raesengele's reviews
313 reviews

This might be the first book that has legitimately confused me to tears and not because the content was too difficult to understand, but because Carl is a god awful storyteller. Never in my life has my first thought when closing a book been that I need alcohol. 

He does get 2 stars because the story he wanted to tell is honestly interesting and if anyone else had written this book it most definitely would have been a good book.

Now I'm going to hunt down Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, because this book just made me scream about how Arrival did it better so many times.

As much as I loved this book, the writing kept it from being a five star read for me. Not that the writing was bad exactly, I've definitely read much worse, but not only was this Baldtree's debut novel, it was also apparently a NANOWRIMO book and it kind of shows. Baldtree clearly didn't develop his confidence until late in the book (the epilogue and bonus chapters almost feel like they were written by someone else, someone with a ton more confidence) which isn't surprising since it's kind of standard that it takes writing 2-3 novels for a writer to really figure out what they're doing. It's also why I believe wholeheartedly in the advice to have 2-3 books under your belt BEFORE you pursue publication. 1) because then you have 2-3 books to shop around, and 2) you'll have already gone through the growing pains of writing 2-3 novels.

As for Legends and Lattes, I really don't agree with the concept of "show, don't tell" and this book is a good example of why. Because of Baldtree's lack of confidence through most of this book there's almost too much showing. I could see everything that was happening just fine, but I couldn't feel anything about it. We didn't get a lot of space in Viv's head, exploring her anxieties and nerves. I was told she had anxieties and nerves, but I never felt them. Same with her attraction to Tandri--I knew it was supposed to be there because I was told it was, but I never felt it. And it wasn't the fault of the genre. Literary fiction is known for not doing a lot externally because it's all happening internally and that could have been done here, as well, resulting in a low stakes fantasy that still keeps you invested emotionally. And I started to see that in the epilogue and the bonus story which is what makes the rest of the book kind of frustrating, for me at least. Baldtree clearly has it in him, but he hadn't quite found it yet with this first book and unfortunately his editors didn't prioritize getting it out of him either. What results is a book with so much potential and that is admittedly really good, if you're not a hardass editor who can't turn it off (aka me, unfortunately).

Since this is an anthology, I thought I'd just break my ratings down by stories. Also, trigger warnings for each one, because while they're listed in the back of the book, there's some that need more than what they provided.

THE BURNING BOY by Denver Grenell - 4✨ fun story, could have been better
tw: murder (fire), prolonged threat

SNOWBLIND by Kyle J Durrant - 5✨ so good! You really feel the cold and fear with this one

tw: car accident, light gore

THE WILD HUNT by Roxie Voorhees - 2✨ the concept was interesting and it was folk horror which made me want to love it so bad, but the structure was confusing and these seemingly very traditional Norwegian characters claim that the wild hunt starts on Samhain when the celts were the only people to celebrate Samhain 🤦🏻‍♀️ which made me just question everything else in this book (I'm also not a fan of "bed time" story devices, so already knocked it down a peg for me)

tw: mutilation, child? murder (the age really isn't clear), natural death

THE COLD GRIEF by Spencer Hamilton - 5✨ definitely one of the best if not the best out of the bunch! So good! Worth it for this story

tw: child death, cancer, heavy grief, mentions of alcoholism

MY WHITE STAR by Carla Eliot - 3✨ okay. Pretty middle of the road. The ending was pretty anti-climactic

tw: sexually aggressive man, sexually motivated murder (strangulation), car accident

THE KILLER SNOWMAN by Cass Oakley - 4.5✨  this one has so much potential with the queer rep and the amazing dialogue and fun concept, but it felt super rushed with glaring typos and everything

tw: animal death

EVERYONE TO THE TABLE - 5✨ SO GOOD! The other story that makes this whole anthology! Loved it

tw: family murder (poison), quasi death of a baby, grief

THE CHRISTMAS EVE - 3✨ very middle of the road. Admittedly forgot about it before I even finished the next story

tw: murder (axe), gore

REALMER, REDEEMER by Joe Clements - 4✨ nice Lovecraftian vibes, but at a definite disadvantage because not only is a cryptid boyfriend introduced, the phrase "steeple phallus" was typed and not a speck of smut followed

tw: disappointing use of someone's cryptid boyfriend

EVERY HUNT IS A COLD ONE - 0✨ skimmed this one once it became clear it was a male author attempting to do a kidnapping rape/revenge story. No rape happens on the page, but that's absolutely where it was implied to be headed and I'm not here for that

tw: INCEST, (implied) PEDOPHILIA, SUGGESTED RAPE, religious bigotry, injury detail, cannibalism, child death

THE VIOLENT SNOW by Patrick Whitehurst - 4✨ a really fun concept and the writing was great, but the conflict kind of fizzled out once the cryptid boyfriend showed up (again no smut, male authors stop stealing women's cryptid boyfriends and not taking advantage of it) leaving the ending a bit anticlimactic

tw: death of cryptid boyfriend and not by snu snu