November Reading Favourites

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This book blew me away, and that was after I already loved The Six Deaths of the Saint, the short story she wrote that inspired her to turn it into a full novel. Owen is a scholar of Dominion who studies the mythology of Saint Una Everlasting. He suddenly gets sent into the past to meet her and record her story, so he journeys with her to find the grail, knowing that in the end she will be betrayed. The central relationship in this book is gorgeous, filled with yearning and devotion. All of the characters and relationships are so rich, with fascinating character arcs. But I was equally entranced by what it was saying about mythology, nationalism, and empire. In my opinion, Harrow is just getting better and better. 


This is what to read if you want a book about a magical school with dragons that is actually good and cares about its world-building. In an alternate version of our world, Anequs is a young Indigenous woman living happily on her island when a dragon lays an egg and the baby dragon chooses her as its rider. Legally she has to report its birth, and in order to train her dragon correctly and keep everyone safe, she has to join an Anglish dragoneer school. There she faces racism and microaggressions from all sides, and she has to find her place and where she will draw the line between conforming and maintaining her beliefs and customs. It's great to see Anequs push back on all of the things that the white people take as given because they don't make sense to her. The world-building in this book is so impressive, and you can just tell that everything was done with care and intentionality. 
 
Books like this remind me of why I still read Middle Grade books, despite being far from the target audience. Bea has been abandoned by her friends at the start of seventh grade for being too much, so she's decided to stay quiet and unnoticeable. But through poetry, meeting new people, and plans to walk a labyrinth with her labyrinth-obsessed (and autistic, though it's never named) friend, she learns how to ask for what she needs and be herself. It's wild how this book reminded me so much of my preteen years and what I experienced then, but also felt so relevant to me today, because we all need to constantly readjust when things change and decide who we want to be. 

This YA space thriller-romance had no right getting me in the feels and making me get all existential the way that it did. Ambrose and Kodiak wake up in a space shuttle on a mission to save Ambrose's sister, but it's clear from the start that things are not the way they should be. I was hooked from page one, ready for a fun ride, and then it turned into something so mature and thoughtful about meaning and commitment. I will be reading the sequel in 2026 for sure.

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