I feel like I’m so behind on what new books are coming out, which new books I want to read in the future, all of that. I was pretty happy that I came across one recently on Twitter, and it’s from one of my favorite authors! Which reminds me, I still need to finish the trilogy that made me love this author in the first place!

Thanks to Dini @ Dini Panda Reads, I’m adding Goodreads Monday to my weekly meme schedule, and I’m excited to do this one. This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it.

As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange. She is certainly a strange sight for leering British audiences always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture…​

She cannot die.

Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering who she is. But that mission gets more complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam Temple, a member of a mysterious order called the Enlightenment Committee. Adam seems to know much more about her than he lets on, and he shares with her a terrifying revelation: the world is ending, and the Committee will decide who lives…and who doesn’t.

To help them choose a leader for the upcoming apocalypse, the Committee is holding the Tournament of Freaks, a macabre competition made up of vicious fighters with fantastical abilities. Adam wants Iris to be his champion, and in return he promises her the one thing she wants most: the truth about who she really is.

If Iris wants to learn about her shadowy past, she has no choice but to fight. But the further she gets in the grisly tournament, the more she begins to remember—and the more she wonders if the truth is something best left forgotten.

Well first of all, I adore Sarah Raughely so much! From the moment I read Fate of Flames I don’t know how many years ago, I adored this so damn much! When it was pitched as Sailor Moon meets Pacific Rim, it also gave me some Avatar The Last Airbender vibes too with the elements involved. Plus I love Sailor Moon so much that I knew that I would adore the Effigies.

I am also so glad that Raughley made sure her protagonist is African, and I was glad that Maia from The Effigies trilogy was Black also. Growing up during a time where there were not many Black girl protagonists, and definitely not a lot in the fantasy genre, it’s always so great to read a book – a good book while I’m at it! – that has a Black girl protagonist that is bound to save the world. And I love seeing them have flaws and fears, and eventually learn to believe in themselves and do what they need to do.

So besides that, I am a sucker for plots where a character can’t die for some reason, and lost memories. I have no idea why, but I love that mystery and adventure in trying to find out who this person was before they lost their memories, and why they can’t seem to die. Yes, those are two different plot devices, but I adore both for similar reasons.

I’m really excited to read this one when it comes out, and I’m so glad it looks like it’s going to be a trilogy!

Have you heard of this novel? Have you read any of Raughley’s other novels, like the Effigies trilogy? What kind of plots do you like reading about, or certain plot devices? I’d love to hear some of your favorites.