If Found Return to Hell

If Found Return to Hell, Em X Liu, 2023 novella. This book came recced from KJ Charles which I thought was a good sign but unfortunately it didn't work for me at all. I never clicked with the pacing or arc and had no sense of where it might be going or where I would have wanted it to be going. I have a theory that I have mentioned before (like here) that sometimes when authors have a fandom background, or have spent a lot of time thinking about their characters, they underestimate how much development we need on the page to get invested in those characters, and what kinds of interactions we need to see to understand and buy into their feelings about each other. I can tell Liu really loves these people, and Liu wants me to believe they all have all these feelings about each other too, but I just felt like I was reading fic for a source I didn't know, like the bits that would have actually given me a sense of everybody and made me care about their relationships were just sort of already assumed and it was enough to gesture at them. [ETA: Which is too bad because they *did* seem like cool characters in a cute premise! I wanted to love them just like Liu did!]

The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar

The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar, Indra Das, 2023 novella. This is gorgeous. A boy in Calcutta with a mysterious family history. Emigration and heritage and alienation and Fantasy literature and the desire for magic in the world and what it would actually mean to know about magic in the world, to be part of a small and hidden community. And the writing is beautiful. I think this one just went to the top of my 2023 novellas list.