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Category: Magical

Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson

Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson

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I spent the past week reading both Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift, books one and two of Eden Robinson’s Trickster trilogy (book three is already out, I just have not bought a copy yet). Last year, I read Robinson’s Monkey Beach, which is serious and melancholy compared to the Trickster books. The Trickster books are surreal and somewhat bizarre (not in a derogatory way), and they are also humorous despite the tragic circumstances of the protagonist’s life. I really enjoyed reading both Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift, and now Robinson is on my list of writers whose novels I will look out for.

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Mister Impossible (The Dreamer Trilogy) by Maggie Stiefvater

Mister Impossible (The Dreamer Trilogy) by Maggie Stiefvater

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I will always be drawn to Maggie Stiefvater’s novels. Her stories are richly imaginative and set in the real world, with just enough of the supernatural to make them seem plausible. Mister Impossible is the second book of The Dreamer Trilogy; the first book is Call Down the Hawk. The Dreamer Trilogy is a spin-off of The Raven Cycle, a quartet of books that I do not even know how to summarize even though I have read them all twice. Essentially, The Raven Cycle is about a teenage girl and four private school boys who are in search of a Welsh king named Glendower who is supposedly sleeping underneath a forest called Cabeswater. There are psychics, ley lines, ghosts and other supernatural things in these books. Nothing I say will make these books make sense, all I know is that I enjoy reading The Raven Cycle; I enjoy the characters and their relationships with each other; I enjoy the lyricality of Stiefvater’s writing.

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The Archive of the Forgotten by A. J. Hackwith

The Archive of the Forgotten by A. J. Hackwith

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The Archive of the Forgotten is book two in the Hell’s Library trilogy. WARNING: if you have not read The Library of the Unwritten (book one) yet, do not read any further. I know I was not very enthusiastic in my review of The Library of the Unwritten, but I think it would be worth reading just so you can get to The Archive of the Forgotten.

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The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

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The Hidden Palace is the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni (which I reviewed back in February). The Hidden Palace is even more intricately plotted than its predecessor and is as incredibly immersive. It is no wonder that it took Helene Wecker seven years to write this novel. The plot spans decades and touches on major historical events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the sinking of the Titanic and World War I. I found the tone of the novel to be on the pessimistic side, so I do not love it quite as much as The Golem and the Jinni, but it is definitely still worth reading.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI YET.

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Rule of Wolves (and the Grishaverse novels) by Leigh Bardugo

Rule of Wolves (and the Grishaverse novels) by Leigh Bardugo

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I just finished reading Rules of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo and now it is time to do another all-encompassing review of a popular YA series. I am also just in time for the Shadow and Bone series that starts streaming on Netflix tomorrow, which is based on the Grishaverse novels. I am really looking forward to watching the series, even if the original Shadow and Bone trilogy is not my favourite of Bardugo’s novels. The Six of Crows duology, on the other hand, are two of my favourite YA novels and really got me invested in the Grishaverse. I also really enjoyed the King of Scars duology, which includes Rules of Wolves.

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Chain of Iron (and The Shadowhunter Chronicles) by Cassandra Clare

Chain of Iron (and The Shadowhunter Chronicles) by Cassandra Clare

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I just finished reading Chain of Iron, book two of The Last Hours, the latest trilogy in The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. I figure it is as good as time as any to write an all-encompassing review of the many Shadowhunter books that are out there, or at least the ones I have read. If you like YA fantasy, but have somehow not read a single Shadowhunter book (there are a lot of them), or you know a teenager looking for a new book series to binge, then you may be very interested in the interconnected fantastical world that Clare has created over the span of 14 novels (that I have read so far) and several short stories and novellas.

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The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

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The Golem and the Jinni is a long read, but worth every moment I spent on it. I really enjoyed this novel! I was first interested in reading this novel when it was published in 2013, but unfortunately never got around to it at the time. Silly me! I could have had this novel in my life for so many years! If you enjoy historical fiction and are interested in supernatural creatures from other cultures, then I highly recommend you read this novel.

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The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

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The Devouring Gray isn’t a standout young adult novel, which is probably why I hadn’t heard of it until I came across it while browsing books on Book Outlet. Or maybe Herman’s publishers just didn’t do a good job of advertising it. However, I did enjoy reading this novel and became invested in the characters and the story, so if you also enjoy reading YA novels, you should give this novel a read.

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Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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The only book I had my furbaby Kika model before he passed away in May 2020 🙁

I originally wrote this review in January 2020, back when this website was still a twinkle in my eye (ahh I miss those pre-COVID days). I love, love, love this novel:

Leigh Bardugo is a bestselling YA writer known for her “Grishaverse”, an alternate universe she has created through her novels, starting with the Shadow and Bone trilogy, continuing with Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and more recently King of Scars, which is based on Tsarist Russia and is full of magic and the supernatural. Her books are being made into a series on Netflix (yay!), and I highly recommend them, if you are into the YA genre.

When I first heard that she wrote an adult novel, I wasn’t immediately excited. I realize that adult novels can contain magic and the supernatural, but that’s not what I think of when I think of adult novels, and I don’t read a lot of adult novels with supernatural and/or magical plots. For some reason I expected Bardugo’s “adult” novel to be completely different from her YA novels and more grounded in (our) reality. When I realized that it would, in fact, contain supernatural elements, then I became eager to read it, and I had a really hard time putting down this novel until I finished it.

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