So What’s It About? In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to… Continue reading

I’ve adapted the Lady Macbeth-focused parts of Ava Reid essay for a review of this book alone. It casts Lady Macbeth as Roscille, a French teenager and unwilling bride to Macbeth. She has to use her intelligence to try to carve out her survival in the violent world of the patriarchy while generally following the… Continue reading

What I Thought (Story By Story) Gul by Shreya Ila Anasuya – this one tells a beautiful but sorrowful story of enduring love between two courtesans, one of whom is immortal. I especially appreciated the way the history of British colonialism was interwoven into the story, exploring the impact of British occupation and violence on… Continue reading

“Uniformity is not unity. Silence is not peace.”So What’s It About? Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children… Continue reading

“Good people don’t bow their heads and bite their tongues while other good people suffer. Good people are not complicit.” So What’s It About? The small country of Bethel lives by the Prophet’s law: submission, purity, piety and conformity are the rule, and Immanuelle’s mere existence is proof of her mother’s sin. She tries to… Continue reading

So What’s It About? The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot.… Continue reading

So What’s It About? When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them… Continue reading

So What’s It About? Sorrow and trouble and bitterness will bound you and yours and the children of yours… Some said the dying words of Nial Lynn, murdered by his own son, were a wicked curse. To others, it was a winter’s tale spun by firelight on cold, dark nights. But when Corbet Lynn came… Continue reading

So What’s It About? Melina lives a harsh life on the edge of the woods, forced to care for her cruel uncle’s every whim. Only the books of daring adventure she reads bycandlelight and the sweet solitude of her forest treks help soothe thehollowness of her days. Until rumors begin to spread of a demon,… Continue reading