Review: The Book Witch (by Meg Shaffer)

My Rating: 5 stars

The Book Witch is another fun, charming, delightful read from one of my favorite contemporary fantasy authors, Meg Shaffer.  I read and loved both of Shaffer’s previous books (2023’s The Wishing Game and 2024’s The Lost Story), both of which were so imaginative and brilliantly crafted that, when I heard she would have a new book out, I couldn’t help wondering how she would be able to top those two wonderful works.  Well, top those she did, as this newest work is not only wildly creative, but also simultaneously compelling and whimsical – storytelling at its finest, in my humble opinion. 

The story revolves around a whimsically named protagonist, Rainy March, whose job as a book witch is to defend works of fiction by acting as a “fixer” – with the help of a magical umbrella and an adorable cat named Koshka, she goes on missions to save beloved stories from being negatively altered and disappearing into oblivion. Whether it’s locating and escorting a runaway protagonist back into their story so they can live their “happily ever after” (as she does with Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice), rescuing kidnapped detectives so they can finish solving the cases that are central to an entire mystery series (which she does for the noir Duke of Chicago series) or preventing entire fictional worlds from being burned down by enemy book burners hellbent on destroying stories that don’t conform to their tastes, Rainy is good at her job, partly because of natural talent and partly because she is a strict rule-follower.  That is, until she falls in love with the Duke of Chicago on one of her missions and continues to maintain a relationship with him – a decision that nearly causes her to lose her job as well as her magical powers after she is caught breaking rule number seven, which states that “real people belong in the real world and fictional characters belong in works of fiction.”  But then the beloved grandfather who raised her disappears, along with a precious book that was a gift from her deceased mother, which prompts Rainy to defy all the rules and conjure up the Duke to help her solve the case and find her grandfather before it’s too late.  Together, they jump in and out of famous book worlds such as The Great Gatsby and Alice in Wonderland in a race-against-time adventure that ultimately leads Rainy to uncover secrets that will change her life forever.

Structurally, this book is divided into seven parts, with each part named for a specific literary genre such as romance, mystery, fantasy, etc. – a “genre mashup” of sorts that not only correlates to the story’s actual plot points, but also reflects the book’s own impossibility of categorization into one specific genre (while, strictly speaking, I would classify this book as a fantasy, there are actually elements of multiple genres in here).  In addition to the clever structure, Shaffer’s writing flows so smoothly here that the reading felt effortless, yet also captivating – I definitely could not stop turning the pages.  In terms of plot and characters – well, let’s just say that Shaffer definitely did not disappoint in both areas:  I loved these characters just as much as I loved the characters in her previous books, and the plot went in a direction that I absolutely did not see coming, but in a good way (this is where the “wildly creative” piece comes in – read this book and you will know what I mean). 

I don’t know how Shaffer does it, but now after having read all three of her books, I am in awe of the way she is able to blend reality and fantasy elements so seamlessly into her stories. I’m usually not much of a fantasy reader, but Shaffer’s books are exceptions, as she blurs the line between the realistic and fantastic in such a way that I don’t feel like I’m reading a fantasy.  This brings me to another feature of Shaffer’s books that I absolutely appreciate and love – each of her books addresses contemporary societal issues (in this instance, the recent battles over book banning being the most prominent), but she weaves these into the story so seamlessly that, in most cases, you don’t even realize she’s doing it. 

My impression whenever I read one of Shaffer’s books is that she is a true book lover, as her passion for books and reading definitely shines through with each book.  Both of her previous books were homages to childhood classics (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Chronicles of Narnia, respectively), but this newest book steps it up a notch in that it is an homage to all books – both modern and classic – as well as the act of reading in general and its power to change lives.  Indeed, avid readers and book lovers will appreciate the various references to literary works and characters that Shaffer scatters throughout the story (including an Easter egg reference to her own debut novel, which I enjoyed seeing) -- though with that said, my absolutely favorite book-related reference isn’t to a fictional character, but rather, to one of my real-life book icons, LeVar Burton (and it’s obvious in the two scenes where she has LeVar make “cameo” appearances that Shaffer adores him as much as those of us who grew up watching Reading Rainbow still do).

There are so many great lines in this book (I highlighted so much that I had a hand cramp by the time I finished reading, lol), but one of my favorites is this -- “All stories are love stories when you love stories” – as it sums up the vibe of this book perfectly.  Needless to say, I’m officially a Meg Shaffer fan now and my bookish heart cannot wait to read her next book (that will no doubt be book and/or reading-related).  In the interim though, I definitely recommend all her books and hope more people pick them up, especially fellow book lovers and avid readers who love books about books.

Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.

Review: The Astral Library (by Kate Quinn)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Kate Quinn is on one of the authors on my “auto-read” list whose works I will definitely read regardless of what she writes.  Also, while I’m not a completist of her works (not yet at least), I’ve loved each of her historical fiction books that I’ve read so far (in addition to Quinn’s wonderful storytelling skills, it also helps that historical fiction happens to be my favorite genre).  Given all the above, I have to admit that I was a bit thrown for a loop when I heard that Quinn’s newest book would be a fantasy novel – a genre that I’m not keen on and don’t read much of (not because there is anything wrong with the genre, but because my overly practical brain doesn’t know how to process fantastical stories and worlds).  Hence, whenever I read fantasy books, I’m never able to fully “get into” them, regardless of how amazingly good the worldbuilding (or writing) is. To reiterate, this is very much a “me” issue rather than a genre or book issue.

I say all this because, unsurprisingly, I did end up struggling with a few aspects of this book, though very little of it was due to the actual writing or the storytelling, both of which were excellent.  As a lifelong book lover, I of course love the idea of being able to live inside my favorite book and I’ve honestly lost count of how many times I’ve imagined doing so – which is perhaps why the “book-traveling” portions of this novel were the most engaging for me.  I was so curious to see how this unique and brilliant premise would be executed and let me tell you, Quinn definitely did not disappoint in this area.  From the costumes to the period / historical details to the familiar characters from so many beloved classics, each of those worlds truly did come alive for me, which I loved.  The downside to this was that the amount of time spent in each world was way too short.  When I first found out that the story’s characters would be traveling to the worlds of some of my favorite novels, I was anticipating an immersive experience -- while we did get a bit of that with some books, most were short stints with the characters hopping in and out quickly (or the “world” is mentioned kind of in passing but we don’t really get to “experience” it).  These sections, while short-lived, were absolutely enjoyable.

With that said, the biggest struggle for me with this book was the main character, Alix Watson.  Unfortunately, Alix is exactly the type of female protagonist that I absolutely cannot stand – the “adult acting like a petulant teenager” type who is whiny and impulsive with an “act first, think later” mentality that of course leads her into one unnecessarily compromising situation after another, then afterwards berates herself for behaving like an idiot.  This is exacerbated by a large portion of the story focusing on Alix’s inner monologue where she repeatedly catalogues her every thought and feeling about how crappy her life circumstances were – to the point that her sob story started sounding like a broken record that annoyingly kept inserting itself and overshadowing the “fun” parts of the story.  Normally, these types of characters would be huge turn-offs for me in terms of staying with the story (I rarely ever DNF, but I do “heavily skim” when circumstances call for it), but in this instance, I stuck it out (I didn’t even do “light skimming,” lol) because this is Kate Quinn after all and the other aspects of the story were compelling enough to keep me invested.

Overall, this was my least favorite Kate Quinn novel and the first one that I rated less than 4 stars.  Nonetheless, I will continue to read anything Quinn writes and look forward to her next book (though admittedly, part of me hopes the next one will go back to being historical fiction).

Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.

Katabasis (by R.F. Kuang)

My Rating: 3 stars

My first thought after finishing this book is that I am most definitely NOT the right audience for it, as majority of the story went way over my head. To say that I struggled with this book is an understatement -- if I had to assign a number, I would probably say that I only understood maybe 60% of the story (and that’s being generous).  My problem with this book wasn’t in the writing, as it’s a known fact that R.F. Kuang can absolutely write (and beautifully at that) – rather, I felt that Kuang tried to cram too much into this book and made it way denser than it really needed to be.  What I mean by this is that Kuang incorporates an insane amount of philosophical, mathematical, and scientific concepts (some explained, some not) and name drops numerous philosophers and scholars along with the theories they specialized in (to the point that she had to “explain” some of the scholarship in an Author’s Note at the end of the book) – which had the effect of convoluting and overwhelming the story in a way that I felt was unnecessary.  In fact, the academic overload felt so intense at times that I found myself having to dig deep in order to unbury the story that Kuang was trying to tell (and even then, I still felt like I didn’t “get” majority of what she was trying to say, lol) – the result being that this was a tremendously tedious and exhausting read that I’m not really sure was worth the effort.  At some point probably a third of the way through, I started skimming not paragraphs, but pages, as I felt like I was reading the same sentences 3-4 times but still not understanding a single word, and I was starting to get anxious about wasting my time.

As I was reading, one thing that became quite obvious to me is that this book was written by someone with a deep, intimate knowledge of academia – which makes sense given that Kuang, with her Masters and Doctorate degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, and Yale, is practically a scholar in her own right.  Now don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against pursuing higher education (I actually have a Master’s degree myself so I’m kind of partial to that world too), but I think that sometimes a background like that can have an unintended impact on the work you produce that is meant for mass consumption.  Specifically, the way that the book was written, it seemed to take for granted the fact that most “ordinary” readers would not be well-versed in philosophical theories, mathematical formulas, scientific hypotheses, etc. that someone from the academic world would probably be more familiar with (though with that said, even someone like me with a higher level academic degree was still completely lost in this instance).  In hindsight, if I had known how philosophically and theoretically dense this book would be (especially towards the subjects of math and science), I probably would not have chosen to pick this one up (at least not during this particular time when I’m already overwhelmed and exhausted from work and family obligations).

Given everything I said above, those reading this review might be wondering why I didn’t rate this book lower (as I would have in similar circumstances).  Part of the reason is because of the writing, as I mentioned earlier – Kuang is a skillful writer and her strength in worldbuilding (from her roots as a fantasy writer no doubt) definitely shines here.  The detail with which she describes Alice and Peter’s journey through Hell is truly astounding -- I can’t help but admire her ability to take such an obscure premise and build out such an intricate story from it.  Also, I truly did enjoy the last 50 or so pages, including the way the ending played out (which I felt like Kuang nailed this time, especially when compared to her previous novel Yellowface).

Overall, I would say that this was an “okay” read – not entirely a waste of time but also not the best use of my time either.  I’m just glad I finally got through it and can now move on to other books that will hopefully work out better for me.

Received ARC from Harper Voyager via NetGalley.

Review: The Lost Story (by Meg Shaffer)

My Rating: 5 stars

 

I had read Meg Shaffer’s debut The Wishing Game last year and absolutely adored it.  That story was an imaginative, bookish take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that was both charming and endearing.  This time around, with The Lost Story, Shaffer takes her inspiration from another children’s classic, The Chronicles of Narnia, while also paying tribute to fairy tales and the world of make-believe in the process. 

 

In all honesty, I don’t have words to describe how I felt reading this beautifully written story – one that drew me in from the very first page and I never wanted to end.  This was such a fun, delightful, charming story – truly a fairytale in every way, from its structure (with its storyteller who begins the story with “once upon a time” and ends it with “happily ever after”) to its magical, make-believe world consisting of castles and unicorns, heroes and heroines, knights in shining armor, villains that disappear and reappear in puffs of smoke, animals with the intelligence of humans, huge thousand feet trees with leaves in every color of the rainbow, etc. – yet on the other hand, this was also a very “adult” story that dealt with some very real and difficult issues (such as abuse, discrimination, bullying, for example).  Just like in a fairy tale, there was a deeply profound and meaningful moral lesson buried underneath the fantastical elements, but everything blended together so seamlessly that, at times, it was easy to get lost in the tale itself. There was so much to love with this one:  the characters were wonderfully-rendered and I actually loved all of them (Rafe, Jeremy, Emilie, Skya, as well as all the supporting characters) from the moment I met them within the first few pages, but I especially loved the way the characters interacted with each other; the descriptions of both the real and fantasy worlds were breathtaking and so well done that I definitely felt like I was completely immersed in a different time and place; the humor was also wonderfully done and there were so many scenes that had me laughing so hard, I started getting stomach cramps; most important of all however, was the underlying “lost and found” storyline (especially the one involving Rafe and Jeremy) that was both powerful and moving. 

 

This was no doubt an emotional read for me – a roller coaster ride that had me laughing one minute and crying the next.  At the same time, I also couldn’t help feeling a bit nostalgic and wistful due to all the memories that this brought back from my childhood – as an avid reader, I of course read everything I could get my hands on, but I especially loved fairy tales.  One of my favorite books growing up was a special hardbound edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that I had read so much that it eventually fell apart to the point that I was forced to get rid of it (which still pains me when I think about it even now).  The fact that I essentially stopped reading fairy tales after that incident (plus my reading tastes after I became an adult were markedly different from what I used to read as a child), made the nostalgia feel even more poignant.  Getting the chance to revisit this aspect of my childhood through Shaffer’s story was definitely a welcome escape from all the craziness that has been a part of my life in recent months.

I don’t want to say much more about this book because revealing too many details would spoil the magic.  If you loved Shaffer’s debut The Wishing Game as much as I did, definitely pick up this sophomore novel of hers – it’s written in the same vein, yet also vastly different in many aspects.  Even though I ended up loving this one just a tad bit more, both are amazing reads that I highly, highly recommend!

Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.

Review: The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone (by Audrey Burges)

My Rating: 4 stars

Happy New Year to all!

For my first read of the new year, I decided to start with an ARC of a book that normally wouldn't be up my alley in terms of genre, but the premise of the story interested me enough that I wanted to give it a try.  I'm honestly glad I did because I ended up enjoying this one way more than I thought I would.   

"Once upon a time, there was a house."  Such an appropriate first sentence  for a story that has both a fairy tale feel and a mysterious house as a central character.  Myra Malone came into possession of the Minuscule Mansion (essentially an antique miniature dollhouse but with no dolls) when she was six years old and since then, she became its meticulous and thoughtful "caretaker", dedicating her life to the Mansion's maintenance and upkeep such as mending broken furniture, decorating rooms with themes during holidays, etc.  Now 34 years old, Myra has been living a reclusive life in her family's cabin in Arizona ever since surviving a car accident when she was a child and spends most of her time in the attic tending to the Mansion as well as writing about her experience. Through the encouragement of her only friend (and former neighbor) Gwen, Myra begins to share her writing via blog posts and soon amasses a huge following that numbers in the hundred thousands. Meanwhile, in Virginia, Alex Rakes, who works for his family's custom furniture business, encounters a couple looking to recreate one of the Mansion rooms — when they show him pictures of the room from Myra's website, he is shocked to discover his own bedroom mirrored back to him in miniature scale.  Hoping to find out what is going on, Alex starts up correspondence with Myra and as they begin to share their respective stories as well as slowly unravel the mystery behind the Mansion, they end up going down a path that neither of them expected.

I found this story enchanting and delightful. Even though there are tragic and sad things that occur, these are handled in a thoughtful manner that doesn't diminish the seriousness of the events, while at the same time, maintaining a lightheartedness to the story that made this a compelling but by no means heavy read.  I loved the bits of humor sprinkled throughout the story, especially in the excerpts from Myra's blog posts as well as in the dialogue between the characters.  Speaking of the characters…yes, the main narrative revolves around how Myra and Alex ultimately fall in love, but this was so much more than just a love story — this was also a story about friendship and family, about hope and resilience and overcoming tragedy, about loneliness and finding a sense of connection — most centrally though was the theme of remembrance and how we carry the memories of people and places with us, even when the physical manifestation of them are gone.  

This is one of those books that doesn't fit nicely into a particular genre — some may consider this a fantasy, others may categorize it as contemporary fiction with magical realism elements (I lean toward the latter).  Whatever the category though, I appreciated the uniqueness and charm of the story, which was evident in the fact that, even though some scenes were a bit too "cutesy" for my tastes and the "mystery" part was obvious from the get go, I still found this book irresistibly hard to put down.  This was also an instance where reading outside of my usual comfort zone paid off and it's an experience I definitely recommend.  The ARC I read also had an excerpt from the author's next book, which is scheduled to come out in 2024 — it sounds just as charming and I look forward to reading it!

Received ARC from Berkley via NetGalley.

Review: Descendant of the Crane (by Joan He)

My Rating:  4 stars

 

First off, let me say that I am not the target audience for this book, as this is classified as a YA fantasy and I am neither a Young Adult nor do I read fantasy novels all that often.  I have nothing against either genre of course, it’s just that at my age, I sometimes feel a bit self-conscious reading books that are clearly meant for a younger audience, as I feel  that perhaps I’m too old for the story and with all the characters mostly in their teens, I probably won’t be able to relate to any of them.  In terms of the fantasy genre, it has always been a hit or miss for me – depending on the type of story, the world-building in fantasy novels can often become too overwhelming for my tastes, so I end up struggling through the story, which is rarely ever a pleasant experience.  Based on the above, it might seem that Joan He’s YA fantasy debut novel Descendant of the Crane shouldn’t appeal to me -- to be honest, if I were just looking at genre alone, I probably would not have chosen to read this one.  But then again, this is exactly why I don’t choose books based on genre alone…rather, I always read through the summary and do my own research before I make the decision to pick up a book (unless it’s an author I’ve read before or a favorite author whose books I already know I will want to read).   In this case, in addition to the summary and research, what influenced my decision most in picking up this book was the “Chinese-inspired fantasy” element, which to me, is important given the fact that Chinese-themed stories are a rarity in the genre (and technically in the mainstream literary community as a whole as well) -- and of course, being Chinese-American myself, I was curious as to how my culture would be represented.  Also, I understand the difficulties that writing a Chinese-themed story (and a fantasy one at that) for a largely non-Chinese audience entails, so I applaud Joan He’s effort in doing so and wanted to support it.  Going into this with so many expectations, I wasn’t sure what impact it would have on my reading experience, but it turns out I needn’t have worried, as I ended up enjoying this book way more than I thought I would.  Perhaps it is my background, growing up in a household where I was often immersed in Chinese pop culture (television, movies, books, magazines, etc.), the familiarity with the culture made it easier for me to connect with the story, the characters, and even the world that the author built, more than I initially anticipated.

The story itself revolves around Princess Hesina, who is suddenly thrust into the role of ruler over the kingdom of Yan after her father, the king, is found inexplicably murdered.  Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina consults with a soothsayer – in her kingdom, an illegal act punishable by death – and launches an investigation in the hopes of bringing the perpetrator to justice.  Meanwhile, as she takes up the responsibilities of being queen to an unstable kingdom, she must learn to reconcile who she is as a person versus who she needs to be as a ruler, even if it means sacrificing her own convictions for those of the people.  As the trial progresses and Hesina gets closer and closer to the truth of who killed her father, she is also thrust deeper and deeper into a complicated world of danger and deception, a world that leads her to question whether even those closest to her can be trusted.   In the end, Hesina must decide whether the cost of seeking justice for her father is worth the sacrifices she must make, both for herself as well as for her kingdom.

This book was a fun, exhilarating read for me, one that surprised me in so many ways.  The story was quite creative, with well-developed characters and plenty of plot twists that kept me engaged and completely immersed to the point that I didn’t want to put the book down.  I found Hesina to be a very interesting character, as there were different layers to her personality and it was fascinating to watch how her character evolved as she adjusted to her position as queen – the author did a good job depicting Hesina’s constant struggle between her personal beliefs and those instilled in her by her father versus her duty as the ruler of the kingdom to consider the greater good and will of the people.  All the other characters were also multi-layered in that there was an ambiguousness to them and you could never tell where their loyalties lie – in other words, the lines between good versus evil, friend versus enemy, moral versus corrupt, were constantly blurred.  Plot-wise, there was a lot going on and the story actually covered a lot of ground – from a murder mystery that encompassed palace intrigues, political machinations, family dynamics, love and friendship, loyalty and betrayal, lies and deception, to action-packed fight scenes, cleverly written court scenes, and the various cultural elements woven seamlessly throughout the story.  The writing was good as well, though I did notice some pacing issues, especially in the first half of the book, that made parts of the story feel a bit slow and drawn out.  Other than that though, the plot was intriguing enough that it was easy to lose yourself in the story – in fact, I was so engrossed at certain points that I almost forgot I was reading a YA novel, except that some of the language used was a bit amateurish, which jarred me into remembering at those points.  To be honest, I actually think the story would work well as an adult novel too, as long as the language is cleaned up a bit and the characters’ ages are adjusted up a few years. 

This is the type of story that I feel would be perfect for adapting into a TV series or movie.  In fact, as I was reading, each scene played out visually in my mind as though I actually WAS watching one of those Chinese costume drama series that I would binge-watch in my younger days (though admittedly, I still watch my fair share of Chinese dramas on a consistent basis, even now).  Also, based on the way the book ended, the stage is set for a sequel and who knows, there might even be more books down the line as well.  Regardless of how many there will be, this is definitely a series that I will be following.  Sign me up for the next book please!

As a bonus, I recommend going onto the author’s website and checking out the sketches of the main characters there.  This book has a huge visual element to it so browsing through the artwork – which complements the beautiful cover perfectly – definitely played a role in making the story and its characters come to life for me.

Received ARC from Albert Whitman & Company via Edelweiss