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Series Review: The Suitable 'Verse by R. Cooper

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. Full Audio Here Powerful noble families known as the beat-of-fours, answerable only to a ruler and the mysterious, godlike fae, scheme and squabble amongst themselves, and go to war for the chance to put one of their own on the throne. But the fae might be pulling more strings than the nobles realize and they definitely have their favorites. A series of love stories loosely centered around the political crisis that led to the current ruler, featuring oblivious librarians, crafty though loving kings, an innocent half-fae noble, a legendary outlaw turned conqueror, worried warriors, clever guards, and an infamous beauty. PUBLISHER: Independently Published LENGTH: ~1000 pages so far AGE: Adult GENRE: Fantasy, Romance RECOMMENDED: Highly Queer Rep Summary: m/m and m/m/...

A Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot-if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

TITLE: An Unkindness of Ghosts
AUTHOR: Rivers Solomon
PUBLISHER: Blackstone Audiobooks
YEAR: 2017
LENGTH: 352 pages (11 hours 54 minutes)
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Partial Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Secondary Character(s), Trans Main Character(s), Closeted/Questioning Main Character(s), Intersex Main Character(s).

DNF 5 hour 17 minutes in (44%).

I love so much about this book, I just couldn't handle a particular topic that's triggering for me when I was already stressed (mostly in good ways) by the story so far. The worldbuilding is very cool, paying attention to language and tiny cultural differences existing between the decks. The audiobook performance is good. I like Aster as a main character.

I really wish I could handle finishing this, but I just can't.

CW for sexual content (brief), ableism, cursing, racism, homophobia, transphobia (brief), interphobia (brief), pregnancy, abortion, alcohol, mental illness, dementia (backstory), child abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault (backstory), fire/fire injury (brief), vomit, blood, violence (graphic), self harm (brief), infertility, medical content (graphic), medical trauma (graphic), cancer, terminal illness, slavery, police brutality, suicide (backstory), parental death (backstory), death.

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A Black person made of a star-filled night sky


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