Posted in author given, book reviews, books, reading, review, short story

Tiny Navajo Reads: Add Magic to Taste

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello everyone, and a Happy New Year to you as well! I hope that this winter has been kind and restful to you thus far. I am here with another review for you today, and we’re going to see how well I can keep up my weekly streak of reviews this year. But first things first, I do want to thank Duck Prints Press for sending me a copy of this book to read and review. This doesn’t affect my thoughts or feelings of the book itself. Enjoy!

Add Magic to Taste released by Duck Prints Press

Add Magic to Taste released by Duck Prints Press

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This is a reprint of the original Duck Prints Anthology about four very specific themes: queer relationships, fluff, magic, and coffee shops. All of these sounded intriguing, which is why I requested it to read and review. And I wasn’t let down!

Overall, each story focuses on a queer protagonist, and all of these sounded intriguing ways that magic can interact now only with them but with coffee shops, bakeries, etc. I will say that each story was lovely and fluffy, not every story fully grabbed by attention. Which happens when you’re reading an anthology, but some of my favourite stories out of this whole mix are “A Tasty Crumpet” by A.L. Heard, about a young man trying to find a job that isn’t in the magic quarter of his city and not realizing that he has as he learns how to make and bake tasty treats for the unusual denizens that frequent the shop; “Bånd” by Florence Vale, about the magical proprietor of a coffee shop who accidentally casts a curse on a patron, which leads to them having to spend time together to figure out how to break it; and “Rain and Moonlight” by Lex T. Lindsay, about a two witches who run into each other again unexpectedly and learn more about each other as one bakes and one just seems to keep showing up.

I loved how cute and light each story was, even those that has a heartache hiding within its words. Even then, there wasn’t anything too heavy that the stories themselves couldn’t handle for make lighter. I also enjoyed that some of the stories got little extras with them, that expand the world of those stories just a little bit more, almost like prequels or sequels to what was going on in the original story. It helped make those worlds feel more lived in, more like there was something else going on besides the main storyline.

A very good way to get a lot of stories about diverse perspectives with some fun magic and coffee shop/bakery shenanigans to go with them. Definitely one to turn to when you need a little pick-me up after a depressing story. What do you think of stories that add a little bit of magic to some everyday things? Do they help you enjoy the story more, or do they leave you hanging?

Posted in book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Reads: A Sweet Sting of Salt

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello everyone! I hope that the end of the year has been kind to you so far, and that you’ve been able to get the rest that you need to welcome in the new year. And this will be my last post for the year, but I do plan on doing better come the new year with my reviews! But that is neither here nor there at the moment. Onto the review!

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

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This was a Tumblr recommendation, I saw a review for this book, and it intrigued me enough to check out a copy from my library and read it. And I am so so glad that I did. It’s a lovely fantastic book, and a wonderful way to end the year of books. Thank you to booklr for throwing different books my way.

We start of this book by getting to know Jean, our main character. She is a spinster midwife in Nova Scotia, and she is good at what she does. She knows it and most of her village knows it. She lives alone, away from the village for the most part, her closest neighbor being a mighty walk up a hill to overlook the ocean, but she doesn’t mind it. She likes her way of life, and she likes her job and she’ll keep it like that thank you very much. This all comes tumbling down though when a sodden woman, in the last stages of pregnancy show up on her land, trying to reach the water, either the pond or the ocean. Jean isn’t sure which and sure as heck isn’t waiting to find out as she bundles this poor woman inside to help her.

Once the baby is born, and Jean goes to grab this woman’s husband, who she does rail at for a little bit about not bringing his wife, Muirin, to Jean sooner for help with the pregnancy, she starts to see that not all may be right with the situation. And as Muirin and Jean grow closer, not only during the week that Jean insists on to make sure Muirin is alright after the pregnancy, but through the few visits Jean can manage before snows and jealousy close off even that, Jean starts to realize that there must be even more wrong that she initally thought. So, she does what she shouldn’t do, and sticks her nose in it some more.

As Jean struggles to figure out how to help Muirin and little Kiel escape, and the more she leans about Tobias and his thoughts on marriage and partnership, the worse the outcome looks for Muirin and how she came to be Tobias’s wife. And I think this is where the book really hit the ground running for me, is Jean’s background, both as a queer woman and as a midwife, and what that meant to her as she tried to help with woman who she has fallen for in a village where it is looked down upon, by a couple of people at least. But it does seem by the end of the book they are the vocal minority.

I loved learning about Jean, her thoughts, her feelings, her wariness and her want of companionship, even if it’s not fully what she wants out of life. And why she’s bottled herself up so much, even if it’s not what she wants, it’ll be what she can take in order to not draw attention to herself. With Muirin though, it’s harder to ignore and eventually she doesn’t ignore it anymore. She does what she can to help Muirin and Kiel escape, even it if means putting herself in danger from Tobias.

I love Jean as a character, and her drive to do what she can to help people, especially those she cares about. And I love that this her driving force for nearly everything, from her life as it is, to her family, to her job as a midwife. She just wants to help. I also love that she stands up for what she needs to do, and what she believes she can do. Even if it causes more trouble than she would ever wish to bring upon those she loves. What are you favourite types of characters? What draws you to them?

Posted in book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Reads: The Burial Tide

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello everyone! It is Wednesday morning, and I am back with another review for you all. This book is one that my partner bought actually and then recommended I read it first, as I was looking for a new read and was looking at horror. And boy, is this book a horror. And so so fascinating! Let’s talk about it.

The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson

The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson

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This was such a fascinating book! And according to the bookseller who recommend it to us, this is the author’s first book to be published in the US. And it’s good! The only reason why it’s a 3.5 and not a 4 or higher is because I think the horror could have been ramped up more.

So, the premise of this book starts with our main character waking up having been buried alive. And as any normal person would do, she freaks the fuck out. She kicks and claws her way out the casket and the grave to a dark and stormy night. An absolute downpour of rain and thunder greets her as she gets out. She screams, ragged and terrified. From here, we learn what’s going on as Mara does. Mara is the woman who clawed her way out. And she wants to figure out who buried her.

Throughout the book and as Mara regains her memories, we learn that there is more going on this island (obviously), and Mara seems to be at the center at it. There are mutilated and deformed monsters roaming the hills and glens, roads covered in teeth (which is just nasty), and a supposedly loving husband who welcomes Mara back. But it’s a love of an object, rather than a person.

This book pulls from Irish folklore, which makes sense as the author is Irish as well, and it makes that folklore work. For Americans who may be unfamiliar with Irish folklore and creatures, these are new monsters, new curses, new ways to show you should still be afraid of the dark. And what it means when you pull a creature of myth into reality. Once Mara finally figures out what’s really going on, on this island we see her rage build and we know that something is going to be coming from this. From the people who stole her and kept her all these years. But she has made friends this time around, a poet who is trying his luck on this island to figure out how to write, and a bartender who has a love for folklore. Mara does what she can to protect them and get them from the island when she finally decides what to do about the people and what they’ve done to her.

As stated above, everything was well done, it’s a very good book, but I do think the horror of the story could have been upped. There is so much going on, that seems to only be touched on or barely mentioned. But it was quite good, and I liked learning more about other folklores that I am not familiar with. Learning how these new monsters that are roaming hill and glen and how a familiar monster could become more monstrous was great. Just wish it had learned into that a bit more. What types of folklore do you think lends itself to horror? Have you learned about new folklore because of horror books?

Posted in audiobooks, book challenge, book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Listens: Cinder House

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello everyone, I know that I didn’t post a review last week, but it was the day before Thanksgiving. So, forgive me. I also didn’t find a book for November for my Public Library Challenge. You think it this would have been an easy month for me, but nope. Part of that was because I took part in a reading challenge on Tumblr that was fun. Anyway, onto the review for this week!

Cinder House by Freya Markse

Cinder House by Freya Markse, narrated by Anna Burnett

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This was a book I listened to during the reading challenge over on Tumblr, Novella November, and it was so good! I am so glad that I listened to this one!

This is a retelling of Cinderella, and it has such a fascinating twist. So, it starts off with the twist right away that makes this story so fun, Ella’s father dies, poisoned by his wife, and Ella falls down the stairs. She wasn’t the intended victim, but it worked out in the step-mother’s favour. But Ella comes back…she is what is considered a haunting, a ghost, her house having held on to her spirit. Ella and the house are now kind of one. And this was not in the step-mother’s plans, but she works within it. Ella’s step-family now has a live-in maid that doesn’t cost them any extra money. For years, Ella cooks and cleans, and takes care of the house to the best of her ability, both to preserve the house that now holds her and can be used to hurt her by damaging it. She also finds that she cannot leave the boundaries of the property. She is stuck.

Then one night, she finds that she is able to leave the property boundaries by taking a piece of the house with her, a roof tile in this case. She is over-joyed! She starts to explore her city once again, walking and seeing what is new and what’s changed. She also starts to correspond with a haunting expert in another country to try and figure out the rules of why she is immediately taken back home at midnight, no matter where she is.

As follows the story, the prince of her country is looking to marry and for a three day party, every eligible maiden is invited to dance and meet with the prince. Ella wants to go, desires to have some of her life back to normal, and having explored the city and found a friend in an ex-pat fairy, she makes a deal to get three nights of tangibility to dance and enjoy the party of the prince

Once there, Ella realizes that she recognizes the prince, a person who she noticed at the ballet who she wished was her friend and they could just talk about their favourite things. She ends up talking to him, getting to know him, and they start to fall for each other a little bit. On the third night, Ella prevents an assignation on the prince and this leads to her nearly disintegrating and vanishing. The spell is done, she is snapped back to her haunting, and she thinks that’s it. She won’t be able to do anything like that ever again.

Now, I won’t spoil the ending, other than it’s not something that I would have expected concerning the Cinderella story, and it worked so well! I do believe that you should read this story, better yet, listen to it, and let me know if you think the ending works for what it is. What are some of your favourite retellings? Why are they your favourite?

Posted in book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Reads: BioShock: Rapture

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello all! It’s another Wednesday, so I have another book review for you. This is the book that got me interested in a first person shooter game, which is not my favourite type of game to play. But this book pulled me in and I had to see Rapture for myself.

BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley

BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley

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Okay, okay, okay, we all read books, and we all love trawling bookstores for those books that jump out at us, for whatever reason it is. This one jumped out at me in the trade paperback section of my local Barnes and Noble. I love covers like this, and know that it was a prequel to a video game series that I have and I have always been a bit curious about BioShock. So, during October, when this book fit the vibes of this month, I picked it up and just started reading it. And it caught me. This world of Rapture sounded so fantastical that as soon as I finished the book, I need to start playing the game in order to actually see Rapture for myself.

This book jumps around a lot of different points of view throughout the creation and downfall of the underwater city of Rapture, thought of, funded, and built by one man, Andrew Ryan, a Russian immigrant that struck rich in the oil fields. And with the end of World War II and the rise of atomic weapons, Andrew Ryan cannot stand the world anymore. He plans to create a utopia where it is laissez-faire, those who are have the grit, willpower, and ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps should do so, no matter the cost to others. The survival of the fittest.

Once the city starts up and people start populating and figuring out how to save themselves, and leave others behind, we see how…flawed this type of thinking can be. But it was so fascinating to see how Andrew Ryan’s idea of a perfect city for people “like himself,” starts to fall flat; not only in his growing paranoia, but in how chaos overall starts to take over the city of Rapture. Horrific scientific human experimenting, messing with the human genome to achieve a form of superpowers that allows for the most small-minded person to take revenge for the tiniest of perceived slights. And the city itself holding back all the pressure of the ocean fathoms and fathoms below the surface.

Those of you who know of the BioShock video game franchise, know that the first two games take place in Rapture. And it’s not good. Rapture has fallen, and in the game, you don’t exactly know what happened; this book tells you know how it started and how we end up below the ocean. The description of Rapture, the people there, their mindsets, everything! made me want to start playing this game. That is how well it is written. I will say that it helps to be interested in video games to read this book specifically, but even without knowing much about BioShock, I was still able to read this book, know the story of Rapture, and want to visit Rapture myself. What tie-ins to other media do you like to read? Are they movies or video games more often?

Posted in book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Reads: Sisters of the Lost Nation

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello everyone on this autumnal November morning! I am back with another review, and this one is a spooky, scary Native American story. And it’s so good! I hope you all give this one a go if you’re needing a book that dips into Native American horror.

Sister of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

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Okay, this book had been sitting on my shelf for a while, and with the past couple of months feeling like the absolute perfect season for spooky reads, I was finally able to give this a proper read. And it did its story so well!

This story is told in two different timelines that will overlap eventually. But it’s about two sisters, very different sisters, who have to deal with growing up on their reservation (this is a fictional Native American tribe, but it pulls its stories from other nations nearby where it’s set and feels authentic), and trying to figure out their space in the world where they seem both too much and not enough for either place.

Anna, our protagonist, is working as a cleaner at her reservation’s casino, and she knows that there is more going on in the 8th floor suites than is normal. But the pay is good, and nothing seems fully untoward, so she leaves it for now. Once girls from the reservation start to go missing though, and Anna feeling like she was the last person to see a couple of them as they left the suites on the 8th floor, she starts to wonder what exactly is going on. Nothing fully gets going though until her own little sister, Grace, goes missing. And Anna knows that she was on the 8th floor, where she wasn’t supposed to be. So, Anna buckles down to try and figure out what’s going on and find her sister and bring her back home.

So, you can probably see a theme here, of the missing Native American girls, and the underhanded dark dealings of the 8th floor suites of the casino. A plague on Native American women and two-spirits, going missing or murdered, and either way, rarely seen again. Anna refuses that to be Grace’s fate though. To just become another statistic, especially if it’s someone from her own people who is setting it up, and enabling it on her tribes’ lands. For all that it scares her, not just those girls going missing, but what seems to be a haunted story that her uncle told her years and years ago that seems to plague her every step since, Anna stands up for her family. Stands up for what it means to be Native American, and not taking the issue laying down.

I really enjoyed this story, and the split timeline, of the story being told before Grace disappeared, and after Grace disappeared. And we can see that once Anna has a direction, a purpose, she overcomes not only the haunting of the story, but the demons that face her tribe, and the others tribes of North America. For all that we are the original people of this continent, when it comes to protecting and helping and saving these women and girls, our society sucks as doing so. It’s these stories that need to be told, and upheld, and society as a whole that needs to be held accountable in more ways than one, to make sure that MMIW statistic isn’t all that we are known for. What fiction stories touch on real life events have you enjoyed? Did it shed more light on the event, or just muddle it up?

Posted in audiobooks, book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Listens: Combat Monsters

Posted on by TinyNavajo

It is Friday! And I’m still playing catch-up! But I’m enjoying it, writing more reviews again. We’ll just have to see if I’m able to keep this up or if it’ll only be this week. Anyway, let’s get on to today’s review.

Combat Monsters: Untold Tales of World War II edited by Henry Herz

Combat Monsters: Untold Tales of World War II edited by Henry Herz

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Alternative universes are some of my favourite ways to interact with new ideas and new perspectives on things that have already happened. And with Combat Monsters, we get 20 stories about how supernatural beings, monsters, and everything else in between have helped both the Axis and the Allied powers.

Each story highlights a different type of supernatural, mystical, mythical monsters. And how they helped both sides, how they wreck havoc on both sides, and how they are either controlled, bartered with, or set loose on unsuspecting victims. And within each story, we see a different part of World War II to highlight the monstrosities of war, along with the monsters, human or otherwise, that perpetuate those monstrosities.

As with most anthologies, there will be some stories that stand out, there will be stories that fall flat. That is the beauty of an anthology. One of the stories that stands out in my mind still, as I think back on this audiobook, is one of a man who called upon a Cthulhu-like monster to subdue another one in the North Atlantic, and in doing so pledges faith to an unearthly god. And he is not allowed to die, to be set free, until his sins are forgiven. The whole story is told in a confessional both some years after the events of World War II, and it is so so good! And nearly every story is that good, even if not all of them actually stood out to me in that manner. What sorts of alternative realities do you like to read about? What draws your attention to them?

Posted in book reviews, books, review, short story

Tiny Navajo Reads: Volatile Memory

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello! Like I said with my Monday post, I got a bit behind with my reviews in October, so I’m trying to get a bit caught up. So, let’s see what else I read and what I thought about them!

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon

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In a set of worlds where Masks are a type of tech based on animals that can enhance and give you the traits of that animal, we meet Wylla, a young woman with an outdated mask and ship that barely runs. She is a scavenger, and it’s out in the depths of space when she hears a voice over her comms. A voice called to all scavengers to come and collect a Mask unheard of before, a Hawk. Compared to Wylla’s Rabbit, a Hawk just might be her way out, either with selling or using it.

But once she acquires the Mask, Wylla realizes that there is something wrong, different, not correct about the Mask. Masks, in general, are just AI. They do not retain memories or consciousness or identity. All they are supposed to do is heighten and enhance the person wearing them. But there is “someone” in the Mask, someone who was real and now just the Hawk as far as she can tell. But as Hawk’s memory starts to come back online and she starts to realize what really happened to her, she wants answers and there is only one person who can give them to her: her scummy ex-husband. So, off Wylla and Hawk go to find answers and possibly dismember some people along the way.

Again, this cover art got me. But the blurb got me better. I love novellas that can dive deeply into one little story so well. Seth Haddon truly brought Wylla and her world to life, and I will say that the Masks sound like a pretty cool invention. Not sure I would ever fully use one, but everyone in this world does, and it even sounds like people can have multiple types of Masks? Not sure on that, and that is where I hope we might be more short stories set in this universe.

Wylla is probably one of my favourite main characters, her story of who she is and how she came to be fits in this world so well, of people hiding behind Masks, to use them to become better versions of themselves. Or possibility different versions of themselves. And the woman in the Hawk Mask, how she starts to see the world straight from the Mask, how she interacts and interfaces with Wylla, I can feel the tension and the near-impossibility of it. So well done! What worlds in short stories actually feel complete? What about them made them feel complete?

Posted in book challenge, book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Reads: Cold Eternity

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Okay, I will admit that I am so far behind with this month…I ended up having to work several Wednesday mornings, which is my normal time to write my book reviews. I shall be trying to catch up this month, but we shall see how that goes. But! We are here for my review of my October Public Library Challenge, a spooky book for the spooky season!

Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes

Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes

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Okay, so, I did read Dead Silence first and it was amazing! I had bought that one first, and then realizing that I quite enjoy how S.A. Barnes wrote space horror, I needed to get more of her books in order to see if she could keep writing the horror to keep me hooked. And she does! The thing is I had to borrow the two other books she wrote from the library, so a bonus for this month’s challenge.

Our main character for Cold Eternity, Halley, is running. She is running as fast as possible from a political scandal that is causing waves and waves of chaos. And she doesn’t want to be caught up in the middle any more that she already is. When an opportunity to run as far away from civilization as possible, looking after what is essentially a flying graveyard, full of cyrogenically frozen people who are looking for a last ditch attempt to wait for healing.

Once on board, she finds that there are more things that’s she not been told about the ship and more information that has been hidden from her than she originally thought. But as she was brought on to just push a button every three hours, she’s starts to get curious, to ask questions, the very thing that got her into the political scandal to begin with. And with a defunct crygenic graveyard to explore and find answers, Halley finds out more than she expected, not only a haunted 3D projection of three siblings, but something that is scuttling in the walls of the ship.

I enjoyed this book so much! The idea of being stalked and hunted throughout the creepy, nearly dead ship was nuts and so good, and it definitely made me not want to read this book at night. In my opinion, if a horror book makes me not want to read at night, then it has done it’s job correctly. I will say though, that the ending is probably one of my favourite things, it works really really well for the whole set-up of the book. And the fall-out of the scandal has a fascinating wrap-up as well. What endings have felt satisfying to you? Why was it satisfying?

Posted in book reviews, books, reading, review

Tiny Navajo Reads: Dead Silence

Posted on by TinyNavajo

Hello hello, happy Wednesday to everyone! It is mid-October and it feels amazing! I love this time of year when my drink of choice actually makes some sense (hot mocha) and I can feel the earth slowing down just a little bit. We’re not here to talk about me though, we’re here to talk about today’s review. So, let’s get to it!

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

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So, I will say that the cover of this book is what first grabbed my attention in the bookstore a few weeks before I read this book, because of the beautiful colours and the use of the red and blue to draw your eye to the window and the gloved hand inside it. Once I read the back cover, I was hooked and needed to read it. I quite enjoy space horror, there is something about the emptiness of space that makes more a bit more appealing to me (I’m not sure how or why, it just does). The fact that this was basically a lost luxury cruise liner in space made it even more appealing and terrifying.

We have our merry band of web-crawlers (space techs who repair/replace pieces of the communication web for deep space communication), when they receive an ancient distress signal coming from beyond the web. And it looks to be coming from a ship that vanished without a trace over 20 years ago. A luxury cruise ship that was full of celebrities to talk up the amenities and those who could afford to pay to live like royalty for just a couple of weeks; till something went wrong the ship wasn’t heard from again. Until now.

We have Claire, team lead and soon to be demoted to desk jockey as no one wants her on their team once this crews last mission ends; the rest of her team are Voller, Nysus, Kane, and Lourdes, who all have other jobs lined up once this last stint with Claire as their lead is over. And just when it looks like things were hitting rock bottom, they hear and follow the distress signal to find the Aurora drifting and dead. Once aboard the ship, Claire and her team set about making sure they can claim the salvage rights to the ship, allowing them to come into a lot of cash to help them forge a better future. They also see that there is something more than just a malfunction that caused the Aurora to vanish. The crew and passengers all died violent gruesome deaths, and footage of a reality TV show being shot on board backs this up, showing that the crew and passengers were starting to have headaches, hallucinations, and paranoia until it all does dark.

One of the best parts of this book is that is it split into two timelines; one before Claire is rescued, and one after Claire is rescued. And throughout both, we can tell that Claire may not be the most reliable of narrators as she has past trauma and PTSD, with her own hallucinations to deal with. So, in the timeline before she is rescued, aboard the Aurora, we can see that Claire isn’t sure if what she’s seeing is because of her own issues or because of what happened to the ship itself. And that is something that makes this book so satisfying for horror, that we’re not sure what’s going on and Claire isn’t sure, and so no one can know for sure. It ups the creep factor a lot, and at one point, the description made me very very glad that our bed isn’t raised off the floor. No room for anyone to hide underneath it.

I will say that in general, horror hasn’t been my go-to for books until the last couple years. And I think I’m turning to horror more because horror makes you feel something. I loved this book so much, that I did read all of S.A. Barnes other space horror books, and will be reviewing them accordingly. I’m also now on the lookout for more space horror books in general. Not sure why having it in space makes it easier to read, but I am glad it is! What types of horror do you like to read, if you read horror? What kind of horror would you want to read?