Spin the Dawn

 Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, 392 pages.

Maia Tamarin has always dreamed of being a Master tailor like her father, but by tradition that path is not open to women in A'Landi. But when her ailing father is summoned to the palace she feels she has no choice but to take his place, and is thrown into a high stakes competition for the longed for role of imperial tailor. A contest with impossible tasks, followed by an even more impossible quest, pushes Maia to her limits and helps her unlock power she never thought she had. It's a shame it can only help her so much when she begins to question what she really wants. 

The blurb for this book describes it as "Project Runway meets Mulan" and I would say that's very accurate to the first half of the book, although it doesn't oversell the great fairy tale energy throughout this book. It reminded me quite a bit of the second half of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but it is also strongly inspired by Asian mythology, with Chinese and Korean elements being especially prominent. I found the world very rich and the story compelling. It felt in some ways like a retelling, but also like an original story. The book definitely felt like it ended halfway through the story, so I will likely be picking up the sequel more quickly than I had anticipated. Luckily it's available, so I don't have to hold it against the book and instead get to be excited to read the ending.

The Future

 The Future by Naomi Alderman, 415 pages.

Kara reviewed this very cool (and slightly hard to quantify) book here a couple of weeks ago, and I entirely agree with everything she said. Despite a lack of linear plot and many characters doing entirely unrelated things in distant places, this book never felt like it was moving slowly. That being said, I  will say that I felt like the first half of this book was stronger than the second. It felt like the climax of the novel couldn't quite deliver on how strong the rising action was. This also feels like a book that has to be read to be understood. It was an exciting, thought-provoking ride, definitely recommended.
 

Our Share of Night

 Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, 736 pages.

The Order has been worshiping The Darkness for centuries, making terrible offerings of torture and murder to further their own power and fortunes. Juan Peterson is their most recent unwilling prophet, called a medium, who serves as an avatar for the power during their terrible rituals. But Juan has a son, and while The Order is determined that Gaspar will be his heir, Juan is even more determined that his son will have nothing to do with the ghosts and dark rituals. 

It is hard to summarize the plot of this book because it is sprawling and non-continuous. The book is divided into five parts, most with a different protagonist or protagonists. Four of the five take place in Argentina, and one in England, and the sections move back and forth in time. I found this division to be one of the weaker parts of the book. I found this novel shockingly lacking in momentum, which is a major problem for a book this large. Part of the problem was the leisurely pace of the plot, where very often nothing in particular is happening, and part of the problem is that every time the story starts to build any momentum it is often interrupted for something totally unrelated. It probably also doesn't help that, with the way the book is ordered, generally the audience knows much more about everything than any of the characters, so there are very few mysteries to resolve. I personally found that Enriquez's very good prose and the interesting elements of horror placed during the military dictatorship in Argentina unfortunately weren't enough to make up for the weak plot and characters. It feels like this book might be really good for someone, but I can't quite figure out enough of what it's goals were to figure out if it met any of them. 

The Midnight Bargain

 The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk, 384 pages.

Kara got to this review first here and I entirely agree with her. I was really pleasantly surprised by just how much I liked this book. It had enough formal elements and problems to feel like it really inhabited it's pseudo-Victorian setting, but it also wasn't too stuffy. I was also pleasantly surprised that the setting took the time to do some actual world building when I was only expecting a slightly reskinned England. The stakes felt real and the problems difficult. I completely agree with Kara that the plot wrapped up too perfectly in a way that was pretty unbelievable (and had some unaddressed issues), but I'm willing to set aside my disbelief for a happy ending from time-to-time. I definitely feel like there's a lot to talk about here, and I'm really excited to discuss this book with Orcs and Aliens tonight.