Tanya Lisle

Category: Reviews

  • Second Star Review

    You guys know I love a good reimagining, and this one is Peter Pan! IN SPACE! I haven’t done a lot of science fiction lately, and it felt like it was calling to me. Like a transmission from deep space. Or my phone. One of the two of those.

    Fair warning, there’s spoilers in the footnotes this time around. You’ve been warned.

    The story focuses largely on Peter, a mechanic on the Jolly Roger who discovered that the dear Captain Hooke was a traitor and getting the ship stranded on a strange planet in an unexplored sector of the universe. While he and the Lost Boys that he rescued from the ship have learned to survive on the planet away from the remainder of Hooke’s crew, he eventually learns that Captain Hooke has gotten a transmission out, one that might cause problems and might also be their way off the planet of Neverland.

    This is when we meet Wendy, brightest of the Academy and recently promoted to Captain and given the mission to recover the renown Captain Hooke, who has been missing for 100 years. She and her crew, including Johns and Michael, make their way to the strange sector of the universe and promptly get stranded themselves.

    The story follows a very different pattern, with Peter helping Wendy and her crew so that he might be able to get home, and a fantastical element being brought in with the introduction of the Natives and the strange god that they must make a sacrifice to.

    I really liked the way it was done. There are a lot of nice nods and homages to the original story that you do really feel like you’re being brought into a version of Neverland, with very similar characters. The story still feels very unique, however, and it follows some of the patterns that I’ve gotten more comfortable with in Neverland retellings.1

    I have my problems with the resolution, but it worked really nicely for the story and I assure you that it is not a problem that anyone else is going to have.2 It didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, which is ultimately the most important thing.

    Overall, I really liked it and I’d say it’s definitely worth adding to my list of great retellings.

    Get Second Star on Amazon!
    1. The shadow as a bad guy, and Peter and Wendy falling for one another [↩]
    2. Peter has fallen in love with Wendy and that’s what really saves the day. Which. Well. [↩]

  • Graveyard Shift Review

    I’m finally reading again! It took a bit for me to get back into it, but I’ve made my list of books in my TBR and I’m going to start working through all of them. To start off, Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet, a book I have two copies of with different covers because I have been meaning to read it for that long. 

    The story follows Lana, a reaper who is passable at her job. She was created as a reaper and it’s a fine way to make a living, even if the pay isn’t that good and she is more inclined to bend a few rules if she likes a soul than follow them to the letter. She’s a fun character, with the personality of someone who’s sunk into complacency but doesn’t really want to be there. And when she learns that she’s going to get a promotion1 she looks at it with suspicion rather than as an opportunity. 

    The promotion leads into the bigger story, to the quest from Grim, the first reaper who acts now as their boss, and learning that Lana isn’t all she thought she was. She gets put on a quest and has to navigate some political intrigue2 in order to find the right soul to keep Eternity from devolving into a civil war. 

    Overall, it’s a really interesting concept and I really liked the way the world worked as a whole. The idea is Eternity is where all souls go, and they are shuffled off into their respective afterlives by the reapers. Every possible historical afterlife, from Heaven and Hell to Nirvana are all real, and they need souls to maintain their power in Eternity. During the story, for example, the Egyptian realm has been losing power and Grim’s been shuffling more souls off to them to appease them. 

    The story worked really well to reveal how the universe worked. You get a good look at the political climate of the world, of what does and does not register to who as an issue, and the worldbuilding really does work well in the narrative. I’ll admit to being more enamoured by the universe over some of the subplots,3 but the universe is just so much fun. 

    Also, Lana gets two giant hellhounds pups and I love those babies. 

    I would recommend checking it out. I really enjoyed the story, the world, and am thinking about checking out the next in the series. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. Despite knowing full well she doesn’t deserve it [↩]
    2. which she’s terrible at [↩]
    3. Lana gets a boyfriend, but it’s not a focal point [↩]

  • Halfsoul Review

    One of my fellow Wylde Wooders put out a comic a while ago and I’ve finally gotten a chance to check it out! It’s also been on my pile for far too long, so… 

    Halfsoul is… well, not fun. It’s honestly a little dark and kind of depressing in places. It’s a story about a group of people who hunt down people who have traded in half their soul for power and kill them for that. At least, on the surface that’s what’s happening. We start with an execution without knowing what they’ve done. Later, we meet a kid who is being bullied and whose immortality appears to be getting paid for my taking the lives of her bullies. And we learn that Tale, our main character, is not quite the whole soul that he seems. 

    It turns into a story about finding yourself and some of the darker sides of Tale. He’s the youngest and most resentful member of the group, and he’s got a bit of a complicated past. We learn that he’s lost his brother, his parents are dead, and his sister blames him for just about everything. Meanwhile, he’s grown up acting out, becoming a half soul, and ultimately dealing with depression that eventually took his brother. 

    It’s a pretty interesting read and I’d say its well worth it if you can find the artist and get it directly from her. meanwhile, I need to read the whole thing…

    Read it on Tapas or check out the paperback!

  • Roses and Rot Review

    Another fiction book off my TBR pile! This time, it’s Roses and Rot, a book about sisters who go to an artist retreat that is not all it seems. And by not all it seems, I mean one person from the year will be sent to live with the Fae for seven years as the tithe and, when they return, they will have all their artistic dreams come true. If they survive being the tithe.

    The main character, Imogen, is an author and her sister is a dancer. As an author that was once a dancer with dreams of going pro1 so this book felt like it was targeted at me. I really liked watching their relationship develop as the book progressed. There were a lot of relationships in the book that weren’t romantic and it was great to see all of them evolve throughout the story.

    Well, everything but relationships with mothers. It seems all mothers in this book were terrible.

    The way the book was set up with the Fae and the main story line was interesting, particularly since the way used to make it feel more like a fairy tale was to intersperse little anecdotes frames as fairy tales throughout the book. It worked a little against the book because the implication is that these vignettes are Imogen’s writing and I didn’t find them to be as amazing as I think I was meant to, but it certainly helped to keep the mood and tone consistent.

    Overall, I really liked it! it was a little slow in places, but having a break from YA and seeing how urban fantasy stories for an older audience could be done without it revolving around a romance was refreshing for me and I had a lot of fun with the story.

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. Parents were not fond of this idea, so that didn’t happen! [↩]

  • The Black Veins Review

    Okay, so a pitch of a no romance story of any kinds a hook for me. But this now was also an urban fantasy one, a road trip1 and with a title that sounds like we’re getting a little touch of horror elements? I’m checking it out at least.

    The story flows Blythe, a young woman in a magical family with no magic herself. This isn’t a strange thing or treated like it might be an issue, because she knows she is a Guardian, though we don’t know what that means. She is not an outcast in her own family, but she’s moved around so much that she has trouble bonding with people, given that she always has that fear of leaving in the back of her mind. 

    And then it all goes to hell when her parents and little sisters are kidnapped. She’s whisked away as a Guardian to be brought into safe keeping and the adventure starts, with Blythe realizing that the people taking her to safety might not have her best interests at heart and the people who have kidnapped her family are not all they seem. She finds the rest of the Guardians and together they try to rescue her family from the Trident Republic, a rival magical…. Government, I guess. 

    The story is a lot of fun! With a large cast, I wouldn’t have blamed Monet for resorting to more stereotypes, but each of the main kids felt fleshed out and like real people, with their own lives outside of this strange situation they were pulled into and those lives reflected how they dealt with the struggles each of them had. Cords is the only one who I felt had a full character arc happen in the first book, but the rest are well on their way to their own paths of self discovery at the conclusion. 

    I do want to talk a little about how the diversity was handled in the book, because it feels notable. This is a very diverse cast both racially and in terms of queer representation. First off, it didn’t feel like a checklist like some other books I could mention. They all felt natural and like it was part of who they were instead of them being defined by it. 

    As an example, Blythe in particular is a bi black girl, and you never forget either of those. She’s not constantly referencing either thing, but she does state she’s bisexual early on. From that point on, you know every time she’s checking out another character2 you know it’s because she’s interested. And there’s little things that remind you that she’s black, such as her reaction to danger and casual mentions of her hair now and then. 

    This is the trend with everyone else in the cast. There’s the initial mention to make it clear, and then little reminders in the rest of the text so you don’t forget and so that it informs and elaborates on their character rather than being a constant reminder of how diverse the book is. Which, as you’ve probably guessed by now, is what I look for in my representation. 

    I will note that there was one thing that never quite clicked with me, and that was the tense. I do not like present tense. It’s a very small thing, but it was there and it was always a little jarring while reading for me. I know this is an issue for almost no one but me. 

    Anyway, I really liked the book! It was a lot of fun, the characters were interesting and believable, and the story was entertaining. I’m a bit sad the second book isn’t out yet, honestly. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. I need to start reading more road trip books for the next series [↩]
    2. Which doesn’t happen too often! It at no point gets distracting or detracts from the rest of the narrative! [↩]

  • The Last Dragonslayer Review

    This one has been sitting on my shelf for a while. I got it as a gift and I’m only just getting around to reading it because of course I am. But I finished it, and in a day no less!

    The story follows the adventures of Jenifer Strange, a girl who is two weeks away from turning sixteen1 who has been running an organization that sends wizards out for odd jobs in a world where magic is dying and technology is taking over. When one of them gets a premonition that the last dragon is going to die, she goes out to get to the bottom of it and finds out she was named 400 years ago as the last dragonslayer. 

    It’s a really fun and quick read.2 Jennifer is a fun protagonist to follow and, while she reads a lot more mature than fifteen going on sixteen, she does still feel very young at times. She holds her morals high and it’s nice to see her tempted without compromising them in the end. It’s also nice to see them work against her and to watch her figure out her way out of situations that she got into because of them or in spite of them. 

    It’s also very British. The world building is done very matter-of-factly. This is a universe with dragons of course and yes the dragonslayer is driving a Rolls Royce, moving on. If that bothers you, this might not be your thing, but I found it a good thing to keep the pacing of the story moving. 

    Overall, I really liked it. It was a good read, light, and it certainly didn’t drag. The world is a lot of fun and, while I wish there were more with the wizards for hire business and less with the politics, I would highly recommend checking it out. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. As she reminds us several times in the text [↩]
    2. I mean, one day. [↩]

  • Miss Mabel’s School for Girls Review

    I don’t quite remember the circumstances that brought me to this one, even though it was not that long ago. Which is strange for me. Usually I have a backstory, but this time I just had the book on my Kobo and I decided, at long last, to read it. And I definitely made a good choice there. 

    Miss Mabel’s School for Girls follows a first year girl, Bianca, as she is warned repeatedly about the headmistress who she is determined to get an apprenticeship with. Bianca and her family are under a curse put on them by the headmistress’ family and, if it’s not removed, Bianca is going to die at 17. She’s already 16, giving her not much time to find a way to negotiate the curse off of her by the chaotic evil Miss Mabel, who has much more in store for her than Bianca realizes. 

    Bianca is precisely the kind of protagonist that I like to see in these kinds of stories. She’s prepared. So prepared. And even though she is ready, even though she has been training for this for most of her life, she still finds herself in over her head. It’s refreshing to see a character that really did do everything she could do to get ready for what was coming. She’s a determined, compassionate character that finds herself challenged by things that couldn’t have been predicted, that catch most of the other characters even off guard. 

    Miss Mabel is a fun antagonist, too, even if she does feel a little cartoonishly evil at times. She never tips all the way into silly and always feels like a very real threat, though, and none of her antics are funny so much as excessively cruel while she smiles about it. She’s the Joker, but written by a skilled writer. 

    I will give a quick shout out to the world-building, as everything feels very well thought out and, even though not all the rules are spelled out, they feel very consistent throughout. The world adds to the story and enhances it rather than distracting, which is a delicate balance I’ve found with some of these. 

    There is one bit I’ll warn everyone about. There’s a bit with a cat. For those who want to skip that chapter—It is only one chapter—I’ll spoil what happens. 

    Spoiler

    Bianca hides the real cat and makes a duplicate fake one to perform the hexes on. She does not get caught and passes. It is still very difficult to read because the fake cat does mimic how the real one would have responded.

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    Overall, I’d say check it out. It’s an interesting story and I found the characters to be interesting and the story compelling. The way information about Bianca is revealed makes you feel like she’s a different person and her own character rather than one you are supposed to insert yourself into and you find yourself really hoping that she succeeds. 

    Get it on Amazon!

  • Dreadful Company Review

    After how much fun I had with Strange Practice, it seemed only natural that I’d checkout the sequel! Because apparently there’s more than one!

    This book starts with Greta and Ruthvan in France attending a conference about supernatural medical practices.1 In pretty short order things go wrong in that Greta gets kidnapped and it takes a while to notice she’s missing thanks to people being conveniently called away and not thinking much about the woman at a conference not paying attention to her phone for a bit. Gradually, you learn that she’s been taken by a coven of vampires, the head of which has a grudge against Ruthvan, and that this is a pretty terrible coven in most respects. Partially because one is turning people without consent, and partially because another is summoning so many cute things that she’s causing the fabric of reality to grow thin. 

    I mean, worth it though. 

    This book was as much fun as the last one, I’m happy to say. It doesn’t suffer from second book syndrome in that it’s still a contained adventure that references previous events and builds on the characters. There are a few perspectives I didn’t care for initially, but it was good to have them in the narrative to help flesh out the universe and give the last few keys to the puzzle of what was going on. The story has so many disparate parts that you really don’t know until the end how they all fit together, but they do fit together pretty marvelously. 

    I also really like how the diversity is done in this universe. They exist and that’s it. It feels like the universe is diverse as opposed to a story where they are trying to hit a quota. They are there, you notice them, their actions are informed by their experiences, and then we focus on the vampires destroying reality that we need to call in the forces of hell to deal with. 

    It does, however, still have that other issue where it doesn’t sound like it’s taking place in the modern day. Every reference to cell phones and smartphones feels out of place because they all talk like they are from a very different era. It feels jarring, but I wonder if some of that is because it takes place in Europe. 

    Overall, I really enjoyed it! The series is a lot of fun so far and I’ll probably check out the third when it comes out. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. Which is actually a pretty fascinating world detail! [↩]

  • The Hazel Wood Review

    Did I pick up this book because I thought it might be another comp title? Yes. Was it? Kind of. Did I enjoy it? Mostly!

    The Hazel Wood follows Alice as she is just trying to live her nomadic life with her mother. They are constantly moving around due to bad luck and she ends up marrying a rich man who is an asshole, as rich men always seem to be in these stories. Her estranged and now dead grandmother, Althea, was an author of a very rare book with a fanbase of obsessives. Or rather, everyone who gets their hands on the books becomes obsessed with them? One of those directions. When Ella’s mother gets kidnapped, Alice teams up with a fan to find her mother, given that the kidnappers have left the name Hinterland behind, which is the title of her grandmother’s book.

    The whole thing is wrapped in fairy tales and the first half is steeped deep in the mystery of it, They aren’t the fairy tales that we grew up with, but they feel like they could have come from Grimm given how they are treated and interacted with. It’s interesting to have the feeling that you know what these stories are when only two are ever actually told in the book, and one of them I don’t think is actually told to completion.

    I do have to make mention of Alice, because this will be a thing of contention, but I enjoyed watching her story and disliked her as a person. Alice is angry and self-centred, and that doesn’t stop by the end of the book. She has a reason behind it, but the reason is not really enough to excuse any of her actions in the story and I did actually like it. She’s kind of terrible and I have a thing for terrible characters that I feel I’m not supposed to relate to.

    My issues come largely in the second half of the book. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but the second half felt rushed even though it wasn’t. I think it was supposed to read more like a traditional fairy tale, but it came across instead like the front half of the story was being shown and the back half was being told. There were too many elements that were brought in, too many new characters that didn’t have enough impact on the story to warrant being named, too many things about Alice herself that hadn’t been foreshadowed before. There was a lot that needed to be cut back or cut down in order to make the pacing of the latter half match the former, and to tighten up the narrative on the other side. The detour to show that the brother1 was helpful was largely unnecessary and could have been better woven in.

    And now I’m going to talk about Ellery Finch.

    Spoiler

    So Finch. The only black character, who is black for exactly one scene in the story when they are talking to the cops and could be anything else throughout the rest of the book, He feels very much like a token character in that regard, and I don’t know if that was intentional, but it felt out of place. She kills him off at one point, but the landing doesn’t stick and he comes back, which feels strange given the context of the rest of the story. In a dark fairy tale world, the dead should really stay dead or it loses that atmosphere.The relationship between him and Alice was nice, but it never feels like it actually resolves at the end, and the redemption at the end feels hollow.

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    Still, I did enjoy the majority of the book. As I’m learning, I’m weirdly picky with narrative pacing and structure, and that’s much more on me than it is on the books.2 I did enjoy the read, even with the pacing problems at the end, and it was a lot of fun, especially with the new fairy tale concepts.

    Read it now on Amazon!

    1. Who never gets a name despite him being plot relevant for some reason [↩]
    2. I’m also learning that I’m a horror writer! [↩]

  • Sawkill Girls Review

    I thought I’d take a break from what I usually read and went with something that felt much different. I knew vaguely that there was an ace character in here, but other than that I was intrigued by the idea of a series of murders happening on an island and it being up to a few girls to find out what happened to their friends, This was not quite what I was expecting, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

    The story mostly follows Marion, a young woman who is new to the island. Her, her sister Charlotte, and her mother are relocating to the island for her mother’s work and to try and move on from their father’s death. She doesn’t put much weight on the disappearances of the young girls on the island until her sister goes missing after falling in with the beautiful and popular Val. The outcast, Zoey, who is still mourning the disappearance of her friend from months before, joins her and a whole lot of paranormal stuff starts happening.

    So, as it turns out, this story is about a demon feeding on the girls of the island in an attempt to become strong enough to break free of his human hosts—Val’s family—and the island to go and murder whoever he wants. And Sawkill rock,1 finding young girls to give the abilities necessary to fight and eliminate the demon.

    The movement from creepy mystery to girls with powers fighting a demon is done pretty well and not as jarring as it could have been. The atmosphere is consistently dark throughout and there’s new elements to the world constantly being brought in and introduced, from the demon to the powers to the cult of monster hunters made up entirely of men, and any with lines are incredibly sexist. Who you knew were going to be evil and useless because this book goes a little heavy on the feminism themes.

    There was only one bit that really bothered me, and that was less the scene itself than its purpose in the narrative. Coming into the climax2 two of the characters hook up and the sole purpose of it appears to be so that they can make characters more angry at one another. The results of that conflict are resolved so easily during the main conflict in favour of focusing on longer and more established ones that it felt a little pointless and like it would have been better done earlier if they wanted the conflict to have a bit more punch.

    As for the representation, the queer ladies are done fairly well. I thought the relationship between he girls moved a little fast, but this book is structured very much like a horror movie, so that’s to be expected. Teenagers and their teenage hormones and the murders happening everywhere making them run amok. The asexuality is mostly displayed as an indifference-to-aversion to sex which is… fine? It’s not my experience, but it’s probably good for those who do experience it. The conversations around it sound about right, so it works.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the book! It’s spooky, it has some interesting concepts, and the characters are a lot of fun to follow as they try to figure out themselves and what to do with the demon.

    Get Sawkill Girls on Amazon!

    1. An actual, sentient rock. It makes more sense and is less silly in context. [↩]
    2. It’s a sex scene, there are so many puns, I’m about 20% sorry [↩]