The Black God's Drums

This novella was a delight and I'm highly recommending it if you like the kinds of things I like. The Black God's Drums, P. Djèlí Clark. Who is Phenderson from Readercon, for Readercon people, which I'm sure biased me towards it a bit, being familiar with him as a person with interesting things to say. But I'm pretty sure I would have loved it anyways because it's non-stop things I like - steampunk alternate history with airships and chemical weapons and a young pickpocket passing as a boy and spymaster nuns and a hot bisexual lady captain with a badass steampunk pegleg and also magic and goddesses and a little bit of found-family. They got Westerfeld to do the cover quote which is perfect because this hits right on the "if you loved Leviathan" mark, except with an alternate history centered around the African diaspora, with a Haiti that's a major military power, an extended US Civil War conflict, and an independent New Orleans, the setting of the story, broken free in a successful slave uprising. I've been poking for years at a "Deryn in Africa" Leviathan fic which happens to hit some of the same worldbuilding points as Clark - the importance of trans-Atlantic African-Caribbean trade, mind control as a tool of white supremacy - so the novella felt like a little bit of a high-five in that way, like, yes, exactly! That *is* what would be in this sort of story! Anyways, my perpetual fic projects aside, this novella was so much fun and I assume I'll be nominating the hell out of it when the time comes. (ETA: belated elevator-pitch summary: it's like Leviathan crossed with The Salt Roads.)

Oh, and, hey, while we're here, an online short fiction rec by Clark that was lurking in my notes for when I start doing 2018 online recs in earnest: The Paladin of Golota, classic sword-and-sorcery high fantasy, scary giant worms. Novelette!

Wolf Hollow

Junie is like three books ahead of me on MCBA reading, probably because I'm reading more other things. But I've now finished a second one! Wolf Hollow, Lauren Wolk, historical drama, 2017 Newbery Honor (lost to Girl Who Drank the Moon). A girl in rural WWII-era Pennsylvania, a bully, and a shellshocked homeless WWI veteran. I liked it - I thought it had some really powerful moments, and it made me cry - but it also seemed like A Lot for late-elementary readers. Although when I tried to see how Junie felt about that she pointed out that she's read all the Harry Potter books, and I guess maybe the realistic fiction/fantasy fiction distinction seems more dramatic to me than to her. Anyways, major content warnings for animal harm, child harm, and child death (and as always let me know if you'd like more detail).