Whoa. Julie Chan is Dead is a diabolical, chaotic good time that went in directions I never expected.
The cover gives popcorn thriller/women’s fictionWhoa. Julie Chan is Dead is a diabolical, chaotic good time that went in directions I never expected.
The cover gives popcorn thriller/women’s fiction/satire vibes, and there are elements of all of those genres in this book for sure. The plot does require you to suspend your disbelief, which I was completely fine with because I was so engrossed in this story. I read it in a couple of sittings and couldn’t wait to get back to it when real life intruded.
Meet Julie Chan, who works a dead-end job at a grocery store, lives in a crumbling home, and has a strained relationship with her emotionally distant, cruel aunt, who took her in when she was four after Julie’s parents died in a car accident. Julie has a twin sister named Chloe, who was adopted into a different family (a white, wealthy one), and they have no contact with each other until the day Chloe shows up at Julie’s job, camera crew in tow, to film their tearful reunion for her YouTube channel (#EMOTIONAL). And then Chloe goes back to her glamorous life as a social media influencer, leaving Julie in the dust � until the night she calls Julie, mumbling and incoherent, and Julie ultimately finds Chloe dead in her fancy NYC apartment. A simple misunderstanding allows Julie to sip seamlessly into her sister’s sparkly shoes and assume her identity…but Julie soon learns that Chloe’s luxurious lifestyle isn’t at all what it appears to be.
It’s hard to believe this is Liann Zhang’s debut, because it is so impressive and is doing so much. The fact that Julie could slip so easily into Chloe’s life, fooling her millions of social media followers, acquaintances, and even closest friends, says so much about the types of superficial connections that social media cultivates. And of course, there’s the whole idea of influencer culture itself, with its lack of authenticity; Zhang’s commentary about social media is razor sharp and darkly hilarious. She also digs into issues of race and class in a really meaningful way. And then the last third of the book is on another level entirely, spiraling into a surreal fever dream of horror and violence and wow, I just absolutely loved where this book took me. The whole book was a roller coaster ride of wild energy that went off the rails in the most brilliant way.
Julie Chan is Dead is one of those books that sneaks up on you and then just goes completely nuclear, leaving you reeling and exhilarated. I wouldn’t recommend this for all readers because it gets a bit gross at the end, but if you enjoyed books like Natural Beauty and Bunny, you will love this. Thank you to Atria Books for the early reading opportunity....more
Maybe we will drown or burn or starve one day, but until then we get to choose if we’ll add to that destruction or if we will care for each other.
Maybe we will drown or burn or starve one day, but until then we get to choose if we’ll add to that destruction or if we will care for each other.
Wild Dark Shore is a quiet, contemplative novel. Set on a fictional island near Antarctica called Shearwater, it’s about a father and his three children, the Salt family, who left behind a family tragedy on the mainland, finding solace in caring for this wild, remote place and the seedbank housed there. Shearwater was once a vibrant research station, but now, with sea levels rising and storms becoming more frequent, it’s being shut down, and the Salt family are the last inhabitants, responsible for packing up the seeds for shipment to a more secure location. But then one of the storms washes a mysterious woman ashore, sending reverberations through the entire family. Will this woman be the Salt family’s salvation or their destruction? And what truths about Shearwater and its final residents will come to light with her arrival?
Wild Dark Shore is a character-driven family drama set on the brink of climate disaster, a cautionary tale, an ode to the natural world, and a literary mystery all at once. However, these pieces don’t always work in complete harmony in the narrative. Although the book unfolds across several perspectives, I never really felt like I got to know any of the characters in a meaningful way. They felt distant and one-dimensional to me � a series of traits rather than actual people � and the romance plotline just seemed strange, given all of the distrust and suspicion on both sides. The passages explaining the history of several of the vault’s seeds didn’t always connect back to the story the way I think Charlotte McConaghy wanted them to, so they didn’t serve to do much other than take me out of the book’s flow. And the book keeps coming back to its central mystery, which is revealed in the final act in a way that didn’t make a lot of sense to me � never mind the fact that things could’ve been resolved much earlier, if the characters would have just had one (albeit difficult) conversation. One aspect of the conclusion seemed unearned and emotionally manipulative, rather than organic to the rest of the story.
McConaghy’s writing is absolutely gorgeous, so evocative and atmospheric as she brings the island of Shearwater to life. Wild Dark Shore is definitely a book that honors the natural world, and there is a scene involving whales that is so perfectly done it gave me chills. The book is at its best when it’s focused on its introspective themes of family and belonging, healing from trauma, the importance of conservation, and the endurance of the human spirit. The audiobook production is high, but I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy all of the narrators. Please take my opinion with a grain of salt (pun intended) because lots of people are loving this one. Ultimately, it just didn’t end up aligning with my expectations. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the complimentary listening opportunity. ...more
In this haunting mystery debut, inspired by real events, a disgraced true crime writer named Alex is hired to ghostwrite a book about Coram House, an In this haunting mystery debut, inspired by real events, a disgraced true crime writer named Alex is hired to ghostwrite a book about Coram House, an old Vermont orphanage where atrocities once occurred. Still reeling from the fallout of her last book and the death of her husband, Alex throws herself headlong into the mysteries of Coram House � including the disappearance of a nine-year-old boy from the orphanage in 1968. When a woman ends up dead, Alex is sure the death is connected to Coram House’s dark past. But as she starts forging more and more connections, it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want her resurrecting the past.
Coram House is a solid debut, and it’s clear that Bailey Seybolt has a lot of promise. The book’s atmosphere is richly-conveyed; everything about Coram House is chilling, from the Vermont winter setting itself, to the halls of Coram House, to the descriptions of the crimes committed. I really enjoy fictionalized true crime novels, so I loved the vibes of the book � there’s lots of researching and digging into the past, and there are excerpts of court transcripts that add another compelling element to the story. Alex is the kind of character you really root for, even though her persistence borders on annoying, even though she doesn’t always make the best decisions. I also liked the way Seybolt portrayed the grief process: how there is no clear path or timeline for making it through and how it manifests in lots of different ways. Her writing is quite lovely.
The burn on this one, though, is just a bit too slow. It did start to drag after a while and the pacing could’ve been much tighter. Although I feel like the format can be overused, I do think Coram House would have benefitted from a past and present timeline. I wanted more about Coram House’s history than what the transcripts gave me, and I think that format would’ve added more tension to the narrative. But the conclusion was surprising and satisfying, and overall Coram House is an impressive debut that has me interested in whatever Seybolt writes next.
Thank you to Atria Books for the complimentary reading opportunity. ...more
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is, no one likes a fragile little bitch. People want to be led. They don’t want to see weakness. They d
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is, no one likes a fragile little bitch. People want to be led. They don’t want to see weakness. They don’t want to see defeat. They want power. They want influence. They want someone like me.
Meet Jessamyn St. Germain. Jessamyn is destined for stardom, and the first step on her path is to play Maria in her tiny Vancouver theatre’s production of The Sound of Music. Never mind that the role she’s actually been given is that of babysitter for the child actors playing the von Trapp children � she knows the director just wants to keep her close for when Samantha, the production’s Maria, inevitably fails. And when that happens, Jessamyn will be ready to jump into the role � her first in what will surely be a storied career leading her directly to Broadway.
Darkly funny and razor sharp, She’s a Lamb! catapults readers into the mind of a narcissist � a woman so singularly focused on her ultimate goal that she is completely disconnected from reality. She is unhinged and delusional, unable to see herself clearly, and doesn’t care about others� opinions because those opinions are obviously wrong if they don’t match her own. Other people are only important if they are useful to her, or if she can mold them into her vision. The first-person narration is such a delicious choice, because it allows readers to witness Jessamyn’s delusions and chaotic instability first-hand. We see the other characters through Jessamyn’s eyes and mindset, but we can also read between the lines to understand how they really feel about her. This is smart, flawless, brilliantly executed satire. The audiobook narrator, Stephanie Willing, brought just the right amount of unhinged energy to her reading that made She’s a Lamb so much fun to listen to.
This is an instance where the publishers got it right when comparing She’s a Lamb! to All's Well and Yellowface. It gives Black Swan vibes, too. I loved every minute of this book and can’t wait to read whatever Meredith Hambrock writes next. Thank you to ECW Press and Dreamscape Media for the complimentary reading opportunity....more
“Letter Slot� gives strong classic horror vibes and features one of my favorite tropes: the Faustian bargain. When done well, it makes for a kickass h“Letter Slot� gives strong classic horror vibes and features one of my favorite tropes: the Faustian bargain. When done well, it makes for a kickass horror story � and Owen King definitely does it well. The narrator is a teenager named Blake with a sick mother, and on a whim, he pours out all of his worries, hopes, and fears into a letter and drops it through the mail slot of an abandoned show house in his neighborhood. Imagine his surprise when he receives a response, which promises health and good fortune in return for the name of a person he hates.
We as the readers can see where this is going, but Blake doesn’t quite grasp all of the implications, which adds a lot of tension to the story. He is so sympathetic, and this story is both deeply emotional and existentially terrifying. It really got under my skin in the best way and surprised me with its reveals. I need an entire short story collection by Owen King, please and thank you.
One thing I didn’t expect from The Shivers Collection is that so many of the stories � four out of five, actually � would explore parenthood themes. AOne thing I didn’t expect from The Shivers Collection is that so many of the stories � four out of five, actually � would explore parenthood themes. And none of those four deals with the complexities of motherhood more overtly than “Night and Day in Misery,� in which a woman named Stella, grieving the loss of her husband and son, finds herself at a tipping point in the same motel room where they stayed before their deaths.
“Night and Day in Misery� is a gutting, suffocating story infused with hopelessness, as Stella finds herself crushed under the weight of her unbearable guilt and grief. There is a supernatural element, but the true horror of the story lies in the darkness and devastation of Stella’s state of mind. It’s a well-composed story, but a bit relentlessly heavy for me. It gave me the same feeling as reading something by Eric LaRocca. Content warnings for suicidal ideation and alcoholism.
“Night and Day in Misery� is part of The Shivers Collection, available today from Amazon Original Stories....more
Grady Hendrix has been releasing hit after hit lately, and that trend continues with “The Blanks.� Picture it: a beautiful island, accessible only by Grady Hendrix has been releasing hit after hit lately, and that trend continues with “The Blanks.� Picture it: a beautiful island, accessible only by ferry, making it an exclusive summer haven for wealthy families. There is only one rule, and life on the island is idyllic as long as you follow it. Never mind if someone occasionally disappears�
I’m going to leave it at that, because it’s best to let “The Blanks� surprise you � and it will. What starts as a story about a family’s summer vacation ends as something truly horrifying and almost unbearably sad. Simmering beneath the surface are complex questions about the lies we tell ourselves, the truths we ignore, and the choices and sacrifices we are forced to make. The story’s tone and pacing are pitch-perfect. I’m basically a Grady Hendrix fangirl at this point, but even if I wasn’t, I think I’d still say that “The Blanks� is one of the best short horror stories I’ve ever read.
From the very first paragraph, there is something unsettling about “The Indigo Room.� We’re in an impersonal office conference room, where a group of From the very first paragraph, there is something unsettling about “The Indigo Room.� We’re in an impersonal office conference room, where a group of (likely overworked and underpaid) employees are listening to a boring presentation. But this is Stephen Graham Jones, so we know that all is not as ordinary as it appears to be. And that assumption is proven correct a few pages later, when an employee named Jennifer has a frightening vision involving one of her coworkers. And after that, what promised to be a typical, mundane office day goes completely off the rails.
“The Indigo Room� is disorienting and unsettling, all the more so for its modern office setting � where nothing interesting ever happens and everyone is just counting down the hours until it’s quitting time. So when something violent occurs, it’s all the more shocking. There’s some interesting commentary about office politics and double standards and single parenthood. SGJ as a tendency to be a bit verbose, and that is the case in “The Indigo Room.� He definitely piqued my interest with a creepy, original concept, and although I enjoy ambiguity especially in short stories, I still wanted a bit more explanation in the end.
I’m sure Joe Hill is tired of being compared to his dad, but it’s hard not to make the comparison when “Jackknife� gives off such strong “old horror� I’m sure Joe Hill is tired of being compared to his dad, but it’s hard not to make the comparison when “Jackknife� gives off such strong “old horror� vibes, a la one of Stephen King’s earlier short story collections. In this nasty little tale, a disgraced college professor is walking a path near his Airbnb when he finds an uprooted ancient sycamore, pierced by an old jackknife. When he removes the jackknife from the tree, not realizing its importance there, he unwittingly awakens something evil.
“Jackknife� is the kind of story that starts off strongly rooted (pun intended) in reality, before evolving into something otherworldly and terrifying. Dennis is a man hoping for a new start, after an inappropriate relationship with a student ends both his career and his marriage, and maybe a cursed tree will be just the research project to put him back on track. But the tree isn’t having it, and what comes next is so entertaining. Like his dad (again with the comparisons, sorry Joe!!), Hill has a real knack for making ordinary things horrifying, and that is definitely the case with “Jackknife.� It’s a deliciously dark fable, and the moral of the story is to leave things (students, old rusted jackknives) alone if they aren’t yours to take � or suffer the consequences.
Eventually, I understood that motherhood, as the child imagines it, is unperformable. No woman is a star. No woman is a god or a tree or a magician
Eventually, I understood that motherhood, as the child imagines it, is unperformable. No woman is a star. No woman is a god or a tree or a magician. But for a while, in your arms, the universe was the right size, and I knew where I was.
Heartwood is such a gorgeous book. It’s a literary, propulsive, and emotionally resonant story about a woman lost on the Maine leg of the Appalachian Trail and two other women invested in her fate. As the search for Valerie drags on, Maine warden Bev begins to lose hope of finding her alive, while down in Connecticut, a retirement community resident named Lena finds herself drawn into the search for Valerie in unexpected ways.
Weaving seamlessly between the voices of the three women � Valerie’s through letters to her mother, crafted in her trail journal � and utilizing transcripts from interviews and online exchanges, Heartwood is an unforgettable story about resilience, love, and motherhood that’s profoundly affecting. Amity Gaige’s prose is luminous and meaningful, full of deep insights into the relationships between mothers and daughters and the complex beauty of self-discovery. And it’s also suspenseful, an urgent missing person narrative in which it’s clear that time is running out. But most of all, it’s a powerful character study about three women, each strong in their own way, and their personal struggles and successes. The characters are richly-crafted, beautifully flawed, and so heartbreakingly vulnerable.
My suggestion is to take your time with Heartwood, no matter how desperately you want to know Valerie’s fate. Read it slowly, savor the stunning writing, pause to digest the poignant insights and tender character moments. Let the book wash over you and relish the fact that novels like this just don’t come around very often. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the early reading opportunity. ...more
3.5 stars. I was impressed with The Thorns, even if I found the execution a bit messy and predictable.
Using a dual timeline structure, Dawn Kurtagich3.5 stars. I was impressed with The Thorns, even if I found the execution a bit messy and predictable.
Using a dual timeline structure, Dawn Kurtagich introduces readers to Bethany Sloan. In the “now� chapters, Bethany is a successful writer living with her loving husband Bruce in London. She’s struggling with writer’s block, agonizing over how to finish her award-winning series of novels, when her school friend Stacey re-enters her life. As teenagers, Stacey and Bethany met at a remote boarding school in South Africa, and in the “then� chapters it swiftly becomes clear that their friendship was far from healthy. In fact, it was toxic: marked by obsession, bullying, and abuse. With Stacey back in her life, Bethany is forced to confront the trauma of her adolescence once and for all.
The Thorns is an incredibly dark book, dealing overtly with themes like abuse of all kinds (physical, sexual, emotional, substance), self-harm, and mental health crises. Through the characters of Bethany and Stacey, Kurtagich reveals the dark heart of girlhood, in all its cruelty and vulnerability. The narrative, inspired by Kurtagich’s own experiences at boarding school, feels intensely personal. She completely captures the mindset of a teenage girl struggling with self-worth and how to relate to an expanding world of increasingly adult experiences. Bethany is one of those characters who you want to both hug and lecture about making better choices, but she is sympathetic all the way through. And The Thorns is an incredibly atmospheric book, with an arid, desolate setting that perfectly complements the book’s overarching themes.
I was intrigued by the “urban legend� feel of the description � the frightening “Glass Man� and his cruel games � but sadly, he barely makes an appearance in the book. In fact, the Glass Man references have no bearing on the plot at all, and I’m not sure why they were even included…maybe to add a horror element? But this isn’t a scary book, and while it’s deeply psychological and incredibly dark, it doesn’t really read like a thriller. It’s a coming-of-age novel more than anything else, about how every emotion is experienced in the extreme, how everything feels simultaneously confusing and upsetting and glorious, and how the mind copes and seeks to protect itself when dealing with trauma at such a pivotal point in a young woman’s development. The book feels a bit crowded with all of this going on, somewhat hectic and overwrought. I predicted the final twist very early on, and I think many readers will.
This won’t be a book for every reader, but if you are willing to travel with the author into some incredibly dark corners of the human psyche, it’s a worthwhile, meaningful read in the end, despite a few hiccups. Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for the early reading opportunity. ...more
We make so much fun of people when they carry on about falling in love, about getting swept away, because they sound so ridiculous. Love is ridicul
We make so much fun of people when they carry on about falling in love, about getting swept away, because they sound so ridiculous. Love is ridiculous, from the outside. But when you’re in it…oh God, when you’re in it�
Lucky Night is the kind of literary fiction I absolutely love to read. After six years engaged in an affair, Jenny and Nick are spending the night together for the first time in a brand new luxury hotel in Manhattan. But then the fire alarm goes off, and it becomes clear that their night of passion isn’t going to proceed the way they’d hoped.
The plot sounds straightforward on the surface, but the execution is anything but simple. Lucky Night is an emotionally resonant character study, set against a backdrop of mortal peril, and it’s astoundingly insightful. The narrative switches seamlessly between Nick’s and Jenny’s perspectives, so we get to read their thoughts about each other’s words and actions in real time. The dialogue is fantastic, and Nick and Jenny are so richly-realized � two imperfect people who are trying to connect and be present in their lives in whatever way they can, however self-destructive their choices may be. I grew to care so much for these two idiots, despite how aggravating they were, and I was so invested in their fate. Eliza Kennedy has so much love for these ridiculous, flawed humans, and she made me love them too.
All of this magnificent character work is happening within a tense, high-stakes narrative, as Nick and Jenny are forced to confront some hard truths about each other and themselves while their lives are quite literally in danger. Lucky Night reminded me of books like Nightwatching and Fierce Kingdom � both about mothers and children, so not exactly the same, but where deep musings about life and love are occurring at the same time the characters are facing unimaginable danger and their own mortality. This book actually made me feel physically stressed while I was reading it because the circumstances were so intense and claustrophobic.
I knew very early on that Lucky Night would be a five-star read for me, but then…that ending solidified it. It was perfection and actually brought me to tears. I just absolutely loved it. Thank you to Crown for the early reading opportunity. ...more
This is an impressive debut novel for Callie Kazumi; I found it completely riveting and read it in just a few sittings because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Despite her many questionable choices, Claire is an extremely sympathetic character � largely due to a childhood spent suffering at the hands of her narcissistic, emotionally abusive mother. I do wish Claire’s mother had been portrayed with a bit more nuance; I would have liked to learn more about what motivated her behavior, not just how it affected Claire.
Seasoned thriller readers will likely guess the direction things are going, but something happened mid-book that I didn’t see coming � and there is a savage little epilogue that left me incredibly satisfied. Even if it’s a somewhat predictable take on a familiar story, Kazumi executes it perfectly, with just the right amount of unhinged fun. Thank you to Bantam for the complimentary reading opportunity....more
If you enjoy being inside the head of an unlikable character, you’re going to love Dr. Caroline Strange.
“Doctor Caroline� is a Brooklyn-based psychiaIf you enjoy being inside the head of an unlikable character, you’re going to love Dr. Caroline Strange.
“Doctor Caroline� is a Brooklyn-based psychiatrist, and she prides herself on excelling in her career; she is efficient, intelligent, and knows how to portray empathy for her clients, even if she doesn’t particularly feel it. But then two things happen that rock the solid foundation she’s built. First, a new patient shows up on her doorstep, claiming that he wants to kill someone and that he knows who Dr. Caroline really is. And while Dr. Caroline is dealing with these revelations, a woman � a Brooklyn journalist who wrote an article naming Dr. Caroline as one of the worst doctors in the borough � goes missing…and Dr. Caroline is the prime suspect in her abduction.
Tell Me Who You Are is a great thriller � gritty, full of twists, and psychologically complex. The narrative is split between three perspectives: Dr. Caroline’s, the abducted woman’s, and a family man who was recently fired from his job (be patient and have faith; his role in the plot will become clear). With compelling writing and shifting perspectives, Louisa Luna weaves a dark and tangled web of secrets and deceit throughout the plot that kept me guessing and engrossed. In an over-saturated genre, Tell Me Who You Are stands out as an example of just how good a psychological thriller can be with its unreliable and unlikable narrators, unpredictable twists, and sharp, dark humor. There are a few moments that require some suspension of disbelief, but I was having so much fun reading this one that I didn’t even care.
Love is the most powerful force in the world. If you couldn’t put your hope in that, what was the point of anything.
2.5 stars, rounded up. I was r
Love is the most powerful force in the world. If you couldn’t put your hope in that, what was the point of anything.
2.5 stars, rounded up. I was really looking forward to reading Black Woods, Blue Sky, not only because I loved The Snow Child, but also because I was 1000% sold on the idea of a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in the Alaskan wilderness. So my expectations were high going in � but unfortunately, they weren’t quite met.
Birdie is a young single mother raising her daughter, Emaleen, at the roadside Alaskan lodge where she works as a bartender. Her life is lonely and stagnant when she crosses paths with the mysterious Arthur Nielsen, a quiet recluse who rarely makes his way into town. After Arthur returns Emaleen to safety when she is lost in the woods, he and Birdie strike up a friendship that swiftly becomes something more � and soon, Birdie and Emaleen are moving into his isolated cabin, miles away from town, other people, and any communication with the outside world. At first, their new life seems idyllic, but it soon becomes clear that Arthur is harboring a secret that could upend their lives in unimaginable ways.
Black Woods, Blue Sky is intensely atmospheric, with vivid descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness, and Eowyn Ivey’s prose is evocative and truly does read like a fairy tale. The magical realism element is incorporated very naturally; Ivey made me believe in even the most peculiar, otherworldly parts of her tale. She also captures the magic of childhood with thoughtfulness and tenderness through the sweet, precocious character of Emaleen.
But Birdie and Arthur had no chemistry, and the dynamic between them felt strange and unnatural all the way through the book. Ivey seemed to keep the character of Birdie at arm’s length; she never quite revealed Birdie’s true heart, which made it difficult for me to sympathize with her, understand her, or even like her all that much. And because I didn’t connect with Birdie or fully buy into the romance at the center of the book, it made it difficult for me to have an emotional reaction to some of the book’s more charged moments. There were some pacing issues as well, and ultimately, I’m not sure what message Ivey wanted me to take away from this story; it just left me with an overwhelming sense of melancholy.
Eowyn Ivey is an incredibly gifted writer, and I really loved the idea of Black Woods, Blue Sky; the execution just didn’t work for me. Thank you to Random House for the complimentary reading opportunity. ...more
Love is this: when it is your greatest desire to slice open His chest and crawl inside Him to rest. A compulsion to drink His blood, great copper g
Love is this: when it is your greatest desire to slice open His chest and crawl inside Him to rest. A compulsion to drink His blood, great copper gulps of it, to press yourself to Him, limb to limb, palm to palm, so that you might be absorbed. Burrowing inside His bones, becoming His very marrow. It is disappearing entirely into Him. This is the way I love Him, and the way He must surely love me.
That quote should give you a pretty good idea of what you’re in for with Creep, but here’s a brief summary anyway: Alice is in love. Tom is an incredible man, everything she ever dreamed of in a partner, and she feels so lucky that he came into her life. The only problem is, Tom doesn’t know she exists � outside of the fact that he has a cleaner named Alice, who tidies his apartment every Wednesday. Alice does other things in his apartment, too, but Tom doesn’t need to know that. And anyway, soon they’ll be together, and it will be her home too.
Creep is one of those uncomfortable, cringe-y character studies featuring a deeply disturbed protagonist, so if you enjoy those, it will definitely be your vibes. It’s told in a stream of consciousness style that keeps the reader unrelentingly in Alice’s head, so we can only watch as her obsession with Tom grows and she becomes increasingly unhinged. It’s claustrophobic and icky, but it’s impossible to look away. The tension in the narrative comes from not knowing just when, and how, Alice will escalate things; she’s unpredictable and undeniably dangerous, but she’s also sympathetic � and all of these elements work together to make for a riveting reading experience.
I don’t know what it says about me that I just love a good obsessive stalker love story character study. But if your tastes run similar to mine, Creep is an excellent example of the genre. Thank you to Harper Perennial for the complimentary reading opportunity. ...more
How do you know what you’ll need out of a partner? Who you’ll be ten years, twenty years down the road? You just hitch your wagon to someone and ho
How do you know what you’ll need out of a partner? Who you’ll be ten years, twenty years down the road? You just hitch your wagon to someone and hope you both keep heading in the same direction, through all the bumps and detours and peaks and valleys.
3.5 stars rounded up. Jane and Dan at the End of the World is a chaotically good time. We meet the eponymous couple when they’re headed out the door for their nineteenth anniversary celebration at La Fin du Monde, an upscale restaurant high on a California cliff. But Jane doesn’t feel like celebrating, because she is planning to ask Dan for a divorce � and she figures why draw it out, so she drops the news during the first course of their meal. Before Dan can even formulate a response, however, a group of armed activists bursts into the dining room, taking the entire restaurant hostage. And as events unfold, Jane starts to realize that the group’s entire plan seems to be lifted straight from her failed first novel.
I’ve never read a book quite like this before. Jane and Dan reads like women’s fiction, satire, and an action-thriller, with a dash of climate-related social commentary, all at once. Although the stakes are high, the writing is light-hearted and fun, with whip-smart, witty dialogue. I enjoyed both Jane and Dan as characters; their interactions and struggles � individually, as parents, and as a couple � felt realistic. I wish the secondary characters had been fleshed out a bit more � I’ve would’ve liked to get to know some of the other diners a bit better.
While the book doesn’t get too deep or insightful, Colleen Oakley does offer up some relatable observations about marriage and parenthood. Things become a bit convoluted plot-wise in the second half of the book, but overall, this is a fun, light-hearted romp balanced with a few moments of danger and tenderness. This was my first book by Colleen Oakley, and I really like her style and will definitely dig into her backlist. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for the early reading opportunity. ...more
Humans aren’t made to carry the weight of our sins. But the blank page � pricking your finger and letting the dark seep out onto the page, well. So
Humans aren’t made to carry the weight of our sins. But the blank page � pricking your finger and letting the dark seep out onto the page, well. Sometimes I wonder if it’s the only way we can live with ourselves.
It pains me to give You Are Fatally Invited a low rating, because I loved the concept so much. In this take on a locked-room mystery, six thriller writers travel to an island off the coast of Maine for a writing retreat hosted by renowned anonymous author J.R. Alastor. But they get more than they bargained for when they discover that Alastor knows secrets about each of them, and has set up a series of elaborate, trope-inspired games and riddles to call them out. But then of course, one of the writers turns up dead, and a storm cuts off the island, and then more people die…and you know how this goes.
It’s a story with good (and familiar) bones, and the fact that it’s a book about thriller writers offers some fun meta moments. But unfortunately, overall, I think Ande Pliego was a bit too ambitious and couldn’t quite execute the plot effectively. There were too many characters and not enough differentiation in their narrative voices (since the chapters alternate points-of-view), and the character development was lacking. The characters� relationships with each other were so unnecessarily convoluted that I was just…lost. Pliego had all these big, fun ideas, but she didn’t tie the various threads of the plot together very cleanly, so it was all just…messy. By the end, I didn’t even really care if the big reveals made sense; I was just ready to be done with the mental gymnastics required to keep everything straight.
If you’re a fan of locked-room mysteries and metafiction, I’d still encourage you to give this one a try; not every book is for every reader, and this one wasn’t for me � but it may be for you. Thank you to Bantam for the complimentary reading opportunity. ...more
Compelling and strange, Idle Grounds is a story about a group of young cousins at a summertime family get-together in 1980s New England. When one of tCompelling and strange, Idle Grounds is a story about a group of young cousins at a summertime family get-together in 1980s New England. When one of the cousins, a three-year-old named Abi, disappears into the woods bordering the property, the rest venture off to find her � a journey that leads to some unsettling discoveries.
Written mostly in the first-person plural, as the cousins reminisce on the events as adults, Idle Grounds is a singular reading experience. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that captures the magic, peculiarity, and well, menace of childhood quite like this one does. Krystelle Bamford’s writing is incredible; she evokes a strong sense of time and place, and her prose manages to be both lyrical and full of foreboding. This is an unsettling, atmospheric read that left me feeling wrong-footed throughout. Everything feels kind of…slippery, if that makes sense. Like you’re reading the story through some kind of veil � which is actually so fitting, since that’s precisely how it feels to look back on childhood sometimes.
Bamford explores family secrets from the perspective of the children in the family, and it’s incredibly effective. The complicated relationships among the adults are juxtaposed with the more innocent interactions of the young cousins, although you still get the sense that some of the children are harboring secrets of their own. There’s a lot happening beneath the surface of the “missing cousin� story, is what I’m saying.
Idle Grounds is a short novel, but it’s just about the right length. Any longer and it would have felt like too much; any shorter, and a lot of the subtext would be missing. Even so, I’m not sure I caught or understood everything that was happening. Finishing the book felt like waking from a fever dream; it completely immersed me in its strange, ethereal world while I was reading it, and I can still kind of feel it lingering on my skin. Thank you to Scribner for the complimentary reading opportunity. ...more
3.5 stars. The publisher nailed it by calling Listen to Your Sister a book that will appeal to fans of Jordan Peele’s films. The book explores issues 3.5 stars. The publisher nailed it by calling Listen to Your Sister a book that will appeal to fans of Jordan Peele’s films. The book explores issues of race and family through a speculative/social horror lens in an unforgettable reading experience full of humor and heart.
Calla Williams is in her mid-twenties when she becomes her 16-year-old brother Jamie’s guardian, and she’s struggling. She’s not getting much help from her other brother, middle child Dre, and she’s tired of being the responsible one who has to hold everything together. She is overwhelmed and anxious, which manifests in recurring dreams about her brothers dying in horrific ways. When Jamie attends a protest that gets out of hand, the siblings must go on the run, fleeing to a remote cabin Calla found on AirBNB. Deep in the woods, the siblings will be forced to confront their conflicts, and must fight to save their family against unexpected forces.
Listen to Your Sister had me sitting up and paying attention in the first chapter, when Calla has a tense confrontation with administrators at Jamie’s school. It’s immediately engaging, with spot-on dialogue and sly humor, introducing us to the characters in a way that made me want to learn more about them. Neena Viel’s character work is outstanding; the Williams siblings are conveyed with rawness and authenticity, and they’re relatable and sympathetic. The first several chapters are a family drama focused on being Black in the present-day U.S., written from the alternating points-of-view of all three siblings, and they’re intimate, powerful, and thoughtful. I felt like I really got to know all three siblings deeply before Viel placed them in mortal peril, which made me all the more invested in their fates.
When the siblings head to the woods, the horror aspects of the plot start to ramp up, and this was where I felt myself coming disengaged. The book becomes a fever dream of violence and terror, unfolding in surreal and complicated ways as the Williams siblings fight against the forces threatening their family. Viel’s writing is descriptive and lush, with a tone that strikes a perfect balance between somberness and levity throughout the narrative, and in the moments I wasn’t confused, I was reveling in the creativity and execution of her ideas � a supernatural manifestation of sisterly love and the bonds of family. I listened to the book on audio, and while I did love all three of the narrators, I wonder if I would have “gotten it� more if I’d read the physical words on the page.
Or maybe I just wasn’t supposed to “get it,� and that’s fine too. Listen to Your Sister is an impressive debut either way, and Neena Viel is an author to watch. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary reading opportunity....more
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