booksthatburn's reviews
1463 reviews

I can’t stand Siri. I have a very limited emotional range (for a different specific reason, but likely also due to brain damage), and his characterization is frustrating to me. 

In LORD OF RAVENS, Quentin and Laurence find themselves with different paths for protecting the children in their care from a horrifying danger. Quentin is living in the mansion his brother bought in KNIGHT OF FLAMES, with the psychic kids who stayed after the events of that book. When Quentin's father tracks him down and issues an ultimatum, Laurence tries to fix the situation by learning sorcery as fast as he can, while Quentin prepares himself to surrender to his father to get back the kidnapped children. 

This might technically make sense if someone read it without knowing the earlier books, but the series has been building up to the reveal of how Quentin became scarred, and I think it really benefits from the lead-in of the first two books before getting to this point. Likewise, Laurence's struggle with addiction has a crisis point here which is much more meaningful after reading two books where he's clean of drugs and at least one where he's trying to be sober from alcohol as well. If someone started here, it would be rough introduction without the background to various aspects of their dynamic. The main focus of the series so far is on Quentin and Laurence's relationship, and how they're working on themselves as people individually and as a couple. Laurence has been clean from heroin for at least a few months now, and he's been trying to encourage Quentin to drink less ever since he realized Quentin was probably an alcoholic (though Quentin definitely doesn't think of himself that way). Structurally, I like the ebb and flow of them learning to come to each other with problems, and to trust each other to handle things in their own way. That's been a rough process, as so far Laurence has been the steadier one, but in this book he has a crisis when his abilities let him see a deeply traumatic event in Quentin's past. Until this point, the information that Laurence is addicted to heroin has been mostly a background detail, that comes to the forefront when he tries to obtain heroin to deal with what his vision showed him. Quentin knows that if he goes home to his father, Laurence and the children will be left alone, hopefully. It would be a sacrificial move, giving up his freedom and undoing the five years he spent getting as far away as he could from his terrible father. Laurence has new (horrible) insight into what it would mean for Quentin to return, and is determined to find another way to solve things. The kidnappings are tied into the broader series plotline of Quentin's father as a malevolent influence whom Quentin fled five years ago. There's a temporary resolution, but that ongoing issue is not resolved by the end and will continue to affect future books. 

I continue to be impressed with this series, both the individual books and the overarching structure. It was obvious from the beginning that certain plotlines would be a very slow burn and I'm enjoying the pacing of the series.  especially like the way the epilogues of each book briefly give the perspective of some other character on the outcome. The ending of this particular book works very well, I'm eager to read what strange thing will happen next. 

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

THE DIABLO'S CURSE is set chronologically after THE WICKED BARGAIN, and contains a few brief references to it early on, but it can function as a stand-alone book. While some of Dami's situation was explained in the previous book, the only thing someone would need to know from that is that El Diablo was killed there, and this is about Dami dealing with the results. This means that someone could pick up this book and have a good time without having read THE WICKED BARGAIN, but I do recommend starting with the first book, for both enjoyment and continuity. Dami is an excellent character, and I enjoyed getting their point of view after having seen them through another character in the first book. This time the perspective swaps between Dami in the present day, Silas in the present day, and some interludes from Dami's past working for El Diablo. 

In the course of trying to break Silas's curse so that Dami can cancel their deal and become human, Dami and Silas travel to a magical island where the weather is too tropical for the latitude and everything is trying to kill them. They meet Marisol, who joins up with them to try and find the treasure so they can get off the island. I like the setup, and the worldbuilding is very cohesive. The rapport between the three of them is fun in the face of the dire circumstances, and the mix of antagonists is enough to be an impediment but not so much as to overshadow the deathly effects of the real killer: Silas's curse. 

It has a storyline which is almost entirely self contained, save that Dami is making moves based on El Diablo being dead, something which took place in THE WICKED BARGAIN. This means that almost everything important is both introduced and resolved here, save for that. This is unlikely to be the last book, but if it is this is a satisfying enough ending that I have closure. I hope there are more, this has the possibility to be a great series of loosely or tightly interconnected books, and I'd happily read more with any mix of these characters. 

THE REANIMATOR'S SOUL finds Oliver and Felipe adjusting to their new situation as lovers, work partners, and reanimation buddies. They can't be physically far apart due to Oliver's magical tether keeping Felipe alive, which means that in order for the much more social Felipe to have anything approaching the level of social involvement he would like to have, Oliver ends up leaving the lab much more often than is comfortable for him. In THE REANIMATOR'S HEART there was much more of a focus on difficulties that Oliver had when dealing with other people who expected him to be less autistic and more neurotypical. Not that they would’ve said those exact words, but that would’ve been the net effect of all their impossible requests to be someone other than himself. While Felipe had his own troubles, he was able to put them off for a while because he spent that whole book expecting to be permanently dead at the end of the week. In THE REANIAMTOR'S SOUL, Felipe has to get on with the business of living, which means he must deal with the relationships that he let languish for the sake of his work, thinking there would always be a "later". He’s beginning to understand, viscerally, that he can’t count on sticking around, no matter how much he would want to, which means he actually has to talk to his daughter, to his wife and her girlfriend, and have the hard conversations he’s been avoiding. 

Ansley, Oliver's ex-boyfriend, is a well-written, insufferable person. He's instantly hateable for the way he treats Oliver, as well as his general approach to pretty much everything in the book. I appreciate that while his personality is odious, he makes sense as a person (though definitely not one I would want to spend any length of time around). He's the Federal lead on the case they become involved with, which makes for some tricky moments as he tries to exert whatever control he can over the situation. I like that there's room for someone who sucks without making them fully a villain. 

THE REANIMATOR'S SOUL might make sense to someone who started here without reading the first book, since most crucial details are referenced in a way that can serve as either callback or explanation as necessary. As with most sequels, however, especially as this is the second book in the series, things will make much more sense to someone who has read THE REANIMATOR'S HEART. While most plot things are contained to this volume, a lot of character development is an extension of the growth Oliver and Felipe went through already, and Felipe's arc especially will be more resonant in context of how he was right after being reanimated. Felipe and Oliver are still the narrators, switching between them but not strictly alternating. For readers who had a long gap between reading each book, there's definitely enough detail to quickly catch them up without needing to re-read THE REANIMATOR'S HEART if they'd prefer to get straight into the new one. I like the story, I love the main characters, and I'm glad Felipe's daughter makes an appearance this time. 

One thing I appreciate about the setting of this historical fantasy novel is that the characters deal with anti-magic prejudice and that they live their lives in a way that implies they’ve had to deal with homophobia. That might seem like a weird thing to say, what I mean is that in a queernorm world where the anti-magic prejudice is shaped like homophobia, but there isn’t any homophobia in the story, that would seem like any anti-magic sentiment is purely meant to be an allegory. Given that magic, however marginalized, is usually portrayed in fantasy books as something that can cause harm, it doesn’t work as a direct allegory for queerness, or at least any value as an allegory gets complicated very quickly in a way that is outside the scope of this review. But, a world where there’s consistent prejudice against the strange, whether that's queer relationships or magical abilities, that feels like cohesive world building because it's a consistent understanding of social pressure. Felipe is in a lavender marriage, a thing where (queer) people who aren’t attracted to each other get married to escape social scrutiny or prejudice, but are free to pursue relationships of attraction elsewhere. This is is classically between a gay man and a lesbian woman, but can happen for other mixes of queerness. This is one of the more obvious bits of world building which implies some background level of social pressure and homophobia. There are other moments where queer characters obliquely refer to homophobia and its impacts on the shape of their lives. It then makes sense to me that in such a setting where magic does exist there would be anti-magic attitudes as well as queerphobia. Thematically these come together in a institution practicing conversion therapy to “cure” people of their magic through a variety of odious practices that start at abuse and frequently escalate to torture, or even murder. Just like in real-world conversion therapy, where many of those involved are queer themselves, some of the staff in this facility have magic just like what they are trying to stamp out of other people. 

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE is about Tara, an Indian American trans girl who has been permitted to take classes at an all-girls private school, but is still enrolled at the associated all-boys school. The gap between being permitted to take classes and actually being enrolled like the girl she is becomes unavoidable when she tries to get into a quasi-secret society, the Sibyls, which has a scholarship attached. Dealing with intersections of transmisogyny, racism, classism, and her parents' precarious green card status, Tara is trying to just be one of the girls. She doesn't want to be an exception, or someone special, she just wants to be a girl who gets to have the right hormones in her body and is allowed to try for the Sibyls like anyone else in her Latin class. 

I love the friendships with the other girls. Especially the way Felicity/Antigone encourages Tara to use the Sibyl name she chose for herself, not one the adults might think is more acceptable. I've played the computer game Hades, and I was excited when Tara admitted that this game is how she came up with her name. It's a fun moment, and it seems like part of the shift from into Felicity and Tara becoming friends instead of Tara just aspiring to be around her by way of joining the Sibyls. 

The setting is a deliberately offset version of the United States, where the state of Virginia has anti-trans laws and a hostile governor. I like this decision, especially when what states are and are not safe for trans people is a constantly moving target. The choice to use a state which currently doesn't have such laws makes it clear that this isn't meant to be a one-to-one guide for real trans kids. This is is expounded upon in the (extensive and very helpful) afterword from the author. 

One of the things about trying to exit a space that someone else is trying to fit into, or vice versa, is that it can make it harder to communicate even if you potentially have a lot in common. I'm a nonbinary person, not a trans woman or trans-femme person, so many of the specific details of the story didn't resonate with me directly (I viscerally cannot understand wanting to be on estrogen, for example). Even with my own experiences eschewing the direction Tara is drawn towards, it completely makes sense why she feels how she does, and I could relate to the shape of her struggles. I appreciate the way these dynamics are handled in the book, showing that trans people aren't a monolith. For example, other aspects of Tara's life have impacts for her that aren't felt by Liam, a trans boy who still attends the all-girls school. One thing JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE captures so well is that most trans people don't want to have to be the best, brightest, most awesome person in every domain of our lives, we just want to be ourselves and not be shut out or harassed for it. 

I'm so glad that this a book for trans girls who find themselves in the space of wanting to be themselves without being forced to be extraordinary just to get what their peers take for granted. JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE while speaks directly to the precarity caused when intersections of racism and classism combine with transphobia to make a terrible situation even more dire, as well as trying to be a normal girl with friends when things are difficult.

KNIGHT OF FLAMES continues the themes of consent and boundaries which began in JACK OF THORNS, but this time with an antagonist who can control people with his voice. As Laurence and Quentin work on their relationship with each other (navigating Quentin's telekinetically enhanced panic attacks and Laurence's need for physical intimacy), they continually emphasize consent and communication, and I'm enjoying them as individuals and as a couple. This stands in stark contrast to the way Kane Wilson runs his operation. Because he can compel people with his words, it's hard to know at any one time whether the people around him genuinely want to be there doing what they're doing at any moment. I still don't like "psychic" being used as a catch-all term for every power, but at least this book has specifically labeled Quentin's main ability as telekinesis in addition to referring to everyone as psychic. By the time I finished this book I no longer twinged each time the word came up, which is good since it's not a problem with the text, it's just now how I would normally use that word even though I accept that it technically describes the general range of abilities involved. 

I like the episodic focus of the series so far, as a sequel it continues the relationship between Quentin and Laurence which began in JACK OF THORNS. It doesn't specifically wrap up anything left hanging, but it gets several aspects of their lives to the next stage. I would count among them the appearance of Quentin's twin brother. He was mentioned in the first book and is the first member of Quentin's family who makes an appearance in anything other than a memory or flashback. Being introduced to one of Quentin's brothers was cool but weird, I'm intrigued as to how much of a role he'll continue to play as the series continues. This particular book has a wholly new storyline involving the existence of other psychics, serving to establish both that there are other people with powers, and that even in that subgroup the degree of Quentin's and Laurence's gifts stand out. A very major thing was both introduced and resolved, and the epilogue serves nicely to situate that resolution in the context of the ongoing series. 

One of my favorite things about how Quentin and Laurence are written is that they generally have completely different ways of processing the exact same situation. This applies to everything, but especially in their relationship. The progression of their dynamic makes sense, with each of them moving out of their comfort zones to meet the other partway, finding an equilibrium where Laurence isn't too horny to think and Quentin isn't panicking at the idea that sex exists. My impression of Quentin from JACK OF THORNS is that's he's likely sex-repulsed and asexual, and that seems consistent with him here as well (though he's working on that first part). Even though he's not ready to try and figure out what traumatized him in the first place (neither Laurence nor I believe that nonsense about all his layers of scars being caused by childhood clumsiness), I'm so glad he's trying to work through the panic and stop disassociating whenever he's stressed. Additionally, he's working on the panic first, then seeing if that calm can help in his relationship, rather that the other way around. Very specifically, Laurence isn't trying "fix" Quentin with sex, or any other aphobic nonsense that could so easily have been part of a narrative with this basic setup. 

I'm enjoying the series so far and I'm very ready to read the next book.