In that way, it was an excellent way to kick off spooky reading season. Kingfisher might be the first and only book I’ve read in 2022 to legitimately freak me out. Kingfisher (4 stars) – The Hollow Places by T.

Like everything I’ve read from her, its lush and detailed prose impressed me, and I’m sad she didn’t end up winning any Hugos this year. This novelette was one of her Hugo-nominated pieces this year it’s a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth done in a way that’s macabre and highlights the story’s misogyny. Valente speak at 2 different panels at WorldCon in Chicago this year, which pushed me to pick up another one of her works ASAP.

Valente (4 stars) – I was lucky enough to see Catherynne M. I’m also very much hoping that the family’s third sister gets her own trilogy next, as I’m very much not ready to say goodbye to this world. Ruby Feverby Ilona Andrews (4 stars) – This was the conclusion to the second trilogy in Andrews’s Hidden Legacy series, and although it didn’t necessary blow me away in the same way that the first and second books did, I still love these characters and this series very much. Despite her vampirism, Lydia is very easy for any milennial to relate to and identify with, and her growth of self is both literal and metaphorical over the course of the novel. Woman, Eating is written in fairly spare prose and is very approachable if you’re thinking that you don’t like either literary novels or paranormal ones, this could still easily work for you. It’s only that she’s a vampire and her only source of nourishment is blood that separated her from the rest of us, although we quickly begin to see how slim that difference is. And like many young women (and people of all genders), Lydia is intensely preoccupied with food she thinks about it constantly, watches food videos on YouTube, and daydreams about what she wishes she could eat but can’t. She deals with both racism (Lydia is of Malaysian, Japanese, and English heritage) as well as sexism.

In this case, it was the phrase “literary vampire novel.” Woman, Eating is in many ways a classic coming-of-age story about Lydia, an artist living on her own for the first time, doing an internship in London that’s allegedly going to help jumpstart her career.

Woman, Eatingby Claire Kohda (5 stars) – Sometimes all I have to do is hear the vague premise of a book to know I’m going to love it. I think that means I’ll be able to nominate and vote for next year’s Hugo Awards as well, which puts added motivation on me to read lots of 2022 SFF releases. In other bookish news, I was able to attend a day of WorldCon on a visit to Chicago with my brother this year, and we had a lot of fun attending panels and found a few books on the convention floor. In September, I began what I like to think of as fall-themed or spooky season reading, while also picking up new releases in a variety of genres.

A Highlander for Hannah by Mary Warren