A Neon Darkness by Lauren Shippen

A Neon Darkness by Lauren Shippen is another spinoff novel based on characters from the Bright Sessions podcast. I previously read and reviewed The Infinite Noise in the same world. The two books only really have the setting in common and can be read in any order. A Neon Darkness is actually a prequel to the story in the podcast, following the younger version of one character in particular.

Los Angeles, 2006. Eighteen-year-old Robert Gorham arrives in L.A. amid the desert heat and the soft buzz of neon. He came alone with one goal: he wants to see the ocean. And Robert always gets what he wants.

At a very young age, Robert discovered he had the unusual ability to make those close to him want whatever he wants. He wanted dessert instead of dinner? His mother served it. He wanted his Frisbee back? His father walked off the roof to bring it to him faster. He wanted to be alone? They both disappeared. Forever.

But things will be different in L.A. He meets a group of strange friends who could help him. Friends who can do things like produce flames without flint, conduct electricity with their hands, and see visions of the past. They call themselves Unusuals and finally, finally, Robert belongs.

When a tall figure, immune to their powers, discovers them, the first family that Robert has ever wanted is at risk of being destroyed. The only way to keep them all together is to get his powers under control.

But control is a sacrifice he might not be willing to make.

This wasn't exactly an easy book to read. Not because of the writing style — that was perfectly adequate — but because the protagonist is not a nice person. For most of this book he isn't trying to be a bad person, but he is, essentially, the villain in the future (during the time of the story in the Bright Sessions podcast). So I didn't very much enjoy spending time with him in the book, though the the other characters and the glimpses we got of the institute were more enjoyable. Actually, the other characters were all very interesting and complex, once we got to know them, and I think Shippen did a good job of portraying the diverse cast in a nuanced way, despite the constraints of writing from the first person perspective of a self-absorbed white guy.

It's very hard for me to gauge how a new reader would find this book. The start, before I realised who the protagonist was (I try to forget about blurbs by the time I come to read the book, and it's been a while since I listened to the podcast), was interesting and had me invested in the story. By the time I realised the identity of the protagonist, I was already not not exactly enjoying being inside his mind. I think that even without prior knowledge of the character, many readers would react to him similarly to me. Perhaps being invested in learning about his backstory would be more motivation to read.

If it weren't for the choice of protagonist, I would have given this book 4 stars. It's unusual for me to dock half a star for the unlikeability of the protagonist, but it felt warranted in this case. I mainly recommend this book to fans of morally grey characters, as well as fans of the Bright Sessions podcast who want to know more about Damien's backstory.

3.5 / 5 stars

First published: September 2020, Tor Teen
Series: Bright Sessions — a series of standalone stories (and a podcast or three)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker is the book featured/quoted in Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, written by McGuire so that she could more easily refer to it. You absolutely do not have to have read Middlegame to read this book and, if anything, reading Over the Woodward Wall might add to your experience of reading Middlegame (but I did read them in the other order). Also, completely unlike Middlegame, Over the Woodward Wall is a children's/middle grade/pre-YA book, where as Middlegame is an adult book.

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.

This book is definitely not similar to Middlegame, it merely exists in the universe of that book. I cannot stress this enough. If you are looking for a similar companion novel to Middlegame, then you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a portal fantasy book featuring children from a non-specified time period finding themselves in a slightly nonsensical magical world, then this is the book for you.

I liked Over the Woodward Wall. There were a lot of interesting side characters, who added to the story. There were also some creepy villain characters that the children had to contend with. There were a variety of small lessons for children to learn over the course of their adventure, which were not heavy-handed. One thing that I was not expecting is that this ended as the start of a series. This might have been mentioned in Middlegame, but for whatever reason I had been expecting a standalone story, so that's something to keep in mind if you prefer tidy endings.

Overall, this was an interesting portal fantasy for children, especially if you hold it up against the ideas explored in Every Heart a Doorway. Over the Woodward Wall is absolutely not set in the same multiverse, and has its own unique voice more suited to the kind of book it is trying to be — one that is not juxtaposed against other ideas of portal fantasy. (That said, it put me in mind of The Wizard of Oz, but that's mainly because both are portal fantasies with a road for the protagonists to follow.) I recommend this book to readers, both old and young, who find appealing the idea of two very different children thrust into a magical world together.

4 / 5 stars

First published: October 2020, Tor.com
Series: Apparently this might be a book 1 of a continuing series (based on Goodreads)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang is a fantasy novella that was not at all what I was expecting it to be. I would normally blame this on my intentional forgetfulness of blurbs, but in this case, I think the blurb also buries the lede. I would describe this book as an amalgamation of Asian (Chinese) fantasy and European fairytales, with a heavier dose of the latter than I expected.

When Rosa (aka Red Riding Hood) and Hou Yi the Archer join forces to stop the deadly sunbirds from ravaging the countryside, their quest will take the two women, now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, into a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.

The story in Burning Roses follows our two protagonists, Rosa and Hou Yi, as they attempt to hunt down magical sunbirds and stop them from wreaking havoc across the country. A seemingly straightforward task, until Rosa starts questioning whether the sunbirds are sentient. As we learn throughout the story, Rosa has a dark past with talking animals

The extent to which the world was supposed to correspond to real countries was not entirely clear to me. My general impression was that most of the story was taking place in fantasy-China (or fantastical China, depending on how you want to interpret it), while Rosa has travelled all the way from fantasy-Spain to be there. Having Rosa be a traveller from foreign lands was an interesting and unexpected element. She provided a reference point for readers more familiar with European fantasy, which was the part I wasn't really expecting. In any case, the fantasy aspect of the novella was clearly the pertinent point, since the backstories of both characters have them being involved in several well-known fairytales.

I enjoyed this novella, even though it wasn't what I had expected — more fairytale than wuxia. I recommend Burning Roses to fans of fantasy stories with non-European settings, especially those that also enjoy a sprinkling of fairytales.

4 / 5 stars

First published: September 2020, Tor.com
Series: Don't think so
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley