pyrae

Dr. Sapphire "Saffy" Walden is the head of the magical department in an exclusive—and very old—English boarding school. She's a powerful magician, a dedicated teacher, and a middle-aged white bisexual woman. She lives on campus, eats all her meals in the cafeteria, and doesn't have much of a life outside the school, which has a bit of a demon problem.

The pace of this book is banananas. There's a big fight a third of the way in that, in any other book, would be the final conflict, but here it's just part of the background. The central question doesn't even solidify until halfway through the book, and the main problem doesn't come into focus until much, much later. Every conflict but the last comes on suddenly and is dealt with immediately and in between is the normal grinding minutiae of being a teacher and school administrator. This isn't a complaint. Emily Tesh knows what she's doing, and that is building a rich and layered world for her story to live in, a world so deep and detailed that the clues she sprinkles in don't stand out as anything but more of the same.

Every time I read a children's fantasy book where the kids confront the enormous problem all by themselves and I was crying, weeping, begging, Please find a trusted adult, this book heard me and answered. But, as we learn, even that can have its pitfalls.

Contains: children in peril, past child death; demonic possession; life-changing injury; and while there is f/f romance, it's not in any way the focus of the book.

We're having a Flashback Round at fancake this August and revisiting our Marriage of Convenience theme! That means in addition to the new recs being shared this month, there's already 63 recs waiting for you at the comm. We've also got a bonus banner this month if you want to help promote the theme.

If you have any questions about this theme, or the comm, come talk to me!

Abigail Sorenson as a teenager, an adult, a sister, a wife, a single mother, a student, all of her offered to you at once, though in pieces, while the story rolls along like a katamari, gaining in size as it picks up all those pieces and a lot of other stuff besides, and just keeps on rolling through the years, investigating the grief of lost loved ones, the philosophy of self-help, the question of correlation versus causation, and the way all of Abi's life lead to this point, here, where it picks up one last piece and snaps together like an origami ball. I found it inventive, painful, curious, striving, playful, and, in the end, very satisfying.

Moriarty has a light touch as a writer. Her characters are detailed, but effortlessly so. Her prose is easy and whimsical and while it can verge on twee, for the most part, I find it delightful. The novel deals with heavy subjects, but in her hands, it's joyful too. In fact, it's mostly about joy, about building human connections, about finding your place in the universe, and about being subscribed to a mysterious newsletter.

Contains: references to underage sex, some of it coercive; references to adult sex, including a one-night stand with dubious consent; missing family member; MS diagnosis; ableism; pregnancy, including two early miscarriages; infidelity; child in medical peril.