For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes

April French doesn’t do relationships and she never asks for more.

A long-standing regular at kink club Frankie’s, she’s kind of seen it all. As a trans woman, she’s used to being the scenic rest stop for others on their way to a happily-ever-after. She knows how desire works, and she keeps hers carefully boxed up to take out on weekends only.

After all, you can’t be let down if you never ask.

Then Dennis Martin walks into Frankie’s, fresh from Seattle and looking a little lost. April just meant to be friendly, but one flirtatious drink turns into one hot night.

When Dennis asks for her number, she gives it to him.

When he asks for her trust, well…that’s a little harder.

And when the desire she thought she had such a firm grip on comes alive with Dennis, April finds herself wanting passion, purpose and commitment.

But when their relationship moves from complicated to impossible, April will have to decide how much she’s willing to want.

Review:

Oh, how I love this book – let me count the ways.

The quickfire oh-so-good:

• First, this is an incredibly sweet romance. It’s a kink-based relationship and the love and care are utterly melt-worthy.
• Romance featuring a trans woman, written by a trans woman! Woo!
• It does not read like a debut at all. The voice is assured, and considering some of the tricks Aimes pulls off? Woah.
• One of the most interesting things, as a long-time romance reader, is the way she plays with narrative. The story isn’t completely linear, but it’s not a chopped salad of events, either. Everything makes sense, and the way it plays with conflict and expectations is amazing.
• Speaking of – reader expectations are subverted on the regular in the most interesting way.
• With the non-traditional narrative and subverted expectations, the conflict comes from places you rarely see it, and it’s worked through in similarly non-traditional ways. I would love to get into more details, but the last thing I want to do is spoil it for anyone, please forgive.
• Dennis is a Black millionaire and April is a white trans woman, and they recognize that they’ve both faced oppression and microaggressions while also recognizing that one person’s experience doesn’t equal the other’s. That, being white, April doesn’t have the same interactions with police that Dennis does. That Dennis will never know what it’s like to move through the world, and more specifically Texas, as a trans person.
• The bits that could be repetitive aren’t, and it’s so carefully plotted.
• Both characters go to therapy for great reasons! And we see two therapy sessions with different people and dynamics! And Dennis gets a Dom mentor to go over the emotional side of being a top, which I’ve never seen before!
• Each character has a bestie, but they are very different, not only from the person they’re besties with, but the relationship itself. Jason is a white guy who has been friends with Dennis forever and they can read each other’s moods and expressions with ease. Fatima is a hijabi woman who’s lunch friends with April at work, and over the course of the book we see their relationship deepen and grow.
• …did I mention that it’s sweet and melt-worthy?

The only less-than-perfect things for me are details of a subplot and not even worth mentioning here.

If you like romance and are open to reading a (sweet!) kink-based relationship, you have to give For the Love of April French a try, and feel free to shout my way on social media as you do!

Content notes: BDSM/kink including impact play; mentions of surgery; misgendering; a short, mini panic attack on the page

Thanks to Carina Press and Netgalley for providing a review copy.

(English Language) Review of a Disappointing Book: 独学大全 by 読書猿

The Self-Study Encyclopedia by Dokushozaru

This book is designed to snare curious browsers at the bookstore in every way. From a distance we can see it’s massive – the 750+ pages are a solid 5 cm/2 in thick. Come a little closer and the distinguished cover design and jacket copy appeal, and is that a textured jacket? Oo. We must pick this up and ooph, it’s heavy. A look at the edge reveals thumb indexing and paper in no fewer than three colors.

Opening the book is an experience as well, revealing a beautiful title page in a fourth color of paper, followed by the requite sales pitch of a forward. (In Japanese popular nonfiction the forward comes before the table of contents, all the better to draw readers in.) On a flip we see that there are footnotes, tables, graphs, flow charts, pictures of famous people who apparently have this self-study thing down. And, like the cover says, we want to get back on the study train, right? The tome obediently follows us to the cash register.

Once we get home and settle in, though, it’s easier to see the true nature of the book. Yes, it’s an “encyclopedia” of self-study, outlining how to get motivated, how to choose a topic, how to find the time, and finally (finally) techniques for actually getting the information into your brain and have it stick there. The layout has generous white space at the bottom, which sometimes holds supplemental info but more than often does not. The footnotes (on the left side of a two page spread in Japanese) are copious and most often skippable. And each section is introduced with a dialogue between a wizened learner and a youngin’ which, while cute, only barely sets up the forthcoming topic.

We forgive a bunch of this – marketing, visual appeal, we get it – but the text itself proves to be the most disappointing. The first chapter makes a show of using rarer, hard to read kanji, but I wanted to yell at my dictionary with every look up. Why is もちろん (of course) written 勿論？Another pet word, 咀嚼、is akin to using “masticate” instead of “chew”. They feel like hard words thrown in to make you feel smart if you know them, feel like you’re getting smarter if you don’t, but they don’t serve the text.

And the padding, my god the padding. つまり (in other words), まとめると (to put it all together), and 例えば (for example) get extensive play. Long katakana words are repeated often, usually accompanied by a similarly lengthy English gloss. We get the life story of historical smart dudes, even though it doesn’t apply to the study tip at hand. And they’re all guys. The only woman I remember discussed Kató Lamb which, deserving, but that’s it?

Several of the techniques are variations on an idea and should have been presented as such, not whole chapters unto themselves. The case studies at the end may be interesting if you’re in a similar situation, maybe, but otherwise are skimmable.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting “how to study” books to reinvent the genre. A lot of the information is stuff I already know, and that’s fine. I’m looking for new tricks, for ways to reframe my thinking, and an engaging read. I found a few examples of each, but not enough to justify 750 pages, 3000+ yen (~$30 US), and eight weeks of my time.

It’s hard to recommend buying 独学大全 when there are other, more interesting and fulfilling self-study books out there. Worth a borrow from the library, but if you’re looking for content over hype steel up your reserve and leave this self-study encyclopedia on the shelf in the bookstore.

The Hate Project by Kris Ripper (The Love Study #2)

Oscar is a grouch. That’s a well-established fact among his tight-knit friend group, and they love him anyway.

Jack is an ass who’s always ready with a sly insult, who can’t have a conversation without arguing, and who Oscar may or may not have hooked up with on a strict no-commitment, one-time-only basis. Even if it was extremely hot.

When Oscar is fired (answering phones is not for the anxiety-ridden), he somehow ends up working for Jack. Maybe while cleaning out Jack’s grandmother’s house they can stop fighting long enough to turn a one-night stand into a frenemies-with-benefits situation.

The house is an archaeological dig of love and dysfunction, and while Oscar thought he was prepared, he wasn’t. It’s impossible to delve so deeply into someone’s past without coming to understand them at least a little, but Oscar has boundaries for a reason—even if sometimes Jack makes him want to break them all down.

Review:

After thoroughly enjoying The Love Study I was primed to love The Hate Project, but some elements hit too close for me to enjoy myself fully.

The good:

• Oscar comes off as a grouch in the first book and here we learn why – he has social anxiety that can lead to panic attacks. It made past actions understandable and gave me more appreciation for how Ripper set up that first book.
• The dynamics of the friend group are becoming clear and I love the way they interact and support each other. Oscar’s friendship with Ronnie is particularly interesting and they shine on the page together. We also learn more about Mason, one of the MCs of the next installment, through his relationship with Oscar. The found family elements, which felt a little forced in the first book, are in delightful full force.
• Jack’s grandma is an awesome lady, a no-nonsense grandma that gets her own mini story arc and characterization.
• Ripper pushes the edges of what’s considered du rigueur in romance and I am here for it. The Love Study has an HEA without a solid commitment, and here sex does not lead to the ‘I love you’ realization that it does in many romances.
• Some people may find the anxiety rep empowering and comforting, however…

The not-so-good:

• …Oscar’s thought spirals are so similar to ones I’ve experienced (thank you, birth control!) I found myself skimming whole sections. And while Oscar’s single PoV works well for the story it also means we’re always in his head, close to that anxiety.

I have all the love and respect for what Ripper is doing but unfortunately this book wasn’t the one for me. I’m very much looking forward to the next book – a poly relationship, yay!

Content notes: anxiety including panic attacks, grief, disordered eating

The Duke Heist by Erica Ridley (The Wild Wynchesters #1)

Chloe Wynchester is completely forgettable—a curse that gives her the ability to blend into any crowd. When the only father she’s ever known makes a dying wish for his adopted family of orphans to recover a missing painting, she’s the first one her siblings turn to for stealing it back. No one expects that in doing so, she’ll also abduct a handsome duke.

Lawrence Gosling, the Duke of Faircliffe, is tortured by his father’s mistakes. To repair his estate’s ruined reputation, he must wed a highborn heiress. Yet when he finds himself in a carriage being driven hell-for-leather down the cobblestone streets of London by a beautiful woman who refuses to heed his commands, he fears his heart is hers. But how can he sacrifice his family’s legacy to follow true love?

Review:

3.5 stars

The Duke Heist was just what I needed – a romp of a Regency with a caring beta hero who melts my heart.

The good:

• Chloe’s siblings are all orphans, brought together by a rich baron, and I am sold on the found family. Each brother and sister has their own skills, from painting to training animals to disguises, and they prove valuable when trying to steal back a painting that’s rightfully theirs.
• There is a range of rep within the secondary characters – people of color, chronic pain, what appears to be a nonbinary or trans character (no label is given on the page), and perhaps one more queer character (again, no label).
• Laurence is a titled member of society who gives speeches in Parliament, but I would classify him as a beta hero. He is fully aware of his responsibilities, almost to the point of them being painful, and he considers and puts the needs of others first, regardless of their class or station. The care he takes with Chloe is meltworthy.
• Servants are people with names and personalities – everyone, not just the butler or a token ladies’ maid. We get a scene of them sitting around a table with the duke and it’s fun and heartwarming, as well as something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in a Regency before.
• While the conflict appears to be enemies to lovers, I would categorize it as two people who have bad impressions of each other from a distance without actually knowing each other. Get them in the same room though….
• I love flipped tropes and we have a couple, including a semi-flip of “the hero buys the heroine a wardrobe” trope.
• I cannot wait for the next book – it appears to be a queer relationship and the heart eyes. I can’t stop with the heart eyes.

The not-so-good:

• The opening came on a bit strong for my liking. It’s like romp! Tons of characters! In your face! and I wasn’t ready for it. Your mileage may vary
• The plot gets pulled to and fro in a couple of places. It’s been a few days since I finished and while the emotional moments stick with me, the story feels more jumbled the more I think about it.

…but that’s it. A strong start to a series I’m looking forward to continuing – there’s five more Wynchesters who need a happily ever after!

Thanks to Forever for providing a review copy.

Big Bad Wolf by Suleikha Snyder (Third Shift #1)

Joe Peluso has blood on his hands. But lawyer and psychologist Neha Ahluwalia is determined to help him craft a solid defense…even if she can’t defend her own obsession. Because Joe took out those Russian mobsters for good reason–those six bad guys were part of the ruthless clan of bear shifters who control Brooklyn’s Russian mafia. His vigilante justice has earned him countless enemies in New York’s supernatural-controlled underworld, and no friends in a government that now bends to Russia at every turn.

Joe knows that creatures like him only deserve the worst. But meeting Neha makes him feel human for the first time in forever. But when the Russian mob attacks the jail for payback, Joe and Neha go on the run–from monsters who want him dead and from their own traitorous hearts.

Review:

I enjoyed Snyder’s Tikka Chance on Me so when I saw she’s coming out with a paranormal romance I jumped at the chance to read it. I usually shy away from books with mafia elements or ex-military heroes, but I enjoyed her look at motorcycle gangs so why not give it a try?

I’m so glad I did. Off the top, this book won’t be for everyone – the hero is a bit of an arse, there are two danger bangs, and while the consent is there it isn’t the most explicit. None of it ended up bothering me, though.

On to the good!

• This is the first fiction I’ve read that truly interacts with what America has become politically since 2016, pushing it further into a dystopia. Think new Patriot Acts, detention camps on both borders, and drones tracking people in Sanctuary Cities. It’s an alternate 2021 that went off the rails even more than we actually did.
• There are a bunch of supernatural folx, but Snyder doesn’t try to explain them all at once. Many series start with one kind of shifter then branch out, so I like that we’re starting with a mix here.
• While we have a wolf character packs aren’t a thing. Instead of those forced relations we’re heading towards a found family, which is utterly my jam.
• There are many PoVs and they work well together – the hero, heroine, Neha’s coworkers, and the staff at Third Shift.
• Pretty much every character is from a marginalized group, including people of color, LGBTQIA+ folx, a Jewish guy, Sikh folx of varying devotion, and of course shifters.
• The diversity of Indian culture is emphasized and celebrated – different languages, religions, styles of dress, and more. We even have a naga, so bonus points for non-Western supernatural beings.
• I love the secondary characters and cannot wait for them to get their own HEAs, especially a certain Irish vampire who’s too charming for his own good.
• One character is a cop but he has reservations about his day job, and things… change by the end. I like the way it’s handled.

The not-so-good:

• Instalove, thanks to the fated mates trope. If you’re a paranormal romance fan it’s par for the course.
• If you’re into explicit consent the danger bangs may leave you feeling squick-y. I’m not a huge fan of sex just after getting away from the bad guy, but I got through okay.

Big Bad Wolf takes place in a world that I do not want to live in but am happy to visit in fiction, especially with such a great cast of characters – I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing a review copy.

The Love Study by Kris Ripper

Sure, The Love Study has a sweet couple whose romance I enjoy, but the way it examines the nature of love is even better.

First the setup – Declan abandoned his last boyfriend at the altar and has avoided dating for years, thinking that relationships are beyond him. His heart has healed in the meantime, though, and he might be ready to try meeting people again.

Enter Sidney. They’re a relationship advice YouTuber looking to start a new video series – The Love Study – and Declan is the perfect subject. Sidney will set him up on dates, and after each they’ll discuss what worked and what didn’t. But as they spend more time together, Declan realizes the only person he has chemistry with is Sidney.

Before I get into the review proper, some rep – Ripper is genderqueer and so is Sidney. Yes, the jacket copy says “nonbinary”, probably because it’s a more recognizable term, but in the book Sidney prefers “GQ” to “enby”. Declan has anxiety including panic attacks, but it’s not overly detailed and didn’t end up bothering me. There are also mentions of homophobia, transphobia, and racism.

The little things make me feel safe reading this book, and most boil down to respect. When Declan and Sidney make plans options are offered including the option to do nothing, no pressure. They brainstorm solutions, like when trying to figure out what to call each other – partner? lover? datemate? companion? They’re comfortable talking out their feelings, even when they don’t have all the words for them yet. This kind of respect should be the foundation of all relationships, not just intimate ones, and I love seeing it.

Related – Declan is used to spilling the beans about his sexual escapades to friends, but Sidney wants to keep things private and he respects that, even grows to like it after a while. Sidney’s wishes end up affecting us readers as well – this is a closed door romance, so there’s no explicit sex on the page.

The respect is great but my favorite thing about this book, hands down, is how it made me think about the nature of relationships. By watching Declan’s dates – never disasters, but always lacking somehow – Ripper examines what it means to be “romantic” and how different people have different definitions. Sidney laments how “romantic” gestures often have a gendered element, even in queer relationships – someone offering to pay for dinner, opening doors, giving chocolate on Valentine’s Day. That it feels more like playing a role than being genuine.

There are thoughtful discussions on whether dating is the best way to get to know someone, and the “goal” of relationships. Now that everyone can marry, should that be the universal goal? Is long-term commitment sufficient? Heck, is it necessary? How much are thoughts around queer marriage are bound up with it being not only a personal statement, but also a political one?

In examining these issues Ripper is also taking a meta look at the Happily Ever After in romance. Many books end with a marriage or similar, but can the main characters simply like each other a lot and have that count as an HEA? There were times that I would put the book down and stare off into space, thinking about everything Ripper is laying down.

As much as I love this book there are a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me. I would have preferred a higher heat level, while recognizing that it would have brought a genderqueer character’s genitals into the conversation, which is never ever a requirement. There’s a found family element but it felt a bit forced to me. Then again, I think that dynamic takes a couple of books to develop. And the ending was… fine. A bit predictable, not bad, just fine.

If you are a thematic reader, if you would like to examine the nature of love and relationships, and if you are looking for a comfortable, safe space to go in these uncertain times, there’s nothing better than The Love Study. I’m an instant fan of Ripper and can’t wait to dive into zir backlist.

Thanks to Carina Press for providing a review copy.

The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, DC, in an abusive family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken—physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

At the highest ranks (doctor, professor) medicine is still a very white field, so I was excited to pick up this memoir by an African-American ER doctor, especially because there was a bunch of buzz around its publication.

The title is apt, as one could say that Harper has “broken” several times in her life. While her family situation looked great from the outside – a doctor’s family in a big house – it hid how horrifyingly abusive her father was, mostly to her mother. She managed to go to medical school herself, fell in love and got married, only to have her husband leave her right before moving to a different city. We follow her as she works at different hospitals and focuses on different parts of the job – administrative, patient care – as she comes to terms with it all.

I can’t go any farther in this review without mentioning that this was a buddy read with the wonderful Louise at the blog A Strong Belief in Wicker. She’s an emergency department doctor in Australia so we had a wonderful time dissecting the text on a medical level along with discussing Harper’s life experiences.

The most solid pro for The Beauty in Breaking is the writing. Some turns of phrase are beautiful, and she’s eloquent when talking about how racism in the medical system has affected her personally, as well as her patients. On that more surface, literary level I have little to complain about.

When it comes to medicine I have questions, though. There are some basic errors (for example, the Glasgow Coma Scale is scored 3-15, not 1-15) so I’m guessing the text wasn’t proofread for medical accuracy. Some of the patient scenarios didn’t make sense – why wasn’t a nurse called in to help with a particular procedure? Why is she ordering a head CT for a run of the mill headache?

While most of the patient stories are interesting and informative, several feel unrealistic. One conversation felt a roleplay scenario that’s part of my training as a medical interpreter – everything clearly said in logical order, with no meandering or backtracking or extraneous information. I’m guessing it was a composite patient, but even composite patients should talk like real people, right?

Harper finds peace via yoga, meditation, and Buddhism, which I’m glad for. I do yoga, too. But I don’t need to read detailed descriptions of her yoga class, and I was surprised that she talked to patients about their “spirit” as much as she did. I’m all for wellness and health in a general sense, but this tipped over into “woo-woo” too much for my liking.

All in all The Beauty in Breaking does a great job discussing certain issues beautifully, but if you’re in medicine yourself details will certainly needle you.

Thanks to Riverhead Books and Edelweiss for providing a review copy.

When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error by Danielle Ofri

Patients enter the medical system with faith that they will receive the best care possible, so when things go wrong, it’s a profound and painful breach. Medical science has made enormous strides in decreasing mortality and suffering, but there’s no doubt that treatment can also cause harm, a significant portion of which is preventable.

Drawing on current research, professional experience, and extensive interviews with nurses, physicians, administrators, researchers, patients, and families, Dr. Ofri explores the diagnostic, systemic, and cognitive causes of medical error. She advocates for strategic use of concrete safety interventions such as checklists and improvements to the electronic medical record, but focuses on the full-scale cultural and cognitive shifts required to make a meaningful dent in medical error.

4.5 stars

So many things can go wrong in modern medicine, from misdiagnosing a disease to administering the wrong medicine with disastrous results. While there’s all kinds of research about medical error most of it concentrates on procedural errors in inpatient settings, such as doctors forgetting to wash their hands before approaching a patient’s bed. The literature ignores that most medical care is given in outpatient settings (doctors’ offices, acute care) and many, many errors take place when a doctor tries to figure out what’s wrong with you in the first place.

Add in mistakes caused by the computerized charting system, exacerbated by poor hand offs, and ignored by know-it-all doctors and we have a mess. Ofri leads us through it all in her approachable, engaging, and beautifully written style.

Here are some things I learned:

• According to one study (everything is clearly end noted, by the way) over 80 percent of errors are related to a problem in doctor-patient communication. Ofri points out that nearly every error she reviewed for the book could have been prevented, or had its harm minimized, had there been better doctor-patient communication.
• Capitalism in health care messes up so much stuff. Electronic medical records started as a billing system. Diagnoses are connected directly to billing codes, and there is no billing code for uncertainty. If there’s a set of interrelated problems the doctor has to pick one as the diagnosis, risking that later doctors won’t grasp the complexity of the issue.
• Don’t get me started on malpractice lawsuits.
• Procedural errors can be fixed with checklists, but diagnostic errors are cognitive errors, and “fixing” how a doctor thinks is much, much harder.
• Hospital culture matters. Do the nurses feel comfortable speaking up when they see something wrong? Are patients’ families listened to or dismissed?
• Many proposed solutions assume slow, methodical thinking when much of what doctors do is in the moment, under time pressure.

I love Ofri’s writing style – suspenseful narrative nonfiction when going through a case, introspective and insightful when discussing her own experience with error.

There are days when I envy Sisyphus: at least it’s the same stinking boulder he’s pushing up the hill every day. For a doctor, it’s a sea of boulders, any one of which – if missed – could come crashing down on one of my patients. Or on me, in the form of a lawsuit.

Make no mistake, many cases in this book are hard to read. A wife watching her husband die before her eyes without the medical staff doing anything to stop it. Mistreatment of a burn victim leading to his death, despite the efforts of nursing staff to get him better care. But the last couple of chapters give us hope, as well as concrete things a patient and their family can do to prevent medical error. Websites, professional organizations to contact, laws to be aware of, how to word requests to doctors, it’s all here.

This is my favorite Ofri book to date, which is saying a lot. A must read if you have any kind of interest, and a natural follow-up to The Checklist Manifesto as Gawande only scratches the surface.

Thanks to Beacon Press and Edelweiss for providing a review copy.

Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha (Mercenary Librarians #1)

The United States went belly up 45 years ago when our power grid was wiped out. Too few live in well-protected isolation while the rest of us scrape by on the margins. The only thing that matters is survival. By any means. At any cost.

Nina is an information broker with a mission: to bring hope to the darkest corners of Atlanta. She and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help those in need. But altruism doesn’t pay the bills—raiding vaults and collecting sensitive data is where the real money is.

Knox is a bitter, battle-weary supersoldier who leads the Silver Devils, an elite strike squad that chose to go AWOL rather than slaughter innocents. Before the Devils leave town for good, they need a biochem hacker to stabilize the experimental implants that grant their superhuman abilities.

The problem? Their hacker’s been kidnapped. And the ransom for her return is Nina. Knox has the perfect bait for a perfect trap: a lost Library of Congress server. The data could set Nina and her team up for years…

If they live that long.

Review:

I held on to this advance copy for a while, sure I would like it – and what’dya know, I love it.

The good:

• Yay for science fiction to take us away from our current world. Sure, it depicts an America where government has been taken over by corporations, infrastructure has collapsed, and it’s every chemically and mechanically enhanced person for themselves… but at least it’s not our reality! I kid (kinda…) but it was nice to be so fully immersed in another world, even one as gritty as this.
• The worldbuilding is solid. There’s one slight info dump early, but this America is so different from ours it felt justified. After that we learn things in bits and pieces, and by the end of the book I feel like I have a solid grasp of the world.
• I love all of these characters, and they’re all fleshed out as people with different abilities, likes, and quirks. Bonus for found family vibes and casually mentioning that someone has had both boyfriends and girlfriends, because that’s totally a thing.
• The structure helps introduce us to the characters one-on-one, as in addition to chapters from the two main characters’ point of view we also get interstitial chapters from everyone else. Being inside each person’s head let me get a better grasp for who they are while hinting at potential future conflicts and love interests.
• Yes love interests, because Deal with the Devil is a great blend of science fiction and romance. I get the impression that we’ll be following a different couple in each book while the overall story arc continues. There isn’t as much sex as in Rocha’s other works, but what’s here is hot and advances the story as it should.
• And the plot! Things are always happening. At 65% or so I was worried because many books would have ended things there, but the story afterward was just as important and maybe even more interesting.
• The fights are so well done. They’re gripping but also made me cackle with joy.
• And the banter! Once the band is together the wit and one liners fly – this is my love language.

The neither-here-nor-there:

• Be ready for a bunch of tragic pasts with torture and abuse, along with the murder and death you’d expect in a story with mercenaries. The fights are about action, not gore, so I wasn’t grossed out.

The not-so-good:

• The documents placed between each chapter could have been a little more clear – I’m know I’m going to get more out of them on a reread.

In short, Deal with the Devil takes place in a gritty, post-apocalyptic world where librarians and their friends save the day while maybe falling in love. I wasn’t sure if escaping to a different hellish world would work for me but I blew through pages and enjoyed the ride.

Thanks to Tor and Edelweiss for providing an advance copy.

A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire by Yuri Herrera

Translated by Lisa Dillman

The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a short evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that “no more than ten” men remained in the shafts at the time of their closure, and Company doctors hastened to proclaim them dead. The El Bordo stayed shut for six days.

When the mine was opened there was a sea of charred bodies—men who had made it as far as the exit, only to find it shut. The final death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors.

Now, a century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has carefully reconstructed a worker’s tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His sensitive and deeply humanizing work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence.

Review:

I jumped at the chance to read this book because I love Herrera’s novel Signs Preceding the End of the World, and I’m always excited to read nonfiction in translation. And read that jacket copy above – mine disaster! Intrigue!

I expected a wild ride but the book is subdued. An exhaustive investigation of the circumstances is impossible 100 years after the disaster so Herrera does the next best thing, critically examining the records left behind.

After outlining the sequence of events as well as we can know them, he looks at what isn’t in the record. How the stories of relatives, often women, are replaced with legalese. What the judge didn’t order investigated. How newspaper accounts were riddled with bias, to the point of obscuring all fact.

The book is a mere 120 pages long and as I reached the end I realized I probably read it too quickly. Some themes I picked up right away – how women were silenced and pushed aside, for example – but others I missed until the very end. Why didn’t I notice the pattern of Anglo names? Did I glance over something early that pointed to the fact that the mine was owned by a US company?

I’ll have to read this book again, at a slower pace, to pick up everything Herrera is putting down. If you’re expecting narrative twists and definite answers you’ll be disappointed. But if you don’t mind following the author has he wipes a century’s worth of dust off of a supposedly settled case he has interesting things to say.

Thanks to And Other Stories and Edelweiss for providing an advance copy.