Review: After Oz by Gordon McAlpine

   

After Oz by Gordon McAlpine

Crooked Lane Books

Publication Date: August 6th, 2024

Hardcover. 240 pages.

About After Oz:

"Kansas, 1896. After a tornado destroys the Gale family farm, 11-year-old Dorothy goes missing. As the days pass by, the Gales are increasingly terrified the worst has happened. But when the girl turns up unharmed four days later, the townsfolk breathe in a sigh of relief. That is, until Dorothy herself relates her account of the events that took place after her disappearance.

In vivid detail, Dorothy describes a fantastical land and its magical inhabitants, from the scarecrow, the tin man, and the cowardly lion to the wizard and the witch. Her recollections are not only regarded as delusional, but also as pagan and diabolical in nature, especially when the body of a local spinster is found.

Making connections between the evil witch Dorothy claims to have defeated and the ill-tempered old crone, authorities find what they believe to be incriminating evidence, sentencing Dorothy to the Topeka Insane Asylum.

When 28-year-old psychologist Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford arrives at the asylum to interview Dorothy, she begins to wonder if Dorothy truly committed the crime or if something unfathomable has really occurred.

In a small town full of insidious secrets, will Evelyn be able to save Dorothy from her terrible circumstances? Or is something menacing lurking just out of sight?"

Have you ever wondered what happened after Dorothy returned from visiting Oz? If you have, then you might After Oz, which tackles exactly that question, though with a bit of a specific framework in mind.

In After Oz, we follow Dorothy’s story after she returns from Oz after being swept up in the storm. The problem is, when Dorothy tells people about her adventures in Oz and insists that it was real, they think she’s merely raving like a madman and as a result send her to the Topeka Insane Asylum. And to make matters even more complicated, a local woman who is often referred to as a ‘witch’ by fellow townsfolk due to her less than pleasant demeanor is found dead in a manner eerily reminiscent of Dorothy’s description of ‘melting’ a woman by throwing a bucket of water on her while in Oz. Because of this, Dorothy becomes the prime suspect in the mysterious murder, with no one on her side except the mysterious visiting psychiatrist Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford who shows up in the town of Sunbonnet to aid her.

The story is primarily narrated through letters written by Dr. Wilford to her mentor. This epistolary format allowed for what felt like a very comprehensive look into Dr. Wilford’s thoughts and both professional and personal observations, which really lets the readers have a more introspective look into everything happening in Sunbonnet (at least from Dr. Wilford’s eyes, anyway). I found her chapters to be thoughtfully written and rich in detail, which allowed her personality to shine through.

There are also some chapters interspersed told from the perspective of an unnamed townsperson who appears to be a spokesman of sorts for the town and therefore acts as a viewpoint into the ‘opposing’ side who believes in Dororthy’s guilt and develops a strong dislike for Dr. Wilford. I can’t say I enjoyed these chapters quite as much as Dr. Wilford’s, but I think the insight they provided for the rest of the town was vital to better understanding the dynamics at play in this story.

My only real complaint about the perspectives in this book is what’s lacking, and that’s any perspectives from Dorothy herself. I understand now that the focus of the book is clearly meant to be on the murder and events surrounding her, with Dorothy acting as the central focus that draws everything together, but I really expected and hoped for more from Dorothy given the premise.

After Oz has a very strong ‘whodunnit’ nature to it, which I wasn’t really expecting (although after reading the book I noticed it was published by Crooked Lane Books, a popular mystery publisher, so this might’ve clued me in if I’d noticed it, haha!), but which managed to keep me engaged throughout. The story is relatively fast-paced in a good way and maintained a very consistent flow to it that made it hard for me to put down. Many of the additional townsfolk were a bit cardboard-like in personality, but the way they were included and used in the story made them more engaging and even provided a nice foil to Dr. Wilford’s intellect and keen eye. I was also pleasantly surprised by some of the twists and turns that I think really kept this story exciting.

As previously mentioned, while I initially hoped for a bit more of Dorothy’s perspective on returning from Oz and re-adapting to her life in Kansas, the focus ont he mystery of the murdered woman and Dorothy’s return and repercussions was still very compelling. I still had a lot of fun with this and it makes me curious about what else could be done with this story without the murdered woman taking center stage? Would Dorothy still be sent to a mental asylum, and what would other repercussions be?

I listened to the audiobook version of After Oz and thought it was excellently done. The narrator succeeded in bringing the characters to life with distinct and entertaining voices and inflections for each. I definitely recommend the audiobook for this one if you are someone who enjoys the audio format!

Regardless, I found After Oz to be an engaging read that I finished quickly due to the engaging mystery elements and various twists that popped up around town. Overall, I’ve given After Oz 3.75 stars. While it may not have delved into the magical land of Oz itself or focused as much on Dorothy’s perspective, it was still a really fascinating look at a possible aftermath of such a unique and remarkable experience. If you like mysteries and classic tales, then I’d encourage you to give this one a read.

*I received a copy of After Oz in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Review: These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low

These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low

Orbit

Publication Date: July 9th, 2024

Paperback. 464 pages.

About These Deathless Shores:

"Jordan has gotten good at pretending.

On an Island where boys fly and fight pirates, but girls can only be mothers, Jordan's shaved head and false swagger are the only things keeping her adopted crew of Lost Boys from forcing her into a role she has never wanted. When she gets her first period, she's exposed and thrown back Outside—into a world where grown-ups die slowly in offices, flight is a fantasy, and withdrawal from the Island’s magical Dust slowly strips its afflicted of their dignity.

To Jordan, it’s a fate worse than death.

Nine years later, when the drug she has been using to medicate her withdrawal begins to show its fatal final symptoms, Jordan persuades her best friend and fellow ex-Lost Boy to return with her to the Island. With the help of a temperamental pilot and her long-estranged sister, she sets in motion a plan to oust Peter from his throne and seize control of the Island’s Dust supply.

But Peter isn't the only malevolent force moving against her. As Jordan confronts the nature of Dust, first love, and the violent legacy carved into the land itself, she realises the Island may have plans of its own..."

These Deathless Shores is a dark Peter Pan-inspired story that really grabbed me with its premise. I will read any and all Peter Pan-inspired stories, so this was an immediate must-read for me. While the execution didn't quite meet my expectation, there were still so many elements that I really liked and I found myself consistently captivated by this gritty, complex world created by the author. 

The story follows Jordan, who as a child disguised herself a boy in order to be swept away to Neverland alongside her friend where the two could fulfill the role of the 'twins' together as one of Peter Pans Lost Boys. When she is eventually kicked out and left for dead, she struggles back in the real world with her strong addiction to the magic Dust and her deep desire to be back on the Island.

Jordan is a complicated person who has been through a lot and struggles with her addiction to Dust and attachment to the Island, which she has never really been able to move on from. She leads a somewhat erratic life with a main goal of getting back to the Island, though she generally seems a bit unclear about what she wants long term. I'm not sure even Jordan knows what she wants from life, and I could relate to this struggle with finding yourself and your place in this world.  Baron acts as somewhat as a foil to Jordan and was a bit of an odd character, but I liked him and connected with him and many of his anxieties and desire to move on from things. He's not overly adventurous and prefers to probably stay out of things, but he makes some personal discoveries throughout the book that really help him development as a character. He's the type of character that's easy to be bullied by other characters, if that makes sense, and I actually felt like Jordan wasn't always the kindest to him in ways that made their friendship feel very complex and tense, a setup that I think Low explored very carefully and with thoughtfulness that made it a really fascinating dynamic.

This is a dark tale that deals with a lot of mental health struggles and traumas, so a quick look at content warnings is a good idea if you're sensitive to anything along those lines. I appreciated that the author did include relatable struggles such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, eating disorders, disability rep, addiction, and more, as I thought it packed in some realism that helped me connect more with the characters and even better understand their actions and motivations. There is also a fair bit of violence throughout the book that fit in well with this gritty dog-eat-dog type of world. There's a definite 'everyone looks out for themselves' vibe throughout, so it was interesting to see how different connections were able to be formed by different characters. It's a brutal life to live on the Island with Peter. 

The world-building felt both over and under developed at the same time. While the world felt like an alternate, somewhat dystopian vibe version of our own–but with different names and it's own map–there really didn't seem to be enough exploration or explanation of the world for it to make sense to me. I was left wondering where exactly different places were and what the general setup of this world was, and in the end I just ended up feel fairly lost throughout some of this book. This is also shows up in the layout of the Island itself, as I felt there were sometimes conflicting descriptions given of just how big or small the Island was and where all of its inhabitants were located. For instance, the Island is home to Peter and his Lost Boys, and the Pirates, and the Pales, the latter being Lost Boys who aged out of being Lost Boys but remained on the Island. It was a little unclear to me at times where all these different factions existed and how exactly they lived on the Island and interacted, and this bothered me a bit while trying to understand the world. 

I also felt that the plotting and pacing were a little messy at times. It often seemed as though the author wanted to tackle a lot of different angles of this story, but didn't fully commit to any. This also created some uneven pacing, where at times things seemed to be progressing quickly–occasionally too quickly–but other times it didn't seem like it was going anywhere.  I also didn't care for the ending and felt it was a bit lackluster and disappointing compared to what the story had been building up to, and I didn't personally feel like all the previous plot points had been fully addressed. 

All that being said, I always like to leave credit where its due so I think it's important to note that despite these struggles, I kept reading the book and finding myself curious about what would happen next. I'm not someone who really holds back on DNF-ing books anymore, so clearly something kept me going, and I strongly believe it's the author's writing the kept me so engaged. Low did such a great job of really capturing the gritty atmosphere of this rather brutal tale and conveying it through their thoughtful prose style and through their characters and their emotions and reactions to everything that happens. I was really captivated by Low's writing and would certainly want to see what else they may write in the future. 

Lastly, I also just want to note that I really hated the romance that occurs in this. Maybe it shouldn't have been this way, but it really felt like it came out of nowhere and it didn't work to me at all. The dynamics also felt really off and I just didn't feel comfortable with this pairing, so that was something that frustrated me whenever it came up.

This review may seem fairly negative, but I really didn't dislike this book. I loved a lot of the bones and general core of it, I just wish everything else had filled in a bit better. As mentioned, I really enjoyed the author's writing and think there's a lot of promise there, so it's one I'd still encourage people to check out if it sounds interesting to them. Overall, I've given These Deathless Shores 3.75 stars!

*I received a copy of These Deathless Shores in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Review: The Silverblood Promise by James Logan

The Silverblood Promise (The Last Legacy #1) by James Logan

Tor Books

Publication Date: May 7th, 2024

Hardcover. 528 pages.

About The Silverblood Promise:

"Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and―thanks to a duel that ended badly―the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away.

When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father's death.

His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow.

For in Saphrona, everything has a price―and the price of truth is the deadliest of all."

This review is long overdue, but I had to make sure to get one up given how much I loved The Silverblood Promise. This book kept me sane during some long airport waits for delayed flights and subsequently long flights, so I am enormously grateful I had it as a companion while traveling!

The Silverblood Promise is everything I've been looking for in a fantasy lately: adventure, well-developed characters, intricate world-building, and layers of intrigue to get lost in. I've seen it compared to The Lies of Locke Lamora (which is one of my favorite fantasy books), and while I agree in terms of general vibe and atmosphere, I wouldn't compare them too closely. While both books have plenty of careful plotting and subterfuge, The Lies of Locke Lamora is a heist novel, whereas The Silverblood Promise embarks on a much different type of adventure.

The story centers around Lukan, who has recently learned that his father has been murdered and takes it upon himself to figure out why someone wanted his father dead. This purpose takes him to a city known as Saphrona, where Lukan is somewhat sidetracked (due to reasons beyond his control) and drawn into a seemingly endless series of additional secrets and quests that lead to a myriad of twists and turns that made this a book I couldn’t put down.

Logan somehow found the perfect balance between a fun fantasy adventure with quippy characters and a story where you can find something more sinister and serious in almost every corner. Because of this, I never felt overwhelmed with grittiness or heavier topics, but rather found myself enjoying a really well-rounded fantasy that offered a little bit of everything. This is also a single POV story that follows Lukan exclusively in the present, and I cannot tell you how much I liked that. Somehow it felt like a breath of fresh air when every other book out there lately seems to be multiple POVs or jumps around in time and has constant flashbacks thrown in. The simplicity in the present single perspective was something I really loved about this book.

Lukan is a really lovable character and feels a bit like a personality that I’ve seen around in fantasy stories before, but I don’t mind at all because he made a fantastic protagonist. He’s a little on the morally grey side, but I think he’s pretty ‘good’ overall, and I found his humor and perspective on the world around him were aspects I really connected with and enjoyed. I also absolutely loved his friendship with Flea, which turned into more of a father-daughter sort of role as the story progressed and really made for a perfect team. Their personalities bounced off of one another perfectly and made each conversation between them a true joy to read.

The world James Logan has created for The Silverblood Promise is fascinating and richly layered, and I really loved the mix of more “normal” everyday areas and places that felt much darker and lent themselves to more of an underbelly of the city where the real action occurs.  I was really pleased with everywhere we got to explore in this book–though I’m certainly looking forward to exploring even more of it in the sequel. There’s really nothing I love more than the sense that there’s a big new fantasy world sprawled out for me to explore, and this book really delivered on that feeling which I thought added a lot of depth to the narrative. There’s also tons of other intrigue in this book and an abundance of hidden plots and conspiracies to keep you hooked, so I promise that despite it being 500+ pages, you really won’t get bored while reading it.

I was also really curious about the magic system in The Silverblood Promise and appreciated how Logan incorporated it in as something central but not overwhelming to the story. While we don't see too much magic up close through the main characters, what we do see was primarily composed of darker magic that I think was executed with a perfect amount of awe and wariness of its power. There was some explanation of the magic itself, but I’m hopeful that future books will delve a bit deeper in the magic and expand upon it.

I could probably keep raving about this book for a while yet, but I’ll save you the time and just encourage you to give this one a read. Overall, I’ve given The Silverblood Promise five stars! If you can’t already tell, I had a blast with this book and am eagerly anticipating the sequel. If you’re looking for a big fantasy that’s packed full of adventure, mystery, magic, endearing characters and friendships, and plenty of twists, then The Silverblood Promise should be your next read.

*I received a copy of  The Silverblood Promise in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Review: The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim

The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim

Del Rey

Publication Date: June 4th, 2024

Paperback. 416 pages.

About The God and the Gumiho:

"Kim Hani has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, she now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can.

That god is Seokga the Fallen. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, he now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café.

But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang’s emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but she has a trick of her own that he’ll never see coming: teaming up. As Seokga’s assistant, Hani will undermine and sabotage his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she’ll help him kill the demon, but she certainly won’t allow him to uncover her secret identity while they’re at it.

As the bickering partners track their case down a path of mayhem and violence, the god and the gumiho find themselves inescapably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely couple stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them—and the world—apart?"

The God and the Gumiho surprised me in the best way possible. I was admittedly a little uncertain how much I would enjoy this book, but I ended up really having a fun time with it and I loved the Korean mythology-influenced world.

The God and Gumiho follows Seokga, a trickster god now exiled to the mortal realm where he works as an investigator; and Hani, a Gumiho who was once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, but now works at a coffee shop that Seokga happens to frequent. Hani is not exactly in hiding, but she’s also not exactly broadcasting her past life in which she went on a bit of a rampage and devoured the souls of far too many men, leaving full for the many years since in which she has not devoured any more men. Seokga was exiled to the mortal realm and has been grudgingly living out his exile as an investigator while slowly fulfilling the terms of his sentence. The two cross paths when a demon from the underworld escapes and begins killing people, which leads police to a sticky situation that Hani was involved in. In order to prevent her and her friend from being found and Hani’s identity discovered, Hani decides to team up with Seokga as his assistant in order to sabotage his investigation and focus on finding the demon. And because that synopsis ended up being so much longer and more difficult and confusing that I expected: long story short– Seokga and Hani do not like each other, but are paired up to work together. Both are very sarcastic and sharp-witted, and everything you might imagine happens with that premise ensues.
Phew.

Seokga and Hani's interactions and evolving relationship with one another is a bit cliche'd and definitely felt like a dynamic I've read many times before, but I don't necessarily think every book has to have something totally 'new' in order to be an engaging read. In fact, I think Sophie Kim took a well-loved and sometimes overused trope and really embraced it and made it something exceptionally fun and entertaining by bolstering it with a vibrant world and engaging dialogue that brought everything to life in a captivating way. 

Hani is a seemingly fearless and captivating character that I really enjoyed getting to know. Seokga is also a really interesting character to get to know and who has plenty of layers of his own that we as readers slowly get to learn more about. There wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking that the author brought to Seokga's 'grumpy' character or the way the characters interacted, but the mixture of Seokga’s own backstory and vulnerabilities that we learn about over time mixed with the banter between Seokga and Hani and the wonderfully sharp, clever wit and dialogue brought everything together in the best way.

I found myself fascinated with Hani's background as the Scarlet Fox, as I think that brought a really interesting dynamic to the story, especially in relation to her own relationship with Seokga, since he himself is a powerful trickster god. Hani, however, is not just some random mortal, but is rather an extremely powerful Gumiho was her own long past that Seokga isn’t aware of, which I felt made the playing field a bit more even. In other stories with this general premise, there's often more of a difference in roles and power, but in this one each one has their own source of power from very different places that makes things a bit more interesting as they each add some unique elements to the dynamic.

One of my favorite parts of this book was simply the incorporation of so much Korean mythology that really made the entire world feel so much more vibrant and exciting. The author doesn't shy away from incorporating plentiful amounts of Korean lore into the story, for both background and current events and although it could at times seem like info-dumping, I actually found all of it captivating and didn't mind it at all. For instance, I loved learning more about Seokga's demotion because it allowed us to learn more about the different layers to the world and the mortal realm, and so much more. Everything made the world so much richer and added so much to the reading experience. 

This book is much bigger than I would have expected it to be, and when I look back on it part of me can't quite remember what exactly took up all those pages, but at the same time I never felt as thought the story dragged or had slow pacing. The entire book was actually a delight to read and I found myself always looking forward to sitting down with it and seeing what the characters would be up to. It's a longer book with a lot of information to take in at times, but Sophie Kim writes in such a way that it never feels like work and is always an enjoyable time.

Overall, I've given The God and the Gumiho four stars! Based on the ending, I desperately need and sequel and will look forward to it!

*I received a copy of  The God and the Gumiho in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org