This January has dragged on and been the most chaotic, upsetting and awful one in my life. I’ve dealt with multiple family health emergencies and one death. My wonderful, beloved grandmother passed away on the 30th and I feel completely numb.
The Ordeal of the Haunted Room by Jodi Taylor is the new Christmas story from St Mary’s. I liked the Sherlock vibe of it. Even if the big reveal was pretty obvious, it was well done. Very enjoyable and a nice hold-over for when the new book releases in spring 2021.
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims. Sims is the writer of the fab The Magnus Archives podcast. This is his first novel and it is a good one. Scary and surreal and a few more characters to keep track of than I had brain for but I got there in the end. Very good horror for me (not too scary or too gross) and it has a lot of parallels with The Magnus Archives even if they are not at all connected. Read/listen to both!
Squire Archie’s Rectory Christmas by Harper Fox is a holiday sequel to Fox’s Seven Summer Nights that I read in 2017. It is set six months after book 1 and is a nice revisit with the characters. I liked it even if the first book is better.
Daddy by Loup Durand is an old book I read the first time many years ago. It’s about a little boy with extraordinary gifts who is hunted by Nazis in occupied France because of the things he knows. I love it and I have re-read this book several times. (This time it actually broke and fell to pieces – I need to find a new copy). Still love it. I worried that it wouldn’t have aged super well with regards to sexism, homophobia and antisemitism. It wasn’t as bad as I had thought though.
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. I started re-reading this because of the Netflix series that dropped in December. I remember liking it a lot when I first read it in 2018 but I guess I’ve changed my tastes since then because now I was a bit bored with it and there were issues I didn’t notice on the first read that stood out this time (Daphne assaulting Simon and Simon lying and deceiving Daphne).
As for the tv-show, I may write down my thoughts on that in a separate post – not that I can add much to the things that have already been said *waves in the general direction of The Internet*.
Judas the Hero by Martin Davey almost ended up in the DNF-pile. I did not like it but I kept reading because I hoped it would get better. It had all the elements I should have liked but the author did too much telling and not enough showing. He was very heavy-handed with the foreshadowing. There were several deus ex machina by archangel and it was just, ugh. I could tell plot points from a mile off and it was just .. no. I am however considering reading book 2 because it ended on a cliffhanger and I really would like to know what happens so he’s succeeded after all I guess.
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal was a joy though. Such a great book. The story was fun and thrilling. The concept of getting soldiers to ”report in” with information after death was intriguing. The world-building was well done and it all felt consistent and there were no sudden deus ex machinas anywhere. Loved it.