Impatiently Waiting For: The Sea Beast Takes a Lover: Stories by Michael Andreasen

Dutton Books
TBP Feb. 27, 2018

Bewitching and playful, with its feet only slightly tethered to the world we know, The Sea Beast Takes a Lover explores hope, love, and loss across a series of surreal landscapes and wild metamorphoses. Just because Jenny was born without a head doesn’t mean she isn’t still annoying to her older brother, and just because the Man of the Future’s carefully planned extramarital affair ends in alien abduction and network fame doesn’t mean he can’t still pine for his absent wife.

Romping through the fantastic with big-hearted ease, these stories cut to the core of what it means to navigate family, faith, and longing, whether in the form of a lovesick kraken slowly dragging a ship of sailors into the sea, a small town euthanizing its grandfathers in a time-honored ritual, or a third-grade field trip learning that time travel is even more wondrous–and more perilous–than they might imagine.

Andreasen’s stories are simultaneously daring and deeply familiar, unfolding in wildly inventive worlds that convey our common yearning for connection and understanding. With a captivating new voice from an incredible author, The Sea Beast Takes a Lover uses the supernatural and extraordinary to expose us at our most human. – Goodreads

NetGalley Review: Beastly Bones (Jackaby #2) by William Ritter

Algonquin Young Readers
To Be Published Sept. 22, 2015
304 Pages

If you haven’t read the first book, check out my review for it here.

Abigail and Jackaby have just gotten use to each other when they are called upon another supernatural case. 

Their first call comes from a woman who unknowingly has dangerous shape-shifters disguised as kittens for pets but is found the next day dead with a mysterious puncture wound on her neck.

Next they are called to Gad’s Valley, home of police detective Charlie to find newly found dinosaur bones missing and a growing pile of dead bodies. 

No longer just looking for the supernatural but Abigail and Jackaby are looking for a very human culprit. 

Ritter is very good at keeping you interested and then finally giving you exactly what you was looking for. In this book it took a bit longer to actually get to the meat, the pure excitement of the book but when it did it was perfect.

I am not going to get too much into the characters because that was done in my first review and not much has completely changed. But I will add how I loved the fact that Abigail didn’t do what most leading women in these types of books do. I hate the fact that women in fiction and in real life feel that they can’t have it all or both. I really loved the fact that Ritter touched on this and did something great about it. It really won my heart.

I also loved the fact that there was no predictability within this book; even the bigger picture left me surprised. It made me excited for the next read.

The pace of the novel was a bit slow not too slow where I felt I needed to put the book down but slow enough to notice. I didn’t mind this too much. But what I did mind was the fact that there is still so much missing on Jackaby. I was hoping for most insight on his past. I am sure it is to come but I am wondering how many books before I actually feel as if I know him.

Overall, another great read.

4 Pickles