Julia

Beautiful, heartbreaking, hopeful book. Kin to There There, of course, but also an evolution in Orange's writing and a thing of its own. I also can't think of any writer other than Louise Erdich in The Round House who captures teenage boyhood better. I go to a family reunion every year with a book swap, and this is my book for this year. I do wish there'd been a teeeeeny bit more in the earlier parts of this family tree, but also that's part of Orange's point - what do people lose when forcibly disconnected from their own lineages?

I was discussing this with a colleague/friend, and we stumbled into “gobsmacking” being the most-right word for Orange's astounding prologue, and that's how I felt about the especially stunning, agonizing, beautiful last chapter, too. Lots and lots of other beautiful/powerful moments throughout, and this strikes me above all as a love letter to Orange's community (both people and place). A favorite quote: “Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere.”

My bestie recommended this back to me when it came out, and I have no idea why I didn't just read it immediately! She and I are literary "twin flames" (thanks, Megan Fox, for the parlance), so she was 100% accurate in her educated guess I would love this. 10/10; no notes. Read the last third really slowly because I didn't want it to end!! Epic, intimate, searing.

I don't think this quote from the final pages can be captured in its full glory out of context, but it was rattling around in my head for days afterward and came up in another book club when someone was talking about the tightrope between nihilistic despair and hope: "A breeze would blow them over, and the world is filled with more than breezes: diseases and disasters, monsters and pain in a thousand variations.... How can I live on beneath such a burden of doom?.... Circe, he says, it will be alright.... He does not mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean that we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive."

Okay, I am stating in writing for perpetuity that I need to focus my energy on COMPLETE D series. It's not that I can't stand a cliffhanger, but it's gotta be a GOOD cliffhanger, and my primary beef with Onyx Storm (other than it's hard to maintain same spice intensity when the protagonists are in a committed long-term relationship hah) is I can't tell if there were lots of loose ends that we're going to get AMAZING plot cohesion in the next books, or if there are loose ends because the editing should be tighter.

Very cute. I feel like Heather Fawcett & Freya Markse have some fun commonalities. Emily Wilde is an absolute nerd, Fawcett adeptly depicts neurodivergence, and the world-building around faeries is just so fun to read. I'm hopeful the sequel will include some spice, but the plot is captivating enough that I'll read regardless!

Feels absolutely inane to attempt to write a review for this. Just go read it.

So charming. So charming! I love a self-aware title to a self-aware book, and this is one of my fave romance tropes. A testament to how good this was is that I didn't even mind that it was less spicy than it could have been by half, because the LONGING at the end was worth it! Really wish the other half was already out, and 3 cheers for not one but TWO bisexual mains where their bisexuality is not just a token mention.

I wanted to like this more!! Obviously Lynch is in the midpoint of a sweeping epic, but this one felt too plotty to me in a way that detracted from how much I love Locke & Jean. I just want a swashbuckling buddy novel!! Saw another review that said Sabetha in reality is a disappointment, but I didn't feel that way - enjoyed both the awkwardness of their adolescent fumbling and the "will they or won't they" vibe of their adult interaction, including some good communication! The first two novels are also very plotty, too, but I think what makes the difference is the setting changes. Here, the mage, election, and play storylines end up feeling tedious as opposed to excitedly involved (although - do love where the mage storyline ends, and feel like Lynch has done great work foreshadowing how the Eldren history relates to all this throughout the series). I'll keep reading, but am taking a break.

I'm writing the review a few months late, so keeping it short because my memory is fuzzy. There was *quite* a plot twist at the end that I didn't mind, and I liked the setting, but the writing felt a bit "telling not showing." I don't think I would return to what seemed like the setup to a sequel unless it plopped into my lap.

I really like this part of Lidia Yuknavitch's blurb on the back: "A Physical Education performs power from the inside out." I've been reading Casey's column from back when she was "Ask A Swole Woman," and "She's a Beast" (https://www.shesabeast.co/) is the newsletter I am most likely to forward to friends. Casey is incisive, incredibly intellectually curious, and writes with a big wide open heart. None of the content of her memoir is surprising for a long-time reader, but stands alone in its own right, and is a book bound to make you want to go lift heavy things and feel the edges of your own power. Maybe actual weights, maybe metaphorical ones; I loved this start to finish.