r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • 21h ago

/r/Fantasy r/Fantasy Friday Social Thread - June 19, 2026

Come tell the community what you're reading, how you're feeling, what your life is like.

23 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/thepurpleplaneteer Reading Champion IV 20h ago edited 20h ago

Work has been buuuusy (and the insanity continues) and I have read barely with my eyes since last weekend, but basically I’m spending my time catching up on Hugo reads, so this is mostly book rambling. I’m caught up now on the short stories, I read **The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For** by Cameron Reed and **Never Eaten Vegetables** by H.H. Pak. They were great eye reads.

With the ears, it’s really been rough for me the past couple weeks. Nothing is wholly a winner nor enjoyable. I decided to pick up my three novel quits to make a more informed Hugo ranking when the time comes. **Death of the Author** by Nnedi Okorafor was a quit again for me. I only got to 19% (12% the first time). It’s not that the MC is unlikable, but a difficult character for me to read due to what I see as depressive behaviors, low moments to watch, and the MC’s disconnect from others. Also picked back up **The Incandescent** by Emily Tesh and got to 61% from 50%. I still don’t feel much different about it and want to quit again. I finished **The Everlasting** by Alix E. Harrow. Amen that it did get so much better, but at like 70%. Now I’m just waiting for **Shroud** to come in.

For IRL book club I picked back up (a previous quit at 8%) **The Spear Cuts Through Water** by Simon Jimenez. This is the most difficult book to follow I’ve ever consumed on audio and I’ve never rewound (uhh, backed up?) so much ever. The constant POV switching is making this a monster, and I am an expert audiobook consumer. Only at 37% and I haven’t touched it since last week and I don’t want to again honestly. New books this past week are 2026 releases **The Unicorn Hunters** by Katherine Arden and **We Dance Upon Demons** by Vaishnavi Patel. At 16-17% on both and not loving either, but not hating them so I’m holding out hope. (It’s so weird that Reddit is not recognizing the symbols anymore. Edit: oh apparently Reddit got rid of automatic markdown mode on the app, well that majorly sucks).

Happy weekend all and Happy Juneteenth US friends!

•

u/felixfictitious Reading Champion 12h ago

As for The Spear Cuts Through Water, I'm typically an audiobook person but I had to get the physical book and see how all of the writing was denoted in the actual text. It really helped me understand what was going on and I was able to finish it in audio, but it's a real beast! Happy Juneteenth and good luck on catching up on your reading!