This book took me a minute to get really immersed into it. I blame that mainly on the start of the story focusing a lot on the High School social politics that Darius is dealing with. I have a hard time connecting to a lot of High School drama as an adult these days. But the voice with which the author uses to portray Darius, how Darius’ depression is always there, but not the loudest thing in the room, how the author portrayed the relationship between Darius and his dad, and how Darius struggles to fit into a heritage he always felt on the periphery from… now THAT really got to me. I probably should have been more mindful of what I was going through emotionally before picking up this book, because the end had me in tears. But that’s a good thing, I promise!

Oh boy, I don’t even know where to begin here. Did I love the fact that this book is so obviously inspired by Mass Effect? Especially the Shepard and Garrus relationship? Yes. Because I, too, am obsessed with that and will play only that relationship arc each and every time. But I guess I was also expecting more of the story, and the sexy bits, too? We have a plot: Olivia is abducted by aliens because they need a profiler like her to help their commander infiltrate a human sex trafficking ring. Cool. Or it would have been except the trafficking aspects were only present as a vehicle to get Olivia and Thel into sexy situations which… I did not love. But it could have worked if those elements of the plot had been woven into the book, which they were not. Allow me to explain.

The dark, coastal vibes, the Welsh inspired fairy tale, the feminist commentary (down with the patriarchy), and the mystery around “what is real? Am I going crazy?”, are all immaculate in “A Study of Drowning”. In this dark academia story, our main girl, Effy, is struggling with PTSD around a sexual assault while attending a prestigious architecture college. The only problem is she doesn’t want to be there, she’d rather be in the literature school but no women are permitted into the school of her dreams. When an opportunity that looks too good to be true pops up that allows her to design a home for her favorite, recently deceased, author, Effy jumps at the chance without looking. She’s so desperate to escape a place full of snide whispers, to prove that she’s not “crazy” to an emotionally abusive mother, that Effy doesn’t question why she was selected to design this house until it’s too late. Even writing that has me so in love with the concept of this story. And yet…

I loved the vibes of this book. A sci-fi world with a grungy-cyberpunk feel? A slew of crime families and a corrupt corporatocracy in charge of the one settlement on an inhospitable plant with a secret sentient race? Oh and the vast majority of the cast are women and non-binary characters? Uh, yes please a thousand times over! “Persephone Station” is just on the right side of hard science fiction, meaning that it’s not Andy Weir levels of math and science but more than just a hand wave of “nano technology” to explain things. And while I loved the military-like action of this high-stakes adventure, often times those same action sequences I so enjoyed came at the detriment to character and plot building.

What happens when a murder occurs in the afterlife? That, in a very broad nutshell, is the premise of “Valhollywood” where an up-and-coming actor suddenly finds himself to be a resident of the afterlife, where the populace are the famous and infamous. The story is an homage to the authors love of Golden Era film wrapped up in a noir murder mystery with a very heavy sprinkling of spiritualism—maybe too much, but more on that in a second. Jake, still grappling with the fact that he’s dead and rubbing elbows with Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, and Ava Gardener, finds himself suddenly thrust in a whodunit murder mystery when one of Valhollywood’s residents actually dies ahead of fading as her fame dwindles to nothingness. Solving that murder and unraveling how it happened was where this novel truly shined! Unfortunately, the detour this book makes left something to be desired.