book.dreamblog’s Book Reviews!

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Book Review  *Warning: This review contains spoilers*  Introduction  This book is an ideal read for spooky season, and is a good modern take on the gothic genre. It’s also a good read if you’re looking for something spooky, but that also still feels like it has a deeper thematic concern.  Review Mexican Gothic starts out very strong. It has an interesting protagonist, really immaculate “haunted mansion” type vibes, and there’s a really strong anti-colonial theme to the plot. It fringes the borders of dark fantasy, horror, and science fiction all with a gothic undertone to give the novel crossover appeal to a lot of different readers’ tastes.  We follow Naomí as she travels to her cousin Catalina’s husband’s family home after learning that Catalina is (supposedly) gravely ill, however Catalina believes that her husband is trying to murder her.  Now, as the story goes on, the spooky vibes do start to grow a bit more… co...

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill  *Warning: This review contains spoilers*  Summary & Review  Ok, so I want to start by giving Kelly Barnhill major props for actually coming up with such a unique concept. I have literally never read anything like it before, so I was pretty blown away by that.  The prose is remarkably well written, and the narration of the audiobook I listened to was fantastic as well. As was the actual structure of the novel. I liked the brief “historical” interludes the separated sections of the story being told to give the reader historical and scientific commentary on “dragoning,” as if this truly were a biography (autobiography? Memoir? Case study?) written about the character of Alex to explain the story’s events. This is a kind of structuring that can’t necessarily always be pulled off well, especially in a fantasy novel. If done wrong, it can throw off the pacing of the entire book, but Barnhill handles it with finesse. I actually...

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May *This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mentions r*pe*  Summary & Review  I want to preface by saying that when I listened to this on audio, I had absolutely no idea that this was loosely inspired by the Great Gatsby and reimagined as a sapphic historical dark fantasy. (Actually, once you turn Gatsby into a sapphic historical dark fantasy, how inspired by Gatsby can it really still be?) But, I think not knowing that actually allowed me to enjoy the story more. Had I known that this was supposed to be inspired by Gatsby, I would have been a lot more critical of the plot, the characters, the general direction of the story, etc. Not knowing just simply allowed me to appreciate this story for what it is on its own.  I don’t have terribly a lot to say about this book. There was nothing terribly bad about it that I want to rip apart, and there was also not a lot overly impressive that I want to gush about either....

  These Violent Delights (Duology) by Chloe Gong *Warning: This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mention suicide* Book 1: These Violent Delights   There is certainly a lot to enjoy about this wildly popular book duology. It has a great premise, an interesting mix of characters, a very unique setting, and it’s based on one of the most well-known Shakespearean plays ever written, Romeo and Juliet .  I should specify that I say “based on” pretty loosely because the actual direct references to Romeo and Juliet are pretty few and far between here. After all, this book is a dark fantasy romance set in 1920/ Shanghai, not a historical piece about English teenagers like the original play. We have the infamous balcony scene played on, the main characters’ names (Roma and Juliette) are pulled straight from the source material, and it’s fairly easy to figure which characters represent whom from the original play (Lourens in Friar Lawrence, Tyler is Tybalt, M...