Aug 17 2021
So much story, so little book! It seems churlish to demand more from what’s already a terrific novel, but I really do feel that the tale of Empress Redemptor Tarisai and the land of Aritsar would have been better served by more chapters and more details. 300+ pages simply wasn’t enough, and so much felt …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/17/redemptor-raybearer-2-by-jordan-ifueko/
Aug 12 2021
A coming-of-age novel with a queer country girl narrator playing sports and learning to interrogate her internalized misogyny while embracing who she is despite the opposition of certain members of her small town, including her nearest and dearest? I was wholly on-board even before I started reading Britta Lundin’s terrific, lived-in prose, and now I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/12/like-other-girls-by-britta-lundin/
Aug 10 2021
If I’m being perfectly honest, I did not go into this book with the highest of expectations. Papercutz is not the most culturally sensitive of publishers (and not in a malicious way, just in a, perhaps, homogenous viewpoints sort of way,) so I was definitely braced for the worst as a Muslim reader and mom. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/10/magical-history-tour-4-the-crusades-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/
Aug 05 2021
I really enjoyed the feminist lessons of this novel — girls, don’t be afraid to be angry, to be wild, to scream! — but oh my goodness, did I want to take a red pencil to the fantasy aspects and just tighten everything up so it all fit into its own internal logic! Centuries ago, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/05/the-wild-ones-by-nafiza-azad/
Aug 03 2021
I was genuinely creeped out by parts of this horror/mystery tale, which is saying a lot because most horror novels don’t scare me at all! Courtney Gould certainly knows how to build tension, even if I wasn’t 100% convinced by the Big Bad-related world-building. The rest of it, tho, is pretty great, especially in its examination …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/03/the-dead-and-the-dark-by-courtney-gould/
Aug 02 2021
I liked Volume 2 of Lola’s Super Club a bit more than Vol 1, tho I think that’s due in large part to being more prepared for the absurdist humor of this title, which may or may not be to everyone’s taste. Overall, I think the quality of both art and gags were better here, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/08/02/lolas-super-club-2-my-substitute-teacher-is-a-witch-by-christine-beigel-pierre-foiullet/
Jul 30 2021
I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this charming, body positive tale of a 16 year-old at an inflection point in her life, trying to figure out what’s going on with her parents, her best friend, her sister, the boy she thinks she loves and the boy she most definitely does not love, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/07/30/what-i-like-about-me-by-jenna-guillaume/
Jul 29 2021
As the parent of twins, I can attest to the fact that twins can be as sweetly devoted yet as deeply strange as the siblings depicted in this novel. After the death of his father, the already rather odd Jesse Owens (yes, really) starts looking for meaning in all the most metaphysical places. His search …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/07/29/the-follower-by-nicholas-bowling/
Jul 27 2021
I grew up with The Smurfs as a child, tho in all honesty, I was one of those children who barely absorbed the “mythology” of the overarching story vs enjoying the gags of each standalone episode. And while I certainly gobbled up my fair share of Asterix and Tintin comics, I never got into the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/07/27/the-smurfs-tales-1-the-smurfs-and-the-bratty-kid-by-peyo/
Jul 22 2021
Gosh, I’m at the point in my life where I really wish we had a better comparison for books featuring older female heroes than The Golden Girls. Nothing against the classic sitcom, but literally the only similarity Assassin’s Orbit has with TGG is that the main characters are feisty older women. That’s definitely a draw …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/07/22/assassins-orbit-by-john-appel/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire