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Book Review: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Cover art fo Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E Cooney.

Solaris, 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1786184702

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook. ( Bookshop.org  |   Amazon.com )

 

 

Miscellaneous Stones, born into a family known for its violence in service to the crown of Liriat, is a teenage necromancer with an allergy to violence that opens “echo wounds” when violence is done or described. When her parents die, her family is left indebted to a banker’s family with connections to Liriat’s enemy, the Blackbird Bride.

 

Lanie’s sister Nita returns to renegotiate the debt, and does so by agreeing to work for the Queen of Liriat to kill all 24 of the Bride’s consorts. Nita has returned with an unwilling fiance, a gyrgard, who can shapeshift into a falcon and usually has a soul-bonded partner. The gyrgard, renamed Mak, attempts to poison himself rather than stay with Nita, but Lanie, unwilling to experience the echo wound that would be caused by his suicide, brings him back by calling on Saint Death, one of the 12 Lirian gods.

 

In order to prevent having his memories wiped, Mak swears loyalty to Nita, and they have a child, Datu, who is raised primarily by Lanie and Mak, while Nita assassinates the members of the Bride’s parliament. Finally, the Bride kills Nita, pronounces a death sentence on Datu, and tries to seduce Lanie into joining her court. Lanie, Mak, and Datu, along with the family revenant and the entrapped ghost of Lanie’s necromancer grandfather, flee to hide in the city of Liriat Proper to protect Datu.

 

In the city, Lanie, Mak, and Datu make truly good friends willing to help with their problems. Lanie also has a romance with Canon Lir, second son of the queen, and a priest to the many-gendered god of fire. Then Lanie has a serious echo wound in public that reveals their location to the Blackbird Bride, and Mak and Datu flee. Lanie has made a promise to her family’s revenant she must follow through, protect Datu, and bring down the Bride.

 

I know Harrow the Ninth is the big name in literary necromancers right now, and she’s a much more horror-tinged character, but Lanie is my favorite necromancer character ever. Compassionate and loving to the living, dead, and undead, sometimes unwise, she honors her goddess.The allergy to violence and refusal to enthrall others, and her relationship with Lir, make her unusual.

 

This is a long book, but with surprising twists, fascinating world building, great character development, and beautiful prose. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on February 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

 

Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

Simon & Schuster, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5344-7092-7

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Virgil Knox is a gay teen who has moved from Seattle to live with his grandparents in his father’s rural hometown in the South with his father while his parents resolve their divorce. Following a party, he finds himself in rags with bloody claw marks and a bite mark, certain he has been attacked by a monster but unable to remember what happened or how. He is told by multiple people it didn’t happen. Captured on video, he goes viral and receives a lot of hate and nasty jokes from other students. The only class he cares about is theater, and a student from that class, Tripp, and his cousin, Astrid are his only friends. As the cuts heal, he notices his body is changing in disturbing ways. His classmates Finn and Jarrett swing from being friendly to being cruel. Virgil is afraid there is a monster inside him trying to get out. The question is, will he become a monster or master it?

 

This is a supremely uncomfortable book to read. While there is no explicit description of rape the description and narrative around the main character’s attack is suggestive of trauma caused by sexual assault combined with gaslighting (it is unclear what actually occurred as he is blackout drunk). There’s self-harm, body dysmorphia, hazing, severe bullying and cyberbullying. The town’s treatment of Virgil is the real horror of the story.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 26, 2022 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural Vol. 1 by Nancy Holder, art by Amelia Woo

cover for Mary Shelley Presents Vol. 1

Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural Vol. 1 by Nancy Holder, art by Amelia Woo (available only through Kymera Press)

Kymera Press, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-9965558-0-7

Available: Hardcover, trade paperback

 

Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural #1 is the first in a series from Kymera Press adapting stories by Victorian-era women writers of supernatural fiction. With a foreword by Lisa Morton, who just published her own anthology of Victorian women’s supernatural fiction, followed by Isabelle Banks’ poem “Haunted”, this first volume adapts “The Old Nurse’s Tale” by Elizabeth Gaskell, “Man-Size in Marble” by Edith Nesbit, “The Case of Sir Alister Moeran” by Margaret Strickland, and “Monsieur Maurice” by Amelia B. Edwards.  Each story is preceded by a short introductory paragraph from the publisher and the author, Nancy Holder, and then introduced by a spectral Mary Shelley, accompanied by her Creature. These authors have written some wonderful, chilling stories , but they do get wordy for an impatient, modern audience. Holder’s adaptations slim the stories down while preserving the quality of the storytelling, and Amelia Woo’s gorgeous color illustrations are a perfect accompaniment. The brilliant ghosts, period clothes, and detail in darkened woods and cemeteries pull the reader right in. Each adaptation is followed by the full text of the story. As someone with poor eyesight I could have wished the text was a little larger, but some of the original stories are very long– it took skill and collaborative effort to be able to successfully adapt them.

This is a great way to introduce readers to some excellent women writers who, until very recently, had not received recognition for their supernatural fiction, as well as a treat for those of us already familiar with these authors, who would love to see them gain a larger audience.  I’m hoping we won’t have to wait too long for volume 2. Highly recommended for ages 12+.

 

 

Editor’s note: In the interests of full disclosure, I backed the Kickstarter for this book.

 

 

 

 

Posted on August 12, 2020 by , Reply
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