beforeviolets's reviews
304 reviews
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
I wouldn’t consider this book an introductory resource in regards to Palestinian occupation/struggle, or even to Angela Davis’s work, and would likely suggest starting in other places for foundational knowledge on both topics. But this was a wonderful collection of speeches/essays/etc. from Davis that discusses the intersections of struggle, the international effects of threats to freedom, and inversely, the effect of international collaboration for freedom.
Our Grim Auguria by Isabel Agajanian
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Thank you so much to the author for sending me an advanced copy of this book!
"Imagine that these paper birds were me and you—I’d have folded us together"
Returning to the world of Modern Divination from a new angle, Agajanian once again takes their readers on a journey of hope, love, and loss. In book two we have: less tea, less academia, and less banter, but more swords, more Catholic guilt, and lots more bird content.
CW: grief, emesis, suicide (past), alcohol consumption, death of mother, dead body, blood & gore, blood magic, violence, abusive parents, religious trauma, character death
"Imagine that these paper birds were me and you—I’d have folded us together"
Returning to the world of Modern Divination from a new angle, Agajanian once again takes their readers on a journey of hope, love, and loss. In book two we have: less tea, less academia, and less banter, but more swords, more Catholic guilt, and lots more bird content.
CW: grief, emesis, suicide (past), alcohol consumption, death of mother, dead body, blood & gore, blood magic, violence, abusive parents, religious trauma, character death
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide
Squire by Nadia Shammas, Sara Alfageeh
"Your silence was a lie. The stories left out the part where you hurt innocent people, civilians. The story left out the part where you trade your people for comfort."
I've had this one on my radar ever since Molly Knox Ostertag blurbed it, and I'm sad to finally be reading it under such atrocious circumstances, but I'm also glad to have a reason to finally get around to it. An unbelievably universal and yet hyper-specific tale. One that dissects empire, confronts propaganda, and asks its audience to notice the wheels of history that we've been trapped in and to stand up and tip over the cart.
I do wish this was a bit longer and we had more fleshing out of this world-building, and/or to have a bit more closure with our main character and her family and culture. It felt like it needed more of a button to end on to really show us the importance of standing up against imperialism, to show how much one group of people can make a change. (Especially because one character is worried that their actions won't make enough difference.)
But the work was lovely and I really enjoyed what it accomplished in its pages. I definitely recommend.
CW: war, blood, racism, violence, amputation, fire
I've had this one on my radar ever since Molly Knox Ostertag blurbed it, and I'm sad to finally be reading it under such atrocious circumstances, but I'm also glad to have a reason to finally get around to it. An unbelievably universal and yet hyper-specific tale. One that dissects empire, confronts propaganda, and asks its audience to notice the wheels of history that we've been trapped in and to stand up and tip over the cart.
I do wish this was a bit longer and we had more fleshing out of this world-building, and/or to have a bit more closure with our main character and her family and culture. It felt like it needed more of a button to end on to really show us the importance of standing up against imperialism, to show how much one group of people can make a change. (Especially because one character is worried that their actions won't make enough difference.)
But the work was lovely and I really enjoyed what it accomplished in its pages. I definitely recommend.
CW: war, blood, racism, violence, amputation, fire
By Any Other Name by Erin Cotter
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
this wasn’t a bad book by any means and i think a lot of people will enjoy it, but the F.T. Lukens comp led me to think this would be a little more campy and silly than it was, and instead it was taking itself a little too seriously and just had an excessive use of inner monologuing and the word “‘tis”
CW (so far): imperialism, violence, murder, dead body, plague (mention), indentured servitude (past), injury detail, alcohol consumption, emesis, fire
CW (so far): imperialism, violence, murder, dead body, plague (mention), indentured servitude (past), injury detail, alcohol consumption, emesis, fire
Saint Juniper's Folly by Alex Crespo
A really sweet and spooky YA story with a nuanced and unbelievable lovable trio of main characters. Complete with a magical realism-style metaphorical magic system, a lovable achillean romance, and a house that represents the walls we build out of trauma.
Highly recommend for fans of Cemetery Boys!
CW: death of mother (past), grief, animal death, confinement, racism, child abandonment, blood, hospitalization, fire, electrocution
Highly recommend for fans of Cemetery Boys!
CW: death of mother (past), grief, animal death, confinement, racism, child abandonment, blood, hospitalization, fire, electrocution
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
5.0
“If you combed through enough fairy tales, untangled their roots, and shook out their branches, you would find that they are infested with oaths. Oaths are brittle things, not unlike an egg. Though they go by different names depending on the myth–troths and gets, vows and tynged–there is one thing they all share: they must be broken for there to be a story. Only a shattered promise yields a rich, glittering yoke of a tale.”
This is a book to pore over. It is a book that makes you want to trace your fingers along each line, coaxing the words into your fingertips, just to bring your digits up to puckered lips and suck the ink dry, savoring each flavorful drop of meaning.
It holds a power in its pages, one of enchanting intoxication. If it’s possible to get drunk on words alone, this book is the god’s nectar to your everyday literary watered-down wine. It’s simultaneously luxurious like a rose and sharp like a thorn, its wit as enscorcelling and impressive as its characters’.
By thematically weaving together tales such as Bluebeard, Eros and Psyche, Catskins, Beauty and the Beast, and more, Chokshi explores a liminal unease found between reality and fantasy, truth and lie, promises bound and broken. This book is a catalog of ghost and story through gothic prose, and in its own way, a thesis on the lessons of fairytales and the danger of the power they hold. Or rather the power we have to hold them. What is love if not fear? What is devotion if not sacrifice? What is a fairytale if not a weapon and a warning in one?
This book utters itself like a secret. And though like all secrets, it is meant to be spilled, its knowledge, also like with all secrets, comes with a sacrifice. It is not given freely, but earned through the effort of reading it. This story is to me: fragile, intangible, a whisper declared to the heart. And to attempt to clumsily summarize it in words or break its spell with the utterance of its particulars seems to me nothing short of blasphemous.
But I can say: THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE is a brand new favorite of mine and its praises will be living on the tip of my tongue for a VERY long time. I was absolutely captivated by its purple prose and drawn in by its deconstruction of fairytale motifs. I fell in love with its gothic atmosphere and haunting cast of characters (including a hair-raising house), and felt a little too seen in its depiction of homoerotic codependent friendships between young girls (I didn’t know In A Week by Hozier could be known like this). But mostly, I left it believing in just a little more magic than I did when my journey into its pages began. And isn’t that what the goal of reading is? To emerge in a cloud of bibliosmia, stretching our limbs and rubbing our eyes and upon reacquainting ourselves with our reality, to find that when we weren’t looking, some unnameable thing from the depths of the story has nuzzled its way into our soul, leaving the world looking (or perhaps feeling) just a little bit different than it was before? To be inexplicably, indefinably, but undeniably changed?
CW: loss of sibling (past), blood and gore, animal death, abusive relationship, abusive parent, bullying, alcohol consumption, drugging, self-harm (for magic), parental death (past), character death, dead body, cannibalism, tooth horror (light), sexual content,
This is a book to pore over. It is a book that makes you want to trace your fingers along each line, coaxing the words into your fingertips, just to bring your digits up to puckered lips and suck the ink dry, savoring each flavorful drop of meaning.
It holds a power in its pages, one of enchanting intoxication. If it’s possible to get drunk on words alone, this book is the god’s nectar to your everyday literary watered-down wine. It’s simultaneously luxurious like a rose and sharp like a thorn, its wit as enscorcelling and impressive as its characters’.
By thematically weaving together tales such as Bluebeard, Eros and Psyche, Catskins, Beauty and the Beast, and more, Chokshi explores a liminal unease found between reality and fantasy, truth and lie, promises bound and broken. This book is a catalog of ghost and story through gothic prose, and in its own way, a thesis on the lessons of fairytales and the danger of the power they hold. Or rather the power we have to hold them. What is love if not fear? What is devotion if not sacrifice? What is a fairytale if not a weapon and a warning in one?
This book utters itself like a secret. And though like all secrets, it is meant to be spilled, its knowledge, also like with all secrets, comes with a sacrifice. It is not given freely, but earned through the effort of reading it. This story is to me: fragile, intangible, a whisper declared to the heart. And to attempt to clumsily summarize it in words or break its spell with the utterance of its particulars seems to me nothing short of blasphemous.
But I can say: THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE is a brand new favorite of mine and its praises will be living on the tip of my tongue for a VERY long time. I was absolutely captivated by its purple prose and drawn in by its deconstruction of fairytale motifs. I fell in love with its gothic atmosphere and haunting cast of characters (including a hair-raising house), and felt a little too seen in its depiction of homoerotic codependent friendships between young girls (I didn’t know In A Week by Hozier could be known like this). But mostly, I left it believing in just a little more magic than I did when my journey into its pages began. And isn’t that what the goal of reading is? To emerge in a cloud of bibliosmia, stretching our limbs and rubbing our eyes and upon reacquainting ourselves with our reality, to find that when we weren’t looking, some unnameable thing from the depths of the story has nuzzled its way into our soul, leaving the world looking (or perhaps feeling) just a little bit different than it was before? To be inexplicably, indefinably, but undeniably changed?
CW: loss of sibling (past), blood and gore, animal death, abusive relationship, abusive parent, bullying, alcohol consumption, drugging, self-harm (for magic), parental death (past), character death, dead body, cannibalism, tooth horror (light), sexual content,
Love's Labor's Lost by William Shakespeare
shakespeare really outdid himself with the penis and cuckold jokes in this one
Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
I was lent an ARC of this book by a bookseller friend, I was not sent this by the publisher. Though, per usual, this is my honest review.
DNF p. 66
I'm literally begging authors to unpack their implicit biases of white supremacy and ableism before they write cozy fantasy books.
This is a problem that has continued to grow in cozy fantasy and romantasy as genres, in which authors strive to create idyllic and comforting stories for their readers to “escape into.” And what is more comfortable than the familiar, than the unconfrontational? So they seek to create safe spaces without considering what is necessary for a safe space actually safe for the people who need it most (aka marginalized people). And instead they use these “escapist” narratives and “safe spaces” as a bubble to protect themselves from the discomfort of confronting their own biases. And so these stories tend to tread harmful ground by blindly and unknowingly perpetrating bigoted narratives.
TOR actually published a really wonderful article (ironically) about this problem. Though this article very specifically talks about racism in witchy romantasies, the sentiment can be applied to other pillars of white supremacy as well as other types of cozy fantasy and romantasy:
"SFF and romance both promise escape, but they falter when they forget that we cannot escape to without also escaping from. When we step back from the sparkling overlay of a book’s premise, we discover that we have ended up on the same old used paths, hiding the selfsame horrors from which we were promised escape beneath the veneers of fairy tale, utopia, or comfort. Whatever fictional or nonfictional marginalizations a white character may possess, they exist within the protective sphere of whiteness, and it is the moral imperative of white authors to grapple with that fact when we write about power, about history, about oppression—or else not to write about those things at all."
I highly recommend reading the whole article, and using it as a jumping-off point to do some learning and unlearning about what fantasy stories (especially cozy ones) have to say about power and marginalization: https://www.tor.com/2023/08/08/the-pr...
In this book's case, these issues bled into the story very obviously and very early on.
Upon meeting our third POV character, within a matter of pages, we are slapped in the face with a Harry Potter reference as the character finds out he's magical: “Yer a wizard, Dan.” In 2023. In a LGBTQ+ book. Truly, I do not understand in this day and age how these references continue to seep through stories, even after other books have made active changes to take out HP references from previous printings. If at this point you are not aware of JKR’s violent TERFism or the way Harry Potter has become a platform of bigotry (though of course, the books have always been riddled with transphobia, antisemitism, racism, a butchered Holocaust metaphor, and more since their inception. But as of recent, more and more right-wing individuals have been brought into the development of the franchise’s content, creating a huge escalation in the level of this bigotry. I highly recommend looking into the VERY clear antisemitism and racism of Hogwarts Legacy), or are not actively changing the way you engage with HP media because of it, then I don’t know what you’re doing.
And then, we learn that this character has been cured of cancer immediately upon entering the magical realm. A magical healing trope will always make me suck my teeth and roll my eyes, but after just a couple pages, the rhetoric escalated and became a little too clear: “Magic self-repairs the host. Witches, are, in essence, hosts to magic.” And we are told that if this character returns to the human world, his cancer will return. So… there’s no such thing as disabled witches, or disability in the magical world in general. Which of course, is incredibly alienating to any disabled reader, but also sheds light on precisely what this author would define as “idyllic” and “cozy”: a world free of disability.
As always, I don't feel good writing this review. I am not pleased or smug or joyful to report these findings. It's never fun to come across these sort of things in stories. But sadly, with the way cozy fantasy and romantasy (especially witchy ones) have been following a trend of pushing under-the-radar accidental bigotry and shrugging any criticism or deeper thought off with an "it's not that deep, it's just a silly fantasy story", I was not surprised to find content like this.
I will most definitely be emailing the publisher with my feedback, in hopes that this content will be changed in the final copies. Fingers crossed it is.
CW (so far): ableism (complacent in text), car accident, cancer, hospitalization, magical healing trope, death of parents (past), homophobia (mention)
DNF p. 66
I'm literally begging authors to unpack their implicit biases of white supremacy and ableism before they write cozy fantasy books.
This is a problem that has continued to grow in cozy fantasy and romantasy as genres, in which authors strive to create idyllic and comforting stories for their readers to “escape into.” And what is more comfortable than the familiar, than the unconfrontational? So they seek to create safe spaces without considering what is necessary for a safe space actually safe for the people who need it most (aka marginalized people). And instead they use these “escapist” narratives and “safe spaces” as a bubble to protect themselves from the discomfort of confronting their own biases. And so these stories tend to tread harmful ground by blindly and unknowingly perpetrating bigoted narratives.
TOR actually published a really wonderful article (ironically) about this problem. Though this article very specifically talks about racism in witchy romantasies, the sentiment can be applied to other pillars of white supremacy as well as other types of cozy fantasy and romantasy:
"SFF and romance both promise escape, but they falter when they forget that we cannot escape to without also escaping from. When we step back from the sparkling overlay of a book’s premise, we discover that we have ended up on the same old used paths, hiding the selfsame horrors from which we were promised escape beneath the veneers of fairy tale, utopia, or comfort. Whatever fictional or nonfictional marginalizations a white character may possess, they exist within the protective sphere of whiteness, and it is the moral imperative of white authors to grapple with that fact when we write about power, about history, about oppression—or else not to write about those things at all."
I highly recommend reading the whole article, and using it as a jumping-off point to do some learning and unlearning about what fantasy stories (especially cozy ones) have to say about power and marginalization: https://www.tor.com/2023/08/08/the-pr...
In this book's case, these issues bled into the story very obviously and very early on.
Upon meeting our third POV character, within a matter of pages, we are slapped in the face with a Harry Potter reference as the character finds out he's magical: “Yer a wizard, Dan.” In 2023. In a LGBTQ+ book. Truly, I do not understand in this day and age how these references continue to seep through stories, even after other books have made active changes to take out HP references from previous printings. If at this point you are not aware of JKR’s violent TERFism or the way Harry Potter has become a platform of bigotry (though of course, the books have always been riddled with transphobia, antisemitism, racism, a butchered Holocaust metaphor, and more since their inception. But as of recent, more and more right-wing individuals have been brought into the development of the franchise’s content, creating a huge escalation in the level of this bigotry. I highly recommend looking into the VERY clear antisemitism and racism of Hogwarts Legacy), or are not actively changing the way you engage with HP media because of it, then I don’t know what you’re doing.
And then, we learn that this character has been cured of cancer immediately upon entering the magical realm. A magical healing trope will always make me suck my teeth and roll my eyes, but after just a couple pages, the rhetoric escalated and became a little too clear: “Magic self-repairs the host. Witches, are, in essence, hosts to magic.” And we are told that if this character returns to the human world, his cancer will return. So… there’s no such thing as disabled witches, or disability in the magical world in general. Which of course, is incredibly alienating to any disabled reader, but also sheds light on precisely what this author would define as “idyllic” and “cozy”: a world free of disability.
As always, I don't feel good writing this review. I am not pleased or smug or joyful to report these findings. It's never fun to come across these sort of things in stories. But sadly, with the way cozy fantasy and romantasy (especially witchy ones) have been following a trend of pushing under-the-radar accidental bigotry and shrugging any criticism or deeper thought off with an "it's not that deep, it's just a silly fantasy story", I was not surprised to find content like this.
I will most definitely be emailing the publisher with my feedback, in hopes that this content will be changed in the final copies. Fingers crossed it is.
CW (so far): ableism (complacent in text), car accident, cancer, hospitalization, magical healing trope, death of parents (past), homophobia (mention)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Car accident
Moderate: Cancer
Minor: Death of parent and Homophobia
The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton
Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC!
Barbie and the Diamond Castle if it was actually sapphic, by the way of Moulin Rouge + a D&D quest, but make it a steampunk fantasy heist with fae.
THE ABSINTHE UNDERGROUND is a quick & thrilling read with a dazzlingly atmosphere, fascinating lore, and easy-to-love characters. For a heist story, this book is wonderfully cozy and sweet. I wanted to just curl up on my couch with a cup of mint tea and a beloved pet (or stuffed animal, if I'm being honest) and read the night away. And I often did.
I will say: this book is more a showcase of potential than execution. There's a lot of telling rather than showing, especially when it comes to the emotional arcs and motivations of the characters. And the plot itself is really exciting but progresses too easily, made up of more conveniences than challenges. All the elements are absolutely BRILLIANT, but just need to be tossed into a pressure cooker in order for them to properly shine. (I have SO many ideas that would make this story just blossom in ways that it isn't right now. SO many ideas.)
But I also have to give kudos where it is due, and I must say that I was engaged and invested in this story the whole way through. I read it in just about 3 sittings, and kept itching to pick it back up in-between. I was never bored or incurious about these characters and their journey, and I had a really good time reading it. It also seems to be hinting at a sequel, as many threads are left wide open, and I'm so intrigued to see how Pacton continues to expand on this enticing and intoxicating world.
CW: alcohol consumption, death of mother (past), grief, blood, imprisonment, violence, fire
(Credit to Faye for the original comp to Barbie and the Diamond Castle. And also thank you for letting me send you too many audio messages with my too many ideas about the shape this book could've taken.)
Barbie and the Diamond Castle if it was actually sapphic, by the way of Moulin Rouge + a D&D quest, but make it a steampunk fantasy heist with fae.
THE ABSINTHE UNDERGROUND is a quick & thrilling read with a dazzlingly atmosphere, fascinating lore, and easy-to-love characters. For a heist story, this book is wonderfully cozy and sweet. I wanted to just curl up on my couch with a cup of mint tea and a beloved pet (or stuffed animal, if I'm being honest) and read the night away. And I often did.
I will say: this book is more a showcase of potential than execution. There's a lot of telling rather than showing, especially when it comes to the emotional arcs and motivations of the characters. And the plot itself is really exciting but progresses too easily, made up of more conveniences than challenges. All the elements are absolutely BRILLIANT, but just need to be tossed into a pressure cooker in order for them to properly shine. (I have SO many ideas that would make this story just blossom in ways that it isn't right now. SO many ideas.)
But I also have to give kudos where it is due, and I must say that I was engaged and invested in this story the whole way through. I read it in just about 3 sittings, and kept itching to pick it back up in-between. I was never bored or incurious about these characters and their journey, and I had a really good time reading it. It also seems to be hinting at a sequel, as many threads are left wide open, and I'm so intrigued to see how Pacton continues to expand on this enticing and intoxicating world.
CW: alcohol consumption, death of mother (past), grief, blood, imprisonment, violence, fire
(Credit to Faye for the original comp to Barbie and the Diamond Castle. And also thank you for letting me send you too many audio messages with my too many ideas about the shape this book could've taken.)