Feb 20 2022
Jazzmen dropping dead in circumstances that are unusual even by their standards. Incontrovertible, if circumstantial, evidence of a real-life vagina dentata. These two sets of mysteries set the stage for the events of Moon Over Soho, events that will show readers more about Constable Peter Grant, much more about his mentor in magical policing Detective …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/02/20/moon-over-soho-by-ben-aaronovitch-2/
Dec 28 2021
A delightful paranormal romance that balances a sweet and steamy romance with small-town magical shenanigans. Vivienne Jones is nineteen years old when she meets Rhys Penhallow one magical summer in her small hometown of Graves Glen, Georgia. He’s here to take summer classes at the university close by, and the two embark on a whirlwind …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/28/the-ex-hex-by-erin-sterling/
Dec 27 2021
It’s become a tradition of recent years for me to use the Christmas holiday to read another Bad Machinery book, to just sit finally and take the time to put my feet up and enjoy these books that perfectly distil everything I like about reading. Mystery: check. Humor: check. Empathy: check. A hint or more …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/27/the-case-of-the-unwelcome-visitor-bad-machinery-6-by-john-allison/
Dec 22 2021
There are some interesting set pieces and arresting imagery in this modern-day tale of witches on a remote southern island, tied by bonds of blood and love. You definitely get the idea that some of these scenes sprang into Paige Crutcher’s head fully formed, so viscerally and lovingly are they depicted. Alas, that’s about all …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/22/the-orphan-witch-by-paige-crutcher/
Dec 03 2021
Y’all, I did not expect this book to make me cry but it sure did. Ash Tan is a young Singaporean girl stressed out from having the National Exams looming over next year’s horizon, particularly since she isn’t very good at math. When she gets her latest bad grade, her mom takes away her handphone …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/03/amazing-ash-superhero-ah-ma-by-melanie-lee-and-arif-rafhan/
Nov 10 2021
What if (the original, tho in fairness, I haven’t yet watched the remake of) The Craft wasn’t about witches but was about wicked fairies instead? That’s the basic premise of Nightmare In Savannah, which opens with Alexa Bowman moving from Chicago to live with her grandfather in Savannah, Georgia. She’s not super looking forward to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/11/10/nightmare-in-savannah-by-lela-gwenn-rowan-maccoll-micah-myers/
Sep 07 2021
It’s weird how Silvia Moreno-Garcia is so hit or miss for me. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t start with the books which made her famous, and which I still really want to read. Instead, I’ve hopped around her timeline somewhat, based on what was available to me, and can safely say that her newer works …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/09/07/certain-dark-things-by-silvia-moreno-garcia/
Jul 25 2021
I loved “The City Born Great,” the 2016 short story (and 2017 Hugo finalist) that was the seed of this novel. “The conceit of the story is that great human cities have a life of their own. Maybe that life awakens quickly, maybe it takes centuries or millennia, but at some point the genius loci …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/07/25/the-city-we-became-by-n-k-jemisin/
May 28 2021
I’d never read any books from either of these bestselling authors before I picked up Spells Trouble, but I really love the idea of a mother-daughter duo writing urban fantasies featuring teenage twin sisters who are witches descended from those persecuted at the infamous Salem witch trials. Hunter and Mercy Goode are on the cusp …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/05/28/spells-trouble-sisters-of-salem-1-by-p-c-cast-kristin-cast/
May 24 2021
How to make the now well-worn trope of vampires and monster hunters feel fresh and new again? Set the proceedings in historic Prague, with a firm eye on local history and mythology free of the influence of the too-standard figures of modern, Western-European-leaning pop culture, while also infusing a 21st-century sensibility to the proceedings. We …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/05/24/the-lights-of-prague-by-nicole-jarvis/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire