And we’ve reached the end of Wyrd & Wonder 2024. What a wild month!

I went from a reading slump to reading 16 books this month. Plus the 3 books I read the last weekend of April as a warm-up and all the rereads (or really re-listens) I did.

Needless to say, it’s been a fantastic month full of fantasy and adventure!

Mini-Reviews

Since my last WnW update, I finished 3 books. These 3 also meet prompts for my Summer Reading Challenge, which is double bonus.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is an alternate history science fantasy police procedural novella by P. Djèlí Clark.

Set in Cairo, Egypt in 1912, agents Hamed Nasr and Onsi Youssef of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities are tasked with removing a supernatural entity from an aerial tram car. The world background is that three decades earlier, djinn and other supernatural elements were “released” into the world, which allowed Egypt to evict the European colonial powers.

Maybe because I didn’t read his short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo first, but I thought the world-building was a little clunky. The books basically starts with the fact the tram car is haunted. Of course, the title also gives that away, but I thought that there might be more investigating to it. Then upon entering chapter 2, there’s a clunky transition to show the women’s suffrage movement. The synopsis also mentions secret societies—I don’t think I’d call it a secret society. It was more of a ritual that has been dismissed by the academics/scientific community.

Maybe because it was a novella, but I thought that the main characters had a rather easy time of it. A bit too easy. They just happened to be overheard by someone who could help them. Someone who did something bad just happened to confess. It was all too convenient. And the character development was just okay.

An easy read but I wasn’t quite as enamored with it as others have been.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and translated by Geoffrey Trousselot contemplates the question What would you change if you could go back in time and who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

Set in a cafe, the story is broken into 4 visitors, each of whom hopes to use of the cafe’s time-traveling offer. Here, the time travel element has specific rules: customers must sit in a particular seat, the person they wish to meet must have visited the cafe, they cannot leave that seat, and they must return before the coffee gets cold.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I agree with several other reviews that this would be better as a play or a Netflix series. As a book . . . well, I’ll just say I think maybe something has been lost a bit in translation. I think that if I could read it in Japanese, instead of this translation, it would be better. Having lived in Japan, I get how tough a Japanese to English translation is. And the English translation, well, I thought it felt simplistic and over-explained. Weirdly specific details are highlighted and nearly everything the characters feel is said or thought. But I like the concept.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna is a contemporary urban fantasy where witches and magic exist, but they stay hidden and isolate themselves as to not draw attention. The main character Mika questions all the rules and breaks several of them when she’s invited to be a magic tutor to three young witches.

This book definitely has parallels to The House in the Cerulean Sea with magic, found family, love and heart break and pain, with an outsider who could ruin it all. But unlike Cerulean Sea, I felt this story lacked the depth and feeling.

Although an “adult” novel (the MC is supposed to be 31), it has a decidedly young adult feel. The book tries to be warm with the cottage-witch-cozy vibe. But I just felt there was a lack of substance. The 3 children are mostly forgettable, not really distinguishable except that one is slightly more murderous and another uses curse words a lot. While the MC often acts younger than 31, the children often act/think/speak older than their ages. The romance felt almost like an afterthought, as if the author felt like she had to include it. The sex scene, which happens at like 85% mark, felt rather random and was really unnecessary to the plot.

Maybe if I had read this instead of listening to the audio, I might feel differently , but I thought it was just an okay read.

I listened to the audiobook from Libro.fm, which supports local bookstores with each audiobook purchase.

Fave Reads

Out of the 16 books I read this month, here are my top 4. (See the complete list here.)

Divine Rivals & Ruthless Vows

I’m counting this as one because duology. And wow, this duology really shredded my heart before piecing it back together! Divine Rivals was definitely my fave book of the month. In fact, it’s on track to be my fave book of the year.

City of Bones

What can I say. Martha Wells is an incredible storyteller and her works are masterclasses in writing. City of Bones has an incredible world full of interesting characters.

The Unmaking of June Farrow

I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed this book. I picked up The Unmaking of June Farrow and read it in one sitting. Despite a few flaws, I thought it was really an intriguing and fun read.

Wild is the Witch

I love that Rachel Griffin has leaned into the idea that magic and nature are inexorably intertwined. Wild is the Witch interconnects magic with the world. And I loved the Pacific Northwest setting.

Fantasy ReReads

I am a rereader. Not everyone enjoys rereading books and that’s okay. For me, rereading my faves is like eating comfort food or being wrapped up in a soft blanket on a cold, rainy day with a hot cup of tea or floating in the ocean.

Rereading faves often pulls me out of slumps. And I taught myself how to listen to audiobooks by starting with books I had already read.

This month, I re-listened to the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, gearing up for book 14, Winter Lost, that will be released June 18, and the Kate Daniels series (books 1-9) by Ilona Andrews so I could listen to Iron & Magic while reading along in my new beautiful edition from the Arcane Society. Plus, I love Steve West’s narration of Iron & Magic.

(If you follow me on Goodreads or StoryGraph, you won’t see these in my yearly stats because I don’t track books I’ve reread more than once.)

So my reading total for the month comes to 39 (not counting the 3 warm-up reads).

Not a shabby reading month.

Daily Prompt Adventure

I didn’t do the best job posting the daily prompts each day. I often lumped several days together. But I had a great time creating an adventure story and mapping out my route with the map that Ariana of The Book Nook created.

Thanks to everyone who followed along with me this month. Let me know in the comments what books you liked and what books you added to your TBR.

Art Credit: Orange dragon by Elena Zakharchuk
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