Fantasy Books

Okay, LitStack book lovers, gather ’round! LitStack’s got the scoop on The Taking, in preorder…

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Happy 2025! Let’s kick butt for another year. Or at least, limp to the finish 52 weeks. from now. I take what I can get. I started a Best of Bob feature last year. And while it may seem I’m constantly finding folks to write my column for me (hey – it’s a gift!), some of you Black Gaters may be surprised that I occasionally actually write my own essays for the Monday morning slot. John O’Neill is too savvy an editor for me to completely fool him for over decade.

So here are what I thought were ten of my better efforts in 2024. Hopefully you saw them back when I first posted them. But if not, maybe you’ll check out a few now. Ranking them seemed a bit egotistical, so they’re in chronological order. Let’s go!

1) Roaming the Old West, with Holmes on the Range (February 5, 2024)

It might look like I just throw something together every week (and looks aren’t always deceptive). But when I can find the time, I love putting together something special. And after reading/re-reading the entire series, I really nailed a three-part series on Steve Hockensmith’s Sherlock Holmes influenced, Old West mysteries about cowboy brothers Old Red and Big Red.

I followed up a pretty solid series overview, with the first-ever comprehensive chronology! And then, we rounded it out with a great Q&A from Steve himself. This is a terrific series: a great read, and solid on audiobook. Late in the year, the first two novels in a spin-off series that’s more Old West adventure than Holmes-flavored, came out. I’m looking forward to more of all aspects of the Double-A Western Detective Agency.

2) Terry Pratchett: A Modern-Day Fantasy Voltaire (March 25, 2024)

For my birthday, I dug into the satirical aspect of the late, great, Terry Pratchett. I’ve written about Pratchett several times here. I treated myself to one of my periodic re-reads, and wanted to do a post. And I was rather pleased with this effort. Includes links to all the Pratchett essays at Black Gate, written by myself and others.

In May, I did another Pratchett post, as I had read/listened to almost two dozen novels. I do love me some Pratchett.

3) Doyle on Holmes (April 1 through May 13, 2024)

My second series of the year dropped on April 1. My first three years at Black Gate featured me writing The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes column. I’m ostensibly the in-house mystery guy, but I blog like a squirrel with ADD. I dug into my extensive Holmes library and found five essays which Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, related to his famous sleuth. I talked about each, mixing in extensive quotes from ACD, with my own thoughts. Plus a wrap-up on a key book I used.

This was a pretty darn neat Doyle-centric look at Sherlock Holmes. Any Holmes fan should check this out.

4) Glen Cook: The Garrett, PI Q&A (April 8, 2024)

I scored an interview with the social media reclusive fantasy icon. Cook’s The Black Company is a foundational series in whatever you call Dark Fantasy/Grimdark. And while I love that one, I’m a HUGE fan of his fantasy private eye, Garrett.

Glen graciously replied to a plethora of questions on the Garrett series. And we dipped into The Black Company, and I had a scoop!! It was known he was working on more Black Company, under the title A Pitiless Rain. From what I could find out, it was to be one or two novels. But Glen revealed in a follow-up email, he had three completed novels, and a fourth was half-finished! There’s also a completed Garrett novel as well.

Tor just revealed last month that Lies Weeping will be out in November of 2025. In December, I had a post which broke that They Cry will follow in November of 2026 (I had the wrong month, though). It was a big year for Glen Cook news, and I broke it. Not bad for a mystery guy.

5) Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: Welcome to Kanawha Spa – The 2024 Wolfe Pack Greenbrier Weekend (May 27, 2024)

More than Solar Pons and Sherlock Holmes and Leaphorn and Chee and The Continental Op, and….I’m into Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. I constantly re-read the Corpus, and I’ve written uncounted words of fiction and non-fiction about them. I went to the gathering of Wolfe fans at West Virginia’s Greenbrier resort. The Greenbrier was the basis for Kanawha Spa in Too Many Cooks. It was a really fun weekend, and I wrote it up, with a TON of pics. The following week’s post was the Toast to Nero Wolfe, which I gave at the first dinner.

6) A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Harboiled Manila – Jo Gar (July 8, 2024)

2024 saw the seventh year of my Pulp series, A (Black) Gat in the Hand. With some help from some talented friends, it’s now over 125 posts of Pulpy goodness. I’m really proud of this series.

I have long wanted to do an essay on Raoul Whitfield’s, Manila detective, Jo Gar. The little Filipino is a hardboiled Hercule Poirot, and it’s one of my all-time favorite hardboiled PI series’. I finally managed to finish one this year. You should absolutely check out Gar.

7) A (Black) Gat in the Hand: REH’s Swords of Shahrazar (September 2, 2024)

I remain a huge Robert E. Howard fan. I even won my third Robert E. Howard Foundation award this year (a group project, with me one of four editors). El Borak rivals Conan as my favorite REH character. But Dave Hardy has written two elite essays on ‘The Swift.’

So, I did my second essay on another of his cowboys in the East, Kirby O’Donnell. I like him, and plan on covering the one remaining story. REH’s Oriental Adventures (the term does not mean Chinese or Japanese, as we think of it now) are really fun yarns. Click on over.

8) Ten Things I Think I Think: Marvel Edition (September 9, 2024)

This remains my favorite recurring column. I mean, I give my opinions and thoughts on ten random things. What could be more fun for me? Over the Labor Day holiday, I watched almost two dozen Marvel movies. It was a lot of fun. I continued on and followed up the next week with a Five More Things I Think I Think.

If you’re a fan of the Marvel movie-verse, I think you’ll find at least a couple of things of interest. Check it out.

9) Gary Gygax’ 17 Steps to Role Playing Mastery (November 25th to December 9th, 2024)

I don’t brag about my writing much, but I did a heck of a job with some strong multi-post series’ in 2024. I took Gygax’ Role Playing Mastery book and wrote a series on his 17 Steps to become a master Role Player. I included extensive quotes from him, along with my thoughts. This was based on a thread I ran on the Paizo boards, which ran to over 750 comments.

If you are at all into old school RPGing, I guarantee you will be interested in this one. It did not generate the comment volume I expected. But I have a couple more posts lined up

10) A Holmes Christmas Carol (December 23, 2024)

I have a half-dozen published Sherlock Holmes stories; and I’ve extensively written about him (see #3 above). I rewrote Charles Dickens’ classic novel (it’s not based on the movies, but the actual book) as a Holmes tale. I think I revealed some untold depth to Holmes, but I also stayed true to Doyle’s creation. Give it a holiday read.

AND…..

I have some irregular columns which I write. Here are the most recent iterations, with links to the prior posts over the years:

(October 28, 2024)

What I’ve Been Reading: November 2024 (November 11, 2024)

What I’ve Been Listening (audiobooks) To: November 2024 (November 18, 2024)

Ten Things I Think I Think: December 2024 (December 16, 2024)

I try to write positive stuff, and I inject as much humor (often self-deprecating) as I can. Since they haven’t gotten rid of me yet (actually, I just keep figuring out how to get around the firewall), I must be doing something right.

If you’ve been reading my stuff, you know I reply to almost every comment. I love discussing the stuff I write about. It’s a big reason I pick the topics I do. And even if we disagree, we can have a cool discussion. So please, leave a comment on my posts, if you’re so inclined. Both of us might even learn something new!

Hopefully you’ll find more interesting stuff to read on Monday mornings in 2025. I’ll do my best to keep beating the security and post weekly.

Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

With only a couple days left in 2024, I figured I’d need to get this post up before it’s too late! But before we get to all the lists and fun stuff, a quick update on the state of The BiblioSanctum. What can I say? It’s been a busy year, not just the last few weeks. My December catch-up plans were shot to hell when I realized I wasn’t going to have time to cram a few more books into my reading schedule let alone get off my feet and write some actual reviews. So instead, I’ve decided to pour all my attention into getting ahead in 2025 and reading early new year releases. Current plans are for a number of reviews to go up in the first couple weeks of January, in order to get the ball rolling.

(A preview of some of the books I’ve been reading…)

Overall, 2024 was a good year, but it was also a rough one in some ways. Between balancing work, family and children, homeschooling (yes, I started teaching my oldest because she needed a more rigorous and advanced curriculum than public education could offer), I had to trim down many aspects of my life because I literally came close to losing my mind.

One thing you might have noticed is that this blog saw some changes, mainly in the posting schedule and a shift to focusing exclusively on reviews. Hopefully, next year I will be back in a good enough place to do challenges, book tags, weekly memes, and other fun features again. But making the effort to take a chill attitude towards book blogging has also led me to what I think are more positive habits in 2024. Finally allowing myself to DNF books has been very liberating, for one. And being able to relax and indulge in “just for fun” reads has also led me to books that are not on my review pile, checking out backlist titles and other genres.

(Historical Fiction and True Crime are a couple of “outside my comfort zone” genres I’ve been able to explore. And I finally got around to reading the Mr. Mercedes trilogy!)

  

And now it’s once again that time of the year where I look back at the last twelve months and do a round up my favorite reads. As I’m sure many fellow avid readers can relate, it’s hard to narrow a whole year’s worth of reading t0 a single list when the number of books you read are pushing triple digits, so what I do is highlight each genre category and all the books in it that are 4.5 stars and above…and then some!

Fantasy

 

Paranormal

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

Science Fiction

Fantasy dominated the charts again in 2024 while sci-fi as a genre has disappointed for the second year in a row, and I’m afraid that’s a trend which will continue for as long as messaging is prioritized ahead of good storytelling. All I will say is, thank goodness for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

No challenge updates to report because I stopped tracking midyear, but challenges are another thing I hope to resume in 2025. However, Goodreads has helpfully informed me that I have actually achieved my reading goal of 100 books this year–just barely!

And now, last but not least, my favorite part of end-of-year roundup posts: Goodreads stats and the pretty Year in Books collage!

More on The BiblioSanctum:
Best of 2014 and The Year in Review
Best of 2015 and The Year in Review
Best of 2016 and The Year in Review
Best of 2017 and The Year in Review
Best of 2018 and The Year in Review
Best of 2019 and The Year in Review
Best of 2020 and The Year in Review
Best of 2021 and The Year in Review
Best of 2022 and The Year in Review
Best of 2023 and The Year in Review

Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures (TSR, 1992). Cover by Jeff Easley

Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures, by Jeff Grubb (with Andria Hayday), was one of the finest settings produced by TSR during the AD&D 2E (Second Edition) days.

“Magic carpets, ghoulish vixens, genies rising from the sand in a whirlwind of smoke and fire — such wonders, spin into tales by the fabled Scheherazade, enchanted a king for a thousand and one nights.”

The setting is inspired by Sinbad, Ali Baba, and other classics from Arabian Nights.

Maps and interior art for Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures

As a huge fan of Sinbad – and especially the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion special effects – this setting really grabbed my attention as a young 21 year-old. It had rich flavor and culture, though was very D&D at the same time, with desert survival rules, special character classes, new spells, and (for me) the best part: a fully realized setting.

I think it’s excellent. And the embossed Jeff Easley cover painting is top-notch.

More interiors from Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures

Do you have a favorite setting from the 2E era?

Back when I was a teenager in the 80s, running epic AD&D games in my basement for the other kids in the neighborhood, I never would have believed you if you’d told me that one day I would be working on Greyhawk materials with Gary Gygax, but to my great delight, it happened, and I will always remember those days (2005 – 2008) learning from and collaborating with a true legend.

Gary Gygax’s Castle Zagyg: The East Mark Gazetteer, by Gary Gygax and Jeffrey Talanian (Troll Lord
Games, 2007), and Castle Zagyg Yggsburgh (Troll Lord Games, 2005). Cover art by Peter Bradley

It seems like yesterday, but it was nearly 18 years ago that Gary Gygax and Stephen Chenault were asking me if the first installment of the Castle Zagyg series, The Upper Works, would be done in time for Gen Con 07. I knew that it wouldn’t, so I suggested a pivot — something in the vein of the old Greyhawk Gazetteer.

I called it The East Mark Gazetteer, and I was grateful that Gary approved. Using content from Gary’s Yggsburgh hardback, some of Gary’s unused content, and modest contributions of my own, the EM Gazetteer was born, presented as from sages of Yggsburgh.

The project didn’t have much of a lifespan, the reasons for which I don’t care to get into, because it is now a moot point: The East Mark Gazetteer eventually became available at Humble Bundle, along with several other Gygax related works.

Ad copy for The East Mark Gazetteer

I am biased, of course, but I feel that CZ: EM alone was worth the price of admission. Reading the ad copy that I wrote for this work (above) brings me right back to those halcyon days, reminding me of my earlier works and the sheer delight it was to work for and with Gary Gygax.

Also offered in this bundle was a book that I coauthored with Luke Gygax, called The Trouble at Loch Jineeva. It’s a fun one (a TPK machine!) that I had a blast running for fellow gamers. Oh, also pictured above is my personal copy of The East Mark Gazetteer. Cheers!

Jeffrey P. Talanian’s last article for Black Gate was a look at B-List Heroes and More: Marvel Contest of Champions. He is the creator and publisher of the Hyperborea sword-and-sorcery and weird science-fantasy RPG from North Wind Adventures. He was the co-author, with E. Gary Gygax, of the Castle Zagyg releases, including several Yggsburgh city supplements, Castle Zagyg: The East Mark Gazetteer, and Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works. Read Gabe Gybing’s interview with Jeffrey here, and follow his latest projects on Facebook and at www.hyperborea.tv.

Sharknado 6: It’s About Time (The Asylum/Syfy Films, 2018), and Great White (Piccadilly Pictures, 2021)

So, here we go. A new watch-a-thon, this one based on a handful of the 500+ shark movies that I haven’t seen (or gave up on). I’m not holding out much hope for these — shark movies are, on the whole, awful, but I know for a fact that some of these are among the worst films ever made. This 20-film marathon is me just trying to understand why they get made, bought and streamed.

Sharknado 6: It’s About Time (2019) Prime

What kind of shark? Lots of CG sharks and some ropey dinosaurs.

How deep is the plot? 10 meters.

Anyone famous get eaten? Only beans. Hasbeans.

You can pretty much read my last review (for Sharknado 5) to get the gist of this one. This time, however, they decided against scraping the bottom of the D-lister barrel, and employed a couple of C-listers, with some E-listers scattered in for good measure.

It’s all very familiar, a nutzoid story littered with sub-par CG and plenty of scenery chewing, but it was still fun, and actually had a nice bit of timey-wimey plot paradox to prop up the proceedings. For the last in the series, it was surprisingly short on shark action, and the third act felt like it was written by a fourth-grader who has just tried coffee for the first time, but… eh… it’s a Sharknado film. Solid nonsense.

6/10

Great White (2021) Shudder

What kind of shark? A refreshingly decent CG chonk.

How deep is the plot? 1 fathom.

Anyone famous get eaten? No.

We finish this 20-film movie masochism with Great White, a new film that explores the friendship between humans and film sharks. It’s really well shot, some lovely framing and cinematography, and the cast all do a great job, especially Katrina (Tucker & Dale) Bowden.

There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about the script, and it’s certainly less fun than a couple of the titles on my list, but it’s nice to finish with a decent flick and without any risk of shark-induced coma.

Phew.

The Black Demon (Highland Film Group, 2023), and Under Paris (Let Me Be, 2024)

Extras The Black Demon

It was time for another shark flick, so I jumped on Prime for The Black Demon, made some popcorn, and settled in.

An ill-tempered megalodon — a creaky oil rig off the coast of Cancun — a family hiding secrets — grizzled Mexican oil workers — a gazpacho of body parts. It would be impossible to make this boring, right? Right?

The filmmakers: “ Hold our beer.”

Featuring Josh Lucas (the forgotten brother of Patrick Wilson and Bradley Cooper), the opportunity for an over the top chompy cheese-fest is squandered, drowned by a script that wants to investigate (and talk about) Mexican superstitions and family drama. The black demon barely eats anyone, and is hardly in the film at all.
I gave it a resounding ‘harumph’ at the end.

Under Paris

Don’t sleep on this one if you like shark flicks — it’s so refreshing to watch a non-crap shark movie these days, and I was pleasantly surprised at how this had a lovely slow build up, leaned into its sci-fi premise, and then went ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.

Meg 2: The Trench (Alibaba Pictures, 2023)

Meg 2: The Trench

As good as the first film? Nope.

As bonkers as a squid on a unicycle? Yep.

Final judgement: Enjoyable, but if they get a third film there had better be more shark action. And a giant lobster.

Sharksploitation (Shudder, 2023), and Deep Blood (Variety Distribution, 1989)

Sharksploitation

What’s better than a badly acted, poorly produced, bonkers shark movie?

A documentary about shark movies!

This is a decent watch as the filmmakers go to great lengths to explain the legacy of Jaws and why the shark movie endures. Lots of great talking heads and some fun clips of good and bad (and downright terrible) movies.

If I had to gripe, it would be that I would have preferred if they’d spent about 10 mins less time talking about shark conservation, and used those 10 mins for a deeper dive into the weirder films out there.

That said, it harbors a worthwhile message about shark preservation. Check it out on Prime (Shudder or AMC+)

Deep Blood

Another shark movie crossed off the list. Deep Blood from 1989 differs from Jaws in that it has a wholly unnecessary subplot involving an ancient Native American curse. The subplot has absolutely no impact whatsoever on the story, the shark is all stock footage, and this film has the distinction of being one of the most boring films I have ever watched.

Recommended.

Shark Bait (Picaro Films, 2022)

Shark Bait

Shark Bait (Tubi) brings nothing new to the table. A bunch of unlikeable spring breakers drunkenly ‘borrow’ some jet skis, and end up in a bit of a kerfuffle when they smash them up in the middle of the ocean. To compound matters, there’s a grumpy great white in the water who apparently hates jet skis. People get eaten, final girl is plucky and resourceful, yada yada.

It’s all a bit dour, but the makeup effects are decent and the CG shark looks good when it stays in the brine. It’s OK if you’re a sharksploitation completist.

47 Meters Down (Dimension Films, 2017), and Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus (The Asylum, 2009)

47 Meters Down

Couldn’t sleep one night and ended up sleep-watching 47 Meters Down, which was excellent. Basically, sisters on hols, fell asleep, sisters in shark cage on boat, fell asleep, sisters in shark cage 47 meters down, fell asleep, shark-based kerfuffle, fell asleep, end credits. By all accounts, it is a decent flick and I must watch it awake.

Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus

Just had the last ounce of pleasure drained from watching SyFy movies with Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Now these movies are just ‘guilty’.

Previous Murkey Movie surveys from Neil Baker include:

Jumping the Shark, Part I
Jumping the Shark, Part II
Alien Overlords
Biggus Footus
I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie
The Weird, Weird West
Warrior Women Watch-a-thon

Neil Baker’s last article for us was Jumping the Shark, Part II. Neil spends his days watching dodgy movies, most of them terrible, in the hope that you might be inspired to watch them too. He is often asked why he doesn’t watch ‘proper’ films, and he honestly doesn’t have a good answer. He is an author, illustrator, outdoor educator and owner of April Moon Books (AprilMoonBooks.com).

Book Description:

They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever.

And I’ve always believed them.

Until now.

Now everything has changed.

Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

Rating: 4 Stars

Favorite Quotes:

But it does not tell you this: that love will turn the whole world into something greater than itself.

Love, the deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.

This is a dystopian book that’s a little different from The Hunger Games & Divergent and the like.  The world isn’t ending, necessarily but the government has mandated that everyone over the age of 18 has a procedure that basically renders you incapable of love and most of the other strong emotions.  They literally cut a piece out of the brain to achieve this!  I cannot imagine a time when the majority of people would be pushing for this to happen, but here it does.  I guess I can see some appeal to not suffering through a broken heart but to cut out a piece of my brain to achieve this?  Uhhhh, no thank you!

The story follow Lena Haloway as she is preparing for her procedure.  She got about 3 months until it is scheduled and there are interviews that have to be done so that the government can pick a husband suitable for her (because if you don’t care, how could you choose for yourself?) and what she will do for a living (will she go to college or just get a job until she is married?).  They regulate the music that your allowed to listen to and the books that you can read.  Something that Oliver did that is really different from most dystopian stories is the fact that everything we once had still exists.  There are cell phones and cars and the internet.  They are all strictly monitored and not everyone has them but they are still in use.  So many times you read these types of books and its like living in the dark ages and I thought this was a nice touch.

One of my gripes about this book is that if you take away the portion of the brain that controls emotion, how does anything get done?  If you don’t care, how do you take care of your children or get up everyday and go to work and cook and clean?  Love guides almost all the things we do.  We work because we love our families and want to take care of them.   We love our children and so we play with them and discipline them and laugh with them.  If you remove all those things are you really still alive?  Aren’t other things in our lives determined by a type of love?  If you were a police man breaking up an illegal party with a bunch of teenagers involved, would you care enough to just send them home or would you release the dogs against them and beat them with clubs and would it matter either way?  Very confusing to me.  I guess if love was that simple and it could be removed without interfering with everything else, then maybe, but it simply affects too many things.

Anyway, the story drags on a bit for me once the world is set up and you get a grasp on what’s happening.  Lena and Hana (her best friend) start to break the rules and go to unauthorized parties after curfew.  Up until this point, they’ve had almost no contact with the opposite sex besides adult males (parents and teachers who have all had the procedure) and these parties are full of uncured boy their own age.  So in typical teenager fashion they are rebelling before they can’t anymore.  Then Lena meets a boy, Alex, who shows her that there is so much to be missed by having the procedure done and how much the cureds have been lying to everyone (particularly Lena).  As they get to know each other and fall in love Lena realizes that there’s no way she could ever willing have the procedure and she tries to come up with a way for them to escape.

Will they find a way or will Lena have to lose part of herself?

*SPOILERS BELOW*

First of all, I cannot believe that there wasn’t a love triangle in this book!  It was kind of nice  to not have to be vacillating between two love interests!

I was wondering throughout the whole beginning of the book if it wouldn’t turn out that Lena’s Mom was still alive.  Considering how long ago she supposedly killed herself she was still very present in Lena’s mind and that usually means something is coming up.  It’s too bad that she didn’t  get to see her before she escaped though.

I cannot BELIEVE that Alex doesn’t make it with Lena to the Wilds!  He sacrifices himself up to the regulators so that Lena can get away.  He got shot and captured but I’m not sure if he’s alive or not!  What will she do now in the Wilds all alone?  Being with Alex was the main reason she decided to run away in the first place!  Sheesh, I wonder what Oliver has planned for book 2?

Book Description:

tick
tick
tick
tick
tick
it’s almost
time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She’s finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam’s life.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Favorite Quotes:

My troubles have arrived fashionably late to this conversation, inconsiderate beasts that they are.

It’s the kind of kiss that makes you realize oxygen is overrated.

He’s standing right in front of me and I miss him like I haven’t seen him in years.

“I think there’s something about the impermanence of life these days that makes it necessary to etch ink into our skin,” he says.  “It reminds us that we’ve been marked by the world, that we’re still alive.  That we’ll never forget.”

Another heart wrenching book by Mafi.  She really is a wonderful writer.  I couldn’t put the book down.  I devoured it in a day and now I’m dying to know what happens next.  I’m not sure but I think this is a three book series so the next one should be the end.  I love the way your heart is practically in your throat the whole book.  There is so much emotion happening and Mafi writes in a way that you can’t help but experience everything along with the characters.

Book two picks up shortly after where book one ended.  Juliette, Adam and James have been at Omega Point for about a week and things are starting settle down.  Once the immediate danger is over Juliette has retreated back inside herself because she is now surrounded by people who know what she can do and some of them include children.  She doesn’t want to scare anyone and so she decides to just keep to herself and only really talk to and associate with Adam.  What a hard thing to have to experience at the age of 17, to try to make friends when you’ve never done something like that before.  She’s always been immediately ostracized when she was around other people and so she doesn’t know how to start getting to know people.  I thought this was a good road for Mafi to take with this story, it makes it more believable.  Because of this, she comes off even scarier than she would have if she even made some small attempt to interact with people.  The story about how she killed that little kid years ago gets out and now everyone is looking at her just like people always have.  So much for being with people who would understand her because she wasn’t the only one with some bizarre powers.  Castle thinks that there might be more to Adam being able to touch her than it just being some fluke and now he’s undergoing some test to see if there’s another reason he can touch her.  The results are devastating and now Juliette has to decide how she’s going to back away from him to keep him safe.  She learning more about her own abilities and now she’s not just worried about her touch being dangerous.  Her whole body is a weapon and she has no control over it.  On top of that monumental obstacle, she is still keeping secrets from Adam.  She hasn’t told him that Warner can touch her too and that she kissed him right before she shot him.  I don’t know why she doesn’t say anything.  She should have told him as soon as he was healed.  There was no real reason for her not to except for the part where she actually enjoyed it.  She could leave that part out of it as far as I’m concerned but the rest of it she should have told him.  You can’t keep secrets like that.  The fact is that if they really loved each other there would be no reason to keep these kinds of secrets.  Adam might be a little pissed but the fact is she did what she needed to do so that she could save him and I don’t think that he would be angry for long.

Kenji plays a much bigger role in this book and I’m so glad because I love him!  He’s like the only bright spot in the book; his personality is so bright and carefree that you can’t help but smile when he’s around.  This is not to say that he doesn’t have some serious moments and he does put Juliette in her place a few times but she really needed someone to kick her in the ass so she would quit moping around.  The reality is that she is the primary reason that The Reestablishment is hunting so fiercely for Omega Point.  Not that this wouldn’t have come to a head at some point in the future but the timetable’s been moved up and that is because of Juliette.  Warner can’t let her go and now that his father is involved he hasn’t got a choice but to find her.  After learning more about him in Destroy Me I was pretty sure he would be a big part of this book as well.  We learned even more about him and his past as him and Juliette spend some time together.

Kenji has been working with Juliette to help her figure out and hone her skills and she starts to get a little more control of it.  I was hoping this would naturally lend itself to help with her self-esteem but that doesn’t really happen.  If she should would just accept who and what she is life would start to become more manageable for her but she can’t stop seeing herself as a monster.  She’s come out of her shell a little bit and it starting to make some friends but everyone at Omega Point is preparing to battle Warner’s father and his men and they need Juliette to help them.  With the strength of her power she could be the edge that they need to win.

Will she be able to put her personal feelings aside and focus on the more important objective?  Will she be able to use her abilities against the “bad guys” to save the innocent citizens of sector 54?  How will she reconcile her feelings for Adam and Warner?

*SPOILERS BELOW*

Oh man this book was torture for me!  I’m still so unsure who I want Juliette to end up with!  Her and Adam have such an intense relationship and it’s been growing since they were kids.  Now that they have finally found each other and Adam can actually touch her things were looking up.  This was not to last, of course, and now Adam has discovered that he has an ability as well.  He’s a disruptor and that’s why he can touch her because he can cancel out her power. The problem with this is that he has to be constantly on guard in order for it to work and that can’t happen when they are getting physical with each other.  She nearly kills him at one point!  So she’s decided to stay away from him and it’s destroying both of them.  Then there’s Warner.  This is the first time that Juliette really gets to know him for who he is instead of the leader of sector 54.  When she was listening to his father tear him down and then again later when he was being held captive at Omega Point and she had to interrogate him.  He was so sweet to her and let her see a part of himself that I don’t think he’s ever shown anyone else.  The scars on his back, the way he really sees himself, the way he sees her and how she makes him feel.  It was breathtaking to witness.  Now she’s so confused about what to do and she hasn’t told Adam about any of this and she hasn’t told Warner that Adam is his brother (which shocked the hell out of me, by the way) and she’s somehow in the middle and unable to decides what to do.  She’s also hiding a lot of information about Warner.  She doesn’t tell anyone that she knows why he can touch her and what his ability is and I’m not sure why.  What could it harm?  It just makes her look worse for keeping it to herself.  I think she loves them both but who is the better choice?  Adam is so loving and caring and wants to take care of her and he loves her with a desperation that is a little frightening.  Warner can be gentle and caring and he doesn’t pull any punches.  He is who he is and he accept Juliette for who she is and what she is capable of.  He also loves her in an overwhelmingly obsessive way.  I wonder if this is something about Juliette or if it’s something in their DNA that she attracts?  Either way it’s a tough decision.

I wish that Kenji wouldn’t have stopped Juliette from killing Anderson.  That guy is a monster and someone needs to take care of him.  I understand why he did it but at the same time you don’t go to war with someone in his position if you don’t have his replacement ready to take over.  Then in the end when he just shot her in the chest and leaves!  This was the only real issue I had with the book.  Why would he have gone through the trouble of shooting her in front of Warner only to leave before he could witness what it did to him?  And, why would he have had “the girls” kidnapped to use to heal him only to leave them behind?  If anything, he should have at least taken them with him back to the capital.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all ends.

Book Description:

Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release of Unravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of. . .

Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.

Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me, Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45

Rating: 5 Stars

Favorite Quotes:

It’s a strange thing, to never know peace.  To know that no matter where you go, there is no sanctuary.  That the threat of pain is always a whisper away.

Love is a heartless bastard.  I’m driving myself insane.

I’m at a loss for words with this novella.  At the end of Shatter Me I had already firmly decided that I didn’t like Warner.  I didn’t necessarily think he was a bad person, per se, but that he wasn’t a good person either.  Now I find myself saddened by his story.  Raised by a man who never had a nice thing to say to him and never receiving any kind of affection.  It’s very similar to Juliette’s story, really, only that in Warners situation it wasn’t because people couldn’t touch him but because no one did.  It makes a lot more sense now why he felt to connected to Juliette and now that he has her journal from when she was institutionalized he’s even more determined to find her and bring her back to be with him.  I’m not sure if he’s going to have much success with this due to the way he tried to get her affections the last time but I at least have a better feel for who he is and why he is the way he is.  I think that anyone can change, given the proper motivation.  The question is, will Warner want to change and is love enough of a motivator for him?  I think we’ll find out in book two which is next up on the list.

Book Description:

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Rating: 4.5

Favorite Quotes:

Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don’t tell him.  I’ll never be okay.

my cheek is pressed against his chest and he smells like strength and courage and the wold is drowning in rain.

I remember you every day forever in every single broken moment of my life.

His hands are shaking so slightly, his eyes brimming with feeling, his heart thrumming with pain and affection and I want to live here, in his arms, in his eyes for the rest of my life.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book when I first picked it up.  It was a recommendation from a friend and I thought, what the hell, I’d give it a shot.  It was surprisingly good!  The writing style took a little getting used to as most of what Juliette thinks is in run on sentences.  This makes a little more sense once you figure out that she has been locked up all alone for almost a year and hasn’t spoken to another living soul for that whole time.  I think I’d be a little nutty too.  Mafi is a very emotionally descriptive writer and because of this it doesn’t take very long for you to be attached to certain characters and to really despise others.  I only used four of my favorite lines from this book above but I think I highlighted around 10 or so which is really high for me in any book.  I think she’s an amazing writer and once I got used to her writing style, I really liked it.

I’m not sure what year the book is set in but basically we’ve destroyed the planet and there’s not enough food or clean water and The Reestablishment has taken over power of everyone. They’ve decided that in order to correct the problems that society has caused they need to make several changes.  Only the strong get to survive, they are getting rid of all the books they can find and trying to create a whole new language.  All the unhealthy, weak and old are gotten rid of.  It doesn’t specifically say how this happens maybe they are all killed or maybe they are just segregated from the rest of society?  Juliette has some sort of weird power where it is dangerous for her to touch anyone.  She had an incident in a grocery store and after that she was locked up in what she assumes is an insane asylum.  One day she gets a cell mate, Adam Kent, and then things start to change a little for her.  Can you imagine not speaking to anyone for a year?  Just as she’s starting to get used to the idea of him she’s taken out of her cell and introduced to the sector leader for The Reestablishment, Warner, who informs her that he’d like her to join their cause.  He thinks that her “talent” could be really useful to them.  Which means, of course, that he would like her to help him kill the rebels.  Warner takes her to their base and sets her up with a nice room and nice clothes and good meals and thinks that this is the way to get her to agree to join him.  He’s got more on his mind than just how she can help their cause too.  Luckily for her, people can’t touch her (at least not most people) so she seems to be relatively safe for the time being.

Adam has been assigned to guard her and as time goes on we learn a little about their past and get to see their relationship develop into something very sweet and intense.  Juliette’s got to escape from The Reestablishment, especially from Warner as he’s got some kind of weird obsession with her, and Adam is going to help her to this.  When they finally get free, it’s a mad dash to find their allies and get somewhere safe.  Then everything gets turned on its head when they do finally find safety.  Will this new group be the good guys?  Will they want to use Juliette for her “talents” as well?  With her suddenly being in a situation of acceptance, how will she handle it and will her and Adam be able to stay together?

*SPOILERS BELOW*

I love the relationship between Adam and Juliette.  I wasn’t sure how this would work out in the beginning, since she can’t be touched and was relieved that Adam was the exception to this rule.  The fact that they knew each other when they were younger went a long way with me to support the intensity of their feelings for each other.  You can’t just meet someone and all of a sudden be in love with them.  I liked that they each had formed feelings for the other growing up even though they had never had a conversation before now.  Adam is so sweet to her and the fact that he remembered all the small things she did growing up for the same people who treated her so terribly was a nice touch.  I’m not sure how this will all play out as Juliette has no experience with relationships of any kind.  How will she handle something so intense?

I was disappointed to learn that Adam wasn’t the only one immune to Juliette’s dangerous touch when Warner touched her right before they escaped.  I’m not sure exactly how I feel about Warner.  I think that he is a product of his upbringing.  Even though he can be ruthlessly cold and calculated, I’m not sure that he is a bad person.  I think this is all he knows.  He seems to have real feelings for Juliette although they way he got to know her was a little stalkerish with reading all about her history and then watching her in the asylum for the past year.  He’s obsessive though and he’s not going to just let her go without some sort of fight.

I actually really loved the ending to this book!  I totally didn’t see it coming.  A whole group of people who all have different abilities.  How wonderful for Juliette to finally feel like she belongs somewhere.  Adam made a little headway with her self-esteem over the course of the few months they got to spend together but think about how horrible her life would have been.  Can you imagine not being touched by anyone for almost your entire life?  It’s pretty incredible that she’s still such a good person.  The kind of power that she has would have been so dangerous in the wrong hands.  The way her parents made her feel like a monster especially pissed me off.  As a parent you love your children NO MATTER WHAT and how could you let her feel so alone her whole life?  They could have ruined her forever.  I’m excited to see what book two brings.  I’d like to know what other kind of gifts the people of Omega Point have and how they deal with Warner and the threat he represents.

Next up is Destroy Me, a novella before Unravel Me.