Eagerly Awaiting: August 2023
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I absolutely loved this whip-smart coming-of-age novel with a side of climate fiction. Bunny is 15, living in Baku, and firmly in the drifting phase of adolescence. She’s a foreign service kid so she’s a little bit familiar with everywhere and a lot familiar with nowhere until she finds herself in exurbia Houston, post-college, at loose-ends and wondering what comes next. One constant has been the background thrum of oil & its exigencies and its overwhelming male-ness. Is that world hers? And what would that mean? Bunny knows more than she thinks she does and watching her weigh her ambivalences is a delight. And also its own terror about where we all end up. --Elese
Behind thorns, a princess is trapped in an eternal sleep. Despite what the stories say about her needing to be rescued by a knight in shining armor, the world may be safer is she stays enshrined in brambles. That doesn't stop the knights, however, nor does it stop the fairy Toadling from keeping them out. The genius of this story is as sharp as the thorns surrounding the tower, and Toadling's character is as winding and sinuous as the water her power is derived from. This novella is worth savoring, a sparking re-imagining of an all-too-familiar fairy tale. --Jordan
Chilling, wistful, and a charming illustration of unwavering human connection. This story feels like an old folktale passed down and retold again and again. The storytelling grabbed me from the start, seamlessly intertwining its monstrous horror, the looming war violence, and the devotion between a vaquero and a healer, Néstor and Nena. -Emma