Thanks to NetGalley for proving me with a copy of this book in exchange of a honest review.

I want to start my review with a praise to the author for managing to keep the tone of the narration dark but fluid all throughout the book, something that can be quite difficult when building up a story inspired by macabre facts from real history.

There are several things I enjoyed about this book, first of all I'd like to spend a few words for the protagonist, Honnan, who's not the clichéd full-of-answers and indomitable character. In fact, he's nothing but the opposite –he has a low caste background and he gained some sort of benevolence from Death City viceroy that doesn't really make the difference during the course of the story in terms of favours or privileges, excluded the fact that he's allowed access to the place militia. In more than one occasion I appreciated Honnan's human and modest character as well as his weaknesses showing during proving situations. It all added to the credibility of the narration.

The plot is simple and carries out almost in a straight line, I would say, perhaps too quickly at times, without much else going on to refrain the murder investigations. This is not a bad thing entirely but being this not a proper thriller, such pace would've had to include some sort of crumble path for the reader to delineate the murder and track down the killer, something the book didn't have room for because, as said, it belonged to another genre school altogether.
The second most important character is Carpin, Honnan's friend and colleague, who's well delineated and ever present in the narration (perhaps this may result futile but I felt like a positive mention was due here, since in many books the protagonist's friends get forgotten who knows where).

On more technical stuff, I have to say I expected far more from the descriptions. They were often thrown there to fill the blanks more than to give new pertinent notions and in several occasions they disrupted the pace and the focus of the narration.

But perhaps the most deluding aspect of the book that made 99% of my critique was the total neglect of the lore, this beautiful intriguing theatre that most than anything pushed me to pick up the book in the first place. I think I'd run short of words if I had the chance to describe just how many things sparked my interests... though I wasn't given the chance. Particularly, the readers are introduced in a world where living behemoths calcate the earth and they just look at them disappearing in as little as a paragraph, with no-one noticing or caring at all. Such density of religious contents are merely surfacing with bits and pieces scattered about as if were a minor thing rather than flesh and bone of the theatre.

Another book weakness I experienced is the poor empathy one manages to establish with Llewellyn. It becomes clear how important she is to Honnan but this is tossed carelessly at the end of the book only for some inexplicable reason. I would've liked more context and background earlier on rather than the many repetitive descriptions about her ghostly appearance.

Finally, I wanted to spend some words on the writing form of the book. By page 3 I had already counted 8 "reckon". I know this was the author's choice for a low sort of speech but, still, a book's gotta be a book –the language can be variegated and still give the same feeling of dialect or imperfect speaking.

Despite the number of cons might seem to outnumber (or perhaps crush) the pros, I still recommend this book as one of the most original I've encountered in a while. I just maintain the bittersweet wish of having explored Nwosu's Red Kingdom lore more and hope for an indulgence on this regard in a future novel, perhaps with our beloved Honnan invested in some more trouble.

Beautiful cover..!!! Definitely beautiful one. But I struggled when reading this book, especially because of the writing style. Nah. Not for me

I try not to judge a book by it's cover, but this one has such pretty one that got me reading the blurb and requested it via Netgalley. It was a pretty nice read, but for me it didn't really hit home.

I struggled a lot with the writing style and the world building, at first. I expected a gothic setting from the cover imagery, but it was more like colonial setting with disease. I got used to the writing style after a few chapter, and it actually unique and quite charming. Unfortunately by then, for me the MC, Honnan, has little to no "special" trait that makes his personality. For me he fell a bit bland, and that's unfortunate because I start to enjoy the dark, eerie, full of disease theme.

Overall, it was a decent read if you like murder investigation in a sort-of dystopian, colonial setting with disease and scary local legend.

I really struggled with the writing style in this book. It was not for me but it may be great for others! I’m not sure what I’d even recommend as the change, but the tone itself was a deterrent for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

With vivid imagery, skilful use of symbolism, and compelling worldbuilding, A Pale Box on the Distant Shore is a dark and thoroughly entertaining novel. It follows a lowly soldier seeking justice for the innocent on a dying island that is plagued with a terrible disease, taking lives of any age. His journey starts off with the discovery of a horrific crime and investigating it only made him find out the distressing truth behind it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Small Heart Press for providing me with the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed it, it was mysterious and thrilling and really kept me on the edge of my seat. SO grateful to have the chance to read this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this! The description of this story initially drew me in because I love dark fantasy and the addition of a Sherlock Holmes plot was intriguing. I really liked the author’s writing style, but I felt as though the characters and world building were a little underdeveloped. I am personally a very character-driven reader, but I think if you are more of a plot-driven person and like a dark mystery, this would be a good read!

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has an incredibly unique writing style and premise - but what it suffered from most for me was two-fold. It felt like there was a lot of assumed knowledge, which the reader has no way of gaining; and the pacing felt odd at times. Characters were vague and given little introduction, terms are referenced with no explanation, and parts of the story seem to take longer than others with the proportions coming off as backwards. While it took a bit to get used to, the speaking was clearly intended to be lyrical and have a distinct dialect - it succeeds here and was interesting, if sometimes requiring a bit more thought to follow.

Overall this novel shows promise and the world is interesting, if requiring a bit more fleshing out. I think it’s a great read for dark fantasy, horror, gothic readers!

I received A Pale Box from a Distant Shore from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the setting of this book. Honestly, if I could live in this world I wouldn’t (because it’s full of disease) but I’d love to study it, and I’m happy to see that apparently more books are being created in this world. This novella takes place on Death City on an Island, where the main plot revolves around a soldier tasked with trying to contain black lung as it starts affecting younger people whereas before it only killed the elderly. One of the pale boxes of a young man set to burn turns out to have been opened, and inside is found the body of a young babe with his skull caved in, his hands painted gold and covered in a death shroud.

Our protagonist takes his findings to the viceroy. The young boy had the same paint as the father, and the person who smuggled the boy in could have taken the rot into the city proper where it had been quarantined in the lower city before. The viceroy tells him not to pursue it. If it has happened, then the person has already spread the disease, and soon their island will be overrun with the black lung and the island itself will stop getting supplies and will be left to run the course of the disease and starve and left burn itself out.

The bulk of the story is him ignoring that order to pursue and find out why that little boy was found in that coffin anyway. Honestly, I didn’t find our soldier extraordinarily interesting. Mostly I felt he was a vehicle for exploring just this one island that feels like you get a taste of this wonderfully rich and dark world. That was the bulk of where the curiosity and interest lay in what he actually was doing. There were moments when he would mention dust slaves, or that the rich were the sun, or that the merchants were the moon with a mask where the culture struck an interest. There were combinations.

I think where my love of this world was really cemented, and my attention grabbed completely was when he went to the Red Bone Giant where the bone miners went every day to mine what they thought of as the remains of a giant God. Throughout the story are hints of giant dead Gods, but also ones that are alive, but kept at bay by some sort of magic. The magic in the story is there, but nuanced, and sparse, just a touch that hardly matters to the regular people going about their normal lives.

The story is firmly set in its world, with its own way of speaking that honestly at first had me falling asleep. Not because it was boring, but because of my headache, it had this sort of lyrical quality, plus I had to pay more attention to every word at first, which meant if the rhythm wasn’t lulling me to sleep, then the change of wording just made me need to take some breaks. Not a bad thing, but here are some examples:

“Barely a moment together, before he was true gone. Safe enough now, he is.”

“If the boy’s hardy as he looks, reckon we stand a chance here.”

His grandnannie might have been a dust-caste slave when the viceroy first brought them to Death City, but now she was cut loose, and paid her own way.

I know I am a broken bird, but I announce, “I go back tomorrow.”

The text does take a little while to get used to, at least if you have a constant headache, but it is consistent throughout the entire book and very easy to catch on and read with no trouble once you’ve immersed yourself in the short story.

This is only one of two short stories, and I’ve already picked up the second one from her newsletter (which I have signed up for and the visual guide was just as amazing as I was hoping for) and I’m looking forward to reading the first real book in the series that looks to be coming out later this year!

The book seems well-written and well-thought-out. Unfortunately, I can't connect it and started to feel like forcing myself to finish it. I decided to DNF it for now, but I want to emphasize it's the case of "It's me, not you" DNF :)

Thanks to the publisher for giving me the possibility to try it. I may give it another try soon.

I adore dark fantasies, and the description along with the beautiful cover drew me to this book. I really hoped this book could deliver on its promises of a bloody mystery in a magical setting, and it blew away my expectations! I read it in less than a day.

PJ Nwosu paints a tragically dark fantasy world, and her talented writing brings it to life. The setting felt so real, from climbing dead giant bones to searching plague-ridden streets for clues to a murderer. Some scenes made my skin crawl, and it was the perfect amount of creepiness. 

Realizing it’s (loosely) based on true stories makes it all the better too. It’s truly compelling to see how real history can be looped into fantasy worlds so seamlessly, and how creepy the real world can be. Following Honnan as he tried to piece together the mystery, especially as others doubted him, was riveting to read. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see who would succumb to the black lung and who might be the next victim of the mysterious killer. 

There are kingdom politics (and I always love that in fantasy) which really enrich the world. Honnan's story is tied up relatively neatly at the end, but there are still enough loose ends about the world to make me excited for the next book. The fantasy world that PJ Nwosu built was one of the best I've read in a while, and I can't wait to see more of Death City.

While I loved Honnan and his grandnannie- she's my favorite character, I loved her wizened old vibes- I did struggle to connect with the rest of the cast a bit. It made certain scenes less impactful because I don't think I got as attached to those characters as I should've. But it's the start of the series, and I think with another book or two I could grow to love the whole cast as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and could easily recommend to anyone who enjoys dark mysteries mixed with fantasy.

I was drawn in by the cover and synopsis, but was then completely surprised and impressed by the smooth depth of narrative and prose that PJ Nwosu has layered into this book. This author has talent! The setting captivated me - an island on the edge of the Empire, most of the people just surviving, and a Polity trying to deal with the start of a scourge of black lung before it becomes an epidemic; a disease that is now spreading faster than ever. Honnan, a ranking soldier, finds a murder that he just cannot let go. What dark path will he follow as he tries to find out the truth? Read the book and find out. I found the book compelling and finished it within a day. Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for letting me read an ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.