Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The third issue of the latest issue of Marvel Action: Spider-Man sees our arachnid hero coming face to goldfish bowl with his latest villain, Mysterio!

With Peter having recently defeated his gym teacher in battle, thanks to his teacher secretly being the villain Scorpion (Spidey didn’t just attack a teacher!) things seem to have returned to normal at school. Having finally caught up with his extra maths lessons, Peter is finally able to attend his first ever theatre class, run by Mr Beck.

Of course, eagle eyed fans will quickly pick up on who Beck is, and will be waiting for him to make an appearance as his villainous alter-ego; but before that we’re made to wait as Peter is forced to work with Sammie Scramble, a fellow classmate who’s obsessed with her social media account and her thousands of followers.

After getting caught on their phones Peter and Sammie end up with detention and their phones confiscated.Peter gets let go from detention early, but realising he’s forgotten to get his phone back heads back to class to find Sammie being confronted by Mysterio, who wants to steal her social media account. Now Spidey has to fight a villain who possesses the power of illusions before he’s able to enact his plan.

I found the second issue of Marvel Action: Spider-Man to have been something of an improvement over the first when it was able to focus on Spider-Man actually getting to fight a villain. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the series was able to keep this quality up as issue three ends up feeling incredibly dull and silly. The majority of the issue is given over to Peter navigating his school day, which wouldn’t be too bad if this led to engaging character moments or an advancement in the plot, but here it seems to only be done to make the audience aware that Sammie Scramble is a social media geek with hundreds of thousands of people following her account.

This leads to the biggest flaw with this issue: Mysterio’s plan. Literally all Mysterio wants is to have Sammie’s followers follow him online and watch his performances. So he plans to terrorise a school girl into endorsing him online and giving him her followers. I know that this is a comic series designed for the younger readers, but I don’t think it means that the villains need to be threat-less goofballs. He’d have been more villainous if he was literally taking candy from a baby.

It’s going to sound like harsh criticism, but reducing a character as beloved as Mysterio, a character who has been proven to be an effective and powerful villain across comics, films, games, and television, to wanting to steal a school girl’s social media followers is both ridiculous and insulting to the character. Even the fight between him and Spider-Man feels dull and eventless, with the biggest moment of drama being a cardboard tree falling on someone and trapping their legs.

With the previous volumes of this series being some of the best in the entire Marvel Action catalogue it’s sad to see the title reduced to this, to what almost feels like a parody of itself, where the villains are no better than schoolyard bullies and Spider-Man spends all his time patrolling the halls of his school. I can only hope that the series improves from this point, or that perhaps it gets rebooted for a fourth time.

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Star Wars Adventures: The Weapon of a Jedi #2 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second and final part of the comic book adaptation of Jason Fry’s Star Wars novel The Weapon of a Jedi hits shelves this week, allowing a whole new bunch of fans to experience this story in a different medium.

Adapted by Alec Worley, who previously adapted Star Wars Adventures: Smuggler’s Run, the book features art from Ruairi Coleman, and Chris O’Halloran, and was originally published in four parts in the Star Wars Insider magazine.

Picking up where the first issue left off, Luke Skywalker has travelled to the planet Devaron after feeling a strange call in The Force. Drawn to the planet for unknown reasons, Luke has recruited a local scavenger to take him to the ruins of an old temple that many of the local population won’t travel to. Having left his guide outside, Luke, along with C-3PO and R2-D2, makes his way through the old tunnels beneath the temple and eventually finds himself inside the ruins.

Here Luke discovers tests that only a Jedi would be able to pass, and sets out to prove that he has what it takes to be a Jedi, dedicating himself to passing the trials before him and learning more about The Force. Unfortunately for Luke, the Empire isn’t far behind him, and there may also be another threat lurking close by too.

The story definitely picks up in this issue, and there’s a lot more going on now that Luke has managed to find his way to the old Jedi Temple. Whilst the first issue had a lot of mystery as to what was going on, and Luke looking for answers on this planet, this issue jumps straight into things, and we’re very quickly watching as Luke trains himself in lightsaber combat.

I like that this story is trying to fill in some of the gaps between the films, that it’s showing that Luke would have had to sought out other ways of learning about the Jedi, and how to wield both his weapon and The Force, before he ends up being sent to Yoda. It would be easy to hand wave away that he just practised by himself between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, but this is definitely a lot more interesting. It not only gives Luke more agency as he seeks out his destiny as a Jedi, but gives us little insights into the Jedi and what happened to them after the rise of the Empire.

The book also manages to pack in a surprising amount of action as Luke and his friends have to deal with not only the Empire, but another mysterious antagonist; one who really puts Luke and all he’s learnt to the test. These scenes aren’t just entertaining, but show how naturally the ways of the Jedi come to Luke, and how strong he is in The Force.

This issue provides an engaging conclusion to the story, one that is a lot more entertaining than the first issue, and delves into some ideas and character development that I wasn’t quite expecting it to. Whilst I did enjoy it I do wish we could have gotten into Luke’s head a little more, as we did in the original book, but Worley still makes sure that we get to see how Luke’s mind works, how he begins to understand more of the Jedi and what’s expected of him; which is the most important part of the story.

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Witch Hunt – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Witch Hunt is the latest film to be written and directed by Elle Callahan, and depicts a world where not only are magic and witchcraft real, but the witch hunts never ended. Set in the modern day, it imagines a world where the government polices witches, where the Bureau of Witch Investigation (the BWI) rounds up witches into camps, where young women are tested by doctors for signs of magic, and where the government is preparing to pass new legislation to restrict people with magical heritage.

Fortunately, there are some people in this world who understand that people with magic are still human beings, and that having these abilities doesn’t make you a criminal. One of these people is Martha (Elizabeth Mitchell), who is part of an underground railroad that helps witches escape across the border into Mexico. Despite having opened her home to these people at great risk to herself, her daughter Claire (Gideon Adlon) is unsure if she approves, thanks in large part to anti-witch rhetoric at school and from her friends.

When the family takes in teenage witch Fiona (Abigail Cowen) and her younger sister, things begin to change, as thanks to the BWI closing in the girls are unable to make their next step on their journey to freedom. With the two young witches in her home, Claire begins to learn more about them, starts to see witches as persecuted women, and even begins to suspect that there might be a strange presence haunting the home.

After watching through Witch Hunt I had to go online to check if this was an adaptation of a book, because this felt a lot like a YA novel. Much like the YA genre, the story focuses on a teenage heroine, one who lives in a world similar to our own but where history has diverged in some way to create an oppressive, dystopian place to live. Our teenage heroine not only learns that the system she’s in is wrong, but she decides to try to do something about it, bringing herself into conflict with the forces who are trying to maintain the status quo. It ticked all the boxes, apart from perhaps not having a love triangle, and it felt like the kind of story that you could spend a number of books exploring the characters and world.

But it isn’t an adaptation. Instead writer director Elle Callahan created something new, something that felt familiar in a comfortable way, but still did some interesting things. I’m sure there will be some people who rolled their eyes as soon as I said it feels like a YA book, or thought that it might be a criticism, but I meant it as a compliment. Callahan has taken the things I love about that genre of fiction and transported it onto the screen to create a really engaging and interesting movie.

I enjoyed the characters, and Abigail Cowen and Gideon Adlon were both superbly well cast; the scenes where the two of them simply talked together were some of my favourites. I loved watching the two of them getting to know each other, discovering what life is like for the other, and ultimately becoming friends. Elizabeth Mitchell was also great in the film, and the moments where she had to go from mother to a woman lying and scheming against corrupt officials and prejudiced neighbours were some of her best moments.

The most interesting part of the film, though, is the world that Callahan creates. Other than the existence of witches it’s pretty much our world. But that slight change, the addition of magic in even the tiniest way makes it incredibly interesting. The film opens with men in government jackets pointing shotguns at a woman tied to a stake in front of a government building, as a suited man brings a flaming torch into frame to burn her. It’s this mashing of imagery that’s hundreds of years old with the modern day that’s the most striking.

I wanted to know how this world worked. I wanted to see what it was like with witches being this hated and oppressed class of people. Sometimes the exploration of this is hauntingly realistic, where you see border patrol throwing suspected witches onto busses to be taken to detention centres, or people making speeches about why this minority is dangerous and doesn’t deserve rights: things that we can see happening today to real people. Other times it’s an odd mix of classic witch hunting themes mixed in with the modern era, like doctors examining young women for witch marks, or sink tests being held in the school pool. Whatever insight we get just wasn’t enough for me though, and I’d have loved to have gone into it in even more detail over a longer run time.

I really enjoyed Witch Hunt, it took these engaging characters and interesting concepts and created a film that felt too short because of how much I enjoyed it. The movie flew by, and come the end I was sad that it wasn’t longer, and found myself hoping for a sequel, a television series, or even books set in this world – anything that would have given me more. It might not be for everyone, but if you love YA fiction then this is the kind of film where you’re going to feel very much at home.

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The Dark Chorus by Ashley Meggitt - Blog Tour

 

'The Boy can see lost souls. He has never questioned the fact that he can see them. He thinks of them as the Dark Chorus. When he sets out to restore the soul of his dead mother it becomes clear that his ability comes from within him. It is a force that he cannot ignore – the last shard of the shattered soul of an angel.

'To be restored to the kingdom of light, the shard must be cleansed of the evil that infects it – but this requires the corrupt souls of the living!

'With the help from Makka, a psychotically violent young man full of hate, and Vee, an abused young woman full of pain, the Boy begins to kill.

'Psychiatrist Dr Eve Rhodes is seconded to assist the police investigation into the Boy’s apparently random ritualistic killings. As the investigation gathers pace, a pattern emerges. When Eve pulls at the thread from an article in an old psychology journal, what might otherwise have seemed to her a terrible psychotic delusion now feels all too real…

'Will the Boy succeed in restoring the angel’s soul to the light? Can Eve stop him, or will she be lost to realm of the Dark Chorus?'

The Dark Chorus is one of those books where you begin to question what you're reading. As soon as the book begins we discover the Boy, a thirteen-year-old who has spent his whole life in orphanages and care homes since his mothers death; a teen who believes that he can see the spirits of the dead all around him. He uses his ability to find and trap the soul of his mother, and transfers this into a woman. When this doesn't go well he ends up killing the woman in a ritualistic way in order to free his mothers soul. 

This act ends up with the Boy being found by the police and sent to a young offenders institute. It's here that you begin to question if what you saw in the first few chapters was real, as the book now seems to be grounded in reality, and healthcare professionals point at all the different ways in which the Boy is delusional and dangerous. As the reader you begin to suspect that this isn't a book about souls and magic, but about a deeply disturbed individual who needs to be stopped from causing more harm. But then other characters, people outside of the Boy's 'delusion' start to see and experience things, and you realise that the book is actually blending the fantastical with the real, and that it's keeping one foot firmly in each camp.

This is the fine line that Ashely Meggitt manages to walk across the entire book, and uses two differing narratives to do so with great effect. For the majority of the novel we follow the Boy, with the story being told in a first person perspective as he sets out on his deadly mission. However, there are times when the book jumps away from him and we join Dr Eve Rhodes, a psychiatrist helping the police with his case. These parts of the book are written from a third person perspective, and take a much more grounded and analytical view of events; and much of it is presented more as a police investigation procedural as Eve helps the police.

The mixing of these two narrative styles is very well done, and ends the book a unique feel as one moment we can be spending time with the Boy, who literally sees souls and can stare into the very heart of what makes people tick with his powers; whilst the next page we could be seeing police examine a crime scene and talking about paranoid delusions and motives. The Boy's parts bring the fantastical to the mundane, whilst Eve's help to anchor the rest of the book in the real world, leading to the fantastical nature of the story never feeling too weird to be accepted.

Over the course of the narrative the Boy ends up recruiting two other teens into his mission, the first is an Asian boy names Makka, a psychotically violent young man who's goal in life is to find the racist criminal who raped his mother; swearing to kill the man for destroying his mothers life, even though it led to his birth.

The two of them also come across a girl names Victoria, who they manage to save from being raped by one of Makka's father's Nazi friends. She's a young girl who's been sold into child sex by her wealthy and well connected father, but has bee on the run for some time.

Not only do these two characters help the Boy, but they end up being connected as we learn that Makka's father and his friends have been hired to track down and recapture Victoria by her father. It does feel at time like it's fate, rather than random chance that brings the three of them together, and connects them in these ways; which is somewhat fitting as we learn more and more about the Boy and the powers he's connected to over the course of the story.

It should be noted before jumping in to read the book, though, that it is an incredibly violent narrative. Meggitt doesn't shy away from including physical violence, and some pretty brutal murder scenes. For the most part these feel somewhat acceptable, as the Boy and his friends target people whose souls are beyond redemption. Their victims end up being rapists, child molesters, racists, and thugs. They go after people who prey on the weak, who hate others for being different, the kind of people that most would look at and say shouldn't be a part of civilised society.

This means that The Dark Chorus can feel incredibly dark at times, and I'm glad that when I was asked onto the blog tour I was made aware of some of this via content warnings, as if you were to go into in unprepared for the racist language and violent killings it'd probably take you aback somewhat; even though you'd probably get a sense of satisfaction in seeing bad people getting punished. One thing that I was not warned about before reading, and that I feel I should make potential readers aware of, is a small moment of casual transphobia that's thrown into the book. It's a single throwaway line, where Meggitt is describing how run down and illicit a certain part of London is, and mentions a 'fashion outlet for transsexuals'. This might not seem like much, and it's not really, but it was enough to throw me out of the book for a moment; and it was something that I kept circling back to thinking about. It felt completely unnecessary, and in all honesty I did contemplate not continuing the book; but then I'd have missed out on what is a pretty decent read. Yes, it's only one moment; but it's one that can harm, so to those reading this who might be considering picking up the book please be aware that this is something that happens.

On the whole I really enjoyed the book. I found that Meggitt was able to craft a really compelling and layered story; one where I was never sure what to expect and that I was eager to find out what happens next. The characters were interesting, and I'd have liked it if we could have spent some more time with them in the quiet moments between the big beats of the story, as I'd have loved to have found out more about them. Especially Victoria.

The Dark Chorus is a brutal book, one that takes it's readers to some dark places, yet manages to include some beauty too. The descriptions of the souls that the Boy sees, the Dark Chorus as he calls it, are some beautifully described moments that offset the often depressing banality of the real world places these child vigilantes are forced to stay in. The book walks a fine line between horror and police thriller, and will have you guessing and wondering a lot of the time; but it's a book that I really enjoyed, and am glad I read.

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Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy #5 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest issue of IDW’s Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy transports readers to the prequel era to witness senator Amidala and Anakin Skywalker get in trouble at a party, before taking us across time to the planet of Scarif, where a new Imperial commander is being assigned to a new mission.

The first story in this issue, ‘The Incident’, is written by Katie Cook and features art by Cara McGee, Britanny Peer, and Jake M. Wood, and is set on the peaceful world of Naboo. The story begins with Padme Amidala arriving on the planet following a long flight, looking somewhat worse for wear. Rather than getting refreshed at her accommodation she heads straight for the Annual Festival of Light party, dismissing her escorts so that they can go and get some rest.

Upon arriving at the party Padme finds that the host, Tomarian, has a Jedi escort for the evening; none other than Anakin Skywalker, who jumped at the chance to act as body guard at a party he knew Padme would be at. Whilst refreshing at the party a trio of criminals breaks in, gassing everyone except Tomarian, who they’re demanding delivers them some beskar. As she was in the bathroom at the time Padme isn’t knocked out, and is left alone to try and deal with the situation. Yep, it’s Star Wars doing Die Hard. Padme Amidala is now John McClane.

As this particular story is only a first part, with the conclusion to be delivered in the next issue, we don’t get to see Padme doing too much action, though knowing the character the way we do she’s definitely more than capable of taking on a group of armed criminals. She even has her own Al Powell in the form of a little astromech droid on the outside of the party she’s in radio communication with. I don’t think she’s barefoot though.

Whilst the first part of the story isn’t the most exciting one I’ve read in a Star Wars Adventures comic, the promise of what’s to come in the next issue is definitely an interesting one. I like the character of Padme, and getting to see her taking the lead in a story like this is a lot of fun. Hopefully the team are able to stick the landing on this particular tale.

The second story in the issue, ‘The Short Goodbye’, written by Casey Gilly with art by Butch Mapa, Charlie Kirchoff, and Johanna Nattalie, jumps forward a few decades, and takes readers to the tropical world of Scarif; as seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The story centres on Captain A’Shar Farless, a young man fresh out of the Imperial Academy who’s found himself assigned to Scarif. After attending a brief speech from Governor Tarkin, a speech in which we see Lord Vader himself lurking in the room, Farless is given his new orders from Tarkin to whip the personnel on Scarif back into shape.

This is an interesting story, and despite being quite short you really get a good sense of the kind of person Farless is as he and Tarkin delve into his past at the Academy, as well as from the way he interacts with both his fellow Imperials and his droid. His droid, DT-JZ, is an interesting addition to the story. DT appears to be the same type of droid that we see Clone Force 99 fighting on Kamino in the first episode of The Bad Batch, and whilst it’s not been officially confirmed (as far as I’m aware(, these seem to be early iterations of Dark Troopers. If that’s the case, DT being a Dark Trooper that talks, and has something of a personality, makes this one of the more interesting droids in Star Wars for a while now. Sadly, we don’t get much of them in this story.

Despite being short, ‘The Short Goodbye’ is packed full of interesting moments. The backgrounds are full of Imperials doing neat little things, like Shore Troopers shooting at bottles, and cameo appearances, like Darth Vader, and virtually every type of Imperial we saw in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story makes an appearance somewhere here. Overall this proved to be a decent issue. Although slowed down slightly by the first story having to do a lot of set up, I’m definitely interested to see how that plays out in the next issue.

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The Royal Rebel by Bali Rai - Book Review

 

'Born in 1876, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was the daughter of the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. After her father lost control of his empire and was exiled to England, Sophia had a privileged but troubled upbringing that left her unsure about where she belonged - in India or England. Sensitive to injustice, she became a Suffragette and fought hard to win the vote for women. This is the extraordinary story of her life.'

One of the things that I really love about the historical books that Barrington Stoke produce is that they often choose figures that people may only have a vague knowledge of, or even that you've never heard of. I love picking up their books knowing that I'm going to learn something new and interesting, that I'm going to come across a part of history that I've never leaned about before.

The Royal Rebel takes a look at Sophia Duleep Singh, the daughter of the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab. Raised in England in the Elveden country estate, Sophia was treated like a princess. Their home was filled with expensive artworks and luxuries, and the grounds played host to animals from across the world. She grew up with everything she could have wanted; but one day that began to change.

Over the course of her childhood we see her family getting into further and further financial difficulties, and we see how this strained the family. Eventually her father abandoned his wife and children, living out the remainder of his days away from his responsibilities. It's here that we see the seeds of discontent begin to take root in Sophia, as she realises her life isn't perfect; and that the people in charge of the country she was raised in are a large reason for this.

During a trip to India Sophia realises that despite being a princess the British people don't actually care about her, and that they will quickly wash their hands of her and leave her alone to fend for herself. It's only through the kindness of the Punjabi people that she and her sisters are even able to get by in their ancestral home. Soon she and her sisters have given up all love for England, and have decided that Indian independence should be their goal. Whilst her sisters stay in India Sophia returns to England, hoping to use her position there to help the cause.

Over the years Sophia does a lot of charity work and fundraising for the lascar's who were left to live in squalor in England. Eventually, Sophia learnt about another fight for freedom; the fight for women's right to vote. After attending a Suffrage meeting Sophia joined up with the cause, and over the next few decades campaigned tirelessly to help women to gain the right to vote.

The life of Sophia Duleep Singh is a pretty amazing story, and it couldn't have been easy for Bali Rai to condense it down into a book that was easy for kids to read that also contained all of the important parts of her life. However, he manages to do so, and despite the relatively short length of the book readers get given plenty of detail about the main parts of her family life, her childhood, and her various endeavours across her life.

Rai covers all of the major events in Sophia's life, but doesn't just treat the book as a list of accomplishments, and makes sure that the readers get the chance to get to know the princess a little. We spend some time in her head, see what her thoughts are, and get to understand her motivations.

Before reading this book I'd honestly never heard of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, but now that I know about her I can see myself going out and learning more about her. I'm definitely interested in learning about her life and her achievements in greater detail. Like past Barrington Stoke historical books, The Rebel Royal is a perfect gateway into further reading and learning, a first step to discovering about an amazing figure from history.

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5 LGBTQ+ Books To Check Out

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

With Pride Month nearing its end we thought we should highlight some great LGBTQ+ fiction that people might want to take the time to check out, and that we’d focus on creators who sometimes get overlooked in the publishing industry – writers of colour.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Latinx teen Yadriel is having problems convincing his family to accept him as a trans man, so sets out on a plan to prove himself a man. When he and his friends hatch a scheme to summon the ghost of his murdered cousin things don’t quite go as planned, and he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, the local bad boy who recently died. Now the two teens are forced to help each other out before Julian can move on, but as they do they find themselves becoming closer.

Hyped up on its release in 2020, Cemetery Boys proved to be a very popular YA novel, incorporating elements from the Latinx experience, trans masculine narratives, the supernatural, and even queer romance. Thanks to Aiden Thomas’ richly imaginative and vibrant narrative, a plot with magic and mystery, and characters that you can’t help but fall in love with, this is a book that should be on everyone’s to-be-read pile.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Set in the halls of Niveus Private Academy, an elite school for the perfect children of the mega-wealthy, Ace of Spades tells the story of Aces, an anonymous figure who reveals dark secrets the students are trying to hide. When two of the most popular students in the school, musician Devon and head girl Chiamaka, are targeted by Aces things become heated across the school.

Having been described as Gossip Girl with a dash of Get Out thrown into the mix, but Black and queer, Ace of Spades has been one of the more highly anticipated YA books of 2021 (having just been released this June). Thanks to Àbíké-Íyímídé’s talent at crafting tension and suspense, as well as some shocking twists and turns in the narrative, the book will hook a lot of readers very quickly. But the book also deals with some heavy topics, and explores the intersection of class, race, and sexualities, bringing some very important topics to the forefront of the book.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix is black, queer, and trans, and because he’s never been in love he’s worried that his marginalisations mean that he’s never going to get a love story of his own. When one of the students at his school begins to send anonymous transphobic messages, after publicly posting his deadname and pre-transition photos, Felix sets out to find the culprit and get revenge. However, he never expected to end up falling into a love-triangle, as well as discovering more about himself along the way.

Stories that deal with the harsh reality of transphobia, about how much that kind of abuse can hurt a person, and how society tends not to see it as a real form of abuse, can be hard reads, and there are moments in Felix Ever After that do hit hard, that really put you in Felix’s head and show the pain he’s going through. However, the book is about so much more than that, and is about the beauty and joy of getting to be your true self, it’s about self discovery and love, and it makes for an incredibly moving and memorable piece.

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

It’s been 200 years since Cinderella met her prince, and now every year teen girls are required to attend the Annual Ball, where they have to find a husband by demonstrating their finery and grace. Those that are not picked are never heard from again. However, sixteen-year-old Sophia doesn’t want a husband; she wants to marry her childhood best friend Erin. When she flees the Ball and finds herself in Cinderella’s mausoleum she meets the last descendent of Cinderella, and the two of them vow to bring down the king and end this horrible tradition.

Cinderella is Dead is an inventive twist on the classic fairy tale, one that shows the more frightening side to these childhood tales, but also one that centres a Black queer girl as the hero of the piece; something we need more of. With some pretty unexpected twists and surprises, some intense moments, and young queer women setting out to destroy the patriarchy, this might be a book based on story centuries old, but it’s definitely geared to a modern audience.

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

Michael is coming to terms with his identity as a mixed race and gay teen in the UK, but when he discovers the art of drag he finds a new way to come to terms with who he is and express himself under the drag identity The Black Flamingo. Through his adventures with his new drag friends he learns to embrace the parts of himself he was never allowed to before, as well as finding love.

Written in verse, this YA book is nothing if not a celebration of the beauty of both blackness and queerness, one that touches on deep emotional highs and lows. Even if you’re not the biggest fan of drag, which not everyone is, it’s not really about that. It’s about a young man finding a way of expressing himself, of becoming comfortable with who he is in a world filled with toxic masculinity. A genuine celebration of getting to be yourself openly and proudly.

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What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo - Book Review

 

'Eleanor has not seen or spoken with her family in years, not since they sent her away to Saint Brigid's boarding school. She knows them only as vague memories: her grandfather's tremendous fanged snout, the barrel full of water her mother always soaked in, and strange hunting trips in a dark wood with her sister and cousins.

'When Eleanor finally returns to their ancestral home on the rainy coast of Maine, she finds them already gathered in wait, seemingly ready to welcome her back with open arms. But a strange and sudden death rocks the family, and in order to keep the family that abandoned her from falling apart, Eleanor calls upon her mysterious other grandmother from across the sea.

'Grandmere brings order to the chaotic household, but that order soon turns to tyranny. If any of them are to survive, Eleanor must embrace her strange family and confront the monstrousness lurking deep within her Grandmere – and herself.'

What Big Teeth tells the story of Eleanor, a young woman who was sent away from her family to attend a boarding school across the country several years ago, and hasn't seen or heard from them since. After a violent altercation at school with one of the fellow students Eleanor packs her bags and heads back to her home. She's not expecting a warm reception, for several reasons, and finds a family strangely familiar, yet also alien to her; her family having moved on in her absence.

The Zarrin family aren't just normal people, however, and each of them holds a dark secret within them. Her grandmother, who rules the household, practices magic, her mother is covered in strange coral-like polyps and must stay wet, and her grandfather, father, cousin, and sister can all change into monstrous wolves and stalk the forests around their home. Despite this strangeness Eleanor seems to be the strangest of all of them, because she's not like the rest of them. She can't become the wolf, and despite trying all her life it doesn't seem like there's one within her. Instead, she has vague memories of something else stirring inside her, something she has no words for.

When her grandmother dies shortly after using her magics to read Eleanor's future Eleanor is left in charge of her grandmother's business, and charged with protecting the family she feels so separated from. When she learns that her mother's mother is still alive she writes to her, asking her to come and help, but this might not be the lifeline she's expecting as shortly after her Grandmere arrives things in the house begin to get worse.

From very early on reading What Big Teeth there are some definite Addams Family vibes going on in this book. The family are all creepy and odd in some way, have connections to magic and folklore, and live in a big mansion away from the rest of the small town community; a community that fears them. It has a Gothic feel baked into every character and moment, and I feel if you put a mood board together for this book it'd be creepy old houses and Tim Burton movies.

Rose Szabo is really good at putting this kind of aesthetic into the story but not going too far with it and making it feel over the top, too much like a caricature. They're able to infuse the house and the family with a strangeness that feels so other, yet everyone in the family feels like a real person. Yes, they might be extreme in some way, but you always feel like you understand what motivates them, why they act the way they do. Szabo is able to make these larger than life beings feel like real people, even if they can also transform into wolves; and that's a hell of an accomplishment. 

The character of Eleanor is our main point of view for the book, and thanks to her having spent a number of years away from her family and needing to relearn who they are and what it's like to live with them we get to see them through this fairly fresh perspective. Their strangeness isn't new to her, but thanks to the intervening years away from them is feels like it is. Not only does this allow the readers an easy way into this family, to be shocked by their oddness, but it works well for the story too, and really help to set Eleanor as an outsider, which sets the story up to go in some interesting directions. 

I liked Eleanor as a character, despite her making what I felt were some bad mistakes at times, but then that's part of any character's journey. Eleanor is the reason things go wrong in this book, or more precisely, her choices set the family down the path for things to go wrong. But where the rest of her family only seem to have one way of dealing with things, striking out violently, Eleanor is smart enough to know that that won't help them here, and has to use her difference from her family in order to save them. She doesn't have the power or the physical strengths of her family, so she has to learn to use her mind.

Ultimately, this seemed to be one of the main themes of the book; learning and looking for answers. Eleanor has to learn to find her place in a family that she doesn't recognise. She's searching for answers for why she's so different, and to learn more about the thing hidden inside of her. And she's digging into the family's past, trying to discover how they all ended up here.

These brief glimpses into the past were some of my favourite moments, and I loved it when her grandfather told the tale of his home country, some unnamed place somewhere deep in Europe. His story of this land where language didn't exist, where the bells sounded to warn the people of the approaching monsters, and his encounter with the powerful dark entity that stalked them may have been one of the shortest moments in the book, but it left a lasting impression. I think this was the moment that I realised that there was something a little special about this book, and about Rose Szabo as a writer. This tiny part set the tone for the whole novel, and was one of the creepiest and most disturbing moments. I'm hoping that we get to see more like this in Szabo's future work, and I know that if they ever decided to write an intense horror story it'd be incredibly chilling.

What Big Teeth is an interesting, Gothic YA story filled with mystery and horror elements. It's a story about finding your place in the world, of learning to accept your family for their faults and their strangeness. And it's a story about discovering who you really are; and all of it's wrapped up in this wonderfully dark, delightfully queer story. An outstanding debut from an author we should all be keeping an eye on.

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City of Iron and Dust by J.P. Oakes - Book Review

 

'In this fast-paced dark fantasy debut, the Fae seek to rebel against their Goblin oppressors over one long bloody night.

'The Iron City is a prison, a maze, an industrial blight. It is the result of a war that saw the Goblins grind the Fae beneath their collective boot heels. And tonight, it is also a city that churns with life. Tonight, a young fae is trying to make his fortune one drug deal at a time; a goblin prince is searching for a path between his own dreams and others' expectations; his bodyguard is deciding who to kill first; an artist is hunting for her own voice; an old soldier is starting a new revolution; a young rebel is finding fresh ways to fight; and an old woman is dreaming of reclaiming her power over them all. 

'Tonight, all their stories are twisting together, wrapped up around a single bag of Dust--the only drug that can still fuel Fae magic--and its fate and theirs will change the Iron City forever.'

So often in fiction we see revolutions being led by a strong central figure, some lone hero who's risen up to become a beacon around which everyone else can rally behind in their fight against an oppressive regime. These tend to be the main characters for dystopian fiction, and it's something that I kind of expected from City of Iron and Dust; but I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was I wrong, but that the book delivered something completely different.

City of Iron and Dust takes place in the Iron City, a vast, maze-like place where the Fae, various races descended from fairy folk, have been forced to live following their defeat in a war against Goblins. Due to their connection with nature, and the fact that they can draw magic from it, the Goblins have constructed the city so that the Fae are trapped away from the outside world, surrounded by Iron, a substance that's deadly to them.

Forced to work in huge factories, refineries, and other gruelling areas of production, the Fae have been ground under the heels of their Gobln masters, treated as second class citizens to be looked down upon. Despite so many of the Fae having never known any other life, some still fight for the freedom and liberation of their people, and we join the city on the night that these feelings swell to a breaking point and violence breaks out across the Iron City.

Instead of following the leader of this revolution, one lone hero who's banded everyone together, we follow several characters; most of whom are regular people. This is because J.P. Oakes has taken something of a more realistic approach to the story, because quite often in revolution it isn't about one person, and it's the combined efforts of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands. These people, sometimes only united in their desire for freedom, and with no formal bonds between their cells or groups, are the real force behind change; and that's who this book focuses on instead.

There's a variety of people who we follow across the course of the story, on both sides of the conflict. There's a low level drug dealer who finds himself in possession of a huge quantity of Dust, a drug that allows the Fae to access their latent magic abilities, who ends up being wanted by both sides of the conflict because of what he has. There's a young artist, who wants to use his skills and his vision to inspire those around him to rise up and fight for their freedom, for a better world through his art rather than any action he could take. We follow a member of a small group of revolutionaries who end up getting involved in the citywide fight, and we see how this small cell act in the face of full scale uprising.

We also follow some figures who aren't Fea, who are in difficult positions because of who they are. There's the daughter of one of the five main Goblin houses who rules the city, a woman who's set to inherit her father's vast wealth and power but doesn't want to be a evil overlord like him, and wants peace between the Goblins and Fae. We also get to follow her sister, a half Goblin half Fae who's been broken and beaten into being the perfect weapon, tasked only with protecting her sister at any costs. We also spend a lot of time with the former head of one of the other Goblin houses, an aged woman who not only hates that she's no longer in control of her house, but sets out to use the revolution as a means to gain control of all of them.

The book jumps between the various characters across the course of the story, and we get to discover that no one character, that neither side in this conflict, really knows everything. Everyone has their own plans and their own schemes, and whilst some of these are pretty sound, through our unique perspective as the reader we see that all of these plots are balancing on the edge of a knife; that so many of them are at risk of falling apart. The revolution depicted in this book is messy, it's chaotic, and everyone is scrabbling simply to survive the night, and a who does or doesn't seems to very much be down to luck.

It felt more real because of this, that there wasn't some big villain somewhere who'd plotted everything out, who'd anticipated all the variables and was pulling the strings the whole time. Instead, people were left on the back foot, were having to bluff their way through, and left reacting to what their enemies were doing a lot of the time. Despite it being a fantastical story, filled with inhuman people and magic, it made it feel more real that a lot of books like this.

The story also used its fantasy elements well. It's full of creatures like Goblins, Kobolds, Selkies, Gnomes, and other fantasy races, and it made good use of magic, but for the most part it was a very modern story. There were mobile phones, cars, and guns. It was less a fantasy story, and more a real world story that just happened to replace the humans with other races. This combination was something that felt odd at first, as I've rarely read stories where it's done, but it felt right for the kind of story that Oakes was trying to tell; and come the end it felt completely natural to see a Goblin firing a gun from the back of a tank.

There's a lot to City of Iron and Dust, a lot of characters with their own stories and motivations, lots of plots and themes that all weave in and out of each other to create this story that whilst covering only one night also encompasses several stories; all of which could have had its own book. It's a book that feels really dense, that packs the content in. It also makes many fantasy elements accessible for people who might never had tried the genre before, thanks to its hybrid nature. This is a book that managed to subvert my expectations a number of times, one that was never what I expected, and one that I'm sure will intrigue a lot of readers.

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Target: Kree - A Marvel: Crisis Protocol Novel by Stuart Moore - Book Review

 

'The Avengers clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in a desperate search for a planet-killer, in this action-packed novel set in the world of the Marvel: Crisis Protocol game

'Following the destruction of their world, a group of Kree refugees come to Earth to work for Stark Enterprises. But the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive soon after, believing that the world-killer is actually one of those Kree, now hiding out on Earth. But there are others after the killer too, and the Avengers have no choice but to respond – and both Tony Stark and Ms Marvel have to choose between the fate of the Earth and the people they care about.'

The Marvel: Crisis Protocol miniature game gets its first novelisation from Aconyte Books this week as the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy end up embroiled in a plot that has already seen the destruction of an alien world, and might now see Earth lost too.

The action begins on a distant Kree planet, where thousands of inhabitants are trying desperately got get aboard a handful of vessels as the planet is torn apart under them. Trying to manage the mad dash to the limited escape vessels, the Guardians of the Galaxy are doing what they can for the people; though it soon becomes clear that they're not going to be able to save everyone. Trying to find out why this is happening, Gamora manages to see a lone figure inside the centre of the energy that's tearing the planet apart, indicating that this isn't a natural disaster, but the actions of an outside party. Sadly, the Guardians are unable to stop the planet's destruction and tens of thousands are lost; including one of their own.

Several months later, one of the ships that was able to flee the destruction has managed to find a new home for it's people on Earth, where Tony Stark has agreed to provide them with housing and support in exchange for giving them jobs inside his company. However, things don't seem to be as good as the Kree hoped, and thanks to someone below Stark taking control of the project the refugees have become little more than slaves, living in squalid conditions, and forced to work themselves to exhaustion.

This information has barely been brought to Tony's attention by the Kree's lawyer, Jennifer Walters, also known as She-Hulk, when the Guardians turn up on the scene. They're convinced that the planet killer is amongst the Kree trying to build a new life on Earth, and have set their sights on getting revenge for their former team-mate. 

Now Tony and a handful of his fellow Avengers have to stop the Guardians from possibly attacking an innocent person; but it soon becomes clear that there might be more going on than anyone suspects, and that a planet killer might be under their noses, just waiting to destroy Earth too.

Sometimes when comic book characters make the leap to other mediums they end up in the hands of people who don't really understand what it is that makes comics work, and you end up with stories that feel too far removed from their source material. Luckily, this book manages to avoid that by actually getting a comic book writer to take on the challenge. 

Stuart Moore is a name that some comics readers might recognise, as he's written several big name titles at Marvel over the years; including Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolverine: Blood Sorrow, and Thanos: Death Sentence. This isn't Moore's first foray into bringing comic characters to prose, however, as he's also created several prose novels over the years that both adapt existing comic stories as well as ones that are completely new creations. 

Moore is one of those rare authors who just seems to completely understand what makes comics work, and knows how to transplant them into a new medium without losing any of that magic. Because of this Target: Kree flows extremely well, and whilst there is plenty of action and spectacle mixed in with character moments and story beats, the two are never fighting against each other for centre stage. Just like with comics, it's managed to find this wonderful balance where you can come for the characters, to see what happens to them and their stories, but also enjoy some over the top, epic fight scenes that leave you feeling awed.

The book really manages to capture the essence of a lot of these characters too, and you can tell Moore knows them well. Everyone has a very distinct voice, and feels really different from each other; which is no easy feat considering how many established characters actually end up featuring in the book once everything's said and done. Some of the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy are particularly stand-out, with both Rocket Raccoon and Drax being a ton of fun to read whenever they're on the page. But if I were to pick one character who really stands out it's Ms Marvel.

Ms Marvel is the one character in the book that I'm the least familiar with, and I've not read as much of her stuff as I have the other characters. That being said, I found that I got to know her pretty quickly, and soon came to like who she was. Moore managed to make her feel young and hopeful, filled with worry about if she's good enough to be a hero, let alone an Avenger, yet also determined to help out and try to make the world a better place. She had an energy to her that I think was sometimes lacking from the older, more world weary characters; and if I have one real criticism of the book it's that we didn't spend enough time with her, because she was just delightful.

Aconyte Books have published some other Marvel books, most of which focus on a small handful of characters at most, and even then they'll still put the main attention on one character in particular. But this is the first of their Marvel novels that really showcases a big cast of characters, where everyone gets a moment to shine and the story isn't afraid to jump around as it shows us what everyone's up to. And it really works. It shows that novels are goof for telling focused, character driven stories, but also big bombastic stories where scores of heroes are having to fight to save the entire planet.

One of the most exciting parts of the entire book, however, is the end, because it seems to be setting up for more exciting things to come. One of our heroes from this book is being recruited by a new band of iconic characters to go on and fight a particularly menacing foe; and I really hope that this is setting up for a follow-up because I really need the book that seems to be promising.

If you love superheroes getting in fights with each other, if you like bug team ups against powerful foes, if you like stories where the stakes are the entire planet, and if you're a fan of comics this is the kind of novel that will appeal to you. It throws so much at the reader that you're constantly on your toes, excited to find out what's going to happen next, or eager to see which hero might appear at the last minute to help save the day. A ton of fun that every geek is sure to love.

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