My 2022 in Reading: Jo Needs a Nap

I read 192 books this year in a split of: 54 ARCs (up from last year), 33 audiobooks (down from last year), 72 manga volumes (down from last year), 20 physical copies (up from last year), 8 light novels (up from last year), and 5 eBooks (down from last year). I want to share my favorites, so please enjoy my favorite 20 2022 books, favorite 10 books from before 2021, and my favorite 5 manga. I would have done a favorite 20 of backlist books, but, unfortunately, I did not prioritize this year, and I think that contributed to my exhaustion.

Overall, it’s not as many things as last year, and it did bring me dangerously close to burning out on reading. 2023 will be a year for resetting some of my priorities with regards to reading, which will focus on my backlog and reading a whole lot of light novels.

Note: Harper Collins book links have been replaced with the linktree for the Harper Collins Union until that publisher goes back to the bargaining table

Continue reading

Author to Author with Bendi Barrett (Empire of the Feast)

Happy release week to Empire of the Feast, an amuse bouche of delights for spacey science fiction and queer fantasy fans alike. There’s an eldritch god kept at bay by cultish sex magic, a reincarnating monarch, and plenty of conspiracy to go around. It’s fucky, it’s goth, it’s queer, and it’s here.

In today’s interview, author Bendi Barrett talks about how this novella came to be, how he crafted its tight world-building, and what he’s working on next.

Buy link: Neon Hemlock

Continue reading

ARC Review: EMPIRE OF THE FEAST by Bendi Barrett (2022)

Genre: Adult Science Fiction
Year Release: Fall 2022
Buy link: Neon Hemlock

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Read an eARC from the publisher
Content warnings: explicit sexual content, murder, body horror, gore

Empire of the Feast is a story of spaceship court intrigue in which a reincarnating emperor staves off an eldritch beast via a sex cult in a perpetual orgy. There’s a betrayal, there’s an army, and a transferal power that subverts genre tropes. Barrett efficiently packs so many compelling story elements into one taut work. If there are more stories coming out of the Stag Empire, I am here for all of them.

An interview with the author will be going up on October 27th, 2022.

Continue reading