dawn.vogel | September 10, 2025
Caitlin Starling’s The Oblivion Bride (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a gorgeous science-fantasy novella with some Gothic and surreal elements worked into an incredible world. Lorelei is one of a very small number of members of her family who hasn’t been killed by the family curse, which no one has been able to figure out. In order […]
dawn.vogel | August 20, 2025
The Map of Lost Places, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner (Apex Book Company, 2024), is a wonderful anthology filled with the dark and strange recesses of our world and the stories that happen there. This anthology contains twenty-two stories, and it was difficult to narrow down those stories to just the ones […]
dawn.vogel | July 30, 2025
The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc (Neon Hemlock Press, 2024) is a sci-fi novella featuring duplicated consciousnesses and a cheese heist with wonderful character development and worldbuilding bundled within its pages. Millions Wayland has focused all of her attention on making cheese, after an incident when some of her duplicated consciousnesses rebelled against […]
dawn.vogel | June 18, 2025
Aether Beyond the Binary (Duck Prints Press, 2024) is an anthology of speculative short stories with gender diverse characters, all revolving around a concept of aether, a semi-magical substance that has properties as different as the stories in which it features. Each of the 17 stories has a listing of “tags” at the beginning of […]
dawn.vogel | May 28, 2025
June Hur’s A Crane Among Wolves (Feiwel & Friends, 2024) is the fourth of this author’s books I’ve read and reviewed. And every time I think she’s written my “favorite” of the bunch, she knocks it out of the park with another amazing young adult Korean historical mystery! Iseul’s sister has been taken away as one […]
dawn.vogel | May 7, 2025
North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher (Neon Hemlock, 2024) is a collection of six linked sci-fi short stories that span 400 years, but with all but one of the stories taking place in a 100-year span. Featuring queer characters occupying a vast star-faring culture, the stories stand alone but also contribute to the larger storyline. […]
dawn.vogel | March 26, 2025
Cursed Shards: Tales of Dark Folklore, edited by Leanbh Pearson (IFWG Publishing International, 2024), is an anthology with ten stories that each contain a shard of a broken mirror at the core of their premise. Some stories touch on well-known folklore, while others use more obscure myths and legends as their core. The stories are […]
dawn.vogel | March 5, 2025
P. A. Cornell’s Lost Cargo (Mocha Memoirs Press, 2022) is an exciting sci-fi novella with elements of thrillers and personal horror. The shorter length makes the stakes high for the characters but also gives it a nicely compact feeling. Parker and five other survivors crash land on a terraformed moon in a one-in-a-million odds accident. They’re […]
dawn.vogel | February 12, 2025
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Tor, 2020) is a lovely novel of bureaucracy, music, and found family. With a marvelous cast of characters and occasionally hilarious side comments, it weaves a cozy tale with secrets and a reasonable amount of peril. Linus Baker is a caseworker with the Department in Charge […]
dawn.vogel | January 22, 2025
Vanessa Ricci-Thode’s The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts (2024) is a young adult novel set within her Fireborn universe, filled with dragons and magic. It’s a charming and sweet look at sisters, found family, grief and loss, and necromancy! Lusi and Marsi lost their mother when Lusi was born, and though their father remarried, he has […]
