Extensive reviews to come closer to publication date.
After a year of chaos, 2021 is rolling in with a sweeping literary landscape of promising new reads by rising new voices and returning powerhouses to help us cope. Consider the below a snapshot of upcoming reads to add to your TBR.
She Who Became the Sun
Oh, this book. Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun is a blistering tale of survival, agency, and strength. It will break you open and destroy you, but in the most delicious and amazing way.
Blurb pulled from Goodreads
Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.
To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything
“I refuse to be nothing…”
Go purchase this book: https://t.co/Rzc9kBKLKk?amp=1
Full summary from Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48727813-she-who-became-the-sun?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=EOAeFUA726&rank=1
The Wolf and the Woodsman
This is a hard-hitting and sobering novel with tacit and overt social critique regarding power dynamics, class, ethnic cleansing, nationalism, the effects of violent rhetoric and the breakdown of a desperate society. Yet, on the other end of the same coin, we see moments of change, agency, enduring love, rebellion and the interweaving of rich and lush mythology that serves both as a drive for the narrative but also as an allegory for both the characters and the reader.
Go purchase this book: https://t.co/E0hPW4IwLK?amp=1
Full summary from Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48915408-the-wolf-and-the-woodsman
A Spindle Splintered
A feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty where the main character has actual and meaningful agency!? Sign me up.
Blurb pulled from Goodreads
“Sleeping Beauty is the worst fairy tale, pretty much any way you slice it. It’s aimless and amoral and chauvinist as shit. Even among the other nerds who majored in folklore, Sleeping Beauty is nobody’s favorite. The romantic girls like Beauty and the Beast; basic girls like Cinderella; goth girls like Snow White. Only the dying girls like Sleeping Beauty.”
Go purchase this book: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250765352
Full summary from Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49187294-a-spindle-splintered?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Ot4CEbync6&rank=1
A Marvellous Light
Grounded in historical veracity with MLM representation, magic, and intrigue — this book is sure to wow audiences. I'm looking forward to reading it.
Blurb pulled from tor.com.
Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light [is] a queer historical fantasy that kicks off The Last Binding trilogy [. . .] in the tradition of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Witchmark [. . .] A Marvellous Light unfolds in an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies.
Go purchase this book: https://t.co/P9z2ZWRC35?amp=1
Full summary from Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53217284-a-marvellous-light?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=l98Qku1X3U&rank=1
For the Wolf
Gothic fantasy setting, underpinnings of cultural critique, 'monster' boyfriend — I can't wait!
Blurb pulled from Goodreads.
For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn't the only danger lurking in the Wilderwood.
Go purchase this book: https://t.co/I67zAkFT8L?amp=1
Full summary from Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53418394-for-the-wolf?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=HXBMi1RnAd&rank=1