors explicitly tell you everything. This is pretty common in the book, and a lot of times Zetian will straight up verbalize the Feminist View™, which comes across as just clunky writing to me. Once again, we should be able to come to these conclusions ourselves as readers, and also it's strange that this random girl from a frontier village, with no proper education in a world where the concept of feminism doesn't even exist, is speaking in what's essentially online feminist rhetoric. There's nothing incorrect about what she's saying but frankly, it just boils down to this: not everything should be explicitly stated. What isn't said is as important as what is.

Conclusion:

I feel I kind of ripped into this book right now but I genuinely did enjoy reading it. I take any TikTok famous book with a grain of salt but it was genuinely fun to read, and the imagery of the mecha-robots(?) is really cool, literally just a fun time. It's not particularly deep or heavy, but if you want a casual read with pretty worldbuilding and and action-based plot, I think this book has a lot to offer.

[wanttotalkaboutbooks]

Cemetary Boys

by Aidan Thomas

I was recommended this book by my library, I think for the month of October. In short, its about a trans Latino boy from a community of brujes who’s trying to prove himself in his abilities and earn acceptance from his family. He summons a ghost as part of the effort to prove himself and then shit happens.

My Rating: 3/5

I’ll justify this under the cut. Potential spoiler warning.

Diversity and Social Commentary:

First, lets talk about a key facet of this - its selling point, if you will: representation. (I’m not saying ‘selling point’ as a derogatory thing - I myself picked up this book because I really wanted to read a MC who’s trans and Latine.)

The author themself is trans and Latine, and goes by they/them pronouns as far as I can tell. As far as rep goes, I couldn’t see any red flags, nor did I expect any (although I’m not trans and can’t say for certain - I’d love the input of both trans and Latine people on the rep in this book!). To me, the main character, Yadriel, is a fairly straightforward portrayal of a trans, teenage boy, struggling to deal with his family’s short-sighted behaviour while maintaining faith and pride in his identity. 

The parts of the story dealing with Yadriel’s trans identity are sympathetic and heartwarming, managing to address serious topics while keeping the overall tone of the book uplifting and hopeful. As can be expected from a trans author, Yadriel’s journey wasn’t riddled with unnecessary angst or torture, nor did it gloss over the shit that Yadriel had to deal with, being trans in a hetero-and-cisnormative community based in strict tradition.

Side note: I like how the book doesn’t euphemize topics such as classism, American commodification of Dia de los Muertos, etc. 

Style, Tone, and Voice:

The story is written in an unassuming 3rd person past tense, and it’s within the author’s writing style and voice that my first issues with the book arose. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with the way Thomas writes, but just as it doesn’t elicit a harsh negative response, it doesn’t inspire me either. It’s very readable, very digestible, and it would be a great book for a younger reader, but if you’re looking for writing that’s more complex or thought-provoking, this probably isn’t it. 

Similarly, I found the character voices to be...not flat, but not noteworthy either. I’d have enjoyed this book much more if the dialogue and overall language was more unique and less cliché.  

Plot:

Like with other aspects of the story, my reaction to the plot was lukewarm. There were definitely parts I liked much better than others. Overall, I’d say the plot was decent but also fairly predictable on its own. The worldbuilding, which while not outstanding, was solid and interesting, is what gave the plot the unique and intriguing spin that it so needed.

I felt that the plot of this book was more a device by which the characters could be explored, more like a B-side to the characters’ growth, and in that sense, it did its job effectively. I don’t think that this is a bad thing, but if you’re like me and you prefer heavily plot-driven stories, you may find it lacking. I will say there there was a twist at the end that I personally did not anticipate, which delighted me. Other parts of the ending were more lackluster, but that particular reveal, for me, was very enjoyable. 

There is also gay romance within the book, which like most of the story is predictable but cute.

Conclusion

I gave this book a “decent” rating because I truly think that its pros and cons balance out. Obviously, this is a personal score, because everyone looks for different things in the books they read (it rates pretty high on most review websites, if that means anything to you). If you want some easy reading with endearing characters and good LGBT representation, this might be the book for you. If you want something more complex, plot-driven, or gritty, maybe not so much. In general, it was cute and uplifting, but I found it lacking in important aspects such as plot, character voice, writing style, etc.

[wanttotalkaboutbooks]

I made this blog bc hopefully pretending to be a book reviewer can motivate me to finish books even the ones im not in love with. If you want to follow me and get recommendations and maybe even talk about it with me then im kissing you on the cheek. Ill probably curse a lot and I can be really picky about what i read so sorry in advance. Its entirely likely that a book I’m talking about is really popular on social media and I have no idea about it so try not to scoff at me for “reccing” something that everyone has read

Also if you have read a book and you really want to talk about it w someone you can always slide into my dms or my asks and rec it to me because ill read it and talk to you about it.