Top 5 Books I Read in 2021 (and 2020?)

This is a subjective list of my favorite reads of 2021. I read more this year than I ever have before: 200 books! It was a little hard to narrow it down, but these are the five novels (and series because I'm a cheater) that have stuck with me the most throughout this year, in no particular order. 

1. The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty

When a con woman in 18th century Cairo accidentally unleashes a warrior djinn, he takes her on an adventure to the mythical city of Daevabad in this adult fantasy full of magic and romance. 

This series was truly a surprise because I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I have not enjoyed desert fantasy in the past so I thought this series would be the same experience, but it was absolutely different and totally opened my eyes to all the wonderful adult desert fantasy stories out there. I gave the first book four stars and the second and third books five stars. I will be rereading this someday, and I'm looking forward to anything S. A. Chakraborty releases in the future. 

2. The Loom Saga by Elise Kova

I've been meaning to read Elise Kova for a couple of years now, so I decided this was going to be the year I finally gave her a try. Upon the recommendation from a friend, I checked out the completed Loom Saga, a dark adult steampunk fantasy full of alchemy, adventure, and romance. 

Ari is the most notorious thief in the land and works to defy the Dragon King who controls all the engineering guilds on Loom. When Ari encounters a dragon named Cvareh, her first instinct is to kill him and harvest his organs, but she instead decides to team up with him against the Dragon King after he offers her a boon she can't refuse. This is one of the most unique fantasy stories I've ever read. I gave each book five stars, and now I want to read every story Elise Kova has ever written. 

3. The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

This is the second book in the Drowning Empire trilogy, so I will explain the plot of the first book, The Bone Shard Daughter, to avoid spoilers. 

The story follows Lin, the daughter of the emperor, who practices forbidden bone shard magic behind her tyrant father's back, as well as Jovis, a smuggler looking for his lost wife while working in a rebellion against the emperor. This Asian-inspired adult fantasy series has unforgettable characters, a richly imagined setting, and a unique magic system. I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this story. This installment is full of adventure, political intrigue, betrayal, a new kind of magic as well as the original bone shard magic, and a little bit of romance. While I liked the first book, I loved the second book, which I rated five stars, and now I can't wait for the third installment next year. 

4. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is one of my very favorite authors, so I was very excited to continue on with the Stormlight Archive this year. I loved this book much more than the first installment, The Way of Kings. This book focuses on Shallan, my favorite character in the series, and is truly one of the most well-constructed books I think I've ever read. I don't even know how to begin explaining this series since it's so massive, but basically it's the largest and most fun epic fantasy series you will ever read. There is an intricate and intense magic system, unparalleled and expansive worldbuilding, realistic and flawed characters, and an exciting plot with twists and reveals all throughout the story. I loved watching each character's progression in this book and seeing how Sanderson instills hope in his stories even in the midst of pain and turmoil. Just go read it; you won't regret it. 

5. Spellmaker by Charlie N. Holmberg

Spellmaker is the conclusion to the Spellbreaker Duology, a cozy mysterious historical fantasy romance. Elsie is an unregistered spellbreaker, and if she gets caught then she'll be imprisoned. So when she's on a secret assignment and the handsome spellmaker Mr. Kelsey spots her trying to undo a spell on his house, he makes a bargain with her in exchange for his silence about her abilities. But what starts as a formal arrangement turns into a budding romance as these two set out to solve a magical mystery together. I don't care for historical fiction, so the fact that this series is more romantic and fantastical than it is historical is really appealing to me. And the romance is fun and swoon-worthy while still being clean and proper. I read both books in this series this year, but it was Spellmaker, my fifth book by Charlie Holmberg, that made the difference for me and cemented her as one of my favorite authors. I really love her writing style and how she always writes fun and lighthearted adult fantasy with clean romances and a soft mystery aspect as well. There's something for everyone here! 

That's it for my top five (or more) books of 2021. It was very hard to narrow down this list because I read some truly amazing books this year. Which one of these catches your eye the most? 

Also, while I was compiling this list, I noticed that I still had this post sitting in draft form from a whole year ago, so here's a bonus list: my top five reads of 2020, since I apparently never got around to posting it. 

1. Thunderhead (and The Toll) by Neal Shusterman 
2. Lightfall: The Girl and the Galdurian by Tim Probert
3. Wounded Magic by Megan Crewe
4. Most Likely by Sarah Watson
5. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green 

Review: WHISPER ME A LOVE SONG, VOL. 1 by Eku Takeshima

 

Rating: 5/5 stars

This manga is adorable and I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it. 

Himari, a new first-year, sees a band performing during the opening ceremony and immediately becomes smitten with the singer, Yori, thinking she's the coolest person she's ever seen. The next day, Himari giddily tells Yori, "I fell in love with you at first sight!" and walks away before Yori can respond. 

Yori, a third-year, is faced with the dilemma of having to write a love song for the band, but she's never been in love before. So when Himari confesses her feelings to her, Yori thinks this is the perfect opportunity to find inspiration for her new song. She tells Himari, "I also fell in love at first sight," but what she didn't realize was that Himari's feelings were that of a devout fan and not intended to be romantic. 

Whisper Me a Love Song has my favorite manga art style that I think I've ever seen; I absolutely loved the drawings so much, and it makes me want to check out other works from Eku Takeshima. The characters are so cute. This manga is upbeat and funny and charming and I would totally recommend it. 

Review: I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Iain Reid

 

Rating: 3/5 stars

When I first heard the title of this book, I wasn’t sure if it was referring to ending a life or ending a relationship. I’ll leave you to discover the true meaning for yourself.

The story isn’t that complicated: A girl is driving with her boyfriend to meet his parents for the first time at their house. They have some interesting discussions and make some stops along the way. And when they arrive, something just doesn’t feel right. And that’s pretty much the story. 

“You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”

This book is eerie but you don’t know why as you’re reading. You will feel very unsettled throughout the novel, but you won’t know what’s causing it. It’s best to go in with as little information as possible so as not to spoil the ending. 

People seem to either love this book or hate it, but I feel like I fall right in the middle. I enjoyed the beginning of the book. I liked the atmosphere the author was setting up and how emotionally evocative the narrative was. I was invested in our characters and I wanted to know what would happen. There were some scenes that seemed to go on for longer than necessary and some stylistic decisions I wasn’t sure about, but I was rolling with it, enjoying my time listening to the audiobook (which I would recommend, by the way). 

But then the book ended and I was confused. I thought to myself, I think the ending is trying to tell me this and it means this (no spoilers here), but I wasn’t totally sure if I had it right. So I went looking for spoiler reviews and discussions, and it turns out I had interpreted the ending correctly. The problem was, it didn’t blow my mind and make me go, “Wow, what an ending! Totally didn’t see that coming.” Nor did it make me go, “That’s it? Seriously? What a letdown,” which seem to be the two responses I’ve seen the most. I mostly just felt meh, like, “Oh that’s the twist? Hm. Alright then.” And I moved on. It didn’t negate my enjoyment of the novel in the beginning, but neither did it make me want to immediately reread the novel to gain a whole new perspective on the story now knowing how it ends, which is what I’ve seen some people recommend. I enjoyed my time listening, but I’m moving on now.

I will say that I do really want to watch the adaptation at some point though. That looks good, at least. 

Do I recommend this book? I don’t really know. It’s not very long so it’s probably worth a read, but I also don’t think you’re missing out on the greatest piece of literature ever written if you skip it. If you like eerie atmospheres (not scary or creepy but just eerie) combined with stories that make you feel unsettled then you will probably enjoy this. 

Review: HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Rating: 4.75/5 stars 

I’ve always been fascinated by apocalyptic climate fiction and I will read anything that falls into that genre. How High We Go in the Dark follows a plethora of people dealing with life after the Arctic plague sweeps the globe and kills millions.

What kind of place has our world become after the Arctic plague? A world with so much death that funerary tokens are a more common currency than bitcoin, funeral start-ups are the new business, and “cryogenic suspension companies proliferated, death hotels, services that preserved and posed your loved ones in fun positions, travel companies that promised a ‘natural’ getaway with your recently departed.” (I know this quotation doesn’t grammatically make sense but I read an ARC so ignore it.)

This book starts in 2030 and takes us far into the future. Each chapter follows a different person in a different situation and a different time, but they each connect to one another. 

We start the book with a grieving father traveling to the Arctic where his daughter died, and it’s at the onset of the plague when it first gets discovered before it became a worldwide problem. The next chapter is set a year later and follows a man who works at a euthanasia theme park, where sick kids go to die while having fun. 

There’s also the story of an employee at a hotel for the dead, a scientist whose lab pig begins to speak, a man who repairs robo-dogs, a scientist who bonds with a terminal plague victim over a shared love of music, a man with a black hole in his brain, two people bonding in a VR suicide forum, a group of people leaving earth on the first mission to find another habitable planet, plus some other stories. And they’re all inexplicably related. 

My favorite of all the stories was the chapter called “A Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium” because I like the hopepunk sci-fi feel of that tale. I also really enjoyed the chapter called “Before You Melt into the Sea” because it was written in second-person POV, which I love, and involved a new way to care for the bodies of the dead that I found to be fascinating. 

This is a novel comprised of short stories, but it reads more like a novel and less like a short story collection, thankfully. The chapters are chronological, so even though you could read and comprehend any chapter on its own, each chapter builds on previous chapters and references previous characters. I like this idea, how all the mini-stories come together as a whole to make up this beautiful novel. 

What really impresses me is that most of these stories were published individually in various publications as far back as 2009. I wonder at what point Sequoia Nagamatsu knew he wanted to combine them into a novel and started writing in connections between the characters. It’s very ambitious and imaginative and I loved it.

How High We Go in the Dark is sad, but not in a depressing way that makes you want to stop reading; it’s sad in a solemn but hopeful way that makes you want to keep turning the pages to witness the resilience of humanity. Watching people accept and cope with a terrifying new reality but still come out stronger is a beautiful thing. 

I’d recommend this story to readers who love light apocalyptic science fiction but also those who enjoy literary fiction that evokes a deep emotional response; it works in both genres. This novel has a lot of death and grief in it, which aren’t topics I normally gravitate toward, but I really liked this story and how it handled those topics in a fresh and uplifting way. How High We Go in the Dark is ultimately about survival and hope and the will to not only keep living but also enjoy life as much as possible in the face of grief and pain. 

Review: FOR THE WOLF by Hannah Whitten

 

Rating: 2.25/5 stars

This book frustrated me. 

In the beginning, I thought this was going to be everything I wanted Uprooted to be but wasn’t. That book disappointed me so deeply, so I was hopeful that For the Wolf would make up for it. Both novels are about a girl who is chosen to go into the forest to be given to the monster who rules the forest, and in both books the monster turns out to be just a man and a romance eventually blossoms as the girl learns about her innate magical ability. I’ve also seen this book compared to The Bear and the Nightingale, another book about a girl who goes into the forest to meet the monster-turned-man who lives inside, which also sadly disappointed me. 

I don’t know if I just have bad luck with fantasy books about magical girls romancing the brooding not-villain in the forest, but For the Wolf, unfortunately, did not live up to the hype for me, and it made me very sad. I genuinely wanted to love this book.

For the Wolf is kind of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast while also paying homage to Red Riding Hood, but it also has its own spin as well. The spooky dark forest vibes were spot on, and it’s one thing I really enjoyed about the story. This book is very atmospheric and I loved that too. Whitten’s writing is lyrical and descriptive and captivating. 

I wasn’t really sold on the romance though. It’s a slow-burn clean romance with a brooding love interest. The Wolf, AKA Eammon, is dark and mysterious and quietly protective of Red. He’s like a grumpy cinnamon roll. He’s a good guy and I liked him. Obviously, Red and the Wolf are forced to live together in his keep, but I never really felt the connection between them. They acted more like amicable roommates than romantic partners, and I guess for the majority of the book they weren’t romantic partners, but I still didn’t ever feel like they were in love, nor did I understand why they did end up loving each other for any reason other than forced proximity. 

The Wilderwood is a mysterious and dark forest haunted by shadow-creatures, and with trees whose tendrils creep into the keep and come after Red. Only blood from those who have been Marked can keep it at bay. It’s unclear if it’s the Wilderwood that’s bad, or if it’s the Shadowlands somehow contained inside the Wilderwood that’s bad. I wish we got more information in the narrative about the Wilderwood. It wasn’t always dark and dangerous, but I never really understood what caused it to become that way and when it happened. There are shadow-creatures in the forest along with sentinels and wardens, but none of it was ever explained enough for me to fully grasp all the concepts beyond “dark and scary forest full of dangerous creatures.”  

At first, I enjoyed the blood magic aspect in this book, until I realized it makes no sense. Multiple characters with the Mark routinely cut themselves throughout the novel and collect their blood in vials as offerings to the forest. Blood has some kind of power in the woods because Eammon told Red to never bleed where the forest could see. However, I never fully understood what their magical gifts were or what their blood could do or how it was all connected. The magic feels very surface-level and kind of falls apart if you look at it too deeply. 

I also wish we got more information about the Five Kings. The book’s whole story is based around giving the second daughter as a sacrifice to the Wolf in hopes that the Five Kings will be returned to the town of Valleyda. They are godly figures, but we never learn their history telling us how they got to be that way or what they did or will do once they return or anything else relevant. We just know that the town wants them back and sending Red to the Wolf is supposed to make that happen. But why are they important? 

There are interludes throughout the book from Neve’s POV back in Valleyda, and there are lots of court politics going on there with a bunch of different priestesses and other characters, and I honestly just couldn’t care about these interludes whatsoever. I didn’t really care for Neve’s whiny narration, and every other character in her perspective was one-dimensional because of lack of development to the point that I couldn’t tell any members of court apart from one another. Not a single one. And all the people were talking about trade negotiations and land borders and religious rites that all meant nothing to me because there was no information leading up to that point to make me care about any of that. Reading the interludes felt like opening up to the middle of the third book in a high fantasy series and reading a chapter from it and then closing the book. None of it stuck with me and none of it was relevant because I had no context beforehand. So I ended up not liking or caring about Neve at all and was only interested in Red’s story. 

I had a weird experience with this book where multiple times throughout the story I would look at the chunk of pages left to read and think, “What is even going to happen in all those pages?” And then I would look at the chunk of pages I’d already read and think, “What did I even read about in all those pages?” This happened to me throughout the whole book and now that I’m done, I still can’t really tell you what happened in all those pages. I feel like this whole book is just Eammon teaching Red magic in his keep, and then he goes into the forest and tells her not to follow him, but she follows him anyway, and then they fight shadow-creatures and rot in the forest on their way to get supplies. This series of events happened liked like three or four times in the story and I got very tired very quickly of reading about it because what was the point. 

My feelings are complicated. I enjoyed the atmospheric writing and the story of For the Wolf in the beginning, but around the halfway mark I realized I wasn’t as invested as I had been at the start and I didn’t care as much about the characters as I wanted to. Then around the 70% mark, I was starting to get weary and just wishing for the book to end because it was becoming a struggle to get through. It could have been a strong fantasy novel, but it needed more detail all around—more character development, more worldbuilding, more information about the Wilderwood, more history of the Kings, more clarification on the blood magic, and more concrete plot points. The whole book is ethereal and vague, which adds to the ambiance but doesn’t add to the book’s strengths. I am not planning on reading the sequel, For the Throne, because I don’t want to read any more about Neve and I frankly just don’t care about this story enough to continue on. I do hope, though, that it will be a stronger installment in this series and provide some of the missing answers that this story deserves for those who are continuing on. 

It’s hard for me to rate this book because I was convinced when I started that it was going to be 5 stars, and then it dropped to 4 stars, and then for a long stretch I settled on 3 stars, but by the time I got to the last quarter, it had dropped to barely 2 stars. My interest and attention waned the further into the story I read, and that makes me really sad. 

Read For the Wolf for the atmosphere and the romance because those are this book’s focal points. Do not read this book if you’re looking for an epic fantasy, expansive worldbuiling, a plot that makes sense, or an in-depth magic system because you won’t find that here. Even though I was ultimately left disappointed with this book and do not plan on reading the sequel, I would still recommend this book to the right audience, so know what kind of story you want before you start it. For the Wolf is marketed as adult fantasy, but I really think it would be better suited to readers who prefer reading young adult stories; it’s a good crossover book. I intend to read Hannah Whitten future series she has planned because I did enjoy her writing style, so hopefully she has honed her craft a bit more by the time they release. 

Review: THE GIRL WHO COULD MOVE SH*T WITH HER MIND by Jackson Ford

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

This book was chosen for our monthly book club and I'm glad it was because I don't know if I would have picked it up otherwise. 

This urban sci-fi story follows Teagan, a girl with psychokinesis. She works with this underground group to use her abilities to help and/or harm people. When one of her missions goes awry, a man ends up dead in a way only someone with her abilities could have done, but she didn't kill him. She and her team have twenty hours to prove her innocence, but Teagan is more interested in finding the other psychokinetic she now knows is out there. 

We also have a second POV from a mysterious side character named Jake. Jake has psychokinesis. Just like Teagan, he also thinks he's the only person with psychokinesis. He's been given a list of three people to kill in the next twenty-four hours and if he doesn't then he'll end up dead himself. 

This book was fast-paced and super funny. It was also quite vulgar, but I think it really worked in this type of story. Teagan is chill and sarcastic and full of personality. She cracks jokes left and right and I was actually laughing out loud at times. I also enjoyed the air of mystery surrounding the reasoning behind how people became psychokinetic and who was behind the missions and why. 

I liked the dual perspectives that give the reader an edge in knowing more than the characters do. Especially when the ending came. There were some events I totally did not see coming and was very surprised by, but in a good way. I would recommend this IF it sounds like something you'd enjoy; I know this kind of story isn't for everyone. 

This book could be read as a standalone because the missions and mysteries herein are wrapped up by the end, but the characters talk about future plans and there is an open-ended-ness to what Teagan would be doing now that the book is done. I wouldn't mind reading more books in this world, but I'm also not going out of my way to read them as soon as I can. 

Review: SOURDOUGH by Robin Sloan

 

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

This book has solidified Robin Sloan as an auto-buy author for me. 

I loved Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore so much, so I wanted to check out more works from the author. Sourdough is Sloan's only other novel (although he does have a couple of short stories), so I decided to pick it up even though I do not bake and know nothing about baking bread. 

This book was fabulous. I never knew a book about a woman baking bread could be so enjoyable. Sloan's writing is exquisite and honestly why I think I love his books so much. This novel was also super funny, and I laughed out loud multiple times while reading it. 

Sourdough is about a woman named Lois who is gifted a sourdough starter by a pair of mysterious brothers before they move across the world, and their plea to Lois is to keep the starter alive no matter what. Feed it, play it music, and learn to bake with it. 

These brothers belong to an ancient (fictitious) culture called the Mazg, and I loved seeing that culture woven throughout the novel. They give Lois a CD of Mazg music for her to play to the sourdough starter, and in the audiobook, you can actually hear a little bit of that music. I absolutely love multimedia aspects in books or audiobooks. And what's cooler is that there are exclusive audio-only chapters in Sourdough's audiobook! So of course I had to listen to the whole novel, and it was a wonderful experience. 

Robin Sloan himself has a background in technology and it shows in his novels, which I think is only an asset to his writing. He wrote this really fascinating article on the production of the machine-created sounds present throughout the audiobook, which make up the Mazg music. It's not too long and totally worth a read if you enjoyed the book:
https://www.mcdbooks.com/features/sourdough 

Sourdough is definitely more fiction than fantasy, but I would say it leans into magical realism a little bit. Lois's sourdough starter isn't exactly magical, but it also kind of is. It's a weird book but in the most pleasant way possible. I absolutely love Sloan's writing style and I will read anything he writes. I definitely encourage you to check out this novel and his debut novel as well; both are amazing. 

Review: THE CROWN OF GILDED BONES by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Rating: 1/5 stars

I was struggling to read this book during the first chapter, which is never a good sign. I wish I had picked it up as soon as I finished A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire because I was excited to read it then, but that was six months ago. And in the past six months, I have forgotten everything I knew about this series. What happened in the first book? How did the second book end? Who are all these people? Why do I even care?

I couldn’t answer any of those questions.

So I was immediately struggling when I started this book because I found it very hard to jump back into the story. 

I have realized I do not like dark romance, and that’s what this series is. Casteel is not a good guy, and he’s not a sexy love interest, so I just hated reading about him. I hate how much he manipulated Poppy and called it love. You can read my rants about him in my reviews of the first two books if you’re interested in my full thoughts. 

I also didn’t care for Poppy either. I liked her in the first book, but she slowly got more and more irritating and overpowered and less fierce. And she basically becomes a deity in this book which is just too much, no thank you. 

The Crown of Gilded Bones is way too long. Like the second book, this installment needed some trimming and concision editing, which is unfortunately lacking seeing as this is a self-published novel.

I found myself just completely uninterested during the book to the point that I started skimming. In chapter two. It’s not that I hated the book, it’s that I didn’t care one bit about anything that was happening. I think nonchalance is a worse reaction to a book than hatred because at least you made me feel something if I hated it. But I didn’t care about this book enough to hate it. I skimmed a couple of chapters, reading mostly dialogue, until I decided I didn’t want to spend any more time with this story or these characters, so then I read the last two pages and decided to be done. 

I know I will never reread these books, and I have no intention of finishing the series because I could barely read the little of this book that I did before DNFing. It was supposed to be a trilogy but it got extended to six books, which is what authors do when they want more money, I guess. 

When I was originally reading the first book I found it to be very engaging and I was really into it. The second book I liked less but it was still good. Now that I’ve had some time away from the series, coming back to it has made me realize that upon reflection, this series is unmemorable and actually not that great. I think Jennifer Armentrout is good at writing compelling stories, and I liked the political intrigue present in the first two books, but I did not like the romance here at all. At this time I don’t plan on reading any other books by her, but that could always change in the future, who knows. 

Here is my updated glossary for this series based on what I read of this book. It contains minor spoilers: 

~GLOSSARY~

Ascended: Another name for a vampry. They were originally created by the Atlantians by accident by draining a mortal of blood and replacing their blood with Atlantian blood; consuming large quantities of Atlantian blood can turn one into an Ascended during a process called the Ascension. They are basically immortal and live for a long time but can ultimately still be killed. 

Atlantian: Beings of an ancient race created by the gods. Basically they’re sophisticated vampires. They have fangs and are pretty much immortal but can still be killed. They age very slowly and their blood has healing properties. 

Changeling: A certain Atlantian bloodline that can shift between two forms. Believed to be offspring of a deity and a wolven.

Craven: Dangerous beings that are a mix of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. If bitten by one, humans will turn into one. When a Vampry drains a mortal of blood, it turns into a Craven. The Ascended tell the people that the Dark One controls the Craven but this is not true as they are not even created by him. Instead, the Ascended use the Craven to control the people through fear. 

Culling: The process when an Atlantian reaches a state of maturity and goes through physical changes when abilities sometimes begin to manifest, such as growing fangs. 

Dark One: Prince Casteel / Hawke. He is the heir to the Atlantian throne, although he has a brother named Prince Malik, who is the true heir to the throne. 

Descenters: The group that follows the Dark One. They believe the Solis gods are false and the Dark One, AKA Prince Casteel, is the true Prince. They are followers but are not directly led by him and sometimes act on their own.

Eather: What some would call magic. The essence of the gods; what gives them their abilities.

Joining: When an elemental Atlantian bonded to a wolven takes on a partner, there is an exchange of blood between the three individuals (or four, if the partner is also bonded to a wolven), causing the bond to be extended to the other person. This ceremony is sometimes done by way of sexual intercourse. The partner will then live as long as the wolven, even if they are half-mortal (it won’t work on full mortals though).

Rise: Mountainous walls constructed from limestone and iron mined from the Elysium Peaks. A Rise surrounds each city.

Soul Eater: A derogatory name for the Empath bloodline of Atlantians, named such because they can sense and manipulate people’s emotions and actions. Poppy is currently believed by some to belong to this bloodline. 

Vampry: Basically vampires. Another name for the Ascended. They feed on mortals.

Wolven: Basically werewolves. Some Wolven can bond with certain Atlantians. 

Review: A NORTHERN LIGHT by Jennifer Donnelly

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

A Northern Light pleasantly surprised me. I am always on the search for historical fiction that actually engages me. I tend to dislike traditional historical fiction novels, ones about war-torn Europe or generic medieval stories, so I’m always iffy when I start reading any sort of historical novel. But this one was actually good. It’s a historical coming-of-age story combined with a murder mystery based on a true story. 

I knew on page three that I was going to like this book. The writing style just really spoke to me and I had a good feeling about it.

“What had I seen? Too much. What did I know? Only that knowledge carries a damned high price.”

I’ve owned this book for ten years. I remember buying it on sale at Half-Price Books for two dollars back in high school, and it took me all these years to finally read it (I own way too many books; send help). 

One thing I loved about this book was that Mattie learns a new word every day and then tries to use that word during that day. I learned a few new words myself during my time reading this story, which I loved. It lends an unexpected intellectual quality to the novel. This is a smart book, and we need more smart books in young adult literature. 

A huge portion of the story, probably like 85%, does not revolve around the plot laid out in the synopsis. The book’s description only tells of Mattie trying to solve the murder mystery, but that is such a minor part of the story. We follow Mattie’s day-to-day life during her last year of schooling and we learn about her relationship with her father and sisters, her friendship with other kids in her town, and her desires post-graduation. We see Mattie working on her family’s farm, going to school, talking with her siblings and friends, learning new words, courting a boy, arguing with her father, etc. 

I honestly felt like this book was trying to do too much. Just telling Mattie’s story would have been enough, or just telling the murder mystery would have been enough, but trying to combine both those stories while also adding in narratives surrounding gender struggles, racial struggles, poverty struggles, and so much more made the book feel a little overwhelming at times. But I also appreciated what Jennifer Donnelly was trying to do here. 

Normally I don’t prefer to read stories that deal with social issues because I like escapism reads, but this novel handled it all in such a way that I didn’t mind, and I actually felt for our characters, specifically Mattie. She struggles with the expectations of womanhood in the early 1900s. She wants to write and have a career while also having a family, but she knows the two are mutually exclusive because of her gender. So will she give up her passion for her family, or give in to loneliness for her passion? It was almost heartbreaking because I know so much gender inequality existed at that time and still exists today and affects so many women who could have done much more extraordinary things with their lives but because of the restraints of society were weighed down with unwanted expectations. 

“I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn’t have written even one poem if she’d had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn’t marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn’t want to be lonely my whole life. I didn’t want to give up my words. I didn’t want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn’t have to. Charles Dickens didn’t. And John Milton didn’t, either.”

I did enjoy the entire book, but I also wish more of the narrative had been focused on the plotline involving Mattie trying to uncover the mystery behind Grace’s disappearance and murder after Grace gave Mattie a stack of her correspondences. That part seemed really intriguing to me, and that’s the part based on a true story. 

A Northern Light is told in a nonlinear timeline, with Grace Brown being found dead at the Glenmore in the beginning, and then going back in time to tell about Mattie’s life before she started working at the Glenmore, and it jumps back and forth between these two timelines until they meet up at the end of the book. I understand why Donnelly wrote in this way, so that we can see Grace Brown’s letters interspersed throughout the story instead of all together at the end, but I think for clarity’s sake it would have been better to write all the events in chronological order as I was a little confused at the beginning. 

I absolutely loved the writing style in this story. Donnelly writes with evocative imagery and elegant descriptions. There were so many sentences when I had to stop and marvel at the beauty of her writing. The book is also hilarious. Mattie is SO relatable that her observations about life and womanhood are humorous and actually made me laugh out loud at times because of how realistic she is. 

I really enjoyed A Northern Light and I would definitely recommend it. It’s an older book now, but it’s still so worth the read. If you’re skeptical of historical fiction like I am, read this for the heartbreaking mystery, or the ill-fated romance, or the relatable protagonist who made me feel so seen that I almost cried. Or just read it for the gorgeous prose. But make sure you add it to your list because this isn’t a book to be missed. 

Review: MASTER OF IRON by Tricia Levenseller

 

Rating: 2/5 stars

Even though I read Blade of Secrets only five months ago, I'd already forgotten how it ended when I went to start Master of Iron. Luckily, the first chapter gives a good recap of where our characters are at in their journey, as this book begins right where the first one ended. 

Bladesmith Ziva, mercenary Kellyn, and scholar Petrik are on their way to a magical healer to save Ziva's sister Temra, who is gravely injured. Also along for the ride is their captive, the villainous warlord Kymora. Some things happen and then most of the book is spent with Ziva and Kellyn alone together. 

Ziva is so dense. It actually frustrated me how often something is so obvious and Ziva is acting like an idiot about it. For example, it is beyond clear that Kellyn likes her, and he even says so, and then when someone hits on him and he says he's spoken for, Ziva asks herself why he said that, who he's with, when did he have a chance to meet this person, what is she doing there if he likes someone else, etc. This type of conversation happens multiple times throughout the story. It just read as really immature to me because obviously, Kellyn likes Ziva and she's as dense as a brick about it. And then a girl will look at Kellyn and Ziva will ask herself why she's suddenly feeling jealous. Because you like him, you idiot! Duh! People don't ask themselves those questions about potential romantic partners in adult novels because they're usually written with more common sense, and as an adult, I was continually frustrated by it. 

Unfortunately, the romance in this book didn't really work for me. It was so immature. I cannot count the number of times Ziva refers to Kellyn as stupid, dumb, idiotic, or a big oaf. She doesn't ever have anything nice to say about him. I know this was all supposed to be said in love or in good humor, but I never saw it that way. Ziva is constantly insulting him every time she talks to him or thinks about him. And maybe that's her way of not accepting her own feelings toward him, but I just wished she would be nice to him. She's irritated when he risks his life for her, she's mad she has to risk her life to save him, she often complains about him in her inner monologues, and all of it just frustrated me. Yes, they do kiss a lot, and yes, there's a happy ending, but I didn't like their chemistry in between those moments. Kellyn's cool but Ziva really got on my nerves. 

Like I said in my review of Blade of Secrets, this duology reads young to me. I think it's just Tricia Levenseller's writing style, but I feel like this is a book for tweens, even though the protagonist is an adult. The drama, the romance, Ziva's internal monologues--it's all written in a way that is not relatable to me as an adult, and many scenes and conversations are very eye-roll-inducing. I do think younger teens will enjoy this story a lot more than I did. Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of the book wanting it to be over. It wasn't a bad story, but I know I'm not the intended audience here, and I wanted to be reading something with more depth and more mature characters than what we get in Master of Iron. Plus the writing is very modern for a story that's a medieval fantasy. One time Ziva and Temra are actually talking about going to the store for groceries. Um . . . no. There were many other examples of overly modern writing that felt very out of place in this narrative, and it bothered me. 

Ziva has social anxiety, and I remember loving this aspect about the first novel as I, too, have social anxiety, and it was nice to relate to a character on that front. But somehow, in this book, I found myself dissatisfied with how her anxiety was portrayed. At times it felt overly exaggerated, and at other times it felt unrealistically underrepresented. For example, Ziva always has the right comeback at the right time and she verbally stands up for both herself and her friends. This is not something that someone with social anxiety should feel comfortable doing or even be able to do on a regular basis. 

Speaking from personal experience, whenever I am faced with confrontation or aggression from someone who is not in my immediate family or one of my closest friends, I clam up. I have so many things I'd like to say but my heart is racing and I can't say any of them so I just sit there, terrified of opening my mouth, unable to defend myself no matter how much I want to. It's humiliating, frustrating, and embarrassing. So I find it unbelievable that Ziva does not often have this problem of being unable to speak up for herself during times of conflict, despite exhibiting other traits of social anxiety that would make me believe otherwise. 

Thinking back on Blade of Secrets, I believe Ziva was like this in that book too as I remember her always having the right thing to say and being kind of bad-A. So that makes me sad, that only her inner monologue is relatable and representative of what it's like to have anxiety, while her outer actions seem to be like any other strong, female protagonist that is so common in literature these days. 

This book is very fast-paced, sometimes moving so quickly that I didn't have time to care about the story's events before something else started happening. But on the other hand, the overall story felt too slow-paced for me, the characters being in one place for far too long and spending too much time on side tasks before getting back to the main storyline. I had this problem with the first book too; I struggled to gauge the passage of time in the narrative. 

Overall, I struggled to read Master of Iron. I liked Blade of Secrets better, but its sequel had too many pieces that didn't work for me and made me not enjoy the story as much as I had hoped to, although I will say that I did enjoy the ending. I think the idea of a female bladesmith who is able to imbue her blades with magic and who has social anxiety is an awesome idea for a story, and while there were some good parts that I enjoyed, I ultimately just think that this duology reads too young and immature for my tastes and that Tricia Levenseller's writing style doesn't work for me. I do, however, encourage you to check this series out if it sounds like something you'd enjoy.