Low fantasy, you might be surprised to hear, has just as much a place in my heart as high fantasy.  I love elves and swords and high stakes, don’t get me wrong, but a story about modern characters faced with magic in the real world takes me away just as easily.  Probably because that stuff … Continue reading Fairy Tale, by Cyn Balog →

Fan fiction is one of those things that people either gobble up like a Thanksgiving dinner, or they think is tasteless and disgraceful.  I fall somewhere in the middle; I wrote lots of it when I was in high school, and, from time to time, I go back and find new stories to enjoy.  However, … Continue reading So This Is Love: A Twisted Tale, by Elizabeth Lim →

The saddest part of this pandemic, aside from the whole physical distancing thing, is missing out on comic conventions.  It’s no secret by now how much I love them, and for what reasons, so I shan’t reiterate.  But what I haven’t iterated enough at this point is how much I freaking love Ashley Poston’s work!  … Continue reading Bookish and the Beast, by Ashley Poston →

When I first read Beth Fantaskey’s Jekel Loves Hyde, I had not read the Robert Louis Stevenson classic that inspired it. Although I was not in love with this book the first time I read it, something about Jekel Loves Hyde drew me to read it again when I found a discounted bookstore copy—and now … Continue reading Jekel Loves Hyde, by Beth Fantaskey →

There are some books that take a few days to read. But then there are some that feel like a quick episode of your favorite TV show: a book you can enjoy with a box of chocolates or some ice cream. I’ve spoken of many books of that kind on this blog, but I cannot … Continue reading Just One Wish, by Janette Rallison →

Sisters Red comes with an interesting personal story. It was a Top 16 Reading List book my senior year of high school, and the author, Jackson Pearce, was invited to my school’s library to talk about it. Apparently, I read the book just in time, because I scrambled to get my teachers’ permission to skip … Continue reading Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce →

Pan’s Labyrinth is almost always among the best-ranked fantasy stories of the past hundred years. Somehow, it always remains relevant to whatever time it is read in, striking the right balance of real-life horror and thrilling fantasy. I myself have only seen the movie a handful of times, but when I noticed that there was … Continue reading Pan’s Labyrinth, by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke →

Willa Cather’s My Ántonia was a title I first learned in grad school, when I was learning how to teach. My mentor taught a few works of Willa Cather, and while My Ántonia was not among the discussed classroom titles, it was one he spoke of quite fondly. I never thought of reading it, as … Continue reading My Ántonia, by Willa Cather →

Maybe I’m beginning a reading trend now: one that involves raw and cutting voices, horrifying living situations, and dreams of escaping into a better life. Except unlike my previous review, this book is much more positive, and not at all supernatural. In fact, the true-to-life rawness is what makes it so particularly beautiful. In 1987 … Continue reading Push, by Sapphire →

It’s safe to say that we all wish for miracles during times of crisis. And when those miracles don’t come fast enough, we dream of times where magic and miracles happen every day—even if sometimes it’s just on the Hallmark Channel. It might be early May, but I did, in fact, curl up with a … Continue reading Let It Snow, by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle →