hedgehog

🇨🇦🇸🇪 living in Sweden catching up after not reading for 10 years, reading fantasy, sci-fi, litfic, speculative nb, queer, they/them

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The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4)

hedgehog made progress on...

The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4)

Matt Dinniman

23%

hedgehog TBR'd a book

21h

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers

Samuel Burr

An extraordinary, gloriously uplifting novel about the power of friendship and the puzzling ties that bind us Clayton Stumper might be twenty-six years old, but he dresses like your grandpa and drinks sherry like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution. When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. As Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve—and it's a secret that has the potential to change everything.

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1500 points

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notlizlemon started reading...

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)

Brandon Sanderson

Where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. Criminal mastermind Kelsier teaches Allomancy, the magic of metals, to another Mistborn, urchin Vin 16. The unlikely heroine is distracted by rich Venture heir Elend. Can Kelsier's thieving crew take on the tyrant Lord Ruler and bring back colour to their world?

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22h

The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

R.F. Kuang

51%

hedgehog made progress on...

22h

The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

R.F. Kuang

51%

hedgehog TBR'd a book

Chain-Gang All-Stars

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences. Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

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The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4)

Matt Dinniman

10%

hedgehog TBR'd a book

The Ballad of Perilous Graves

Alex Jennings

Music is magic in this novel set in a fantastical version of New Orleans where a battle for the city's soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song. Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women help keep the order. To those from Away, Nola might seem strange. To Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. In a world of everyday miracles, Perry might not have a talent for magic, but he does know Nola’s rhythm as intimately as his own heartbeat. So when the city’s Great Magician starts appearing in odd places and essential songs are forgotten, Perry realizes trouble is afoot. Nine songs of power have escaped from the piano that maintains the city’s beat, and without them, Nola will fail. Unwilling to watch his home be destroyed, Perry will sacrifice everything to save it. But a storm is brewing, and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Nola’s time might be coming to an end.

hedgehog TBR'd a book

Black Cake

Charmaine Wilkerson

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

hedgehog commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum

jenniferPagebound

Edited

Upcoming Special Event Readalong: Mardi Gras + Carnival 2026

We're very excited to announce our next Special Event Readalong, Mardi Gras + Carnival! This will run from January 15 - February 15.

This round's selections center stories from Afro-Caribbean + Black New Orleans culture. Check out the Special Events page (in the More tab on the app, or click the purple banner on the Discuss page on web).

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings: An imaginative New Orleans Urban Fantasy exploring the music and magic of NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana).

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson: A touching Caribbean-American contemporary fiction exploring family secrets and the weight of the past. Series adaptation on Hulu!

You Made A Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi: An funny + tender upmarket romance (warning: explicit 🌶️) exploring Afro-Carribean culture and healing trauma though love.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom: A lyrical + politically sharp memoir chronicling 100 years of love, resilience, and class in NOLA. A clear-eyed account of Black New Orleans, up through the devastating events of Hurricane Katrina.

What's a Special Event? Each quarter, we run a short 1 month readalong showcasing diverse voices in literature. Read one of the selections and comment or post in the forum during the Readalong to earn a special badge. Unlike the Seasonal Readalongs, you do not earn a special badge for reading all the selections.

Excited to see the discussions for this event!

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy

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177

hedgehog wrote a review...

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

hedgehog

Dec 15, 2025

4.0

Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 4.0Characters: Plot: 4.0

🐦

🤝

💚

A pleasant surprise from the winter readalong!

The author is clearly passionate about both culture and science, and it was delightful to be invited into her perspective on the world. I felt calm and hopeful after reading - not an easy feeling to achieve in 2025. Would definitely love to see more diverse thoughts and perspectives shared like this.

Even at only around 100 pages, there was some repetition, and the message could likely have been served just as well in a shorter essay format. Still worth the read though! Plus, fantastic illustrations!

hedgehog made progress on...

The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4)

Matt Dinniman

10%

hedgehog started reading...

The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4)

Matt Dinniman

New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure. You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent. A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps. It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked. Here's the thing. It's never easy. Carl and his team can't go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted? Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.

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Winter 2026 Readalong

Read all books in the Winter 2026 Readalong.

hedgehog commented on a post

ChaosReader

Edited

Thoughts from 3% (page 3- Ethnobotanists)

"Ethnobotanists know that the more names a plant has, the greater its cultural importance."

For anyone like me who was super interested by what exactly an Ethnobotanist is, Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field of study that blends natural and social sciences together to look at our relationships to plants. Specifically examining a cultural group and their relationships to the native plants around them. Something I am truly fascinated by and want to learn more about. And based on what I know about Robin Wall Kimmerer, I am assuming this book (as well as her other ones) is at the very least influenced by this academic field of study. So I am excited to dive into it more.

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Winter 2026 Readalong

Read all books in the Winter 2026 Readalong.

hedgehog finished reading and wrote a review...

hedgehog

Dec 15, 2025

1.5

Enjoyment: 1.0Quality: 0.5Characters: 1.5Plot: 0.5

☪️

❄️

😶

I'm not a romance person, or really a holiday person, so I'm very biased on this.

I really do respect and support the idea behind this story, and appreciated the multi-faith inclusion and cultural representation. Even got a bit of nostalgia as a former small-town Canadian.

But...that was about it. There were pretty serious inconsistencies (plot holes, timing, info characters shouldn't have known, info characters really SHOULD HAVE known, "year 2000" setting with modern references and speech) and the writing, particularly in Anna's chapters, was tough to get through.

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