Going through high school as a social outcast is hard enough when the school itself isn’t trying to kill you. At the Scholomance, being a loner can be deadly…. I’ve finally read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, a young adult fantasy novel which came out back in 2020. I’ve been a fan of Novik since first stumbling upon Uprooted in 2015, but even more so ever since I read her Slavic fairy story Spinning Silver. I’ve been hearing great things about the Scholomance series for years, and now that all three books in the trilogy are out, I figured it would be the perfect time to pick up Book 1. Continue reading Review of A Deadly Education—Monsters and Dark Magic
Month: January 2024
Review of Here in Avalon—A Cultish Cabaret
If you could walk out of your old life, leaving everything behind, and into a new one filled with beauty, magic, and wonder, would you? Two sisters are confronted by this question in Tara Isabella Burton’s latest literary thriller Here in Avalon, which came out earlier this month. I loved the decadent dark side of New York City that Tara conjured up in her debut Social Creature. With this book, Tara explores the same city through a lens of glittering magic. But even the most ethereal of artists and dreamers cannot truly live inside a fairy tale…. Continue reading Review of Here in Avalon—A Cultish Cabaret
Books I’m Excited for in 2024
Happy 2024! First things first: as I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, I will be moving to an every-other-week posting schedule this year. But though I’ll be posting less often, I am still just as excited as always about all of the new books coming out this year! Here are just a few of the new releases I am most looking forward to:
1) The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan (set to be released January 9)
This Gothic horror novel is set off the coast of South Africa in a ruined mansion haunted by a djinn. When a young girl named Sana moves in with her father, she uncovers the estate’s long-buried secrets and a tragic tale of lost love. I always love to see classic Gothic tropes in new, unfamiliar settings. Continue reading Books I’m Excited for in 2024