Lessons In Chemistry || Bonnie Garmus ★★★★★ Started: 14.03.2025 Finished: 04.04.2025 Set In

Blood Over Bright Haven || M.L. Wang ★★★★★ Started: 01.02.2025 Finished: 08.02.2025 An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance? Reading this line in the book description: “Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.”, I thought the Bright Haven would come under an external threat that would have to be alleviated. What really happens is much more insidious, much more sinister, and much harder to combat, let alone overcome. The result is an exceptional standalone fantasy novel in the vein of R.F. Kuang's Babel.

Even blood washes out, or you can fill your mouth with things that hide the taste.

Sophie Mackintosh, excerpt from Cursed Bread

If bravery is the wind that makes us soar like kites, fear is the string that keeps us from going too far.

Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson

How High We Go in the Dark || Sequoia Nagamatsu ★★★★☆ Started: 31.05.2025 Finished: 07.06.2025

Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter's research, only to discover a virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost. The plague unleashed reshapes life on earth for generations. Yet even while struggling to counter this destructive force, humanity stubbornly persists in myriad moving and ever inventive ways. Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet. From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.

“Love the erasure of everything else, a blinding worse even than the sun.”

— David Vann, Bright Air Black

Hi! I saw you were taking art requests about The Will of the Many, so hear me out: Vis falling from the window at Villa Telimus 😌

But seriously, something cute with Aequa, Callidus and Vis would be nice. I really love their friendship 💕

Thanks! ☺

Themst. Thank you for the request! This was so fun! I need to draw more art but alas...no time. Yet!

We Do Not Part || Han Kang ★★★★★ Started: 08.05.2025 Finished: 21.05.2025 One morning in December, Kyungha is called to her friend Inseon’s hospital bedside. Airlifted to Seoul for an operation following a wood-chopping accident, Inseon is bedridden and begs Kyungha to take the first plane to her home on Jeju Island to feed her pet bird, who will quickly die unless it receives food. Unfortunately, as Kyungha arrives a snowstorm hits. Lost in a world of snow, she begins to wonder if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. But she doesn't yet suspect the darkness which awaits her at her friend's house. There, the long-buried story of Inseon's family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive, documenting the terrible massacre seventy years before that saw 30,000 Jeju civilians murdered. I went into "We Do Not Part" with incredibly high expectations, owing to the overwhelmingly positive reviews it had garnered, and I can wholeheartedly say, they did not lie. Han Kang's latest novel is nothing short of remarkable. It's heavy, it's emotionally impactful, it is, in one word, extraordinary.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter || Brandon Sanderson ★★★★★ Started: 15.02.2025 Finished: 23.02.2025 Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster? The second one of Sanderson's secret projects that I read (after Tress of the Emerald Sea, another five star read), and Yumi is just as good, if not better - the narration is similarly humorus, the world is completely different yet still whimsical and meticulously thought out, and the characters - simply lovable - you can't help but root for Yumi and Painter from start to finish. The action does take some time to truly pick up the pace, but the payoff is absolutely worth it!

January 2025 reads!

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi || S.A. Chakraborty ★★★★☆ Started reading: 01.01.2025 Finished reading: 07.01.2025 This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be! I can't wait to see what the sequel has in store for us!

All the Lovers in the Night || Mieko Kawakami ★★★☆☆ Started: 28.12.2024 Finished: 18.01.2025 Hmmm, given how popular Kawakami is, I expected more from this book… not that it was bad, per se, just that it wasn't particularly remarkable or even memorable. Maybe I should have tried "Breast and Eggs" first

Anxious People || Frederik Backman ★★★★★ Started: 24.01.2025 Finished: 30.01.2025 Buddy read Trust Frederik Backman to make you cry with his heartwarming novels about found family.

The Will of the Many || James Islington ★★★★★ Started: 25.12.2024 Finished: 31.01.2025 Favourite read of January 2025 ♥ Where do I even begin with this incredible book? I loved the worldbuilding, I loved the characters, I loved the writing - it could not have been much better, and I had some pretty high expectations going in. James Islington managed to surpass them all. Safe to say I'm impatiently waiting for "Strength of the Few"!

Emissa and Vis. Still thinking about them