We’re getting towards the end of the month, and I once again have lots of book reviews to get through. Today we’re tackling a couple of stories that I have things to say about but not quite enough to justify a separate review for each.
Feel free to use the below links to skip around this post:
- The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
- A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
- The Witch by Marie NDiaye
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the reviews!
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The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Shadow of the Leviathan #1
2024 | USA | Fantasy, Mystery | Adult | 406 pages | ⭐⭐⭐.75
A tree spontaneously erupts from the body of an Imperial officer. An eccentric detective and her new magically-altered assistant must investigate.
I struggled with this one a bit for the first quarter or so, which was a surprise since I had heard so many excellent things and I was really looking forward to reading it. In some ways, it shouldn’t have been a surprise: although I do enjoy a mystery story, I tend to prefer consuming them in TV format and I rarely write crime novels highly. And the beginning of this book very much reads like an episodic mystery novel with the addition of some strange plant-related magic and slight body horror that only made me feel even more unsettled (horror is very much not my thing).
There are plenty of fantasy books with a detective or crime investigations element that I absolutely adore, however, such as the Kate Daniels and Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. And the key that I have noticed is that I like it when the crime investigations become part of a greater political or otherwise interconnected plot rather than simply episodic investigations, and when they are surrounded by a great cast of characters and strong overarching character arcs and interpersonal relationships. Luckily, this book quickly transitions to this type of a story around a third of the way in as the greater political machinations begin to surface and we get to see our character observing fewer plant-sprouting bodies and growing more as a detective.
I will say that some people don’t like Ana – I actually think she’s a great character, and almost funny in a way. And Din grew on me more and more throughout the novel, as did some other characters. I’m still not 100% sold on this series, but I am intrigued enough about what happens next to continue reading the series and see where it takes me.
Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s | The Storygraph
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
2025 | UK (British-Indian author) | Fantasy | Adult | 336 pages | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Exiled from her Guild after losing her powers resurrecting her great-aunt Jasmine, Sera Swan now (reluctantly) helps Jasmine run an enchanted in. Then she finds an old spell that could help her restore her power, and with the help of handsome and icy magical historian Luke Larsen, she just might be able to pull it off.
Cosy fantasy, even popular ones like Legends and Lattes, can be really hit or miss for me – sometimes I love them, sometimes I find them extremely boring or uninspiring (just very meh all around). So I’m very cautious about picking them up or spending my money on them – resulting in me waiting many months to get a copy of this book from my library. I don’t regret doing it that way (although I will be buying a copy of this book once the paperback is out) but I definitely didn’t need to be worried about not liking this book!
I started this book in the evening and ended up staying up until very nearly morning to finish it – I did put it down to sleep at one point, but ended up picking it back up since I was still too engrossed in the story to sleep. I appreciated the mix of cosy, found family vibes with medium-high stakes (my preference) that were consistent throughout the novel.
Often my issue with cosy books is that the stakes are really inconsistent – for example, a low-stakes book will suddenly throw in some high-stakes fantasy plot at the end as if they’re worried there isn’t enough conflict. I think cosy books do best when they pick to a stakes level and stick with it, whether that be contemporary fiction-style stakes or fantasy-style stakes. This book did this excellently. I also loved how diverse the cast of characters was, in all ways, including age, race, gender, sexual orientation, neurodiversity etc.
Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s | The Storygraph
The Witch by Marie NDiaye
Translated from the French by Jordan Stump
1996 [EN: 2026] | France | Literary Fiction | Adult | 130 pages | DNF
Lucie inherited a weak gift from her mother, who was formiddable but ashamed. At 12, Lucie’s own children are intiated into the magical powers that mark the family’s peculiar womanhood and they soon fly the nest. Literally. Translated from the French by Jordan Stump.
We’re ending this mini review collection with a book I DNF’d – this seems to be a bit of a common theme (this is the second one in a row that I’ve done this). Unfortunately, this was my third DNF of the year and all three have been 2026 releases. This was one that I was really looking forward to and I ended up really not liking anything about it.
I will say that the translation read very naturally, which is maybe why it was nominated for the International Booker Prize (it was shortlisted, in fact, and you have no idea how relieved I was when it didn’t win). However, this is pretty much where I end my enjoyment of this book.
In hindsight, I should have gone into this books with slightly different expectations. I went into it thinking it was the translation of a recent novel – it was not; the original came out in the 1990s. Which doesn’t seem like it’s that long ago, but it is in fact 30 years ago and maybe that can be considered an excuse for the RAMPANT, unnecessary fat phobia in this book. I did realise the age of the book quite early on, but it definitely didn’t help me get past it as it added nothing to the story and just irritated me every time it cropped up.
Apart from that, the things that bugged me in the first half of this novel included: unnecessary and largely unaddressed child abuse by a side character (apparently it never really gets addressed properly, according to other reviews I’ve read), and the most blatant, sudden and frustrating projection of one’s own marital concerns onto long-divorced parents I’ve ever read (and I’m quite sensitive to depictions of children reaction to parental divorce in novels, due to some recent personal experiences).
I went into this novel hoping for a nuanced discussion about womanhood, motherhood, mother-daughter relationships with a slight magical realism flare, and instead I got to live inside the head of one of the most frustratingly not self-aware and self-absorbed characters I’ve ever had the displeasure of encountering. I stopped at 40% and decided not to torture myself further. Apparently some of the author’s other works are significantly better, but I don’t think I’ll be risking it.
Bookshop.org UK | Blackwell’s | The Storygraph
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Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think? If not, do any of them look appealing to you?
Keira x
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