Female knights – Anxious Nachos

Hi again, for this week’s Top 5 Tuesday! And what an interesting topic it is this week… There are definitely books I shout about constantly so I’m so glad to sing about some of the books which I 100% need to talk about more often. Because they are awesome.

Love from A to Z by S.K Ali

I read this book earlier this year and it is one of the most beautiful love stories ever. It is just so incredible and utterly perfect! Love from A to Z follows Adam and Zayneb as they meet and fall in love. There is such as strong Muslim voice in this book – I adored seeing how religion guided the relationship. Zayneb is one of the fiercest, stongest characters – she refuses to back down from what’s right and is so driven. As well as a love story, this book also discusses topics such as Islamaphobia and discrimination, with the author using her own experience for several scenes in the book. Love from A to Z is such a powerful story about love and strength and the strength of faith. You can read my full review of this title here.

I Still Dream by James Smythe

So this book actually featured on last week’s Top 5 Dystopian but I’m also featuring it here because it is one of my absolute favourite sci-fi, dystopian novels but I never seem to talk about it which is so wrong. It’s a brilliant tale about artificial intelligence and what happens when humans choose to input morality and control (or not….) into AI. It’s a very character driven story, like most of my SFF favourites, and follows Laura, who creates her own AI, from her teenage years until she’s an old woman. It’s a brilliant look at how humanity will likely destroy itself for power.

Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan

Keep This to Yourself is a queer murder mystery, set in a small country village by the sea. The setting really shines in this book – it creates such creepy and tense scenes, with rough seas and caves and the small-town village vibe which always seems kind of creepy to me. (I grew up in a tiny village so clearly this is something I picked up from my years there…) The fourth murder by serial killer ‘The Catalog Killer’ in this small town was that of high school hero Connor, beloved by the inhabitants of Camera Cove. After this murder, the serial killer disappeared. Mac, best friend of Connor, is unsatisfied with the resolution of the case so begins his own investigation, but it reveals more than he could ever have wished for… Great mystery, awesome to see a queer relationship and such an interesting setting!

The Afterward by E.K Johnston

The Afterward has such a different feel and tone than any other fantasy I’ve read – instead of focussing on the quest, it focusses on what happens after, on how the heroes settle back into everyday life. It’s a very quiet book and really does feel a breath of fresh air in such a heavy, action central genre, hence I really want to give this book the praise it deserves because I think it might often be overshadowed by those more action heavy books. This is another superb queer story – I love both Kalanthe and Olga, our two very different MCs as they try to forget their feelings for each other that developed during the quest and move on with their lives. Fantastic characters, brilliant relationship and awesome female knights! Check out my full review of this book here!

Birthday by Meredith Russo

Oh god this book is just an emotional and heartbreaking read. What a spectacular book! The book follows Eric and Morgan each year on their shared birthday. This is a brilliant way to tell the story, which focuses on Morgan and her journey to transition. This book has such a harrowing and honest depiction of depression, and really shows how strong Morgan is to survive her journey. It is a potentially triggering story, with a graphic depiction of attempted suicide, transphobia, homophobia, and depression so please take note of warnings if you do want to read. A powerful, incredible story of survial and strength.

That’s it for this week’s Top 5 books I don’t talk about enough! Let me know if you love any of these books as much as I do!

Paws out,
Rach + Draco

Title: The Afterward by E.K Johnston

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Publication date: 19 February 2019

Genre: High fantasy| Young Adult

Page extent: 352 pages

Goodreads blurb: It has been a year since the mysterious godsgem cured Cadrium’s king and ushered in what promised to be a new golden age. The heroes who brought the gem home are renowned in story and song, but for two fellows on the quest, peace and prosperity do not come easily.

Apprentice Knight Kalanthe Ironheart wasn’t meant for heroism this early in life, and while she has no intention of giving up the notoriety she has earned, her reputation does not pay her bills. With time running out, Kalanthe may be forced to betray not her kingdom or her friends, but her own heart as she seeks a stable future for herself and those she loves.

Olsa Rhetsdaughter was never meant for heroism at all. Beggar, pick pocket, thief, she lived hand to mouth on the city streets until fortune–or fate–pulled her into Kalanthe’s orbit. And now she’s quite reluctant to leave it. Even more alarmingly, her fame has made her recognizable, which makes her profession difficult, and a choice between poverty and the noose isn’t much of a choice at all.

Both girls think their paths are laid out, but the godsgem isn’t quite done with them and that new golden age isn’t a sure thing yet.

In a tale both sweepingly epic and intensely personal, Kalanthe and Olsa fight to maintain their newfound independence and to find their way back to each other.

This was my first EK Johnston book after trying one of her others a few years back and not really vibing it – and I am so glad I decided to go back to her! The Afterward is just a beautifully calm and relaxing high fantasy, set after ‘The Quest’ has happened and looking at what happens to the characters in the aftermath.

The Afterward follows a group of knights who have just saved the kingdom, using the godsgem, a powerful stone created by the New Gods to destroy the evil Old God bent on destroying the world. But what happens after the quest is over? Kalanthe, apprentice knight, has to go back to her studies so she can finish qualifying as a knight. But, as the daughter of a poorer family, Kalanthe must pay the debts for her knight training by marrying a noble who will agree to pay off her debts in exchange (usually) for children. But Kalanthe is torn. Though one of the most honest and true knights, extremely bound to the honour of knighthood and hence the vows she made to pay her debts, Kalanthe fell in love on the quest. Enter Olsa, a street thief who joined the quest to help find the godsgem. Kalanthe is torn between her feelings for Olsa and her honour, and in this time of confusion and struggle, a noble offers her his hand in marriage.

Olsa is a thief, one of the best in the city of Cadria, someone who never expected to go on a quest with knights. And though the success of the quest allowed her to pay of her own debts to the local thieves guild, she doesn’t know what else to do. With no skills, no home, and no family to go to, she returns to living on the street and thievery. Olsa takes on more and more dangerous tasks for the guild, and is arrested regularly, knowing she’ll be pardoned due to her service to the realm during the quest. As Olsa struggles to find her place, Mage Ladros, fellow companion on the Quest, comes to her with a new journey that she hopes will give her purpose.

The Afterward follows Olsa, Kalanthe and the other Knights as they fall into life after saving the world. The story switches between ‘Before’, where the moments before the Old God was destroyed play out, and ‘After’, where we see the characters settling into their new lives. With the action very much not the main focus of the book, it makes for a very different and unusual high fantasy novel, and one which I really enjoyed. I find most high fantasies urgent and full of panic and tension, and this was like a breath of fresh air! It was such a calming book to read, and really felt like a lovely breeze compared to other novels in this genre. The focus is on the characters, their relationships, feelings and morals.

We still get pieces of action, but even then, the focus is more on how the relationship between each of the Knights develops, with a particular focus on the queer as fuck, totally amazing, relationship between Kalanthe and Olsa. THIS is what I’ve so been looking for in fantasy. The diversity is just there and plays out as simply and naturally as any other relationship might. There is no queer trauma and homophobia in the worldbuilding, no struggles in the existence of their relationship, it just simply is. I really admire E.K Johnston’s way of making diversity so simple and I wish more authors could take note of how easy it is to do this. We have trans characters, sapphic relationships, characters of colour, female knights, and they all just exist without being there solely for their aspect of diversity. And I absolutely love it!!

This book really was an absolute delight, and such a breathe of fresh air from usual high stakes fantasy. (Which I do still love but it’s great to take a break every now and then!)

Paws out,
Rach + Draco