I go bananas for books featuring female characters with agency. I go crazy for stories where the heroine’s story is her own, and she isn’t immediately (or at any point of the journey) chasing after a male stud. I go berserk for novels where the ‘strong’ female lead is something other than an Arthurian / … Continue reading
There’s a a spectacularly eerie song, called “Danse Macabre” composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, that is woven through the narrative of Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season. You should definitely listen to it if you’re thinking about reading this book. It’s fevered, emotional, dark, at times frenzied, rich and innovative; a tone poem set for orchestra that is … Continue reading
Wowza. We can’t believe it, but it’s been a year since we launched Gathered Nettles! In order to celebrate, we’re feasting on pancakes and have put together a list of the authors we’ve become acquainted with in the past year who have totally rocked our world. This inspirational Top Ten honors the reason we, as … Continue reading
Wow. Laini Taylor has really raised the bar for writing series with her follow up to the original show stopper, Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It was sincerely one of the best sequels I’ve ever read. I was stunned with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, when Taylor blew the hinges off the dynamic world she’d set … Continue reading
“a Witch is born out of the true hungers of her time (…) I am a child of the poisonous wind that copulated with the River on an oil-slick, garbage infested midnight. I turn about on my own parentage. I inoculate against those very biles that brought me to light. I am a serum born … Continue reading
“All my life I’ve wanted to be the kid who gets to cross over into the magical kingdom. I devoured those books by C.S. Lewis and William Dunthorn, Ellen Wentworth, Susan Cooper, and Alan Garner. When I could get them from the library, I read them out of order as I found them, and then … Continue reading
Ironskin by Tina Connolly crept under my skin and sent a chill to my bones. It had all the ingredients of a traditional, spine tingling gothic novel, but with sensational new twists that made it something fresh and unexpected. The story opens right after a Great War has been fought against the fey, a haunting … Continue reading
Wow. This book. was. wonderful. Epic, really. I found a used (and signed!) copy of Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, while I was trading in a bunch of dusty tomes at Half Price Books. In the back of my mind, I remembered that there was a lot of buzz when it was released in … Continue reading
Gathered Nettles: Two Sisters Obsessing over YA Lit 