UpperPen Podcast

Interviews and Book Reviews

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Category: Book Review

  • The Darkness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer

    Released June 2021 This book was gripping! I sat down Sunday night at 8 pm, thinking I would read a couple chapters. At 2 am I stumbled out of my office, bleary eyed and thrilled, after reading the whole book. Also, I had been so stoked to find a LGBTQ+ book at Target! Target! I…

  • The Girl and the Moon by Mark Lawrence

    Released April 26th, 2022 Book 3 of The Book of the Ice Trilogy **Spoiler alert for the previous two books.** I first read The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence, and could not get enough of him! I then bought all three Impossible Time books and found out that my boyfriend had his…

  • The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

    Released March 15, 2022 The Cartographers is a book about finding out what is important. Nell Young was a respected member of the Cartography world when her father fired her from the New York Public Library’s map division. Seven years later he dies under suspicious circumstances, and Nell finds a map (the very map she…

  • Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

    Released February 22nd, 2022 Ever wonder what happens to washed-up adventurers? Well, Travis Baldree has the answer. For Viv, an Orc who previously adventured and killed things, all she wants to do is open a little coffee shop in Thune. Her last adventure ended rather abruptly with her walking away from friends that she has…

  • Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

    Released February 1, 2022 Jessie Mihalik’s books are always feel-good romances, and honestly, I need that sometimes. Hunt the Stars is no different, and this is a good thing. I love predictability in some genres, that said, Mihalik still managed to surprise me with story and characterization. The book follows Tavi, a captain of a…

  • Lady February by Dakota Krout

    Released February 16, 2022 If you have not read Lord January yet, which is the first book in the Year of the Sword series, I suggest that you do that before reading this as there may be spoilers. You have been warned. Lady February, as stated above, is the second book in the Year of…

  • The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

    Released March 15th, 2022 The Kaiju Preservation Society is everything and more that I’ve come to expect from John Scalzi. The book opens with Jamie losing their job at the beginning of the pandemic. I know this is relatable to most people, but I felt very connected to the main character’s plight because Jamie was…

  • Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

    Released February 1st, 2022 Dead Silence is a wonderful example of Sci-Fi Horror. The story starts off with Claire in the “Tower”, a place where undesirables and people who are unstable are sent after missions with Verux, a large corporation that reminds me of Wayland Yutani. Here Claire starts to tell investigators what happened to…

  • How I evaluate books

    Most of these categories are going to seem muddled. That is because they are. It is hard to separate characterization from world-building, just as it is hard to separate writing style from story. And the impact a work will have or even does have is sometimes very difficult to talk about, but I will endeavor…