The Butcher of Tariffs – The April 2025 Bibliofiles

We just had a rather significant election in Canada, so I’ve been reading a bit more about tariffs and publishing woes. But I did also manage to find time to read Robert Jackson Bennett’s second book in the Din and Ana series, which takes things to a new level of creepy yet beautiful horror — which also applies to Premee Mohamed’s Butcher of the Forest. I also read KJ Aiello’s The Monster in the Mirror, which looks at the construction of mental illness in fantasy and science fiction — timely given our Instagram Live together!

I hope you check out some of these reads and enjoy them as much as I did.

Fiction

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

Veris is a survivor. She’s managed to keep herself alive under the rule of the merciless Tyrant, who has taken over her land and killed many of its residents. She’s also the only one to have entered the mysterious forest known as the Elmever and come back out alive. But when the Tyrant’s children go missing in the Elmever, he turns to Veris to rescue them. It’s certain death to go into those woods a second time. But it’s also certain death to fail the Tyrant. So Veris has no choice but to venture into the Elmever once more in search of the children.

The Butcher of the Forest is an eerie story that captures the spirit of fairy tales but leaves behind all the trappings meant for children. It’s as if the Brothers Grimm met up with Alice in Wonderland in a cosmic horror story. Haunting, weird and beautiful.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127281143-the-butcher-of-the-forest

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

The charming detective pair of Din and Ana are back to solve a new mystery in A Drop of Corruption, the second in one of the best fantasy series I’ve read in ages. Din is an engraver, a sort of enhanced human who has the ability to memorize pretty much anything. He’s the field agent for Ana, a Holmes-like detective who is as brilliant as she is eccentric. Together they are sent to Yarrowdale, a kingdom on the edge of the empire where fallen Titans are dismantled for the magical blood that helps to power the empire. An officer of the empire has disappeared into thin air and only Ana and Din can solve the mystery. But things quickly grow complicated when they realize the disappearance is related to a string of murders, and the killer is a mad genius who moves between the kingdom and the wild lands at its borders, spreading a strange sort of contagion that threatens everything.

A Drop of Corruption is a riveting followup to the first book in the series, A Tainted Cup. It’s the sleuthing mysteries of Sherlock Holmes meeting the biohorror and weirdness of Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, with the political intrigue that Bennett is known for. I can’t wait to read the next book!

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213618143-a-drop-of-corruption

Idle, Inc. by Benjamin Parzybok

A customer support representative at a tech startup that sells free time to people discovers exactly where that time comes from and at what cost. Another delightfully bizarre story from Bourbon Penn.

Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/35/idle-inc-by-benjamin-parzybok

Labbatu Takes Command of the Flagship Heaven Dwells Within by Arkday Martine

Sci-fi space pirate smut!

Link: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/labbatu-takes-command-of-the-flagship

Non-fiction

Values by Mark Carney

Wherever you stand on Canadian politics, it’s probably worth reading Value(s) by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who was also a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada. It’s an informative history of how we have determined value and shaped financial systems over the ages, with a disquieting move from market economies to market societies. Carney suggests we need to realign our values so they’re not just about financial worth and profitability. It’s hard to argue against that in the age of Trump and tariffs.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54503528-value-s

The Monster and the Mirror by KJ Aiello

Part memoir, part analysis of mental illness in the fantasy genre, The Monster and the Mirror is a unique and powerful book that defies categorization. It’s also a necessary call for us to reimagine how we approach mental illness, from the health care system to the media in all its forms. A timely and important read.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211765623-the-monster-and-the-mirror

Bookish and World Woes by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia reflects on the Canada-U.S. tensions and how things will likely be dire this coming year and beyond for writers, publishers and bookstores. This really is a time for everyone to support their communities.

Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bookish-and-woes-124982811

The Science of Romance: Young, in Love, and Enthralled by Biochem by Kristi Charish

Kristi Charish writes about living beside wetlands, which means every spring she witnesses a practical orgy among wildlife and teenagers. It’s sexy material for another column about the science of writing and how to use real-world science to flesh out your tales.

Link: https://www.kristicharish.com/news/2025/3/17/the-science-of-romance-young-in-love-enthralled-by-biochem

Could Tariffs Collapse Canadian Publishing? by Wolsak and Wynn

Most of the books sold in Canada come from the U.S. The multinationals that dominate Canadian publishing spend fortunes on marketing campaigns that independent Canadian publishers cannot compete with, which tilts demand toward U.S. books. So what’s to be done? Support those indie presses that are genuinely Canadian.

Link: https://www.wolsakandwynn.ca/blog/2025/03/27/could-tariffs-collapse-canadian-publishing

The America I Loved Is Gone by Stephen Marche

“Canada is a country that disillusions you. America is one illusion after another, some magnificent, others treacherous or vicious.”

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/20/american-dream-trump-canada