Unapologetic Reviews

I picked up Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry purely for fun, without trying to fit it into any reading challenge, and it ended up being quite different from what I expected. According to Goodreads, it's supposed to be humorous, but I honestly didn't find it particularly funny. Instead, I found it to be an imaginative, fast paced fantasy adventure with a surprisingly serious tone. The story follows a barbarian who, as the title suggests, begins killing wizards. The novel gradually reveals both how he manages to do something that should seem impossible and why he has chosen this path. What kept me listening was the world itself. It blends several fantasy traditions together. There are barbarians, powerful wizards, gods, ordinary people without magic, and even airships, giving the setting a light steampunk flavour without fully becoming steampunk. The magic system was easily my favourite part of the book. It's unlike the spell based systems that appear in so many fantasy no...

I read A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt number 45, "A book that features birding". And there was certainly plenty of birding in this book. No one could accuse it of not delivering on the prompt. The story follows Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune, a French-Canadian detective who moved to England after a scandal in Canada interrupted his career. He has a reputation as an exceptional investigator, but he is also an avid birder. He lives in Norfolk, surrounded by marshes, wetlands, and bird reserves, and when several deaths occur, the investigation becomes intertwined with birdwatchers, conservation efforts, and environmental issues. Unfortunately, this was a very disappointing mystery for me. I gave the book two stars. My biggest problem was that the balance felt completely wrong. I went into the story expecting a murder mystery with some birdwatching elements in the background. Instead, it felt like I got a birdw...

I read The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt #8, "A book about a sexless marriage." There is certainly no sex here, so the prompt fit perfectly. Set in Amsterdam in 1686, the novel follows eighteen-year-old Petronella "Nella" Oortman. After the death of her father left the family nearly penniless, her mother arranged a marriage with Johannes Brandt, a wealthy merchant over twice her age. Nella arrives at his grand house expecting the ordinary life of a wife. Instead, she finds herself in a household full of secrets and silences. As a wedding gift, Johannes gives her an elaborate cabinet house, a miniature version of their own home. Wanting to furnish it, Nella contacts a mysterious miniaturist. What she receives is unsettling. Not only do the requested pieces arrive, but so do strange additional objects, tiny creations that seem to reveal secrets before they happen. As the mysterious miniatures keep appearing, Nella gr...

I received an ARC copy of Ivan and the Firebird by Alexandra Pugachevsky in exchange for an honest review. I always find reviews like this a little difficult to write because I genuinely like the author as a person and appreciate the opportunity to read the book. Unfortunately, this one simply wasn't for me. The story follows Ivan, a young man from the fairytale land of Zorya. After finding a feather from the legendary Firebird, he falls into the clutches of Baba Yaga, who offers him an impossible bargain. To gain his freedom, he must find the Firebird itself. His journey eventually takes him into our modern world, where he encounters magical creatures inspired by Slavic folklore and meets Lisa, a young woman with whom he falls in love. I love fairytale retellings and stories inspired by folklore, so this sounded like something I should have enjoyed. Sadly, I struggled almost from the beginning. My biggest issue was Ivan himself. For a significant part of the book, I assumed he wa...

I read Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer as my Pick of the Month for June 2026. What drew me to it was the premise. It was advertised as a story involving a cult and as part of the wider conversation around abortion rights and how legislation affects healthcare. Since I have read several memoirs by former cult members and watched many documentaries on the subject, that immediately caught my attention. In the end, I give this book three stars. It wasn't bad. It was competently written, easy to read, and fairly quick. The story moved along well enough and kept me turning the pages. But for me, it never became particularly interesting. The story follows a doctor who becomes trapped inside a religious community. The cult itself, however, felt very much like a cult by numbers. If you've watched a few documentaries or read books about groups like Scientology, FLDS, or other high-control communities, you can almost tick boxes as you go along. Isolation, manipulation, control, unquestioned a...

I read The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt number 16, "A book less than 260 pages.” The story follows Chih, a cleric whose duty is to collect stories and preserve history. In a lonely palace beside a lake, they meet Rabbit, an elderly servant, and through seemingly ordinary objects scattered around the abandoned rooms, Rabbit slowly reveals the life of Empress In-yo and the events that changed an empire. Rather than telling the story in a straight line, the book unfolds piece by piece, with memories attached to embroidery, clothing, gifts, and other possessions. And that was both the book's greatest strength and my biggest problem with it. I appreciate what the book was trying to do. The structure is clever, and I can see why many readers love it. But my brain struggled with this style of storytelling. I am terrible with names, and because the story is revealed through fragments and memories rather than in a straightfo...