Book Review: The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie M. Liu

  • Source: I received an advance copy of this book on NetGalley

  • My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (see my review on Goodreads)

When I saw there was a new book by Marjorie Liu, I KNEW I had to get my hands on it! I'm a HUGE fan of her Monstress comic series, so I'm definitely in the target audience for her kind of storytelling. I was a little surprised to realize that The Tangleroot Palace was a collection of short stories and not a single story, but that just meant I got to sample more of her stories. What a wonderful collection of explorations here - from the expected fantasy fairytales to apocalyptic sci-fi adventures. As with any short story anthology, I liked some stories more than others. The titular piece was a longer chunk -- and saved for the very end -- and it was one of my favorites for sure. Although I almost wish it had gotten more attention, because I would have enjoyed reading this as a full-length novel (or novella). I think my favorite story in the whole book was The Briar and The Rose, because it was so full of the intrigue, secrets, and deep relationships I love to experience in books. One thing I really appreciate about this whole volume was the bit of commentary about each story from the author, giving you insight into the prompt for the story and how she approached that to create a very unique interpretation that was all her own. This was a really fun collection of stories I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy short stories!

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