May 2026 - Reviewed

A very busy reading month for me, mostly fuelled by a week I spent away on holiday in Bali, as well as the recently published Hugo packet. Truly there is no greater pleasure in the world than reading a good book by the side or in a pool – it’s absolutely my version of heaven!

I read 12 books this month, 5 of them novellas, and this is what I thought of them.

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Starting the month, impossibly strong with this evergreen classic. I read pride and prejudice for the first time when I was about 10 and I haven’t picked it up since although I’ve watched lots of adaptions. Of course, the book really is just so much better than even the best adaptions; Austen is brilliantly witty and her satire so painfully well observed. I love the whole thing, but my favourite part was when you get to see Lizzie falling in love with Darcy. I’ve always thought this is something adaptions struggle with, probably as that’s when the plot really gets complicated, but it was such a lovely surprise reading it again and literally kicking my feet and delighted how smitten Lizzie ends up being and how wonderful the happy ending is.

Cinder House – Freya Marske

The next book I picked up after Pride and Prejudice was always going to have a hard task ahead of it, but I actually also loved this one too! This is one of the novella’s nominated for this year Hugo and I just devoured it. It’s a Cinderella retelling where the main character is a ghost killed by her stepmother, who has taken possession of the house and is adjusting to life as a poltergeist whilst having her own Cinderella story. It’s brilliantly realised and everything knits together so well in the end in a way that I found extremely satisfying. 

Murder by Memory – Olivia Waite

My second Hugo novella of the month was this detective sci-fi story, set on a colony ship heading across the galaxy to a new planet. The colonists have solved the problem of space travel taking years by backing up their memories into a library and then downloading them into new clones as their old ones age. The ship detective is awoken into the body of a murder victim, and has to solve the crime. I thought this was a fun spin on the standard murder mystery, and I liked the world building, but it ended up being a bit too short for me to really get into.

The Girl My Mother is Leaving Me For – Cameron Reed

This is a difficult one to describe, it's another novella, focusing on two women, one pregnant with the clone of a CEO, who are living in a dystopian society, and they have to escape a rival company's attack. A pretty short read.

Nicked – MT Anderson

 This book has been on my list for a while, as I am an absolute sucker for anything involving medieval monks and heists. This is an adaption of the true story of a Sicilian monk travelling to Turkey to steal the body of Saint Nicholas - thereby giving us the title Nick'ed. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, with the final third feeling like a bit of a slog. It reminded me a bit of Joe Abercrombie's The Devils, but a lot less fun,

Death of the Author – Nnedi Okarafor

 I've only read Lagoon and the Binti books from Okarafor before, but I very much enjoyed both of them, so I was pleased to pick up her latest full length novel. Death of the Author is much more literary than her previous work, I would say it feels more in the tradition of Klara and The Sun than most SFF. The narrative is split between Zelu, a young author who has just written a hit SF novel, and Ankara, the robot protagonist of said book. Most of the reviews I have read for this said that they enjoyed the SF storyline most but I really liked Zelu's perspective, and found myself impatiently wading through the robot sections so I could get back to her. I loved her big Nigerian American family and the fresh perspectives she had on life and writing, but I was a little dissatisfied with the open ending! I wanted to keep reading!

The Fury of the Gods – John Gwynne

The final installment in the norse inspired Bloodsworn trilogy, don’t start here, but do try and get here! All our favourite characters return in a Gottdamerung clash of the titans. As this is the ending of the story there's a lot of boss fights and loose ends to tie up, whereas what I enjoyed so much about the first two was all the worldbuilding and character work. I still liked Fury, and I think it finished really strong, and I'm keen to pick up some more John Gwynne.

The Works of Vermin – Hiron Ennes

Unfortunately, this was my only DNF of the month, and I had been really looking forward to it! The hook is amazing: an exterminator living in a steampunk city infested with horrifying mutant beasts is forced to chase down an enormous centipede. I went in fully prepared to love this, but I only made it about halfway through. The writing is incredibly dense, and I couldn't completely make sense of the plot. This book has been really well reviewed so it's probable that it's just not my cup of tea. I went back and looked at the plot after I decided to give up, and I'd missed two or three key points so it was probably a good thing I stopped when I did!

Saint Death’s Herald – CSE Cooney 

The second in the Saint Death series from the fabulous Ms. Cooney! Our heroine Lainie Stones is tracking down the malevolent ghost of her great, great grandfather as he flees into the frozen north, crossing parts with giant crabs flying castles and undead wildlife. The first one in the series is one of my all-time favourite books and although I did really enjoy this one, I missed the plot complexities and brilliant zigzagging that I loved so much about Saint Death's Daughter. It was still wonderfully conceived, but it felt a bit like going from watching Simone Biles perform the floor gymnastics routine to watching the men's hundred metres, still impressive but didn't take my breath away.

What Stalks the Deep – T Kingfisher

The third in the Sworn Soldier series, and I think this one would have been my favourite so far, except that I was really sad when it ended so quickly! The setup is great, the Appalachian coal mined are wonderfully spooky and as a geologist I loved the sequences underground. I was really enjoying it and I was fully prepared to be settled in for a full-length novel and then everything finished because it's a novella instead! I love this but more please more next time!

The River Has Roots – Amal El Mohtar

I have seen this novella all over the bookish internet and I was pleased to finally pick it up. It's an English/faerie set fantasy, following two sisters who tend magical willow trees growing on the edge of the river from Faerieland and their relationship with each other and the things that flow down the river.

Having read five novellas this month, I really begin to see just how difficult they are to balance! You need enough worldbuilding to support the narrative, but you also need to start the plot early enough that you can fit the whole arc into the shortened space. I think Cinder House did this the best of my reads this month, but it was very interesting to see how each author attempted it.

The Ancient Things – Bonnie Quinn

I finished the month off with the third in the How to Survive Camping series which is one of my absolute favourite comfort reads (yes, it’s weird for horror to be comfort but you’d know if you read it!) I had an absolutely wonderful time reading it and returning to the campground though I do think that this instalment feels more like the first section of a two-part novel rather than a standalone. I highly anticipate the final piece, and I think once all four books are out it will be a perennial delight to re-read them.

 That's all for May, see you in June!