The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach mixes fantasy, murder, political intrigue, and mythology to create a unique world. 

This book sucked me in, confused me, intrigued me, and made me keep reading. Yat is a bisexual constable living in a world where any queerness is punished. She is demoted and drugging herself to dull the pain and protect herself from her own memories. Then she ends up stumbling upon a sinister plot, murdered, resurrected by a god, and given new powers to see and interact with life threads. But there's still that sinister, government corrupting, spore-wielding plot to stop, so she doesn't have much time to figure anything out. 

At times I found myself confused by exactly what was happening. The narration became purposefully disjointed, with snippets of dialogue breaking in. This was something Yat was experiencing, but since it was so hard to know what was happening, it pulled me out of the story. 

I did like that the narrative moved betwern Yat and Sen, with a bit from Ajet and Sibbi to give some of the broader scope. There are also some direct-to-reader style chapters from one of the gods, which were intriguing but also mystifying. This book explores systems of power, corruption, sexism, homophobia, religious zealotry, police brutality, poverty, and what it means to be a hero. It's not subtle about its themes, but it weaves them together well. 

I do wish there had been a bit more of Yat and Sen working together, and a bit more of the worldbuilding, especially the religion/magic system, explained up front. A lot of the book rushes along at a breakneck pace, so that coupled with the narrative style made it hard to absorb all the worldbuilding. 

The setting, however, was fantastic. I loved the whole botanical engineering aspect, and how it tied into the Weaving magic and the dangerous spores. 

 A truly outstanding and stand out biopunk queer read, The Dawnhounds has some of the best worldbuilding I've ever seen, diverse characters, and a story that will make you cry one page and feel hopeful the next.
It's a toss-up between what I love more, the eclectic characters, or the world they live in. Wajet is my favorite character in this, I don't care that Yat didn't like him he's so damn charming. The whole premise of using plant life to live and build instead of steel or other materials is so fascinating. The mushroom houses are alive and feed off the sweat and dead skin cells of their inhabitants. My mind is just blown thinking about it.
The whole concept of immortality and losing yourself bit by bit is a trope I want to read more of. It is so well done in The Dawnhounds. The different Gods and myths meddling, there is so much symbolism and foreshadowing I want to reread it again to see what I missed.
Stronach's writing feels almost dreamlike and ethereal in certain moments. It's not so much you feel like you are transported into the world, but more so as different characters lose their minds you feel just as lost and trapped too. It is truly a book with so much heart and hope, no matter how tough it gets and how dire the situation seems, Yat never gives up.
There's also a cat in this book, so that's such a bonus.
This is a rare moment where I feel like the blurb didn't do the book justice at all. It is quite a dark and heavy book, I wish it mentioned that. (Also it's just freaking fantastic!) Yat is a drug addict, and has lost faith in literally everything, she is just basically on autopilot.
The inclusion of so many powerful queer characters is one of my favorite parts of this, called a "degeneracy" by so many, it is just so emotional. It's not often I see bisexuality depicted as well as Stronach does here.
I almost wish I had read the audiobook instead, only because I felt like I was butchering so many words in my head because I didn't know how to pronounce anything.
This is definitely not a shut-your-brain-off-and-read book. If anything with science fiction books like this you really have to pay attention to what's going on otherwise you'll get lost in descriptions, names, and people. I also put off reading this because Yat is a cop, and I was nervous it was going to be copaganda. I wish I had read it sooner.
Check your tws! There is a LOT of body horror, gore, blood, death, drugs, corruption, and homophobia!
I have so many theories for the next book! I need to discuss this for hours just to share all my theories, questions, and love for it.
I absolutely 10000% recommend this book, perfect for people who loves books you can sink your teeth into! I can't wait for the sequel to come out next year! MOSTLY BECAUSE I WANT TO MEET WAJET'S

HUSBAND!

I actually like this cover better than some of the other editions. It is really cool to see what the houses look like, and it gives it such a great otherworldly scifi vibe.