Reviews and Comments

Monstrilio is a hard novel for me to pin down. If I had to attach some labels to it I'd say literary fiction with a dash of horror.

It's a story rooted in loss: Magos and Joseph's son Santiago dies suddenly; Magos is enthralled by a tale about regrowing a child from its heart and so cuts out a piece of Santiago's lung from his body to do the same. As she feeds it and grows this lung, it becomes a monster that she treats as her son, and names Monstrilio. The book is divided into four parts from different perspectives: Magos, longtime friend Lena, Joseph, and finally Monstrilio.

But it's not just about grief, it's a story about family and relationships with the monstrous. Magos lives in denial and tries to believe her lung monster Monstrilio is her child Santiago again. Joseph speedruns acceptance and tries to forcibly conform his own life and Monstrilio into a facade of normality.

It's satisfying to me that the book ends from the fractured perspective of Monstrilio, rather than through the projecting biases of the adults in his life. It's interesting to see how the adults largely try to cover for Monstrilio's (at times horrible) actions and coerce him into humanity, while Monstrilio himself covers his own monstrous feelings from the adults and tries to exist in an ill-fitting human world.

I was quite engrossed by this book, although it is definitely quite (deliberately) uncomfortable at points and the book doesn't shy away from (usually off page) gore.

The Woods All Black is a queer and trans 1920's story about a nurse named Leslie being called out to help the small Appalachian town of Spar Creek. The initial foreground of trying to provide services to chilly and creepy Christian townsfolk is backgrounded by both gothic and body horror, as well as some romance.

One element of this book that I thought was done well is that it deals with Leslie's wartime trauma (and homophobia trauma). In this aspect, it echoes a lot of the things I liked about T. Kingfisher's What Feasts at Night, about somebody trying to understand what they can trust about their own perceptions in a strange and disturbing environment.

I love the queer solidarity in this book, about people trying to be themselves while being torn down by the airquotes community around them. The feeling of being somewhere unwelcoming and magnetically being pulled to befriend the one other outcast resonated particularly strongly for me.

I also appreciated reading a book taking on a historical trans perspective. Of course that's my language, and not the book's. Leslie calls himself an invert, and follows butch femme scripts that he learned in Paris, not having any other signposts to follow. Stevie is a local to Spar Creek that the locals read as a willful tomboy; he doesn't have the same language as Leslie, but still has a strong sense of his own identity. Mostly, I love that they each have things to teach the other about themselves.

The subtitle to this book is "When they call you a monster, show your teeth". It's got a delightfully sharp "be gay do crime" ring to it, but it's also an accurate depiction of the shape of its story and the revenge fantasy of fighting back against hatred by being the things they hate you for.

I love the concept of the Wayward Children series as a whole, but individually a few of the books have been hit or miss for me. If I had to pick, In an Absent Dream and this book have been my favorites out of the whole series, largely in that they both focus on a single character and so the plot and theme can be a lot more tight in the short space of a novella.

Lost in the Moment and Found follows Antsy, who runs away from horrific step-dad, finds herself lost, and steps through a door into the Shop Where the Lost Things Goes. (I also deeply appreciated the Author's Note which precedes the book and content warns for grooming and adult gaslighting, but also gives the reassurance that "before anything can actually happen, Antsy runs.")

In this book, the reader gets teased with larger worldbuilding hints about the Doors and how they operate, but thematically for Antsy it's all about abuse and loss. She's literally lost and in a shop that collects lost things; she has lost trust in adults and the safety of the world; by the end, everything she's lost all ties together really satisfyingly. Some more spoilery thoughts.

Six months after Abby was born, her mother sat her down in the living room and took her hands, as she'd done twice before. Antsy sat rigid, having learned that these were the moments where her life changed for the worse, where things she didn't even know could be lost were ripped away from her and thrown aside.

This is a minor detail, and I certainly differ a lot from Antsy on many points, but boy howdy did this quote hit me right in the psychologically unsafe "serious conversations" feelings.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from another book set in The Goblin Emperor universe, but I really enjoyed this fantasy slice of life cozy mystery. This is not a sequel per se and I don't strictly think you need to have read the previous book to enjoy this one, but I do think coming to this one knowing the naming conventions and a little bit of backstory make this book easier and more enjoyable to read.

It was also fun to have read this after reading Paladin's Hope (by T. Kingfisher), which similarly features a main character who is able to see a body's last moments before death. Plot-wise, it's definitely a useful mystery hook to have an amateur investigator (and also thankfully not a cop) have some insight into tracking down nefarious deeds. The similarities end there, as Paladin's Hope has a more ...action and romance bent to it, and this book is more about religious duty and local community. (I think I expected that book to have more of the feel that this one did and was surprised where that one went. But that's neither here nor there.)

I think my biggest joy with this book was just the extra worldbuilding and cultural details. The Goblin Emperor is (understandably) focused on Maia who is insulated from the rest of the world, and so the book focuses more on his feelings and court politics. There's still plenty about Celehar's feelings and local politics here as well, but there's a lot more space to see the world itself. It was fun to have such a different locale here where we get to see coin-powered gas meters, teahouses, burial practices, local religious politics, airship manufactories, etc.

I really enjoyed this a lot, even if it had a very different feel from The Goblin Emperor. I do love a good mystery though, and this delivered.

I read this as a part of the #SFFBookClub for March. I voted for this book largely because I had enjoyed Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown and wanted to read more from her.

To sum up the book, it's a wuxia novella that follows a bandit group along with ex-nun Guet Imm. Guet Imm in the first scene loses her job at a coffee shop because of said bandits and insists on joining said gang.  Very queer; some gender stuff going on; the gang itself is sort of a found family that sticks up for each other even when they don't get along.  It's hard to talk about too much more without getting into spoilers. It's far more about characterization and shifting identities due to wartime loss than about magical fight scenes.

I was not expecting to find this book so funny and to have such great banter.  Guet Imm is an optimistic force of nature whose personality carries the book.  Her dynamic with the grumpy Tet Sang and amused Fung Cheung made the book a lot of fun.  She shows up to the group of bandits and insists that she's joining them despite being already paid off, despite not being able to cook, and also despite making it very clear that she will not sleep with any of them.  This sort of dynamic continues elsewhere where Guet Imm innocently and irreverently inserts herself into situations (fully knowing what she's doing) while everybody else is amused or exasperated.  (Although they are definitely not the same character, I think there are some personality vibe parallels with Prunella from Sorcerer to the Crown here, which probably added to my enjoyment.)

If I had any complaint, I feel like the focus on banter and main characters left some of the other place and character details out of focus.  One amusing example is the scene where Guet Imm shows up to join the group and multiple bandits are introduced out of thin air.  There's an ongoing conversation, and Ah Boon (never mentioned before) tries to flirt with Guet Imm.  A few conversation beats later, Fung Cheung says "oh you can ask Rimau about religion" and Rimau (never mentioned before) chimes in.  Then, Fung Cheung mentions Ah Yee's cooking and Ah Yee (also never mentioned before) chimes in a reply.  Maybe this is supposed to be an intentionally comedic clown car introduction of the bandit troupe (or some trope that went over my head), but it took a reread to make sure I understood who all was even in the scene.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot.  Would recommend.

Overall this book wasn't for me. I found it heavy-handed and repetitive. Would not recommend.

Plot-wise, this is an extremely long fantasy quest novel about insecure heir Ryan, knowledge-seeking-at-all-costs scholar cousin Lyelee, and nearly indestructible magical "weapon"/actually a person Nonee going to find some fuel in a dangerous mage-torn land to keep a magical fire burning for ostensibly motivational reasons.

The book sets up a tale of Ryan following in the footsteps of the previous heir Garrett's journey to find fuel and intersperses the two journeys. Unfortunately, I don't feel like these scenes served the book very well. They didn't reveal much hidden backstory, didn't really develop Arianna and Nonee's relationship (which felt fixed from the moment they met), didn't reveal much about Garrett himself, and only served to draw out the journey by doubling its length.

The characters felt very flat to me. Sure, Ryan and Lyelee have a little bit of (what you might expect) character arcs, but I felt like 90% of the book was emphasizing their initial characterization and the last 10% had the interesting arc. The rest of the characters were fairly one-note to my ears. In several occasions where members of the party died, others offered condolences and would say something akin to "oh yes they were a good lay" and I was like EXCUSE ME there was not a whiff of this on the page.

I think overall this book's biggest strength is interesting worldbuilding: mage roads that take the same length to walk, politics, scholars wanting knowledge but differentiating themselves from mages, Captain Marstan and Tanika's relationship, what's going on with the fuel and the fire, the rock with a face that follows the party, the world itself being somewhat sentient, angry dirt, etc etc etc. However, these interesting details are dragged under by a long series of encounters (mostly solved by Nonee in both past and present).