June was my birth month! I also finished writing an entire project! It’s an exciting time of reconnecting with myself and art, and it’s been lovely. I also spent a lot of time at the gym getting into the rowing machine and preparing for my big move in August.
I am so excited to have hosted Fran Wilde to cheer on The Ship of Stolen Words and Jen Karner to celebrate the release of their debut, Cinders of Yesterday.
ARCs
- Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee (2021, young adult, contemporary romance queer)
- Noah spends the summer with his brother in Colorado and runs a blog called Meet Cute Diary
- Unexpected romance, heartbreak, and friendship happen
- Adorable and refreshingly young
- Saint Cecilia & Pastor Lawrence Vol. 1 by Hazano Kazutake (2021, shonen, slice-of-life)
- People in a town go to Saint Cecilia to have their prayers heard
- Not a lot happens, and it’s not really for me (and that’s okay)
- The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass (2021, young adult, horror, queer)
- Jake Livingston is haunted by the ghost of a mass shooter
- Utterly terrifying
- The happy-for-now ending is super worth it
- Author Ryan Douglass will be featured on the blog on July 13th, 2021
- Undead Girl Murder Farce Vol 1. by Yugo Aosaki & Haruka Tomoyama (2021, seinen, fantasy mystery)
- A pair of Japanese travelers go solve a murder with a detective who is a literal headless demon
- There are vampires and it’s the 1800s in France
- So excited to see where this one goes
Audiobooks
- Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (2021, Young Adult, contemporary thriller)
- Local boy too used to saying “sorry” to avoid consequences
- Really interesting exploration of the power of words
- Ursula K. LeGuin elementary!
- The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (2019, Adult, fantasy)
- My expectations for this book about a reluctant, half-Elf, half-Goblin Emperor were so high
- Disappointing in its execution
- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (2019, Adult, thriller)
- I really enjoy how this author does ensemble casts
- Riveting mystery
- Representation of mental in the ending made this a dude
- The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (2021, Adult, horror)
- One of the only Black employees at a publishing company has another Black girl join her division
- Starts off great, gets immediately paranoia-inducing later
- Written by someone who really knows publishing inside and out
- The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse (2021, Adult, thriller)
- Woman on a vacation with her boyfriend get trapped on a mountain and a body is found
- Interesting enough
- Ending left much to be desired
- The Ship of Stolen Words by Fran Wilde (2021, Middle Grade contemporary fantasy)
- Local boy too used to saying “sorry” to avoid consequences
- Really interesting exploration of the power of words
- Ursula K. LeGuin elementary!
Light Novel
- Boogiepop and Others. by Kouhei Kadono & Kouji Ogata (2006, Adult, horror)
- A ghoul named Boogiepop finds high school kids as allies to protect the world from the Manticore
- Genuinely unsettling at times
Manga
- To Your Eternity Vol. 2-3 by Kiyohiko Azuma (2003-2004, shoujo slice-of-life)
- Not a brain cell to be found among any of the characters
- Still wonderfully charming and make me nostalgic for certain types of adventures
- No. 6 Vol. 1-5 by Atsuko Asano & Hinoki Kino (2013-2014, seinen, science fiction)
- Shion helps an escaped Nezumi as a child, the two cross paths again when weird things happen in Shion’s lab job
- Really scratches that dystopia fiction itch
- Yes, the boys kiss
Until next month,
Jo
Jo Writes Fantasy 