the tyrant baru cormorant by seth dickinson

 Not really satisfying. The optimistic tone doesn't, in my opinion, serve the themes well, and it used an almost juvenile humor way too often for my liking. The sequels were written in a pretty video game-like way, with weak and repetitive battle plots serving to take the reader's viewpoint around a well-built out fantasy setting. Pretty anticlimactic, and the cliffhanger set up is much weaker than the one at the end of the first book. 

the monster baru cormorant by seth dickinson

this book was mainly about showing off worldbuilding. which is fine, but nowhere near as compelling as the first one. also comes across as, if i didn't know better, tv-series bait, with the goofy new characters, banter dialogue over inner monologues, and the lavish descriptions of place and people. the pacing is weird but that's supposedly because 2 and 3 were supposed to be one book. 

my dreadful body by egana djabbarova (trans. lisa c. hayden)

 I haven't read anything with such a poetic aspect in a while. The diaspora stuff wasn't, in my view, overdone. Other than that, it wasn't super memorable. 

roadside picnic by arkady & boris strugatsky (trans. olena bormashenko)

 It was lovely to read this after making attempts at books where it seemed like the prose was struggling to convey information, because the language really is a part of the story itself. I should probably read politically themed novels more often because every time I do I find it so refreshing. 

the summer war by naomi novik

Aside from what I can tell of her Deadly Education series (#darkacademia) she really does write the same seasonal-magic romantic fantasy bildungsroman over and over.

ammonite by nicola griffith

 The book was enjoyable, but I think I missed the point of it? There were no "twists" and nothing happened that Marghe didn't intend.

uprooted by naomi novik

This and Spinning Silver are just the best of the best of discomforting heterosexual romance YA novels. The prose is perfect and timeless. The plotting is spectacular, with all the layers and the loose ends tied up. Plus, the incorporation of cultural elements is very well done. (Note: I didn't think this of Spinning Silver, but for all the actual italicized spells, Uprooted's fantasy lexicon was unimpressive (The Wood. The Wood-Queen. The Heart-Tree. The Tower. The Walkers. The Mantises.)) But the "reylo"-esque romance element is just so gross and bleak to me, beyond what the book needs to do to stay "in character" (traditional folklore.) Either it's too romanticized or not romanticized enough.