Jess Moulton awakes in a hospital recovering from serious burns and discovers that she is awaiting trial. While she and her boyfriend were shooting heroin, a fire started that killed a boy living in their building. She doesn't remember anything but believes she is responsible. She is sentenced to the maximum security prison, Fellside. Quite apart from the enveloping web of corruption throughout the entire institution, Jess finds another complication there: a spirit that whispers to her.

Fellside is a difficult book to categorize. It's not precisely horror. It's a ghost story, but with many points of view from characters that have no knowledge of or direct interaction with a ghost. I've seen many people describe it as some subgenre of thriller, but for most of the book, the plot is much more deliberate than one would expect for a thriller. It may sit most comfortably in suspense, if straddling the line in between supernatural and prison suspense. One thing to be said about it is that, although it is entirely unlike the author's The Girl with All the Gifts in style and setting, it is further demonstration of his skill in developing a fascinating supernatural world.

Overall: A

This review was originally published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.

For decades, the intrepid Sister Evelyn has done anything necessary to protect the women who seek shelter at Mercy House in Brooklyn, N.Y., whether that means facing down gang leaders or defying Catholic doctrine by supporting women who choose to divorce their abusive husbands. Now, in 2010, Bishop Robert Hawkins is coming to inspect Mercy House as part of an investigation of nuns across the United States, rooting out orders that are too secular or too feminist. Evelyn and the other nuns will have to keep Mercy House's deepest secrets from the bishop in order to continue their service to the abused and abandoned. But Evelyn has dark secrets in her own past that she will no longer be able to hide in the face of his arrival.
This debut novel from Alena Dillon does not shy away from the abuse suffered by the residents of Mercy House or the abuse that many have suffered at the hands of members of the clergy. Yet in spite of these harsh realities, it is a heartwarming book. As each of the young women who have sought refuge at the shelter share their stories in turn, and as flashbacks gradually reveal Sister Evelyn's history and relationships with her fellow nuns, readers develop a strong sense of the bonds of found family that have formed there. They stand by each other and the shelter that Sister Evelyn helped to build no matter what, and readers will cheer them on until the end. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: This moving debut about nuns fighting to protect their women's shelter from a doctrinaire bishop conveys the painful trials they face while remaining steadfast in their love for each other.

This is promoted as "Jane Eyre, Serial Killer." That's not quite accurate. Most of Jane's killing is done in self defense and the rest is also motivated by protecting others. But Jane Eyre with a lot of added murder is about all of the plot description that you need to know whether or not it's for you.

That's not all it has to offer. It also has a more thoughtful approach to colonialism than the original, and avoids the "madwoman in the attic" trope while still maintaining conflict and tension. This is not only an excellent retelling of Jane Eyre, but an atmospheric, intricately plotted, witty Victorian Gothic in its own right.

Overall: A

I was sold on this book when I heard about it at the library conferences the year that it was published, although I read a finished copy, not an ARC. I was sold on it as a story of female boxers in the 18th century. Ruth was born and raised in a brothel. She catches the eye of a merchant who pays for her sister's keep, but for a different reason; he trains her as a boxer. Charlotte is the smallpox-scarred daughter of a wealthy family, mostly lost to disease, whose path eventually crosses Ruth's, whom she pays to teach her to box.

My complaint about this book I read for the female boxers: there is not NEARLY enough women boxing. Stop reading now if you care about plot spoilers, because they're at the heart of my reaction to this book. Ruth is sidelined from boxing after a particularly brutal match around page seventy, and her sponsor focuses on making her husband a champion instead. Although the pivotal fight is retold a couple of times from different perspectives, it's another two hundred and fifty pages before Ruth starts to teach Charlotte to box. And Charlotte never actually boxes outside of training; she gets in a fight, once, in which her training no doubt helps her, but which is not the same thing. Ruth is just about ready to start boxing again at the end of the book. In addition to sections narrated by Ruth and Charlotte (and not nearly enough of the former), there are long sections narrated by George, who provides a window into the lives of the men who pull the strings behind these matches. His story would be interesting enough on its own, but it goes on for, again, a long time and pulls focus from the boxing women that were the advertised reason to read the book.

In the end, I'm not sure what to think of this book. If it were somehow presented as something other than a story of female boxers, the characters and the narrative would be compelling. Since that does seem to be the intended subject of the book, it wanders disappointingly off the mark.

Overall: B-

In a fantasy world based on Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, Sigourney Rose was born the daughter of a nobleman and the enslaved woman he freed and married. The rest of her family was massacred, but she was able to hide, survive to adulthood, and take her place as a member of the aristocracy through another family. The king will soon be choosing his successor, and Sigourney is plotting how to use her magic - called "kraft" - to manipulate her likely competitors and form alliances to take the throne and avenge her family. Of course she means to free the enslaved islanders once her rule is secured, but she also has to wonder how exactly the economy will survive once slavery is abolished.

This is a wonderful opening of a fantasy series for fans of power plays and political games. It's also remarkable in its depiction of the tense relationship between a biracial noblewoman and the enslaved black population. It is twisty and thoughtful and intense. I look forward to the next installment.

Overall: A

Liobhan, her brother Brocc, and Dau are in training (hopefully) to become a part of the elite warrior force of Swan Island. The three of them are sent on a mission to recover a harp that must be played at the coronation of the new king of Breifne before its absence can be discovered. Liobhan and Brocc have musical talents as well as martial ones that allow them to pose as traveling bards, while Dau poses as a mute stable boy. While they investigate what could have happened to the harp, they discover that Breifne is also being tormented by strange birds and learn things - including his refusal to admit the otherworldly nature of the attacks- that create doubt as to whether or not the heir apparent should be king.

Overall, this was a solidly enjoyable beginning of a new fantasy series. The world (the same as from the Sevenwaters and Blackthorn and Grim series) is thoroughly developed and absorbing, and Liobhan and Brocc are characters whom I'm looking forward to seeing again. I have some reservations about Dau as a recurring main character. Although Dau does learn as this first book goes on, and the reader learns things about his past for which he deserves sympathy, that doesn't undo the fact that some of his initial dislike for Liobhan is based on some indisputable misogyny. Regardless of his tragic background, he's going to have to do a lot more heavy lifting before I'd be willing to root for him for any reason besides when, if he succeeds, so do Liobhan and Brocc.

Overall: B