All Over the Genre Map

Genre doesn’t really tell you much about a book other than where you’re going to find it in a bookstore to the library but it does tell you that and you’d get a workout finding the books I’m reviewing for you this week. The great thing about reading all over the genre map is that you’re never bored and, by the time you get to a book that’s on your March TBR, you’ve forgotten exactly what it’s about so you get a little gift as the story unfolds for you.

Let’s get into it.

March 31

1882, Utah Territory. Hazel is given to Jacob Manwaring as is fourth wife. At his dilapidated manor house, his other wives are less than welcoming and strange things start to happen. Is it human revenge or something more?

I know the basics of Mormon history from theology school but this was a really interesting deep dive into a period of American history that I don’t know that much about and that, to be honest, I’ve avoided because it makes me deeply uncomfortable. I’m generally a live and let live person provided your religion doesn’t get on me and you don’t try to force anyone else to follow your rules but the when I was in school, the new Mormon temple opened in Boston and they let people tour (as a conversion tactic I’m sure). The sealing and baptizing the dead (I am positive Anne Frank does not want to be a Mormon) gave me the ick which, in turn, made my tolerant self feel like an asshole while not being able to shed my discomfort. Couching this history in a story, however, and examining it through the eye of someone who grew up in the faith let me settle into my discomfort and spend some extended time with it which, in turn, let me be okay with not being okay with the group’s practices: I’m not going to agree with everyone and if someone in the faith doesn’t like them, it’s okay for me not to like them either.

This is also a fantastic haunted house/ghost story with some unexpected turns and double backs with a suitably dramatic resolution; friends, you will not be disappointed.

This is a cozy, British mystery with a delightful twist: the detectives are twenty-somethings, trying to find their way in life as they solve a thirty-year old cold case.

This is a lovely book that manages to be light without being all fluff (not that fluff is bad. Fluff is great), features a lovely relationship that isn’t always perfect, and characters who learn along the way. They do so without giving the reader second hand embarrassment (which I haaaaaate), showing the elders who aren’t quite sure what they’re capable of what they can do, and surprise everyone by getting a little better at what they’re learning every single day.

Who amongst us hasn’t felt a little lost in the past few years. Who amongst us hasn’t wondered what, exactly, we’re supposed to do about it? The Pie and Mash Detective Agency reminds us that the what doesn’t matter, what matters is that we do something that is interesting to us, that brings us joy, that makes us feel useful. Be it protesting, making art, or becoming a detective, the world needs us now, in whatever form we’re willing to take, we want to take, we can take, that allows us to get up in the morning and say, “Today, I’m going to make a difference.” Even if that job is a gambling website.

Daughter of the Hunt, with it’s snarky, fourth wall breaking Iphigenia and weird, sexy Artemis was not at all what I expected and I loved it for that.

It is unlike anything I’ve ever read, except, maybe The Death I Gave Him to the point where I’m not exactly sure how to review it except to say my standard for mythic retellings has been updated. There’s something fundamentally special about this novel, about the way the characters are constructed, about the way they interact. There is a new Iphigenia in its pages, a new Artemis. The way the gods are treated is different and they are indifferent and outside of our understanding and understanding us. It’s all so fascinating. and riveting and special.

Just read it. You will not be sorry.

There you have it. All over the map. Hope you find at least one that sounds interesting and we’ll meet back here soon.