As a Chinese girl in the South, Jo Kuan has experienced a great deal of injustices: getting fired from jobs without reason; struggling to find work; sitting in the back rows of the streetcar; and most recently, working as a…
Book Review: The Beckoning Shadow by Katharyn Blair
True to its nature of magical cage fights, Katharyn Blair’s The Beckoning Shadow doesn’t pull any punches, delivering a breathtakingly wild and tempestuous debut. In a society of Oddities and Baselines— those magically endowed and those magically devoid—Vesper Montgomery cages…
Book Review: Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Much like how her protagonist spins the dawn, Elizabeth Lim spins an equally enchanting tale in her magical debut. Aptly described as a cross between Mulan and Project Runway, Spin the Dawn marries magic and couture, with a stitch of…
Book Review: Breaking Bailey by Anonymous
A gripping addition to the Anonymous Diaries, Breaking Bailey highlights the heartrending realities of addiction and the repercussions of getting mixed up with the wrong people. After her mother’s death and her father’s hasty remarriage, Bailey is shipped off to…
Book Review: The Beholder by Anna Bright
In Anna Bright’s The Beholder, “once upon a time begins on nights like tonight,” nights of music and revelry and hopeful expectation. But for Selah, those fairy tale notions of happily ever after come crumbling down after she’s rejected by…
Book Review: We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
In her stunning debut of magic and motives, Hafsah Faizal composes a striking tale with We Hunt the Flame about carving your own path and stoking the embers of hope in a desolate realm. Masquerading as a man known only…
Book Review: Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith
Crystal Smith’s Bloodleaf is a harrowing tale of blood and sacrifice, following a princess abhorred by her people and a kingdom on the precipice of turmoil. Princess Aurelia of Renalt harbors a closely-kept secret: she’s a witch—a status that could…
