September Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
Bossy Favorites of the Month
I've had a great reading month, and I hope you have too. Here are my six Bossy favorite reads of September. We've got a dark fantasy sequel, the first in a science fiction series, the first in a historical fiction mystery series, a feminist mythological retelling, captivating and strange literary historical fiction, and edgy contemporary fiction.
Have you read any of these titles? What were some of your favorite reads this month?
01 Dead Beat (Ninth House #3) by Leigh Bardugo
The third and final installment of Bardugo's Ninth House dark fantasy series offers more gritty corruption, seemingly insurmountable challenges, the threat of the entirety of hell's wrath, wonderfully morbid humor, some hard-won romance, and a ragtag group of loyal allies bent on thwarting the spread of evil.
In the first two books in this series we met Alex Stern, who was offered a new start after surviving a mysterious multiple homicide. She became an unlikely member of the Yale freshman class, but the darkness of her past was matched only by the danger of the magic and rituals being used by the secret societies she was meant to be monitoring.
In Dead Beat, Alex, now with a ragtag group of loyal allies, must figure out how to close the gates to hell--while fending off the nefarious Yale faculty members, malicious family members, and random demons out to make sure they fail.
Dead Beat explores fate, reinvented futures, revenge, and redemption. Bardugo writes dark-tinged fantasy better than almost anyone, and she allows for romance between social-outcast heroes in a gritty world, so that it never feels like romantasy.
I'm in for all the Bardugo books I can get my hands on.
Leigh Bardugo is the author of the first two books in this series, Ninth House and Hell Bent, as well as The Familiar, the Shadow and Bone series, the King of Scars duology, and other books.
For my full Bossy review, please check out Dead Beat.
02 Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Clytemnestra is often depicted as a villain. Here, her layered, sympathetic motivations are revealed. Trained as a warrior and now a queen, she must cope with brutality and frustrating circumstances in this tale of power, love, and vengeance.
Clytemnestra was born a Spartan princess (sister of the beautiful Helen--later "of Troy") who married for love, then was married off against her will by her father to cruel Agamemnon, who killed her first husband--and her child.
She becomes queen in her adopted land, raises Agamenon's children, and suffers another devastating loss. She rules throughout her husband's absence during the years-long battle of Troy, building up strength, eliminating those who would betray her, trusting unlikely allies, and biding her time for her ultimate revenge.
Casati allows us to understand Clytemnestra's motivations, her growing ferocity, her undying loyalty, and how her training as a warrior shapes her life, her personality, and the path of her future.
This is a feminist retelling of a notorious figure in Greek mythology who is often painted as a villain. (In the Odyssey, Agamemnon's ghost tells Odysseus about his death at Clytemnestra's hands.) Here, we see a more sympathetic and layered view of her sometimes ruthless actions, shaped by her love for her children and her refusal to bend to men's wills. Odysseus appears in the story, a faulted figure problematically at odds with Clytemnestra and her goals.
For my full review of this book please see Clytemnestra.
03 Moss'd in Space (Moss'd #1) by Rebecca Thorne
I love a sci-fi story about a ragtag space gang trying to salvage a desperate situation. The first in Thorne's series delivers charming, heartwarming adventure and a cast of characters I can't wait to spend more time with in book two.
In Rebecca Thorne's cozy sci-fi adventure Moss'd in Space, it's sometime after the year 90,000, and Torian's years of saving have finally allowed her to buy a spaceship.
Now she'll finally be able to take her sister to a distant planet where the air quality will allow her to live longer than her current grim estimate. Torian just has to convince her sister to come along...and get her centuries-abandoned, moss-covered ship in working order.
But the moss all over the spaceship is sentient, bossy, and suffering emotionally from having been left alone for so many years. It's also been busy advancing its significant capabilities. When Moss ends up face to face with the loved one who left it centuries earlier--who is key to understanding the ship and how to facilitate Torian's mission--it's not inclined to forgive and forget.
This is charming, creative, and wonderfully strange. I loved how much warmth Thorne injected into this story; bighearted sci-fi is my absolute favorite type.
The worldbuilding and Thorne's various creatures and their histories were intriguing. I loved the story's coziness and tone, which assured me that everything was going to work out. Moss's dry delivery was somewhat reminiscent of Murderbot. And the cliffhanger was delightful. I can't wait to read book two.
Rebecca Thorne is the author of many other books, including Can't Spell Treason Without Tea. The next title in this series, Moss Effect, is scheduled for publication next spring.
For my full review, please check out this link.
04 The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #1) by Laurie R. King
The first mystery in King's 19-book series builds an irresistibly layered professional partnership and personal, friends-like-family bond between Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. The story's detail, pacing, plot, and character development are all fantastic. I look forward to reading more titles in this series.
It's 1915 and Sherlock Holmes is bored out of his mind and languishing in retirement...until he happens to meet 15-year-old Mary Russell on the Sussex Downs.
She's curious, clever, doesn't mince words, and isn't concerned about social niceties. Holmes is drawn back into a vibrant, exciting life by Mary's promising intellect--and her initially vague interest in his extensive knowledge and methods of investigation. Soon he is teaching Mary all he knows, and she is reluctantly absorbing his information, then adding her own observations.
Soon they're faced with the urgent mystery of a senator's kidnapped daughter, and they work together to solve the case. Mary shows herself to quickly be growing into Holmes's equal. It's satisfying to witness Holmes's initially begrudging acceptance of Mary's instincts and talent as his own abilities wane with his age, then to see the duo's heartfelt, eccentric, growing father-daughter bond.
I loved the steady but patient pacing, which allows for rich character development, particularly regarding Holmes and Mary (the Watson characterization is also fantastic, although limited). The story's details of the time and the setting are fantastic, the plot twists are intriguing, and the complicated, shifting dynamic between Mary and Sherlock is endearing. The layered, sinister long game aimed at besting Holmes is chilling and wonderfully imagined.
You can find more Bossy mystery reviews here.
Please click here for my full review of this title.
05 Field Notes from an Extinction by Eoghan Walls
Walls uses a journal structure to draw the reader into a singular story I can't stop thinking about. In Field Notes from an Extinction, we witness the innermost thoughts of a grumbly hermit ornithologist who is thrust into a parenting role, then must face a pirate queen out for revenge on British colonial rulers amid the Irish Potato Famine.
Ignatius Green is sent by the Royal Society to the remote Irish island of Tor Mor to study some of the last Great Auks left in the world. Meanwhile the potato famine ravages the mainland Irish population and all order seems lost. A trickle-down effect begins to break down the strict systems Ig has imposed upon his wild surroundings.
When the ruffian local suppliers row over not only his (rifled-through, partially stolen) supplies but also a small, feral child (he eventually learns that her name is Bridget), all hope seems to be lost of continuing his seemingly doomed mission of observation, documentation, and providing an orderly report of the endangered birds.
Add to the complicated situation that Bridget's mother is said by the untrustworthy rowboat operators to be the most dangerous, fabled, infamous pirate in the land, Grace O'Malley, rumored to be carrying out renegade justice on the British officers kicking Irish tenant families out of their homes, leaving the people to starve.
I was delighted by the tone, the structure, and the unexpected evolution within Field Notes from an Extinction. I can't stop thinking about this book.
You might also like these books set in Ireland, books about found family, or books about island life.
For my full review, please see Field Notes from an Extinction.
06 Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
This was my favorite read of the month!
Cash crafts a delightfully campy, oddball novel around a family of characters who for various reasons abandon social acceptability as they aim to find fulfillment, solve a mystery, discover compatibility, seek purpose, and coexist together. This is a darkly humorous, sometimes quirky tale that's edgy and provocative.
The reader can tell what Catherine and Bud Flynn cannot: their open marriage is either directly or indirectly further destroying their dysfunctional family.
Cash actively makes over-the-top choices that are likely to cause discomfort. The many edgy elements along with the open marriage that pushes the family off balance in the first place mean that nothing here is considered taboo. Cash commits her protagonists to unsympathetic behavior and uses their out-of-bounds acts and words to illustrate her characters' multifaceted abandonment of societal norms and acceptability.
In some ways, the messy, chaotic Flynn family reminded me of the sometimes feral Herdman family in The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever.
The stakes of the story's situations are quite high, but the tone of Lost Lambs assures the reader that no untimely deaths or horrors will occur (outside of the lunacy and tragedies Cash has already put in place).
This was surprisingly heartwarming and wonderfully sardonic.
You might also like these edgy books, darkly funny books, oddball, and bonkers books, as well as books about families.
For my full review, please check out Lost Lambs.
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