Fiction – Page 12 – Nonfiction and Nonsense

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

On an apocalyptic Earth, all cis men either are infected, or are on their way to becoming infected, with a virus that turns them into savage, revolting, mindless creatures that are only interested in eating, hunting, and ravaging women. Full of incredibly graphic imagery, I loved how disgusting Manhunt was. I definitely whispered the word ‘gross’ or ‘ew’ several times as I read this in the office during my lunch break, along with the occasional, ‘That’s messed up’. I would almost classify this novel as not safe for work, as there are depictions of consensual sex, rape, drug use, and a great deal of violence, which is really no ones business as no one would know any of that unless they were reading over your shoulder. However, the cover itself had me wondering a few times whether or not I should keep it hidden. I loved how the cover art made use of a slang term to give you a hint of what lies within, but I also found it humorous as I enjoy watching a certain trio of British car enthusiasts and they refer to their male parts as plums.

This book was really real. By that I mean nothing was sugar coated. The way the author wrote this sounds exactly like I imagine things would probably be if something like this ever actually happened. There was a lot of brutality, even the few moments of peace that the characters had were blanketed in roughness. This novel was a considerable change to the type of material I have been reading lately, and it was riveting. Trans supportive and girl power themes are present throughout.

I really only had two issues with the story as a whole. Towards the end there is a scene where the wrong character’s name was used, the character in question wasn’t even in the same town, and that bothered me a lot, way more than it should. But I caught it immediately, I even went back and read the scene again to make sure I wasn’t crazy. I don’t know how the author or an editor didn’t catch it but Beth’s name was just thrown in there and the only people in that particular scene on the balcony were Fran, Viv, and Ramona, I’m not counting all the other women that were inside the building. This small mistake just ruined the continuity for me.

Spoiler warning, don’t read this next part if you intend to read the book. I wasn’t going to even mention this when I started writing, but I’m puzzled so now I do want to talk about it. At the very, very end there was a scene between Beth and Teach in which Teach calls her Branden, and I didn’t know what to make of it. Did Teach know Beth/Branden from some chance meeting in the past, and in that moment recognize her? Or was Beth/Branden her brother, which I thought maybe the author was trying to hint at seeing as Teach was thinking back on her trans brother shortly before this encounter. Beth says, ‘No’ when Teach calls Branden. Was this because she did not want to be called by her male name, that Teach somehow, miraculously, guessed, or just because she did not want to be called any male name seeing as she identified as a woman? Maybe I just missed the meaning of that entire part.

Nocticadia by Keri Lake

Fiction

I absolutely loved this book! I am so excited that I found a dark romance standalone that has substance to go along with the smut. It had everything that I love in a story, a mystery that takes time to unravel, a fair bit of gore, science, and a little bit of drama.

Our main lady, Lilia Vespertine, is an intelligent girl who dreams of being a doctor as she takes one or two classes a semester at a community college while she works full time and then some. Miserable, constantly exhausted, and always worried about money, Lilia thinks it will take her a decade or more before she can reach her dreams, if they are even possible at all. After a professor is very impressed over a paper she wrote, Lilia is given the opportunity to have her dreams come true, with a full scholarship for a semester at a prestigious university. She does the smart thing and leaves her very unfulfilling life behind.

The way the author describes the campus makes me wish it was real and that I was even a little bit qualified to go there. Old, gothic buildings converted into lecture halls, classrooms, and dorms, with the addition of modern structures and modern amenities, on an isolated island that also has a beautiful town. Lilia is one of the few students that is not privileged, making her feel like an imposter as she walks around campus in her second hand clothes and borrowed laptop, surrounded by young people in designer fashions that drink eight dollar coffees. She finds it hard to make friends, never really having had time for them in the past four years, but there is one person that it seems she would make all the time in the world for. That person just happens to be one of her professors, Devryck Bramwell.

He is such an immovable, cold, intelligent character, I was instantly into him. He was pretty much my ideal fictional guy, super smart, driven, with strict self imposed rules that he eventually breaks. He is not nice, and he often speaks cruelly, but when he finds something that he is passionate about he would do anything to protect it, or in this case, her.

If you love a dark tale, with scandal and danger, and dirty, passionate scenes, you will really enjoy this book. I see myself reading this again in the very near future. I almost wish it wasn’t a standalone, I would love to see more of the characters, but the author has said she would not be writing any additional books about Lilia and Devryck. I kind of hope that she changes her mind.

The Dragon Lord’s Daughters by Bertrice Small

Fiction

I finished one series about dragons, only to start a collection of novellas about the three daughters of a man known as the Dragon Lord. I went to my spreadsheet of books for this one, as I was looking for an easy to read standalone novel that I could use to wind down at the end of the day. Bertrice Small always gives me exactly what I need.

This book is split into three parts, one tale for each of the three daughters of Merin Pendragon, a descendant of King Arthur. Averil, his eldest, was born of his greatest love, his concubine Gorawen. Although she is not legitimate, Averil is beautiful and loved by her father, so unlike most girls born out of wedlock, she can expect to make a good marriage. Before her parents can even consider who would make her a good husband, she finds herself kidnapped.

Merin’s second daughter, Maia, is his only legitimate one, as she is the daughter of his wife, Argel. Being beautiful, legitimate, and also very much loved, her chances of making an excellent marriage are even greater than that of her elder sister. She does indeed find herself a wonderful and very acceptable suitor, but she must prove she is worthy of him.

Junia, the youngest, is the daughter of Merin’s other concubine, Ysbail. She possesses great beauty like her sisters and the love of her father. However, unlike her sisters, Junia’s first love ends in tragedy and she swears she will never love again. And after what happened, I do not blame her.

I don’t want to say anything negative about this book, because it served the exact purpose I was looking for, but I have some thoughts. It was easy to read, it was straightforward. There wasn’t an overly complicated plot, I didn’t have to take notes or go back and reread something to understand what was going on. These are things I wanted, and I honestly really enjoyed the first two parts. But the third part, Junia’s tale, just did not fit. The level of violence and cruelty in her tale was misplaced, it really threw me off. Averil and Maia face challenges, but Junia faces pain, terror, and loss, in more ways than one. Her tale is what makes me not really want to consider it a book I would read again in the future. At least I have dozens of other Bertrice Small novels I can turn to.

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Fiction

It’s really nice to be able to read a sequel immediately after finishing its predecessor, especially for a series that you just started but one that others have been waiting months to get their hands on. It ends on a bittersweet note for me, however, as there will be another book following this one that I will have to wait a long time for. And the cliffhanger for Iron Flame was one that had me much more anxious to get to the next part of the story than the surprise I read at the end of Fourth Wing. Read no further unless you don’t mind spoilers.

I was glad that the story picked up right where it left off, with us learning how Brennan faked his death and joined the rebels. After I got over that unexpected twist, I was wondering how the rest of the story was going to go. It didn’t seem like going back to Basgiath was an option after what happened during the War Games. Violet and her squad were led into a trap by Colonel Aetos, a trap in which he expected all of them to die. After recovering for several days in rebel territory I couldn’t see how they would explain where they had been and why they had been gone for so long. Xaden and some of the other rebels came up with a plan, and it was actually pretty clever. It’s a good thing that the battle tactics were well written and made sense, because the ongoing fight between Xaden and Violet hardly does.

Here is where I go on a rant, I apologize in advance but I just need to say my piece. It’s understandable that Violet is mad at Xaden for keeping a few secrets, particularly the ones regarding their relationship, but she can’t expect him to tell her everything when he is protecting so many people with the very secrets she insists he reveal. She then chose to act the hypocrite when she started keeping secrets of her own, ones that she chose to not reveal to Xaden out of both secrecy and spite. She insisted on complete honesty between the two of them in order for her to consider removing the romantic hold she placed on their relationship, yet she herself becomes dishonest towards him. And the dialogue between the two of them gets increasingly frustrating the longer the fight drags on, to the point that I didn’t even care that it put their relationship on hold, I just wanted it to make a bit of sense. I’m pretty sure that at one point Violet herself questioned what they were fighting about, and if that’s not saying something about the irrationality of it all I can’t think of anything else that could make it clearer. They do stop fighting at some point and the plot gets going.

The last eight pages were where a bomb got dropped on us. A lot of stuff happened suddenly and all at once. Even though this series has been heavy on the death, killing established characters maliciously, I was still holding out for the good guys to overcome. I don’t know if that is going to happen now. There is going to have to be another huge twist or some kind of revelation in the next book for a certain character to survive what happened to them during the battle between riders and venin. I am kind of predicting an unhappy ending.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Fiction

This book really helped with the Crescent City hangover I was going through. I can’t believe I held out for so long when it came to this series as it was honestly becoming a hassle trying to avoid spoilers online. But it fit in with this month’s theme, fantasy, and now I can peruse the internet without fear or anxiety of having the plot ruined! I say that because I immediately started on the sequel hours after finishing Fourth Wing, because it ends on a really heartwarming cliffhanger and I had to know what happened. But you will have to wait until Thursday next week for that review, I am not that quick when it comes to writing my thoughts down.

Fourth Wing takes place in a fantasy world of two kingdoms in which dragons and gryphons exist, along with magic. The territories of Navarre and Poromiel have been at war for four hundred years and it seems like there will never be an end to it. Even the trade agreement put into place two hundred years ago, in which goods are exchanged four times a year, doesn’t stop the two kingdoms from constantly fighting with each other. We follow our main character, Violet, a girl born with a weak body due to an illness her mother had while she was pregnant. She had been training her entire life to work in the library as a scribe due to her physical limitations, but after the death of her scribe father, her General mother forces her to join the riders quadrant to become a warrior. Either the General has a lot of pride or she just doesn’t even like her daughter at all, because she has to know that Violet’s chances of surviving the brutal training that comes with being a cadet of the riders quadrant are slim.

That’s the plot without giving too much away. Still, I do want to talk about some of the characters. Dain, Violet’s friend since childhood, seems nice at first in his desire to keep her alive and safe, but he soon starts to rub me the wrong way with his hovering, overprotectiveness, and lack of faith in her. He constantly tells her what she isn’t and what she cannot do, and I know I would have lost my patience with him long before she did. Contrary to Dain, Mira, Violet’s older sister, goes about trying to protect her in the correct way, by giving her as many tips as she can in the short period of time she has with her before she enters the quadrant. Mira knows that Violet was better suited to be a scribe, not just because of her physical limitations, but because of her brilliant mind. This doesn’t stop her from being the good kind of protective, by providing Violet with an armored corset that she tells her to wear at all times, and a book from their older brother, which they are not supposed to have but is full of valuable information for survival. There are a lot of other characters in the book, but I warn you, try get too attached to anyone, as there is a lot of death.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about my favorite theme that is an essential part of the story, and that is sexuality. Because the riders quadrant is the most dangerous, a place where you can literally die any day, the cadets live as though every day could be their last. That translates to a lot of sex. Violet, being weak, has to be on guard at all times, so she refrains from getting physical with anyone because being killed before, during, or after sex is a possibility. This leaves her feeling lonely and frustrated, and sometimes the butt of jokes with her few friends. Finding someone to trust enough to have a physical relationship also poses a problem for Violet, as relationships are discouraged. The training in the riders quadrant is so rigorous, and the competition between cadets is so great, that death from training or assassination is something that occurs nearly every day. No one wants to date someone only to see them die during a training exercise or watch them get stabbed by a fellow cadet, so everyone tries to leave emotions out of their physical encounters and this leaves Violet without any options. Besides all that drama, I do love the representation of heterosexual and homosexual characters.

I am excited to see where this story goes. I imagine that there will be one or two additional books in the future. And as long as the second book is as good as the first I think this is a series I will anticipate in seeing the conclusion of the tale.