Anomaly Book Review
Reading Anomaly by Amber Selene was a small surprise for me.
Dystopian fiction isn’t usually where I wander. Before opening this novel, I wasn’t even sure I could properly define what dystopian meant beyond a vague sense of a fractured future. But if dystopian novels all read the way Anomaly does, I would gladly return to the genre again and again.
What Selene does so well is weave her characters together in ways that feel both intricate and deeply human. Their lives circle through one another’s realms , intersecting, separating, colliding again until the story feels less like a single thread and more like a living web. In the middle of that web are moments that quietly break your heart.
“Home isn’t a structure; the structure becomes a home by the love it cradles inside it.”
In a world where so much feels unstable, Selene reminds us that home is not built from walls but from the people who fill them. I was drawn to Arro and wishing we had glimpsed more of their family life. That quiet longing for more of a character’s world is, perhaps, a sign of how alive Selene makes them feel on the page.
Throughout the novel, Selene slips in small life lessons that feel almost philosophical without ever slowing the story.
“…it is better to know how to treat risk. Risk is calculation, it is sometimes chance, but you take it for its reward….”
The novel repeatedly asks its characters and the reader a difficult question, “is it better to know too much, too little or to depend too heavily on the knowledge of others?”
Selene frames this tension beautifully.
“Bliss may be found from ignorance, but ignorance breeds suffering.”
And perhaps one of the most compelling moments comes when Ivan advises Poppy to transform emotion into strength , to use feeling itself as power.
“…to let tears become a weapon,
to channel emotion into force rather than weakness…”
It’s a reminder that vulnerability and strength often come from the same place.
What I appreciated most about Selene’s writing is the way she blends wit with reality. Even in a speculative world, the emotional truths feel recognizable. The story leaves you thinking long after the final page, wondering what you would do if placed inside this world.
And maybe more unsettlingly wondering if this world is not so distant from the one we may eventually inhabit.
Grab your own copy here: https://a.co/d/02QWkA8Q
Seldom Blue Ayurvedic Smoothie 🌿
A mineral-rich, ocean-colored smoothie meant for slow mornings with a book that makes you think.
Ingredients
1 frozen banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk or almond milk
½ teaspoon spirulina powder
½ cup frozen mango or pineapple
1 tablespoon soaked almonds (about 5 almonds, soaked overnight and skins removed)
1 teaspoon chia seeds
¼ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
Small squeeze of fresh lime
Instructions
Add all ingredients to a blender.
Blend until smooth and creamy.
Taste and adjust sweetness or lime if desired.
Pour into a glass and enjoy slowly while reading.
Spirulina brings deep minerals and that rare blue-green color, while ginger and lime keep the smoothie light and digestible, a small Ayurvedic balance between nourishment and brightness.
A good drink for reading something that leaves you wondering what home really is, what risks we take to protect it and how much of the future might already be unfolding around us.