Ry Herman

BRIGANDS & BREADKNIVES by Travis Baldree
YOU WEREN’T MEANT TO BE HUMAN by Andrew Joseph White
TRESS OF THE EMERALD SEA by Brandon Sanderson
THIEF OF NIGHT by Holly Black

Favorite Books — February 2026 Once again, there are no books I specifically want to highlight, but a whole lot of books I very much enjoyed this past month: THE POET EMPRESS by Shen Tao, GREEK LESSONS by Kang Han, TAPPING THE D…

There were a whole lot of books I enjoyed this past month:

ryhermanwrites.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/f...

THE POET EMPRESS by Shen Tao
GREEK LESSONS by Kang Han
TAPPING THE DREAM TREE by Charles de Lint
THE HUNGRY GODS by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I would like to write a cookbook which contains a few different ways to prepare every recipe solely so I could call it Bay Leaf It Or Not.

Print copy of the book This Princess Kills Monsters (with the tagline “The misadventures of a fairy-tale stepsister”) by Ry Herman, sitting on a laptop keyboard. The cover is filled with a colorful illustration of a silhouetted figure brandishing a sword on a bridge, facing off against silhouetted monsters, with a castle in a cliff in the background and a dragon flying past the castle.

After a meetup last weekend at a new-to-me bookstore-cafe, my latest “browsing” resulted in getting this by @ryherman.bsky.social . I finished it yesterday and it was a delight to read. #BookSky #AmReading

finished the audiobook of This Princess Kills Monsters yesterday. it was delightful! I enjoyed the fairy tale references (even though I didn't understand some of them), the consistency of the main character's personality traits, the humor, and the great job the narrator did with Scottish accents! 🌈📚

Thanks to the works of Sigrid Undset and Xenophon, I now have every single letter of the alphabet represented by the author names on my bookshelf. This makes me obscurely happy.

The cover for the French language edition of This Princess Kills Monsters!

This Princess Kills Monsters by Ry Herman is based on The Twelve Huntmen but incorporates many different fairytale characters. It's an amazing adaptation of a classic fairytale.

#booksky #fairytale #fantasy #cleanromance #LGBT

ONCE WAS WILLEM by M. R. Carey
THE PROJECTIONIST by Kirsti Wishart
THE ANTIDOTE by Karen Russell
THE BEWITCHING by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

HEAP EARTH UPON IT by Chloe Michelle Howarth
TO RIDE A RISING STORM by Moniquill Blackgoose
WILD GEESE by Emmanuel Soula
SNAKE-EATER by T. Kingfisher
NEEDLE LAKE by Justine Champine

Favorite Books — January 2026 There’s no specific book I want to single out this month, but a whole bunch I very much liked, including: SLOW GODS by Claire North, WE COULD BE RATS by Emily Austin, ASUNDER by Kerstin Hall,…

There’s no specific book I want to single out as the best of the month, but there were a whole bunch I very much liked, including:

ryhermanwrites.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/f...

SLOW GODS by Claire North
WE COULD BE RATS by Emily Austin
ASUNDER by Kerstin Hall

The world is insane and sometimes we all need some escapism.

Check out "This Princess Kills Monsters" by @ryherman.bsky.social for an entertaining and inclusive story that takes the best parts of classic fairy tales and twists them into a clever and engaging critique of what we think we know. 💜

Another sighting of This Princess Kills Monsters in the wild! This one from Olympia, Washington courtesy of Ruth Apter!

A snippet of text from the book "This Princess Kills Monsters" by Ry Herman. The text reads, "She narrowed her eyes, trying to determine whether or not I was being sarcastic. I showed her a sweet smile. I considered giving her the appellation Giant Fucking Asshole Yvonne. But that, I decided, would be too mean. I went with Snotface Yvonne instead."

Another snippet of text from the same book. The text reads, "Then I burst out laughing. 'Oh, my goodness!' I said, gasping for breath. 'Should I promise I'll safeguard your unwedded virtue?' 'Stop it.' Sam was blushing, his pale cheeks turning a deep red. 'It isn't that funny. It's just that we've not so much as had dinner together, and I didn't think—' 'This situation doesn't seem funny to you? At all?' I flung a dramatic hand to my forehead. 'A snowstorm forced them together, and there was only...one...bed! What were they to do?'"

People should read more books ngl

Shoutout to "This Princess Kills Monsters" a banger fairy tale book I found lying around in my library
Hilarious dialogue and gay (bi) main character, I think this one was basically made for me specifically

Will do!

This Princess Kills Monsters has officially earned out its advance!

So, it turns out that a hot water bottle is basically an artificial cat.

I read "This Princess Kills Monsters" by Ry Herman, audiobook narrated by Kristin Sieh.

A queer fairytale adventure that is brimming with references to stories both popular and more obscure! Such a delightful novel.

Recent reading:

@ryherman.bsky.social ‘s three novels - This Princess Kills Monsters, Love Bites, and Bleeding Hearts. Dropped fives on them all. All three are great spins on fairy tales/vampire stories. If you’re a Christopher Moore fan, I think there’s some overlap here.

SNOW!

See you at the awards next year!

BEST LITERARY CONTEMPORARY (tie): Three Days in June by Anne Tyler & Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite

BEST PHILOSOPHICAL FICTION: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

BEST ROMANCE: Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL: Spent by Alison Bechdel

BEST LITERARY HISTORICAL (tie): Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta & The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

BEST LITERARY MYSTERY (tie): Little Mysteries by Sara Gran Brighton & Rock by Graham Greene

GRAB BAG AWARDS

BEST FORGOTTEN CLASSIC: The Passenger by Alexander Ulrich Boschwitz

BEST REMEMBERED CLASSIC: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

BEST NONFICTION: A City on Mars by Kelly Weinersmith & Zach Weinersmith

EXTREMELY SELF-INDULGENT AWARDS

BEST BOOK WRITTEN BY RY: This Princess Kills Monsters by Ry Herman

BEST BOOK WRITTEN BY A CLOSE FRIEND OF RY: Maisie Vs. the Himalayas by Jack Jackman

And finally, the beloved category that includes, well, everything else –

BEST APPALACHIAN HORROR: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

BEST BOARDING SCHOOL HORROR: The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall

Now, naturally we couldn’t finish without a couple of –

HORROR AWARDS

BEST HORROR THRILLER ROMANCE: Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta

BEST LITERARY HORROR: Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

BEST VAMPIRE HORROR: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

BEST HUMOROUS SF: Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley

BEST SCIENCE SF: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

And after science fiction there’s no choice but –

SCIENCE FICTION AWARDS

BEST SF: The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey

BEST LITERARY SF: Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis

BEST DYSTOPIAN SF: Dreamland by Rose Rankin-Gee

BEST LITERARY DYSTOPIAN SF (tie): Gliff by Ali Smith & Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman

BEST LITERARY FANTASY: To The Chapel Perilous by Naomi Mitchison

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA (tie): The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar & The Summer War by Naomi Novik

Of course, after fantasy we have to have –