Category: Reviews

Review – Comet in Moominland

Posted July 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Comet in Moominland

Comet in Moominland

by Tove Jansson

Genres: Children's, Fantasy
Pages: 192
Series: Moomintrolls #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

When Moomintroll learns that a comet will be passing by, he and his friend Sniff travel to the Observatory on the Lonely Mountains to consult the Professors. Along the way, they have many adventures, but the greatest adventure of all awaits them when they learn that the comet is headed straight for their beloved Moominvalley.

I either never read Tove Jansson’s Comet in Moominland or forgot most of the story — or maybe it’s present but shorter in the comic strip versions? It’s been so long. The beginning and ending seemed familiar, but not the middle stuff: I remember never entirely being clear where Snufkin or Snorkmaiden came from, but this is where they join the family!

Speaking of which, I really love Moominmamma just relentlessly adopting anyone who needs a mother. The end of the book, where they all creep into the cave in fear, is just so sweet (Moominmamma sings a comforting lullaby, promising them all “your mother is here” — but only Moomin himself is actually her child).

I love the way things just are in these books: Snufkin’s a Snufkin, Sniff’s a Sniff, a Hemulen is a Hemulen… we don’t get enormous amounts of explanation, it’s just on with the adventure, and you’d better keep up!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Chinese Dress in Detail

Posted July 17, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Chinese Dress in Detail

Chinese Dress in Detail

by Sau Fong Chan

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 224
Rating: five-stars
Synopsis:

Chinese Dress in Detail reveals the beauty and variety of Chinese dress for women, men, and children, both historically and geographically, showcasing the intricacy of decorative embroidery and rich use of materials and weaving and dyeing techniques. The reader is granted a unique opportunity to examine historical clothing that is often too fragile to display, from quivering hair ornaments, stunning silk jackets and coats, festive robes, and pleated skirts, to pieces embellished with rare materials such as peacock-feather threads or created through unique craft skills, as well as handpicked contemporary designs.

A general introduction provides an essential overview of the history of Chinese dress, plotting key developments in style, design, and mode of dress, and the traditional importance of clothing as social signifier, followed by eight thematic chapters that examine Chinese dress in exquisite detail from head to toe. Each garment is accompanied by a short text and detail photography; front-and-back line drawings are provided for key items.

An extraordinary exploration of the splendor and complexity of Chinese garments and accessories, Chinese Dress in Detail will delight all followers of fashion, costume, and textiles.

The V&A’s Chinese Dress in Detail, written by Sau Fong Chan, is a gorgeous physical item with glossy pages full of colour photographs, displaying both close-ups and zoomed out images that give you an idea of what the full garment looks like, and accompanied by sketches of how the garments are put together, and at times with useful context like illustrations from the period.

The book has a useful introduction setting the scene, and then each garment has its own little description/discussion section. Most of the garments get a full double-page spread. It’s only a sampling, inevitably, but Sau Fong Chan has selected garments that represent different ethnic groups within China like the Uyghurs and the Miao, and tries to be clear about how diverse “Chinese” fashion can be.

It was fascinating and beautiful, and I recommend it if you have an interest!

Rating: 5/5 (“it was amazing”)

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Review – Standing Female Nude

Posted July 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Standing Female Nude

Standing Female Nude

by Carol Ann Duffy

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 64
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

This outstanding first collection introduced Carol Ann Duffy's impressive gifts and the broad range of her interests and style. The poems are fresh, skilful, passionate. Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955. Her awards include first prize in the 1983 National Poetry Competition; three Scottish Arts Council Book Awards; Eric Gregory, Somerset Maugham and Dylan Thomas Awards in Britain and a 1995 Lannan Literary Award in the USA. In 1993 she received the Forward Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award for her acclaimed fourth collection Mean Time. On May 1, 2009 she was named the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.

I remembered Carol Ann Duffy’s Standing Female Nude, her first collection, better than I thought I might. I knew a couple of the poems very well from reading selections of her work for GCSE English oh-so-many moons ago (how’d it get so long ago!?), and still liked “War Photographer” very much.

I did feel that this collection obfuscated meaning more than I was used to in her later poems, at least for some of the poems, and that I wasn’t overall as keen. I especially disliked “$” — not to my taste.

Some strong poems, but a lot of weaker ones and ones I didn’t care for. “War Photographer” is very worth it, though.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – The Baby Dragon CafĂ©

Posted July 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Baby Dragon CafĂ©

The Baby Dragon Café

by A.T. Qureshi

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 312
Series: The Baby Dragon
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

When Saphira opened up her café for baby dragons and their humans, she wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult to keep the fires burning. It turns out, young dragons are not the best magical animals to keep in a café, and replacing all that burnt furniture is costing Saphira more than she can afford from selling dragon-roasted coffee.

Aiden is a local gardener, and local heart-throb, more interested in his plants than actually spending time with his disobedient baby dragon. When Aiden walks into Saphira’s café, he has a genius idea – he'll ask Saphira to train his baby dragon, and he'll pay her enough to keep the café afloat.

Saphira’s happy-go-lucky attitude doesn’t seem to do anything but irritate the grumpy-but-gorgeous Aiden, except that everywhere she goes, she finds him there. But can this dragon café owner turn her fortunes around, and maybe find love along the way?

A.T. Qureshi’s The Baby Dragon CafĂ© is frothy and light, more sugar than substance, a cosy read without major conflict and a romance without huge miscommunications or a mid-act breakup. There are a couple of dramatic scenes, but mostly it’s about a shy guy bonding with his dragon and a bubbly cafĂ© owner who misses her family and loves dragons.

It’s exactly what people complain about when talking about cosy fantasy and romance, and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who is looking for rich worldbuilding. It plops dragons into everyday life, and otherwise it could be any romance book — not much would change if you made it The Baby Horse CafĂ©, in some ways.

This all sounds critical, but it was a fun read for me in the moment, I’m just saying not to pick it up with greater expectations than that. It’s tropey and sugary and I’m pretty certain it’s meant to be. The romantic leads communicate and solve their problems fairly swiftly, are relatively in touch with their emotions, and the big drama with Aiden’s family fizzles into absolutely nothing. There are some dramatic scenes with the dragons that sit a bit oddly with the rest (Saphira pushes Aiden out of the way of a burst of dragon fire, and then later there are some dragon-related rituals with a certain amount of peril), but for the most part it’s just… cosy.

There’s maybe something a bit “young” feeling about it, with the squealing between Saphira and her best friend Lavinia — it feels quite teenage. The main characters are supposed to be in their twenties, and not their early twenties, but… it’s fine. It’s not meant to be that deep, I think! Avoid it if that’s not what you want.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – Solo Leveling, vol 2

Posted July 14, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Solo Leveling, vol 2

Solo Leveling

by Dubu, Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 300
Series: Solo Leveling #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Ever since he woke up in the hospital, Jinwoo's been thrown into a world of cryptic messages, daily quests, and strange dungeons overflowing with creatures he's never even heard of. As he tests out his new abilities, it starts to sink in that he is no longer the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind. Maybe he can finally attain what he’s always wanted — enough power to protect himself — but a run-in with an unexpected foe forces Jinwoo to consider just how far he's willing to go to obtain it!

I found volume two of the Solo Leveling manhwa really fascinating. It adds a bit more about the new “system” which is helping Jinwoo level up, which feels rather familiar as a long-term gamer, and then plunges into another dungeon with a new set of characters. I rather liked Jinho, even if he seems like a bit of a nepo baby, and I’m curious to see whether he’s a recurring character — my guess would be yes.

The plot does stay pretty dark, this time with the system forcing Jinwoo to kill (not just incapacitate) some people who’ve betrayed him. We also get to see that from outside, with Jinho’s interpretation of events, which was pretty cool and added to the depth of the worldbuilding.

I really liked the bit where Jinwoo goes faster and faster trying to run enough to hit his daily goal, so he can use the reward to fully heal; it’s one of those things you can leverage in some games, and it’s neat to see that played out in this setup.

I ended up getting the next two volumes because I’m definitely pretty into this right now! Looking forward to digging into those.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Moomins and the Great Flood

Posted July 13, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Review – The Moomins and the Great Flood

The Moomins and the Great Flood

by Tove Jansson

Genres: Children's, Fantasy
Pages: 64
Series: Moomintrolls #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Essential reading for any lover of the Moomins. This is where it all began: The Moomins and the Great Flood offers an extraordinary glimpse into the creativity and imagination that launched the Moomin books. Moominmamma and young Moomintroll search for the long lost Moominpappa through forest and flood, meeting a little creature (an early Sniff) and the elegantly strange Tulippa along the way.

I’m not sure which of Tove Jansson’s Moomin novels I’ve actually read; I know I’ve read most if not all of the comic versions, thanks to Cardiff Library, but the novels so far have been sort of half-familiar. I think I have read this first one, The Moomins and the Great Flood before, because some of the episodes definitely felt familiar, down to the phrasing — like the marabou stork and his glasses — but in the end… who knows?

It was a fun revisit, even if it feels like the world isn’t fully set up yet in the final configuration (does Sniff get named at all in this? I don’t think so). If I recall rightly, it’s pretty skippable, but I’m glad I didn’t: I always like to see where things began.

It’s a bit of a madcap ride, really, from one random event to the other, but it’s charming all the same.

Rating: 3/5 (liked it)

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Review – The Cleopatras

Posted July 12, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Cleopatras

The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 384
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Cleopatra: lover, seductress, and Egypt's greatest queen. A woman more myth than history, immortalized in poetry, drama, music, art, and film. She captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, the two greatest Romans of the day, and died in a blaze of glory, with an asp clasped to her breast - or so the legend tells us.

But the real-life story of the historical Cleopatra VII is even more compelling. She was the last of seven Cleopatras who ruled Egypt before it was subsumed into the Roman Empire. The seven Cleopatras were the powerhouses of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the Macedonian family who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. Emulating the practices of the gods, the Cleopatras married their full-blood brothers and dominated the normally patriarchal world of politics and warfare. These extraordinary women keep a close grip on power in the wealthiest country of the ancient world.

Each of the seven Cleopatras wielded absolute power. Their ruthless, single-minded, focus on dominance - generation after generation - resulted in extraordinary acts of betrayal, violence, and murder in the most malfunctional dynasty in history.

Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones offers fresh and powerful insight into the real story of the Cleopatras, and the beguiling and tragic legend of the last queen of Egypt.

I really enjoyed Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones’ The Cleopatras, which discusses and follows not just “the” Cleopatra, Cleopatra VII, but the whole female line of the Ptolemy dynasty, filling out the background that made the famous Cleopatra who she was, and introducing a wider audience to some pretty incredible women.

It’s a fascinating history, and a part of Egyptian history that I was never that keen on as a kid and thus never learned a lot about (I preferred the period before the Romans started meddling). Llewellyn-Jones manages to write in a way that keeps things fresh and interesting and mostly helps keep things straight, despite the plethora of repeated names. I found it a little distracting and weird when he translated Ptolemy IX Soter II’s nickname (Lathyros) and then just called him “Chickpea” all the time. It was kinda… cutifying? And I’m not sure any of the Ptolemys deserve to be cutified, I’ll be honest, even as they were fascinating people as described here.

The main drawback is that there aren’t numbered references, and sometimes he doesn’t even explain the nature of the evidence he’s using to decide something. For example, he asserts that “Chickpea” and Cleopatra IV were a love match — why? He never explains, and you wouldn’t expect so from the way they later behave.

So it’s all thorough and fascinating, but perhaps not one to take too seriously if you’re looking to research. It does have a section of “useful materials” and a bibliography, though, so the sources are relatively available to follow up (if not quite as conveniently as with numbered footnotes).

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, vol 1 (LN)

Posted July 11, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, vol 1 (LN)

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter: Holy Maiden Summoning Improvement Plan

by Yatsuki Wakutsu

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 288
Series: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (light novel) #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Seiichirou Kondou is a 29-year-old accountant and major workaholic. When he's accidentally transported to another world, not only does he demand a job, he starts whipping the lackadaisical Royal Accounting Department into shape! But when he gets in over his head and nearly dies from overwork, the handsome Commander Aresh steps in to save him, and the two develop a unique, physical relationship... as a form of medical treatment?!

I’ve been reading the manga adaptation of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, so now I’ve turned to the original light novel, by Yatsuki Wakutsu. Like most light novels I’ve come across, it has some illustrations, which are very similar in character design to the manga, but I might like them just a touch more.

I always think when reading a light novel that it’ll add a bit more to what I learned/experienced in the light novel, but then get amazed reading the light novel how faithful and complete the manga actually was. The same was true here: there are some extra snippets of characters’ thoughts and feelings, but really, I knew everything I needed to from reading the manga.

It’s still fun though to experience it in this format. Seiichirou is such an idiot, and Aresh’s overprotectiveness feels pretty justified when it’s so clearly laid out what an idiot he’s being with his own health.

That said, there’s already more than a hint of Aresh being a bit too controlling, which drives me mad in the manga versions. Seiichirou can make his own decisions, even if they’re objectively terrible ones. I really hope that they do eventually have a reckoning about this, but we’ll see!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Siren Queen

Posted July 10, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Siren Queen

Siren Queen

by Nghi Vo

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 282
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic.

“No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill — but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid.

But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes—even if that means becoming the monster herself.

Siren Queen offers up an enthralling exploration of an outsider achieving stardom on her own terms, in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page.

This is a review I wrote quite a while ago but which somehow never got posted!

When this book says Hollywood is full of monsters, that’s only the literal truth. Stars on the screen are also stars in the sky, and some people sell their soul trying to get there. That’s the premise of Siren Queen, and I really don’t want to say more than that, because I really enjoyed slowly figuring out what was literal, how this world differs from our own, where the metaphors have become reality.

Luli is Chinese-American, and she knows full well what kind of roles await her in Hollywood — but she’s going to go there on her own terms and do what she can. Whether she’s going to get there never seems like an option: she wants to be seen, she wants millions to see her, she wants to be just like the people she’s seen at the local cinema. She never really questions this desire or her determination to go there; she’s almost possessed by it. I could definitely have stood to understand that better; I understood Luli’s ambivalent feelings about her home and her sister, and understood her drive toward Emmaline and her friendship with Greta… but I wanted to understand more of her drive to be seen, to rise, because the brief references to that felt powerful.

Luli is surrounded by characters who almost all want the same thing: they didn’t just somehow end up there, against their will — except for Greta, of course — and I found myself at risk of forgetting that with people like Harry Long and Emmaline and maybe even Brandt Hiller. But they chose this, just like Luli did, and the ways they are trapped and hurt each other arise from that as well. It adds a little complexity to the sympathy you feel for them sometimes. Luli’s far from perfect, but Emmaline has made the same choices in many ways.

There’s a lot that isn’t explained, a lot that you’re left to intuit or guess or imagine for yourself, and I really liked that. It stays with the central concept and doesn’t try to elaborate it too much, and there are mysteries that we don’t get to understand. I like that a lot; I don’t think it should have tried to unravel Oberlin Wolfe’s existence or why certain things are as they are — this is Luli’s story, shaped by those mysteries but never seeking to understand them.

People have compared this to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and there are similarities there, for sure. I’ve certainly enjoyed both!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Fence, vol 2

Posted July 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Fence, vol 2

Fence

by C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joanna LaFuente

Genres: Graphic Novels
Pages: 112
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Tryouts are well underway at King’s Row for a spot on the prodigious fencing team, and scrappy fencer Nicholas isn’t sure he’s going to make the grade in the face of surly upperclassmen, nearly impossibly odds, and his seemingly unstoppable roommate, the surly, sullen Seiji Katayama. It’ll take more than sheer determination to overcome a challenge this big! From the superstar team of C.S. Pacat (The Captive Prince) and fan-favorite artist Johanna the Mad comes the second volume of this acclaimed, dynamic series.

Book two of C.S. Pacat’s Fence (with art by Johanna the Mad) pretty much straightforwardly follows the first book, without a gap. The art is still gorgeous, the plot/character interactions are still predictable in a way I find pleasant (but won’t be winning points for originality), and it rattles along at a good pace.

I really love the relationship between Harvard and Aiden, which I’m guessing is heading to romance, but which is also just cute as best friends — especially when Aiden dropped everything to go chat to Harvard (and is so sensitive to his every shift of mood, even as he appears to care so little about everyone else).

Nothing startling happening here, but I’m having a lot of fun getting back into it.

Rating: 4/5

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