The Black God’s Drums

author: P. Djèlí Clark

The Black God’s Drums is an awesome novella set in a steampunk, alternate history New Orleans. The narrator of the book, Creeper, is a homeless thirteen year old girl who dreams of becoming an airship pilot someday. She is also visited on a regular basis by Oya, the Yoruba goddess of wind and storms. Creeper befriends the captain of a visiting airship, hoping to earn the captain’s trust and secure a place onboard. Oya and Captain Ann-Marie (from Trinidad) end up trying to retrieve a weapon from another ship along with a Haitian scientist.

I adored this book. All the main characters are people of color and almost all of them are women. There are awesome nuns. There’s an emphasis on the importance of education. There’s adventure like mad and mysticism and magic. Not a stereotype to be found. The steampunk elements are largely limited to weapons and airships and work seamlessly within the context of the story. The alternate history is fascinating. The use of language and dialogue is masterful.

The book is novella-length, which is a difficult length to manage. So many novellas seem like dragged out short stories or truncated books. However, this story feels complete – not too rushed, not ending abruptly – just a solid adventure story with a ending that leaves a sequel possible and highly desirable but is also a satisfying ending in its own way.

This is not a romance. However the bonds between women – of business, family of blood, family of choice, war, and friendship – are paramount within the story. Please, please, please let this be the start of a new series!

– Carrie S

Historical: American, Novella, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Steampunk

Ill Will

author: Michael Stewart

Ill Will is NOT a romance. It does not have a happy ending. It features graphic violence against animals, women, and children. In the latter cases, the violence includes rape. The ending is depressing as hell.

BUT.

I would recommend this book to the tiny cohort of people who share my conviction that Wuthering Heights is a gothic (and highly political) horror novel as opposed to a love story. This book begins immediately after Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, having been rejected by Cathy. Heathcliff finds himself crossing England on foot, accompanied by a young girl named Emily (a little on the nose with the name there, but OK). Emily claims to be a medium, and the two earn a patchy living by channeling the dead at graveyards. The plot thickens when Heathcliff has the opportunity to learn who his biological parents are. When he learns who his white father and black mother were, his desire to extract vengeance on his biological father overrides any larger plan, and comes at a terrible cost even as it gets Heathcliff the money he needs to transform himself into a gentleman.

This novel works as a kind of bildungsroman crossed with horror. Heathcliff’s England is a dystopia in which both city and moor are cold, colorless, and unwelcoming. I can’t recommend this book to anyone looking for a happy read. Even the word “enjoyable” doesn’t seem to apply. Yet, the novel is so sharply drawn in terms of character, action, and setting that it has earned an uneasy spot on my keeper shelf. For the right reader, this is a finely crafted gem. The B rating is because the novel feels random – we drop in at the beginning and drop out a the end. I also remain undecided on whether the graphic depictions of violence, sexual and otherwise, were necessary or gratuitous. Still, the book is a weirdly fascinating depiction of terrible people in a terrible place at a terrible time, and of the deep, intergenerational wounds left by slavery, sexism, poverty, and violence.

– Carrie S

Historical: European, Literary Fiction

Snowlicious

author: Leigh LaValle

If you like friends-to-lovers romance and snowed-in sexytimes, then Snowlicious is going to be all your catnip. I found it to be sexy and cute, although I was a little confused by the hero’s actions.

Best friends since high school, Mike and Thea have always had each other’s backs. When Thea, a florist, loses her spot decorating a Christmas tree for a high profile holiday competition, Mike sweeps in and gets her the slot of designer for his law firm’s tree. The problem is he does it by firing the woman who normally decorates it each year, his boss’s sister. Now I spent most of the book thinking he fired this woman from her actual full time job,  and I was like “okay, this is not good at all.” Turns out he just didn’t hire her this year to decorate the tree, but paid her fee anyway. So if you’re confused, there, I solved the puzzle for you. It’s shitty, but less shitty than I originally thought.

Anyway, Mike does this because he’s realizing that he’s fallen in love with Thea over the course of their friendship and he’s trying to figure out how to tell her without potentially losing the relationship they have. Thea feels the same way. Cue sexually-frustrated partner yoga, flirty banter, and a night snowed in at a cabin when they finally act on their Feels. Nothing like the smell of wet wool to fire up your libido.

Snowlicious is like a little holiday treat, just enough to be satisfying without being overly sweet. I still have mixed feelings on Mike firing his boss’s sister without any real repercussions, but I really loved the friends-to-lovers storyline.

– Elyse

Contemporary Romance, Novella, Romance