City of Deja

The first half of my reading year in 2026 has been unexpected; it’s been filled with re-reads and nostalgia reads, as well as books outside of my usual comfort genres. This reality is partly due to the fact that I graduated with my master’s degree in English Literature in May (yay!), so as I finished up novels assigned to me for classes as well as for my own research, I made a conscious effort to reconnect with the act of leisure reading. This has resulted in quite the hodgepodge of books to wrap up, so I’ve sorted each of them into categories for easy reading.

Research Reads & Assigned Texts

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

I finally finished my second novel by Jesmyn Ward! Let Us Descend was technically a carry-over from December since I had quite the long reading and annotating experience with this one for my thesis research. My drawn out reading experience with this also colored my enjoyment a bit, as I was left slightly underwhelmed at the ending, entirely due to my own expectations.

However, I do think that this was overall a transporting meditation on motherhood and daughterhood—the physical and the metaphysical aspects of both—within a neo-slave narrative. Ward’s writing is very poetic, which I think added to the mystique of some of the more elemental and supernatural aspects of the story. This is for sure a novel that I will get more out of upon a re-read.

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older

This sci-fi novella is one that was assigned in a course I took on contemporary speculative fiction. And, despite my best efforts, I just cannot get into books set entirely in space, which is why I don’t often reach for sci-fi. The audiobook was short, so I got through it, but its brevity and genre conventions left much to be desired for me.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

The Marrow Thieves was another assigned text from the aforementioned speculative fiction course, but this one struck more of a chord. Dimaline’s Indigenous YA post-apocalyptic novel kept my attention from beginning to end, and I found myself very invested in the central plot (the only people left in the world with the ability to dream are the Indigenous people of North America–and their bone marrow holds the cure to dreamlessness!). I won’t give too much away, but The Marrow Thieves made for a great discussion in class on language and cultural preservation, the power of storytelling, and role of the young adult novel.

My Year of Shadowhunters

Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices #3) by Cassandra Clare

It feels like fate that I have finally caught up with Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles in the year of 2026 (since I began reading it in 2013!), when Clare is set to release the first installment in the final trilogy set in this world, The Last King of Faerie. I gave myself this goal a few years back when The Wicked Powers trilogy was first announced, and I have finally reached it after finishing Queen of Air and Darkness.

Though QoAaD was a tome that took me forever to read, I enjoyed reading about Mark/Christina/Kieran, the parts that took place in the world of Thule, as well as the familial themes that came to a head in this installment. Overall, The Dark Artifices could have used better pacing, and it probably won’t make it onto my list of top Shadowhunters series, but finishing it still feels like a win.

The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare (Books 1-3)

After finishing The Dark Artifices, I remained in a Shadowhunter mood, so I went back to the source texts and re-read The Infernal Devices for the first time in over ten years. And, man, these books were so much fun.

Younger Deja loved The Mortal Instruments so much that anything Clare wrote that wasn’t TMI didn’t always get a fair shake. Older me loved TID so much more, with the first book, Clockwork Angel becoming my new favorite in the series (followed by Clockwork Prince and then Clockwork Princess). Each of the books had an extremely compelling plot that was set off by the lush atmosphere of a steampunk Victorian England, and I could not get enough. Not to mention the fact that I was reading about characters that had lived in my head since I was 14. I was hooked from start to finish.

This trilogy is also known for its love triangle, and it is genuinely still the best take on the trope that I have ever read (Older me is very much a Jem and Tessa girl). Re-reading the series was such a nostalgia trip for me, and it left me with a new appreciation for the story; even after all of these years, I still haven’t read anything else quite like it.

Nostalgic Authors and Their New Releases

The Dream Thieves: The Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater, Sas Milledge (ARC)

The story in Maggie Stiefvater’s The Dream Thieves–the second book in The Raven Cycle–is surely difficult to adapt, but somehow this graphic novel kept intact the heartbeat that gives the book its life. 

“Many thieves. One greywaren.”

Though this graphic novel was very much a truncated version of the novel I love so much, I still found it to be very enjoyable and compulsively readable. It was surreal to see the visual representation of Kavinsky and Ronan’s night horrors brought to life on the page and how Cabeswater weaves in and out of scenes. I can’t wait to get my hands on a final copy! And a huge thank you to Penguin Teen for the Advance Reader Copy–this one releases on August 4, 2026!

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins

Stephanie Perkins wrote one of my favorite young adult romance novels ever, Anna and the French Kiss, so I was very excited to see her make a return to the genre in the adult contemporary romance/women’s fiction sphere. I don’t read a ton of Women’s Fiction, and I burnt out on reading romance a few years back, but I wanted to take a chance on an old favorite author. And overall, Overdue was fine.

While I was hooked in the beginning–I loved the parts where Ingrid discovered dating for the first time and learning about herself as an adult–I didn’t care much for the main love interest, Macon, and I found all of the lingering scenes on the mundane parts of life to be just that. At some points, it almost felt as if the book was trying to accomplish a bit too much, and yet, when I finished, I couldn’t help but feel that the story was still missing something. But alas.

Though I’m sure I will continue to pick up whatever book Stephanie Perkins writes next, I found Overdue to be merely an “okay” read.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time,