Wishes, Waiting, and War
Hey, hey, still here. Lots of real life in the last few weeks and despite it, I did manage to read a fair bit. Most of it was pretty great and I’m going to have to pick and choose what I review or else I’m going to be here all day. I may add more of it to reviews in the coming weeks to make sure everything gets its due shout out if I’m not too overstuffed with new volumes and research tomes. That’s right, I have a new project of my own in the offing, along with the book I’m already writing and my painting. Because what would I do with myself if I had a few free seconds in a day not allotted to reading or practicing piano? The horror.
Speaking of horrors…
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw (Tachyon)
What if you could have anything you wanted, provided you could pay the designated price? Alexandria Delmore discovers what humans want and what’s good for them aren’t always the same thing when she’s hired to be the cashier, gatekeeper, and 21st century advisor for a jinn who’s taken up residence at a kiosk in her town’s dying mall.
That brief plot summary, however, doesn’t even begin to get at the absolutely delightful and cozy soul of If Wishes Were Retail.
This novel could easily have been a condemnation of humanity and all its sins and, quite frankly, we’d deserve because we are all the things the jinn sees in us: selfish, short-sighted, mean-spirited, vengeful, vicious, petty, and egomaniacal. But the jinn logs our best qualities as well: kindness, generosity, a willingness to learn, an ability to change, our ability to lock into friendships, to forgive family, and to find strength in love. And lest you think the story this merely another lugubrious meditation on the human condition allow me to assure you that If WIshes Were Retail is so funny, that I lost my entire shit several times and had to put it down because I was laughing too hard to continue reading. I also kept pausing to read lines out loud to my husband and I’m pretty sure I sold him on adding the boo to his audio queue (he has a long work commute so that’s how he tends to consume these days but getting him to venture outside is TTRPG niche is well nigh unto impossible) and I can only presume the read aloud experience will be top tier.
I’m always impressed when authors are flexible with the type of humor they work with as well and Habershaw is a master of several: snark, dark, morbid, scatalogical, historical, and flat out goofy. The only thing missing is a math joke and I can let that go given the variety. It’s also difficult to combine message and absolutely riotous mayhem but everything flows really smoothly here and at no point did I feel jarred or knocked out of the story when there was a transition in mood.
Oh, also? Goblin rebellion. Aw, yeah.
But don’t take my word for it. When I picked If Wishes Were Retail up from the library, the librarian read the back and said, “Oh. Damn. I’m going to have to check this one out,” and I don’t really think a book can get a higher recommendationn.
If Wishes Were Retail: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781616964344
King Foretold by Jayci Lee (8/26, Montlake)
You’ve probably seen Jacyi Lee’s Nine Tailed (you can find my review here: https://www.swsondheimer.com/book-reviews/magic-marvels-and-mayhem) on several “What to Read if You Liked KPop Demon Hunters” lists (that’s where I found it). It’s also a great one to read if you liked Sophie Kim’s The God and the Gumiho and The God and the Gwisin.
King Foretold picks up during Sunny’s suhoshin cadet training - the price she has to pay for temporary safety in the Kingdom of Sky while her friends help her unlock the secrets of the Yeoiju - a magic only she possesses and the Four Kingdoms’s only way to defeat a rising darkness that threatens to consume every living thing on every planet of existence. None of Sunny’s tasks are easy: the physical training is grueling, the Yeoiju is misbehaving, and she’s made a vow to stay away from Ethan, love of her life and she of his, and the titular King Foretold so that he doesn’t have to fulfill the rest of his prophesy and kill her.
I loved the pacing and flow of this second-in-series; Nine Tailed dragged a little, 100% an editing/publisher issue (IMO it needed one more pass to cut descriptors and inner monologue/narrative commentary that were repeated multiple times) but that’s been taken care of in King Foretold (and I’ve noticed that it is often an issue in first in series that, if they’re successful enough, is remedied in successive volumes). The dialogue is snappier, the descriptions of the Heavenly Kingdoms are richer, and the character development, especially Jihun’s adds depth to the fabric of the story and the different relationships we see forming as the plot progresses (even though I know it’s not going to happen, I’m not going to lie, #teamJihun). I like the addition of the new big bad as well; there’s something extra terrifying about a lunatic holding extremely powerful reins that adds a sort of tension an all-powerful big bad can’t maintain when he’s not “on-screen.” Maybe it’s a matter of scale - you can’t survive waiting for the worst every second of every day so you focus on what’s merely bad until the worst falls on your head to remind you it’s there. Especially when it’s someone close. Very, very close.
Oh, and if you thought the ending of Nine Tailed was brutal, I have news for you. It was practically happy compared to the final sentences of King Foretold. The good news is that the third book in the series is scheduled for release in April of 2026 so the wait will be painful but relatively short as these things are measured.
Nine Tailed: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781662520747
King Foretold: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781662520778
The God and the Gumiho: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780593599662
The God and the Gwisin: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780593599686
The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Chang (Random House Books for Young Readers)
There was a time in my life I didn’t read a lot of YA. Then, I went to a panel at either Emerald City Comic Con or SDCC with a bunch of different authors (it was probably a spec fic panel) and one of my fellow attendees asked the YA writers why the characters in their novels were always so dramatic (which, honestly, is a hell of a question to ask in a spec fic panel, I mean, Lestat much, but moving on). The panelist who responded gave a fantastic response: Because they’re teenagers and no matter what the setting or plot or genre, whatever is happening to them is happening for the first time. They don’t have a frame of reference. It’s the biggest, most important thing that’s ever happened to them. Of course it’s dramatic.
That answer made me a better reader. It also made me a better mom but that second one is a different conversation.
It made me a better reader because there are a lot of excellent books I was passing on due to where they were shelved in bookstores or at the library. Because they were designated for a particular age group. And that’s silly because some of the best books I’ve read since then have been YA. Books with the most interesting characters, with fascinating stories, that dealt best with difficult issues. Experiences I would have completely missed out on if I had continued to let labels limit me.
The Nightblood Prince is one of them.
Listen, I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t lured by the politics and the love triangle and the vampires (I’m a little bit disappointed they weren’t jiangshi but, alas, this isn’t a hopping bloodsucker kind of book) because I totally was. But that’s what hooks are for. And this is an exciting story full of defiance and last minute escapes and spycraft (some of it comically bad) and snark and love and some very intense hate. But there is something else woven very deftly into its fabric that I wasn’t expecting that is so important for teenagers and young adults and even we crones to understand, everyone, of all genders, but especially woman (inclusive) that I didn’t expect to find.
This is a phenomenon that occurs frequently in good YA: the reader learns alongside the characters, imbibes a lesson as the narrative progresses, not via lecture or blunt instrument, but though a life lived, through experience by proxy, by sympathy and empathy and connection.
In The Nightblood Prince, the lesson is this: love, no matter how perfect, no matter how magical, no matter how fated (if you believe in fate) isn’t enough to sustain a life. The only person who can make your life what you want it to be is you. Love can certainly be a part of what you build but if you want something, whether it’s to be a soldier or the empress of all empresses or a woman free to do as she wishes in a society that frown upon such behavior, you have to take matters in hand and you have to change your fate through effort and work and initiative because only you know your own heart and your own mind and your own intentions perfectly. Only you know what you are willing to risk to make the life you truly want. Only you can weigh sacrifice and result and know when the scales are balanced even when someone loves you to the point of risking themselves because their best intentions may not line up with your priorities. Even those who know you best can falter when you’re in danger and not understand that you’ve walked into it willingly. That you neither need nor want to be saved. That their desire to see you unharmed might destroy everything you’ve already given up.
The Nightblood Prince is also a primer in how to let go of childish things in a world where it’s expected of people who shouldn’t yet be expected to do so, a reflection of many teens and young adults in our own world. The challenges are many and while we would like to protect them from everything, we can’t, nor should we, because how will they survive if we do? That said, there are more and less productive ways to do so and readers get a glimpse of all of them as Fei, Siwang, and Yexue step into their roles as leaders in Rong, Lan, and the greater world. They all have choices, as do all of our children, and we can only hope that, like Fei, they will choose wisely.
The Nightblood Prince: https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780593897362
Not sure where we’re headed next, but I’ll let you know!