With the November writing challenge behind me, I told myself I’d spend December proofreading and formatting my queer seafaring fantasy book, Blood of the Gods. However, I have some time to spare before publication, and I think I need a brain break. So I’m dedicating this month’s newsletter to another queer book review!
QUEER BOOK REVIEW #2
by Claudie Arseneault
⭐⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars
What It Is: Awakenings is the first in a series of semi-cozy fantasy novellas. It follows characters Horace, Rumi, and Aliyah as they travel the world in a sentient wagon. It is a queernorm book featuring non-binary and arospec characters.
Trigger Warnings: Violence
Overall Thoughts: I got this book in a “Cozy Fantasy for Trans Rights” book bundle quite a while ago. I’d been meaning to read this series for quite some time—I adore the covers, and seeing Arseneault’s posts on social media promoting it intrigued me.
This book has a wide array of queer representation. It takes place in a world where it’s commonplace to ask for one’s pronouns upon meeting, and features a main character (Horace) who uses neopronouns (e/em). A very rare occurrence. I was excited to read this book because I don’t personally know anybody who uses neopronouns, and this was a nice opportunity to expand my horizons a bit. I was also drawn in by the prospect of aromantic/asexual characters—as an aroace person myself, I find that representation pretty lacking in just about any media—books, shows, games, etc.
This book is cozy in a lot of ways and very compelling in others. There is some intriguing world building, with the “Fragments” appearing to be an overarching antagonist, and with Aliyah’s struggle to come to terms with being the “hero.” That said, this story is largely about Aliyah, and as such I didn’t feel like Horace was the strongest choice for the point-of-view character.
This novella feels a lot like the beginning of a novel, as opposed to a standalone story in a larger series. I’m pretty neutral about this, but I did see other reviewers comment on not liking that structural decision. It’s not a dealbreaker for me. I will say the pacing needed work. Half of the novella was exposition.
Okay, onto the story and writing. I wasn’t the most engaged by Arseneault’s writing style, truth be told, but it wasn’t an interest-killer by any means. I struggled to connect with Horace as a main character, which is a shame, because I want to like the main character. Eir personality and motivation fell short for me. E wanted to get out of eir home, but once e was out, all e wanted was to follow the others around, and felt somewhat passive by that point. Horace desires companionship and belonging, but e finds resolution to that desire by the end of this first book, so I can’t help but think the author has given this character little room for growth, given that this is a fairly long series. I think the author spent more time on worldbuilding than character work.
The relationship pacing went pretty fast—and I’m not talking romantic relationships, as this is a series with arospec characters (though the book never actually mentions that—the author simply advertises it as such). I’m talking about platonic relationships. These characters grew very tight-knit very fast, and though there were offhanded comments of “they need to get used to each other” throughout the novella, these characters acted as though they knew each other for years when in actuality they only just met. I think a little more disagreement between the characters would have been beneficial.
While I found this book to be somewhat underwhelming, I am still glad I read it. It’s an average read, but the representation of different identities is nice, and I did find the worldbuilding intriguing. If I were to ever stumble across the subsequent books, I probably would read them—but I’m not gonna go out of my way to buy them.
I’ll leave this review with one final note: while I considered this book largely middling, there are plenty of people for whom Awakenings, and the Chronicles of Nerezia series as a whole, would be perfect. Every single book I review for this series is a book I want people to hear about—these reviews are in the business of uplifting queer voices. Especially queer indie authors. :)
In other news:
Signed copies of Floodwaters are back in stock! If you haven’t gotten your hands on a signed copy, you can grab one here: https://payhip.com/b/yj9l5
Blood of the Gods, the first novel in The Divine Archive series, now has an official release date of May 14th, 2026!
Wren L. Rivers
Corvid Arcana Literary
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