With a little over a month left in the reading year, and still no end in sight with my yearly goal, I thought It would be interesting to visit the mountain of novellas that have been piling up these past few months. I spent a whole weekend reading my backlog of various novellas, both published and unpublished, in the hopes of getting ahead of my reading and discovering some new favorites. Several of these titles are coming from authors that have read in the past and loved, but there are a few standouts that I was wanting to try. I mostly stuck to science fiction fantasy this way out the gate but did hit some of the horror novellas that I had missed from my October reading. This novella romp was so much fun, so without further ado, here are my thoughts on the eight novellas I read over the weekend!
Novellas I loved
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee
“I wanted to be one. I wanted to be the monster that kills other monsters.”
It shall come as no surprise that Fonda Lee wrote another book I’m completely obsessed with. Her previous Green Bone Saga series launched her to the top of my favorite fantasy authors last year, and when I heard about her upcoming novella I knew it was going to hit just as hard. Untethered Sky follows a young woman consumed by vengeance, and her career path as a Ruhker, trainers of the giant predator rocs that are taught to hunt the very Manticores that destroyed her family. This extraordinary novella confronts the limitations of obsession and the one-sided love between man and predator. Through the partnership between Ruhker and fledgling, Lee tries the bounds of love and loyalty, against inner nature.
Trigger warnings: violence, blood, death, gore
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Even Though I Knew the End by C.L Polk
“I called to the devil, and the devil came to me.”
Angels, demons, and magic combine in this gorgeously queer novella tinged with romance and heartache. An insightful and entertaining romp through 1940s Chicago, following a Lesbian detective determined to get back the soul she bargained away years ago, and thus secure a future with her great love. When I heard about this sapphic historical fantasy novella by C.L Polk I knew that I was in for a wild ride. I loved their previous historical novel The Midnight Bargain, so naturally, I had high hopes for their newest novella. Even Though I Knew The End is a well-rounded story that managed to deliver on every possible front. Inquisitive, Sapphic, and fun. Give it a try!
Trigger warnings: death, misogyny, homophobia, forced institutionalization
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The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. And fathers die too young”
The Crane Husband is a peculiar story of a fifteen-year-old girl managing the affairs of her family after the death of her father. When her mother brings home a crane to stay with them, generations of family trauma and grievances are brought into the open as her mother begins to lose herself piece by piece in the crane’s menacing clutches. Barnhill composes an unsettling futuristic fable that is part retelling and part inquisition into abuse, abandonment, and children placed into parental roles far too young. The Crane Husband skillfully details a family slowly falling apart and a horror at the center of the household. The perfect novella for anyone looking to read a futuristic spin on Japanese folklore tangled up in a sinister family tragedy.
Trigger warnings: death, illness, domestic abuse, blood, violence,
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The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
“Myths are full of lies. This is not one of them.”
The Salt Grows Heavy is a gruesome tale tracking a mermaid who destroyed her husband and his kingdom, and a plague doctor as they wander an entangled forest. They happen upon a strange village, where children compete in a brutal game for a chance at immortality and supposed saints safeguard the treacherous truth. Cassandra Khaw delivers easily the most horrific and violent novella I have ever read. There’s a dangerous underbelly to its language that slowly ensnares you at its surface, and once beneath, morphs into something truly terrifying. Seriously, the descriptions in this were bone-chilling and morbid to the point of needing to put the book down at times. The Salt Grows Heavy is the perfect novella for horror (and bloodthirsty mermaid) fans.
Trigger warnings: blood, violence, gore, murder, disembowelment, torture
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Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
“Singing Hills knew that the truth showed up in its own time, often late and entirely unlooked for”
Nghi Vo continues The Singing Hills Cycle, following the cleric Chih as they travel to the Riverlands to record the prominent tales of the martial artists that torment the area. Chih and Almost Brilliant journey with two young women and an older couple whom they quickly fall in with while navigating the changing landscape. Nghi Vo once again delivers a stellar addition to her Singing Hills Cycle series with Into the Riverlands, a novella that continues to emphasize the power of storytelling and the passing down of stories through the generations. Vo lets us peek behind the curtains of various fables and myths to view the kernel of truth at their center. This is a brilliant series that continues to delight year after year. Can’t recommend it enough!
Trigger warnings: violence, death
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The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown
“It sounded like the seismic breath of stars…It sounded like a conversation between gods”
The Scourge Between Stars is a thrilling science fiction horror novella about a temporary captain that confronts the threat of an alien intruder whilst trying to keep the crew alive on a ship approaching extinction. Everything about this was just incredible. It reads like a full-length science fiction novel from the amount of detail Ness Brown poured into the worldbuilding and the wide array of characters present. From start to finish I was on the edge of my seat as Jacklyn unearths the truth about this threat and deals with the pressures passed down by her absent father. An incredible story of perseverance and the deep manifestations of trauma contended within the wide expanse of space. Look no further for your next thrilling queer sci-fi horror, it’s here.
Trigger warnings: death, violence, blood, gore
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Novellas I Didn’t Love (as much)
The Two Doctors Gorski by Isaac Fellman
“If she had ever thought of herself as a rose, it would be a withered one -crisp, dry, delicate”
Annae is a graduate student focused on psychiatric magic, but she harbors the uncanny ability to read the minds of the people around her. Her abilities allow her to protect herself and provide her colleagues and superiors with exactly what they expect. With a premise as amazing as this one, the actual story was very much a letdown. The Two Doctors Gorski is the perfect example of a novella that was attempting too much and was confronted with its own limitations. I appreciated the conversation this was trying to have with academic abuse and women starting a career in a male-dominated field, but its short page count left more to be addressed, and there was simply too much going on that I was left pondering over many unanswered questions.
Trigger warnings: death
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Spear by Nicola Griffith
“A name, she thinks, is what makes a person who they are. A name is how they know themself”
I had high hopes for Spear, a novella twisting Arthurian legend and chronicling the journey of a young woman disguised as a man trying to find her place among knights and kings. The beautiful prose sharply hit its mark and I fell easily into the flow of the ever-shifting narrative. This feels like the type of story read by the fire on a cold winter night, that warms your bones and brings comfort in times of need. Spear is a fantastic queer fantasy novella, but there were several things that held it back. The prose, while stunning, weaved a dense web that made it hard to navigate the events that occurred, and the last half was very slow going. Not my least favorite novella, but not worth contending with my other favorites.
Trigger warnings: death, violence, infertility, blood
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So ends my weekend journey into my various novellas of the past year. Many of these have an expected publication in the coming year, so be advised that most of the quotations above are coming from a proof and are subject to change. I had such a fun time with this. I’d been feeling a bit behind on my reading goal and uninspired as to what to read next so this helped me a whole lot! I will definitely be keeping up with any new novellas in the upcoming year and looking out for any new ones to read that are already published. If any of these sound interesting, please consider pre-ordering a copy through the links provided, and do let me know what you think when you get around to reading!
Literaryrobin 