Tag: NetGalley

Graveyards – Alastair Horne

I love fun facts and photography, although sometimes it can be difficult to find enough favourites to include in a review. I had the opposite problem here so, even though I’ve tried to restrain myself, I’ve included more than I usually would.

Because Back to the Future is never too far from my mind, I need to tell you that the Cave Hill Cemetery clock tower in Louisville, Kentucky has been struck by lightning a number of times.

At Boston’s Granary Burying Ground in 2009 “an abandoned entrance to an unmarked crypt was rediscovered when the ground gave way beneath a visitor, plunging her into a hidden stairwell.”

One of my favourite photos was of Kilmacduagh Monastery in Galway, Ireland.

Kilmacduagh Monastery
Image credit: Jon Ingall

A partly ruined ninth-century building at Mizdarkhan in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan is known as the Apocalypse Clock. It is believed that “when the final brick falls, it will herald the end of the world.”

I love graves that showcase the personality or interests of the person buried there, so absolutely adore the piano in London’s Highgate Cemetery.

Highgate Cemetery
Image credit: Flavia Paoletti

Off the coast of Madagascar, pirates are buried at Île Sainte Marie. Naturally their gravestones are marked with skulls and crossbones.

The Kankanaey people of Sagada suspend the coffins of their most distinguished elders from the cliffs. Traditionally, the elderly make their own coffins and paint their names on the side; the bodies are placed in a foetal position, mimicking their entry into life.

The Hanging Coffins of Sagada
Image credit: Florian Blümm

There was a focus on cemeteries in Europe and the Americas. Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific combined had under 50 pages dedicated to them, whereas Europe and the Americas had 170. There were less photos that looked like a haunting had been interrupted than I had hoped but the abundance of memorable fun facts made up for it.

NB: Images are taken from the eARC so the colours may not be an accurate representation of the photos in the book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amber Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Graveyards, burial sites and cemeteries are as old as human civilisation itself, resting places, and memorial sites for loved ones, the great, and sometimes the infamous.

Graveyards reveals both the universality of death, and the diversity of how we commemorate or memorialise those who have passed, from the hanging coffins of Sagada, Philippines, to the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, testament to the huge Jewish community that lived in the Czechoslovak capital before the Holocaust.

With detailed captions explaining their history and often ghostly past, Graveyards is a vivid pictorial exploration of the best-known, most-haunted, and quirkiest burial places in the world today.

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Repeat After Me – Jessica Warman

Welcome to Xavier Academy’s senior class trip: tropical island edition.

Emma can’t say she wasn’t warned.

“Can you hear me? It’s me. Don’t go, Gizmo.”

But it’s senior trip and tonight is the night she’s losing her virginity. It’s all planned. And did I mention the tropical island?

“Nothing bad ever happens at the beach,” he declared, which anybody who’s ever seen Jaws knows is not true.

Emma is surrounded by the usual clichés.

There’s rich kid Bradd. Yeah, two d’s. He’s flexible and I wanted to hate him but he grew on me.

I am crushing life. Absolutely crushing it. I am a winner.

Brad’s girlfriend Alison, who used to be Emma’s best friend, is a self confessed sugar addict. Auggie, Emma’s boyfriend, isn’t a fan of Louis, her best friend. Shelby has a reputation. There’s the new girl and the exchange students.

Then there’s an octopus named Sibyl. If it wasn’t for Sibyl, then none of this would have been possible.

“It’s a long story. It has to do with cocaine and a sentient, immortal octopus.”

Now Emma is stuck in a time loop and she still hasn’t lost her virginity!

It had occurred to me, all of a sudden — I don’t know what took so long — that I could do whatever I wanted. Nothing mattered!

But at the same time … nothing mattered.

I thought this book was so much fun but apparently it’s quite divisive. It seems to be one of those love it or hate it books.

It’s like Groundhog Day but with teenagers. It’s funny and over the top and a little ridiculous if we’re being honest, but that’s half the fun. Maybe don’t think too hard about how this all works and just go with it.

It’s about life choices, extraordinary feats of flexibility (I’m trying not to look at you here, Bradd) and figuring out whether being able to do whatever you want with no consequences is a blessing or curse.

I’m keen for a reread.

“Time buddies!”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Entangled Teen, an imprint of Entangled Publishing, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

She’s about to have a serious temporal tantrum.

In retrospect, I probably should have passed on the ceviche.

It was already a weird Friday. My class is stuck on an eerily remote island for our senior trip, I’m pretty sure Mr. D (“call me Max”) is hiding something from us, my ex–best friend turned nemesis keeps stealing my candy, and tonight’s plan for my boyfriend and me to finally lose our virginity to each other is going hellishly.

I mean, ceviche is delicious, don’t get me wrong. But a dish made from a supposedly immortal octopus should really come with a warning label.

Caution: consuming a telepathic sea creature of unknown origin may result in immortality, no consequences to any actions, and getting stuck in a time loop for all of eternity.

Now every morning I wake up, and it’s the same Friday all over again. Same annoying classmates. Same island suspended in time by an evil oyster farmer with a God complex. Same outrageous candy theft. The only person I can count on to keep me from losing my grip on this new reality is Louis, my best friend who knows me better than anyone else in this world.

This should be a cephalopod-induced nightmare but somehow — in some ridiculous way — I feel like I’m experiencing the extraordinary, the gift of endless opportunities to get things right. But when I wake up every morning and it’s Friday again, sometimes it feels more like a never-ending prison sentence.

They say some things are worse than death…

…guess I’m about to find out.

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Fears – Ellen Datlow (editor)

Anthologies tend to be a mixed bag. Sometimes you get more stories that suit your taste, sometimes you don’t. Because there’s a chance I’m going to find a new favourite author amongst them, I tend to read more anthologies than I plan to. There’s always a draw card, the author who sucks me into the experience when my TBR pile is shouting at me to look away. Here, that was Stephen Graham Jones.

They’re about serial killers, hunters of murderers and the blowback this can cause in the hunter, about cruel traditions, horrific appetites, toxic friendships, dysfunctional intimate relationships, revenge for real and imagined slights.

Although I love most sub-genres of horror, psychological horror is one of my favourites because, let’s face it, humans are the real horror story. While there were quite a few stories here that I could take or leave, there were also some standouts.

A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman

Grandpa Ray wanted to see the world like Grandma Meryl did.

“You ever feel haunted, Benji?”

Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan

Today is Ik’s day.

“I’m stuck now”

Souvenirs by Sharon Gosling

Reg only wants to take one thing with him to Wisteria Lodge.

“Your daughter’s told us all about you – we’re all excited to hear your stories about travelling.”

Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones

Naturally. This story was the reason I was here.

“And then, one day, one day you … you see it.”

All of the stories included were reprints, originally published between 1964 and 2022.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the opportunity to read this anthology.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Your grandfather confesses his heinous crime to you alone. You try to save a young girl from sexual assault, but she’s not really a victim. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mum is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you’re stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead.

Far below the unlikeliness of the supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. We live in fear of the cruelties of respected leaders and of the despicable crimes of neighbours who seem normal. We live with anxiety about our innermost desires and the unforgivable things we might do in a moment of passion. Or, if we fail to curb our urges, we live with the terrible secrets of our unfettered resentments.

In this uniquely unsettling anthology, editor Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what humanity fears most: People.

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Guillotine – Delilah S. Dawson

If you’ve ever worked in the service industry, been abused or have a burning desire to rail against the unfairness of the world, this is the book for you. It’s like The Menu without the restaurant. It’s Saw when John Kramer wasn’t actively involved in the implementation phase of the traps. It’s the stupid money you saw in Ready or Not. It’s Miss Inch from the original The Parent Trap declaring ‘Let the punishment fit the crime.’

Dez knows how hard it is to get a foot in the door in the fashion industry. Unlike many in its ranks, Dez wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Luckily, the school of hard knocks builds resilience and resourcefulness.

If she can’t get a job in high fashion in the traditional way, she has to move sideways. That’s what you do when you grew up poor: You think outside the box.

After a chance meeting with “Patrick Ruskin Yucky Yucky Ick Ick Ick”, son of the editor-in-chief of one of the most prestigious fashion magazines, Dez finds her in. Willing to suffer through some short term compromises to make the connection of a lifetime, she’s tickled pink when she secures an invitation to the Ruskin family island. Oh, sorry, Island.

You participate in Island life at your own risk.

Her timing isn’t as fortuitous as she had hoped, though, because she’s not the only one looking to make a connection this Easter. The army of pink, AKA the servants, are individually and collectively hoping to connect the Ruskins with what they deserve. Like a scalpel to expose their squishy underbelly and other creative dispatches. Roses will never smell the same.

I adored this murder book. It’s revenge fantasy in all its glory. It’s levelling the playing field between the haves and the have-nots. It’s the victimised resisting those who have oppressed and abused them in spectacular form.

I only wish this book had been longer and that there were more Ruskins who needed to learn the error of their ways. If this is ever made into a movie, I will be buying a copy so I can watch it repeatedly. I definitely need to read more books by this author.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this novella.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When he invites her to his family’s big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route.

When they arrive at the enormous island mansion, Dez is floored — she’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, things take a dark turn. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts that are basically indentured servitude, and with nothing to lose, the servants have decided their only route to freedom is to get rid of the Ruskins for good…

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Before Dementia – Dr Kate Gregorevic

When you’re caring for someone, that puts you in the role of advocate and I’ve found that the best way to understand the options for the person you’re caring for is to educate yourself.

You can’t rely on a neuropsychiatrist who disregards everything in a patient’s history that could explain some or all of their symptoms and relies on intimidation tactics to enforce compliance in a testing process they haven’t explained in a way that ensures the patient understands the task, then promptly diagnoses Alzheimer’s and sends you on your way with no explanation or follow up… But I digress.

As a carer, you’re entrusted to make the best decisions for the person you’re caring for, decisions that align with their values and are made alongside them; decisions that are made with and/or for them, not at them. You need to know what questions to ask and when, and you need to be able to weigh up the costs and benefits of treatments, and you need to somehow find a way to look after yourself in the process.

I’ve read a bunch of books about dementia but this is the first one I’ve wanted to talk about. It actually answered questions I’ve had that other books skirt around but ultimately raise more questions.

This book explains dementia in a way that’s easy to understand. This is the first time I’ve had someone explain why there isn’t medication that can reverse or at least stop the progression of dementia and it made sense. I particularly liked the way the symptoms are explained.

Dementia occurs when a disease or progressive processes cause damage, and brain function is impaired enough to impact everyday life. The symptoms of dementia are the result of a brain that is no longer able to correctly take in information, interpret it, and act on it. Dementia is a “syndrome,” or a collection of symptoms, and it can be caused by many different diseases.

Having something like this to hold onto when symptoms lead to frustration provides much needed perspective.

I learned a lot of useful information, things that should be explained by doctors but aren’t. For example, I didn’t realise that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) doesn’t automatically mean someone will progress to dementia. In fact, most don’t. It’s also made clear that memory loss doesn’t automatically equal dementia; other factors that may contribute to this are “lack of sleep, medications someone is taking, or anxiety, which can be fixed.”

One of my favourite things about this book is that it highlights that dementia risk isn’t equal. Racism, poverty, stress and whether you have access to education and preventative healthcare all have a bearing on your risk, despite the lifestyle strategies you may be employing. It’s clear that systems have a role to play in prevention.

Understanding health through an equality lens means considering gender, race, and disability, and how they intersect. It means integrating poverty, discrimination, and healthcare access as central when developing models of healthcare.

I’m not sure if this was a test or not but the list of ten brain healthy foods only had eight bullet points, which could be stretched to nine foods if “fish, poultry” are counted as two.

If your future health planning looks pretty lazy overall with a dash of it ain’t broke yet, I have good news for you. Many of the tips, especially around lifestyle decisions, in this book that could help prevent dementia are also good for a bunch of other conditions so a single good choice is a protective measure for many.

This book is intended to be read before someone you love is diagnosed with dementia. Given the prevalence and, let’s face it, how busy you are, it’s likely you won’t even look for this book until after you meet someone living with dementia. This has a lot of good information and it does cover some of what to expect after a diagnosis but I and I’m sure many others would benefit from a sequel, After Dementia.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HCI Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Structured around 20 questions you need to ask to help prevent, prepare, and cope, this book is a friendly, authoritative guide for anyone facing dementia and those who care for them. Exploring why disease is a social construct just as much as a biological construct, it helps us understand what it means to live with or care for someone with dementia.

How do I know if I have dementia, and how will I live with it if I do? Can people with dementia consent to sex? Can they choose euthanasia for their future selves? And can we prevent or push back its onset?

Chances are you know someone with dementia, but how well do you really understand the condition? Dementia is a complex interplay of biological, social, and psychological factors, and understanding it means understanding more about society and ourselves.

Approaching the topic through 20 insightful questions, geriatrician Dr. Kate Gregorevic explains the physical state of dementia, how to relate the diagnosis to real life, what questions to ask your doctor, strategies for preventing the condition, and how we can make our homes and society better for people with dementia.

While this book tackles some uncomfortable questions, its purpose is to help—to prevent, to prepare, to cope and to understand—and provide you with strategies for moving forward.

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A Sorceress Comes to Call – T. Kingfisher

It’s never taken me three weeks to read a five star book before. That’s how good this book is. I know. That doesn’t make any sense. Here’s some context…

I started reading this book after attending a conference about coercive control. The day after. It wasn’t the proximity to the conference that affected me, though. It was the fact that I had listened to a series of experts discussing coercive control for two days, yet not one speaker was able to get inside the experience of coercive control in the way that this book does.

I felt the control Cordelia’s mother had over her and because her experience was so authentic (magic aside), I was only able to tolerate small amounts at a time. It got to the point where I would notice my body tense whenever Evangeline walked into a room and that, more than anything else, told me the author had well and truly done their job.

Cordelia’s mother makes her obedient, using her power as a sorceress to control her every action. When she’s obedient, Cordelia is a marionette in her mother’s hands.

Her body is not her own.

No one noticed that Cordelia moved in unison with her mother.

No one ever did.

Her voice is not her own.

Her tongue did not belong to her.

She fears her mother can hear her thoughts.

Cordelia is constantly on guard, monitoring her mother’s moods, her tone of voice, every word she says – searching for clues about her safety – later that day, that hour, the next moment.

Cordelia resists her mother’s violence in small and big ways. She makes herself inconspicuous. Her careful study of her mother has taught her the behaviours she needs to avoid to increase her safety.

Closing the door when she was home alone was as much rebellion as she dared.

Despite having been abused all of her life, Cordelia has strengths her mother has failed to stamp out. Cordelia can identify her mother’s attempts at gaslighting, even though she doesn’t know the terminology, and has been able to hold onto her sense of self in a way that most adults who experience coercive control are unable to.

Evangeline, like many abusers, keeps her daughter isolated, but that’s going to change. They’re about to meet Hester, a fifty one year old woman with bad knees, who’s going to seriously mess with the status quo.

“You can’t save everyone, you know.”

“I’m not trying to. But if someone who needs help falls in your lap, you help them. It’s what you do.”

We all need a Hester in our corner.

This book is about the insidious nature of abuse but it’s also about the seen and unseen ways that people who experience abuse resist. It’s about courage and resilience and hope.

It’s also about the responsibility we have as individuals to remove domestic and family violence from our too hard basket and respond safely if someone shares with you that they are experiencing abuse. If you’d like to explore this more, I can’t recommend Insight Exchange highly enough.

New fear unlocked: white horses. Thanks for that, Ursula. 😊

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms — there are no secrets in this house! Cordelia isn’t allowed to have a single friend. The only time she feels truly free is on her daily rides with her mother’s beautiful white horse, Falada.

But more than a few quirks set her mother apart. Other parents can’t force their​ daughters to be silent and motionless — obedient — for hours or days on end. Other mothers aren’t … sorcerers. After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage. Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother. How the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. She knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.

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Time of Iron #1: Long Live Evil – Sarah Rees Brennan

When you’re given the opportunity to turn your impending The End into To be continued…, you take it.

Rae, who life cruelly cast in the role of the character most likely to stop breathing by the end of the chapter, is very nearly at the end of her story when she rediscovers something she hasn’t felt for the better part of three years: hope. Rae enters the pages of her favourite series and proceeds to set about rewriting her story.

Being cast as the villain is an upgrade for this once upon a cheerleader. Rae takes her new found energy (and breasts) and runs with it. Of course, things go off script quicker than you can say ‘plot twist’ but being the villain is complicated. There’s the scheming, the management of other’s expectations, the inconvenient feelings…

“Don’t you dream of the forbidden? Choose wrong. Choose evil. Let’s do it together.”

Rae is so relatable and there were other characters I met in the pages, like Key and the Golden Cobra, who I definitely need to spend more time with. It didn’t hurt that this portal fantasy takes place in one of my book nerd dreams, the pages of a beloved book. Oh, the places I would go…

But villains. Because ethics aren’t as high on their agenda, villains tend to be more interesting, complicated characters and I’m an absolute sucker for mwa-ha-ha moments. I’ve got to be honest with you, though. I keep hoping I’ll encounter a villain that gives me Hans Gruber vibes and I don’t think I’ll be completely satisfied until I find one.

This book was a bit of a complicated read for me. I was absolutely hooked by the beginning and the end but the middle contained sections that dragged on for me. For a while it felt like the entire reason for Rae being there was put on hold to focus on the dramas playing out between other characters, but when it got going again it really got going.

It wasn’t until I was about halfway through that I realised this was the first in a series. (Apparently my attention to detail is not what it used to be.) I found this frustrating because by the time the next book is released the urgency to need to know what happens next may have faded. With how this book ends, I hope I don’t have to wait too long.

“Time to take evil to the next level.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A tale for anyone who’s ever fallen for the villain…

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she’s not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor’s tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they’re doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor’s fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

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A Bold Pumpkin Plan – Katy Hudson

Cover image of A Bold Pumpkin Plan by Katy Hudson

Hedgehog is ready for a change. After building the same house year after year, he’s planning something new this year.

Something brighter. Something bolder.

Like many introverts, Hedgehog’s imagination is big and so is his attention to detail. He figures out the perfect plan to make his perfect home a reality, but the best laid plans of mice and men (and hedgehogs) often go awry.

Opening yourself up to change in one area of your life often generates change in others. It isn’t long before Hedgehog has the opportunity to overcome obstacles.

Although he probably wants to roll up into a ball and hide, Hedgehog chooses to be courageous, being clear about what his needs are and accepting help from others.

Mouse offers to help

Along the way, Hedgehog and I gain much needed confidence and learn that while alone time is so very important for introverts like us, we also need others in our life.

I love Katy Hudson’s books. She’s one of my favourite illustrators, bringing the struggles and triumphs of the most adorable animals to life. Their emotions are clearly portrayed and they’re always so relatable. Having read almost all of Katy’s previous books, I was delighted to find a few familiar faces amongst the pages.

The words are just as rewarding as the illustrations. I see myself in so many of Katy’s characters so her books are always a good reminder of lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Like the stories that preceded it, I haven’t found the reread that’s one too many. I don’t think I will ever tire of this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Capstone Editions, an imprint of Capstone, for the opportunity to read this picture book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A plan to build a unique home takes a timid Hedgehog on an incredible journey of self-discovery. From meeting new friends to conquering countless obstacles, Hedgehog tackles his house plan with a newfound confidence. Best-selling creator Katy Hudson (Too Many Carrots and Mindful Mr. Sloth) combines her stunning, detailed artwork with themes of friendship, problem solving, and self-awareness in this empowering picture book.

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Megalodons, Mermaids and Climate Change – Ellen Prager & Dave Jones

Cover image of Megalodons, Mermaids and Climate Change

Written by a marine scientist and a meteorologist, this is an interesting introduction to the ocean and the atmosphere. It answers questions about topics including the sea, sea creatures, coral reefs, the supernatural (or is it?), lightning, hurricanes, weather forecasting, extreme events, climate change and the sun.

I love fun facts and there are plenty here.

You’re more likely to be killed by a toaster than by a shark.

The only whale with an esophagus big enough to swallow a human adult is the sperm whale but they “dive thousands of feet to catch prey” so you’re very, very unlikely to be on the menu, even accidentally.

Starfish aren’t called starfish anymore! They’re known as sea stars now.

As sunlight enters the ocean, short-waved light like green and blue penetrate deeper. Long-waved red light is absorbed more quickly. So, below about sixty feet, without artificial light, everything appears blue-green.

… This includes blood.

When I was a kid, I was always on the lookout for books like this for school project research but it was too advanced for kid me. Adult me wavered between Didn’t I learn this at school? and That’s really interesting. I should have studied science after it became an elective at school. It probably would have been just right for teenage me but they would’ve thought it looked too much like homework.

For readers who are craving more answers, there’s a fairly extensive list of sources and additional information at the back of the book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Could ancient giant sharks called megalodons still exist in the deep sea? What should you do if stung by a jellyfish? Can we predict lightning strikes and how is climate change affecting hurricanes?

With humour, easy to understand language, and fun illustrations, marine scientist Ellen Prager and meteorologist Dave Jones use frequently asked and zany questions about the ocean and atmosphere to combat misinformation and make science engaging and understandable for all. From dangerous marine life, coral reefs, and the deep sea to lightning, hurricanes, weather forecasting, the Sun, and climate change, they reveal what’s fact, what’s fiction, and how to find science-based answers. This book is perfect for anyone curious about the world around them, educators, science communicators, and even scientists who want to learn about and explain topics outside their expertise.

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The Bright Sword – Lev Grossman

Cover image of The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

I’ve been keen to read a Lev Grossman book for years but, for one reason or another, the stars never aligned. When I saw this book, which promised a bunch of oddballs, I was sure it was for me.

I conveniently ignored the fact that I’ve never been that interested in the legend of King Arthur. Sure, I watched The Sword in the Stone when I was a kid but that doesn’t count.

Initially I was hooked. I really liked Collum, who’s on his way to Camelot.

“Oh, you’re too late for that.”

Unbeknownst to Collum, King Arthur is dead and all that’s left of the Round Table are the leftovers, the ones that didn’t die.

While I enjoyed the chapters that focused on the characters’ backstories, I found it difficult to get into the actual quest at hand and by a third of the way into it, it started to drag for me.

The writing really engaged me in the beginning so I don’t think it has anything to do with the author’s style. I’m actually more keen than ever to read The Magicians trilogy, which is one of my favourite TV series.

I don’t think this is a case of this not being the book for me. I think it’s the right book at the wrong time. Once I read The Magicians trilogy, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep me away from it.

“The sword’s in the sea, and the last ship has sailed.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

When gifted young knight Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place on the Round Table, he quickly discovers that he’s too late: The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.

And the survivors aren’t the heroes of legend either, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight, and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill.

But it’s up to them to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance, even as God abandons Britain and the fairies and old gods are returning, led by Morgan le Fay. They must reclaim Excalibur and make this ruined world whole again.

But first they’ll have to solve the mystery of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell.

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