Thank you NetGalley and Tundra Book Group for the eARC!

There are many things I liked about Bad in the Blood. It was well-written, with detailed world-building and a unique premise. Unfortunately, I wasn’t entirely invested in the storyline/plot which is why my rating sits at three stars. For most of the book, I felt like not a lot was happening. And when things DID start to happen, I didn’t care enough about the characters to maintain interest. I can’t exactly pin-point why, I just think the characters didn’t feel too distinct from one another. But that’s probably just a personal thing. I do think as a whole, this was a good read with well constructed world-building. That was definitely my favourite aspect of this book! I was never bored, just not 100% connected with the story.

"In a world where magical beings, fey, are mistrusted and often institutionalized, a human brother and fey sister must team up to solve a bizarre murder in this 1920s-inspired queer teen fantasy novel.

In the city of Puck's Port, where motorized vehicles fill the streets and new technological marvels abound, something rotten is lurking under the surface. A violent murder at the docks seems to point to a fey killer, igniting a powder keg of distrust between the city's humans and its fey inhabitants - folks who wield wonderful but often uncontrollable magical power.

Gristle Senan Maxim Junior finds himself caught in the middle. Forced into the reluctant role of private investigator, like his late father, he's working to solve the mystery of this fiery murder...mainly because his sister, Hawthorne Stregoni, is a fey herself with an unfortunate penchant for setting things ablaze.

Hawthorne is part of an experimental study to control feyism but struggles to keep her powerful magic in check in a country that hates what she is. Can she and Gristle work together to find the true instigator of the murder before it's too late?"

To fill that Carnival Row hole in us all.

I think this author may just not be for me. I love their concepts so much, and the representation is awesome and so important. However, the execution of the writing style, storytelling, and character work is always a miss for me, unfortunately. It just feels a tad juvenile and first drafty.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

First let me say that I LOVE that so many YA books are using inclusive language, showing LGBTQ+ characters as heroes and just normal people! In this book, I noticed two things that blew me away.
The characters get to choose their name at a certain age. Before that time, they have "generic" names and are referred to as they/them. Once they have chosen their name, they are referred to as their chosen pronoun. I also noticed that Gristle's story is written in the 3rd person UNTIL he discovers his true self and from then it is 1st person. Brilliant crafting!

Now, my criticisms. There was a lot that seemed unnecessarily confusing. The dates on newspaper clippings make no sense, and unless I missed it, there is no explanation. There were a few phrases (septennial comes to mind) that just didn't seem to make sense in the various contexts it was used in. For the first half of the book, I kind of had no idea who was who and what was going on. The naming of various characters didn't help that. About 3/4 of the way through I was hooked and invested in the story, but I felt like that took an excessive amount of time. Maybe a bit more explanation of terms and ideas would help.

Bad in Blood
By Matteo L. Cerilli
Release date: September 2, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5


Everybody who knows me personally knows how much I love Steampunk 🤍

Honestly, I was first attracted to the cover. Aren't we all guilty with picking up books based on covers. 🤪

As a newcomer to Matteo Cerilli’s work, I went in blind and came out absolutely captivated.

"Bad in Blood" is a smart, twisty fairy detective story that masterfully blends steampunk, magic, and mystery. Steampunk can be a tricky genre to pull off, but this book handles it with elegance and grit. Set against a richly imagined historical backdrop, it explores the crooked institutions of power with sharp rage and clever world-building, all wrapped in a stylish trench coat of violence, magic, and intrigue. Gristle and Hawthorne are unforgettable characters who will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you @matteolcerilli , @tundrabooks and @netgalley
for the advanced readers copy

#BadinBlood #HistoricalFiction
#booksta #Bookstagramph #arc
#bookreview
#matteocerilli #detective
#fae

Steampunk is a very tricky thing but Bad In The Blood handles it so beautifully. I look forward to seeing more of this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tundra, and the author, Matteo L. Cerilli, for giving me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

My love of Cerilli's "Lockjaw" is well documented-- and to be clear, my feelings about that novel have not changed, I still absolutely love it. HOWEVER, "Bad in the Blood," may have surpassed even "Lockjaw," that's how good this book was. I'm going to be obsessed with BitB until, likely, the end of time. From the way gender is done, to the masterful allegory of "fae" as neurodivergence, there is nothing about this book I disliked. Every turn of the page brought a new part of the novel to love. It was simply a masterpiece.

Nobody writes sharp, lyrical, viscerally weird kidlit like Matteo. This was the smart and twisty fairy detective (!!!!) mashup of my dreams, but beyond all the delicious pulpiness, it was also a brilliant exploration of otherness and all its forms, as well as crooked institutions of power. It's rage and identity-building and magic and violence and trauma wrapped up in a stylish trench coat. Gristle and Hawthorne will stay with me forever.

Everyone needs to read this.

This was such a fun (not in the hilarious kind of way) and entertaining read? I frankly didn't expect it. Cerilli is a new-to-me author, so I went in not knowing if I would've liked their writing or their creativity, but I quickly changed my mind.

I loved the historical setting (always a big plus for me), the mystery and especially the characters. Absolutely recommended!