Review: Danced Close by Annabeth Albert

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Kendall, a genderqueer wedding planner, is in a bind. He’s committed to participating in a swing dance benefit in a few weeks, but his best friend has had to bow out of the event--and the dance lessons leading up to it--to deal with a family emergency. Kendall can’t give the benefit a miss or show up without a partner; not with his ex ready and waiting to sneer at him.

Enter Todd, a former competitive dancer and current assistant at one of the bakeries Kendall deals with. Todd agrees to help Kendall out, and the more they dance together the deeper their connection runs.

DANCED CLOSE [Amazon] is the sixth book in Albert’s Portland Heat series. The novellas all focus on small business owners and employees, and as with most romance series you do not need to read them in publication order. Newcomers can easily leap in here, though longtime readers will recognize Todd from his small role in BAKED FRESH and be glad to see cameos from a few other series couples.

Review: Geek Actually, Episodes One and Two

Review copies provided by the publisher.

GEEK ACTUALLY is the first general fiction offering from Serial Box, my favourite purveyor of episodic fiction. Pitched as “SEX AND THE CITY for the modern geek girl,” it follows five diverse women as they navigate life in general and geekdom in specific.

Michelle is an editor at a prestigious SFF publisher. Aditi is a fantasy writer with the potential to become a superstar. Taneesha’s a badass developer at a game company. Christina’s a production assistant on a post-apocalyptic TV show. And Elli is an uber-talented cosplayer with zero interested in life beyond fandom.

Writers Cathy Yardley, Melissa Blue, Rachel Stuhler, and Cecelia Tan launched the serial last week with its premiere episode, “WTF.” The second episode, “The Invisible Woman,” dropped this past Wednesday.

Serial Box kindly gave me the first four episodes to preview, and it was all I could do not to tear through them in one go. I had an especially hard time pausing after “The Invisible Woman” so I could write this intro-to-the-series post without letting my thoughts on the subsequent episodes creep in.

Because this is great stuff, people. I’m excited.

Review: Wrapped Together by Annabeth Albert

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Hollis hasn’t had much Christmas spirit since his parents died three years ago. It feels wrong to celebrate without them, no matter how much his sister and her extended family encourage him to join in, so he plans to spend the holidays working in his stationery store, hanging out with his cat, and rewatching SHERLOCK. Hollis's friend Sawyer knows Hollis can never resist a bet, though, and Sawyer is determined to reignite Hollis's holiday cheer with a series of wagers that can't help but make this Christmas extra special for both of them.

Romances where one person's down on Christmas and the other one's all, "Let me introduce you to the magic of the holiday season!" are my favourite. They give both parties plenty of opportunity to do fun things together and explore traditions new and old. In this case, Sawyer draws on his and Hollis's intense family connection (his twin brother is married to Hollis's twin sister) to concoct a slew of holiday enticements. He also convinces Hollis to participate in some Portland events that'll feel familiar even to non-Oregonians readers, like the local small business association's window decorating contest, Portland's official tree lighting ceremony, and a train ride through the Oregon Zoo's animal-shaped holiday lights.

Some holiday romances use the season as a rough framework on which to hang a relationship. It's winterish (or summerish in southern hemisphere romances), there're a few decorations floating around, and life is otherwise fairly normal. In contrast, WRAPPED TOGETHER goes all in with romance and Christmassy feel alike; a sure way to keep my attention glued to my ereader's screen around this time of year.

Review: The Purloined Poodle by Kevin Hearne

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

THE PURLOINED POODLE [Amazon | Audible], the latest novella in the Iron Druid Chronicles, finally turns the spotlight on Oberon, the Irish Wolfhound whose love of meat is matched only by his desire for thrilling stories into which he can insert himself. When Oberon and his Druid, Atticus, learn that someone has been kidnapping Grand Champion show dogs from across the Pacific Northwest, Oberon knows it’s both his duty and his privilege to find the culprit before any more hounds are hurt. No one with any decency could possibly leave a poodle in peril.

Oh my goodness, this was so much fun. Oberon has been my favourite IDC character from day one, and I had a blast getting inside his head in such an immersive way after years of watching him in a supporting role. He’s smart and intuitive, having been taught language and told a thousand interesting stories by his Druid, but he’s also very much a dog. He has trouble telling the difference between seconds and millennia, he’s firmly food-motivated, and he’s pretty sure the entire world centres on him. Which sounds arrogant, I know, but Oberon’s so sincere, and so willing to use his Main Character status to help others, that his self-interest loops past arrogance and lands him straight in the middle of charming.

Review: Connection Error by Annabeth Albert

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Josiah’s a programmer with ADHD and a powerful need to do well at his first big assignment as a project manager. Ryan’s a SEAL headed to a rehab hospital outside Washington, DC to finish his physiotherapy. Neither expects a lasting connection to form between them during their cross country flight, especially after Jos makes a huge mistake regarding Ryan’s disability, but a grounded plane and a night of gaming in a shared hotel room gives them a shot at a friendship with benefits--provided they can find a way to make their very different personalities mesh.

CONNECTION ERROR [Amazon] is Annabeth Albert’s third #gaymers novel, after STATUS UPDATE and BETA TEST. You don’t have to read the earlier books in order to enjoy this one, but I'll remind you yet again that they’re wonderful and you should give them a go at some point.

Even though I’ve gushed my heart out over all three books, I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I love the role travel plays in this series. Each installment features a journey that makes it impossible for the characters to give up on each other when stuff gets awkward. They have to stay and work through their problems, and in doing so they build a strong foundation for the relationship we all know they're gonna have. In Jos and Ryan’s case, they begin as seatmates on a plane and take a number of shorter trips once they know each other better. Their travel arrangements place a major focus on accessibility, too, as Ryan uses a wheelchair and prosthetic legs.

Twelve Things About Sex Criminals Volume 3 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky

I set out to write a list of three things about SEX CRIMINALS VOLUME THREE: THREE THE HARD WAY as part of a Murchie Plus Books post, but I found I had heaps of things I wanted to say in brief. Heaps.

So instead, I offer you this list of twelve things about SEX CRIMINALS in general and THREE THE HARD WAY in specific:

1. If you're not familiar with the comic, it's probably not about what you think it's about. Some people can stop time with their orgasms. Some of these time-stopping orgasm people (namely, Suzie and Jon) use their powers to rob banks. They use sex to commit crimes, but they don’t commit sex crimes because consent is really important.

Also, some other time-stopping orgasm people strongly disagree with how Suzie and Jon use their sex powers.

2. It's hilarious. I laughed long and hard all while I read this third volume. Long. And. Hard. Suzie would approve.

3. You maybe don’t want to start here, since there’s been a lot of backstory so far and it might not be as funny if you don’t know the context in which these characters live their lives. But I mean, you can start here. I just wouldn't recommend it if you want the full effect.

4. There are a lot of penes in this volume.

Review: Her Halloween Treat by Tiffany Reisz

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

HER HALLOWEEN TREAT [Amazon | The Book Depository] is the first of three holiday romances by Tiffany Reisz, best known for her phenomenal Original Sinners books. Titled Men At Work, this new miniseries stars women who fall for men who’re very good with their hands.

Reisz, never content to do things the conventional way, has spread the series out over multiple autumnal and winter holidays instead of centering all three books on December. HER HALLOWEEN TREAT obviously takes place in the lead-up to Halloween, when the heroine plans to attend her brother's 80s themed costume wedding.

Joey thought she’d stop in and surprise her semi-long-distance boyfriend on her way from her current home in Hawaii to her childhood home in Oregon. Instead, she’s surprised--and devastated--to learn he’s always confined their relationship to her far-off state because he’s married. She gets the hell out of there as fast as she can and holes up in her family’s old cabin on Mount Hood, where fate presents her with an opportunity for rebound sex with a fit handyman.

Chris was close friends with Joey’s brother in high school, but she hasn’t seen him since. He’s the perfect choice for a quick and dirty fling: friendly, familiar, and oh-so sexy now he’s grown out of his teenage stoner phase. They agree to bang their way through to the wedding and deal with the good kind of pain when Joey heads home afterwards, but long-dormant feelings soon threaten to smash their careful plan.

Review: Rag and Bone by KJ Charles

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

RAG AND BONE [Amazon | Scribd] is the fifth novel set in KJ Charles’s Charm of Magpies world; however, it’s a connected story rather than a sequel to the previous books. You can read it as a standalone, though you may find yourself wishing for a touch more background on the practitioners of London if you take that route.

So far as the series chronology goes, RAG AND BONE takes place after FLIGHT OF MAGPIES and concurrently with JACKDAW. There’s the occasional non-spoilery update on where the justiciars are at with that particular problem, but you can easily read this before that.

The book is a direct sequel to “A Queer Trade,” a novella that originally appeared in the CHARMED AND DANGEROUS anthology and has since been made available as a standalone. While I wouldn’t call the original story optional, I realized the connection so far into RAG AND BONE that I decided I’d do best to read the novella after I’d finished the novel. Waiting didn’t harm my enjoyment one bit and I doubt it'll harm yours.

Background: complete. Let’s talk about the book itself.

Crispin, a young practitioner, is horrified to learn he’s unwittingly spent the last decade training as a warlock and frustrated with how difficult it is to break the habits his evil master taught him. His boyfriend, Ned, is a source of solace from the contempt he faces from London’s less diabolical magicians, but his trips to Ned’s place become considerably less restful when Ned’s neighbour spontaneously combusts. Everything about the man’s death points towards a sinister janus jug, but the justiciar who arrives on the scene can find no trace of magic either in the room or on the jug itself. Unwilling to let his friend's death become a cold case, Ned investigates while Crispin delves into a new approach to magic that could push him towards the answer--if it doesn't take him way from Ned entirely.

Review: Dark Jem by Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

DARK JEM [Amazon | The Book Depository] is the third volume of JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS, writer Kelly Thompson and artist Sophie Campbell’s take on the 80s icon. I must confess, I’ve been a bad Jem fan--I missed most of Volume Two, VIRAL. As per the comics tradition, though, this didn’t affect my enjoyment of DARK JEM. Yes, I’m sad I’ll have to read those vol 2 issues later than I might’ve done, but the story itself works perfectly well without them in the mix because Thompson and Campbell carefully seed their story with reminders as to the series’ overall premise and what’s happened in the recent past. I caught up easy-peasy and settled in to enjoy the ride.

Which is GREAT. Like, super-great. Like, all the Jemerrific goodness I loved in volume one with an extra dose of “let’s play with the wider comics tradition” in the mix. It delighted me and made me gasp in horror; my most favouritest combination, made all the better because it happened within one of my favourite comics.

The basic story is as follows: something’s wrong with Synergy, the AI the Holograms use to craft Jerrica’s stage persona and all their special effects. Really wrong. “Hey, let’s brainwash everyone,” wrong. Eep! Jerrica quickly falls under Synergy’s spell, and the other Holograms aren’t far behind her. With their new sound, they look set to infect everyone with Synergy’s pernicious virus and turn the world into a dark yet orderly hellscape.

Unless they can break Synergy's hold, round up a few helpers, and save everyone.

Review: Yotsuba&! Volumes 1-12 by Kiyohiko Azuma

The Short, Gushy, Ungrammatical Version:

OMG you guys YOTSUBA&! is my new favourite I love everything about it it’s the sweetest comic in the entire world and just thinking about it makes my heart happy Yotsuba is the best and so are all her friends I love that they’re GENUINE friends too in defiance of all the tropes that ruled my childhood reading list comics needs more of this especially children’s comics oh man do I ever wish I’d had YOTSUBA&! when I was a kid she enjoys everything and she’s so determined to see the wonder in the world and maybe that’s because she’s an alien but the series hasn’t touched on that in ages so let’s just treat her as a small girl the art is so expressive and motion-filled and I looooove all Yotsuba’s obsessions she gets REALLY REALLY INTO THINGS and the older people in her life are awesome at nurturing whatever she’s currently into and helping her discover new interests too I basically just wanna be like !!!!!!!!!!!!! whenever it comes time to rec this comic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because it’s so awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it’s my new favourite !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I’m a giant pile of feels !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you're sighted please read it then come find me and tell me how much you loved it because you’re gonna love it unless you hate kids and/or you have no soul it is THAT GREAT I'm making it a near-universal rec I'M GOING THERE AND I NEVER GO THERE.

The Sensical Version:

When the world gets really, really heavy, I go in search of some fictional relief from it all. I often turn to the sort of books that leave me a quivering wreck, since I appreciate the chance to cry over something outside my everyday experience, but on rare occasions I’m lucky enough to find something that’s uplifting and genuinely nice.

I count myself incredibly lucky to have discovered YOTSUBA&! in June, right as I reached the point where I had to disengage myself from a certain nearby country's news media lest it destroy my mental health.

Spotlight On Serial Box

Serial fiction held a special fascination for me when I was a kid. The characters in the children's novels I gulped down were always hankering after the latest installment of their favourite serials, delivered to them via newspapers or magazines, but my own early-90s childhood offered nothing comparable. All my prose fiction came to me in book-length form.

Of course, serials did exist back then. Magazines like F&SF and ASIMOV'S published them every now and again, and general authors Steven King and Jackie Collins released thin paperbacks that were designed to form one novel when you read 'em all together. These stories weren't accessible to someone like me, though, and they remained out of my reach until ebooks came along and changed the literary landscape.

And until publishers began releasing them on the regular, to my unending delight.

Review: The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Cooper McQueen is pretty damned miffed when his gorgeous one-night stand tries to make off with his million-dollar bottle of bourbon. He’s even more incensed when the woman, Paris, insists the bourbon rightfully belongs to her, as he’ll soon acknowledge if he listens to her story. Hearing her out beats involving the police, so McQueen reluctantly agrees--and soon finds himself immersed in a torrid tale of secrets and lies steeped in the best bourbon Kentucky has ever produced.

THE BOURBON THIEF [Amazon | The Book Depository] is Tiffany Reisz’s first full-length work outside the Original Sinners series. It’s not erotica (though there are certainly sexy times herein), but in every other way it offers up all the goodness Reisz’s fans have come to expect from her books.

The most important of these, and the one I revelled in as I read, is the feel. Reisz’s style is the perfect fusion of Jackie Collins and vintage Anne Rice (assuming we're talking Rice’s pure historical novels, rather than her vampiric and witchly offerings). Shit gets wild here, y’all. Reisz has zero interest in nurturing cliches or placing limits on plot or character. Reading her is like exploring a long-abandoned chateau in the heart of a reclaimed swamp; ie, it's dark, terrifying, beautiful, and irresistible. You know there’s always more to discover, and you can’t wait to poke into every nook.

Fair warning: you’ll probably never find your way out again. Once you’ve had one Reisz, you want more and more and more and more.

Review: Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

Y’all know the Basic Buffy Plot (hereafter BBP). Destined monster hunter arrives somewhere new, befriends local youths, turns them into allies, and ends up falling in love with one (or more) individuals their job demands they treat as enemies. It worked beautifully for Buffy, but it’s everywhere now and I no longer find it fresh enough for my tastes.

And yet, I adored ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD [Amazon | The Book Depository], a book that hits every beat of the BBP.

Theseus Cassio Lowood--better known as Cas--is the only person in the world who can kill ghosts. He sends them to the other side with the athame he inherited from his father; the athame that’s only a knife in anyone else’s hands. He and his mother move from place to place whenever someone in Cas’s network of informants gives him a promising new lead, and now they’ve ventured to Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the ultimate prize.

Anna Korlov became Anna Dressed In Blood after she was brutally murdered by an assailant who was never found. She’s spent the last sixty-odd years ripping people to shreds when they venture into the Victorian boarding house her mother once ran. And yet, she lets Cas leave unharmed.

Intrigued, Cas sets out to discover what makes Anna so powerful, and so different from every other ghost he’s ended.

You see the BBP there, yes? The parallels only strengthen as Cas settles in to his new home and allies himself with the usual suspects: a nervous yet personable young witch who’s also a social outcast, a Queen Bee who’s more than a stereotype, and a guy named Will Rosenberg.

Then, of course, there’s the dangerous entity he really should kill without hesitation, but with whom he forms a strong, and perhaps even loving, bond because she calls to him like no one else.

And somehow, it all works. Instead of shunting me out of the story as the BBP usually does, it pulled me further in and left to desperate to wallow in Cas’s world.

Review: Goldenfire by A.F.E. Smith

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley, at the author’s request.

GOLDENFIRE [Amazon] is the sequel to DARKHAVEN, a debut I enjoyed but had some issues with. I try to give any promising series at least two volumes, though, so when A.F.E. Smith reached out to see if I’d like a review copy of GOLDENFIRE, I jumped right on it.

Or as "on it" as I could, given my current mercurial reading mood. It took me almost two months to start the book, but once I did I crammed it into my eyeballs as fast my reading speed would allow.

GOLDENFIRE opens about three years after the events of DARKHAVEN. Ayla Nightshade has consolidated her rule while her partner, Tomas Caraway, takes care of her security arrangements, in large part via his new training program for fighters who want to become part of Ayla’s elite guard, the Helm. But when Caraway receives word that an assassin has targeted Ayla with the one weapon that may harm a Changer like her--a pistol--the latest crop of prospective Helm members becomes the weakest place in his line of defense.

And books like this one are why I stick to my two-volumes-or-bust policy. GOLDENFIRE is so. Frickin’. Good.

Really. Smith has taken everything I liked about DARKHAVEN and ramped it up the max, even as she challenges established (and overdone) fantasy tropes. GOLDENFIRE takes a decidedly modern view of the genre, but reading it gave me the same thrill I experienced as a youngster encountering adult-marketed fantasy for the first time.

Review: The Vengeful Half by Jaclyn Dolamore

Review copy provided by the author via NetGalley. In the interests of full disclosure, be aware I beta read an early version of this book.

THE VENGEFUL HALF [Amazon] is veteran author Jaclyn Dolamore’s first venture into self-publishing. She’s released five novels through Bloomsbury and Disney Hyperion, but chose a different path for her new series so she could have greater control over each volume’s release schedule, packaging, and bonus content, as she wrote about in greater detail on her blog.

The book centres on sixteen-year-old Olivia, an exile from the Hidden Lands adjoining Earth. Olivia and her mother, Adelise, live in America so’s to avoid the man Adelise cursed after he destroyed her husband, but their quiet life gets a whole lot more exciting when an intriguing boy from their homeland tracks them down.

Alfred inherited Adelise’s curse when his gangster grandfather died. He’s been blind ever since; something his parents would very much like to rectify, against Alfred’s wishes. No sooner has he voiced his request, though, than a rival faction whisks in and abducts Adelise. Desperate to help her mother, Olivia follows Alfred into the Hidden Lands--and discovers her own terrifying past in this unfamiliar world of dark magic and strange delights.

Ooh, friends, this was awesome! I began it the very moment it hit my ereader, other obligations be damned, and only reluctantly emerged until I’d reached the final page. It made me giggle, it made me cry, and it gave me a fascinating new sphere to explore.

Y’all know how much I love poking around in a well-built world.

Review: Downfall of the Gods by K.J. Parker

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Before we go any further, you ought to know DOWNFALL OF THE GODS is the latest Subterranean Press novella from K.J. Parker. It’s available in a signed, limited edition of 1000, rendering it unlikely to show up on your local bookstore's shelves. Likewise, your library may choose to allocate their funds elsewhere¹.

This can make them difficult for the casual browser to track down, but worry not! Subterranean's limited editions are always available through the publisher's website, with copies available (but not, I believe, 100% guaranteed) on Amazon, too. The price point is high, but if you’re a book collector and authorial uber-fan these editions are well worth your consideration. Subterranean uses beautiful binding techniques to turn beautiful paper and beautiful cloth (or leather) into beautiful books that feel good in the hand and look great on a shelf.

They sometimes sell out during the preorder period, too, which is why I'm reviewing this one so far in advance of its March 31st release date. I want the interested parties among you to have a proper shot at it.

If you’re less of a collector, your entertainment budget is small, or you use a screen reader, Subterranean usually releases their exclusive publications as affordably-priced ebooks a year or so after the limited editions have sold out. It means waiting (and waiting until you’re Stateside, in some cases, as many of the books aren’t licensed for digital sale outside the US), but it renders the stories accessible to anyone with a computer and $3-6 to spare.

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about DOWNFALL OF THE GODS itself.

Review: Unexpected Art, ed. by Jenny Moussa Spring

UNEXPECTED ART, ed. by Jenny Moussa Spring, spotlights installations and site-specific works from around the world. Each piece appears alongside an artist’s or curator’s statement (depending, I assume, on whether or not the artist was comfortable writing in English), while two introductions usher readers into public context of installations in general and these pieces in specific.

Said pieces are by more than fifty artists, some of whom work in teams or collectives where not every member is named on the page. Of those I could identify through Google, thirty-four are men, twenty-seven are women, and one appears to be nonbinary. Forty-two of them live and work outside the United States. Twenty-two of them are people of colour.

So basically, the book is geographically diverse both in terms of the artists represented and the locations where the pieces were exhibited. It zips close to but fails to maintain gender parity, though, and I wish there’d been more POC represented.

Barring that, the book is fabulous. Not only did it push a large quantity of excellent art in front of my eyeballs, but it got me thinking about how much I love installations.

"I love installations" is the year’s biggest understatement, so I fear this ain’t really a review. It’s an excuse for me to waffle on about this most beloved of art forms.

Review: The Queen by Tiffany Reisz

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

You’ve read THE SIREN, yes? The first book in Tiffany Reisz’s Original sinners series?

If not, you’ll do best to make for your local library or bookstore and grab yourself a copy well before you approach THE QUEEN. This particular book is the eighth and final volume in the series, and you’ll experience 98% less confusion if you've already read the seven that go before it.

I know, I know. It’s a lot of homework, but it’s good homework and you’ll have a blast with it--unless you object to kinky, character-driven erotica with a strong religious component, in which case you’re probably best off reading something else.

If sexy times and religious discussion sounds awesome to you, though, you’ve gotta get your hands on this series. Let me explain the appeal of this final volume, sans spoilers for the earlier books.

THE QUEEN [Amazon | The Book Depository] is a direct sequel to THE VIRGIN and picks up shortly after the earlier book’s finale. It employs the same structure as the rest of the four-volume White Years subseries: a present-day framing story surrounds Nora’s recollections of what occurred in the years immediately before THE SIREN. The framing story takes place at the wedding we learned about in THE VIRGIN, while the core story picks up immediately after Nora’s return to Manhattan and details how she transforms herself from a well-known submissive into the Red Queen of the Underworld.

And if that makes no sense to you whatsoever, please refer to paragraphs one through three of this review.

Review: An Apprentice To Elves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES [Amazon | The Book Depository] is the third book in Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear’s Iskryne series, which blends Norse mythological influences with the tradition of animal companion fantasy. In this secondary world (which parallels ours in some ways, but isn’t an exact analog of our historical past), men bond with massive wolves to protect their communities from the trolls who seek to overrun them from the north and the invaders who strike from the south.

Each of the books focuses on different characters, so you can start with this one if that’s your thing; however, I strongly recommend you read A COMPANION TO WOLVES and THE TEMPERING OF MEN first. They’re wonderful books, and they’ll give you a good grounding in the social and political situation you’ll find in AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES.

And you want that. These books are filled with glorious complexities, and figuring out how everything slots together is half the fun.

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES follows four point of view characters: Alfgyfa, who has lived half her life in the human wolfheall and half with the svartalfar craftspeople to whom she’s apprenticed, and who isn’t sure how she fits into either world; Otter, a former slave who is afraid to be happy with her new life in the wolfheall; Tin, Alfgyfa’s master, who fears the alliance between the svartalfar and men will crumble once the parties who brokered it are gone; and Fargrimr, the sworn-son (trans) jarl-in-exile of the first territory overrun by the Rhean invaders who came on the scene in THE TEMPERING OF MEN and who have now begun to advance on the northerners.

After a brief prologue, the book picks up about twelve years on from its predecessor and examines how the characters deal not only with the Rhean threat but with the restraints their own society places upon them. And as you might imagine given its protagonists, it’s very much concerned with gender.

Review: Jem and the Holograms Vol 1, Showtime by Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

A lot of 80s kids have fond memories of JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS, and I’m no different. I spent seven years in the Hell Decade¹, and Jem et al were one of the things that brightened it up.

That said, the vast majority of my Jem-related recollections have to do with my awesome star stage that was also a tape deck, and with how my one Jem doll² was way taller than everyone else’s Barbies. If I ever saw the cartoon, it's faded from my memory.

So for me, Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell’s JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS [Amazon | The Book Depository | comiXology] falls into that strange realm between nostalgia and brand newness. I have an emotional connection to Jem as a beloved thing from my childhood, but not Jem as a particular story.

Which is to say, I don't mind the ways this incarnation of Jem may or may not differ from the older version.

Jerrica Benton and her three sisters, Kimber, Aja, and Shana, are ready to burst onto the music scene as the Holograms. The Misfits Vs! contest offers the perfect chance to get their video in front of thousands of listeners, especially since they’ll have an opportunity to face off against the uber-popular Misfits in a live battle of the bands if the video gets enough likes. There’s only one problem: Jerrica’s stage fright makes it impossible for her to perform in front of even a small crowd. Ulp!

Luckily, the girls’ scientist father left them the ultimate solution in the form of Synergy, an AI that can project three-dimensional holograms over anyone or anything--including Jerrica. Armed with an amazing stage persona for Jerrica and some kick-ass visual effects to go with their awesome music, the Holograms are ready to take on the world--provided the Misfits' jealous lead singer doesn’t sabotage them before the big day.