Can't-Wait... Tuesday?: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire, The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang, & The Secrets of Underhill by Kali Wallace

      

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

Since tomorrow is Christmas Day for those who celebrate, I figured I'd go ahead and post my Can't-Wait Wednesday post today instead. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! :)

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children #10) by Seanan McGuire
Publication: January 7th, 2025
Tordotcom
Hardcover. 160 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Giant turtles, impossible ships, and tidal rivers ridden by a Drowned girl in search of a family in the latest in the bestselling Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire.

Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her.

Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth.

It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong.

It wasn't her.

Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyrreka, the Land Beneath the Lake--and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyrreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people.

But even in Belyrreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure."

I'm honestly still a bit behind on catching up with this series, but I'm always excited to hear about a new one coming out. I'm also a little surprised sometimes that it's still going, but I'm curious to see what else McGuire has up her sleeve.

The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang
Publication: January 28th, 2025
Sphere
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"An astonishing story set in 1800s China. Little Flower is sold into slavery, and Linjing into marriage . . .

As a child, Little Flower is sold to Linjing's wealthy family to become a muizai. In a fit of childish jealousy over her new handmaiden's ladylike bound feet and talent for embroidery, Linjing ensures Little Flower can never leave her to ascend in society.

Despite their starkly different places in the Fong household, over the years the two girls must work together to secure both their futures through Linjing's marriage. As the two grow up, they are by turns bitter rivals and tentative friends.

Until scandal strikes the family, and Linjing and Little Flower's lives are unexpectedly thrown into chaos. Linjing's fall from grace could be an opportunity for Little Flower - but will their intertwined fates lead to triumph, or tragedy for them both?"

I'm always on the lookout for some great new historical fiction and this one sounds really promising!

The Secrets of Underhill by Kali Wallace
Publication: January 28th, 2025
Quirk Books
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"This immersive fantasy adventure combines vivid world-building with timely themes of environmentalism is perfect for middle grade readers of Kelly Barnhill and Jessica Townsend.

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she and her mother move from town to town, caring for the ironwood groves the communities rely upon. When a dangerous blight takes hold of these magical trees, they must journey to the city of Mistwood—her mother’s hometown—for answers.

Nick can’t wait to explore the prosperous city of Mistwood and all it has to the bustling markets and workshops, neighborhoods built under a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear, and tensions rise in the city.

As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads underground, to a strange, enchanting world called Underhill. Only then, among the roots of ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save her new home and the ironwood trees."

I've only had a chance to read Kali Wallace's adult sci-fi/horror so far, and I'm really excited to finally check out some of her middle grade work because I do love some great middle grade.

Review: Salvation Day by Kali Wallace

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace

Berkley

Publication Date: July 9th, 2019

Hardcover. 320 pages

About Salvation Day:

"A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller. 

They thought the ship would be their salvation. 

Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. 

But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya—the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship. But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship—a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead. 

And then they woke it up"

At this point, it doesn't seem like I'll ever tire of reading space thrillers, and Salvation Day proved to be yet another thrilling one that kept me hooked throughout. 

Salvation Day is a fast-paced adventure in space following a disparate group of people with a variety of different motivations at play. The concept of violent, lethal virus existing on a spaceship and becoming a huge threat is not the most original one to exist among thrillers in space, but Wallace combines it with a unique hostage situation that changes things up enough to keep this book fresh.

The book alternates POVs between Zahra, leader of the crew attempting to take over the House of Wisdom, and Jaswinder, or Jas, survivor of the tragedy that led to the House of Wisdom being abandoned and also whom Zahra also plans to kidnap. Sound confusing yet? Don't worry, things eventually make sense...right before they take some unexpected twists and turns to make sure you never know what to expect. Wallace did a great job with developing characters that have in-depth background and a plausible explanation for what has led them to the points they are in the present day in this novel. Something that I really liked was that the characters had a lot of morally grey aspects to them, as our "good" guys aren't necessarily all that good, and the "bad" guys aren't always that bad, either. I thought she did a great job of realistically portraying how people's backgrounds and circumstances lead them to do things and be influenced in ways they wouldn't necessarily be otherwise. There is a good amount of character in this study despite the major focus being on the more suspenseful aspect of the plot.

The world-building in Salvation Day has both strong and weak points, though overall I found it steady enough to convey a believable world and current situation. There were a few specific areas that Wallace developed really well, such as the location of the House of Wisdom and other relevant space ships/ports used or mentioned in the story which really cemented the current physical world. However, outside of the settings in which the majority of the story takes place, there were only brief mentions of other areas of the world that left me feeling not quite as clear about the state of the world as I could have been. Wallace does mention, for instance, how space exploration has become a crucial investment for the world, but I would have loved to explore more about how it happened and what exactly caused it. This is mentioned briefly, but it felt a bit insufficient as well. Despite this, I didn't have any major issues with understanding the present state of events in the novel, and because of that I had no problem enjoying this book fully.

As I mentioned, Salvation Day is a book that runs through its events at a breakneck speed, though not too fast to keep up, and it seems as though most of the events of the book happen within one or maybe two days total. I enjoyed this quick pace because it helped keep my attention and the intensity of the plot high, but this timeline is also where I had one of my minor issues, as it was never explicitly said how long things were taking or what the time-frame was. Even if it did only take place in one day, I felt confused because there was also never any mention of anyone need food, water, or even a restroom break, despite being stranded onboard an abandoned spaceship. This wasn't a huge problem because I'm sure everyone involved was stressed and not really thinking about necessities, but it definitely still made me wonder why people didn't seem to have any regular bodily functions to deal with. Maybe something was mentioned in passing that I missed, but this is just one of those inconsistencies in books that can frustrate me. There were a few other inconsistencies like this throughout, especially in regards to the virus, but nothing that drastically pulled me out of the story and instead only left me questioning a few things.

Salvation Day isn't afraid to pull punches and readily explores the motivations and consequences of people trapped in dire, unexpected circumstances of survival. It has moments where you might be able to guess what happens, but the overall picture is entirely unpredictable and kept twisting in places I wasn't expecting it to. There are constantly secrets to uncover and new parts of the characters' and world's history to explore.

Overall, I've given Salvation Day 3.75 stars! I had a few minor quibbles here and there, but in the end I sped through this book and had a great time doing it. I can't wait to see what Kali Wallace writes next!

*I received an ARC of Salvation Day courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating or enjoyment of the novel.*

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