Alex Brown Reviews The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, Shubnum Khan (Viking 9780593653456, $28.00. 320pp, hc) January 2024.

When I started Shubnum Khan’s first novel to be published in the US, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, I had no idea what to expect. I haven’t read much South African speculative fiction, and nothing that delves into Indian culture transplanted to Africa. It’s not a history or culture I’m familiar with, ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews A Feast for Flies by Leigh Harlen

A Feast for Flies, Leigh Harlen (Dancing Star Press 978-1-73214-186-5, $11.99. 163pp, pb) November 2023. Cover by Vitalii Ostaschenko.

Leigh Harlen has only published a collection and one novella, but I loved the latter so much that they immediately became one of my auto-buy authors. Queens of Noise is a riot of a novella, a fierce, funny story about were-punks trying to stop a corporate takeover of their favorite ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Alex Brown

2023 by Alex Brown

In an unintentional yet perfect synchronicity of events, I’m writing this 2023 speculative fiction wrap-up on the last day of the year with a glass of Martinelli’s while waiting for the ball to drop. It was a strange, contradictory year, one with several professional wins and sev­eral more personal hardships. Going through my reading log, I got through more books this year than I thought I ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert

A Necessary Chaos, Brent Lambert (Neon Hem­lock Press 978-1-95208-646-5, $13.99. 156pp, tp) October 2023. Cover by Cathy Kwan.

Switching gears, let’s dive into novella A Neces­sary Chaos by Brent Lambert. In a world where technology and magic collide live two gay Black men, Althus and Vade. Every so often, the boy­friends are able to carve time out of their busy work schedules to meet, usually at some touristy party ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

Bloom, Delilah S. Dawson (Titan Books 978-1-80336-575-6, $22.99, 208pp, hc) October 2023. Cover by Julia Lloyd.

I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I read anything by Delilah S. Dawson. I enjoyed her young adult speculative novels Hit and Servants of the Storm, comic book Ladycastle, her speculative romance stories, and her Weird West series The Shadow written under the pseudonym Lila Bowen. But for no reason ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Skin Thief: Stories by Suzan Palumbo

Skin Thief: Stories, Suzan Palumbo (Neon Hem­lock Press 978-1-95208-672-4, $18.99, 186pp, tp) September 2023. Cover by Mia Minnis.

Anytime a book published by Neon Hem­lock lands at my doorstep, I drop every­thing to read it. Every story is unique in content and powerful in its queerness. I never know what I’m going to get, except that it’s going to be good. When Brent Lambert’s A Necessary Chaos and Suzan ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Frost Bite by Angela Sylvaine

Frost Bite, Angela Sylvaine (Dark Matter INK 978-1-95859-803-0, $17.99. 280pp, tp) October 2023. Cover by Eric Hibbeler.

In Angela Sylvaine’s Frost Bite, winter has hit Demise, North Dakota hard. Snow and ice have blanketed the town, making everything as cold and miserable as Realene feels. She was on her way out of town, but when her mom was diagnosed with a fatal health condition, Realene’s future crumbled away. ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga Press 978-1-98218-834-4, $29.99. 576pp, hc) October 2023.

The great Tananarive Due is back with her first solo, full-length novel since 2011 with The Reformatory. Set in the fictional city of Gracetown FL, where many of her stories take place, this one focuses on two Black children caught in the grinding gears of Jim Crow. Robert and his older sister, Gloria, were left behind ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

Forged by Blood, Ehigbor Okosun (Harper Voyager 978-0-0631-1262-9, $32.00. 400pp, hc) August 2023.

Readers looking for a high-octane story with an equal amount of romance and fight scenes should look no further than Ehigbor Okosun’s Forged by Blood, the first in the debut author’s Tainted Blood duology. It’s the perfect summer adventure story.

Forged by Blood begins when Dèmi is a child living in desperate poverty with her ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow

A Song of Salvation, Alechia Dow (Inkyard Press 978-1-33545-372-3, $18.99. 352pp, hc) July 2023.

Although technically a standalone, Alechia Dow’s new young adult space opera A Song of Salva­tion is part of the larger world shared by her two earlier YA novels The Sound of Stars and The Kindred. It helps, but you don’t need to read the other two to enjoy and understand the third. That said, ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Magic Has No Borders edited by Sona Charaipotra and Samira Ahmed

Magic Has No Borders, Sona Charaipotra & Samira Ahmed, eds. (HarperTeen 978-0-06320-826-1, $19.99. 352pp, hc) May 2023. Cover by Jyotirmayee Patra.

Given how many young adult fiction heavy hit­ters there are in Sona Charaipotra and Samira Ahmed’s new YA fantasy anthology Magic Has No Borders, I came in with high expectations. Fourteen authors, all of whom I’ve read and loved before, coming together to share their South Asian ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas (Berkeley 978-0-59343-672-1, $28.99, 400pp, hc) August 2023.

I like historical fantasy as a subgenre, but I espe­cially love historical fantasy set in the American West with BIPOC protagonists encountering the horrors of colonialism and the supernatural in equal measure. Victor LaValle’s viciously impressive Lone Women is one of the best of the bunch of the last several years, but Isabel Cañas’ Vampires of ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Sordidez by E.G. Condé

Sordidez, E.G. Condé (Stelliform 978-1-77768-236-1, $16.00, 141pp, tp) August 2023. Cover by Paulina Niño.

In Sordidez, the debut novella from Taíno­futurist author E.G. Condé, we meet three Latinx people attempting to survive in the aftermath of colonial warfare and climate di­sasters. Vero, a trans man, lives in Puerto Rico, a place ravaged by American disinterest, global manipulation, and devastating hurricanes. Using his knowledge of his Taíno ancestral traditions, ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due

The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Tanan­arive Due (Akashic Books 978-1-63614-105-3, $23.99, 296pp, hc) April 2023.

 

The Wishing Pool and Other Stories marks Tananarive Due’s first solo work since her 2015 short story collection Ghost Summer and it’s a firecracker of a collection. All but two of the stories in The Wishing Pool and Other Stories have been previously published within the last few years, and like its ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark

Abeni’s Song, P. Djèlí Clark (Starscape 978-1-25082-582-7, $17.99. 336pp, hc) July 2023. Cover by Michael Machira Mwangi.

P. Djèlí Clark makes his middle grade de­but with Abeni’s Song, the first in a new fantasy trilogy, and it is everything you’d expect from Clark, and then some.

The morning of Abeni’s 12th birthday begins with excitement. In her mother’s golden wrap and with fresh oils rubbed into her skin, ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury YA 978-1-54761-154-6, $19.99. 240pp, hc) June 2023.

There are two things I love so much that I will immediately consume them with little hesitation: 1) young adult horror; and 2) ’80s/’90s teen slash­ers. So, of course, when I heard Kalynn Bayron had combined both of those elements in her new novel, You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, I had ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Many Worlds, or the Simulacra by Cadwell Turnbull & Josh Eure, eds.

Many Worlds, or the Simulacra, Cadwell Turn­bull & Josh Eure, eds. (Radix Media 978-1-73771-843-7, $24.95. 180pp, tp) June 2023.

Speculative anthologies often have a central theme with individual stories. Some of my favor­ite anthologies I got to cover for Locus in the last two years have taken this approach. Voodoon­auts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology, edited by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, & LP Kindred, collected stories ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Against the Stars Christopher Hartland

Against the Stars, Christopher Hartland (Tiny Ghost Press 978-1-91558-503-5, $12.99. 296pp, pb) April 2023.

If you had the chance to see your future, would you take it? What if you saw something unexpected, like that you weren’t the person you thought you were or that your life wasn’t going to go the way you planned? Would you try to change your future or would you lean into it? Is ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder

The Severed Thread, Leslie Vedder (Razorbill 978-0-59332-585-8, $19.99. 416pp, hc) Febru­ary 2023.

Vedder’s young-adult second world fantasy novel The Severed Thread marks the return to the ‘‘Little Red Riding Hood’’ and ‘‘Sleeping Beauty’’-inspired world she established in last year’s The Bone Spindle. In the first book, we meet our protagonists: Shane the huntsman, Fi the treasure hunter, Red the girl with dark se­crets, and Briar Rose the cursed ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams

That Self-Same Metal, Brittany N. Williams (Amulet Books 978-1-41975-864-5, $19.99. 352pp, hc) April 2023.

I finished That Self-Same Metal, book 1 of Brit­tany N. Williams’ Forge and Fracture Saga, about 15 minutes before writing this and I’m already desperate for the sequel. That I have to wait a whole year for it is a crime, plain and simple.

Set in London in 1605 at the beginning of the ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Linghun by Ai Jiang

Linghun, Ai Jiang (Dark Matter INK 978-1-95859-802-3, $14.99. 150pp, tp) April 2023.

Not far from Toronto is a place known as the Homecoming of Missing Entities, or HOME to its residents. It is a place where the lucky are able to buy or win at auction a house where their dead can visit and the unlucky are condemned to sleeping on the lawns of homes they dream of owning. ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues by H.S. Valley

Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues, H.S. Valley (Hardie Grant 978-1-76058-75-3, $12.99. 320pp, tp) February 2023.

I first heard about New Zealand writer H.S. Valley’s debut 2021 novel Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues a little over year ago, and was instantly disappointed that I couldn’t acquire it through a US publisher. When I got a notification that review copies were available in the States, ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

She Is a Haunting, Trang Thanh Tran (Blooms­bury Children’s Books 978-1-54761-081-5, $15.17. 352pp, hc) February 2023.

My review copy of Trang Thanh Tran’s YA horror debut She Is a Haunting com­pared it to Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Mexi­can Gothic and Emily X.R. Pan’s The Astonishing Color of After. Having read (and loved) both, I am here to say that is one of the most perfect set of comps I’ve ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Blood Like Fate by Liselle Sambury

Blood Like Fate, Liselle Sambury (McElderry 978-1-53446-531-2, $19.99, 480pp, hc) August 2022.

A young adult fantasy set in the near future that blends technology and magic? Yes, ma’am! Liselle Sambury’s Blood Like Magic duol­ogy tells the story of Voya, a teen witch in Toronto in the mid-21st century. Her family, the Thomases, is one of the original founding witch families in Canada. Centuries ago, her ancestors escaped slavery in ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Tread of Angels, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press 978-1-66800-663-4, $22.99. 208pp, tp) November 2022.

With Tread of Angels, Rebecca Roanhorse blends tropes from Westerns and noir with Biblical my­thology. In the western town of Goetia are the bones of a dead divine being. What is mined from those bones is used to power just about everything, from automobiles to strange mechanical objects. The town is mostly populated by two ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, & LP Kindred, eds.

Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, HD Hunter & LP Kindred, eds. (Android 978-1-95812-111-5, $19.99, 177pp, tp) November 2022. Cover by Paul Lewin.

Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living My­thology is everything I’ve ever wanted from a speculative anthology. It’s a col­lection of short fiction and poetry rooted in stories and traditions from across the African continent and throughout the Black diaspora. I have read many of ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2022 by Alex Brown

Every year fans of young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror – like myself – are blessed with well over 300 traditionally published titles, be­tween the Big Five, indies, and small presses. Even though covering YA SFF/H is a big chunk of my reviewing work, even I can’t keep up with numbers that high, much less the average reader. There are countless Best of and No­table lists wrapping up the ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Direwood by Catherine Yu

Direwood, Catherine Yu (Page Street Publishing 978-1-64567-612-6, $18.99. 288pp, hc) Septem­ber 2022.

Sisters Fiona and Aja are part of the only Chinese American family in their entire suburban town. It’s the 1990s, the era of grunge and disillusion­ment, and no one is more disillusioned than Aja. Or so she thinks. Fiona is the golden child. She is the perfect daughter beloved by everyone in town. Aja, meanwhile, is rough ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland

Rust in the Root, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray 978-0-06303-822-6, $18.99. 488pp, hc) September 2022.

Justina Ireland’s latest YA alternate history novel Rust in the Root feels a bit like a cross between P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, and Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom. If Ireland’s Dread Nation series (set just after the Civil War and involving zombies, queer Black teens, ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews A Girl’s Guide to Love & Magic by Debbie Rigaud

A Girl’s Guide to Love & Magic, Debbie Rigaud (Scholastic Press 978-1-33868-174-1, $18.99, 288pp, hc) July 2022.

Pro: today is Cicely Destin’s 15th birthday. It’s also the West Indian Day Parade, her favorite day of the year. It seems like all of Brooklyn has converted into a massive carni­val, and Cicely wants to experience it all. Con: Cicely has to lie to her mom to sneak off with her ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews How to Succeed in Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy

How to Succeed in Witchcraft, Aislinn Brophy (G.P. Putnam’s Sons 978-0-59335-452-0, $18.99, 416pp, hc) September 2022.

Shayna is a junior at the prestigious T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School in Aislinn Brophy’s debut novel, How to Succeed in Witchcraft. For years she’s been neck and neck with Ana Álvarez, her academic nemesis, but this time she’s determined to come out on top. The Brockton Scholarship is her ticket to ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia (Tachyon 978-1-61696-378-1, $15.95. 192pp, pb) August 2022.

With Naseem Jamnia’s debut novella, The Bruising of Qilwa, we get blood magic, dark secrets, political upheaval, body dysmorphia, and imperial oppression as much as we get queer love, true friendship, and self-acceptance.

Firuz-e Jafari, introduced as they-Firuz, works blood magic in their homeland of Dilmun. When a plague sweeps through the land, they and ...Read More

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