I read a total of 24 books this month which I am so proud of and I am hoping that July and August are just as good for me.
Breach of Peace by Daniel B. Greene ***** - I have been following Daniel’s YouTube channel for years now and I have followed his publishing journey very closely so when Breach of Peace was actually released I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I didn’t know anything about it going into it other than what Daniel has mentioned in his video but I can definitely say I was hooked from the very beginning. We are introduced to Inspector Khlid as she is called to the murder of the Pruit family. From the second she arrives we know that this entire family has been butchered in horrific fashion. We also introduced to Khlid’s husband, Samuel and Inspector Chapman who are all working on this case. Together the three begin piecing together what they believe happened to the family based on the evidence and all believe that this wasn’t a revenge killing against the family but it was meant to send a message.
The Loop by Ben Oliver ***** - I didn’t really know anything about this series before getting into it other than it features a futuristic death row where inmates can take part in “delays” which are experiments in order to delay their execution date and alone was enough to get me hooked. We are introduced to Luka Kane, an inmate of the Loop who has been there for nearly two years since he was convicted of his crimes. We soon learn that this futuristic world is made up of Alts and Regulars, Alts are genetic enhanced cyborgs and the Regulars are just regular humans. Luka is a Regular and was friends with another inmate Maddox who was coming up to his time to be transferred to the Block, the prison every inmate goes to at 18 if they haven’t already died. Luka briefly runs us through what life is like in the Loop and it seems a very boring existence apart from two things, the energy harvest that happens every night where nanobots harvest energy from the minds of the inmates in order to power the Loop which Luka avoids by exercising an insane amount during the day so he has no energy left and the Delays. Maddox was taking Delays the same as Luka now is but the severity of them increases over time, Maddox’s latest one replaced his eyes with technological implants but they didn’t take, Maddox was taken away and never returned. Despite this Luka doesn’t hate his time in the Loop because he has heard that the Block is worse and while the inmates are isolated from the outside world he does overhear two discussing the fact that there might be a uprising and eventually war between the Alts and the Regulars, who are all controlled by the AI, Happy but he dismisses it as no one truly knows what is happening outside of the Loop.
Luster by Raven Leilani **** - I didn’t know much about Luster and it wasn’t originally on my radar until I read the synopsis. From what I understand it is following Edie, a young 20 something as she navigates her life including an open relationship with a married couple, colour me intrigued. We are introduced to Edie, a 23 year old working desperately to survive while paying off her student loans, she also has an artistic streak that she has allowed to die over the past two years before she meets Eric. Eric is a married man whose wife has agreed to an open relationship and after a month of speaking online they finally decide to meet. This first meeting is interesting as we know, Edie is trying her hardest to impress while not seemingly overly interested while Eric is at a stage in his life where he can be completely honest and she immediately notes how the 23 year age gap between them is both a huge and minuscule thing. There is also a huge amount of sexual tension between this pair but it doesn’t come to anything yet as they arrange another date but after this Edie paints for the first time in two years to recreate Eric’s face which shows the impact he has had on her even in this short time.
The Block by Ben Oliver ***** - After the ending of The Loop, I couldn’t wait to get into The Block but I had no idea where the story was going to go from here since Luka has been imprisoned at the Block with presumably Kina and Malachai while the others have escaped with the Missing. It turns out that I was right about the ending of The Loop being a simulation but Luka is aware of it and spends the next 20 days there living out a life with Kina after the war until Happy begins asking questions again and it’s all over. Back in the reality of the Block we can see Luka hasn’t given up and even manages a brief escape attempt where he gets to kiss Kina in real life for the first time before Happy catches them and returns them to their cells. However, Happy is all too eager to inform Luka that it has found a way to override its programming meaning it can now harm humans directly which is one of the few things that prevented them from being killed in the first novel. Despite sending six hours in the Sane Zone where Happy usually tries to get Luka to give up the locations of the others, he feels like he is slowly losing his mind especially since he now knows that Wren, Kina, Malachai and Woods are all in the Block and it seems like they are the only ones there as a guard informs Luka that everyone else died which means they are the most important things to Happy right now and it is never going to give them up.
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski **** - I have never read The Witcher books, watched the show or played the games but it seems like the kind of fantasy I will really enjoy and been as I own the first book I decided to give it a go. The opening to The Last Wish was interesting as we are introduced to Geralt, a Witcher, we don’t just fully understand what a Witcher is but it seems to be a cross between an assassin and a wizard, meaning he has both amazing physical skills and magic. He meets with Velerad, the Castellan of Wyzim regarding a striga who turns out to be the bastard child between King Foltest and his sister, Adda. Adda didn’t survive the birth of her daughter and the Witcher knows that for the child to become a striga a spell was cast upon her and he might be able to undo it. The King requests that Geralt tries to undo the spell without killing his daughter but he does say that if she turns out to be a hopeless case then he can kill her. Watching Geralt’s preparations for breaking the spell was interesting and he seems to be almost superhuman when he enhances his senses as he only needs to keep the girl outside of her tomb until sunrise then the spell will be broken. However, the striga is far stronger and faster than he expected but he does manage to make it until morning where the striga is beginning to change back into a girl but she is still part monster until Geralt bites her before fainting due to blood loss. When he awakes two days later, the princess has returned to her human self and seems to be recovering well, however, Velerad does ask why he bit her and gets no response.
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami **** - I didn’t know much about Strange Weather in Tokyo apart from it was a romance following an age gap relationship which is something that always grabs my attention. We are following Tsukiko as she meets her once high school teacher, Harutsuna Matsumoto in a bar one evening. Please bear in mind that in this story Tsukiko is 37 and Harutsuna only called Sensei in the novel is 67. We get to see Tsukiko and Sensei get to know each other as adults although it is clear that Sensei remembers a lot more about Tsukiko than she does about him. At first it is just friendship and companionship as Sensei’s wife left him about 15 years before, so they just enjoy being around each other when they are both at the local bar. While Tsukiko does occasionally end their drinking sprees at Sensei’s home she never stays the night and nothing romantic happens at all. Although after a while she finds herself missing his presence when he isn’t around and when they have a strange falling out over baseball she realises how much she misses him ultimately giving in first. We get to see them take several outings together although neither says that these are dates but they do feel like them ranging from a trip to the market to mushroom hunting in the mountains. Getting to know both Tsukiko and Sensei was interesting as we are always seeing him through her perspective which is relatively clear as sometimes she sees him as her old teacher, the next an old man and the next a suave gentleman she greatly admires.
Short Stories in Japanese by Various Authors **** - Concerning the Sound of a Train Whistle in the Night or On the Efficacy of Fiction was a really short story at just over a page long. It is about a boy and girl having a discussion about how much he loves her, instead of just saying a lot or something similar he compares his love for her to a train whistle. In the brief story he tells he conveys feelings of suffocation and no longer being loved couple with oppressive thoughts that don’t lift until he hears the faintest train whistle in the middle of the night. To him this whistle is the most precious thing on Earth because it allows him to push those oppressive thoughts back and realise that he is loved and wanted which satisfies the girl. It was an interesting analogy on love and how we define it but it was too short to be amazing for me.
Japanese Stories for Language Learners by Anne McNulty & Eriko Sato *** ½ - Urashima Taro is a Japanese folktale about a fisherman and it dates back to the 8th century. Urashima Taro one day spots some children tormenting a baby turtle and returns it to the sea where it belongs thinking nothing more of it, until several years later the now fully grown turtle returns and as a sign of thanks takes Taro to the Dragon Palace at the bottom of the sea. He spends some time there with a beautiful princess drinking and having feasts but he is worried about his elderly parents and wants to return home. Before he leaves the princess gives him a treasure box and tells him never to open it. Upon returning he realises everything has changed and he can’t find his parents so he opens the treasure box only to turn into an old man and he realises that during the time he was at the Dragon Palace hundreds of years have passed on land. Urashima Taro reminded me a lot of Pandora’s box and it was very quick to read both in English and Japanese.
The Coward by Stephen Aryan ***** - I didn’t know anything about The Coward but the synopsis was intriguing and it reminded me a little of Kings of the Wyld which I adored. We are following Kell Kressia who became famous after slaying the Ice Lich with a band of fighters and he has been spending the last decade in relative peace but it isn’t going to stay that way for very long. From the beginning we get the sense that Kell isn’t a complete honest person about his past but despite this he has managed to become friend with a Choate named Mohan who is a barber, hairdresser and dentist rolled into once despite the Choate begin seen a dangerous race. We get a little of Kell’s past when some traders including Rowaz tan Nadia ask about his past. Kell’s story is mostly told by the barbs about how he removed the Ice Lich’s head with his sword, Slayer but as he reveals small truths we see this wasn’t the whole truth of the adventure. Shortly after this Kell receives a summons from King Bledsoe which he chooses to ignore until the Raven guards come looking for him and drag him into the Capital to answer the summons. Here he comes face to face with the King’s advisor, Lukas who informs him that an envoy from Frostrunner clans has informed Bledsoe of a new threat in the North and Kell knows he is being sent to deal with it. We then switch to the perspective of Reverend Mother Britak who runs the Holy City under King Roebus and teaches the ways of the Shepherd. Britak is trying to manipulate Roebus and she succeeds in a way by telling him that Bledsoe’s popularity will increase if Kell manages to deal with this supposed threat in the North and might challenge the other Kings in order to become High King. Britak has also installed a spy next to the King in the form of his wife and is using her to further manipulate the King even though she isn’t doing a good job of it right now. She has also convinced Roebus to send someone to deal with Kell once and for all which isn’t a good sign for him.
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami **** - I didn’t know anything about Ms Ice Sandwich but it is a book that keeps getting recommended to me and since it is really short I decided to pick it up. We don’t follow a named protagonist but he is obsessed with a girl working at the grocery store who he calls Ms Ice Sandwich as she works on the sandwich counter. He makes a point of going to the store everyday to buy a sandwich for her just so he can see her and her electric blue eyeshadow, however, the boy is only 9 which is interesting. We also get to see the protagonist’s friend including a young girl named Tutti, who seems to take pleasure in bullying the boy but we know that is a childish outlet for emotions that they don’t know how to deal with. The protagonist is also dealing with an emotionally distant mother, a seemingly absent father and a grandmother who is dying which means he tries to focus on Ms Ice Sandwich in order to distract himself from the reality of his situation which is something that I can completely empathise with.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang *** - I didn’t know anything about The Vegetarian before getting into but I have seen it around and the synopsis sounds really interesting and it is giving me the erotic body horror vibes typically seen in horror movies like Audition so I was eager to get into it. We are following Yeong-hye and her husband, living their normal lives and they seem to be an ordinary couple. They weren’t sweethearts and the husband whose perspective we seem to be following for the most part, wasn’t even attracted to Yeong-hye when he first meet her but their relationship has worked pretty well. That is until one night he wakes up to find Yeong-hye stood in front of the fridge mumbling about a dream she had. She goes to sleep on the sofa and he thinks nothing of it until the following morning she fails to wake him up for work which upsets him and he sees her throwing out all of the meat and animal products they have in their home. By the time he returns home all the meat is gone and his wife proclaims that she is now a vegetarian because of the dream she had. Her husband believes that they can just wait it out and everything will go back to normal but it doesn’t.
Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender by Stef M. Shuster **** - As this is non-fiction around the history and progression of trans medicine I am going to be giving a lot of my personal thoughts on the information contained in this book. The introduction to the book introduces us to the author who is trans and how they learnt about both the social and medical sides of being transgender and who is in charge of making medical decisions regarding trans people and this is going to be explored in further depth as we progress through the book.
So We Look to the Sky by Misumi Kubo ***** - This novel is made up of five interconnected stories so like I did with Before the Coffee gets Cold I will review the stories individually and then see how they tie together. All I knew about So We Look to the Sky is that it partially follows an affair between an older woman and a younger man which is uncommon to see anyway but that it is also quite explicit which is very unusual for Asian fiction, especially Japanese.
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa ***** - The Travelling Cat Chronicles is something that always pops up when I ask for recommendation for Japanese literature but I have never picked it up before mainly because the main narrator is a cat. However, I have read other books like War Horse where an animal is the main narrator and loved them so I finally decided to pick this up. We are introduced to Satoru Miyawaki who finds a cat sleeping on his van one day and begins trying to befriend it, he eventually succeeds through food but we quickly realise that it is the cat telling the story not Satoru. After weeks of befriending the cat, it gets hit by a car and one of its back legs is badly broken so it goes to Satoru for help who takes it to the vet and cares for the cat while it is recovering. The cat believes that it has to leave when it has recovered but Satoru wants the cat to be his pet and the cat agrees. Satoru had a similar looking cat when he was a child named Hachi and he decides to name this cat, Nana, even though it is a girl’s name and the cat is male. They live comfortably together for five years but then something happens although we don’t know what it is that is possibly going to separate Nana and Satoru but before we learn what it is, the pair set off on a road trip.
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland **** ½ - I have read Our Chemical Hearts by this author and really enjoyed it but House of Hollow definitely sounded like it was more to my taste. All I knew about this book before getting into it other than it has a beautiful cover was that we are following the Hollow sister, Grey, Iris and Vivi. The sisters went missing for a month as children but have no memory of that time but since then strange and unusual things have been happening around them and I can’t wait to get into it. We are briefly introduced to the sisters and some of the strange events that happen around them. It is clear to see of the trio, Iris is the odd one out as she isn’t like Grey or Vivi in terms of personality. Both Grey and Vivi left school and home early, while Grey pursued a career in fashion, Vivi joined a band and both are very successful, while Iris stayed at school and tried hey best to be normal but it doesn’t seem possible. From what I can gather both Vivi and Grey are returning to London for work and strange things have already started happening again, when Iris encounters a man who seems to be wearing a bull skull on both her morning run and he appears outside her school. It seems that the trio disappeared as children but when they returned they had no memory of where they had been, and in addition to that their eyes changed from blue to black, and their dark hair turned white among other things that set people on edge when they were around the girls but Iris tries not to think about these things.
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman **** ½ - I didn’t know anything about Anxious People before reading it but when the synopsis mentioned a failed bank robbery, a hostage situation and a mystery I knew I had to pick it up. This novel is told in a rather strange way where you are bouncing back forth in time as well as between different events but everything makes sense. We learn of a bank robbery that failed and in an attempt to escape the police the robber entered an apartment that was currently being shown to seven people. The seven prospective buyers and the real estate agents are now being held hostage by the bank robber. When he finally lets them go the police hear a single gun shot but when they enter the apartment there is blood but no body that means either the robber is still hiding in the apartment which is unlikely or he escaped. However, all the windows are closed and the balcony doors are locked meaning that one of the hostages must have helped the robber. We are introduced to two of the police men, Jim and Jack who are father and son, when Jack was a child he saw a man planning to jump off a bridge and tried to help him only for him to jump anyway which continues to haunt Jack. However, he became a police officer not because of the man but because of a girl on the same bridge the following week, the one he convinced not to jump. As they interview the hostages it becomes clear that someone is lying or not telling the whole truth as the events don’t add up and the narrator confirms this.
Real Life by Brandon Taylor ** - I didn’t know anything about this book before getting into it but the synopsis sounded interesting enough to make me pick it up. We are introduced to Wallace, who is currently studying biochemistry at graduate school. However, on this particular Friday it seems that his lab work was either contaminated or deliberately sabotaged meaning he doesn’t have any lab work as has decided to meet up with his friends by the lake. He is meeting four of his friend, Mille, Cole, Yngve and Vincent, Miller and Cole are a gay couple but as we can see Wallace seems jealous of them as he seems to be attracted to Miller but this isn’t confirmed. Wallace also have a difficult relationship with Vincent as some teasing in their early friendship went too far and now seems strained but there is almost a sexual tension between the pair so I can’t decide what is going on there yet. During this time the group discusses racism in their home states where they all argue that black people were often treated badly and Wallace agrees as a black man, thinking back on how there seems to be very few black students at the school. Wallace does seem to be both depressed and anxious and he is outlier of the group as he doesn’t contribute much to the conversation and just seems to be clinging to the fringes of the friend group.
Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind by Sue Black **** - I didn’t know anything about Written in Bone but the premise sounded interesting and the cover is so beautiful (plus I got approved for ARCs on both NetGalley and Edelweiss). Sue Black begins by introducing us to what the field of forensic anthropology is and what its purpose is in different circumstances. I really liked the fact that Black is going to be focusing on what the skeleton can tell us when all the other parts of the body are lost to time and just from the introduction I can tell this is going to be a very interesting book. She also begins by separating fact from fiction, so if you are like me and love shows like Bones then this is going to be a really fun book to read.
Shark Summer by Ira Marcks **** - As many of my readers will know I don’t read comics and graphic novels that often but Shark Summer caught my eye with its beautiful cover and interesting premise. On thing I noticed straight away about this graphic novel was that the art style was super cute and really appealed to my tastes. The way the graphic novel is designed and the story itself really reminded me of later 2000’s kids movies that were slightly edgier, moving towards the teen genre like Monster House. We are introduced to Gayle who after breaking her arm gets to spend the summer at Martha’s Vineyard. Her mother is working extra hard in order to cover her medical expenses (America!) which means the dream of opening an ice cream store are put on hold for the time being. I really liked how the family dynamic was established early on and that some of the internal conflict came from things that ordinary people reading this novel can relate to like medical expenses.
The Cuts that Cure by Arthur Herbert *** ½ - I didn’t know anything about The Cuts that Cure when I was offered a chance to review it but the synopsis sounded interesting. We are essentially following two characters, a surgeon and a teenage boy whose lives overlap in some interesting way and I was eager to see how it played out. We are introduced to Alex Brantley, a surgeon, whose job is literally killing him emotionally as it was responsible for the break down of his last relationship. His health has also suffered as he barely sleeps and has lost a lot of weight but he thought his surgical residency would be worth it in the end only to learn it was more of the same things he would have to repeat for years to pay off his student loans. This has been wearing Alex down for years and eventually on his last night working in a particular hospital an abused baby causes him to snap leaving early and smashing up the parent’s car in the process before heading to a motel to kill himself. Luckily he doesn’t succeed and is saved by the police who are looking for him for the destruction of the car but Alex has literally crashed into rock bottom pretty hard. We are also introduced to Henry Wallis who lives in Three Rivers, Texas who has known for a long time that he is different to other children. When he was ten he developed a fascination with fire and death specifically after seeing some bunnies at a store. Henry uses his own money to buy a bunny only to hang its cage over a fire and masturbates while the rabbit fights for its life. Henry’s mother witnesses this and beats him for it before taking seeking advice but she doesn’t like what she is told and continues trying to raise Henry as normally as she can when in reality this boy needs a shit load of therapy and fast.
A Cat, a Man, and Two Women by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki **** - I didn’t know anything about this book other than we are following Shinako who has been left by her husband, Shozo for a younger lover, Fukuko and she is trying to get him to give her their cat, Lily. We learn early on that Fukuko conspired with her father and future mother-in-law to get Shinako and Shozo divorced so that she could marry him despite Shozo being her cousin. At first, she was happy with him and even lavished attention on Lily to spite Shinako but soon finds herself becoming jealous of the sheer amount of love and affection that Shozo gives Lily. While she is feeling frustrated with her husband Fukuko receives a letter from Shinako claiming that Shozo is saying that he won’t give her Lily because Fukuko refuses to give up the cat and pleads with her to give her Lily. Shinako didn’t ask for anything in the divorce settlement apart from the cat and has made repeated attempts to get Lily from her ex-husband. Fukuko thinks on this for a while and then deciding she wants her husband’s attention she demands that he gives Lily to Shinako despite his pleas that Shinako will abuse Lily which I don’t think is the case but he eventually gives in. Shozo tries to talk with his mother about the situation but his mother agrees that Lily should be given to Shinako even if it is only temporary and they retrieve the cat at a later date as he can’t be seen to not be committed to this new marriage after everything they did to secure it and once again Shozo relents.
Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon ***** - I have seen this series all over TikTok lately and the love it is getting made me pick up the first half of the series, that’s ten books to see if it was any good. We are introduced to Georgie Carruthers, a bank teller, who is abducted by aliens like in every other alien romance. These aliens are collecting women in a very specific category to be sold off presumably as sex slaves. Georgie with the help of some other girls quickly learn how things work on this ship, the worst thing being if anyone screams they get raped by the guards which happens to one girl early on in the novel so be prepared for that. The ship they are being transported on experienced some trouble so the aliens dump the “cargo” onto the nearest planet to collect it later. Obviously all the girls have a very bumpy ride down to the planet where two are killed and several including Georgie are injured. They realise that the aliens haven’t left them any supplies presumably because it is only the girls in the cargo tubes that they will be coming back to get.
Ensnared by Tiffany Roberts ***** - I didn’t know anything about Ensnared other than it is a) recommended to fans of Ice Planet Barbarians and b) features a spider alien which I am scared about because I have a huge phobia of spiders and I am curious to see whether this book changes that even a little. I also know this book unlike many alien romance novels is full length rather than a novella which I am looking forward to as I always feel the novellas seem rushed towards the end because they are shorter. We are first introduced to Ketahn who a vrix or spider like creature. I was surprised we were introduced to the male first as we always seem to start from the female perspective but I have a feeling there is reason behind that. We learn that Ketahn is a hunter choosing to spend most of his time in the jungle known as the Tangle. However, he has recently been propositioned again by Queen Zurvashi to become her mate which is something that Ketahn definitely doesn’t want as he hates Zurvashi. We learn that since become Queen, Zurvashi is letting her own people starve and risks sending the hunters out on Offering Day which is something highly unusual. Speaking of offerings, Ketahn’s offering is also to let the Queen know he won’t be becoming her mate ever. This interaction was brilliant filled with tension as Zurvashi basically blackmails Ketahn with his place in society if he doesn’t bend to her wishes and we get to see Zurvashi completely annihilate a challenger to her throne as she just how dangerous this female is.
Ice Planet Honeymoon *** - This is one of the first of many novellas that take place in between the main novels of Ice Planet Barbarians following what happened to Vektal and Georgie after the events of the first book. Ice Planet Honeymoon wasn’t anything overly special in my opinion, but it did a little to the first book. We mainly follow Vektal and Georgie as they go on a small honeymoon after Georgie explains what honeymoons are and what they mean to humans which was nice as it shows that Vektal and the others haven’t become experts in humans overnight as they constantly have to ask what things means and even speculate among themselves what things like hormones could be.
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