Jen Williams (1)

This is a YA fantasy world that’s doing something fresh. The worldbuilding is so rich with gods everywhere, magic in every corner, strange creatures, and ancient structures, all of it surprisingly easy to track despite how much is going on. I kept wanting to slow down and absorb the details. I hope the sequel leans even deeper into that because there’s so much here to explore. There’s not a ton of romance (maybe that’s coming later?), but I didn’t mind. The plot moves well, show more building into a great climax while also leaving a frustratingly large number of loose ends. A second book doesn’t feel optional, it’s required. The characters each felt distinct and textured enough that I could see all the ways their motivations might shift next book, and I’m excited to follow them. It’s a world I’d happily spend more time in on screen or page.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for access to this one. show less

THE SLEEPLESS by Jen Williams is one more middling 'romantasy" novel among a glut of competitors. Not only do I think its inclusion in the romantasy genre is incorrect, but I also believe including any hint of romance in the description is misleading. Doing so shifts the focus to something it is not, changing readers' expectations for the story, and guaranteeing disappointment for diverging from what it was marketed as.

THE SLEEPLESS is not a romance. It does not include a love triangle. You show more have three teenagers, all of whom are isolated and traumatized to various degrees. All three are antisocial and harbor secrets. The fact that there is a growing sense of closeness between the three is not love so much as recognition of kindred spirits and gratitude for easing the ache of their loneliness. While there is a sense of attraction there, you can easily explain it as the result of hormones because they are all still teenagers. Yes, there is one kiss, but it is chaste compared to what is in other romantasy young adult novels. Anyone hoping for a romantic story needs to look elsewhere because this is not it.

The rest of the story is not very good. It tends to follow one trope after another, especially a long journey being the vehicle for the discovery of self and of society. The characters face perils along the way, but there is no question that they will overcome them without loss of life or limb. The same holds regarding the novel's climax. You never feel the danger that the characters are in, and you never doubt that they will somehow escape. Making things worse is the fact that you can't even fear the main villain, as she is more of a tragic figure than an evil one. She is insane and may be dangerous, but her insanity is so extreme that it is difficult to take her seriously as the villain.

What saves THE SLEEPLESS from being boring are the side characters and animal companions. The little cub at the heart of the story is by far my favorite character. He is so earnest in his bloodthirstiness and still comes across as young and inexperienced that he made me smile with every one of his lines. The mages of the appearance of the gods also brought life to the story, as we finally had some world-building. Unfortunately, this does not occur until halfway through the story, which is not the ideal place to start adding context to the plot.

While there are obvious flaws in THE SLEEPLESS, the little cub and the gods' interactions with their mages and within the larger world are what made me like Ms. Williams' story more than I should have. In fact, if I were to read the second half of this duology, it is because I want to see what happens with the cub and with the gods. It certainly won't be about the three main characters and their supposed love triangle or their fates. show less

In the vein of Frankenstein and Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde, comes Games For Dead Girls. The story of what horrors, humans, even children, can create but are unable to send back. Supernatural powers are hidden within the caves of southern England and within the psyches of these adolescent girls. Charlie was at the center of a horrific crime as a child. As an adult, she lives under a new identity. When a teenage girl, Cheryl, goes missing decades later in the same seaside town, Charlie returns to show more the scene of the long-ago violence. Feeling compelled to put her shocking memories to rest by helping to find Cheryl but anxious to avoid recognition, Charlie poses as a folklore researcher and begins collecting information about Cheryl and other missing girls. The novel’s grim setting is a caravan park on the coast where a warren of caves served as hiding spots for pirates and smugglers for centuries. As one person notes, "the caves are a liminal space, neither part of the sea or the land; anything can happen there". The secrets buried in the caves contributes to the feel of the caravan park as a vortex where people go missing. Alternating between time periods, the book revolves around the park. In chapters designated “1988,” Charlie is on holiday with her large extended family during the heyday of the park. At that time, Charlie is a typical kid except for her obsession with gruesome horror stories. By raising the stakes again and again in one of her imaginary games she unknowingly has built suspense across multiple timelines, until the stakes get higher than anyone, including Charlie, could ever have imagined. The story moves quickly across a fractured landscape, with surprising twists revealing one unexpected connection after another. As the smaller mysteries are resolved, this complex thriller pulls the alternating time frames together in a surprising and very satisfying resolution. If you love horror stories...you will eat this one up...if it doesn't get you first. show less

I read the first book in this trilogy earlier this year, and only did so because some friends were extremely effusive with their praise of it… I mean, I’m not a fan of heroic fantasy, although I’ve read a lot of it in the past, and I’m pretty sure there’s very little overlap between my taste in genre fiction and that of the one friend who praised these books the most… But I’m happy to read outside my comfort zone because how else would I discover new authors to like and admire? show more While bits of the first book, The Ninth Rain, didn’t entirely work for me, I do like fantasy worlds that are couched as science-fictional – and vice versa, of course – so there were definitely things to appreciate there. Enough, at least, to read the second book. Which is, I think, better than the first. And middle books of trilogies generally are not that. It’s better because it introduces a mystery in one of its narratives, gives it a satisfying conclusion, and also uses it to reveal some deeper background about the world. On the other hand… there was something about the writing style which didn’t quite click with me. It wasn’t until a chat at a con with the aforementioned friend where she mentioned “cock-blocking” and quoted a particular line from The Bitter Twins that I figured out what it was about the prose that was giving me trouble: it was written like fan fiction. The author was having far too much fun with their characters, to the extent that “having fun with characters” was driving the story rather than the plot. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. That friend? She’s a big fan of fan fiction, so it’s an approach and style of narrative that appeals to her. I don’t have that background – she had to explain what “cock-blocking” was to me – and I prefer my narrative voice distanced (see pretty much every Reading diary post on this blog). Despite that, the world-building in this trilogy remains very good – in many respects, it reminds me of Jemisin’s award-winning Broken Earth trilogy – and while the good guys tend to be a bit too good to be true at times, the villains of the piece are interesting. Worth a go. show less