One of my favorite tropes in fantasy is magic linked to body horror. Especially more so when it is treated as a volatile resource, calling into question the price of chasing power. Naturally, I had a fantastic time with Wen-Yi Lee’s When They Burned the Butterfly (October 21, 2025): a bloody, fiery saga about the horror andRead More
Power, War, and Self-Knowledge: The Weavers of Alamaxa by Hadeer Elsbai
The Weavers of Alamaxa picks up right where the previous book, The Daughters of Izdihar, left off—on a giant cliffhanger, so if you’re wary of spoilers for book one, read no further! Daughters ended with Nehal abducted and Giorgina an escaped prisoner. The Daughters of Izdihar have been disbanded by the corrupt government, and weavers,Read More
A Revolutionary Tale: The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai
The Daughters of Izdihar is Hadeer Elsbai’s debut novel. It’s the first in The Alamaxa Duology, and I raced to the second book the moment I finished this one (tune in next month for that review). It’s always a thrill to read a fantasy novel that’s not set in the Western tradition, and with aRead More
A Lush and Lesbian Political Fantasy: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
In honor of The Lotus Empire being released on November 12th, I decided to reread The Jasmine Throne and actually continue with the series past the first book. I first read it back in 2021 when it came out and I remember enjoying it, but aside from that, not much stuck in my head. I never got around toRead More
Vic reviews The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Considering it’s commonly referred to as part of the Sapphic Trifecta of fantasy and sapphic fantasy is, in my professional opinion, the best genre there is, it seems almost criminal that it took me so long to get to it. Maybe it was intimidation (how often do popularRead More