Author: J.W. Donley

I first came across and tried to read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series well over a decade ago. I worked as a fry cook in downtown Seattle and filled the hours to and from work on the city bus reading. I made it into book five before getting distracted and dropping the series.

That is, until the upcoming Amazon Prime series rekindled my interest. Plus, after all this time, I wanted to know what happened after book five.

On my second time around, after reading many other books and becoming a writer myself, the story reads differently for me. It’s amazing how a person’s tastes can change so much over a decade.

This book introduces a typical “chosen one” prophesy about someone who will save the world from a great evil. I know this sounds cliché but stick with me. This chosen one is one of the teenage boys from a small village in the Two Rivers. A strange woman who wields magic arrives looking for a subject of the prophesy. When a horde of monstrous humanoids arrive, Rand (one of these teenage boys) and his friends must flee with woman, and the book follows their adventures as they try and get to safety.

Yes, this sounds like half of the fantasy on the shelves today, but the simplified plot isn’t the main pull. Robert Jordan has built a complex world for this adventure to run through. Varying political interests vie for power with different ideas of how to handle those who brandish magic.

There are some problematic elements to the story. The two-sided gender-based magic system seems a little dated at this point. Also, many of the female characters are one sided. For example, Nynaeve, the village wisdom from the Two Rivers, is constantly angry and tugs on her braids when she is upset. There also many scenes where women cross their arms under their breasts when scorning a man.

Still, this is a wonderful book which has influenced the full landscape of modern fantasy writing.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars. A modern classic.

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

That synopsis sums things up perfectly. It’s a wild ride. Transmuted is Eve Harms brand new novella and is her best work yet.

This story is horrifying in all of the right ways. Isa, our protagonist, is saving up for FFS (facial feminization surgery), until she had to give up the money to save her terminally ill father. But then she sees an ad for a new, experimental process that won’t cost her a penny. It’s too good to be true, right? But what other option does she have?

We ride along as this experimental process morphs Isa into her ideal feminine shape. But the changes do not stop there. There is a scene a bit over halfway through that will forever be burned into my brain: the most insane scene I will probably ever read.

I really have no complaints about this one. The imagery is visceral and gut wrenching throughout. It was a great time, and the pacing continues to accelerate until you are rocketed into space by the ending.

Be sure to check this one out. I know I look forward to future titles from Eve Harms.

I give this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Available from Amazon.

Tensions are high in Stark Falls: a shop keeper mourns his lost son, someone has defaced the local synagogue, and something is attacking community members leaving behind a ton of mud at the crime scenes! The Crypt Crew, a group of local kids made up of Quinn, a Jewish boy, and his friends, work together to crack the case.

Creatures of Clay is the upcoming YA Horror novel from Patrick Moody, and it is a ton of fun. It brought back fond memories of afternoons curled up on the couch with a Goosebumps book as a preteen. I would happily give this to any burgeoning monster hound ready to graduate to something a bit meatier than R.L. Stine’s more formulaic chapter books. This hit so many sweet spots: the main protagonist is an underrepresented minority, everyone loves a creature feature, plus I learned a bit about Jewish folklore.

Some things about it were a little predictable, but I think this still works fine, especially since this is for a YA audience. Win, win, win.

So, if you’re looking for a feel good, small-town, coming-of-age adventure with monsters and a splash of 80’s nostalgia, look no further than Creatures of Clay. I definitely see this as the start of a great YA adventure series. I hope we will see more of the Crypt Crew in the future.

I give this 3.75 out of 5 stars. 

Available from Amazon.