Historical Fantasies: Gods of Jade and Shadow & His Majesty’s Dragon

5 Feb

Gods of Jade and Shadow
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Gods of Jade and Shadow was our Hoboken Public Library Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Discussion Group’s pick for last June. The story is set in 1920’s Mexico. It is the coming of age story of Casiopea Tun who is treated like a servant compared with her spoiled male cousin. When Casiopea opens the chest in her grandfather’s room she get a sliver of bone stuck in her finger linking herself to a Mayan Death God who is dealing with his own family rivalry with his brother. Casiopea is a fun spunky heroine and I enjoyed reading her story as well as all the interesting spins Moreno-Garcia put on Mexican folk lore. This wasn’t as popular with the group as some of Moreno-Garcia’s work such as Mexican Gothic, but will delight fans of fairytale/folklore retellings. I think this might also be enjoyable for a teen audience as well.

His Majesty’s Dragon
by Naomi Novik
We read His Majesty’s Dragon for our Book Discussion Group in August 2025. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. Captain Will Laurence is plunged from his seafaring life, into the world of Dragons when his ship captures a French frigate carrying a rare and highly prized dragon egg from China. The group had mixed feelings about the book. Some found the book slow paced and light on battles for something military focused, while others were charmed by the witty dragon, Tremeraire. I enjoyed seeing Laurence and Tremairaire’s bond grow over the course of the novel. If you enjoy His Majesty’s Dragon there are eight other books in the finished series to also enjoy. My son who loves fantasy stories about dragons also enjoyed the novel; his favorite part was in the beginning when Will is first raising Tremeraire.

Our next HPL Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion Group is on February 23 at 6 PM. We will be discussing another fun fantasy, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. Hope you can join us!

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Riley Sager’s Next Stop after With a Vengeance

3 Feb Book cover for “With a Vengeance” by Riley Sager, featuring a dark night scene with a train crossing a tall stone bridge under a cloudy sky lit with red tones; the author’s name appears in large turquoise text.

I preface this blog, knowing that Riley Sager fans probably already read his latest and have their opinions, so if you are one of them consider this more of a look to the future and a return to what, in my opinion, made him a best-selling author. (And it’s coming in 2026).

Riley Sager’s latest, With a Vengeance, is a title in my humble opinion, every writer deserves the right to write once they’ve reached the top of Mount Career Author – a little ‘you’ve earned this’ from their publishing house after they’ve made it clear their ROI is high, and Riley has with such calling card titles as Home Before Dark, The House Across the Lake, Lock Every Door, Final Girls, and The Only One Left. 

During a pre-release chat at Union Square’s Barnes and Noble, Mr. Sager made it clear this was his stab at a ‘whodunit’ Agatha Christie-esque entanglement on a train. With a Vengeance was not a thriller mystery with supernatural elements readers grew to love in the previous titles mentioned. 

With a Vengeance fell flat, hindered by one dimensional characters, coincidences that seemed too good to be true, a protagonist who set up a way to elaborate a scheme where everything had to go right (and her pockets had to be deep). Even with suspension of belief, the originality of intent wavered mightily throughout, and honestly, but in the end the red flags were just too much to overlook. 

When he will return to those intriguing bump-in-the-night mysteries he’s built a following off of. The answer is known. The Unknown is slated for August 2026. 

A century ago, five vanished from a Vermont island, leaving behind only five dresses and a supernatural mystery. 

A century later, a struggling actress lands a role in a movie about the disappearance, her research trip to the island turns terrifying as strange occurrences and a sudden health emergency leave her and the cast stranded. A new wave of disappearances begins, and the race is on to decipher a century-old diary to prevent the island’s dark history from claiming them all. 

I’m ready for it, and I think (at least for me) this will put the sour taste of With a Vengeance out of my mouth. 

I strongly encourage these novels by Riley Sager though: Home Before Dark, The House Across the Lake, Lock Every Door, Final Girls, and The Only One Left. 

Book cover for “Final Girls” by Riley Sager, featuring a dark forest background with a lone woman in a blue dress standing beneath red title text.
Book cover for “Lock Every Door” by Riley Sager, showing a purple-lit apartment hallway with multiple doors and bold pink title text.
Book cover for “The House Across the Lake” by Riley Sager, depicting a brightly lit house reflected in dark lake water at night, with handwritten-style yellow title text.
Book cover for “The Only One Left” by Riley Sager, showing a large, ominous house perched on a rocky cliff against a red sky, with bold blue title text.
Book cover for “Home Before Dark” by Riley Sager, featuring a dark green haunted house silhouette surrounded by glowing lights against a shadowy background.

They all show his consistent truth as a writer – telling stories built around traumatized and unreliable narrators who must face a dark event or place that resurfaces from their past, forcing them to question the realism of their memories and perceptions of the world. We aren’t just trying to figure out who the real antagonist is but also grasping with the illusion of whether the person telling the story is even telling the truth. 

Each one of these is an addicting ride.

Which novel will you be checking out? Comment below.

Riley Sager’s name and cover images are linked to his author page on the BCCLS catalog to make it easy for you to reserve his titles. 

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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