★★★☆☆ A well-worn Gothic premise in the novel setting of 1950s Mexican countryside. This book hits all the best Gothic cliches, i.e. a young woman is sent to a creepy remote mansion with prickly secretive inhabitants and uncovers a terrible mystery…

★★☆☆☆ As expected, Clay’s Ark is an entirely different beast than the first two Patternist books. There is also no mention of the psionic abilities of the first two books at all except for one tenuous throwaway reference two-thirds of the way in. The setting and set-up reminds me very much of The Host by Stephanie Meyer as well as the Animorphs series weirdly enough, which I read as a kid.

★★★☆☆ Not as good as the previous ALTA graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang but still contains the signature political and moral themes.

★★★★☆ Octavia Butler deftly weaves between the supernatural - the supernatural megalomania of Doro or the supernatural empathy of Anyanwu - and real historical devastations of slavery and its legacy on American society into the late 20th century.

★★★★★

★★★★★ This might be the best book I’ve read all year, and certainly the best and smoothest reading experience I’ve had in MONTHS. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an adventure fantasy/myth retelling set in Mexico in the 1920s Jazz Age.

★★☆☆☆ I am definitely too old for this book (which skews on the young end of middle grade) and found it pretty boring with no stakes or real character development.

★★★★☆ The second book in The Witch Boy graphic novel series. A wonderful world of queer witchcraft, deep friendships, and healing inherited family traumas. This second instalment focuses on themes of isolation, bullying, and adolescent angst.

★★★☆☆ Swashbuckling noir heist fantasy with an ensemble cast of broken tragic ne’er do wells who, between the lot of them, cover basically every type of damage. This book is...a lot.

★★★★★ I’ve given every one of the ATLA graphic novels 5 stars but this one is probably my favorite. Made me cry in the subway. Too good.

★★★★★ JUST SO FUCKING GOOD IN EVERY WAY I’M SO FUCKIN SHOOKK MAN. Like there’s beautiful art, so wonderful and charming and concise and smartly designed panels for maximal fun storytelling and pay-off.

★★★★★ PURE MASTERY in storytelling through text and image, makes concepts of colonialism, industrialisation, sovereignty, geopolitics, and cultural heritage somehow SUPER accessible for kids

★★☆☆☆ I get the Lord of the Flies-but-girls pitch from a marketing perspective, but in reality it’s way more like The Maze Runner-but-girl’s. Also there are fully at least 2 adults stranded with the girls - who are teens not children. Lesbian romance was shite, no build up, no build out, not a fan.

★★★★☆ Found this pristine paperback edition at a thrift store in my hometown and semi-recognized the title and then just died laughing at the back summary which is so epic but then you discover a few sentences in its all RABBITS.