dawn.vogel | September 9, 2026
Shaun Tan’s Hometown (Levine Querido, 2026) is a gorgeously illustrated graphic novel telling the story of a young girl, her family, and what happens when she learns something about where she came from. The protagonist of this graphic novel is a human girl, even though her family members aren’t human. She meets a human boy who […]
dawn.vogel | September 2, 2026
S. M. Mack’s Death Valley Blooms (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a contemporary fantasy novella that poses questions about family curses and inheritances when some members set out to break the curses by not continuing their family line. With gorgeous, lush, surreal descriptions and a relatable protagonist, it’s a quick and fascinating read. Mar knows that the […]
dawn.vogel | August 12, 2026
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (Ballantine Books, 2021) isn’t quite like most of the books I read and review here. But the title caught my eye, as did the description of the book. While this book isn’t explicitly speculative, there are certainly some elements that seem as though they’re not exactly mundane, […]
dawn.vogel | June 10, 2026
Cheryl S. Ntumy’s They Made Us Blood and Fury (Rosarium Publishing, 2026) is a gorgeous, sweeping, epic fantasy with wonderful characters and intricate worldbuilding that will delight fans of the genre! The novel follows the interwoven stories of several characters, key amongst whom is Aseye, a young woman who works as an armorer far from her […]
dawn.vogel | May 6, 2026
Izzy Wasserstein’s These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (Tachyon Publications, 2024) presents a mystery that brings a former commune member who left on bad terms back into contact with her former community. Set in a near-future dystopia where corporations and climate change have caused most of humanity to suffer, it also looks at themes of family […]
dawn.vogel | April 22, 2026
I thoroughly loved Clara Ward’s Be the Sea, so I was excited to read their novella, Dream the Deep (Atthis Arts, 2026). Set on a near-future Earth that the wealthy and privileged have fled, it takes place over a few days and features a number of people who are being left behind. Ren is a non-binary […]
dawn.vogel | April 8, 2026
The Dead Withheld by L. D. Lewis (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a queer, gritty, urban fantasy novella that I absolutely flew through once I started reading it. The worldbuilding is fantastic, as are the characters inhabiting that world! Dizzy Carter is a private investigator and deadwalker, a type of witch who can communicate with the […]
dawn.vogel | March 25, 2026
Adria Bailton’s Worlds Divide (Balance of Seven, 2026) is a wonderful young adult sci-fi novel of love despite the odds centering a non-white young woman with a disability and touching heavily on mental health issues. Nina has always been able to “slip” into other worlds, but it’s an ability she can’t control, leading to significant […]
dawn.vogel | March 18, 2026
Tea and Treachery at the Infinite Pantry by Jo Miles (2026) is a delightful cozy mystery set in a fantastical world, filled with tea, delicious foods, cats, and the promised treachery! Glendevyn is the recently appointed head curator of the Infinite Pantry, a museum dedicated to food. When the preservation spells that keep the museum’s […]
dawn.vogel | February 25, 2026
The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a charming novella that mashes up academia and superheroes with a largely LGBTQ+ cast of characters. Professor Laxman Yadav, who specializes in art history and archaeology, is brought in to examine a recently unearthed artifact, a rare example of a fully intact technology from […]
