Queen of Faces (Deluxe Edition): A Wonderful Premise, Slightly Shaky Execution

 

 

Author:  Petra Lord

Genre: Dystopia, Queer Fiction, Teen Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance (but not romantacy), Dark Academia, People of Color (Fantasy)

Publisher: Macmillian Children's Publishing Group

Format: Ebook (NetGalley Copy)

Release Date: Feburary 3rd, 2026

TW: murder, genocidal acts (explicit), parental abuse and abandonment, mutilation, suicide. racism

 

I loved this book, and am glad it exists for teens to read. However, I have a few problems with it. 

But first the plot (taken from the back of the book): "Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and it’s rotting from the inside out. But Ana can’t afford to escape it, even as the wealthiest in Caimor buy and discard expensive designer bodies without a thought. When she fails to gain admittance to the prestigious Paragon Academy—and access to the healthy new forms the school provides its students—her final hope implodes. Now without options, Ana must use her illusion magic to try to steal a healthy chassis—before her own kills her. But Ana is caught by none other than the headmaster of Paragon Academy, who poses a brutal ultimatum: face execution for her crime or become a mercenary at his command. Revolt brews in Caimor's smog-choked underworld, and the wealthy and powerful will stop at nothing to take down the rebels and the infamous dark witch at their helm, the Black Wraith. With no choice but to accept, Ana will steal, fight, and kill her way to salvation. But her survival depends on a dangerous band of renegades: an impulsive assassin, a brooding bombmaker, and an alluring exile who might just spell her ruin. As Ana is drawn into a tangled web of secrets, the line between villain and hero shatters—and Ana must decide which side is worth dying for."

The characters are probably the best part of  this book. Anabelle isn't a chosen one; she's flawed and reckless and sometimes a but dumb. However, instinctively, I  do like her. She's great to read about, and I want to see her succeed. I feel her pain and her entrapment. 

I love Wes. I cannot expand on him due to spoilers, but I must say, that his exploration of his identity and inherent queerness was great to read. Nima and Mr. Nameless were less flushed out, but still fun to read about, and I can't wait for the book to focus on them all more. 

I have a few issues however. For one, certain anachronistic phrases (tonkatsu,) and discussion of those topics (discussion of favourite manga) weakened the worldbuilding for me. These words are inherently tied up with modern japan (especially manga) and don't really fit in a fantasy setting that seems to be based in 1920's England. This is a shame, because I love the idea of being able to swap bodies and all of the horrific implications and gender freedom that implied, but that was overshadowed by the choppy worldbuilding. I also wish that queerness was explored a bit more, as most of the characters are genderqueer, but I understand that the dying is more important. 

For two, there isn't much academia in this Dark Academia book. There's one class, and some small explanation of the magic system, but I didn't know most of the professors at the end of the book. I was fine with this but be warned. 

There is no sex/spice in this book, only kissing, and a brief love triangle. It was fine. 

But overall, I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the sequel.  

Thanks to Macmillian Children's Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Final Rating: 3.5 rounded up to 4 Stars

Drink Paring: Wild Da Hong Pao oolong, roasted and dark 

Kin: A Story About Found Famiy and Fate

 

Author:  Tayari Jones

Genre: BIPOC lit, Literary fiction, historical fiction, Queer lit 

Publisher: Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor

Format: Ebook (NetGalley Copy)

Release Date: Feburary 24th, 2026

TW: murder, racism (anti-Black), antisemitism, physical abuse, sexual assault, homophobia, deceptions of pre-Roe v Wade abortion (which I hope we don't go back to), child abuse (switches and beatings) 

I encourage you to engage with a Black reviewer, as I am white, and might miss some nuance. 

A book about what family truly is, sexuality and queerness, and navigating everything in the face of racism and class privilege. 

Kin is about two girls (and later women) Annie and  Vernice (or Niecy), who've been together since they were born. Growing up in a small town (Honeysuckle Louisiana) both girls have gone through tragedy; Niecy's father murdered her mother and then killed himself, when she was a newborn and Annie's mother walked out on her as a child.   When she finds out her mother might be alive, Annie leaves before graduating high school to find her. Vernice leaves for Spellman College, drawn into a whole new world. Trials and tribulations meet both of them, and they both endure and draw together, each pulling on their bond at different times to keep from drowning.

The POV's do a big job in keeping the story flowing. Annie and Vernice really do change during the novel, and this change is reflected in the way that the language changes as they grow apart. This really highlights the characters. I particularity appreciate Niecy's journey to reconcile her girl-loving tendencies in a heteronormative society. I also loved and related to Annie as someone who blew up her life to search for a mother that left her, that yearning resonated and had me sobbing at the resolution. 

There were moments of throat crushing horror as well, and I really felt the terror of the characters in that moment. The side characters are as rich as the mains, and all had their own stories.  

This book is complex, like Black womanhood itself, and filled with love and pain. The ending made me cry. I am glad that it wasn't fully wrapped up at the end. Like life, it is bittersweet and harrowing. 

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and NetGalley for the ARC!

Final Rating: 4 stars out of 5 

Drink Paring: Rose black tea, sweet and sharp 

 

Book Review-The Mercy Makers: Vivid, Maybe Too Vivid For Some

 

 

Author: Tessa Gratton

Genre: Political Fantasy, Erotica (queer-forward), Adult,  

Publisher: Orbit Books

Format: Ebook (NetGalley Copy)

TW: murder, racism against a minority group, imprisonment, death penalty, colonialism

The Mercy Makers is a book you have to devote time to. It's a luxuriating read, packed with politics and meditations on the nature of empire and what one will do to break or uphold a system 'for the greater good.' The characters are as layered as the language, but sometimes that language occludes connection. 

First, the plot. Iriset is the daughter of The Black Cat, an underground smuggler, murderer and general ne'er do well. She is also, Iriset, is Silk, a genius Designer, a person who can manipulate the fundamental forces  of her world by basically making intricate diagrams and applying them to people. However, in her society, human alteration is forbidden, and she as Silk skirts the line. Until, that is her father gets captured and sentenced to death. Iriset, in keeping her identity secret has gotten a golden opportunity to infiltrate the palace as a handmaiden to the consort of the Hungry God, one half of the ruling government of her kingdom, to save her father.

The language is my favourite part of this book. Certain metaphors have stayed in my head since I completed it, even if it takes me a second to decipher them. However it is very florid language, so be warned. The language lends itself to the political intrigue as well, covering it like wrapping paper, with double meanings. But even the language can be exposition-y, but still a delight to read.

The magic system, likened to building a structure benefits from the language. I also love the magic system; it’s incredibly unique.

The characters however suffer. Iriset has a competent arc, however, the language holds her apart. The consort and her brother are even further from the reader. I wonder if this was intentional as they are like gods. I commend the author if so. 

On that note, I appreciate that queerness can exist in this setting but still is restricted by the convictions of the empire. I liked that there seemed to be consideration of multiple axises of oppression as well.

This book is not a romantasy. It is a political queer fantasy with erotic elements. There is a lot of sex, and Iriset relishes in it with both binary genders allowed in the empire. As an Ace person who leans towards women, my eyes glazed over the PIV scenes but even they were well written. 

It seems that if this book clicks with you, you will love it. It clicked with me and I can’t wait to see the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for the ebook!

Final Rating: 4 stars

Drink Paring: Osmanthus oolong while gazing at the moon

  

Book Review-The Murder at World's End: Amusing Mystery, Amazing Characters

 

 

 

Author: Ross Montgomery 

Genre: Mystery (locked room, cozy*)

Publisher: HarperCollins, Penguin Random House UK

Format: Audiobook (NetGalley copy)

Narrators:  Joe Jameson, Derek Jacobi

TW: murder, period typical sexism, mention of eugenics in a true context, verbal abuse, sexual harassment (mentioned)

*The main lady character, Decima swears like a sailor (period accurately), which might put off some cozy readers, but I definitely believe this counts as cozy.

I, pardon my French, freaking loved The Murder At World’s End. 

But first, the plot: It’s 1910 in Cornwall, England. The day Hailey’s Comet caused a worldwide panic. Swept up in this panic is Viscount Conrad Stonckington, who decides to seal up his estate, the semi island of World’s End, in hopes to emerge into a new world. Thrust into this lunacy is Stephen Pike, a prisoner turned footman here with a reference to work in the house. Hired on to take care of the helion Miss Decima, Conrad’s irasible aunt, it seems to be simple. Seal the doors, and wait untill the next morning for the lunacy to boil over. But not everyone makes it out alive. The next morning, Conrad is found dead, a crossbow bolt in his brain, and Stephen is a prime suspect.

The mystery unravels from there, with many twists and turns and red herrings. The mystery was tantalizing enough to keep me hooked and guessing until the end. The world building was believeable and complex, and the language was surprisingly vivid but also in character, even if the amount of times Stephen jumped or bumped into someone stood out. (But since it’s his diary, the repetitive actions makes a lot of sense.) 

But the characters were the real draw. 

Stephen Pike is initially a bit naive. A country boy done in for a crime he didn’t commit, his last chance is World’s End. I love Stephen. He’s endearing (I love his habit of carrying around a notebook and writing down words he doesn’t know so he could look them up later) and insanely observant, without being mean. The book is primarily told through those notebook entries in first person with a few interstitial bits done in third person, which is very intimate. His perspective is a joy to read, and his background came right through and added colour to the story, balancing out the other lead, Decima.

I love Stephen, but I would follow Miss Decima Stockington into the jaws of hell, and I think Stephen would too. Decima is a force of nature. Worldly, whip smart and assertive, but also flawed. Her mistreatment by her family has hardened her, and she has prejudices and meanness that she has to overcome. Her verbal sparing with Stephen is amazing, and her voice is so different from his. (She swears, for one, oh the horror!) Her character at the end of the novel had me crying. 

The side characters felt so real too. Shout out in particular to Temperance and Mr. Stokes, and the hilariously incompetent Inspector Jarvis. But for spoiler reasons, I won’t mention anything more about them.

It would be remis of me not to mention the outstanding narration done by Joe Jameson and Derek Jacobi. Jameson voiced every character in the novel and did it well too. He brought every character to life and was so good at it that I was convinced there were multiple narrators. Derek Jacobi voiced the outside of the diary parts, and he was excellent as well, with a dignified voice that sparkled with barely held mirth near the end.

I am so glad there is room for a sequel.

I will be buying this book for my mother in law. She’ll love it as much as I did.  

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review audiobook!

Final Rating: 5 Stars

Drink Paring: Black tea in a porcelain cup, hot and steaming

Book Review-The New Eve: A Rough Read

 

Author: Moussa Ould Ebnou 

Translated By: Paul Roochnik

Genre: Dystopian adult queer literature 

Publisher: Iskanchi Press

Format: Ebook (NetGalley copy)

TW: sexual torture, conversion therapy, forced transition, state brutality, parental death

 

The New Eve is alien. Ironic for whom the title of the book alludes to, but a thought provoking read nonetheless. 

The book concerns two cis (?) gendered lovers, Adam and Mandi, trying to find each other after their mandated sex-times, and avoid capture by the state. Otherwise, men and women have completely separate spheres of life, and live apart from one another. Same-sex relationships are the norm. There is a third gender as well who bridge the gap between both worlds.

The setting was the most intriguing part of the book for me. It was so unique and made enough sense that I was able to immerse myself in it. The feeling of the last few chapters in particular showed what a gendered city would look like and was fascinating.

However, I cannot decide whether this book is queer affirming or not. A significant portion of the book takes place in a conversion camp. Adam in particular earns a happy ending through this conversion which rubbed me the wrong way. And for such a queer narrative, the same sex relationships were de-emphasized until the end as a neat bow. 

I think the ambiguity comes from this being a translated text from Arabic and French. The author is Mauritanian so I fully acknowledge I may be missing out on how transgressive this actually is. I do not agree with the book’s conclusion however.

I also wish we also could’ve spent more time with Maneki aside from the conversion camp scenes as her last chapter was one of my favorite parts of the book. 

Ultimately, I enjoyed my experience but heed those trigger warnings and your own cultural biases; this is a hard read and might not be to your tastes.

I hope that this author’s other works become translated. 

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the book!

 

Final Rating: 3 Stars

 

Drink Paring: Mint green tea, sharp and cutting

 

Book Review-The Umbral Storm: Magic, Not Mundane (Author-Given Copy)

Author: Alec Hutson

Genre: Fantasy

Medium: ARC Apple iBook (physical copies are available),

TW: teen endangerment, mentions and depictions of violence towards teens, child death, mentions of animal abuse, enslavement

Overview:

At first blush, this book feels familiar. There’s a ‘generic fantasy world’ with a caste system where most of the population is not magically inclined aside from the nobles. Each part of the world is either hostile or indifferent towards one another, seeking power. The main character discovers he can use this magic, and gets whisked away. The dark powered ones are spooky, and their boarding school/familiar stronghold is hell. We’ve seen this before. But not really.

The devil’s in the details and boy does he deliver.

But with any good book, there are some flaws, although for a debut novel, not as much as I expected. It’s a wonderful first outing, with some slight missteps.

The Good:

Pacing: Let’s start with this book’s greatest strength; the pacing. From the first few pages, I was enraptured, and the book never let me go. The prose definitely helps with this, as action scenes are blisteringly fast, while scenes at rest still carry an undercurrent of action. I could not find any dead scenes, which is a marvel for a fantasy tome. (It was such a marvel that it kept me up past 3 am reading.)

The Setting: The prose communicated a vivid sense of place, and of history. I could see the places where the characters were going, from the shadow house in the mouth of an active volcano, to a forest with skyscraper-tall trees.

Magic System: The magic system is as mysterious and vivid as the setting, which is a positive here. I find myself wanting to dive deeper in to it, and I hope that there is more experimentation with it in the next volume.

Side Characters: I absolutely adore the side characters in this book. I was ensnared by them, because they felt real. Sometimes, characters feel as if they exist only for the story they are in. This is fine for some stories, but in larger works, it makes the world feel thin. I am happy to say that The Umbral Storm and the world it introduces does not have these paper doll characters, for the most part. Each side character with any prominence has a life outside of the story. They feel as if they each have their own adventures to go on. As this is a book with an ensemble cast (with Deryn being the main point of view character), this bodes well for the rest of the series.

This extends to the main characters of the ensemble cast like Heth and Alia. Their stories could fill up a book from before they met Deryn, and I would read it.

The Representation: Although ambiguous, there is queer representation here, between two main characters, which is appreciated. (Happy Pride everyone!)

The Ehhh:

The Main Character: Now, the main character Deryn has his own depth, but he seemed a bit too naiive at times, when he shouldn’t be? For example, (minor spoilers) again and again, he is told that the Shards (this world’s magic enablers) were enough to kill for. He then allows himself to be alone with someone who is immediately shifty. However, this is not immersion breaking.

Abrupt Ending: (Spoilers for the rest of this section.) The ending felt abrupt. There is peril and it is resolved, and the characters get a power up, a tincture is used and not questioned. There are some large plot points that have not been resolved as well, and I hope they will not be discarded.

The Bad:

I legitimately do not believe that there were any ‘bad’ parts of this book. Again, it’s quite a marvel.

Sequel Worthy?

Yes. I desperately want a sequel, and hopefully won’t have to wait too long (the sequel is supposed to be out this summer). I can’t wait to be caught up in the rest of the world, even if sometimes there are small stumbles.

Final Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Drink Paring: Iced dark black tea (for Shadow Magic) and a rich shortbread cookie

Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Umbral-Storm-Sharded-Few-Book-ebook/dp/B09ZBGFFYP

Book Review-Od and Ed: An Odd Read

 

 

 Author: Shanti Leonard

Genre: Horror 

Medium: Kindle e-book (although some really cool physical editions are available）

TW: child endangerment, mentions and depictions of violence towards children, child death, mentions of animal abuse

 

When I first opened the book on my Kindle--I had no idea what to expect. The excerpt was vague, and the premise was well, odd. A child who lives in a real haunted house with his adopted sister gets the soul scared out of him, and his sister has to find a way to reconnect his body and soul. This deceptively simple premise serves as the skeleton for a very surreal experience. For example, right at the start, we are treated to a chapter where the cousin of the titular Odd and Ed has a fantasy of opening Od's underwear drawer with his mind, and the book only gets more disturbing and fascinating from there. It's definitely not meant for the faint of heart, (heed the trigger warnings, people!) but the further I got into the book, the more I felt like I couldn't put it down.

 

Sometimes, however, it is painfully obvious that this book was written by an adult trying to re-create a childhood from the late 80's . (A Commodore 64 features in the plot heavily, and there are references to the original He-Man and She-Ra, for example.) This childishness was definitely at odds (ha!) with the way that the narration described the children's bodies (the word ass and certain other swear words being used comes to mind). I understand that children do swear, (and Od and Ed are 12-13, so this would be their primary time to start) but to hear the narration engage in this as well was a bit jarring. The narration is in limited third-person singular, so we only truly see the perspective of these characters one at a time which does heighten the tension, but the perspective shifts are confusing if you are not expecting them. In addition to this, the plot can seem a bit out of left field sometimes, and some of the elements of the plot are not fleshed out at all (to possibly leave room for a sequel?), and that ambiguity sometimes hurts the story as a whole.

 

Another thing that may give readers whiplash is the amount of graphic imagery that the book contains, which I alluded to above.  There are dead bodies dragging around their intestines, many eyed souls grasping for release, needles being stuck into children to drain their souls, and permanent child death. There are terrible, ghoulish adults and shadows around every corner. Some of the imagery will undoubtedly stick with me for a while, which includes the setting. The town doesn't seem safe, and everything is almost haze-like (including the house which caused this trouble).

 

Aside from the imagery and setting, the child leads are relatively believable, and Od and Ed have a genuine sibling relationship, which is rare. (I do wish they fought a bit more, but maybe it's because I fought with my sister a lot.) Odd in particular is my favourite, with her ability to roll with the punches, so to speak. The antagonist is suitably terrifying, and deadly, along with her grisly children.  However, the book also does not have any characters of colour. The two main characters are two explicitly white and blonde children, and so are the people that help them. I only wish that there was more diversity in the cast.

 

All in all, I recommend the book if you like slightly ham-fisted 80's nostalgia, dead bodies, interesting death mechanics, well-written sibling bonds and scares. Just be warned, this isn't a light story.

 

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 

 

Drink Pairing:  Anhui Black Tea (2020) with a tiny spoonful of sugar (for the wholesome sibling bond)