Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, where it’s my final round-up of the dark and haunting tales of African Monsters, edited by Margrét Helgadóttir and Jo Thomas.
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When her dying mother summons her after years of estrangement, Vera reluctantly returns to the house her father built. The house where it all happened. A house as haunted as Vera herself…
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, where I’m currently enjoying tales collected by Margrét Helgadóttir and Jo Thomas. It’s time to be haunted and horrified by some more African Monsters…
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves. It’s been a long while since Sinopticon, and today I’m on the trail of African Monsters – the second volume of the globe-trotting Fox Spirit Book of Monsters.
Sig is a loner even by the standards of the remote island community she lives on the margins of. Haunted by guilt, she has cut herself off from friends and family. But when an older, darker sin is uncovered by an ignorant visitor, Sig must decide whether she is truly ready to turn her back on her world.
An arrogant foreigner funds an expedition north – or perhaps south – or maybe out – to find a mysterious Edifice that appears on no charts. As questions gather about what happened to the first ship to find it, the expedition’s doctor begins to recall events his crewmates assure him haven’t happened…
I had A Guilty Moment recently, as I looked back at my seasonal TBRs and realised quite a few of the books that I’ve never quite got round to reading were ARCs. Thankfully, there’s an annual summer event for miscreants like me: so here I am, reporting for ARC August.
When Sol disappears after what may be a bioterrorist attack, their spouse Lumi searches for them across Mars and beyond. As she starts to examine their past in a new light, she begins to realise how many secrets they have kept from one another over the years.
For some couples, holidays are a relaxing break by the beach with a book. For others, it’s political intrigue and murder all the way down – although Asmodeus did bring a book, just in case…
The final week of The Fantasy Hive’s read-along of She Who Became The Sun sees Zhu and Ouyang come face to face once more as each throws caution and conscience to the wind in pursuit of their fate…
In our third week of The Fantasy Hive’s read-along of She Who Became The Sun, political conflict within the Red Turbans is the most immediate threat to Zhu’s fate; while Ouyang struggles with inner turmoil as he begins prosecuting his revenge…
In our second week of The Fantasy Hive’s read-along of She Who Became The Sun, events force Zhu to take her fate into her own hands. Great rewards require her to take great risks, for she must attract the notice of Heaven without Heaven noticing she isn’t Zhu Chongba…
When an ex-magician turned card sharp is pressured into ensuring a nobleman loses his stake in a high profile tournament, Valen and his crew find themselves in possession of a secret that could upset the delicate political balance that keeps the island of Valtiffe independent. And, y’know, get them all killed.
I first read She Who Became The Sun last year. Shelley Parker-Chan’s devastatingly good debut reimagines a key period of Chinese history and I never marshalled my thoughts into a review that wasn’t vowels – but that’s okay, as The Fantasy Hive have come to my rescue with a read-along for their June celebration of trans and nonbinary authors.
In a magical fortress on the edge of the world, a runaway slave mage hides from his past until the arrival of a gifted refugee threatens his close-guarded secrets. But who is this girl with the tattooed face, and what does she mean to the rebels surging across the country?
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