August Reading Round-Up

Can't believe it's nearly 2021! And here I am backtracking all the way to August... but in August I did a lot of reading 😊 I finished three whole actual books, and bookmarked a whole bunch of great stuff I found online!

First, the books...

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed

Cosmic horror, dark magics, secret organisations, a race across the world through ancient historic sites, and a very human relationship at the centre of it all. Two best friends, one a rich child prodigy whose inventions have changed the world, and one with none of those advantages, are thrown into a fight for their lives, where Nick quickly starts to suspect that his genius friend Johnny knows more than she is telling him. I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel; the characters are interesting, their relationship and reactions are believable, and carry emotional weight, and the alternate history worldbuilding (it's set in ~2001/2002) and cosmic horror aspects are well done. I would recommend picking it up if that sounds at all like your sort of thing. I will also be looking forward to the sequel, A Broken Darkness, which is due out in March 2021!

The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin

This is the third book in The Broken Earth trilogy, but I am going to talk about the whole series here, as I read the first two before I started blogging about what I was reading, so this also includes The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate. I loved these books. The worldbuilding is amazing, and the concept is really unique. It's hard to say too much about the plot without risking spoilers for anyone who hasn't read it, but the books are set in the Stillness, the single great continent in this world, which is blighted by cataclysmic geological events known as Fifth Seasons. Orogenes, who can sense and sometimes control seismic activity, are both used for their skills and viciously discriminated against. Through the multiple woven narratives, the main characters' stories - their past and present - are gradually revealed until finally we (and they) can see the whole truth. The stakes and threats are at a planetary level, and yet also drill right down to the intimately personal as this final book reaches its heart-wrenching climax (I cried!). If you haven't read these yet, you should.

Folk by Zoe Gilbert

This gorgeous book is billed as a novel, but reads more like a collection of connected short stories spanning a generation or so of the residents of the fictional island of Neverness. Every story is chock full of myth and folklore, and often danger - the potential for tragedy is threaded through the book, and you can see the impact of certain acts passed down through the generations. In some of the stories the magic is very present, others are more about what the people believe and what that does to them (or to others), and some sit in that dream-space where you're not quite sure whether the magic is real or not. All of them are utterly compelling. This is probably my favourite thing I've read all year, and, as a writer, a book that is exactly the sort of thing I would love to be able to write myself! (Zoe Gilbert also runs courses on using folklore in fiction with London Lit Lab - I have taken two of them this year, and am signed up for a third, so you can take that as a recommendation!) 

And as ever, here are all the lovely bite-sized wonders I wanted to save and share:

Cosmic Micros 2020 by Neil Clark (Fractured Lit) - A series of gorgeous tiny moments and images, threaded through with stars. The language in these is beautiful.

It Finally Happened by Jad Josey (Atlas & Alice) - Another micro, sad and lovely, and packed so full of emotion and stunning imagery in one single paragraph.

Lightning Strikes by Emily Livingstone (X-R-A-Y) - A beautifully written piece of creative non-fiction (CNF) about family, and coping with illness, and hope.

To Ever Love One Girl by Melissa Llanes Brownlee (Milk Candy Review) - The voice in this is incredible; I could hear it so clearly as I was reading it. It says so much in so few words too - really powerful.

We Could Grab A Beer Somewhere? by Rosie Parry (Ellipsis Zine) - This cleverly drops you in the middle of a story and lets you work out the history as the encounter plays out, and then takes you somewhere unexpected at the end.

In The Hawthorns by Conor Kenny (Reflex Fiction) - A lovely little folkloric piece with a hint of something dark at its heart. Exactly the sort of thing I love.

Stones My Mother Carved from the Mountain by Noa Covo (Okay Donkey) - There are some lines and images in this that just captivated me. Absolutely amazing writing, made even more impressive when you realise the writer is still a teenager.

Think Twice, Stranger by Xavier Combe (Reflex Fiction) - Beautifully written, and at the same time slightly unsettling, hinting at the power and danger in nature.

In the Dark by Kristen Loesch (Reflex Press) - Great worldbuilding and characterisation here in a relatively short flash with an interesting structure.

The Ghost in This Story by Cathy Ulrich (trampset) - Astonishing flash CNF, with so many layers to it that it deserves reading and re-reading.

Through Rose-Coloured Glasses by Chelsea Stickle (The /tems/ review) - A hermit crab flash in the form of a flow chart, about a dangerous relationship and how easily the choices you make can go bad. 

Field study in wildness eradication by Marcia Hindson (Atrium Poetry) - A wonderful poem, full of wildness, and with a weird fairy-tale-ish vibe.

Phew! Hope you've enjoyed those as much as I've enjoyed revisiting them! It was a bumper month, with some really rather good words in it 📚💜