Book Reviews

There Will Be Phlogston, vN, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

Desperately trying to play catch-up, as always! Here’s three tiny reviews of books I’ve read several months ago.


There Will Be Phlogston – Alexis Hall ★★★★★
I hated Byron Kae’s sister in previous books because she made her sibling’s life very unhappy, but it turns out she’s more complex than just “horrible bully.” She wants to escape her terrible parents! She feels stifled by society and its expectations! She wants to find love! And she finds it, alongside a super repressed gay guy and their boyfriend. Surprise! It’s a threesome! And way more complicated than that, of course, because Alexis Hall does nothing simple in his books. Anyway, I loved it.
vN – Madeline Ashby ★★★★★
A robot coming-of-age story with amazing characters and fantastic worldbuilding! Robot books tend to be about whether the robot counts as a person or not (if they have a soul, basically) and what it means if they do or do not. This book is about that, but it’s also about family and loyalty. And evolution! Genetics? What it means to carry the past around all the time? And lots of other great things.
The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal – KJ Charles ★★★½
Short story mystery collection about two ghost-hunters living in the Victorian era who do stupid things because they’re massively in love with each other. Tone bounces between extremes: sexy, happy, romantic, depressing, melancholic. It was quite a ride, especially since I read the whole thing in like two hours and my emotions were all over the place. Good mystery + romance + fantasy mix, as always! And bonus points for a Sherlock Holmes cameo/crossover/pastiche.

0 Comments

  • Jenny @ Reading the End

    Aw, KJ Charles, I am so fond of her. I am enjoying her new series, I think, so I’m looking forward to it. The Simon Feximal stories aren’t as good, to me, as some of her later stuff — not as wonderfully creepy! — but still a lot of fun.

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