Author: Tanya

I should probably start with a disclosure here. I do know Aiden personally and have been waiting for this before it was officially announced. And I knew before I got it that I was going to enjoy it.

The story follows Yadriel, a trans boy wanting to prove he’s a brujo to his family and does this in part by summoning a ghost to release to the other side. This goes wrong almost immediately upon summoning Julian and he has to uncover what happened to him.

The book is deeply rooted in Latinx culture, which is a welcome change given what I normally read. The book doesn’t so much explain the world to you as display it as is, making you feel more like this is the way things always were rather than like you’re stepping into something other worldly that might make it feel foreign and strange. It’s all presented like typical daily life, which was great. ((Even if the scene with the Vicks was not at all what happens in an Asian household and threw me))

It’s also great to see the central narrative of a what’s been branded as a romance novel be about self-actualization instead of the pursuit of romance.

It is kinda a little romance-y in parts, but it’s mostly done in the service of character exposition and doesn’t overtake the more interesting parts of the story. Also, there’s a bunch of Spanish in this book which, while I don’t speak it, I was able to understand most of it from context cues. ((I’ve grown up listening to Mom speak Thai with her friends about me, you learn))

Overall, you should read it. It’s a fun book with a lot of things that I haven’t seen in any other books. Also, I want their book to be successful, so go check it out.

This one’s been on my TBR for a while and I could not remember what this was about at all. But I am still waiting on some physical books, so I figured it was about time to check it out.

We follow two aliens, Jahir and Vasiht’h as they become roommates at a university specializing in psychology for aliens. The story is a slice of life, following the daily lives as the two of them get to know one another and become very close, as well as trying to figure out what they are going to pursue for their majors.

I generally like actual stakes and have trouble with the slice of life stuff, but I think this came at a really good time for me. It centers the story almost entirely on the characters, their troubles with internal and external struggles, and they play off of one another really nicely. While Vasiht’h is combating an internal struggle to pursue something where he won’t ultimately get hurt ((Psychology is a rough field, dealing with other people’s difficulties)) , Jahir is dealing with being the strangest alien on campus, being from a race that does not leave their corner of the universe, and dealing with the fascination and prejudice from the people around him.

The relationship between the pair of them developed really naturally. There were a few parts where it felt like it was contrived, but not so much that it took me out of the story. It doesn’t rely on misunderstandings and watching characters actually talk things out, even with cultural differences, is really refreshing.

Overall it’s really good. I had a lot of fun with it, even if there was no world ending or looming dread over the plot. If you’re looking for a sci-fi where the world building is pretty secondary to the characters, and want to see aliens in med school, this is your book.

My journey to this book was a bit of a strange one. I attended a panel at a UX conference called This is How You Win the Time War that I really liked, and the speaker talked about this book and the concept behind it. The idea of two rival time travelers gently manipulating time in small ways that cause ripples into the future and competing with one another to create different futures was interesting, so I picked it up!

That’s not really what the book is about. The story does follow two time travelers, both on different sides of the time war as they gently manipulate the strands of time to create the future their separate sides want. But that is more of a framing device for the actual story. The crux of the story is that these two rival time travelers are very secretly communicating via letters to one another. It starts out as taunting one another, but gradually it turns into the two of them finding their soulmates in one another. 

And I loved it! I normally tolerate-to-hate romance narratives because most of them are written in that “You know what this is like, we’re so relatable” kind of way. In this, the relationship grows and is very much about the characters, who are both very alien at first and grow familiar over the course of the narrative. Watching them open up to one another with increasingly strange methods of delivering letters and grow close was a delight and emotionally satisfying. ((Also I cried.))

It is weird, though. The time travel aspects are done in a very European manner, which is to say it exists without explanation. Besides knowing that Red and Blue are female, you don’t really know what they are, and the explanations are sparse and scattered. Red seems to be some kind of cyborg that has been rebuilt with technology, whereas Blue is an organic shapeshifting creature, I think? Both are creations of their factions, and what they are doesn’t really matter as much in the grand scheme of the narrative. 

Overall, if you’re looking for a time travel book, this is not the one for you. The time travel is very secondary. But if you want a very weird story about two people finding one another and keeping their relationship a secret from their rival factions for fear of persecution, then this is definitely worth a read. It’s light, it’s quick, and it reads like reading poetry. Check it out.