Wilder Girls by Rory Power

I don't think I've had a book grab me like this one did for a long while. It's not my usual cup of tea, but it hit the spot and then some. Wilder Girls brings together the coming-of-age school girl story with some X-Men-ish-ness thrown in with Government conspiracy with dystopian plague in such an intriguing way. I had a hard time putting it down, to be honest. I also went on a bit of a rant about something Hetty finds out to my Boyfriend earlier today which my perspective on turned out to be wrong about, given what's revealed later in the book. It was one of those "well that definitely changes things" moments. Almost a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing. Definitely safe to say I was not expecting what eventually went down.

The last time I read a school-based post-apocalyptic type story, it just ended up being really bleak. Wilder Girls initially had the same kind of vibe, but I think I'm overall hopeful for Hetty and her friends at the end. Probably misplaced, knowing the circumstances they're technically heading into, but I don't feel like it was all for nothing. Hope really runs through the entire novel. Hope for a cure, ultimately, but other bits of hope, too. Reese, hoping her father is still alive; Hetty hoping to find Byatt after she disappears; even Byatt hoping somewhere along the line to get back to her friends...

Of course, there's also the through-line of the Government conspiracy aspect. I twigged fairly early on the Government was using the girls of Raxter as an experiment. For what, I wasn't super sure about, but you don't just quarantine an island and slowly cut that island off completely while still feeding the inhabitants for a reason. And of course it was a bunch of girls they decided to experiment on. Part of that was the bad luck of proximity, but still... innocent, disposable girls shouldering the terrible things the Tox did to them without any explanation whatsoever. I couldn't figure out why the food and general supply situation was so fucked, though. That didn't make any sense. Couldn't even be bothered to send more than the bare minimum and apparently can't be bothered to make sure the girls are kept in some modicum of comfort while actively suffering... but that's also explained later, so I feel vaguely better about it.

There's a quote from Jeff VanderMeer on the front of my copy of the book talking about the emotion packed into the book. There is, at that, though it's not overwrought. It's very tightly controlled and doesn't at any point feel forced. If anything, it feels as though the characters are just burnt out while being in shock at the same time. They've seen too much death and dealt with too much pain while at the same time being so isolated, even among their peers. None of it feels like too much, while at the same time feeling like a lot. I honestly don't know how else to describe it.

I won't say I had fun, exactly, but Wilder Girls definitely gripped me. It's been a hot minute since I finished a book in under 24hrs. Definitely a fantastic read. 

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

I absolutely loved The Hazel Wood. It felt very much along the same vein as a cross between Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series and her Indexing series, though it definitely has its own vibe. Got both the kiddo out of their own world thing and fairy tale characters interacting with the "real world" thing going on, but enough twists and story beats to be interesting in its own right. The Hazel Wood is also one of the few stories I've read recently that feels finished and doesn't end abruptly. Even knowing there's a second book doesn't mar that at all. Definitely a plus.

I liked Melissa Albert's use of fairy tale tropes. Expertly crafted together in ways I both expected and didn't. I also enjoyed the couple of stories from the in-universe Tales From the Hinterland we got to experience. They were delightfully dark and twisted in just the right way. I cannot, though, quite wrap my head around why a character with god-like powers, like the Spinner, would want to craft a world where all the terrible things just keep happening over and over... but, then, she is described as sociopathic so... yeah. That's a whole... other thing.

It really feels like discussing The Hazel Wood without spoilers is hard. Even looking back on the first half of the book with knowledge gained by actually finishing it feels like a mine-field. I think The Hinterland is neat and an interesting way to look at fairy tale universes. They do always seem to come from some really twisted brains.

I feel like I have to talk a little about Ellery Finch, though he does disappear for reasons for most of the second half of the book. At first, I was all on-board with his character and then his fate befell him and a bit of an icky feeling set in. Not because of his character, but because of what happened to his Character, if that makes sense... ah, that nasty spoilers thing rears its ugly head... anyway... perils of being Black in a horror-bent story... yeah. That was a thing for a minute, although its not dwelt upon by Alice in the way my brain dwelt on it at all. She grieves, I do a little wince. But it's overall fine... *clamps down on spoilers* Ellery was fine. Very not-like-other-popular-boys coded with a tang of fanboy thrown in.

The Hazel Wood is very good. Definitely fun for fairy tale nerds (like me) and probably the scholars among us, too. I cannot wait until my copies of The Night Country and Tales From the Hinterland arrive. 

Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand

Glimmering was honestly not my cup of tea. It was engrossing enough and kept me reading, but I feel more put off by it than anything else. It felt chaotic, in all honesty, and not entirely cohesive. Sure, Leonard Thorpe was there, threaded through everything, but... and then it just trailed off suddenly at the end... I'm left with this really unsatisfied feeling. I don't even have anything else to say about Glimmering. I'm not sure it really did what Elizabeth Hand says it does or did in her Author's Note in the beginning. Just felt like it was going somewhere and then... didn't.

In Other News

I finished my Upamon project! Part of my Village of Beginnings Project Line.

Good Eats 4: The Final Years by Alton Brown

Full disclosure: I haven't cooked anything from this book and mainly just read the info-parts and the footnotes. Alton Brown truly does live in the footnotes.

I will say, reading this cookbook is just like watching Alton Brown's content, only, ya know, staring at sheets of paper and hallucinating his voice in my head rather than watching him move around with his voice coming out of the speakers. I definitely count this as a good thing. I learned a few things and reviewed a few others (as a long-time consumer of Alton content, I've seen a few things he went over in the book before reading the book).

I will probably cook some things out of here in the future. I already swear by his recipe for sugar cookies, so... yeah. Solid, informative, and fun read for any fan of Alton Brown.

In Other News

I have finished my "Harvest" Project over on OviPets. They are part of my Digi's Miscellany Project Line. These guys took me about 11 months to finish. I was originally thinking I'd come up with a better name for them as I was completing the project, but I never did so... yup. Harvest it is.

 

In much sadder news, I was informed yesterday that my Paternal Grandmother passed away that morning. We weren't close at all, but... yeah. Still sad.

Crimson Death by Laurel K. Hamilton - 2026

At the end of my 2017 review, I said "Crimson Death does not lack for pacing." I honestly don't know what I was on when I wrote that... this time around, I felt like Crimson Death was one of the slowest, worst paced things I've read in a while. Every time there was a sense of urgency, that sense died a slow, painful death of discussion, over and over. It's just so long and so drawn out and characters are expositing at each other things they already know and, as readers of this 25th book in the series, we should already know. It's also not like Hamilton doesn't know how to get from point A to point B without zigzagging through the rest of the alphabet, either. The ending batch of chapters was a perfect example of that. But no, we have to discuss everything to death and side-quest like crazy before we get there. It really wasn't fun this time around.

Honestly, Crimson Death mostly feels like a very long, slice-of-life fanfiction. The kind you read or write when you feel the need to flesh out some stuff that otherwise tends to get left on the cutting room floor due to considerations like pacing. It's not bad, exactly, but... yeah... that's what it feels like.

I still like that Anita's second Triumverate got some spotlight. It's about time. I also like getting to learn about the Fey a little more... a very little more, I might add. I also liked the glimpses we got of other power-scaling happening with Jean-Claude and Sin. I also liked the Harlequin stuff, which I would have sworn before I started this reread happened earlier. It's neat to hear how their power-scaling has been affected by the change in leadership.

Oh, and I had a long paragraph in my notes about how I wanted to throw the book at the wall pretty early on due to Detective Logan. He's extremely abrasive right off the bat and is the person the Anita vs. the Police stuff is passed through this time around, which makes me crazy. He hasn't even met her in person at this point and that doesn't get better when he does. So... yeah, thought that was worth a mention.

It really does feel like the ending of the book is rushed. I've honestly been feeling this way about a lot of the Anita Blake endings lately. They're largely unconnected from the rest of the book and just kind of need to happen to end the story. Again, not exactly bad, but given how the rest of the book was... you can feel the rushing... or maybe that's just because the pacing finally picked back up to where it needed to be, not sure. I am definitely not saying we needed more of Moroven posturing, but... yeah. Eh. I'm just not nearly as positive about Crimson Death as I used to be.

Favorite Lines

"Ah, I think much more happens in the back of people's heads than in the front." - Echo

"You can't talk to Bruce Wayne about Batman if you know they're the same person." - Nathaniel Graison

"Just because people are younger than you are doesn't make them children, just young." - Anita Blake

"If you're going to loot the bodies, take the extra ammo." - Anita Blake 

The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy

I found The City, Not Long After quite chill for a post-apocalyptic novel. I honestly haven’t read many, but what I have read tend to focus more on the violent, uneasy parts than this did. Not that there isn’t any violence here, but the hopefulness and artistry of San Francisco’s population supersedes it.

The surreal elements were neat. I kind of like the idea of the city’s soul basically coming back once there isn’t such a heavy population and helping to defend itself and its citizens. The magical moments it brings, too, are fun.

I found the characters quite vivid. Each important, named one got their own little backstory section, which was nice. My favorite was probably Snake. I like how he found his art and what he ended up doing with it.

I also really loved all the art installations the San Franciscans did across the city. The descriptions were definitely vivid enough, I could see them briefly and feel their impacts on Jax. The art itself made just as much impact as the characters who made it.

I found Fourstar rather flat, though I figure he’s meant to be. Just the kind of antagonist who everyone can envision and make as intimidating, or not, as they want. He reminds me of the Commanders of Gilead, to be honest. There, but not a super direct threat to Jax et al. until he is. I think he just can’t be seen to give up, even if he wanted to, but I also don’t think he really thought he was going to make it out of San Francisco alive… I’m not entirely sure, but also don’t care enough to keep speculating on his motives. He wanted to bring the US back together for whatever reason and that honestly just makes me roll my eyes in his direction.

I can’t help wondering if the rest of the US outside of San Francisco got themselves back together or ended up less US and more like Europe is, just given the breadth of the states. That’s honestly someone else’s story to tell and not really important here at all, I just wonder.

The City, Not Long After really sticks in the brain. It’s thought provoking and surreal and just the right amount of melancholy while still managing to be hopeful, I think. 

Dead Ice by Laurell K. Hamilton - 2026

2026 Review

Definitely spoilers in this one.

Ah, the therapy-speak that just barrels right in here. Yes, getting therapy is good. Yes, it’s good Anita is working on her shit. It’s just a lot, if I’m remembering past this part with Jean-Claude and Micah correctly.

I honestly feel like there’s just so much dialogue that really feels superfluous and slows down the pacing a lot. Now, I am willing to admit that, as a bathroom reread, I am technically “sitting with” scenes a lot longer than I would if I was not reading in small snippets of time, which definitely makes the scenes seem to last longer than they do. However… they still seem quite long.

I perused a couple of other reviews before writing some of this one and… yeah, the lack of editing that apparently happened with this book is definitely more apparent now that I think about it. Just an example I went like “mmm… yep, true” is being reminded almost every time Nicky’s “on-screen” that he’s a sociopath. Really didn’t need that many reminders. This also explains why the random locker room encounters were so long… really didn’t do anything for the plot otherwise. Honestly, now that I know about the editing thing, it's bleedingly obvious and actually colored how I felt about the last batch of chapters... they just seemed to go on and on...

It is kind of fun to see some Jean-Claude power-scaling happening and not just Anita. It’s also very nice that everyone’s concerned about this, given the nature of his powers and parts of his job he doesn’t want to give up. Dev and Micah’s power-scaling is… ehhh… this time around I’m not really feeling it.

I actually like the part with the flesh-eating zombie. It’s an interesting bit of world-building, even if, again, the whole thing felt very long.

Kane can still go die in a ditch. I despise him and am definitely on the Asher hate-train at this point.

I definitely feel like the FBI plotline was largely sidelined for most of the book, which kind of makes sense, given the nature of it. Dead Ice seemed to really want to focus on the relationship stuff more than the crime-solving stuff anyway. This does not end my gripe about having the crime-solving stuff suddenly solved and dealt with last minute, either. The same thing happens here, again.

I am definitely less positive about Dead Ice this time around. It’s fine, but if you’re uninterested in the giant polycule and the spicy scenes, it’s definitely not one you’re going to enjoy.

If you would like to know my thoughts from my last reread, you can find that HERE.

Favorite Lines 

"Revenge is cold comfort when the person you're avenging is already dead," - Anita Blake

"Hanging around you is like the Discovery Channel for monsters sometimes; I always learn something new." - Manny Rodriguez

"It sounded stupid, but love isn't stupid; it's necessary for a happy life." - Anita Blake