Book Review: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

The Cautious Traveller's Guide
to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

Book title: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands
Author: Sarah Brooks
Genre: Steampunk fantasy
Published: June 18, 2024
372 pages
My rating: 3/5

“There is a woman on the platform with a borrowed name. With steam in her eyes and the taste of oil on her lips. The shrill, desperate whistle of the train turns into the sobbing of a young girl nearby and the cries of the trinket vendors, hawking their flimsy amulets as protection against Wastelands sickness.”

1899, a train runs from Beijing to Moscow across the Siberian Wastelands where strange phenomena are taking place. Marya Petrovna, a young woman with a borrowed name, boards the train to find out what happened to her father on the previous crossing. Weiwei, a girl born on the train, defies the rules of the train company and protects a stowaway girl. Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist, is determined to restore his reputation. Together, they must survive the journey even as the uncontrollable Wastelands seem to break into the train.

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is Sarah Brooks’s debut novel. The premise sounded fascinating, and I was excited to read this steampunk fantasy, but unfortunately, the book left me a little disappointed.

Book Review: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Book title: Brown Girl Dreaming
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Genre: Memoir, novel in verse
Published: August 28, 2014
337 pages
My rating: 5/5

Brown Girl Dreaming is Jacqueline Woodson’s memoir or autobiographical novel in verse about her youth in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Born in Ohio and raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In her poems, she talks about growing up as a brown girl, her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement, and her love of stories even while she struggled to learn to read.

I was maybe expecting a novel in verse to be more poetic, but Woodson’s poems read almost like prose. I don’t know if this is because I read the book in a Finnish translation and poems are notoriously difficult to translate, or if the translation accurately captures Woodson’s style. Whether the lack of lyricism is a minus is a matter of taste. I probably only paid attention to it because I’m not the target audience for this middle grade book. The prose-like style makes the book easy to read and understand for younger readers.

May Wrap-Up and June Hopefuls

May reads

May Wrap-Up

• Finished: 11
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 4,102
• Average rating: 4.25

I read a lot of books in May! Four of them were novels. I read the last two books in Saara El-Arifi’s fantasy trilogy The Ending Fire, The Battle Drum (3/5 stars) and The Ending Fire (4/5 stars). I also read the first book in Hannah Kaner’s fantasy trilogy Fallen Gods, Godkiller (4.5/5 stars). And I reread Suzanne Collins’s YA dystopian fiction The Hunger Games. Since that book is so well-known by this point, I’m not reviewing it. Suffice it to say that it’s still worth five stars. You can find my reviews of the other three books behind the links.

Book Review: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

Book title: Godkiller
Author: Hannah Kaner
Genre: Fantasy
Published: January 19, 2023
304 pages
My rating: 4.5/5

“Why does it matter what happens to me?” said Elo.
“Because we could be the same, you and I,” she said after a moment. “What happened to us does not define us, what we do next is what matters.”

After a brutal war between gods and people, worship of gods is forbidden in the kingdom of Middren. Kissen makes a living as a godkiller, but when she meets a god that has bonded with a young girl, she promises not to kill him. They set out to the ruined city of Blenraden to ask for help from the last wild gods haunting the place. On the way, they meet a former knight on a mission to save the king.

Godkiller is the first book in Hannah Kaner’s adult fantasy trilogy Fallen Gods. This was a fast-paced and exciting read. Although the plot was rather simple, there were nice twists along the way to keep my interest up. I also liked all four point-of-view characters, and there wasn’t single one whose chapters I wanted to skip. Despite them all being moody and grumpy, it was easy to learn to like them and to root for them. I also liked the disabled and queer representation in this book.

Book Review: The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi

The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi

Book title: The Ending Fire
Author: Saara El-Arifi
Genre: Fantasy
Published: September 10, 2024
512 pages
My rating: 4/5

“But small rebellions don’t change the world.
Some truths were too big to hide among the pauses of a soliloquy. They needed to be shouted. They needed to be confronted.”

The Warden’s Empire, the Blood Forged, and the Zalaam are preparing for a coming war. In the Warden’s Empire, a vigilante called Truthsayer raises an army against the wardens, and Sylah and Hassa have to navigate the changing political system while searching for Anoor. After joining her grandmother, Anoor is celebrated as the Child of Fire who will bring victory to the Zalaam. She finds herself a new purpose as they set off on their last voyage to wage war against the other nations.

The Ending Fire is the third and final book in Saara El-Arifi’s fantasy trilogy. I read the first book The Final Strife (4/5 stars) last year and the second book The Battle Drum (3.5/5 stars) right before this book. There is again a helpful recap of the events of the previous book as well as a glossary and a list of characters.

How I’m Re-Outlining My WIP

Over the years, I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that writing is so much easier if I have an outline. My latest writing project, a soon-to-be-published Pride and Prejudice retelling Comes with an Attitude was the easiest book I’ve ever written, and I attribute that for the large part to the extensive prepping and outlining I did before I started the first draft (granted, it did help that I was following literary genius Jane Austen’s already existing outline!).

My next writing project most likely won’t be as easy. I’m getting back to an urban fantasy novel I started in 2021. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo, and even though I did have some kind of an outline, it wasn’t enough. While the first and the third acts of that book are in a tolerable shape (at least in terms of the outline and the order of the scenes), the second act is a complete mess of disconnected events and scenes. That means that before I can start the second draft, I need to sort out that mess and come up with a functioning outline.

I’m hoping that this blog post will be helpful if you (like me) are a recovering plantser who wants to improve an old project or if you’re a pantser and you want to reverse outline a project before starting the second draft.

(Disclaimer: there’s nothing wrong with not outlining a book. If you can finish a book without an outline, awesome! There’s no right or wrong way to write. I just happen to be one of those writers who works better with an outline.)

Book Review: The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

Book title: The Battle Drum
Author: Saara El-Arifi
Genre: Fantasy
Published: May 23, 2023
560 pages
My rating: 3.5/5

“Freedom is not free. It has a cost. But it cannot be bought or given. Only taken. And it’s time to take ours.”

Anoor is the first blue-blooded ruler of the Warden’s Empire, but before her reign has even started she is falsely accused of a murder, and she must solve the crime without the help of her lover, Sylah. Sylah has left the Empire in search of a solution to the hurricane that threatens her land. The new truths she learns change everything she knows, and soon she must prepare for an oncoming battle. Meanwhile, Hassa, the Ghosting spy, uncovers more atrocities of the Empire’s past and present.

The Battle Drum is the second book in Saara El-Arifi’s fantasy trilogy The Ending Fire. I read the first book, The Final Strife, last year and gave it four stars. The Battle Drum is a solid sequel to the first book, but unfortunately it suffers from a middle book syndrome.