Disclaimer: there's not a lot of vampires in this, but a key element nonetheless. For some reason I'm really bent on sticking to my squares as they are, without transformations. Probably that will change.

So we get to see Peter Grant dealing with a very modern problem and I quite liked that. More Folly, more ghosts, more gods, more big bad, but really, don't much care. That last, I mean. I enjoyed it enormously for all the reasons I mentioned re Hanging Tree and I'm almost certain to keep reading as long as Aaronovitch keeps writing them. His cast is growing so huge that he could write easily feature other characters as leads, the way he does in the stories, and that would be fun, too.

Library copy

The October Man: A Rivers of London Nove...

A significant part of the pleasure of any of the Rivers series is the part where the magic-using police officer gets to explain to someone else that there is real magic, but that it's hidden by agreements between nations after WWII. Just as part of the fun of Dr. Who is the doctor getting to explain about the tardis.

Another pleasure of reading the books in this series is the cast. Many a writer would set a story in a modern German city and have an exclusively white-by-default cast. It doesn't have to be a big thing or a plot point, although there is one minor detail revealed only because someone is Black and it's a tiny wonderful moment.

If the women or the mystery were stronger, it'd be perfect. As it is, highly enjoyable.

I read this as part of Halloween Bingo, so the fact that this book could reasonably be applied to about half the squares is woth mentioning. This is the first book I've read which used the singular nongendered they/their as pronouns, which slowed me down a bit at the beginning. But it worked, and never felt gimmicky. Z. was a plausible fourteen year old zombie who's entire family died in an auto accident: only Z reanimated.

There's werewolves and high school bullying and good teachers and bad teachers and a growing movement in favor of shooting all the monsters. As a metaphor, it is terrifying. But it's also the story of school misfits becoming friends, and of teens solving a mystery, so there is significant fun as well as the terror.

I'm delighted it was recommended to me, and I can't wait to read Shrieve's subsequent books. As good as this debut was the next one should be astounding.

Library copy

I'm so excited to read this! Thank you, Kids Can Press.
And also, thanks from my high school freshmore, who adores Spires' cats as much as I do.

Fluffy Vandermere looks like the cat a Bond villain would be holding. But Fluffy isn't a pet: he's the head of a secret agency protecting earth from aliens. Thankfully, he hasn't lost his old skills in his time as an administrator, and he still has what it takes to save his headquarters from an invasion.

I'm giggling the whole time I'm typing this, because it is such an amusing parody of the genre, I can totally imagine Sean Connery providing the voice saying "Meow". You know what I've discovered? I don't mind potty humor when it's about cats: sandbox jokes are just fine. It's wonderfully goofy and the cats take themselves very seriously, and if Spires could write a million stories, I'd try to read every single one.

copy from publisher for review

1) Secret Societies was a finalist of the LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD(2012) in the category GAY EROTICA. Does it make a click in your head? I spell it S-L-O-W-L-Y for those who haven't yet got it -
G-A-Y E-R-O-T-I-C-A.

2)There're three genres that sometimes difficult to distinguish- a classical M/M romance, gay erotica and PWP. If you are not sure-google.

3)I don't blame anyone for picking up a wrong book, sometimes it is the lack of reader's informations, a wrong genre classification or a misinterpreted or unclear blurb. In bad case all of these factors together. That's what happened to Secret Societies.

Once more: It is not a MM Romance!

4)Now I should say at least something nice things about the Lambda Award Nominee:

***A very solid writing.

***Atmospheric.

***Historically accurate.

***A lot of plot! A lot of unexpected twists and turns.

***It reminds me of James Lear [b:Palace of Varieties|17462833|Palace of Varieties|James Lear|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410779715s/17462833.jpg|2157315], only with not so many sex scenes. To tell truth, I expected more of graphical sex, but it is not though without.

***I would rather classify this novel as a historical adventure-gay-erotica with the setting in London, 1724. Homosexuality, named sodomy, was considered at that time as a serious crime that had been punished with a death penalty. As if not enough-a very powerful religious group which members name themselves The Society for the Reformation of Manners(Secret Society) made to its mission to haunt and to force the arrest, conviction, and execution of any man guilty of "crimes against nature."

***And it ends not really with a cliffhanger, but WITH A NEED FOR A SEQUEL. La-la! Lucky we! There's a sequel!