I Suddenly Remembered My Charlemagne

This is my first of Colbert's books, though I definitely have a copy of her debut, Pointe, around here somewhere...

ANYWAY, so Little and Lion is the story of...well, tbh, kind of everything. Little, the MC, is a black girl whose mum remarried a Jewish guy with a son (Lion), and they converted. Lion has mental health problems, so they send Little to a boarding school where, amongst other things, she falls in love with her roommate (she's bi). The story starts as Little comes home for the summer, and tries to fit back into her old life, deciding where she's going to go when it's time for school again.

It was sooooo good. Little and Lion are excellent siblings, their relationship is super-nuanced and complex, but at the heart of it, they really do love each other, and I really liked that. Also, the parent-kid relationships are all amazing. Little has a large group of friends, which is also fun to read. There was some excellent intersectionality here (mental health, religion, race, blended families, etc), and Colbert nails every part of it.

All told, an excellent book.

This book is absolutely DELIGHTFUL.

I mean, "delightful" gets thrown around a lot at Middle Grade book, which is kind of annoying? But also: I was so fucking delighted by this book.

Backing up: a loose sequel to last year's FURTHERMORE, Whichwood follows Laylee, a 13-year-old girl who washes the dead because there's no one left to do it, and the dead must be cared for. But she's losing her colour and the dead are on the rise and, well, the plot is happening, and Laylee is all "FOR THE LOVE OF PICKLES" about the whole thing.

This book is very messed up, the way great middle grade is. I loved it.

Covering expectation and responsibility, stress and culture, family and legacy, Whichwood is not to be missed.

So a few years ago, Laura started writing a book where they bad guy was a real estate tycoon who was brassy and gross on TV, and bought up historic buildings to level them in the name of progress.

Then, you know.

And now we have a Middle Grade book about clever kids solving a mystery to save their family home (which is an apartment building), and also possibly find out what happened to their grandfather. It was adventurous and fun and really well written. I think it's going to be a trilogy, and I am looking forward to it.

I loved this book a lot.

I'm not always here for faerie books because of the way the girl reacts to faerie boys, but HOLY CATS, I loved this one. It was about Craft and trust and self-worth and sisters and family and getting what you want and

There was also a trickster I liked (uncommon!), and the faerie prince was, like, Nikola Tesla-levels of bad at his job, so I liked him too (even MORE uncommon).

Basically, this book surprised me, and also a bunch of people who don't usually like the same books as me like it too. The crossover appeal in terms of difference taste is excellent, and I highly recommend it.

This book is, theoretically, YA, but also has amazing potential to crossover into MG. I feel like she knew she was going to write kids as they grew, and took the opposite approach that Riordan and Rowling did (ie started with them in the upper age bracket). It works well.

ANYWAY, the most basic pitch is "Nigerian Harry Potter", but it's SO much more developed than that. Okorafor's world is brilliant and terrifying, and Sunny's magical world is MUCH closer to the real one than Harry's is. I absolutely loved it.

Penguin is publishing a book 2 (Akata Warrior) in a couple of weeks, and I am really pumped about it.

The Spider-Man book we deserve, frankly.

Reynolds writes my favourite kind of Spider-Man in that Miles has to do most of The Work as himself, and can only bring Spidey out for the big fight at the end. And it's BRILLIANT. The conflict was breath-taking, and I was, like, SHAKING WITH FURY at one point. (I hate bad teachers so much, you guys. I HATE THEM.)

I wanted other Spider-Man or Ironman or LITERALLY ANYONE to swoop in and help Miles save the day (and himself), and that never happened and the book was SO MUCH BETTER FOR IT.

Also there's a scene that I'll just refer to as "The Spades Conversation" that might be the most amazing thing ever written for Marvel.

This book is so GREAT. It's a pretty straightforward pirate-ish fantasy romp type adventure, but Sarah manages to do a beautiful job of it. She gives you all the pieces and lets you put them together. She deconstructs so many tropes in the most loving way. She's feminist af throughout, and her world-building is top notch.

Oh, and all the characters are DELIGHTFUL.

And, you know, SAILING.

I enjoyed it immensely, and I am looking forward to book #2.

The summer I was nine, I read all the wrong books. The Mists of Avalon, The Firebrand, Dragonflight, Pawn of Prophecy, The Black Trillium, Tiger Burning Bright, Elvenborn, The Clan of the Cavebear, The Horsemasters.

My mother tried to fix me, forcing books she deemed appropriate, but it was too late.

Now I am thirty-three, and adult fantasy and I do not always get along. I don't like the rape in the "dark" side of the genre and I don't like the smugness in the satirical side. I'm not super interested in the way "nuanced" heroes are presented (because for dudes it invariably means they're murderers and for women it invariably means they were abused). I don't read fantasy for shades of grey. I know the fantasy of my childhood doesn't hold up well now that I understand more about how misogyny and racism work.

The Queens of Innis Lear is the book I have been training for my whole life. I would have read it at 9. I would have loved it at 9. I would have missed so much of it.

Surface Pitch: an epic fantasy re-imagining of King Lear, but focused on the daughters (a warrior, a witch, and a priest), and set on an island obsessed with star prophecy that has lost touch with the earth magic that served as the other half of the island's power. Without that balance, the island is dying...and the mainland kingdoms are starting to consider military options.

It's so good. IT'S SO GOOD. It's 700 pages of pure wonder and glory and blood, and I loved every moment.

Disclaimer: Tessa Gratton might be my favourite living author (and also one of my favourite people). I love all of her books and I love her, but OMG, THIS BOOK. Tessa writes my favourite love stories and my favourite murder stories and my favourite animal sacrifice stories, and she usually does all of those things at the same time, and QUEENS is no exception. It's wonderful.

QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR comes out in March and you should pre-order it.

THIS BOOK IS SO FUNNY.

I haven't read the SG comics, though I understand they are similarly delightful and I probably should, but Shannon and Dean did a FABULOUS job with the novel. It was laugh out loud funny, the stakes were interesting and bizarre, the background characters were great, Doreen was great, and it was so squirrelly I adored it.

Highly recommended for anyone with a 9+yo, or people who enjoy happiness.

(don't drink anything when you get to the pages of squirrel names, though I do highly recommend reading the whole list out loud.)

This book comes out next Tuesday, and is the follow up to Danvers' book last year, called DREADNOUGHT, about a trans superhero in a future, but recognizable, world.

OMG, I LOVED IT. It was funny and engaging and heartbreaking and good. It contains possibly my favourite line in any superhero story ever. It manages to pick at the awkward spots in superhero stories without making you feel bad for liking them. I love all of the characters.

Highly, highly recommend this book (and the first one!). They are more hard proof that we don't have Superhero Fatigue, we have Straight White Dude Fatigue.