Happy Friday, my fellow booknerds! Today in reviews I give you The Unquiet and Her Body and Other Parties, and in news we’ve got adaptations, a Middle Earth sorting hat, and a variety of punks.
This newsletter is sponsored by Tor.
Three Queens. One crown. All out war.
The king’s erratic decisions have drained Innis Lear of its magic, leaving behind a trail of barren crops and despondent subjects. Enemy nations circle the isle, sensing its growing vulnerability.
The king’s three daughters know the realm’s only chance is to crown a new sovereign. But their father won’t choose an heir until the longest night of the year, when prophecies align.
Refusing to leave their future in the hands of blind faith, the daughters of Innis Lear prepare for war—but regardless of who wins the crown, the shores of Innis will weep the blood of a house divided.
I talked about reading Samuel Delaney on the SFF Yeah! podcast, and heard from a number of folks that they weren’t familiar with his work and didn’t know where to start. Here’s a reading pathway to fix that!
We built a LOTR Sorting Hat thanks to comics writer Greg Pak’s A+ suggestion, and here it is. I got Rohirrim which is super correct, so can attest to its accuracy.
How punk is cornpunk? Are we running away with ourselves naming subgenres of SF/F? Maybe, but I confess that I’m kind of enjoying it.
Alert alert alert! Ann Leckie is writing a fantasy novel! I have so enjoyed seeing her play with the tropes of science fiction and breathe fresh air into the vacuum of space (see what I did there), and I can’t wait to see what she’ll do with fantasy.
In equally exciting news, Ken Liu’s short story “The Hidden Girl” (collected in The Book of Swords) is getting an adaptation. I live in hopes of this getting developed and picked up by anyone other than Amazon (who are snapping up SF properties voraciously).
Reminders! We’re doing a crazy awesome mystery giveaway and you should enter. And if you’re not already a Book Riot Insider, you can get a 2-week free trial!
And now: child assassins and even more short stories.
The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett
Trigger warning: eating disorders, harm to children
This dark, strange YA novel has stuck in my brain and won’t be shaken out. “I liked it” feels like the wrong phrasing — I was drawn in by it, provoked by it, a little confused but also compelled by it.
We first meet Lirael when she’s very young, being trained in a cottage alongside other children her own age. As we quickly learn, they’re being trained to kill. There are two Earths, one a mirror of the other; while they used to have friendly and positive diplomatic relations, including people corresponding via satellite with their doppelgangers, things have broken down. One Earth is dying, and it’s secretly sending its inhabitants to the other to take over. When Lirael comes of age and passes her final test, she’ll be sent out to find her duplicate, kill her, and take over her life without anyone knowing.
The methods by which these children are trained are, inevitably, inhumane and traumatizing. Lirael knows that she’s being used, but she also is fully committed to fulfilling her duties as part of this underground army — mostly because it’s the only thing she knows how to do, and the consequences of failure are grim. She in turn damages herself, restricting her eating and separating herself from those who might befriend her. And as the secret war escalates, Lirael has to choose again and again where her loyalties lie.
When I put this book down, I had to sit for a minute. It’s not about the triumph of good over evil, or about choosing to stand up for what’s right at any cost; it’s more of a meditation about how trauma and programming shape us, and how impossible it can be to feel like we have choices. If that’s an exploration that appeals to you, pick it up — we can have thoughts together.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Trigger warnings: body horror, violence against women including rape and domestic violence
I talked about this recently on SFF Yeah!, but I need to talk about it some more, so here we are. BECAUSE WOW. The collection has been getting rave reviews, it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, and it won the National Book Critic’s Circle John Leonard Prize. Clearly you don’t need me to tell you that it’s good, but I’m going to tell you so anyway. It’s really good.
What makes it good? For a start, the range of styles and genres Machado is utilizing. Magical realism would apply, as would horror, dystopia, and fairytales. Alongside bashing through genre boundaries, Machado is also exploring sexuality and feminism. What does a wife and mother owe, and what is she owed? How do our beliefs about our bodies haunt us? How do we grapple with the narratives that others try to sell us? What powers our fascination with violence against women in pop culture? How can we recover from trauma?
“Especially Heinous,” which riffs on Law & Order: SVU, is one of the most frequently mentioned stories. But I am a person who cannot watch crime procedurals with any regularity, and while I appreciated the brilliance of that novella, it was “Inventory” (which you can read here, courtesy of Strange Horizons) that was my favorite. The way that Machado is playing with the therapeutic techniques of anxiety, coupled with a dystopia story and a woman’s contemplation of her sex life, absolutely blew me away. The whole collection is stunning; get it, read it, tell your friends.
And that’s a wrap! You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.
Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn