An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet

An Inheritance of Ashes

4/5. Our sixteen-year-old narrator works herself to the bone to keep the farm going with her sister while they wait to see which men will come home from the war against the mad god in the south. Then they take on a hired hand who might be running from something, and a lot of eerily weird things start happening, and the war might be coming home to them.

Bobet says in the acknowledgements that she wrote her first book like an author, but she wrote this one like a person. I haven't read her first book, but that still sounds right to me. This one is all messy, difficult feelings to the brim. Family feelings. Abused child reaching for a better adulthood feelings. War veteran feelings. Slow, careful first romance feelings. People falling apart and people coming together feelings. All of that messiness and bitterness and grief – so much grief – and breath of hope powers this whole book, and it's lovely. It's also messy enough that it clearly got away from Bobet sometimes, but this is one of those stories that manages to co-opt its flaws into strengths, somehow.

I only knew who Leah Bobet was because she wrote for Shadow Unit back in the day. I heard not a peep of buzz about this book, which came out a couple years ago. That's pretty shocking, since I think a lot of you will really like this.

Penric's Fox by Lois McMaster Bujold

Penric's Fox

3/5. Another novella about Penric and his demon. A pleasant standalone murder mystery this time. Penric is still quite young here; he's learning about what he can do, and what he can't, and he's coming to be rightfully wary of his powers. All of which preoccupies him such that I don't think he notices that this story turns on women quietly making the world work. Or possibly the story doesn't notice? Unclear. Regardless, there's a casual bit of byplay where two women of differing magic schools talk carefully in each other's general direction for a bit then adroitly rearrange the men around them to suit them both,, and Pen sees this happen but doesn't see it happen, you know? Funny, in light of the pack of women in Pen's head. Anyway. He's still young, like I said.