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The Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace's enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete--all except yokai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yokai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari's fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yokai outcast. Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA...

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

TITLE: Black Leopard, Red Wolf
AUTHOR: Marlon James
PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books
YEAR: 2019
LENGTH: 640 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: N/A

DNF page 25 (4% in).

I’m uncomfortable with the sheer number of descriptions of things that somehow involve people’s bodies in a sexual manner even when nothing sexual is even happening. It felt like everything was couched in terms of a male/female binary. The thing that made me stop was one character’s casual description of circumcision and female genital mutilation as equivalent and positive things to do to children’s bodies. It’s possible that the overall stance of the book doesn’t condone this (authors are not their characters, after all), but I’m too distressed to read more and find out.

CW for misogyny, drug abuse (not depicted), confinement, blood, domestic violence, violence, sexual content, child abuse (not depicted), child death (backstory), death.

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The stylized faces of a black leopard and red wolf superimposed over each other. A green fern-like vine wraps around their features.


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