Various Thoughts

The Witch who Trades with Death is an engaging stand-alone story from C.M. Alongi which only really has two oddities. The first is how the entire book is summarized in the Foreword (which would only have made sense if there weren’t a flashback to the pre-village time period), and the second is the witch vs. witch fights. They are extremely awkward.

Natalie Maher‘s Bioshifter series feels like a refined, urban-fantasy version of Vigor Mortis with a heavier focus on sexual abuse. Though you can also see the bones of what becomes the central conflict of Magical Girl Mechanical Heart as well.

All three books are solid with perhaps my only complaint being that the confrontation with the US Government shows up far too late to really have any notable impact. Like, the story’s conclusion and epilogue happen immediately after. Kind-of undermines the whole ‘I’m not going to teach you magic’ moral stand.