August saw me flying from New York City back to Texas and spending a bunch of time recovering from psychic damage I’m not going to get into. I also did a bunch of painting, had a weird episode with my Instagram, and just. What a ride of a month it was!
I am nearing the end of my revision journey, and then I’m going to be doing more focused reading lists that I may or may not share as part of the recovery phase after finishing an intense project.
This month’s blog interviews were:
- Naseem Jamnia debuted a queernorm fantasy novella, The Bruising of Qilwa, with Tachyon Publishing
- Jordan Kurella debuted a CW-style retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice with I Never Liked You Anyway
- Victor Manibo debuted The Sleepless with Erewhon Books, a sci-fi noir mystery
September is off to a hype start, with me getting to announce a short story with the inaugural edition of the Best Served Cold zine.
ARCs
- Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang (adult, fantasy)
- Finally, a dark academia where the academia is the darkness and address its role as a tool of imperialism and colonialism
- The author clearly had a lot of fun crafting the linguistic magic and the camaraderie among the four leads
- Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros (YA, fantasy)
- Slavic dark fantasy about a tsar on the run, a girl raised by the undead, and a boy witch
- Nuanced and layered worlbuilding
- Forthcoming author interview on 9/20/2022
- Spear by Nicola Griffith (adult, fantasy)
- Queer Arthuriana with some of the most gorgeous prose I’ve read in a bit
- Worldbuilding and plot absolutely loves its women
- The Honeys by Ryan La Sala (YA, horror)
- Mars attends their sister’s elite summer camp to investigate what might have led to her to attempt a murder
- So many bees, so many secrets to be uncovered
- The Stone Road by Trent Jamieson (adult, fantasy)
- A dark but not bleak fantasy about folks who can commune with death, generational trauma, and community
- Feels classic like The Old Kingdom books, but with an adult audience in mind
Audiobooks
- I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (adult, memoir, 2022)
- An affecting memoir all about the parental abuse experienced by the former child actor
- Funny and pulls no punches with the frankness with which the trauma is discussed
- Revenge by Yoko Ogawa (adult, horror, 2013)
- A collection of intertwined short stories that make make the every day horrifying
- Each story escalates and references the ones that came before
- The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate (adult, horror, 2021)
- A gay, claustrophobic Dracula retelling that focuses on his oceanic voyage
- Gothic and horny, matching the overall discomfort of being trapped at sea with horrors both real and metaphorical
eBook
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski (adult, self-help, 2019)
- Focused on woman-identifying and assigned female at birth individuals, this is a book that blended psychology, anecdotes, compassion, and exercises to ease burnout that really resonated with me
Physical Copy
- Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (adult, literary horror)
- A woman’s wife disappears for six months and comes back as not quite the same
- Shifts from haunting melancholy to straight up nightmare fuel
- With a Vengeance by Freydís Moon (adult, dark paranormal erotic romance)
- A hot romance between a nonbinary human and demon king during a time emotional duress
- A great blend of mystery, trauma recovery, and protecting your community, with some steamy demon sex woven throughout
- Author interviewed on September 1st, 2022
Jo Writes Fantasy 