In which I read a lot of romance-adjacent stories, and love them all. Almost.
In August, I finished Lynsday Faye’s newest, The King of Infinite Space, a queer retelling of Hamlet set in contemporaryish New York City. Something indeed seems rotten in the house of Dane. After his father’s apparent suicide, Ben Dane is spiraling and becoming increasingly concerned it was not a suicide, and his father was murdered. Horatio Patel, his closest friend, flies from London to help Ben, though things are still pretty awkward after their one-night stand. And Ben’s ex-fiance, Lia, is trying to heal herself with the help of the aptly named Weird sisters, after years of alcohol dependency and flashes of childhood trauma in the Dane’s burnt-down Globe Theater. The major beats from Hamlet are there, along with splashes of other Shakespeare figures (hello, Robin Goodfellow), but Faye’s queer reimagining of Hamlet is fresh and unique all on its own. Hamlet’s “madness” is reinterpreted to be Ben’s neurodivergence, portrayed with breaks and highly stylized text. It’s Horatio, though, who is the heart of the story, trying desperately to care for the man he loves, even if that might mean being “just” the friend. A little slow to get started, The King of Infinite Space greatly picks up by the second to third act, and winds up being a rewarding read even wholly divorced from the Bard.
Next I read Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, which is billed as an Indian mythology-inspired political fantasy sapphic epic, and is pretty much exactly that. Malani is the sister of the new and increasingly fanatical emperor of Parijatdvipa. When she disobeys his order to be sacrificially burned, she is sequestered to the Harana, a temple in the rebellious state Ahiranya. There she meets Priya, a maidservant and one of the last temple daughters of the Harana. Together, they will both become integral players shaping the future of the empire and the lives of those around them. The only thing that might get in the way is the growing feelings between them. Clocking in at over 500 pages, there is a lot of story to absorb and a broad swath of characters. Keeping up with the political machinations, the slowly growing plague, and the magic system of the Harana and Ahiranya people is a lot, but Tasha Suri deftly balances all the moving pieces to craft an absorbing and surprisingly intimate story that still can feel epic in scope. Neither Priya nor Malani are perfect characters, and each have a vision of their future and what it means for them to be free. The fact that those visions might be at odds gives depth and maturity to the story in a heart-wrenching kind of way. However, my favorite character has to be Bhumika, the very pregnant wife of the regent and a fellow temple daughter, who displays strength, grace, compassion, and power in a way that is both complementary and also at odds to Priya and Malani. In fact, Suri provides no shortage of female characters whose decisions are driven by complex desires and needs for themselves and for the people who need them. If you’re looking for an imaginatively intricate, magical fantasy to invest in, The Jasmine Throne is most definitely for you.
I also bought into the hype and read From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout and was maybe not as impressed as some others. Maybe it’s because I had already read The Jasmine Throne, but Poppy felt a little more vapid and one-dimensional than I was expecting. Poppy, the Maiden, the Chosen One, because she is almost always described that way, feels like a specific fantasy heroine archetype, the “secretly a bad-ass, not like those other girls” and the romance with Hawke was not quite as epic as I felt hyped up for. But I still blazed through the book, ready to turn the next page; Armentrout plots well and keeps the story compelling. It was only in the breaks from reading that the book seemed to fall a little short, and feel on the verge of being repetitive (which is why I will not be continuing the series. One is enough). There was also a moment, I’m not sure if it was halfway through, where it finally dawned on me, “Oh, this is vampires and werewolves” and I started uncomfortably thinking of Underworld.
And finally, I started a new manga series, reading the first two volumes of Those Not-So-Sweet Boys by Yoko Nogiri. I’m still in love with how incredibly sweet and heartwarming this shoujo series is. I had all the same fuzzy feelings I get with Fruits Basket or Kimi Ni Todoke. Midori is the continually positive and sweet girl, just out there doing her best, and the three close friends are, of course, not as bad as everyone thinks they are. The artwork, too, flows seamlessly, if maybe just a bit typical or conventional. I am definitely looking forward to reading more of this story.
September Reading Goals
- Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
- Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson
- Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
- Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
Bookish Brianna 