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The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling

Margaret lives with a rare autoimmune condition that has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial. The conditions are simple, if grueling: she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital. Unsure of what's real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls. PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press YEAR: 2025 LENGTH: 320 pages AGE: Adult GENRE: Horror RECOMMENDED: Highly Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep. *I...
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Tales of Mundane Magic: Volume Two by Shaina Krevat

Gertie and Bridget Mallon were able to survive their first semester at Flories Boarding School. That, in and of itself, was quite an accomplishment. One would think they now have a handle on things, that life could be as normal as possible in a world of magic, ghosts and smartphones. Gertie can go back to practicing for her enchanting license, and Bridget for her driver’s license. However, as much as the Mallon sisters would like things to be simple, with new students, new classes, and new adventures, maybe life isn’t quite as mundane as it seems.

TITLE: Tales of Mundane Magic: Volume Two
AUTHOR: Shaina Krevat
PUBLISHER: Independently Published
YEAR: 2019
LENGTH: 127 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Minor Character(s).

Tales of Mundane Magic: Volume Two keeps a lot of the fun and wonder from Vol 1, while expanding Gertie's and Bridget's world to new destinations, challenges, and dangers. We get more of a sense of magic's place in this world, and it isn't all benign.

There's a subtle shift between Volume One and Volume Two: Gertie and Bridget feel a little older, a little more mature but still definitely kids. Part of that is that they've changed (they're growing up, gaining magical and non-magical mastery), and part of it is that we get the beginnings of a set of antagonists. It's not some grand Big Bad, but it's also clearly not trying to be, and it works well. It's perhaps better to say that in Volume One there were people in their lives with different purposes and goals from them but they mostly co-existed, and here we start to have people with conflicting purposes, making them get in each other's way. It's a small change, but I like it.

Their problems get bigger (some of them are pretty dangerous this time), and the girls definitely have a more serious air when figuring out how to solve them. Before there was some pretty serious stuff too, but it had the sense that they didn't know how much danger they were in. Now they know a little better, but they're still excited and confident. It keeps a lot of the fun feeling from the first book while also letting them mature as people. Where the first book felt like a lot of random events with a few connecting threads, this collection feels more focused (or maybe it's that there was more room for complex narratives since volume one had the basics handled). The three-part vacation sequence is my favorite narrative, with the middle portion as my favorite story in the entire book (Gertie And Bridget Go To The Beach). 

CW for guns, death.


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