Both Wesley Chu and Cassandra Clare do an excellent job in collaborating for this book, and I have high hopes for more of their books in the future. Both authors had lovely thoughts shared in the acknowledgements and overall created an excellent addition to this series.
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A Land of Turmoil and Treasure: a review of Paul Rabinowitz’s The Clay Urn
Rabinowitz, through his deeply lyrical prose, reminds us that not all things are destroyed during war time and that some can never be, like love between two people, like the desire to create something beyond our imagination, something more beautiful than our history, than our present.
A review of Becoming Lady Washington by Betty Bolté
Reading Becoming Lady Washington, one feels a little like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (published 1813) when she first sets eyes on Mr. Darcy’s palatial home and vast landholdings. Martha’s lifestyle on her first husband’s estate and then at Mount Vernon was similarly luxurious.
A review of Knitting Mangrove Roots by Kerri Shying
Shying’s themes are powerful and topical, exploring violence, drug use and dealing, parenting, ecological destruction, disability, prejudice, and sensual joy. The mix is natural and compelling, working through a distinctive voice intensely, sometimes painfully honest.
A review of The Nail in the Tree by Carol Ann Davis
Davis expertly controls the narrative threads of their day-to-day reality while explaining what inspires her to write. Further into the book, these intimate details open up into a wider scope of the connection between life and art. She accomplishes this without appropriating the grief of the families with murdered children, instead Nail in the Tree tells how Davis’ life became what it is.
A review of Griffins Perch by Ian Conner
Lovers of the fantasy genre will find many of their favourite creatures in this world, each with their own stories and important parts to play in making this an outstanding fantasy adventure. There are nasty little gargoyles, and black fairies with lots of tiny teeth, trolls, elves and pixies.
A review of Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres
An Arab-American who feels strongly about the Palestinian homeland, Metres clearly sees the complexities in the region and reflects them so succinctly and comprehensively in his poems and prose sketches, reflecting the good and bad on both sides.
A review of Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
The development of Cassandra Clare’s characters, no matter what series or book is always exquisite. Emma and Julian both have unique qualities and Julian family, the Blackthorns, as a family are always enjoyable to read about and as a whole, the book presents the concept and sense of family fantastically.
A review of Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare
The villains in this book are written and developed beautifully, typical of Cassandra’s other books. However, I found the growing characters involved in the Cohort – a party dedicated to the control of Downworlders and Shadowhunters opposed to them, to be a very realistic sense of the ‘bad guy’ with themes of war, propaganda and other political concepts often brought to light in Queen of Air and Darkness.
A review of Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power Today edited by Alison Whittaker
Fire Front is critically important reading – not just for the messages it contains, though they are both timeless and relevant to the world we’re living in right now, but also because this is work that is fresh, urgent, astonishing, beautiful, and heart-rendering and have the power that Whittaker talks about in her introduction, to change the shape world for the better.