quillnqueer's reviews
381 reviews

Featuring an Edgar Allen Poe retelling, mushrooms with neopronouns and Beatrix Potter's fictional aunt, What Moves The Dead was a truly bizarre and truly excellent book for me to start with, in my goal to read as many of T. Kingfisher's books as possible. A short, gothic horror, this packs a lot in a short space without ever feeling rushed.

I love the atmosphere of Gothic Horror, and the Usher's moldering house captured this perfectly. The dying brother and sister Easton returns to after many years are unsettling, and the skulking hares provided some truly horrifying moments. I liked that the American doctor and the mycologist added a lot of expertise as to what might be happening, while also adding some lighter moments too.

There was almost a twisted found family vibe as Easton relayed kans findings to the Usher siblings and the people trying to help them, and they worked together to decipher the secrets surrounding the Usher's slow demise. This all culminated in an ending of pure horror, that I was never quite sure anyone would survive.

The Goblin Market is one of my favourite stories, and I think it says a lot about my love of this series that when I realised this story would be based on it, I wasn't remotely concerned that the author would do it justice. This is likely to be my favourite of the Wayward Children series, an emotional story of childhood friendships that completely broke my heart at the end of the book.

Lundy, at this point in the series, I had largely forgotten and had to re-read sections of the first book to refresh my memory. But after reading, she became my favourite character and I found her being torn between her world and the Goblin Market so interesting, as many other characters saw the world they fell into as solely home.

The concept of Fair Value, making sure what you trade for is truly fair, was so interesting to me, and something that will stick with me. It was the thing that brought Lundy, Moon and Mockery together, the thing that made them lose Mockery, and the thing that tore Lundy and Moon apart over and over. I desperately need Lundy to have a better ending.

As a child, my favourite of the Narnia series was Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, but as an adult I think it might just be The Silver Chair. Jill and Eustace make a really good team, the adventure they go on is exciting, and I really enjoyed the mystery of the clues Aslan gave. Puddleglum also added many fun moments and I was sad when they had to leave at the end. Also, seeing Caspian now as an old and dying man was truly devastating.

I'm not a fan of books that open on intense, bloody scenes as I've found they tend to quickly become boring, and that's what happened with this book. After surviving their sister's attack, Miles goes back to the camp that changed her, in the hopes to find answers about the mysterious Honeys, the group of girls Caroline was part of.

The day to day camp scenes were so, so boring. and unforunately, they're a solid 75% of the story. I loved that Miles is genderfluid and there was some exploration of this, though I did dislike that the entire camp seemed to solely use he/him pronouns. The almost-romance with Wyatt was welcome, but I think he was treated terribly throughout the story.

The ending was very odd, it felt like we had one almost ending, which was very visceral, very horrifying, but then we almost hit a lull before another, second ending happened and it did very much feel like this ending was added on to make some of story make more sense. I think You're Not Supposed To Die Tonight was a much better version of this story.

A little time after the events of What Moves The Dead, Easton travels home to their caretaker, only to find him dead and gone. The locals are secretive, and now they have to find a new housekeeper before Miss Potter arrives to visit. 

This book wasn't quite as strong as the previous, but I loved the old and new characters so much. This story explored superstition, as Alex grapples with the new housekeeper's insistence of a presence in the house. The wizened, matter of fact grandma figure certainly brought a lot of comedic moments in the story.

I think what let it down, just a little, for me, was that the starting mystery of the locals refusing to explain the previous housekeeper's death was almost shrugged off as superstition, and I don't think we got a strong moment and understanding the enemy like we did in the previous book.

Fantasy is a genre I've been getting into this year, although I'm sticking with female authors for now. I got into this story really quickly, Karigan and The Horse made for really interesting riding companions I wanted to know more about, and the episodic feel reminded me of the old 90s TV shows I grew up on.

Karigan is a character I could quickly understand, stubborn and strong willed - but very smart, and I understood her reasons for clashing with her school. I think she's around 17, and clearly hasn't found her place in the world yet, and frequently runs into people trying to decide that for her, which I think a lot of people can relate too.

I loved the sisters and their unusual home, and they remained my favourite throughout the story, despite only appearing for a chapter or two. I'm hoping they'll make an appearance in a future book, but I'm fairly confident they will. I did think the pacing of this story was a little messy towards the end, but I'm excited to continue the series.

This has sat on my TBR pile for many years, and likely been dragged round a few houses as well, but I finally, finally picked it up this year. This is a surprisingly strong, emotional story that opens with the funeral of Emily and Charlotte's sisters, and their grief is well written. 

Anne doesn't make an appearance in this story, as she's elsewhere. Emily and Charlotte have a dual POV though, and I thought both of their voices were distinctive. I loved that they were a lot more similar than they thought they were, and I totally got that sister bond.

The mystery in this story is cleverly interwoven with some of their biggest stories, particularly Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and it's very obvious which sister wrote which book without being told. I thought this was a sensitive portrayal of the sisters, that didn't take liberties with their short lives.

I put off reading this, because the first book was so good, and I was worried this wouldn't live up to my expectations. And the sequel curse strikes me again because I spent most of this book feeling depressed, frustrated and bored. It felt like the author wanted to create more conflict, and having Jamie and Andrew fight for the majority of the book just annoyed me.

There wasn't really much happening in this book. While it introduced new characters from the community they found themselves in that I did like, by the end many had died, or left. I felt Cora took a background role for most of this story, and there was too much focus on the aftermath of what happened at Fort Caroline.

A lot of this story is walking around, finding new people, ascertaining if they're good or not, and then walking some more. There's just so much walking. If this felt more character driven I might have been fine with this, but I felt we got little more than surface level for every character, even including Andrew and Jamie. The ending was worth the slog, but I'm disappointed.

This series is a wonderful, twisty mess of layers, and with each new installment I learn more about the world, and the characters, and they're slowly starting to feel like family. Set after Sumi's return, Jack and Jill continue the story they left off in the first book, as Jack makes an electric appearance back into Christopher, Sumi and Kade's lives - as her sister, Jill.

This book explores OCD in a way I felt was authentic, but I related to it a little more from a trans standpoint as that was more personal to me - from this view, I could easily understand Jack's horror at being in a body that was not her own, and that she didn't know what it had been used for. Jack then travels back to the Moors, with the help of fellow school friends.

This series is cleverly plotted, as I was familiar with the Moors at this stage, having read Jack and Jill's prequel book Down Among The Sticks And Bones. But it was interesting to see the world again as Christopher, Kade, Sumi and Cora saw it, and the temptation Cora had to stay was heartbreaking. I'm so hoping we get her book soon.

Narnia is one of the first series that triggered my love of books about magical doorways, the other being The Magic Faraway Tree. I've been wanting to re-read these as an adult, to see if they hold up. While some books like The Magician's Nephew were just as good, others like The Horse And His Boy and The Last Battle were very much products of their time.

What really overshadowed this series on a re-read for me, was the excessive racism and ethnocentric views. The final book was overshadowed by the racial slurs being thrown around, and the actual use of brownface. Whiter, paler people are constantly seen as more pleasing to look at, while the Calormenes are seen as uncivilised, lesser in comparison.

I think this series has it's moments, and offers some unique concepts, but frequently becomes boring, as while Lewis could move a story on extremely well within a few pages, he frequently got stuck on the same topic for a third of the book. The Last Battle in particular had a donkey / ape storyline that went on so long I was nearly bored to tears before we finally got to the final act.

- This is an overall review of the series