Mini Reviews: January 2021

The Lives of the Saints by Leigh Bardugo, Illustrations by Daniel J. Zollinger

This, like The Language of Thorns, is a beautiful book. The physical copy with it’s red binding and gold lettering feels like an artifact straight out of Ravka. It’s truly something special to have on your book shelf.

Then, when you open the book, there are Zollinger’s gorgeous illustrations. Each one portraying a tale of a saint.

And finally, you have the stories themselves. Bewitching tales for each of the unfortunate saints. Some we know of, if you have read other Grishaverse works, and some new. Content warning as some the Grishaverse saints do suffer peculiar or horrible deaths. Same as the saints of real religions I guess, but with that delightfully dark twist Bardugo always brings to her stories.

Now, how many synonyms for good-looking have I used to describe this book? Probably not enough, because the bottom line is that this book is really pleasingly pretty.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Let’s get the comparisons out of the way. It’s not grown-up Harry Potter, as I have seen its been called a few times. It’s more Dresden Files meets The Bill in my opinion.

It’s a good mix of police procedure with new takes on magic and mythos. The way magic is handled is less whimsical and more matter of fact adding to the no-nonsense police serial vibe.

I like how the multiculturalism of a big city like London is used in the story. Whether it is handled well, is not for me to say.

Overall, I enjoyed Rivers of London. It’s an urban fantasy combining three things I enjoy. Mysteries, magic and the history of London.

The only real criticisms I have is that it’s not necessary to know the breast size and leg length of every female character and the ending was upsettingly gruesome. Content warning for body horror.

Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy edited by Amerie

Ironically the least gruesome book of the three. 13 short stories featuring villains as the protagonist. If the stories have happy endings really depends on whether you are rooting of the villain or not. Well, that’s not completely true. Most of the stories explore the greyscale of morality and choosing between self or others. They were all interesting reads, but personal favourites include:

Death Knell by Victoria Schwab and Sherley & Jim by Susan Dennard.

I was less interested in the sections between the stories. They featured musings from booktubers on the previous tale. An interesting idea, but I don’t want a review or a sociological discussion of said story in the same book as its written, so I skipped many of those.