Tag: aurora rising

Posted in Sunday Songs

Sunday Songs: 8/9/26

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.

This week: A Beatles cover that David Bowie faltered on, but somebody else succeeded in. Plus, weird movies with weird scores, and mediocre movies with great needle drops.

Enjoy this week’s songs!

SUNDAY SONGS: 8/4/26

“All We Ever Look For” – Kate Bush

Kate Bush has her share of iconic album covers, but I swear Never for Ever has to take the cake for my favorite one. Can we acknowledge just how fantastic Nick Price’s album art is? Aside from capturing Kate Bush’s spirit and musical style, it’s just so kooky—how could you not love the parade of spooky storybook creatures coming out of Kate Bush’s skirt? It’s uniquely suited to most of the tracks I’ve heard from the album, but “All We Ever Look For” is an especially good fit. All of the flutes, koto, and quaint synth bubblings feel like they should be the backdrop for an elaborate story with stylized, woodcut characters rotating on a wheel, like a Rousseau painting that never came to be. The wheel is key here, not just because “All We Ever Look For” is neatly cyclical musically: the lyrics are as well: Bush explained in 1980 that “It’s about family relationships generally. Our parents got beaten physically. We get beaten psychologically. The last line – ‘All we ever look for – but we never did score.’” Aided by the almost medieval stylings of the instrumentals, the track plods along like a dirge, but what it’s mourning is the continuing cycles of generational trauma: “The whims that we’re weeping for/Our parents would be beaten for/Leave the breast/And then the rest/And then regret you ever left.” In a way, it remains a dirge—a kind of funeral for all of the generations who fell victim to these cycles.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Wearing the Lion – John Wiswell – “All we ever look for, a god/All we ever look for, ooh, a drug/All we ever look for, a great big hug/All we ever look for, just a little bit of you…”

“Everytime I’m With You” (feat. Jason Lytle) – Sparklehorse & Danger Mouse

Dark Night of the Soul was Sparklehorse’s final project before his too-soon passing, and it was an ambitious one: a collaboration with producer Danger Mouse, with a guest list consisting of the usual suspects (Nina Persson, Jason Lytle, Vic Chestnutt) and the more unexpected (Gruff Rhys, David Lynch). I haven’t listened to the whole album, but Mark Linkous and Danger Mouse’s powers combined make something so cohesive, that you’d think only a singular mind was behind it. “Everytime I’m With You” creeps along with a proto-C418 instrumental (tell me that this doesn’t sound a little like “Chirp”), where Mark Linkous and Jason Lytle’s vocals meld in a slurring warble, musing about how “everytime that I’m with you/I am drunk, and so are you.” It’s a woozy track that almost feels drunk itself, like the subjects have infected the very structure of the song itself with their own intoxication. It bridges the gap between something brighter than Sparklehorse’s usual palette, and something gentler than Danger Mouse’s usual fare.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words – Eddie Robson – “Yeah, everytime you come by/We get so trashed and stay up all night/Well, it’s so wrong, but it’s so right/Yeah, it’s alright…”

“Silver Lining” – Rilo Kiley

I’ve already aired out my many problems with Supergirl, but if it has one redeeming factor, it’s that it had a fantastic soundtrack. Then again, most of Rilo Kiley’s discography is made of songs that feel reverse-engineered for coming-of-age movies—and I’ve never gotten tired of it. It really doesn’t feel like a one trick pony situation, because they’ve clearly got the capability for breathless, adventurous indie pop (“Portions for Foxes”) and some truly devastating yet affirming wallops to the face (“A Better Son/Daughter”). It’s no wonder that “Silver Lining” was the pick for Supergirl; although the movie never followed through on this arc, it’s a stomping, indie-pop ode to dusting yourself off and regaining your self worth. Like Jenny Lewis leaving her fictional groom at the altar in the music video, this track celebrates, in all of its complicated, mushy feelings of guilt and freedom, of refusing to be treated as ornamental: “I never felt so wicked/As when I willed our love to die/And I was your silver lining/As the story goes/I was your silver lining/But now, I’m gold.”

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Something More – Jackie Khalilieh – “And I was your silver lining/As the story goes/I was your silver lining/But now, I’m gold.”

“Korben Dallas” (from The Fifth Element) – Éric Serra

The Fifth Element was back in theaters recently, so I had to do rewatch #3 on the big screen. Every time I watch it, I forget the sheer amount of bizarre things that had to align for this movie to have happened. It’d be easy to see this and lament the sameness that’s overcome pop culture, but I maintain that weirdness will always find a way to slip through the cracks. This, however, is on a level of originality—and absurdity—that just can’t be replicated. The supreme being of the universe teaches Bruce Willis about consent, and he still doesn’t quite get it. Gary Oldman with a horrendously funny haircut and a soul patch. Tricky gets two minutes of screen time and then gets blown up. Incompetent space priests. Top-tier creature design for 10 minutes. A climax synced up with a blue alien singing opera. It’s so unafraid of being weird, and for that, The Fifth Element will forever be aspirational for me as a creator. I just get jumpstarted with inspiration with every rewatch, once I get over the bafflement that Leeloo’s godawful Band-aid outfit got past that many layers of studio scrutiny. (War crime, I tell you.)

Most of the soundtrack for The Fifth Element gets overshadowed by said opera piece, and rightfully so, to an extent. But the pockets of brilliance like this in the score deserve so much more love. The “anything goes” attitude of The Fifth Element translated to Eric Serra’s score; you go into this film weaned on a few pieces that are very much indebted to John Williams’s Star Wars scores, only to be knocked senseless by this slick, grungy trip-hop track with some of the funkiest basslines ever committed to a sci-fi film. It has everything. Percussion that sounds like one of 23rd-century New York’s elevators malfunctioning, weird little electronic warbles, and a loop of a cat’s meow to coincide with the first glimpses of Korben Dallas’s cat. And did I mention the bass? Oh my god. It sets the scene with the immediacy of somebody kicking your door down in combat boots. All that, and it instantly gives you a sense of Dallas as a character (all sorts of disparate elements held together by…Bruce Willis, of course) and the aesthetic language—both visual and oral—of Luc Besson’s world. All that for a song that’s not even two minutes long. SUPER GREEN!

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1) – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – look, I know I used this last week, but Amie Kaufman has cited The Fifth Element as one of her favorite movies of all time, and has said that it was a major inspiration for this series. See? All the cool people like The Fifth Element.

“Across the Universe” (The Beatles cover) – Fiona Apple

I’ll never stop being a die-hard Bowie fan, but I’m mature enough to acknowledge when he misses. David Bowie covering one of The Beatles’s most moving and iconic songs—what could possibly go wrong? A lot of things, unfortunately. The vibes are just off. His cover of “Across the Universe” appeared on Young Americans, and even though John Lennon contributed guitars to this cover, I think it’s just an awkward pairing, with Bowie stretching his voice out too much and the worst of the plastic soul of Young Americans grating against the transcendental beauty of the original. Oof.

Fiona Apple, on the other hand, knocked it out of the park. Nothing can top The Beatles’s original version, but I think she captured what a lot of covers have failed to do. I’ve always taken the song to be about transience, but the persistence of love regardless; all of the overpowering sensations are threatening to overtake Lennon (“Pools of sorrow/Waves of joy/Are drifting through my open mind/Possessing and caressing me”), and yet he remains firm that “nothing’s gonna change my world”—he can still anchor himself to what matters, which seems to be that sense of “limitless, undying love.” (Of course, he wrote it after an argument with his ex-wife, which doesn’t paint the sunniest outlook on the song, but I think the meaning breaks through like sunlight regardless. It’s just an arresting song.) But I think what Apple understood about this song is how weightless it fundamentally is. Against Lennon’s poetry, where all manner of objects drift free of gravity or any earthly constraint, Apple’s voice—and the gentle yet cinematic instrumentation—make it feel as free-floating as the original. Like Lennon, her voice is quietly reverent of witnessing these wonders every single day, her pronunciations making the word “sorrow” into something that I mistook for “sound”—that’s how soft she makes things. Like the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed music video, which finds Apple oblivious to a diner getting robbed and ransacked, it has that core of tearfully transcendent emotion while still feeling wholly untethered from this earthly plane.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Mad Sisters of Esi – Tashan Mehta – “Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes/They call me on and on across the universe…”

Since this post consists entirely of songs, consider all of them to be today’s song.

That’s it for this week’s Sunday Songs! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Sunday Songs

Sunday Songs: 8/2/26

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

This week: bear with me, this color scheme is hanging on for dear life. Also, the many connotations (positive and negative) of “they were really just doing whatever in the ’80s.”

Enjoy this week’s songs!

SUNDAY SONGS: 8/2/26

“Wherever I Lay My Phone (That’s My Home)” – Super Furry Animals

I love when album covers have absolute Creatures on them. Super Furry Animals lived up to their name in that regard—we’ve got the raccoon critter and its evil twin on Radiator, whatever’s going on with Phantom Power, and perhaps the most Creature of all their Creatures: the one-eyed, many-legged missing link in Minion evolution on the Guerrilla album cover. I love that dude.

In their heyday, it seems like Super Furry Animals were willing to do whatever. For me, that’s why they’re so iconic—they refused to be predictable, even if they weren’t setting out to be experimental, as was the case with Guerrilla, according to Gruff Rhys. This is the only track I’ve heard off of Guerrilla, but it’s apparently just one of the many, many detours they were willing to take on the album. “Wherever I Lay My Phone (That’s My Home)” is full of false starts and twists, all made to make you jump—it’s one of the band’s many flirtations with dance music, and it’s littered with jittering beat drops aplenty. They crammed all manner of sounds into this track (one of them being a sample of an early ringtone), from foghorn like blares at the beginning to bass that can only be described as blorping (hear me out here), and all kinds of autotune, distortion, and sped-up chipmunk voices. The beauty of Super Furry Animals is that it all works together; with the electronic connective tissue, none of the seemingly random sound effects and touches feel random. Apparently, while touring for Guerrilla, this song was used as the opener to their shows—understandably, because I’d go fucking nuts if I heard this right out of the gate.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1) – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – this song could 100% be playing during the ballroom scene on the Sempiternity, right? Or maybe the bar fight right before.

“Seen and Not Seen” – Talking Heads

Pitchfork’s review of Remain in Light contains this goldmine of a line: “At nearly every turn, Remain in Light thwarts cognitive sense to appeal to the gut. Or maybe the limbic system? I’m not a doctor—whatever part of human physiology is responsible for getting funky.” I don’t think there’s ever been an album so dissociative and alienated that’s simultaneously so funky. That’s probably the best distillation of Talking Heads—and most of David Byrne’s career, honestly—I can think of. To be honest, it wasn’t the showstopping marvel that everybody makes it out to be, but it was great regardless. I’d listened to “Crosseyed & Painless” and “Once in a Lifetime” so much that the best was already ruined for me. The second half meanders slightly, but it’s such a unique, influential, and unreplicatable blend of isolation and togetherness.

I’ve never really been one for spoken-word tracks, but I’ve warmed up to them lately, in no small part thanks to Jeff Tweedy’s “Parking Lot,” which is probably the pinnacle of them. (The quiet vulnerability of “I’d like to teach the world to sing…fuck, anything” is a high point of the album.) “Seen and Not Seen” is entirely out-of-body, with David Byrne’s voice devoid of almost any emotion. He describes a man with a desire to change his appearance who has tricked himself into thinking that he can “by force of will, cause his face to approach those of his ideal” after focusing on models in magazines and passersby on the street. He’s burrowed so far into his own head that he’s convinced that everyone around him has been able to replicate the process; every face he sees is the product of relentless wishing. It’s interesting that the facial features that the protagonist wants—”a more hooked nose, wider, thinner lips, beady eyes, a larger forehead”—aren’t traditionally desirable facial features, at least in the eyes of pop culture and Western beauty standards. It’s simply the image the character has in mind. “Seen and Not Seen” has the dread of a sci-fi short story from the ’70s, something that Philip K. Dick could’ve conceived, sans drugs and casual misogyny. There’s a distinct discomfort about how removed it is, but it’s a key piece of Remain in Light’s distanced story.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Queen of Faces – Petra Lord – I’m reminded a lot of the Chassises in this novel: magical, synthetic bodies and faces that can be swapped and altered at will, guaranteed that you’re rich enough.

“Your Touch” – Saâda Bonaire

The creation of Saâda Bonaire might be the epitome of the statement “they were just doing whatever in the ’80s.” It was the brainchild of German DJ Ralph Von Richtoven, who formed a loose supergroup that consisted of two models-turned-singers (Stefanie Lange and Claudia Hossfeld) and a bunch of musicians (namely Kurdish and Turkish) who had been found in an immigration center. (There was also the fact that Lange and Hossfeld would be dressed in traditional Bedouin clothing, which…hoo, boy. Yikes.) It was an early exploration of “world music,” which would later become a cornerstone of the ’80s. Richtoven’s ambition was in vain, and the project lay unfunded and unreleased until 2013. Incidentally, I heard about it through my brother, who heard it playing at some random coffee shop, which sounds like the exact kind of obscure music that only a barista could unearth. The result sounds like an alien trying to recreate ’80s disco-pop from memory. “Your Touch” adheres so strictly to what ’80s pop was, and yet it retains that left-of-center skew that makes it tread into lovable weirdo territory. Spacey synths bounce, tapes rewind, and telephones ring as Lange and Hossfeld coo about frustration (sexual and just generally situational). “Your Touch” speaks to the kind of creative freedom that was running rampant in the era; of course, it wasn’t without its cultural and financial boundaries crossed (again, probably for the best that it didn’t go forward with the cultural appropriation), but in spite of its failure at the time, it was the product of somebody with creativity to spare, and that’s the strange beauty of it.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Love Galaxy – Sierra Branham – between the reality TV, sexuality, and espionage, there’s plenty of this energy going on here…in space, of course.

“Ghost in Sunlight” – Robyn Hitchcock

The Confuser! Even though I’ve been steadily following the singles on Robyn Hitchcock’s latest album, I haven’t gotten around to talking about them much here, which is a real shame. (“Yesterday’s Rain” and “My Dead Astronaut” are some of my other standouts.) Overall, it’s another showcase of his brand of quirky, jangly psych-pop, defiantly himself after decades in the industry. Having seen a few of these songs live, the studio versions of a handful of songs weren’t as potent, but fantastic nonetheless (see: “I Am This Thing”). “Ghost in Sunlight” was one of such songs. The experience of seeing it live was nothing short of enrapturing—and downright raw. Hitchcock played it solo on piano. I feel like should’ve stayed as such, because the sheer force of his craft bowled me over. He just delivered one of the most gut-wrenching lines in his catalogue (“They tore up the tracks this morning/The tracks they laid the day that you were born”) and followed it up with a raspy, powerful belt; imagine, if you will, a sprightly British man in his ’70s banging away at the piano, screaming his throat raw, then pausing to yell “FUCK ICE!” and going right back to the screaming. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is doing it quite like him.

In his defense, that spur-of-the-moment vulnerability is hard to replicate. The more polished version of “Ghost in Sunlight” that appears on The Confuser doesn’t quite capture that same feeling of wounded primality. Yet Hitchcock’s lyricism, even with his oddball lyricism, retains the core that made the live performance so memorable. That central metaphor of “a ghost in sunlight” evokes such an ephemeral image, of something already transparent on the brink of disappearance altogether. It’s all about the painful parts of transience, of old institutions and memories crumbling with time: “You disappear/Like a ghost in sunlight/Your outline fades away.” I imagine it’s more raw for Hitchcock, seeing as he’s in his 70s, watching bygone eras fade away. “They tore up the tracks this morning/The tracks they laid the day that you were born/Look at them, they’re gone” is one of Hitchcock’s most devastating and impactful lyrics to date. The Confuser is chock-full of surprises like them, and although the whole album isn’t a success, it’s well worth a listen.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

The Lost Story – Meg Shaffer – “They tore up the tracks this morning/The tracks they laid the day that you were born/Look at them, they’re gone…”

“Mine’s Not a High Horse” – The Shins

I haven’t talked about The Shins much on here, which is a real shame. Speaking of which, if we’ve got any Shins fans here…are y’all okay? And I thought the Phoebe Bridgers drought was bad! We’ve gone almost a decade without a new album, send help…

James Mercer is a lyricist for the ages, one of the few songwriters that deserves the title of being called a poet. But as much as great joy and tragedy can be wellsprings for poetry, so too can petty arguments. “Mine’s Not a High Horse” is the kind of poetry that sounds like it sprung up while seething in the shower post-argument, and that’s some of the best kind of poetry there is. (See also: “Therefore, I Am.”) I recently revisited Chutes Too Narrow through the episode of Life of the Record, and that kind of argument was how “Mine’s Not a High Horse” was born; by Mercer’s admission, it was a culmination over several arguments and conversations he’d recently had. It has that “oh, and ANOTHER thing!” feel that you can only get while replaying an argument for an audience of an empty shampoo bottle, but with Mercer’s signature touch. I’d be hard-pressed to think of a putdown more eloquent—and brutal—than “Will you remember my reply/When your high horse dies?” YOWCH. Of course, my main takeaway is that Mercer’s horse may, in fact, have been a little bit higher, but what resulted is a perfect indie rock kiss-off to whomever it may concern.

…AND A BOOK TO GO WITH IT:

Heaven’s Graveyard – Grace Curtis – “Don’t ask for his opinion/They ought to drown him in holy water/Will you remember my reply/When your high horse dies?”

Since this post consists entirely of songs, consider all of them to be today’s song.

That’s it for this week’s Sunday Songs! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Review Tuesday

Book Review Tuesday (3/3/26) – Red Star Rebels

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

BEFORE I BEGIN: as this is a bookish space, I feel that it’s essential to bring this to your attention. Here in the States, H.R. 7661 (misleadingly named the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act”) presents a grave danger to libraries and our freedom to read as Americans. This legislation, as many similar ones are, is presented under the guise of “protecting children” from sexually explicit material, but we all know what it targets in reality: fiction and nonfiction about queer people, people of color, and other marginalized groups. EveryLibrary has both a petition to oppose H.R. 7661 and instructions to call your representatives. Excluding stories of marginalized people doesn’t protect anybody. Protect our freedom to read!

It’s 2019. I’m about to finish my first year of high school, and I’m excited to buy the new Amie Kaufman book.

It’s 2026. I’m about to finish my last year of college, and I’m excited to buy the new Amie Kaufman book.

Needless to say, longtime followers of this blog (and longtime friends of mine in general) know how pivotal of a role Amie Kaufman has played in my life. Her sci-fi and fantasy novels have been a positive constant for seven years and counting, especially the Aurora Cycle. I was over the moon to find out that she was returning to science fiction after a long stint focusing on fantasy. And though it wasn’t as emotionally potent as some of her other novels, Red Star Rebels was an action-packed and romantic blast all the way through!

Enjoy this week’s review!

Red Star Rebels – Amie Kaufman

Hunter Graves has Mars in the palm of his hand. As the grandson of the man who settled Mars, he’s got it made. If only the rest of his family would actually pay him any mind. But when he’s trapped on the U.N. base after a mysterious attack, he’ll have to use more than his name to get out alive.

Cleo just wanted to stow away on this U.N. base to get the Earth gangs off her back and make a quick buck. Having to stow away with Hunter Graves when the base goes on lockdown was not part of the plan. But they’ll have to work together for eight hours before a bomb detonates, killing everybody on the base. And neither of them counted on falling for each other…

TW/CW: violence, loss of loved ones (past), fire

I’m a huge fan of Zoë Van Dijk’s artwork and I love her cover art for the U.S. edition of Red Star Rebels, but…I can’t unsee the fact that Cleo is doing the Dreamworks face. It haunts me. The thing is, it’s 100% in character for her, which almost haunts me even more.

The main draw for Red Star Rebels is that it’s a pulse-pounding action thriller in space; Kaufman has compared it to Die Hard and Home Alone in equal measure, in reference to both the atmosphere and the amount of interstellar hijinks. All of the events of Red Star Rebels happen in the span of 8 hours (the time it’ll take for the U.N. base to detonate), and it really does feel like it’s all crammed into such a short amount of time. Be prepared to be gripping the edge of your seat, because this novel moves fast—and this is the exact type of novel that needs to go at breakneck speed. The pacing is impeccable. The only drawback is that Red Star Rebels sacrificed some of the emotional potency that I come to expect with your typical Amie Kaufman novel. There’s a reason that her books are normally so thick—she doesn’t hesitate to get in the weeds with character development and poignant arcs. Though Hunter and Cleo’s relationship was charming as ever, some of the emotional aspects of this novel were quite rushed in comparison to her other novels, and I think that can exactly be chalked up to the uncharacteristically short page count—288 pages, in comparison to her often 400+ page whoppers. While the pacing worked for the plot, it didn’t work all the way for the characters—give it at least 50 more, and I think this would’ve been near perfect. That being said, even a weaker Amie Kaufman book is guaranteed to be a cut above the rest, so I’m not complaining.

Every time there’s a chance for Amie Kaufman to write a relationship dynamic where one’s a scrappy criminal and the other is a spoiled, rich brat (both of whom secretly have a heart of gold), by God, she’ll take it (see also: Selly and Lysander from Isles of the Gods, Lilac and Tarver from These Broken Stars, Nik and Hanna from Gemina, etc.). And do I eat it up every time? Absolutely. At least she switches the genders up. It’s a blatant pattern at this point, but she writes it so compellingly that I’m not even that mad. Would I like for her to mix it up a little? Sure, but this is Amie Kaufman we’re talking about—no matter what kind of relationships she’s writing, they’re always so charming and heartstring-tugging, so I’m not here to complain. The setup for Cleo and Hunter’s relationship was a perfect storm, but Kaufman did such an excellent job of making the development of their relationship realistic—it’s a survival situation spaced over eight hours, but never at any point did their romance feel too rushed. They were trapped together with very little interaction from the outside world (other than the antagonists), and there was plenty of time for their chemistry to develop. All in all, it’s another slam dunk from Kaufman—Cleo and Hunter were so sassy, and yes, made for each other. Plus, I’ve loved Kaufman’s casual queer inclusion, especially in terms of bisexuality. Beyond that, it’s so, so important to show that straight-passing relationships are just as valid and still queer, so I’m very grateful to Red Star Rebels for showcasing this!

Red Star Rebels should be a masterclass in why you shouldn’t underestimate the craft that goes into good YA novels. The best part about Amie Kaufman’s books is that sure, they look like cheesy YA (and in some ways, they are, but tastefully so) on the surface, but 9 times out of 10, they’re Trojan horses for top-notch, exhaustively researched worldbuilding. Aside from the Illuminae Files, Red Star Rebels might honestly be some of the hardest science fiction that she’s ever written. There was a ton of thought put into the physics and logistics of establishing colonies on Mars, and every aspect was pored over in exceptional detail, from the nutrients you’d need to survive on Mars to how the gravity affects the red planet’s permanent residents. Not only that, Kaufman goes headfirst into discussing the geopolitics of international Mars settlements. All of this fed into some great commentary on corporate space exploration and how corporations have unjustly been able to buy their way into influencing world politics. Kaufman’s vision of 2067 is basically what would happen if Elon Musk—[ahem] Graves had his way with things, and the commentary was an excellent way to scaffold the worldbuilding.

Back to Cleo and Hunter—as well as the worldbuilding—what I really appreciate about Kaufman’s class-divided relationship dynamics is that the less privileged person in the couple doesn’t sacrifice their values. There’s some potent class commentary in Red Star Rebels, and I love Hunter’s arc in seeing that their colonialism has consequences, and that the exceptionalism of his family came at a bloody cost. There’s also some sharp commentary on how poor people have to circumvent the law in order to make a living and are punished for it, but rich people use the same methods and get away scot-free—for instance, Cleo and Hunter ending up on the U.N. base in the exact same way, but Cleo being the only one who would be theoretically imprisoned for it. There’s a fine line in these dynamics where the poorer person in the couple ends up excusing the power imbalance and the narrative ignoring any issues of class disparity and the circumstances that made them so, but Kaufman is always right on the money (no pun intended) with imbuing her relationships with a strong sense of justice and class commentary.

All in all, another win for Amie Kaufman, full of outer space hijinks, crafty characters, and romance. 4 stars!

Red Star Rebels is a standalone, but Amie Kaufman is the author of several other books for children and teens, including the Isles of the Gods duology (The Isles of the Gods and The Heart of the World), The Illuminae Files (with Jay Kristoff; Illuminae, Gemina, and Obsidio), The Aurora Cycle (with Jay Kristoff; Aurora Rising, Aurora Burning, and Aurora’s End), The Other Side of the Sky duology (with Meagan Spooner; The Other Side of the Sky and Beyond the End of the World), and many more. Her next book, co-authored with Meagan Spooner, is One Knight Stand, the sequel to Lady’s Knight, which is slated for release on June 4th, 2026.

Today’s song:

gonna be honest…I wasn’t a huge fan of The Mountain, but this song was fantastic, so it’s not a complete loss.

That’s it for this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Review Tuesday

Book Review Tuesday (10/15/24) – The Heart of the World (The Isles of the Gods, #2)

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

The day has finally come…the Isles of the Gods duology has concluded. The end of a (short) era. I’m all over anything that Amie Kaufman writes, and even though fantasy isn’t my top genre, she made me fall in love with her brand of it. Naturally, The Heart of the World was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and while it fell barely short of book 1, it stuck the landing to become a fulfilling conclusion to a duology full of heart.

Now, tread lightly! This review contains spoilers for book one, The Isles of the Gods. If you haven’t read it and intend to do so, read this review at your own risk!

For my review of The Isles of the Gods, click here!

Enjoy this week’s review!

The Heart of the World (The Isles of the Gods, #2) – Amie Kaufman

Selly Walker has failed.

When she, Leander, and Keegan tried in vain to seal away the gods from the mortal world, they created a conflict much worse than they could have ever imagined. Now, Leander is the mortal messenger of Barrica, goddess of war. Possessed by power beyond human comprehension and puppeteered by a being of unearthly sway, he knows that war is brewing—and that allowing Barrica into the mortal realm would kill him in the process. Selly, now deeply in love, will risk anything to make sure that Leander is unscathed, but little to they know that the rival god Macean has his own Messenger—and that he’s hungry for war.

TW/CW: violence, blood, murder, loss of loved ones, neglectful parent

Man, Amie Kaufman just can’t resist writing relationship dynamics where one becomes all-powerful and the other is Just Some Guy, huh? Not to call Selly just some (gal), but…Aurora Cycle fans, we see it, right?

It’s not like me to rate a solo Amie Kaufman book in the 4-star range. Well, sort of. The Isles of the Gods was a 4.75 for me, but that was easily rounded up to 5. I expected The Heart of the World to be more of the same, and it almost was. Almost. Its fatal flaw was that it took so long to get back on its feet after the chaos and craziness that was the ending of book 1. That was so campy (in an Indiana Jones way) and explosive that it must have been so hard to ground the beginning afterwards. An additional problem is that this book is 400 pages long, which meant that, for the first fifth to a quarter of the novel, it bordered on dragging. Kaufman’s writing didn’t suffer, and neither did the characters, but The Heart of the World took so long to regain its sea legs that it never fully recovered.

From there, however…I have no notes. Even if that first fifth (or thereabouts) dragged in terms of plot, it excelled in terms of character development. Leander’s arc was among the most well-developed of the novel—as it should have been, given that he’s on the cover and all. As I said before, unceremoniously foisting godlike power onto ordinary people and watching them try and grapple with the consequences is Amie Kaufman’s bread and butter. Leander’s internal struggle of being both a puppet of Barrica and being tossed around by the royal family—his family—and being treated like an overpowered chess piece made for some enticing internal struggles. I hesitate to say that his relationship with Selly was a genderbent carbon copy of Kal and Auri, but…the similarities were there. However, what sets them apart is the differences in Leander and Selly’s characters. Unlike Auri, Leander was slick and confident before he he was forced to embody Barrica’s power—thinking he had sway and power was nothing compared to having a taste of uncontrollable, immortal power, and it fundamentally rearranged who he was as a person. Selly, on the other hand, was already out of her depth and new to the relationship, but clung to the glimpse of the real Leander, and knew that she couldn’t risk losing him—or their shared home. I trust Amie Kaufman enough to know that she wouldn’t copy and paste a relationship dynamic, and the more I think about it, the less it feels like a rehash—Selly and Leander were so sweet together, and this wrench in their romance was one that created an intricate rift to explore.

Speaking of Selly being out of her depth…good god, I just want to give her a hug. Lord. Kaufman already gave her a great obstacle in trying to find her way through the palace life and feeling like a fish out of water while trying to navigate impending war. Then she had to resolve the arc about Selly looking up to her dad…who, as was faintly hinted at in The Isles of the Gods, turned out to be using her for her magic, then abandoned her. My poor girlie…either way, it was written so sensitively. After the smoke screen of her dad pushing her to foster her magic fell away, Selly realizes that he’s just been using her as a tool to bolster the family name, and Kaufman was able to hammer in just how crushing that was for her. All her life, she’s been in his service, and all of these years she’s waited for him to return, and you just knew that he only came back to her because Barrica had him and the rest of his crew under her spell. Their reunion was hollow, just like the remainder of their relationship. Once she began to come too grips with it, however, it was beautiful to see Selly assert that she would no longer be somebody else’s pawn—just like Leander. Waiter! Waiter, more parallels, please!

In my review of The Isles of the Gods, I said that I was miffed at the book being tagged LGBTQ+ when all we got was a background lesbian couple that was about the equivalent of that one scene in The Rise of Skywalker. (You know the one.) I couldn’t help but be disappointed. Let me say on the record that I stand corrected! The additional queer queen and consort aside (diversity win! This warmongering queen likes women!), we’ve also got some wonderful queer representation in Jude. Another minor complaint that I had about The Isles of the Gods was that Jude didn’t have an awful lot to do, even though he was one of five of the POV characters. Not only does he have a beautiful, tearjerking character arc, HE’S QUEER! AND HE’S HAS A WONDERFUL BOYFRIEND! After all that this poor guy has been through, I’d say that’s the ultimate reward. I had a feeling that something had to be queerer about The Isles of the Gods, but I’m so glad that Jude finally got his due diligence in terms of character development and focus—and queerness. We love a battle-scarred guy with a secret stash of fantasy books.

Another character arc I loved seeing resolved…Laskia! Along with Leander and Selly, she’s part of the unofficial “spent their lives being moved around like chess pieces” trio, and seeing her come into her power—without the help of Macean—was a beautiful redemption arc. Laskia was driven to villainy by a desire to be loved, constantly shoved in the shadow of her sister Ruby, and like Leander and Selly, she let herself believe that she was in control. For her, the ultimate act of heroism was to become her own person—to steer her own course in life. Looking back, that’s what the whole Isles of the Gods duology feels like it’s been about. The ultimate form of magic is to know your power, to know that you have control of your life, and that despite the pressures telling you to sail one way or another, you’re the captain of your own ship. 🫡

In the end, if there’s anything that Amie Kaufman can write like nobody’s business, it’s a final battle. It was so tightly paced and action-packed that it nearly made me forgive how slow of a start The Heart of the World had. An aspect that The Heart of the World introduces is how the gods and goddesses factor in (Kaufman’s descriptions of which were arresting, as was expected), but it gave stakes to the battle that truly made it feel like thousands of lives hung in the balance. And to conclude it all in an assertion that spending your life grieving will never make any new love grow? And how that grief can feel so desolate that nothing else can grow there? And that remembering the connections that you have in the here and now is how you can move forward? And…and…and…dammit, Amie Kaufman, you did it again. You can only hide behind so many cheery “hi my friends!” before the jig is up. YOU HAVE TO STOP RUNNING A STEAMROLLER THROUGH MY FEELINGS LIKE THIS.

All in all, a duology concluder that faltered slightly in its early stages, but stuck the landing with buckets of action—and many a resonant message to spare. 4.5 stars!

The Heart of the World is the final book in the Isles of the Gods duology, preceded by The Isles of the Gods. Amie Kaufman is the author and co-author of several series for children and young adults, including the Elementals trilogy (Ice Wolves, Scorch Dragons, and Battle Born), the Illuminae Files (co-authored with Jay Kristoff – Illuminae, Gemina, and Obsidio), the Aurora Cycle (co-authored with Jay Kristoff – Aurora Rising, Aurora Burning, and Aurora’s End), the Other Side of the Sky duology (with Meagan Spooner – The Other Side of the Sky and Beyond the End of the World), and many others.

Today’s song:

We Are Lady Parts brought me here…

That’s it for this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

Ten Bookish Questions Tag 🔟

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

I was honestly so surprised that I hadn’t done this tag before—I found it, like I do most of my tags these days, on The Corner of Laura, and the tag was originally created by A Books Neverland.

Let’s begin, shall we?

🔟TEN BOOKISH QUESTIONS TAG🔟

HOW MANY BOOKS DO YOU CURRENTLY OWN?

…I don’t know the exact number, but certainly more than I have space for…

HOW MANY BOOKS ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?

Normally, I stick to one book at a time, but since I’m often reading for other classes, it usually ends up being two or three at this time of the school year. Right now, I’m currently reading Ten Low and re-reading The Left Hand of Darkness for one of my classes.

CHOOSE A COUPLE OF BOOKS YOU READ BUT DIDN’T ENJOY.

I just chose a handful here that I’ve read (somewhat) recently and didn’t enjoy:

  • Only a Monster – Vanessa Len | I really, really wanted there to be some nuance, but no. Apparently we just had to have the themes beaten into our heads with a crowbar.
  • Frontier – Grace Curtis | for the fascinating premise it had, this novel just felt so…boring? For a book with the tagline of “love. loss. laser guns,” you’d think there would be more action, but every plot point just blurred into the next.
  • The Sevenfold Hunters – Rose Egal | this was my first DNF of the year, but it was more out of a feeling of “I have neither the time nor the will to read any more of this” than “I hate this book with a passion.” Even still, there were a lot of problems I had with what I read—mainly the implausibility of everything happening to the characters (and them emerging almost unscathed every time) and the sin of listing off every single character’s sexualities instead of organically weaving in their representation in a way that didn’t feel like checking off boxes.

A COVER BUY?

I put off reading Firekeeper’s Daughter for quite some time, but after reading Warrior Girl Unearthed, I was fully convinced to buy this one…but the cover was a significant part of the sell. Absolutely gorgeous design, isn’t it?

A BOOK YOU OWN BUT HATE THE COVER OF?

I don’t hate the cover of Ammonite, but it kind of screams “graphic design is my passion,” y’know? Gotta love the ’90s.

A BOOK YOU HAVEN’T READ IN YEARS?

It’s been at least a decade since I’ve picked up any of the Warriors books, but those consumed my life from 3rd to 5th grade like nothing else had before…god, those were the days. Nothing like cats violating every single term of the Geneva Conventions for some after-school reading.

A BOOK YOU WILL ALWAYS RECOMMEND?

Every time I go to any bookstore with friends, I inevitably try to steer them over to this one. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is truly special. I swear.

ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK SERIES?

Y’all already know the answer to this one…

WHERE DO YOU READ?

Mostly in bed or on the couch, but when the weather’s warm, I read outside, and when the weather’s cold, I read in the campus coffee shops.

I TAG ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PARTICIPATE!

Today’s song:

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

The Trope Book Tag

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Thursday, bibliophiles! Hope you’re all doing well this week.

Before I begin—I don’t have any plans for a bookstagram, but I did just make an art account on Instagram, so if you’d like to see my art more regularly, here you are!

Riddhi @ Whispering Stories tagged me in this one a little while back (sorry for only getting to it now lol, just going through a bunch of tags), and I figured it would be a good day to finally do it! The tag was originally created by Ash @ inkwordsandash, and it sounds like a ton of fun!

Rules:

-mention the creator of the tag and pingback to the original post (Ash @inkwordsandash)
-tag 3+ people
-lastly, enjoy!!

Let’s begin, shall we?

📚THE TROPE BOOK TAG📚

ENEMIES TO LOVERS: a book you formerly hated/disliked but now love!

…I’m with Riddhi here, I’m not sure if there’s any book that I can think of that would fit this prompt. I rarely give books I don’t like a second chance…

SECOND CHANCE: a book you previously DNF’d but now adore!

Again, I rarely go back and give my DNFs a second chance—in my book (no pun intended), a book has to be pretty offensive for me to DNF it entirely, so if it gets to that point, the chances of me going back and re-reading it are pretty much zero.

LOVE TRIANGLE: a duology where you love both of the books

Yay! I can finally answer a prompt!

I just finished Alexandra Christo’s incredibly fun Into the Crooked Place duology (Into the Crooked Place and City of Spells) about a month ago. Each book was just as strong as the other, and I loved the unique and unlikely cast of characters.

FRIENDS TO LOVERS: a book recommended to you that you enjoyed

One of my best friends introduced me to Fireborne, and now I’m hooked on the series! I really need to get around to reading Furysong soon…

INSTA-LOVE: a book you knew you would love at first sight

I knew nothing about Across a Field of Starlight when I stumbled upon it in Barnes & Noble recently, but the cover and the promise of unapologetic queerness in space was enough to convince me—and it delivered in all of those aspects!

THE CHOSEN ONE: your all time favorite (of the year/month/[x] genre)

We’re not even halfway through January at this point, but so far, The Sirens of Mars has been my favorite book of the month! It’s a beautiful glimpse into the history of how our species has viewed, studied, and mythologized Mars, and it boasts some incredible writing.

FORBIDDEN LOVE: a loved book that you don’t talk about often

I feel like I talk about Samira Ahmed a fair amount on this blog, but Internment deserves all of the hype it’s received over the years; it’s a chilling reminder of where hate can lead a country and its people.

SECRET BILLIONAIRE: a book you read and enjoyed before you knew it was popular

I suppose The Umbrella Academy fits this prompt—I read it a few months before the show came out on Netflix, and while the comic is better, in my opinion, I’m glad that the show has helped it reach a wider audience!

FOUND FAMILY: your most cherished books!

I’m fully aware of how much I sound like a broken record at this point, but here are my top 3, again: Frankenstein, Aurora Rising, and Heart of Iron!

FORCED PROXIMITY: a required reading book that you read and enjoyed

I’ve generally ended up at least liking most of the books I’ve had to read since high school, but The Catcher in the Rye is one of the few that got the full 5 stars from me.

I TAG:

Today’s song:

at this point, I’m convinced that Gorillaz is physically incapable of making a bad song

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 Book Tag

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Saturday, bibliophiles!

I’m having a nice, relaxing weekend at home (seeing the new Black Panther tonight too!!), so I figured I’d do another tag! I found this one over at Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog, and I haven’t been able to find the original creator, so if you know who it is, please let me know so I can credit them.

Let’s begin, shall we?

🔢 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 BOOK TAG 🔢

5 BOOKS YOU LOVE

If I had to narrow down my favorites to *just* 5, I’d have to pick Frankenstein, Aurora Rising, Heart of Iron, Madman Yearbook ’95, and On a Sunbeam. Maybe. I think. The first three are fairly certain, but it gets hazy from there, but I still love every single one of these books with all my heart.

4 AUTOBUY AUTHORS

At this point, all of these authors—Amie Kaufman, Becky Chambers, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, and Rainbow Rowell—are ones that I immediately preorder from (or at least put on hold at the library) if they’re coming out with anything new. (anybody else excited for Isles of the Gods???)

3 FAVORITE GENRES

Anyone who’s followed this blog for a while knows that I’m a complete sci-fi fan to the bone. Absolute favorite genre!! After that, I’d say fantasy and magical realism; fantasy was my favorite genre before I got really into sci-fi, but I still love it. I’ve gotten into magical realism more recently, but I’ve read some incredibly memorable books in the genre.

2 PLACES YOU READ

During the day, I tend to read on the couch, and at night, I love to read while cozy in bed.

1 BOOK YOU PROMISE TO READ SOON

I’ve been meaning to read Vicious for a while after loving the Shades of Magic trilogy, and I just downloaded it on my Kindle, so I’ll be reading this as soon as I can!

I TAG:

Today’s song:

big thank you to my mom for introducing me to lush on the car ride home yesterday

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

A to Z Book Tag

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles!

I was in the mood for a book tag today, so I thought I’d try this one out. I found it over at Birdie’s Book Nook (who you should absolutely follow if you don’t already!). I haven’t been able to find who originally created the tag, so if you know, let me know and I’ll link to their blog.

This one looks like a lot of fun…let’s begin, shall we?

🔠A TO Z BOOK TAG🔠

A – Author you have read the most books from

I haven’t picked up a Warriors book since middle school, but given the sheer volume of books in this series (aren’t there…there’s probably 40 or 50 books now, right? I stopped at the 5th series 💀), I’d say that Erin Hunter is the author that I’ve read the most books from. These books were my childhood…

B – Best sequel ever

the emotional damage that Aurora Burning inflicted on me remains unparalleled…

C – Currently reading

I’m a little over halfway through Follow Your Arrow right now! I’m not super invested in the romance, but the bisexual rep is great.

D – Drink of choice

Definitely tea—hot cinnamon spice is my favorite!

E – E-reader or physical book?

As much as I love my Kindle, physical books always win. Can’t beat the feeling of having a physical book in your hand—plus, a Kindle can’t give you that book smell…

F – Fictional character you would’ve dated in high school

Auri and Kal from Aurora Rising are my ultimate bisexual panic, so I probably would’ve gone for either of them…

G – Glad you gave this book a chance

I don’t usually read historical fiction as often, but The Reckless Kind was an unexpected 5-star read!

H – Hidden gem

The Wide Starlight ended up being my first 5-star read of the year! It doesn’t get nearly as much praise as it should, it’s a stunning book!

I – Important moment in your reading life

Reading and subsequently falling in love with The Search for WondLa in 5th grade. I’d liked sci-fi books before, but I give that trilogy credit for being my gateway into sci-fi literature. Haven’t turned my back since.

J – Just finished

I finished The Final Strife yesterday! Definitely a long haul, but the worldbuilding was great.

K – Kind of book you won’t read

I don’t usually do horror, and I’m also not a huge fan of the kind of romance books with airbrushed, shirtless/scantily clad people on the covers. Again, no shade to the people that enjoy the aforementioned books, but they’re just not my thing.

L – Longest book you’ve ever read

Technically, Invincible: Compendium One is an anthology, but 1,092 pages is still pretty thick.

M – Major book hangover because of…

Aurora’s End WRECKED me…I think I re-read it two or three times before I could pick anything else up…

N – Number of bookshelves you own

Three—two for most of my books, and a smaller one for all my graphic novels and trade paperbacks.

O – One book you’ve read multiple times

I re-read The Kingdom of Back a few weeks back, and I loved it just as much as I did the first time!

P – Preferred place to read

Either the couch, my bed (at night), and when it’s warm enough, outside in the hammock.

Q – Quote that inspires you

For the sake of brevity, I’ll just link it here, but Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” speech never fails to be an inspiration to me. Go read it. You won’t regret it.

R – Reading regrets

Spending any money—even just $4.99—on Off Balance. What an awful excuse for a sequel.

S – Series you’ve started and need to finish

I really enjoyed Surviving the City, I don’t know why I haven’t picked up From the Roots Up!

T – Three of your all-time favorite books

Aurora Rising, Heart of Iron, and Frankenstein have been my steady favorites for the past few years.

U – …I just looked through several iterations of this tag, and it looks like U got skipped somewhere down the line?

moving on…

V – Very excited about this release

I need to pick up Godslayers soon—I think it just came out last month!

W – Worst bookish habit

I read relatively fast, and sometimes it comes back to bite me…I’ve learned to read my school books a little slower, at least.

X – X marks the spot. Pick the 27th book from your top left shelf.

Turns out it’s Nyxia! It’s been years since I’ve read this one, but I remember enjoying it.

Y – Your latest purchase

I bought Adaptation and a few other books on my Kindle for my trip to California in June. This one was my least favorite of the books I bought, but it was still decent. I finished it on the plane ride back.

Z – Z snatcher: book that kept you up way too late

nothin’ like staying up way too late reading The Darkness Outside Us and having a minor existential crisis, am I right

I TAG:

Today’s song:

this album was pretty hit or miss for me, but I like this one—feels like their old stuff!

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

The Cat Markings Book Tag 🐈‍⬛

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Thursday, bibliophiles!

I was tagged a while ago to do this by Riddhi @ Whispering Stories, and since I love cats, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity! The tag was originally created by Laura @ The Corner of Laura.

Rules

  • Link back to the original creator (The Corner of Laura) and link back to this page(otherwise, the original creator won’t get a notification).
  • Thank whoever tagged you and link back to their post
  • You may use the graphics and don’t forget to credit the original creator
  • Tag 5 or more other people.

Let’s begin, shall we?

🐈‍⬛THE CAT MARKINGS BOOK TAG🐈

BLACK CATS: Black rescue cats take 13% more time to re-home than cats of other colors. Pick a book that doesn’t get the love it deserves.

While there were certainly some flaws with Love in the Time of Global Warming, I still think it’s a very unique and underrated book.

WHITE CATS: A study showed that 20% of purebred white cats are deaf. Pick a book with great disability rep.

I will never stop singing the praises of Sick Kids in Love—great romance, and even better disability rep!

GINGER CATS: 80% of ginger cats are male. Name your favorite male character.

It’s hard to pick just one character from the entirety of literature, but I love Kal and Finian from Aurora Rising, Baz from Carry On, and Jax from Heart of Iron.

TORTOISESHELL CATS: Nearly all tortoiseshell cats are female. Name your favorite female character.

Again, impossible to pick just one, but I love Auri from Aurora Rising, Zara and Beatriz from Honor Among Thieves, Catherine from The Smoke Thieves, and Ellie from The Sound of Stars.

CALICO CATS: Calico cats are considered lucky in many cultures. Name a character that you wish was your best friend.

I’d love to be friends with most anyone from the main cast of The Smoke Thieves except for Ambrose.

TABBY CATS: Tabby cats are considered to be the most extroverted and social cats. Name a character who’s the life of the party.

Rooney from Loveless is definitely a major extrovert and partygoer!

A CLOWDER OF CATS: The collective nouns for cats include a clowder, a glaring, a cluster, and a litter. Name your favorite fictional squad.

I’d be sorely remiss if I didn’t put Aurora Rising‘s Squad 312 for this prompt!

I TAG:

Today’s song:

saw these guys open for Spoon on Tuesday night, and they were pretty great!

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags

Intergalactic Book Tag 🪐

Posted on by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles!

It feels like a while since I’ve done a book tag, and regardless of whether or not that’s completely true, I decided to do one. I found this one over at Classy x Book Reviews (Amanda and Antonia have a fantastic blog, check it out if you haven’t already!), and the tag was originally created by Rachel @ Life of a Female Bibliophile. Sci-fi is my favorite genre, so of course I had to do this tag!

Let’s begin, shall we?

🪐INTERGALACTIC BOOK TAG🪐

SPACE: name a book that is out of this world – that takes place in a world different from our own.

Crownchasers takes place in an entirely new galaxy—a lot of interesting planets are explored throughout the duology!

BLACK HOLE: Name a book that completely sucked you in.

I know I use this book for every tag, but Aurora Rising sucked me in like no other book has—when I first started reading it, I blew through hundreds of pages without moving, and after I finished it, I ended up re-reading it three times before setting it down for something else. (Why yes, this is my favorite trilogy, why do you ask?)

LIGHTSPEED: Name a book you are anticipating so much that you wish you could travel at lightspeed to get to it.

I adored Gearbreakers, and I can’t wait for Godslayers to come out! June can’t come soon enough…

NEBULA: Name a book with a beautiful cover.

As disappointing as Persephone Station was, I will say that it has one of those beautiful covers that you can’t help but stare at.

MULTIVERSE: Name a companion or spin-off series you love.

The Sound of Stars and The Kindred are companion books set in the same universe, and I loved them both! Very different thematically, but they were both fantastic in their own ways.

GRAVITY: Name your favorite romantic pairing that seems to have a gravitational pull to each other.

Alright, I know I shouldn’t double up, but Kal and Auri from the Aurora Cycle are my all-time favorite book couple. And Kal’s attraction is even called The Pull, so how could I not use it for this prompt?

THE BIG BANG: Name a book that got you started on reading.

As far as sci-fi goes, The Search for WondLa was what got me hooked on sci-fi literature. It’s been a while since I’ve re-read it, but I love to look back through the illustrations; Tony DiTerlizzi is just as talented as an artist as he is a writer.

ASTEROID: Name a short story or novella that you love.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a wonderful novella, and the concept is so inventive—what if, instead of transforming planets to our needs, we transformed ourselves?

GALAXY: Name a book with multiple POVs.

Sky Without Stars is told from three POVs (Alouette’s POV is my favorite), and it’s a fascinating sci-fi retelling! I’d highly recommend the whole trilogy.

SPACESHIP: Name a book title that would be a great name for a spaceship.

Iron Widow would be SUCH a cool name for a spaceship. I’m picturing some sort of sharp-edged battleship for it. Skyhunter would work too.

I TAG:

Today’s song:

shoutout to whoever put this on the art class playlist, I love this so much

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!