Author Archives: sadie

midnight curse

Book Review of Midnight Curse (Disrupted Magic #1), by Melissa F. Olson

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In 2017, I purchased a copy of Melissa F. Olson‘s Midnight Curse from Amazon. It is yet one more book I unearthed when I went through all my ebooks recently.

Description from Goodreads:

Scarlett Bernard is used to cleaning up messes. As a human who cancels out any magic around her, Scarlett’s job is to keep the supernatural world hidden—at any cost.

But on the eve of the Vampire Trials, a two-day tribunal that allows the otherworldly community to air their grievances, Scarlett receives a blood-soaked message from Molly, her estranged former roommate. Molly, a vampire, had been living with twelve human college students…and in one terrible night, she slaughtered them all.

Scarlett believes Molly’s been set up, but no one else in the Old World agrees with her. Meanwhile, the true perpetrator is determined to make sure Molly goes on trial for the massacre—and the penalty is death.

With less than two days to prove her friend’s innocence, Scarlett calls on former LAPD detective Jesse Cruz to help her dig into Molly’s past. But no one—Molly included—wants Scarlett and Jesse to bring the terrible truth to light.

Review:

I really quite enjoyed this. I admit that I didn’t know that this is actually the first book in a spin-off of sorts to a previous trilogy. (Well, it’s all the same characters, but apparently three years later). So, it would more honestly be labeled book four, in my opinion. But it’s readable on its own. I could follow the plot no problem, but I did feel I was missing quite a bit of history between the characters.

I liked Scarlette’s character a lot, enjoyed Jesse, and appreciated the side characters. The world is effortlessly diverse and the plot kept me interested until the end. Admittedly, the plot hinges on the abuse of women and I am just soooo tired of this always being the plotline. I have asked repeatedly, is this really the only plot available to authors? But that’s my biggest complaint. I’ll absolutely be looking for more by Olson.

Book Review: We Were Eight Years in Power, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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I won a copy of Ta-Nehisi Coates‘ We Were Eight Years in Power a while back. But it has been sitting on my shelf for too long. I read it now in my ongoing attempt to further educate myself.

Description from Goodreads:

“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. Now Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period–and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective–the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.

We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including Fear of a Black President, The Case for Reparations and The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration, along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.

Review:

Sooooo, I basically think every American should read this book. It’s eminently more engageable than I’d expected and I learned quite a lot. It’s not that I’d never encountered aspects of what Coates covered, many of the topics I’d studied in college 9at least shallowly). But that was a long time ago. He prompted me to think about things from angles I hadn’t before and does it all while centering it in and around his own experiences as a Black man in America. Which humanizes and relevantizes some of the histories that can feel out of reach due to the distance of time.

Admittedly, as Coates himself admits, he falls between an essayist and a memoirist (his own). So, the book doesn’t touch on intersectionalities of gender and race. Which is a shame, considering several of the essays touch on the politics around the dissolution of the family unit (or the fear, politicization, paternalism of it) and resulting female-led households. But I still think the book accomplishes what it set out to do. Absolutely, especially given current events, pick this one up people.

kain

Book Review of Kain (Sex, Drugs, and Cyberpunk #1), by Brie McGill

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Apparently, I picked up a freebie copy of Brie McGill‘s Kain way back in 2013. It’s one of the books I unearthed when I went through all my ebooks recently.

Description from Goodreads:

Beaten to a pulp, drugged into a daze, and brainwashed into oblivion, human experiment Lukian Valentin gambles his life to evade another eviscerating afternoon with his trigger-happy superiors. Fifty stories of a maximum-security building and hundreds of trained special operatives can’t hold a candle to his will to escape. Beyond the laser bars of his holding cell, Lukian must surmount the even greater challenges of repairing the fragments of his broken mind, forgiving himself for his unwilling involvement with the Empire, and learning what it means to live on his own.

The sassy and commanding Naoko Nai wonders just what to do with the soft-spoken, socially awkward, and totally ripped guy she was assigned to train for employment. She knows nothing else about him, other than the fact he was granted asylum, is great with a knife, and his little white apron gives her distinctly unprofessional thoughts.

When the Empire comes to collect, Naoko unwittingly provides the perfect bait to reel Lukian back to headquarters for a fresh series of brain implants and repair.

To save the woman he loves, Lukian must summon the deadly powers implanted in him by the Empire–powers he fears he can’t control, powers he struggled to forgive himself for using, powers that may drive Naoko away forever–because no ordinary man has struck a blow against the Empire and lived to tell the tale. To save Naoko, Lukian must emerge victorious from the battle against himself.

Review:

I picked this up thinking it was a paranormal romance (or sci-fi romance). You know, supersoldier romance, wherever that falls. It is not. Not at all. The only romance in it serves the cliched and disappointing role of allowing for ridiculously long and out of place sex scenes and providing the male protagonist motivation to act. That’s it. There are two female characters of note, one of which is barely a side character and the nympho girlfriend who literally has no character development outside of the bedroom and nice tits.

The book started out well. Once I’d accepted it wasn’t a romance, I thought it was lining up to be a smart and interesting sci-fi with themes of autonomy and self-determination. Then the whole thing spiraled into pseudo-mysticism (including several loooong visions), purple prose, and supersoldiers that don’t manage to be particularly super. What’s more, the supersoldiers literally did things like let the villain (who are caricatures, at best) monologue, pause, dig a syringe out of a drawer, inject themselves, put on a pair of gloves and reenter the fight. There were several (several!) ways and times that the villains could of and should have been disposed of and they just kept letting them come back to try and kill them again. It was ridiculous.

I did appreciate the side characters. Sven, J.J., and Rue (who all seemed to get more camp as the book went along) are probably the only reason I actually finished it.

Mostly, however, the book is just too long. I’d say a full hundred pages could have been cut and it would have been a better book. On a side note, that cover makes it look like the woman is the creepy, sexual molesting doctor, not the girlfriend (that I assume it’s meant to be).