bookishpriest's reviews
214 reviews

 A retelling of the Aladdin story, complete with wish-granting Jinn, set in a cyberpunk world inspired by southeast Asia sounded like a brilliant idea. The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport isn't a perfect book by any stretch, but it gets some things right and they're a lot of fun.

From the first paragraph of Jinn-Bot, the reader is thrown into the world of Shantiport. Slang and details about the world are presented as commonplace, plunging the reader into the deep end immersion of this cyberpunk fantasy. I was reminded of the same kind of helpless immersion I felt in Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash.

The main characters, siblings named Lina and Bador, are followed throughout the story by Moku, a chronicling robot. Moku, whose job it is to assemble as comprehensive a profile as possible of the people it follows, dumps a lot of info for the reader. There are entertaining moments of people being observed through the eyes of a robot, reminding me a bit of Martha Wells's Murderbot series. Unfortunately, in the case of Jinn-Bot, this recurring trope in the book felt like a lot of telling and not much showing.

Bador and Lina each have interesting plotlines but I felt as though they might have been better served each with an independent novella rather than trying to mix the two into a novel. They didn't seem to intersect or engage with one another as holistically as I would have liked for a single book.

The writing engages with themes of political revolution, colonization, and oligarchy against a backdrop of a dystopian, cyberpunk city. It takes off at high speed and doesn't slow down often or for long. I found the ride through Shantiport, Lina's scheming, Bador's ambition, and the worldbuilding a lot of fun. The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport doesn't completely miss the mark—I look forward to reading more of Samit Basu's writing—but there's definitely room for improvement, too.

Thanks to tordotcom and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

 Beyond Worship is a collection of a wide variety of pieces of writing from a diverse group of authors representing different gender, racial, sexual, and faith identities. A majority of the authors are Christians—with a heavy representation of graduates of Union Theological Seminary—but many other faiths are represented here as well.

The pieces in this collection vary from prayers and poems to rituals and reflections t0 academic papers. Each piece affirms the dignity and worth of LGBTQ+ people in the context of a particular faith tradition. Some of the pieces reflect on surviving negative experiences, some celebrate the particular spiritual gifts that LGBTQ+ people bring. Regardless of its focus, each peace is empowering and caring.

Being a collection with a broad focus and authorship, Beyond Worship's individual contents do not bear much intentional relationship to one another. This may be good, bad, or cause for indifference depending on the reader's preference, but is worth noting.

Beyond Worship is a touching, short read for anyone interested in first-person, affirming reflections on the experience of LGBTQ+ people in a breadth of spiritual traditions. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 This is a wonderful retelling of a classic fairytale by Elizabeth Lim. The audiobook is excellently narrated by Emily Woo Zeller.

I had a great time being transported into this retelling of "The Wild Swans" set in a world inspired by Chinese history and mythology. Dragons from the depths of the ocean, a shadowy sorceress, family curses, a missing princess... This was great fun from start to finish.

There were a few points where the excellent, accessible writing bumped up against some of the "because fairytale" details in a way that felt awkward. Didn't derail the story or anything but felt like a bump in an otherwise very smooth ride. There is a sequel, but it also felt like a somewhat hurried setup at the end of this book. I think this one would work perfectly as a standalone, if that's what a reader was looking for.

Definitely recommended reading for anyone who likes fairytale retellings and magical adventures! 

This book was a fun read. The world-building reflects a great deal of work and planning, besides which I love a heist story. The incorporation of traditional Nigerian mythology with modern ideas and structures made for interesting commentary on colonialism and capitalism. The idea of the spirit world structured as corporations with "pray pay" and spirit-eating freelancers was intriguing and a fun way to think about the shadow world. Really well done, there.

I found the regular timeline jumps a bit jarring, rather than the clever device that I hoped they would prove to be. The bouncing around required extra effort from me as a reader and, most of the time, I wasn't invested enough in the story for that to be an easy ask.

While the timeline jumps fleshed out some of the histories of Nneoma and Shigidi, they didn't do enough to get me invested in the relationship. It wasn't a distraction from the main plot, but I also wasn't convinced that it added much to the story either.

Overall, this is an interesting premise and I'd be interested to see more in this genre from Talabi.

I was provided with a free digital copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb persuaded me that this would be a good addition to my autumn reading and the atmosphere is right. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was a let down.

There's no real plot to speak of, just a paper-thin pretense to put the main character in a new setting. The story revolves around the protagonist's relationship with a new friend. Our protagonist, Anne, is an exceptionally basic woman suffering after a recent break-up. Her new friend, Sophie, is older, wiser, and very mysterious. There are red flags almost immediately upon their meeting and so much toxic behaviour that I found myself constantly disbelieving that Anne was still engaging with any of this.

There were some genuinely creepy moments in the first 1/3 of the book, but those petred out in the slog that was the middle section. It felt like we were circling the same character development issues for a very long time before taking off and going anywhere. Then, in the last 10% of the book, a great many things happen that feel wildly inconsistent with the first 90%. I can think of some plausible explanations for these developments, but they weren't offered by the author.

I think the author was trying to make a statement about self-love, self-worth, self-discovery, and feminism, but what I read came across more like wildly irresponsible selfishness excused with a juvenile "They hit me first so beating them to death and taking all of their stuff is okay" kind of logic.

There were a few issues with diction which should have been caught by an editor. Very much of the "I do not think that word means what you think it means" variety. For me, these kinds of errors are jarring and pull me out of the story quickly and thoroughly.

I had high hopes for Cackle but was ultimately disappointed. If you're dying for a mysterious, witchy story, this might work for you but otherwise I'd give it a pass.

File received as ARC was unreadable.

This felt like two half-conceived short stories stitched together for the sake of making something long enough to publish as a book.  Two parallel storylines that suddenly meet up in the last 10% of the book. Some of the ideas were interesting, but fell flat and didn't recieve their due. There were references to Sandman and Needful Things that could have been very compelling but did not deliver.

There were several depictions of extreme violence and homophobia (check the trigger warnings before reading!) that did very little for the story or character advancement,

didn't get much treatment and, in the end, were hand-waved away without any real follow-up.

This felt to me like a version of trauma porn and not at all helpful.

Whatever the author's intent, I couldn't find it in these pages and it was disappointing enough that I won't be looking for more of their work.

The narration of the audiobook is well done and a pleasant listen.

Seth is an up-and-coming advertising writer who's had some recent success. He's convinced that this will be the pattern of his life. Unfortunately for him, it is not to be so. The tides of fortune change and his success begins to dissipate. This is obvious to everyone but Seth.

As his life begins to change and then disintegrate, Set remains convinced that he is winnipeg and everything is going his way. This delusional, unreliable point of view is the one we see the story through. Seth's tale is both funny and horrifying, often at the same time. One feels sorry for the man, but also realizes that much of his woe is self-inflicted.

"The Men Can't Be Saved" is an entertaining take on toxic masculinity, workplace culture, and the pressure to succeed. The writing is good, though I found the pacing inconsistent. This, along with the likeable unlikeability of the characters may be intentional on the author's part to heighten the sense of Seth's delusions.

This one's a good read if you're looking for something entertaining, occasionally unbelievable, and a little bit dark. 

Constant growth and expansion are the hallmarks of success in the 21st century. If your church hasn't seen double-digit increases in membership, if you're not planning a 20,000 square foot expansion to your building, if you're not planting a new 1,000-seat campus every year, you must be doing something wrong. Right? Not so, claim Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand, the authors of When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation Beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation. They suggest that calm, steadfast witness in response to God's movement might just be a suitable alternative to the boom-or-bust model of church. 

The Church is not a Fortune 500 company and it should not seek to behave like one. Rather, the Church should focus its energy on God. Funny, that. A return to the relationship with God is a calm and steady theme throughout the book. Root and Bertrand are certain that God continues to speak to us through sacrament, scripture, prayer, learning, and ministry. They are persuaded that we can, again, learn from the liturgies and calendars, rhythms and patterns of our traditions. There is no call here to a radical reformation of the Church such as we saw tried 500 years ago, but rather a reminder that we have an alternative model of how to be as church.

This book is not a series of tips and tricks for reviving a declining congregation. Nor is it a step-by-step manual to successful stewardship campaigns or anything like that. Rather, it is a persuasive suggestion that our calling as 21st century Christians may be to live in smaller, calmer, more intentional communities than we have done for many generations. 

In summary, I think When Church Stops Working is a well-written, accessible, refreshing entry into the field of congregational development. Its focus on spirituality, relationship, and God certainly speaks to me and the challenges and opportunities I see in my parish, diocese, and church. This could make for an excellent book study for clergy groups, parish councils, or entire congregations. I hope that this book will be widely read and its ideas discussed by people in every order and ministry of the Church. 

A longer review is available at bookishpriest.com

Thanks to Brazos Press and NetGalley for furnishing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.