Literary fiction. Draws, I think, on Nishnaabeg storytelling traditions, which I know little about. The building blocks of the book are units of text ranging from a sentence to a couple of pages, each focused on one of the book’s characters. These characters are human and not, and introduced in a way to unsettle the …
Fantastical absurdity and wry amusement at human (and nonhuman) foolishness. I read a scant handful of books from Pratchett’s famous Discworld series when I was a teen and enjoyed them, but they didn’t captivate me sufficiently for me to go out of my way to find more of them at the time. But recently, on …
Middle grade. Translated from Japanese. A classic that has also been made into an animated film, though I’m not familiar with it. Kiki is a witch. When a witch turns 13, she and her cat must fly on her broom from the town where she grew up to find a new town to be her …
Novella. Our world but speculative – a bit science fictional, a bit fantastical, it’s not entirely clear, but our violent oppressive world to the core. Starts on the same day as the uprising ignited by the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, and runs to the metaphorical twenty minutes into the future. …
Short stories. Speculative fiction. From Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer authors. A range of kinds of stories, writing, and tones in what is a relatively short collection. Most, though, start in one way or another from a recognition that for many the apocalypse has already happened and is still happening, and that survival towards a more liveable …
Literary fiction. A family novel focused on a mother and her twin daughters. The mother, for her entire life, is seen by most as not-quite-right or worse, though her own narrative of things is rather different. And the twins, one straight and one queer, are sent on very different trajectories after a “bad thing” happens …
Fantasy novella. A world reminiscent of imperial China. A cleric from a monastic order devoted to preserving history arrives, along with their talking bird-like companion with perfect recall, at what had been the late empress’ home while she was in internal exile many years before. They encounter an old woman who, as they catalogue the …
Literary fiction. Short stories. I don’t generally orient my reading via prizes, but the fact that this collection won the latest Giller Prize is probably why it was prominent enough in my awareness that, after my partner borrowed it from a colleague, I spontaneously picked it up and read it as well. Stories of everyday …
Science fantasy. In a post-apocalyptic Sudan, a child of a rape that happened as part of war-slash-genocide develops powerful magic as she grows up, and seeks to confront both the threat to her and the threat to her people. I’ve read a bunch of books by Okorafor – her Binti series and her Akata series …
YA fantasy. This author’s take on the secret British magic school and the ‘chosen one.’ Was pretty skeptical before I picked it up, but it drew me in fairly quickly. It manages a good balance of taking things seriously and poking a little bit of fun at, ahem, a certain similar series. The book enters …