Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s Woman of Light (One World, Penguin Random House 2022) was a highly anticipated read and yet another example of where my expectations for a book are unrealized. One could argue that it was over-hyped and that’s why it fell short, but I’d argue that its failings are due to not providing enough fleshContinue reading “WOMAN OF LIGHT – Kali Fajardo-Anstine”
Author Archives: Tommi Powell
AKATA WITCH – Nnedi Okorafor
I’m steadily reading my way through my TBR cart. (Though it would appear I am adding more than removing. My cart needs its own cart!) I picked up Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch (Viking 2011) because I wanted a bit of middle grade fantasy. Akata Witch is the first in The Nsibidi Scripts series. Akata WarriorContinue reading “AKATA WITCH – Nnedi Okorafor”
TAKE MY HAND – Dolen Perkins-Valdez
In 1973 Montgomery, Alabama, Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf, sisters both under the age of fifteen, were sterilized without their consent. The procedure was ordered and performed by a federally funded agency. Their social worker reported it to a local attorney, who filed a lawsuit. Relf v. Weinberger brought to light the thousands ofContinue reading “TAKE MY HAND – Dolen Perkins-Valdez”
THE CHERRY ROBBERS – Sarai Walker
Sarai Walker’s The Cherry Robbers (Harper 2022) is a slow burn of a classic Gothic ghost story that just misses the mark. I wanted to love it, and there are some fantastically crafted sections, but the overall feeling I was left with was “meh.” That is due in large part to the lackluster and unsatisfactoryContinue reading “THE CHERRY ROBBERS – Sarai Walker”
AN ISLAND – Karen Jennings
A little more than a month before the Booker Prize 2022 longlist is announced, I finished the 2021 longlist. As several of the selections weren’t published in the States until this year, it took some time, but I did it. I ended with Karen Jennings’s An Island (Holland House Books 2020, Hogarth in the USContinue reading “AN ISLAND – Karen Jennings”
DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS – Sue Lynn Tan
Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess (HARPER Voyager 2022), with its gorgeous cover and intriguing premise, was a book I wanted to love more than I actually did. It’s far more juvenile and tropey than I expected, and I had issues with the pacing, world building, and character development. Xingyin is poorly developedContinue reading “DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS – Sue Lynn Tan”
UNLIKELY ANIMALS – Annie Hartnett
“You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince Annie Hartnett’s Unlikely Animals (Ballantine Books, 2022) is a tenderly crafted work full of heart and quirkiness. We’re only in June, but I’m close to ready to call it as my favorite for 2022; it’s near perfect. The novel, set inContinue reading “UNLIKELY ANIMALS – Annie Hartnett”
THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR – Sandra Newman
Sandra Newman’s The Country of Ice Cream Star (Chatto & Windus, 2014; HarperCollins, 2015) has been on my TBR for years, and I finally picked it up. This post-apocalyptic novel is about a destroyed America, set 80 some years after a “killing fever” called WAKS decimated the country. The white people died or fled toContinue reading “THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR – Sandra Newman”
WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW – Kai Harris
“Her smile is like a gigantic, dripping ice cream cone, after I stuff my belly full with dinner. Even with a stomachache, I want that smile.” (7) Kai Harris’s debut novel What the Fireflies Knew (Tiny Reparations Books) is a classic Bildungsroman, with a loss, journey, conflict, and growth. What makes this novel unique isContinue reading “WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW – Kai Harris”
SIREN QUEEN – Nghi Vo
“We were stories that should never have met, or stories that only existed because we met. I still don’t know.” (108) Interior Chinatown meets Big Fish in this gay, fantastical nearly-noir of 1930s Hollywood, and I can’t find the words. Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen (TorDotCom 2022) is grotesquely gorgeous and unlike anything I’ve ever read. Continue reading “SIREN QUEEN – Nghi Vo”
A Girl Named Tommi 