My Favorite Short Stories

Short stories are a type of literature that often get overlooked in my opinion. A reader may not remember the 15-page horror story they read as easily as a 300-page horror novel, but that doesn't necessarily mean that one medium is better than the other. Some of the best stories I've read have been short stories. With all of that said, I'd like to discuss some of my favorite short stories and ones I think everyone should read. 


A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner

Synopsis: Following the death of 74-year-old Emily Grierson, the narrator reflects on the sad and lonely life of Emily and the secrets uncovered after her death.



Bartleby: The Scrivener by Herman Melville

Synopsis: A Wall Street lawyer hires a new clerk who, after initially working very hard, soon becomes a troublesome employee simply because he "would prefer not to" do certain tasks.  



The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Synopsis: The narrator, a new mother, becomes obsessed with the pattern in the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls in the room where she's forced to spend most of her time.



The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Synopsis: A man takes brutal revenge against a friend who he believes insulted him.



The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Synopsis: The citizens of a small town gather for their annual lottery, a rite to ensure the community's survival.



The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

Synopsis: A supercomputer is tasked with answering the one question that will determine the fate of humanity and the universe.



I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

Synopsis: The last five humans on Earth are left at the mercy of a malicious and sadistic supercomputer.



The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin

Synopsis: Like all great metropolises before it, when a city gets big enough, old enough, it must be born; but there are ancient enemies who cannot tolerate new life. Thus New York will live or die by the efforts of a reluctant midwife...and how well he can learn to sing the city's mighty song.


Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram
Buy Me A Coffee?

Before The Broken Star

Before the Broken Star is a 2019 young adult science fiction novel by Emily R. King. The novel was published by Skyscape and is the first book in The Evermore Chronicles. The novel is a fusion of steampunk and fantasy.

Before the Broken Star follows Everley Donovan, the sole survivor of her family's slaughter. She's been living on borrowed time due to a clockwork heart and seeks to avenge her family by killing Killian Markham, her family's murderer, before her time runs out. Her quest for vengeance leads her to a penal colony on the far side of the world. On the island, family secrets are buried and Everley finds her destiny is entangled with Markham's redemption, as the man may not be who he seems.

This book was somewhat of a mixed bag for me. I love a good revenge story and the ideas mentioned in the blurb were intriguing. This book references folk lore and in-universe myths frequently, and I enjoyed reading those myths and stories. There's an idea of there being seven distinct worlds and reading the snippets about each world was interesting to me. The science enthusiast in me enjoyed the steampunk parts of the story, mainly focused on Everley's artificial heart. I enjoyed piecing together the truth about what happened to Everley's family.  Descriptions of the environment really captured my imagination and I liked reading about the land and wonder of the island Everley wound up on. The action scenes were also somewhat enjoyable. King created a very interesting "hook" for the second novel in the series.

While I enjoyed the aspects mentioned above, if I were to make a pro-con list about this novel, there would be more cons than pros. The characterization is fairly inconsistent. This applies to everyone from Everley herself, to Jamison, the man she's forced to marry, to Markham, the villain of the story. People's behaviors and motives seemed to change at the drop of a hat.  None of the characters are relatable or easy for the reader to connect with. Very little in the story surprised me, because it's hard for someone to act "out of character" when they don't have consistent characterization. The plot of the novel is rather weak. Characters move from one plot point to another solely as the result of someone saying they need to do a certain thing or go to a certain place. Aside from Markham, none of the characters seem to have any agency. The revenge story itself gets sidelined for quite a bit in place of a generic quest.

The two biggest flaws with Before the Broken Star are pacing and the inability to build tension. The pacing for this novel is kind of all over the place. Everley sailing to the island seems to take up just as much of the book as the quest she's forced to go on with Markham. The journey itself doesn't seem to have any kind of urgency involved in it and it feels like it takes ages for anything exciting or important to the plot to happen. Some key revelations in the story take place too early to be satisfying. Later in the story, those same revelations could've been okay plot twists, but they happened too early and didn't really add anything to the story at that point. The ending also felt weird and contrived, with a last minute "gotcha" moment to set up the second book. As for stakes, there was a chance to make the ending of this novel very high-stakes. The reader is told very early on that Everley's heart will give out eventually and could give out at any moment. Unfortunately, the author didn't use this set-up as an opportunity to raise the stakes within the story, so the fact that Everley's heart could give out seemed like a missed opportunity and bringing so much attention to it felt odd. This book felt a lot like a novel that wasn't sure what it was supposed to be.

Before the Broken Star didn't really impress me. The ideas were there and the author had plenty of opportunity to create an interesting story, but failed to deliver. The novel suffered from poor pacing and not really knowing what it wanted to be about. The author has a very unique style and knows how to create a scene, but struggles to weave together a compelling plot. I don't think I'll be reading the second novel in the series.

Rating: 1.5 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram
Buy Me A Coffee?

Series I Never Finished

This goes without saying, but there are a lot, a lot, of book series out there. I've started a fair few, but most of them, I've never finished for one reason or another. Sometimes, it's because of not having enough time. Sometimes, I've just outgrown the series or my tastes simply changed. In any case, here's a list of the series I started, but never finished.



Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The first time I read this book, I loved it. I thought the story was interesting. The urban fantasy elements were great and I couldn't wait to read the next one in the series. But since books don't just appear out of thin air, I needed to wait for the second book to be published. The second book came out, but I decided to reread Daughter of Smoke and Bone before buying it. And I realized that I wasn't really into urban fantasy any longer. The book wasn't quite as captivating as I expected it to be.



Matched by Allie Condie

This series, similar to the previous one, was one I stopped reading because my tastes changed. I read the first two books, Matched and Crossed but decided not to pick up the third book. I guess that while I like dystopia, I don't really like this kind of dystopia, which centers around a society where the government chooses your spouse for you.



Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

This book was recommended to me by a friend years ago. It was when everyone was obsessed with dystopian fiction. She loved this book, so I said I'd give it a try. And I just didn't like it. Maybe my friend had hyped it up a bit too much, setting my expectations too high. I just felt very disappointed by the end and didn't want to continue.



Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Back when vampires were all the rage, I picked up the first book in this series. I thought the book was fine. I didn't hate it, but I also wasn't impressed. As a result, I didn't see a reason to keep reading the series. It's run-of-the-mill urban fantasy in my opinion, which is a genre I no longer gravitate towards.


The Dune Saga by Frank Herbert

When I refer to "the Dune saga" I'm referring only to the six books Frank Herbert wrote, not the later books that were written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. I read four of the six books in this series, dropping the series after God Emperor of Dune. There was a huge shift in overall tone between Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune and I wasn't a huge fan of it. I realized I wasn't enjoying the series anymore, so I stopped reading.



The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I don't really have a long, drawn-out explanation for this one. I read the first book in this series, but I haven't read the second one yet. I don't know if I'll ever read the rest of the books in the series. I haven't made a deliberate decision to stop, but I don't feel compelled to continue.



The Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire

I loved Wicked. I felt only so-so about Son of  A Witch, so I stopped reading the series. There are two more books, but I'm not likely to read them. I feel like Wicked should've just been a stand-alone, rather than the first of four books. I wasn't overly concerned with what happened in Oz after the Wicked Witch of the West was out of the story.

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram

Buy Me A Coffee?

The Unblessed Child

The Unblessed Child is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by R.J. Kaldanis. It was self-published by the author in February of 2020. It is the author’s debut novel and the first book in The Blessed Chronicles. I was provided with an advanced copy of the novel by Netgalley for review purposes.

The novel takes place in a world where there are two types of people, the blessed, who can wield one of the four elements, and the unblessed, who cannot. The novel follows Aardriyah, an unblessed girl who has been raised to believe she’s unwanted and unimportant, compared to her siblings. Shortly before she turns 19, she begins having strange, vivid nightmares of beasts and worlds beyond what anyone could imagine. She soon finds herself being hunted by a mysterious figure with powers she’s never seen before. To uncover the truth about her dreams, Aardriyah goes on a journey that will change not only herself, but has implications for the world at large.

The Unblessed Child has a whole cast of characters, but there are only about four or five that I feel are so vital that I need to mention in this review. First, Aardriyah, our main character. She’s had to learn to be strong and self-sufficient after being looked down on her whole life for being unblessed and having red-hair, which is hated by the citizens of the island where she was raised. Then, there’s Chastion, her older brother who was adopted into the royal family because he was an exceptionally strong water blessed child and the queens needed an heir. Chastion was once Aardriyah’s lovable older brother, but years apart have made him into an entitled and arrogant man who she loathes more often than not. When Aardriyah begins to have these strange dreams, Teme, an old man in the village, seems to have an idea as to why and help her along her journey. While he claims to want to help, it’s clear that he’s got a few secrets that he’s keeping from her. On her journey, Aardriyah meets Rachida, a fire blessed, who she befriends. Rachida was my favorite character because she was funny and sassy and it was nice to have a little bit of a break from serious moments for a bit. Lastly, there is Princess Kibo, another child who was adopted by the queens of the water blessed. While helping Aardriyah, the reader isn’t able to get much of a feel for who Kibo is, because her motivations aren’t really explained and very little of her true personality is shown. Unlike most novels, I can’t really say that this book has a main antagonist.

Since this novel was the first book in a series, there was a great deal of world-building that had to be included in the story. Kaldanis needed to show the reader what this world was, how it worked, how the powers of the blessed worked and why things are the way that they are in terms of political power and social constructs. In my opinion, she did an excellent job of that without making it seemed forced or like an exposition dump. I also enjoyed the magic system and the way that it was explained, with society being categorized based on the elemental magic and the division between each caste. The magic system has a lot of potential that I hope to see in future books in the series. The writing also really surprised me. It felt natural and fluid and it didn’t feel like this was a debut novel. The writing style wasn’t overly flowery or descriptive and that helped me follow the story easily, as opposed to getting lost in the depictions of the world the story took place in.

While I enjoyed elements of this novel, there were a few things that took away from my enjoyment. One was that Aardriyah lost nearly all her agency once the plot truly kicked off. Prior to her having to leave her home, she’s shown to be strong and frustratingly stubborn, but once she’s told she has to leave, without being told why, she goes along with it. She does what she’s told, out of character, with a minimal amount of fighting back or arguing. I found it annoying as well that she kept circling back to resenting her brother, even when there were much bigger and more important things she needed to worry about. Another thing that annoyed me was the fact that Teme very obviously knew exactly what was happening and who was after Aardriyah but didn’t share that information until near the very end of the story. Others tried to get him to reveal what he knew earlier, but they didn’t make much of an effort and, when asked, he just pushed them off, saying he’d explain later. This didn’t make any sense to me and, if Teme knowing what was going on had been revealed later, it would’ve worked a little better. In his second appearance, the reader knows, and the characters know, that Teme knows more than he’s saying, but the secrets aren’t revealed until close to the end of the book. The pacing for this novel was a little wonky. The plot moves quickly to get Aardriyah to leave Veros, but then it slows down dramatically until the last 15% of the book. In that last section of the book, the pacing picks up as the reader is told what Aardriyah’s dreams are about and why she’s being chased before setting the stage for the next book. The ending feels rushed as a result because so much information is being revealed in so few pages. I finished the book feeling slightly unsatisfied and a little off-kilter because of the pacing issues. The plot itself isn’t terrible, but there weren’t very many surprises.

The Unblessed Child was an enjoyable book. I liked the world-building and magic system a lot and the premise of the story was intriguing. At the same time, the pacing and some other elements of the plot needed work. It was difficult for me to connect with many of the characters. It’s a quick read and a good fantasy story, so I might read the sequel when it comes out to see what happens next.

Rating: 3.2 Stars

Follow Me Elsewhere: Facebook \ Twitter \ Goodreads \ Instagram
Buy Me A Coffee?

When It's Time For A Book To Go

All good things must come to an end, including ownership of a book. I've reached the point in my reading journey where I have too many books and nowhere near enough shelves in my house to hold them all. Some of you may be thinking "Why don't you get books from the library? Why not try ebooks?" To answer the second question first, I do read ebooks, but I'm also a book dragon, so I feel this need to collect as many physical books as possible. I don't take full advantage of library the way that I used to because, well, I tend to forget that it's an option. Anyway, this post is not about all of the books I have.

I wanted to talk about what happens when I get rid of books. Mainly how I decide which books go, and what happens to them. Because I do occasionally sit down and go through my book collection, pulling out books that it's time to say goodbye to.

The biggest factor to deciding if I'm going to keep a book or get rid of it is if I read it. I know it sounds obvious, but there are quite a few books I bought, intending to read, and just haven't. Sometimes it's because I've outgrown the story or age group and sometimes it's because I've realized I'm not a fan of the genre. If I've owned a book for more than a year, and I haven't even attempted to read it, I doubt I ever will. The second biggest factor for me in deciding which books to get rid of is how much I enjoyed a particular book. If I disliked a book or DNF'd it, I'm unlikely to read it again. Meaning it's pretty much just taking up space on the shelf. Aside from a few books that I've kept for sentimental value or ones authors have sent to me, any book that I don't intend to reread gets put onto the chopping block. Lastly, I try to decide if there's someone I know who might enjoy the book in question. Sometimes, I'll buy a book because I want to give the genre or author a chance, and I don't like it. That doesn't mean my sister or a coworker wouldn't like it. So, if I don't like a book, I might give it away to a friend or family member who enjoys that genre. The way I see it, I'm not getting rid of that book, I'm just giving it a new home.

Now that I've explained my methods for deciding what books I get rid of, let's talk about what I do with the books I decide to get rid of. (Not including the ones I give to family/friends). First, I try to donate them to the library. If the library won't accept them, due to the number of books or having enough of that particular title, I find a used bookstore and see if they're accepting drop-offs. Whatever they don't accept, I sell on eBay or another reselling site. Is it the most original tactic? Probably not, but the book finds a new home anyway.

So, that's what happens with the books I decide to get rid of. What do you do with books you no longer want?