Danielle Colburn

Danielle is fascinated by science fiction/fantasy that breaks the mold and pushes the speculative genre past what is to what could be, à la Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth and This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. She is looking for dark thrillers, brainy mysteries, and select literary/upmarket fiction. She’s interested in both genre and highbrow fiction that can provide complex, fully realized characters and an addictive narrative, especially ones with leads from underrepresented communities. Sapphic or otherwise LGBTQIA+ characters will always turn her head, but any story with compelling conflict and a distinctive central voice is welcome. Danielle can easily get lost in historical fiction that questions dominant historical narratives while focusing on marginalized perspectives, such as Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith (and its film counterpart, The Handmaiden). Women-centric stories of any kind —especially well-researched feminist or queer retellings, like Madeline Miller’s Circe and Song of Achilles — are after her own heart. She gravitates towards speculative fiction that draws inspiration from fresh sources, particularly non-medieval or non-European history, such as R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War. Layered world building that focuses on postcolonial tensions or the impact of empire, with a keen understanding of structural oppression in our own world, is also a huge plus for Danielle. She’s a fan of cross-over/hybrid books as well, seeking manuscripts that can skillfully combine genres in new and fascinating ways to strengthen the story.