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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...
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The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith (Hell's Library #1)

Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing—a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell... and Earth.

TITLE: The Library of the Unwritten
AUTHOR: A.J. Hackwith with Lisa Flanagan (Narrator)
PUBLISHER: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
YEAR: 2019
LENGTH: 384 pages (13 hours 57 minutes)
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: No

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Main Character(s), Gay/Achillean Secondary Character(s), Bi/Pan Main Character(s), Genderqueer/Nonbinary Minor Character(s).

I find myself feeling very neutral about this book, and I'm not precisely sure why. The worldbuilding was interesting, the characters worked well, and I liked where it ended up. The audiobook narrator is excellent, they're definitely why I kept reading even though I was feeling meh about the book itself. My hesitance may be because the entire plot relies on a miscommunication early on in a way that made the rest of the story, while frequently engaging, feel a bit pointless. The conversation was artfully arranged to allow for the precise misunderstanding necessary to kick off everything else, and then the characters' stubbornness fuels the rest of the story. It's a well-constructed instance of a trope I dislike, and as much as I can tell it's done well, I still didn't like it. Since this trope is unlikely to fuel the plot twice in the series, I'll probably check out the sequel. The plot has a lot of twists and turns, with complicated loyalties and betrayals, past and present. I love Leto's story, he's definitely my favorite character, if I read more it'll be to find out what happens with him.

CW for ableist language (brief), grief (graphic), panic attacks/disorders, fire/fire injury, blood, gore, violence (graphic), self harm (brief), murder, suicide, death.

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The page of a book, ripped open in the middle to reveal a dark void with a person's forearm reaching out of it to grip the side of the tear.


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