Survival Show by Juno Dawson

From Renee

What do you mean there’s a new dystopian series from Juno Dawson and no one told me?! This is like American Idol meets The Hunger Games and I’m mad I haven’t gotten the opportunity to talk about it yet. Imagine corporations run the world (not that big of a stretch) and need to control the population. The media moguls create a global singing competition where the winners form a pop group and the losers are killed off. That’s it. That’s the premise. And it’s exactly as wild and messed up as you expect. The stakes are high. The reality tv drama is real… and really manufactured. Teenagers and young adults are forced to make unthinkable decisions in the face of an authoritarian regime. At a time when The Hunger Games series is making such a huge comeback, I think readers are primed and ready for even more stories about resistance and rebellion. Keep them coming, Juno Dawson!

Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman

From Nox

I wanted to love this book so much. The premise is incredibly intriguing. A sapphic coming of age story set over the course of one summer when your best friend kisses and then ghosts you? The same best friend you’ve been having feelings for? How does this change the dynamic between the two of you, between y’all are your other best friend? I thought I would eat this book up. I will say, the audio narration was fantastic, so I don’t think it was a problem with how I read it. Everything just felt flat, with long explanations of how the characters treated their Sims and how the game works. I also felt that Eleanor, Mina’s love interest, wasn’t that well-developed compared to Mina and Margaret. Overall, I think there is definitely an audience for Girl’s Girl, but I unfortunately wasn’t part of it.

Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein

From Mhairie

The problem the story is ostensibly about (the affair) doesn't take place until actually two thirds of the way into the book. Of course, the problem isn't really the affair, its the patriarchy and the way that powerful men use and discard young women and how the women are universally dragged for it. If you want to hear about a salacious affair, you won't get it here. What you will get is delicious prose, an examination of the mistreatment of naive young women and a pretty hilarious summation of the stories of various saints, heavily paraphrased. The ending is a 'good for her' ending and all I really want to know now, is what Monica Lewinsky thinks?

Vampyres, Werewolves and other supernatural creatures take the stage in this epic urban fantasy/Sci-fi. With strong female characters and a driving plot, Hunters is an independent read I hope you enjoy. The first of a series.

Hello Inkmongers!

It is finally October, which means it is time to run our FIRST EVER Inkmonger Book Club!

This month, our book club pick is:

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Before I get into the "why" of this selection, let me gather some context around it. As you may know, one of the goals of this Bindery community is to become a publishing imprint. Once Inkmonger has enough members, we'll be able to make real publishing decisions, and our community members will be a part of the process.

My dream for this community is to contribute to the literary tradition that Ursula K. Le Guin and other visionary speculative fiction (SF) writers founded: SF that asks important questions, imagines alternative worlds to the one we currently inhabit, and imagines equitable futures for humanity. How cool (exciting, fulfilling, mind-blowing) would it be for Inkmonger to publish a future winner of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize?

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu was a 2022 finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, and was chosen for that honor because of its place in the SF canon– in many ways, it's part of the continuation of Le Guin's literary lineage. The 2026 winner will be announced on 10/21, so reading a book from the Prize's backlog feels fitting this month.

"The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now" (The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction).

While this book was not selected as the winner of the Prize, it is the only finalist that I currently own a copy of (and that's quite important to me, financially).

I'll be starting my read of How High We Go in the Dark as soon as I finish my current read! I hope you'll read with me :)

Sam 🦑