Book Review – Grimm Curiosities

09 Jul 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I fell victim to Instagram advertising and signed up for a one-time surprise book box from Caffeine and Legends over the winter. When the book arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was written by an author I had read before and enjoyed. Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher is an indie title that I would describe as a historical paranormal romance (paid link). Read on below to find out what I thought of it.

I read the paperback edition.

Here is the blurb:

It’s 1851 in old York. Lizzy Grimm struggles to save her late father’s charmingly creepy yet floundering antique shop, Grimm Curiosities. Then, during a particularly snowy December in this most haunted city in England, things turn…curiouser.

Lizzy meets Antony Carlisle, whose sister suffers from the same perplexing affliction as Lizzy’s mother—both stricken silent and unresponsive after speaking with ghosts. Working closely together to fathom what power has transformed their loved ones and why, Lizzy and Antony discover an important her father’s treasured set of rare books on ancient folktales, enchantments, and yuletide myths. Books that a persistent collector is awfully keen to purchase. Books Lizzy can’t bear to sell.

Every bewitching passage and illustration opens a doorway to something ancient and dangerously inviting. Keys to a mystery Lizzy and Antony are compelled to solve—even if doing so means unleashing one of this bright holiday’s darkest myths.

I enjoyed this book and found it to be an easy and quick stand-alone read. I was instantly sympathetic toward the protagonist, Lizzy Grimm, who has been caring for her ailing mother while trying to make a living from the shop left to her by her father. Societal norms from the time period limit the ways in which she can earn a living and the family is struggling.

The story takes off quickly as patrons visit Lizzy’s shop, one in particular showing a sinister interest in some of her father’s books. Lizzy is torn between a sentimental attachment and trying to stay in her home and current situation. While fending off these offers, she also meets her love interest, but he is scandalously above her own social standing. Together with the paranormal occurrences, this made for an entertaining story.

The romance in this book is not a surprise (as I would believe is true of most romances from what I’ve read of that genre), but it provides a way for Lizzy’s plight to catch the interest of those more powerful than she to move the plot forward. I found that Antony was a little too good and too nice to be true, but that didn’t bother me overly much.

The romantic scenes in this novel are less spicy and explicit than in some of the more recent romantasy genre books. If you’re looking for the heat level of Fourth Wing or ACOTAR, you won’t find it here. This is set in the 1800’s and Lizzy has to worry about her reputation, okay?

I’d definitely read another book by this author and I’ll have to look to see what else she’s published that might be a fun and light read.

Have you read many indie (self-published) books? Which ones would you recommend? Let me know in the comments.

You can find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Fiery Cross

20 Jun 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have finished another book in the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. The Fiery Cross is the fifth book in the series (paid links), and you can find my reviews of the earlier books in the series below:

  • #1 – Outlander (review here / purchase link here)
  • #2 – Dragonfly in Amber (review here / purchase link here)
  • #3 – Voyager (review here / purchase link here)
  • #4 – Drums of Autumn (review here / purchase link here)
I listened to the audiobook edition of this.

Here is the blurb:

The year is 1771. Claire Randall is still an outlander, out of place and out of time. But now she is linked by love to her only anchor: Jamie Fraser. They have crossed oceans and centuries to build a life together in North Carolina. But tensions, both ancient and recent, threaten members of their clan.

Knowing that his wife has the gift of prophecy, James must believe Claire, though he would prefer not to. Claire has shared a dreadful truth: there will, without a doubt, be a war. Her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through perilous years ahead – or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

This fifth book in the series took me a lot longer to listen to than the previous volumes. I think that my audiobook brain became fatigued and I had to take a break to “read” some other novels before I could finish this one. It’s not that this wasn’t still an enjoyable book. The beginning felt like it was developing a lot of the underlying character relationships and politics for a payoff later in the series.

The American Revolution is still a few years away at the time of this book, and Claire and Jamie have settled in to a more routine life as settlers at Fraser’s Ridge. I felt like the problems that they encountered in this book were not as large as in the earlier books, so the tension was lower overall.

The historical details are still wonderful. I remember in particular how Claire thinks to herself about the maggots that she uses to help treat one of Jamie’s wounds. She has to make sure that these are not the New World screwworm, because this species will eat live tissue as well as dead. This particular insect has been in the news lately because in modern times it has been eliminated from North and Central America, with a few incursions that are closely monitored. It is these small details that creates a realistic vision of the world that these characters inhabit.

I did enjoy getting to see more of the quiet conversations that let some of the less developed character relationships grow. Like in earlier books, the author also tosses in a few short passages where the characters contemplate the nature of time travel and the core question of whether it is possible to change events and impact the future. The reader is left guessing about this question, but I like to see that the characters question this.

I’m going to start book #6, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, soon, although maybe not until July (paid link). I have made it a little further through season 1 of the show, and will be watching more in the upcoming weeks.

What is the longest book series you have read? What keeps you reading and what makes you lose interest? Let me know in the comments.

You can find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – Great Circle

12 May 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I don’t remember how I heard about Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, but sometimes I branch out from genre fiction to read something more mainstream (paid link). I needed an audiobook to break up the long Outlander series, so I picked this one up from Audible. As a pilot myself, I was attracted to this story about a female aviator, so I imagine the description of the book’s main character is what had initially intrigued me.

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

Spanning Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London, and modern-day Los Angeles, Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost.

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian’s disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian’s own story, as the two women’s fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.

At over 600 pages for the print edition and over 25 hours for the audiobook, this was a substantial book. Fortunately, I enjoyed most of it and never felt like it dragged. The narrative follows two different timelines. The main story is that of Marian Graves, starting at her birth, detailing her obsession with flight, and eventually leading her to attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Interspersed with Marian’s tale is a modern day story about actress Hadley Baxter as she stumbles into playing Marian in a film about her life. Both timelines held my interest and I never felt like I had to “get through” one to get back to the more interesting part of the book.

This book was about the characters and how they changed over time and interacted with each other. Marian’s twin brother and artist, the uncle who raises them, her childhood best friend, her flight instructor, bootleggers, and wartime pilots all touch upon Marian’s life. Yet despite all of these social connections, Marian is most at home in the sky, alone in her airplane where no one can judge her or needs to understand her.

Hadley Baxter was a less important character, but as the novel evolves, her links to Marian also became evident. This book was carefully crafted to link their histories. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the ending of the book left me guessing just enough as Marian hurtled toward unavoidable tragedy, her destiny already known to history.

The book included several nice touches to Marian’s flight training that were accurate to my own experience in learning to fly. The little details and phrases that came up are still used in flight instruction, and while I’m not qualified to comment on the historic aircraft, nothing stood out as grossly wrong. The author accurately described the problems with weather and disorientation, pushing the boundaries of your aircraft, and how to handle emergencies.

I am glad to have ventured out of my genre reading niche for this one. What other historical fiction should I read? I have a couple on my list: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell, and The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (paid links). Let me know your suggestions in the comments.

You can find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – The Underground Railroad

18 Nov 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

Sometimes I decide to step back from genre fiction and read something more mainstream. Although part of the premise of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is fantastical, that is not what the book is about (paid links). This novel won several awards, including the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. Read on below to find out more.

I read the hardcover edition of this.

Here is the blurb:

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood–where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned–Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor–engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey–hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

This was a hard book to read on an uncomfortable subject. This alternate history story set in the pre-Civil War American South features a literal underground railroad. Rather than providing a way for slaves to escape to freedom, this railroad is a literary device that the author uses to show the effects of slavery and racism in different constructed social settings.

Cora starts her journey as an enslaved young woman on a traditional southern plantation. The terrors on the Randall Plantation are those that are we’d expect from history. When the “kinder” of two brothers who own the plantation dies and Cora catches the eye of the remaining brother, her situation turns more imminently dangerous, impelling her to flee with the help of another slave.

In each destination that Cora reaches, she finds arguably better treatment. Yet none of these places treat her the same as the whites, even once she finds a freer community in the north. She has the illusion of freedom, but others are making decisions about what is best for her. She never has the agency that she should.

Throughout Cora’s story, she loses everyone who tries to help her. Cora doesn’t dwell too much on these losses and while this could make her characterization seem shallow, I felt like this was also a way for the author to make a specific point. Cora was originally abandoned by her mother, and given that families were torn apart in the slave trade, this was part of her life and something that she would have had no control over. It doesn’t seem fair that even when Cora finds some degree of safety and freedom, she still loses those she cares for, but her life is not fair because she cannot escape the color of her skin.

I’m glad that I read this book, but I don’t think that it added anything to what I personally already believe about human rights and discrimination. It was definitely a worthwhile book and offers a unique perspective on how racism has changed through history and how abolition hasn’t solved racial discrimination. I will probably donate this book to my local library so that other people can read it.

Have you read any books by Colson Whitehead? Is there another one that you would recommend I read? Let me know in the comments!

You can find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – Drums of Autumn

30 Oct 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have finished another book in the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. Drums of Autumn is the fourth book in the series (paid links), and you can find my reviews of the earlier books in the series below:

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

What if you knew someone you loved was going to die? What if you thought you could save them? How much would you risk to try?

Claire Randall has gone to find Jamie Fraser, the man she loved more than life, and has left half her heart behind with their daughter, Brianna. Claire gave up Jamie to save Brianna, and now Bree has sent her mother back to the Scottish warrior who was willing to give his life to save them both. But a chilling discovery in the pages of history suggests that Jamie and Claire’s story doesn’t have a happy ending.

Brianna dares a terrifying leap into the unknown in search of her mother and the father she has never met, risking her own future to try to change history . . . and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past . . . or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong.

I thought that this installment of the series took longer to get started, but ultimately brought the characters together in new and more complicated ways. This book also added more time spend in different viewpoints, with Brianna and Roger becoming more involved in the central plot. Thankfully, the trans-Atlantic journeys in this volume went by in fewer pages than that in the previous book.

Many of the problems that the characters encounter could have been easily solved if they had been more open about talking to each other. Unfortunately, certain assumptions are made that nearly lead to catastrophe. But without circumstances like that, we wouldn’t find conflict and tension in stories, which would make them a lot less interesting to read.

In the third book, Voyager, and again in this one, the characters speculate on the nature of their time travel. This aspect of the series starts out as a completely mysterious occurrence, but as they try to figure out how to intentionally travel through time, I have to wonder how this will play out in future books.

I just started the next book, The Fiery Cross, so I’ll be back with a review on that one in 6 to 8 weeks (paid link)!

Have you read any of the Outlander books? Have you watched the show? I just saw the first episode of the first season last week (for the second time). Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Familiar

28 Oct 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo is a new stand-alone novel set in late 16th century Spain that incorporates significant fantasy elements. I have enjoyed several of Bardugo’s other books, so read on below to see what I thought of this one (paid links).

You can find my review of her other books here:

I read this in hardcover.

Here is the blurb:

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

This book opened more slowly than some of the author’s other stories, but Luzia’s life was richly depicted and it was easy to get drawn in to the sense of place that was established in the opening. As she gets drawn into the schemes of those better off, she tries to grasp some small piece of agency for herself, making her choices more understandable as she knowingly puts herself at risk.

Like much of Leigh Bardugo’s other novels, there was an element of romance within this story. This threw me at first, because I had not read the description of one character accurately and had made some incorrect assumptions. However, I was able to reorient myself and this ultimately didn’t take anything away from the story for me.

I felt like I didn’t understand the magical aspects of this world quite as well as I would have liked. Perhaps that was because this was a stand-alone novel and I simply had fewer pages to become comfortable with the backstory and myths that were revealed as the plot unfolded.

Despite these nitpicks, I did enjoy this novel. I found it to be a refreshingly different type of story from the author, and while I would love to discover another novel that was as good as Six of Crows, it is also great to know that she can vary her work to keep it fresh.

Which of Leigh Bardugo’s books have you read? Which was your favorite? Let me know in the comments (above)!

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Voyager

22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I’m still making progress reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. This review is for Voyager, book #3 (paid links), and you can find my reviews of the earlier books in the series here:

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her… and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.

Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her…the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland… and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite or forever doom her timeless love.

This series has certainly not followed my expectations in terms of the timeline and structure of the storytelling. This book starts off following Claire after she has returned to her present timeline and lived there for 20 years, raising her daughter. With Jamie left behind in the 1700s, the book details their separate lives. But with several more books ahead in this story, of course they must somehow reunite.

This book also brings the story to the New World, as the characters seek to rescue young Ian, Jamie’s nephew. The identity of who has kidnapped him and which other characters they meet makes this book resonate with the earlier volumes.

One part that dragged for me was the trans-Atlantic journey. While the author takes steps to fill this time with events, there is only so much to do on board a sailing ship. Overall, I enjoyed this installment a lot and I’m curious to see where the series goes next.

Have you read any of the Outlander books? How far along should I be before I start to watch the television series? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Dragonfly in Amber

15 Apr 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I did manage to finish the second book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon last week, Dragonfly in Amber. Hopefully this means that I’m on the way out of my March reading slump (paid links). This was also the audiobook version, narrated by Davina Porter.

You can find my review of book 1, Outlander, at this link.

I listened to the audiobook edition of this.

Here is the blurb:

From the author of Outlander… a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland…

For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones …about a love that transcends the boundaries of time …and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ….

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart …in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising …and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves….

The beginning of this book was not what I expected and introduced more time travel complications to the overarching storyline. It also framed the theme of this book – can the past be changed if one has foreknowledge of their outcome? Or is one helpless, pinned in place like the titular dragonfly? I won’t answer that question because you’ll have to read the book to find out.

This volume takes Claire and Jaime to France for most of the book. There, they use family connections and a little spycraft to try to stop the eventual uprising of the Scots against England that Claire knows is doomed to failure.

Claire and Jaime’s relationship evolves as they are faced with new challenges. I have to wonder how many different ways the author can pull them apart, have them question their love, and then have them reunite and reconcile. So far I don’t think she’s had a similar situation between them come up twice, but there are a lot of books to go.

The same narrator gave voice to this book, and I really like her portrayal of the characters. I wish that the books included a glossary or dramatis personae because sometimes I get the more minor Scots confused.

I don’t want to give any specific spoilers here, but I think that the ending of this volume was stronger than book 1. It provides enough resolution, but also sets up more mystery and tension about what happens next. I have already started the next book, Voyagers, which is almost 44 hours long, so look for my review of that one in about 6 weeks (paid link).

Have you read any of the Outlander books? How do the first two books compare to you? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – Outlander

13 Feb 2024 8 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have been meaning to read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon for many years, but it is daunting to start such a long series and I kept putting it off. My mother has read the whole thing (more than once) and I think she’s going to disown me if I don’t read it, so that was the final impetus for starting it. The first book is simply titled Outlander (paid links). I listened to the audiobook edition, narrated by Davina Porter.

The series has also inspired a show, and I’ve actually watched part of the first season. So going into this first book, I already had an idea of how the opening would go. Read on to see what I thought of the whole book.

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

I was surprised at how closely the beginning of the book followed what I already knew from the show. Of course, there are more details in the book, and this is certainly not a short novel. My own knowledge of English and Scottish history isn’t great at all, but I felt like I could follow along with the politics and intrigues. The author gives just enough historical knowledge to provide context for the story without becoming overwhelming.

The interplay between Jaime and Claire was interesting–the cultural differences between their two times cause a good amount of conflict. Claire is opinionated and headstrong while Jaime is a product of his time and tries to treat Claire accordingly. Their romance was well done though, moving from an arranged marriage to a place of mutual respect and then love. I’m curious to see how the author will keep their relationship fresh with at least nine more books left to go.

The narrator for the audiobook does a great job–both with the accents and with giving each character a distinctive voice.

My only criticism is that I felt that the ending of their time in Scotland was unsatisfying. Without giving too many specifics away, I wish that the final events of Jaime’s escape didn’t happen off-screen, only to have Claire hear about what happened later, particularly because I thought that it was weird for cows to be used in such a way.

I’m going to continue on with the series and am hoping to get through one book per month. Look for my review of book 2, Dragonfly in Amber, in March (paid link)!

Are you a fan of the Outlander books or the show? How far along in the books should I be before I start the show again? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Victory City

14 Nov 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Victory City (paid link) by Salman Rushdie is one of the controversial author’s most recent novels. I had never read any of his works, but one of my book clubs chose this one and so I picked it up a few months ago.

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

She will whisper an empire into existence – but all stories have a way of getting away from their creators . . .

In the wake of an insignificant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga – literally ‘victory city’ – the wonder of the world.

Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s as she attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and as years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, Bisnaga is no exception.

The first thing that struck me about this novel was that it was a fantastical exploration of ancient history. Salman Rushdie had never been on my radar as an author who wrote fantasy, but after investigating his other works, it looks like much of his catalog is regarded as part of the magical realism genre. While that term originated in the German art world, it has been mostly used to describe writing by Latin American authors in which magical events are described in a realistic manner and the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred.

After reading Victory City, I don’t think that I would categorize this book as magical realism because the events of myth and magic are overt and clearly magical. This book read more like a mythical exploration of history, similar to some of the retellings of Greek mythology that have become prevalent recently (Circe, Ariadne, A Thousand Ships [paid links]).

I struggled to get into this book, and I think that was because the narrative style was comprised of too much telling and not enough showing for me. It was also hard to identify with the narrator. While some of the individual stories and conflicts had interesting aspects, I never felt engaged with the outcome of Pampa Kampana and her city. It also seemed that the author tried to create a story that gave women agency and power, but didn’t quite get there in the execution of that idea.

This book might appeal more to other readers and I think some of my reaction to it is that the style didn’t work for me. The prose itself was well-done, and I would consider reading another book by the author at some point.

Have you read anything by Salman Rushdie? What did you think? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

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