Category: Reviews

Review – Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 5

Posted June 19, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 5

Dinosaur Sanctuary

by Itaru Kinoshita

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction
Pages: 200
Series: Dinosaur Sanctuary #5
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

RELATIONSHIPS ARE COMPLICATED--BOTH HUMAN AND DINO!

Suzume is getting to know ankylosaur section head Katase Shogo. They're the same age, so they should get along, right? Wrong... Can Suzume keep from butting heads with him until it's time for her to move on to ceratopsians? The humans aren't the only ones with drama on their hands at Enoshima Dinoland, either! Centrosaurus sweethearts Umeko and Shoukichi are going through ordeals of their own...

Volume five of Dinosaur Sanctuary gives us some more of the uneasy working relationship between Suma and Katase, which continues to be a bit rocky, and some background into the vet, Shiranui, along with a glimpse of Karin handling a group of schoolkids as well.

Dinosaur-wise, we get some more time with the centrosauruses, which is really the main plotline of this volume and extends into volume six. As a warning, this volume includes a dinosaur (the Centrosaurus Umeko) with an osteosarcoma, and the story doesn’t conclude in this volume.

About that: I remember learning from David Hone’s books The Future of Dinosaurs that dinosaurs and birds can isolate infection in a certain part of the body rather than seeing the kind of systemic spread that humans do. Maybe that gives Umeko a better chance with cancer, too, since there’s less chance of metastasis? The manga doesn’t mention it, but I’m going to let that give me hope!

Slightly less light-hearted overall than some of the volumes, but still fun, and the variety does help to add depth.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – In the Hollow of the Wave

Posted June 18, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – In the Hollow of the Wave

In the Hollow of the Wave

by Nina Mingya Powles

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 96
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

In the Hollow of the Wave, the second collection by Nina Mingya Powles examines orientalism, art and artmaking in a time of ecological crisis. Engaging with the work of artists such as Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Yayoi Kusama, Etel Adnan and the fashion designer Guo Pei, these poems rework the notion of ekphrasis into something elemental and tactile, shaped by memory and landscapes of the body.

Nina Mingya Powles’ In the Hollow of the Wave is a bit of a multimedia collection, mixing poems with images of various bits of craftwork and images with words pasted onto them (a bit reminiscent of times of A Softer World, if anyone but me remembers that!). There are some interesting poem formats too.

I found it readable and there were some that stuck with me — the one about her grandfather(?) making quilts for her and her cousins was lovely. I didn’t get along with all of it, as ever with poetry (picky, I am, I know), especially some of the more experimental ones… but I’m glad I gave it a shot, and I am still left with the image of the retired biologist, making his grandchildren quilts. It seems like a lovely warm memory.

I wouldn’t mind trying other poetry by Nina Mingya Powles, either way.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – Queer Georgians

Posted June 18, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Queer Georgians

Queer Georgians: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers and Homemakers

by Anthony Delaney

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 352
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

In this dazzling work of restorative history, Dr Anthony Delaney has traced the stories of people daring to challenge society's expectations, unearthing archives and court records to reveal the tragedies and the joys of queer life three centuries ago. Breathing new life into the forgotten and offering radical new interpretations of celebrated figures such as Anne Lister, Queer Georgians is an invitation to view our shared history in a whole new light.

The celebrated Chevalier d'Éon, soldier, diplomat and spy, challenges a rival to a fencing match. The sweepstake is not over who will win, but whether the Chevalier is a man or a woman.

Mother Clap's Holborn coffee house is open to all comers, a place of companionship and community, until a tip-off leads to a midnight raid.

Two women, exiled from their families, set up a utopian homestead in a remote Welsh cottage, inspiring a generation of Romantic poets.

Anthony Delaney’s Queer Georgians sets out to tell the stories of various Georgian people who in various ways managed to live and love in an environment not friendly to queer experiences. Sometimes these stories aren’t what you might expect, where the people in question — the Chevalier d’Éon and Anne Lister, for instance — have become well known (at least in queer communities) and have had a narrative built up around them.

Some of that’s uncomfortable: Anne Lister was deeply manipulative, out to get control of her partner’s money, and by her own words she sometimes loathed Ann Walker in that process. The Chevalier d’Éon is far from a non-binary icon who slipped between male and female dress as pleased them, but rather someone whose gender presentation was forced upon them, sometimes to their distress. (I’m using neutral pronouns as it isn’t clear to me what they would have finally preferred if they had had any choices left, and I can’t exactly ask.)

Some of it is just sad, or sordid, too. But it all adds up to a world that was queerer than we sometimes think, in which queer people found ways to live authentically and get what they needed, and through their words and other evidence about them it becomes obvious that (though it shouldn’t be any surprise) there have always been queer people, trans people included.

I enjoyed it a fair bit, and though I didn’t check the endnotes myself (it’s just not my area at all), the author is forthright about sources and interpretations, and clearly did his own digging into the evidence in order to celebrate the truth of these queer Georgians. Definitely enjoyed it, even if it sometimes felt sad or uncomfortable. Warts and all, these people have been worth learning about.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Puzzles of the Parish

Posted June 17, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Puzzles of the Parish

Puzzles of the Parish

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 333
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A pernicious parson outwits the thieves of a priceless chalice from the parish treasury. A beloved vicar contemplates a perfect crime when a blackmailer comes knocking. Poisoned pen letters lead to a fall from grace for a rector’s wife, and a suspicious fall from the second storey for the rector.

Gathered here in this new collection are some of the greatest mystery tales in which the tendrils of crime steal into the churchyard, featuring clergymen and nuns as victims, amateur sleuths and villainous perpetrators of the devil’s work. Replete with a fascinating introduction and notes from one of the guiding lights of crime fiction, Martin Edwards, this anthology delivers cosy brainteasers and fiendishly-fashioned stories with a sting in the tail, from a congregation of writers including Joyce Porter, H. C. Bailey, Cyril Hare and Edmund Crispin.

Puzzles of the Parish is the latest collection of short stories edited by Martin Edwards for the British Library Crime Classics series, and as usual it’s an interesting survey of short stories on the topic (churches, clergymen, etc), ordered from oldest to newest in a way that lets you see, if you’re interested, the way the genre was developing.

The authors represented include some of the usual suspects, of course. I did find that the selection of several quite modern stories raised my eyebrows a bit, honestly; I know it’s 2026 already, but a story published in 2006 is not a classic and I’m really not sure how it can be included… but this series has been tending this way a bit, perhaps by way of providing variety. There are plenty of genuine classics, though, and I wish they’d stick to them or admit the series has lost its purpose.

All that said, I found it an enjoyable collection. For me, there’s always a part of my mind looking at it in an academic sort of light, when it comes to classic mysteries, so there’s that level of entertainment for sure… but also there are genuinely interesting/fun stories here with interesting detectives/mysteries/culprits/scenarios. I had fun.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Solo Leveling (light novel), vol 7

Posted June 16, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Solo Leveling (light novel), vol 7

Solo Leveling

by Chugong

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels
Pages: 288
Series: Solo Leveling (light novel) #7
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The murders of several distinguished S-rank hunters rock the world, and Jinwoo knows it's only a matter of time before the perpetrators strike again. The declaration of war comes earlier than expected, however, in the form of a colossal gate looming in the skies above Seoul. With the Hunter's Association of Korea struggling to adjust to its new normal and the Monarchs picking off the top hunters one by one, will Jinwoo be able to keep everyone safe from the biggest disaster mankind has ever faced?

Volume seven of Chugong’s Solo Leveling light novel is a little bit uneven. The plot is really accelerating at this point, with Jinwoo ready to fight all comers, Monarchs or Rulers, and the mystery about Jinwoo’s father being resolved as well… but the pacing doesn’t work amazingly, with an interlude in the middle of pitched battle while Jinwoo essentially watches a flashback of what happened to the original Shadow Monarch.

I don’t know how I’d prefer that section to be done — maybe the flashback was necessary! But it feels a bit rushed, like the author has to suddenly cram in all the info we need to make the upcoming conflict make sense. Obviously an extended flashback with Jinwoo just watching wouldn’t be super enjoyable, but… maybe we should’ve seen stuff from Ashborn’s point of view again?

All the same, the final chapters of the book ratchet things back up again, with Jinwoo’s minions appearing, and then the beginning of the end — perhaps for the whole world. It genuinely feels high stakes, and I think does it better than the manhwa for my tastes. I felt a bit choked up when Jinwoo asks what his future will be. Knowing how the story ends makes that more poignant, of course.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Seasons of Glass and Iron

Posted June 11, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Seasons of Glass and Iron

Seasons of Glass & Iron

by Amal El-Mohtar

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories
Pages: 196
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes "Seasons of Glass and Iron," "The Green Book," "Madeleine," "The Lonely Sea in the Sky," "And Their Lips Rang with the Sun," "The Truth About Owls," "A Hollow Play," "Anabasis," "To Follow the Waves," "John Hollowback and the Witch," "Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers," "Pockets," and more.

Seasons of Glass & Iron is a collection from various different times in Amal El-Mohtar’s writing career, and it’s surprising that they all fit pretty well together in light of that. Of course you don’t expect short stories to all be about the same thing, anyway, so that helps — but sometimes in collections like this that come from different times/were written for different purposes, you can really feel the disjointedness. That isn’t the case here.

I do enjoy El-Mohtar’s writing style, which helps, and knew I wanted to read this from a preview in the advance copy of The River Has Roots; it was nice to settle in and read the full collection, and there were several stories I really liked; ‘John Hollowback and the Witch’ is a fun one, and ‘Their Lips Rang With The Sun’. I was also interested in the story based on the Welsh story of Blodeuwedd, and would’ve loved some commentary on that and what provoked it, why Blodeuwedd felt like the right mythical source to use, etc.

I admit some of the other stories interested me less (like the one about pockets, since it didn’t quite feel like it really went anywhere?) and I wasn’t thaaat interested in the poems (at least in this context; it feels weird swapping between forms like that, for me!) — but overall, a good collection and one I enjoyed.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 4

Posted June 11, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 4

Dinosaur Sanctuary

by Itaru Kinoshita

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction
Pages: 202
Series: Dinosaur Sanctuary #4
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

DINO ON THE LOOSE!

Suma Suzume is getting ready for her first winter as a dinokeeper at the struggling Enoshima Dinoland, but she’s got more to deal with than just keeping dinosaurs warm and cozy. When a report comes in that a Velociraptor is roaming the streets of Japan, Suzume and her coworker Kaido are sent to help! Can they bring the raptor back unharmed?

Aaahh, I loved some of the chapter opening images in vol 4 of Itaru Kinoshita’s Dinosaur Sanctuary — the Sherlock Holmes-esque one really made me laugh. We get a bit of variation here in that Suma ends up away from the dino-park, trying to track down a velocipraptor who escaped from smugglers. I love that the plots and how they work out are carefully based on trying to extrapolate how dinosaurs lived, and how they could live now.

The rest of the book gets back to the problem of the park’s social media somewhat, and pairs Suma up to work with yet another guy who is sceptical of her ability and seriousness about the job. I kinda hope that she doesn’t easily win him over within the next volume… though I get that her arc (inasfar as character development is happening) is all about proving herself. That doesn’t have to mean everyone likes her!

Still really fun, mostly-low-stakes, and full of dino-facts.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Stranger in the Hoarding House

Posted June 10, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Stranger in the Hoarding House

The Stranger in the Hoarding House

by Joe Aruku

Genres: Manga, Romance
Pages: 182
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

After a traumatic incident at work, Kamakura locked himself away and let the trash pile up around him, resigned to his fate as a hikikomori... That is, until the day Katsuyoshi climbed in through his balcony.

At their landlord's behest, Katsuyoshi offers to help Kamakura clean his apartment, insisting that Kamakura stay with him in the meantime. Kamakura reluctantly agrees, wondering why Katsuyoshi would offer to help out a complete stranger. Turns out, Katsuyoshi has his own reasons— and his own trauma— to work through.

As they tidy together, the pair open up to each other and slowly begin to heal in this sweet slice-of-life romance about moving forward, one trash bag at a time...

Joe Aruku’s The Stranger in the Hoarding House is pretty short and sweet; the characters are thrown together when Katsuyoshi climbs into Kamakura’s apartment after someone throws a ball to break the windows, and finds him there locked in with a load of trash. Things went badly for Kamakura and he just stopped caring, but Katsuyoshi tasks himself to get him back on his feet — not just out of the kindness of his heart, but partly in redemption for being unkind to someone close to him who was in a similar situation.

The whole thing resolves pretty quickly, particularly the hoarding problem, and there’s not an enormous amount of build-up to the relationship before it launches sideways into a weird sexual encounter, but the relationship between the two of them turns sweet and supportive, helping both of them make good changes to their lives.

It’s not amazingly detailed or fleshed out, but it was cute, all the same.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – A Dress of Locusts

Posted June 8, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Dress of Locusts

A Dress of Locusts

by Safa Khatib

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 64
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

Woven from threads of Aramaic, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Sumerian and Arabic, A Dress of Locusts is an unforgettable song cycle in which the living and dead sing back and forth to one another. Here, Safa Khatib journeys across the possibilities of language and self, asking us to dwell in the thresholds between the 'old' and the 'new'.

There are some very striking images and strongly expressed scenes in Safa Khatib’s A Dress of Locusts (including the image that gives the title!), and I’m kind of sad I don’t like it more. The poems are very readable and easy to follow (except for one or two where I found the layout slightly annoying), but I didn’t really find my way in.

A large part of that is the sexual content of the poems. I wouldn’t generally consider myself prudish at all, and of course sex has a place in poetry, but the way sex is treated in these poems — I don’t know. Each time it stuck out and felt like a surprise, an inclusion designed to shock and disrupt, and it didn’t work well for me.

Maybe reading it unprepared as a random choice from the National Poetry Library was part of it; sometimes I think poetry can benefit from a little context. That said, I don’t think it would ever have quite worked for me, though as ever I’m really glad to be able to explore poets I’ve never read before and broaden my frame of reference. I don’t regret reading it, even if I didn’t enjoy it.

Rating: 1/5 (“didn’t like it”)

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Review – Japanese Dress in Detail

Posted June 7, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Japanese Dress in Detail

Japanese Dress in Detail

by Josephine Rout

Genres: Fashion, History, Non-fiction
Pages: 208
Series: Fashion in Detail
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A unique insight into the history and key themes of Japanese dress from the eighteenth century to the present, Japanese Dress in Detail reveals the elaborate embroidery, precise folds, and sophisticated dyes that form some of the most beautiful garments in the Victoria and Albert Museum's unparalleled Japanese dress collection. This book provides readers with the rare opportunity to examine historical clothing, from breathtaking Edo-period kimono, court robes, and No-- theatre costumes to indigo-dyed utilitarian garments and exciting contemporary designs.

Featuring both garments and accessories, this book is an extraordinary exploration of the beauty and complexity of Japanese fashion. Specially commissioned close-up photography and authoritative texts accompany each garment, and front-and-back line drawings make this publication an invaluable resource for students, collectors, designers, fashion lovers, and Japanophiles.

As usual for the books in this collection from the V&A, Japanese Dress in Detail is rich with photographs and illustrations to help understand and explain the details of garments. I must admit that it helped that I’d also seen some of them in person now at the V&A itself; though the fashion gallery is currently closed, several of the items are to be found in the Japanese gallery. It was extra-neat to read about the items I’d actually seen and got to examine in a few more dimensions (even if through glass).

I found it interesting how the clothes were mostly from 1850 or so onward, 1750 at oldest (if I remember the dates rightly) — the history of contact with Japan also making an imprint here, compared to the much older clothes from Britain and the US (and, if I remember rightly, China as well).

One of my favourite garments of the book was utilitarian, though: a fireman’s outfit which was heavily padded both to provide protection from falling objects and so it could be soaked to help with protection from flames.

Overalll, as ever, a lovely and fascinating volume.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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