strange and random happenstance

The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: August 9th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
Rating: ★ 1/2★
To Buy

In 1941 at the Villa Air-Bel in Marseilles Aleister Crowley's disciple Jack Parsons channels the objective chance of the refugee Surrealists living their into a device that Jack hopes he can use against the Nazis. He had originally planned to travel to Prague and raise the golem, but travel to that city is impossible and he thinks that this new plan will work. Only he doesn't have a chance to try it out as the device is stolen and taken to Paris where it explodes. What comes to be known as the S-Bomb detonates at Les Deux Magots changing the face of Paris. Soon Surrealist paintings, sculptures, drawings, even ideas, the very dreams of the movement have come alive and are walking the streets of Paris. The manifs destroy all in their path except for those who are aligned with the beliefs of their creators. La Main à plume before the S-Bomb was a collective created by friends of André Breton that distributed their published manifestos, but now, with the advent of the manifs, they are the leaders of the resistance in Paris. Main à plume IS the resistance! The Nazis do not take kindly to the manifs and Main à plume. Their control of Paris wavers and the battle limps on. When the S-Bomb was detonated Thibaut was only fifteen years old. Shortly thereafter when the Nazis rounded up and killed his family he saw his first manif. As an acolyte to the ideals of Surrealism he was in awe. Now he is twenty-four and disillusioned by the war. He has worked his way up in the ranks of Main à plume, but devastating losses have been too much for him. He plans to get out. Even if it kills him. And that's when he meets Sam. She claims to be a photographer who has entered Paris to document "The Last Days of New Paris" and she wants to see it all. She has ulterior motives, and it might involve the exquisite corpse he's travelling with. But Thibaut realizes, even if she does he wants her ersatz book to exist. Even if he has to write it himself. Though Thibaut is troubled. When he met Sam she was being attacked by manifs that the Nazis seemed to control. That has always been the Nazis goal, their own manifs. But they have never succeeded. With the help of Alesch, the traitor-priest, and Mengele, the Nazis first raised demons from the very pits of hell to have creatures capable and competent enough to take on the manifs. Now they might have created a hybrid. Something so dangerous that the very denizens of hell have sent someone to stop it. Can Thibaut save this dreamlike Paris that is his home from the enemy, or will it fall to the ultimate Nazis weapon?

This book makes me feel sad and stupid. Sad because I remember when I first read this book my friend Sarah was in Paris and I was talking to her about it. I thought she'd enjoy it because she was walking in the footsteps of Thibaut and she could have my copy when she returned home because at the time I never planned to read it again. She died in July of 2020. She was only thirty-two. Stupid because instead of providing us context China Miéville just namedrops, but not logically, he does it in the way Mark Z. Danielewski does in House of Leaves, just lists and lists of names, both people and places. I should not need an episode of Drunk History and a miniseries about Varian Fry I just happened to watch on Netflix to actually understand anything of what is happening. Almost all of his characters are real people but how is the reader to know this? What makes it a thousand times worse is that I'm not a neophyte. I have a degree in art, albeit not in art history, but I took five art history courses and three of those specifically covered this period in art and I was just lost. So who exactly is this book written for? Not for those ignorant of Surrealism, because they'd be totally lost. Not for those familiar with Surrealism, because they'd be totally lost as well. So did he just write this book for himself? With the occasional pretentious art history professor at some painfully small liberal arts college thinking it's genius because of that one trip they took to Paris thirty years before and they've made it their entire identity. Because that's all I've got. And there could have been something here, some alchemical combination of Jasper Fforde and R.W. Chambers if only the world had been expanded and explained. For example let's take what an exquisite corpse is. Everyone has played this game even if they never knew it by name. I remember doing it in first grade so obviously my teacher wasn't going to mention it's rather grotesque nomenclature. As MoMA states, it's a "game in which each participant takes turns writing or drawing on a sheet of paper, folding it to conceal his or her contribution, and then passing it to the next player for a further contribution. The game gained popularity in artistic circles during the 1920s when it was adopted as a technique by artists of the Surrealist movement to generate collaborative compositions." This is information vitale to the plot of the book but it's only badly explained by Surrealist Simone Kahn in the footnotes and not explained at all in the story. I mean, explain just one thing Miéville, just one! And for the love of all that is holy, stop going all meta! YOU did not need to be in this book! In fact, my recommendation is to just go watch Strange Angel on Paramount+ and Transatlantic on Netflix and never read this book. It was really a waste to read it a second time.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: China Mieville, Exquisite Corpse, For the Love of Book Clubs, Jack Parsons, Jasper Fforde, Manifs, Nazis, Paris, R.W. Chambers, S-Bomb, Strange Angel, Surrealism, The Last Days of New Paris, Transatlantic, WWII

Queen B by Juno Dawson
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This next spellbinding installment of Juno's "irresistible" fantasy series Her Majesty's Royal Coven (Lana Harper) takes us back to the reign of Henry VIII and the origins of Her Majesty's Royal Coven under the beautiful, the bewitching, Anne Boleyn.

It's 1536 and the Queen has been beheaded.

Lady Grace Fairfax, witch, knows that something foul is at play - that someone had betrayed Anne Boleyn and her coven. Wild with the loss of their leader - and her lover, a secret that if spilled could spell Grace's own end - she will do anything in her power to track down the traitor. But there's more at stake than revenge: it was one of their own, a witch, that betrayed them, and Grace isn't the only one looking for her. King Henry VIII has sent witchfinders after them, and they're organized like they've never been before under his new advisor, the impassioned Sir Ambrose Fulke, a cold man blinded by his faith. His cruel reign could mean the end of witchkind itself. If Grace wants to find her revenge and live, she will have to do more than disappear.

She will have to be reborn.

In this gripping, propulsive, sultry short novel, Juno Dawson takes us back to the bloody beginnings of Her Majesty's Royal Coven to show us the strength, steel and sacrifice it takes to make a sisterhood."

For all those who knew Anne Boleyn was a witch and wanted vengeance in her name.

The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish by Paula Brackston
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish is book one in New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston's new, magic-infused series about Hecate Cavendish, an eccentric and feisty young woman who can see ghosts.

England, 1881. Hereford cathedral stands sentinel over the city, keeping its secrets, holding long forgotten souls in its stony embrace. Hecate Cavendish speeds through the cobbled streets on her bicycle, skirts hitched daringly high, heading for her new life as Assistant Librarian. But this is no ordinary collection of books. The cathedral houses an ancient chained library, wisdom guarded for centuries, mysteries and stories locked onto its worn, humble shelves. The most prized artifact, however, is the medieval world map which hangs next to Hecate's desk. Little does she know how much the curious people and mythical creatures depicted on it will come to mean to her. Nor does she suspect that there are lost souls waiting for her in the haunted cathedral. Some will become her dearest friends. Some will seek her help in finding peace. Others will put her in great peril, and, as she quickly learns, threaten the lives of everyone she loves."

Books that are chained for reasons other than theft have always intrigued me...

Feisty Felines edited by Kevin J. Anderson and Allyson Longueira
Published by: Wordfire Press
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When the witches and wizards are away, the familiars will play!

Gifted adventurers across time and space often travel with an animal familiar - usually a cat, but possibly other fuzzy, scaly, or prickly creatures. These magical companions lead their humans into mischief, help them out of sticky situations, or offer opinionated commentary along the way.

We're familiar with familiars...or are we?

Compiled by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and award-winning editor Allyson Longueira - and their Publishing graduate students at Western Colorado University - Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars features 26 never-before-published short stories and poems crafted by Mercedes Lackey, Heather Graham, Jody Lynn Nye, John Hartness, Steve Rasnic Tem, and many others.

You'll love this collection kitty-littered with surprises at every turn. Some stories are whimsical, some are sad, some will tug at your heartstrings - and some will stay with you long after you close this book.

From mischievous cats to cunning ravens, skittering spiders to - a cow? - these feisty familiars will take you on a magical trip to places even wizards don't tread."

Here's not just to awesome stories but awesome editors giving their graduate students due credit.

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Rival ornithologists hunt through England for a rare magical bird in this historical-fantasy rom-com reminiscent of Indiana Jones but with manners, tea, and helicopter parasols.

Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals.

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else - for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology."

Does anyone else hope that the cover is velvet? I want to stroke it.

The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard
Published by: Avid Reader Press / Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lauren Groff's Matrix meets Ophelia Field's The Favourite in this wry, sexy, and sharp historical novel - inspired by true events - featuring an elite group of Paris intellectuals who perform fairy tales that will change the course of literature - and put both the storytellers and their closely kept secrets in grave danger.

Why don't they tell you it is the beautiful princess who becomes the evil queen; that they are just the same person at different points in their story?

At a safe distance from the intrigues of courtly life at Louis XIV's Versailles, an intellectual crowd of mostly women have been gathering in a Parisian home to share what hostess Marie D'Aulnoy herself has christened contes de fées: fairy tales. Recently ousted from court and still raw from the death of his beloved wife, Charles Perrault finds companionship and creative camaraderie at the salon, where he eagerly joins the storytellers. Their hostess is impressive, fiercely intelligent, but somehow unreadable. She is harboring secrets of her own: sold off as a child in marriage to a brutal baron, imprisonment, scandal. Despite the vicious Versailles gossip, Marie has mysteriously been allowed to return to polite society and establish her salon in the heart of Paris.

A devastating winter soon sweeps in, bringing with it all kinds of rumors and fears. A spate of poisonings at Versailles has led to several arrests, and no matter how high born the suspect, it seems no one is safe. Paranoia stokes the King's insecurities, and there is a wolf among the salon's members - someone more dangerous than any force they could conjure in their own tales, watching and waiting, reporting on the secret goings-on, and threatening to destroy them one by one.

Brilliant and bawdy, witty and wise, Modern Fairies is a dazzling novel of stories within stories, familiar tales spun with fresh and provocative meaning, perfect for fans of Jenny Offill, Deborah Levy, and Angela Carter."

I mean, I'm all about stories within stories, but will it have copious nun sex? I'm just asking, because that is a large portion of Lauren Groff's Matrix.

Peking Duck and Cover by Vivien Chien
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lana Lee and friends return for a fiery Chinese New Year celebration that rattles their quaint community. After all, an Asia Village party wouldn't be complete without an explosive finale.

Chinese New Year is supposed to be a time of fresh beginnings and celebrations of good fortune to come. Naturally, the shop owners of Asia Village jump at the chance to participate in creating a memorable holiday event that will bring positive light to the plaza, and prosperity for all those involved.

With Lana Lee as his right-hand woman and head event planner, Ian Sung orchestrates an extravagant evening filled with music, live entertainment, and generous giveaways. But at the end of the night, during an elaborate firework show in the parking lot, a member of the lion dance performance team is found dead backstage with a single bullet hole through the heart and a red envelope in their pocket containing four one-dollar bills - an omen of death.

When news of a curse on Asia Village make its way around the plaza, Lana readily agrees to find who killed the talented dancer before anyone else is marked for death."

AS a fan of this series personally I think this has the best title of the lot.

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher by Katie Siegel
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The déjà vu is strong for 25-year-old former kid detective Charlotte Illes when she lands back in Frencham Middle School - this time as a substitute teacher with a sideline in sleuthing - in the second zany mystery based on the much-loved TikTok web series from @katiefliesaway.

For fans of Poker Face, Knives Out, Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan Series, and anyone seeking to satisfy their Harriet the Spy, Encyclopedia Brown, or Nancy Drew nostalgia!

Mention "returning to the scene of a crime," and people don't usually picture a middle school. But that's where kid detective Lottie Illes enjoyed some of her greatest successes, solving mysteries and winning acclaim - before the world of adult responsibilities came crashing in...

Twentysomething Charlotte is now back in the classroom, this time as a substitute teacher. However, as much as she's tried to escape the shadow of her younger self, others haven't forgotten about Lottie. In fact, a fellow teacher is hoping for help discovering the culprit behind anonymous threats being sent to her and her aunt, who's running for reelection to the Board of Education.

At first, Charlotte assumes the messages are a harmless prank. But maybe it's a good thing she left a detective kit hidden in the band room storage closet all those years ago - just in case. Because the threats are escalating, and it's clear that untangling mysteries isn't child's play anymore..."

There's prepared and there's Charlotte Illes prepared with a detective kit hidden for over a decade just "in case."

The Drowning House by Cherie Priest
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers - but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all.

Now they'll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place - and on the way they'll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he's bringing back to Marrowstone Island.

From award-winning author Cherie Priest comes a deeply haunting and atmospheric horror-thriller that explores the lengths we'll go to protect those we love."

There's not many authors who are must buy for me. Cherie Priest is one. If only so I can get the undying devotion of her cat Monty.

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mind-blowing epic from Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books.

She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.

There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who's seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he's known simply as "B."

And he wants to be able to die.

In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.

In a collaboration that combines Miéville's singular style and creativity with Reeves's haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones."

I'm just saying, most celebs get a relative unknown as a coauthor, but then there's Keanu who gets China Miéville!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Allyson Longueira, Anne Boleyn, BRZRKR, Cherie Priest, China Mieville, Clare Pollard, Feisty Felines, India Holton, Juno Dawson, Katie Siegel, Keanu Reeves, Kevin J. Anderson, Paula Brackston, Vivien Chien

Monsoon Summer by Julia Gregson
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: August 2nd, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"By the award-winning author of East of the Sun, an epic love story moving from England to India, about the forbidden love between a young Indian doctor and an English midwife.

Oxfordshire, 1947. Kit Smallwood, hiding a painful secret and exhausted from nursing soldiers during the Second World War, escapes to Wickam Farm where her friend is setting up a charity sending midwives to the Moonstone Home in South India.

Then Kit meets Anto, an Indian doctor finishing his medical training at Oxford. But Kit’s light skinned mother is in fact Anglo-Indian with secrets of her own, and Anto is everything she does not want for her daughter.

Despite the threat of estrangement, Kit is excited for the future, hungry for adventure, and deeply in love. She and Anto secretly marry and set off for South India—where Kit plans to run the maternity hospital she’s helped from afar.

But Kit’s life in India does not turn out as she imagined. Anto’s large, traditional family wanted him to marry an Indian bride and find it hard to accept Kit. Their relationship under immense strain, Kit’s job is also fraught with tension as they both face a newly independent India, where riots have left millions dead and there is deep-rooted suspicion of the English. In a rapidly changing world, Kit’s naiveté is to land her in a frightening and dangerous situation...

Based on true accounts of European midwives in India, Monsoon Summer is a powerful story of secrets, the nature of home, the comforts and frustrations of family, and how far we’ll go to be with those we love."

The time period, the subject matter, this book has everything going for it.

The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: August 2nd, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A thriller of war that never was—of survival in an impossible city—of surreal cataclysm. In The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville entwines true historical events and people with his daring, uniquely imaginative brand of fiction, reconfiguring history and art into something new.

“Beauty will be convulsive. . . .”

1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever.

1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse.

But Sam is being hunted. And new secrets will emerge that will test all their loyalties—to each other, to Paris old and new, and to reality itself."

This sounds... odd. But I like odd, so it could work.

Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman
Published by: Faber and Faber
Publication Date: August 2nd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cold Hand in Mine was first published in the U.K. in 1975 and in the U.S. in 1977. The story 'Pages from a Young Girl's Journal' won the Aickman World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1973 before appearing in this collection.

Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ('Pages from a Young Girl's Journal') but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing."

I admit I've never heard of Robert Aickman, but the cover and the description sound like a British Shirley Jackson. So if I wasn't already sold, the fact that Reece Shearsmith wrote the into, well, now I would be. 

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: August 2nd, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 576 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author behind the upcoming Starz original series The White Princess, a gripping new Tudor story featuring King Henry VIII's sisters Mary and Margaret, along with Katherine of Aragon, vividly revealing the pivotal roles the three queens played in Henry VIII's kingdom.

As sisters they share an everlasting bond; As queens they can break each other’s hearts.

When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure. With one look, each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined—with Margaret’s younger sister Mary—to a sisterhood unique in all the world. The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland, and France.

United by family loyalties and affections, the three queens find themselves set against each other. Katherine commands an army against Margaret and kills her husband James IV of Scotland. But Margaret’s boy becomes heir to the Tudor throne when Katherine loses her son. Mary steals the widowed Margaret’s proposed husband, but when Mary is widowed it is her secret marriage for love that is the envy of the others. As they experience betrayals, dangers, loss, and passion, the three sisters find that the only constant in their perilous lives is their special bond, more powerful than any man, even a king."

I admit my love of The White Queen miniseries did reignite my love of Gregory... but now hearing about all the re-casting for The White Princess... well, not as excited as I was. So here's your obligatory Gregory for the year.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: China Mieville, Cold Hand in Mine, Julia Gregson, Monsoon Summer, Philippa Gregory, Reece Shearsmith, Robert Aickman, Shirley Jackson, The Last Days of New Paris, THe White Princess, The White Queen

Graveminder by Melissa Marr
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 17th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series delivers her first novel for adults, a story about the living, the dead, and a curse that binds them.

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place--and the man--she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D--a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk."

Previously known for her teen fairy series, Melissa Marr goes into the land of the adult... which I can't wait for. The Wicked Lovely series was always best when it went into the dark places, so this should be a great read. Plus my friend John from Murder by the Book says it's awesome, 'nuff said!

Embassytown by China Mieville
Published by: Del Ray
Publication Date: May 17th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer—and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field—with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war.

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.

Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.

When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her. "

I haven't read any of China Mieville's books, but the review in Entertainment Weekly for this one really capture my attention. Could be total crap, or could be awesome, we'll just have to see now won't we?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: China Mieville, Embassytown, Graveminder, Melissa Marr, Murder by the Book, Tuesday Tomorrow, Wicked Lovely