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Cover of ACCESS

ACCESS

by 1880, and “for the next one hundred years, abortion in America remained…underground, secret, stigmatized, and dangerous.” From the moment that Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, anti\u002Dabortion activists organized to overturn it, helped along by politicians in gerrymandered districts who used “majorities and supermajorities to pass abortion restrictions at an alarming pace and volume.” On the other side, Grant writes, activist groups have long organized to protect choice. In the wake of Dobbs, the battle for access to abortion has heated up—often illegally, in the case of states such as Texas that have banned the importation of abortion pills or travel to other states to obtain the medical procedure. Grant profiles activists at various stages of the battle, from first\u002Dgeneration feminists who linked access to abortion to the struggle for women’s liberation generally to modern\u002Dday advocates who, among other strategies, have internationalized the ability to obtain pills for “self\u002Dmanaged abortion,” creating a sort of “underground for the post\u002DDobbs world.” The battle is multifaceted and requires the commitment of a range of activists and allies—who, Grant allows, are sometimes given to fighting among themselves—especially as certain states enact more restrictive laws even to the point of bans. On which note, Grant writes, “Abortion bans have never and will never stop people from ending pregnancies\u003B what they do is force people to resort to unsafe methods to end them.” Her narrative makes clear that the battle for access continues apace to advance the cause for choice against “the notion that a government can dictate if, when, or how its citizens manage pregnancy.”"⭐ 4.8/5(26)

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Cover of AEGOLIUS CREEK

AEGOLIUS CREEK

by departures into descriptions of nature, the prose is often beautiful: “The house with its tin roof and clapboard siding, dirty and decaying, is the remnant of a dream, an embodiment of one man’s struggle to find a place in the world, a tiny corner of the great globe he could once and forever call his own.”"⭐ 4.9/5(9)

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Cover of AFTER HAPPILY EVER

AFTER HAPPILY EVER

by true love. In this novel, the author imagines past that point, catching up with Neve (Snow White), Bry (Sleeping Beauty), and Della (Cinderella) when they are middle\u002Daged. On the surface, their lives seem like a dream, with a serene, unchanging kingdom, marriages to princes, and the enviable stability of their royal status. However, cracks soon begin to show: Della struggles with her waning beauty, questioning her worth beyond the physical charms that once defined her. Bry, the ever\u002Dgracious peacekeeper, feels smothered under the weight of pleasing everyone but herself. And Neve, haunted by her stepmother’s attempt on her life, dreads the power and vulnerability that come with the throne (“she had sometimes wondered what it would be like to experience a day or two that didn’t dawn with the reminder of her death”). The sudden passing of the king sends each woman on a transformative journey, revealing the kingdom’s perfection as a fragile facade masking inequality and decay. The novel deftly balances plot and character, offering nuanced portrayals of each princess’ growth. The traumas of their original tales—Neve’s poisoning, Della’s abuse, and Bry’s forced exile—are examined with sensitivity, shaping their struggles and triumphs in compelling ways. While readers will be familiar with the characters’ origin stories, these new threads in their tales create a fresh and engaging narrative to follow. The plot is well paced, with character development offset by action. Each woman’s journey is distinct, with Neve’s confrontation with fear, Della’s pursuit of self\u002Dworth, and Bry’s embrace of authenticity each resonating deeply. In centering older women as powerful, multifaceted protagonists, the story is both feminist and empowering, demonstrating that value and agency do not diminish with age."⭐ 4.0/5(153)

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Cover of AGAINST THE MACHINE

AGAINST THE MACHINE

by “a metastasizing machine which is closing in around you, polluting your skies and your woods and your past and your imagination,” the world of nature increasingly replaced by “a left\u002Dbrain paradise, all straight lines and concrete car parks.” One aspect of this destructive machine, by his account, is the steady decline of religion—not in itself necessarily a bad thing, but, given that nature abhors a vacuum, “when a culture built around such a sacred order dies then there will be upheaval at every level of society,” and given the absence of that sacred order, the door is wide open to its replacement by things other than the two that we need, “meaning, and roots.” By Kingsnorth’s lights, the origin of so much of the world’s current crisis is an “ongoing process of mass uprooting,” not just from one’s native place (as with China’s relocation of Tibetans and Uyghurs) but also our cultural uprooting from our traditions and our divorce from nature. Kingsnorth often paints with a brush that may be a few hairs too wide: He condemns science, for instance, as “an ideology posing as a method,” when science is likely the only thing that might rescue the world from the worst consequences of climate change, and his insistent view of cities as doomed and soulless places devoted only to profit too often slides into cant. Still, a little fire and brimstone never hurts an argument against things as they are, and if decrying the “the holy effort to which all human will, skill and energy is now bent: making money” gets a little shrill, his closing invocation of a culture in which “people, place, prayer, the past” are rediscovered resounds nicely."⭐ 4.3/5(11)

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Cover of ALCHEMISED

ALCHEMISED

by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft\u002Dtrod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance."⭐ 4.5/5(2,547)

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