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goobdiddy.bsky.social
Hoyt
@goobdiddy.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1K following 160 posts
I read too much.

Book reviews on goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/hoyt
Fledgling bookstgram: https://www.instagram.com/hoytreads/
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/hoytreads

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goobdiddy.bsky.social
Quick little fairy tale novella to end the month: The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The River Has Roots
4/5: A nice little fairy tale novella with a bit of a dark turn. Which I guess makes it a proper fairy tale in the tradition of Grimm and all that. It was only 100 pages, and several of those were ill...
www.goodreads.com
November 30, 2025 at 11:07 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Actually reading a classic for once... Franny and Zooey, by J. D. Salinger (1957). By all rights, I should find this boring, since it's just people talking, but I liked it. A captured moment in time.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Franny and Zooey
4/5: Three and a half conversations. That's all this book is, but still is somehow not boring. Salinger is just a master of capturing a moment in time, and I guess I've seen just enough movies/TV show...
www.goodreads.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:14 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Finished yet another duology with A Desolation Called Peace (2021) by Arkady Martine. Superb writing in this hard sci-fi alien first contact / political thriller.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)
5/5: 4.5, rounded up for GR. An outstanding completion for this story. Where the first book focused on the communication between two long-separated human cultures that were essentially aliens to each ...
www.goodreads.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Wrapped up another series (well, a duology anyway) from Rachel Terry with Flameseeker (2023). It's a YA portal fantasy. Magic, elves, dragons, good and evil, etc.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Flameseeker (Guardians Duology #2)
4/5: 3.5, rounded up for GR. A satisfying conclusion to story began with volume one. This picks up only a short while after the previous book ended, with the same cast of characters. The setting and m...
www.goodreads.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:43 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Finished the final book in Juno Dawson's Her Majesty's Royal Coven trilogy: Human Rites (2025). It was an excellent end to an extremely fun series. Certainly my top series about witches, and definitely in my top modern fantasy list.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Human Rites (Her Majesty's Royal Coven, #3)
5/5: 4.5, rounded up for GR. A very entertaining page-turner to wrap up an excellent series. The series as a whole has definitely been one of my favorite modern fantasy series. Will this series age we...
www.goodreads.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:09 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Publication order read of SJM continues with 2018 and the final Throne of Glass book: Kingdom of Ash. Very entertaining end to the series, wrapping up ALL of the threads from the entire series, including pretty much all of the prequel novellas.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)
4/5: A very entertaining end to a very entertaining series. It looks like I gave the previous volumes: 4, 4.5, 4, 4, 4.5, 4.5, 4.5, and now a 4 stars for this last volume, so overall I guess I had fun...
www.goodreads.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:11 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Final book club read for November: The Vanished Birds (2020), by Simon Jimenez. Some beautifully written and interesting sci-fi.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Vanished Birds
4/5: 3.5, rounded up for GR. Beautifully written, interesting concepts for a future of humanity away from Earth, but such a bleak vision of the future. There's some great sci-fi here, with some cool t...
www.goodreads.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:04 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Publication order read of Brandon Sanderson continues with 2011 and The Alloy of Law, the first book in the second era of Mistborn. This was an excellent start to the second Mistborn series. Very snappy and entertaining read.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Alloy of Law (Mistborn, #4)
5/5: Very entertaining, snappy paced, start to a new era of this story. Sanderson found just the right balance between introducing the new characters and new era of this planet, while lightly referrin...
www.goodreads.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:14 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Second book club read for November: Parable of the Sower (1993), by Octavia E. Butler. This was very rough to read at this moment in US history, since it seems like more of a prophecy than fiction. Hopefully we can reverse the trend!

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
4/5: Oof, this was such a dark story to read at this particular moment (Nov 2025), when US society really seems to be heading towards the version depicted in this book! I'm ashamed to say that this is...
www.goodreads.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Read this for a book club: Hemlock & Silver (2025), by T. Kingfisher. Entertaining fantasy tale inspiring by/adjacent to the Snow White legend.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Hemlock & Silver
4/5: Another entertaining tale from this author, and I had fun reading it. As someone who may be a bit past their prime, I always enjoy seeing a main character who isn't young and perfect, and still m...
www.goodreads.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:06 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Next entry in publication order read of Stephen King: from 1984: The Eyes of the Dragon. I know I read this when it first came out, but I didn't remember it all! Fun, quick, YA fantasy with a dark edge to it (of course).

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Eyes of the Dragon
4/5: Fast-reading YA fantasy with a tinge of darkness (of course, since it's Stephen King), featuring a familiar villain. This definitely reads like a fairy tale, albeit for at least a teen audience, ...
www.goodreads.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:12 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
First book of the month, the second book in Shelley Parker-Chan's Radiant Emperor duology: He Who Drowned the World (2023). An excellent conclusion to the story.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of He Who Drowned the World (The Radiant Emperor, #2)
5/5: 4.5, rounded up for GR. An excellent conclusion to this dark historical fantasy reimagining of the beginnings of the Ming dynasty. Although it's been about a year and half since I read volume one...
www.goodreads.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:40 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Crawled my way through Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (1999). Books that are this specifically technical don't age well.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Cryptonomicon
3/5: Whew, this one was quite a slog, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it closer to when it was published. For starters, this was way too long. It's jam-packed with characters gett...
www.goodreads.com
October 31, 2025 at 5:38 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Some thought-provoking, twisty timelined dystopian YA sci-fi from Joan He: The Ones We're Meant to Find (2021).

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Ones We're Meant to Find
4/5: Complex, dystopian, apocalyptic story with a nicely twisty timeline and a few surprises along the way. I guess I'll put this in the ecological horror category, since this takes place in a future ...
www.goodreads.com
October 26, 2025 at 11:26 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Trip back to childhood with book three in Madeline L'Engle's Time Quintet: A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I DNF'd it as a kid, and still found it a bit boring as an adult...

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of A Swiftly Tilting Planet (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #3)
3/5: 2.5, rounded up for GR. How was this a children's book? Chapter 1 starts with the threat of nuclear war (hmm, why is Gen X all cynical and stuff?), then the rest of the book is all about predesti...
www.goodreads.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:52 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Book 2 in the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn: The Viscount Who Loved Me (2000). I think I liked it more than the corresponding season of the TV show, since I got the internal dialogue of the main characters...

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, #2)
4/5: It's hard not to compare them, but I think I may have liked this better than season two of the show (I watched the show first). Yes, we're missing all of the stuff with the Queen, and all of the ...
www.goodreads.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:52 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Creepy, psychological study from Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). Some unexpected twists and turns, only one of which I predicted!

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle
4/5: A short little walk through a very disturbed character's mind. I'll say this is a classic for a reason, since it's very well-written, and keeps you guessing up until close to the end. I had a var...
www.goodreads.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:57 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
These cozy fantasy books can help simmer down the rage induced by the current state of world affairs. Almost as good as the first one. Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes, #0)
5/5: 4.5, rounded up for GR. Another wonderful cozy fantasy in this series, with just enough stakes and action to keep things moving. Since this isn't the amazing new thing that Legends & Lattes was f...
www.goodreads.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:45 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
An interesting fantasy read from Lidiya Foxglove set in her Hidden Lands world: The Potion Dealers (2025).

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Potion Dealers
4/5: 3.5, rounded up for GR. An entertaining read that has a little bit of a variety of genres. It's probably mostly in the fantasy realm, due to magic and telepathy, but also a bit of romance, a bit ...
www.goodreads.com
October 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
A sort of prequel to Juno Dawson's Her Majesty's Royal Coven series: Queen B (2024). A very quick read that left me wishing it was longer so we could have more details and character background!

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Queen B (Her Majesty's Royal Coven, #0.5)
4/5: 3.5, rounded up for GR. A well-written trip to the past in the world of Her Majesty's Royal Coven, but I was left wanting a bit more of the spark that makes the present day series so amazing. Thi...
www.goodreads.com
October 15, 2025 at 10:32 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
A superb finish to Tasha Suri's The Burning Kingdom series: The Lotus Empire (2024). This series was excellent all the way through.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms, #3)
5/5: A superb ending to an amazing series. It's so rare to see an author keep the quality so high all the way through a series! Again, we're picking up right where the previous volume left off in the ...
www.goodreads.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:55 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Cozy fantasy road trip novella: Awakenings, by Claudie Arseneault. Good start to the series.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Awakenings (The Chronicles of Nerezia #1)
4/5: Cozy, fantasy novella that provided a quick introduction to an interesting world. This focuses on three main characters who are three different species, three different genders/orientations, and ...
www.goodreads.com
October 11, 2025 at 8:46 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Publication order read of SJM continues with 2018 and A Court of Frost and Starlight. This is supposed to be the end of Feyre's story arc, but if so, was kind of disappointing. Just a short day-in-the-life vignette.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)
3/5: This is the book equivalent of the "very special xmas episode" of TV shows (at least back in the day when TV seasons were 22 episodes long and had filler episodes). It was basically just a day in...
www.goodreads.com
October 11, 2025 at 6:38 PM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Read for a book club: Drew Huff's Landlocked in Foreign Skin (2025). An odd, spicy, sapphic, nautical, horror novella. Quick entertaining read.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Landlocked In Foreign Skin
4/5: Very quick, very spicy, very alien novella. This story does an interesting job showing the perspective of a shapeshifting alien as they take on the form of a human, at first not knowing how to th...
www.goodreads.com
October 10, 2025 at 12:41 AM
goobdiddy.bsky.social
Read for in-person book club: Katabasis, by R. F. Kuang. A bit dense and slightly over my head at times, but overall and interesting story.

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Hoyt's review of Katabasis
4/5: Interesting, brainy, academic, fantasy trek to hell, that induced a bit of PTSD about my own academic experiences. I read this one for a book club, and will be very interested to see how many peo...
www.goodreads.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:26 PM