Book Reviews

Uptown Oracle Reads… Sistersong | Celtic Magic in the Time of Constantine of Dummonia

As the titles alludes to, Sistersong is about Sisters in medieval England (around Devon and Cornwall by today’s geography) and relies a bit on old Celtic myth and Magic. Set in around 500 AD as the Saxons are slowly taking over Briton, I enjoyed how the historical setting was written whilst keeping a sense of…
Uptown Oracle Reads… The Wicker King | Exploring Friendship and Mental Illness in Multimedia Format

The Wicker King by K Ancrum (Affiliate Links) When August learns that his best friend, Jack, shows signs of degenerative hallucinatory disorder, he is determined to help Jack cope. Jack’s vivid and long-term visions take the form of an elaborate fantasy world layered over our own—a world ruled by the Wicker King. As Jack leads…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Affiliate Links) After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and…
Uptown Oracle Reads… The Beautiful

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh (Affiliate Links) In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls,…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Spin the Dawn

Overall, Spin the Dawn was one of my quickest reads of 2021 so far. I just couldn’t put this book down for too long because I wanted to know what happens. I’m excited to also pick up the next book.
Uptown Oracle Reads… The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (Affiliate Links) A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Ninth House

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (Affiliate Links) Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact,…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Sorcery of Thorns

Then the most important part of a whether you liked a standalone book, Sorcery of Thorns does just leave you wanting more. There’s a desire to read more about Elisabeth, Nathaniel and Silas and how there should be so many more adventures and happy endings.
Uptown Oracle Reads… Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth was a book I went into with very little information but I had been told it was good. I was luckily not disappointed at all. Gideon the Ninth is a wonderful book full of great characters, intriguing world building and also a heavy emphasis on it’s necormancy magic system (in space!).