The strongest short story out of the Shivers collection (that I've read). Unsettling in a "rich people do the dumbest shit" sort of way. The referenceThe strongest short story out of the Shivers collection (that I've read). Unsettling in a "rich people do the dumbest shit" sort of way. The references to "Espresso" and "Watermelon Sugar" took me out of the story for a second though, not going to lie....more
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this novel! Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng releases on April 29, 2025.
Bat EThank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this novel! Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng releases on April 29, 2025.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng opens with Cora Zeng and her sister Delilah waiting for the train home. After a tense conversation, Cora watches in horror as someone reaches out and pushes her sister into the path of the oncoming train. Five months after the murder of her sister, Cora finds herself in the path of a serial killer targeting Asian women and haunted by hungry ghosts.
What a novel. Bat Eater takes place in those early days of Covid-19, when everything felt claustrophobic and horrifying, the uncertainty of the disease made worse by the rampant racism towards Asians and Asian Americans. Following Cora took me right back to 2020, to the gallons of hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes and fear. Baker did such a fantastic job writing a pandemic novel, but not letting the pandemic overshadow the plot or characters. Because this is a horror novel -- there is so much blood and body horror and tension. Baker does a fantastic job portraying some of the scariest ghosts I've read -- I had literal chills at some of the scenes.
At the heart of this, though, is two sisters and the complicated relationship between them. Cora is a difficult character, at times, as she is so in her grief and her inability to see anything outside of her sister. Because she has intertwined herself so tightly with Delilah, she doesn't see a place for herself outside of Delilah -- everything she is is Delilah. Baker described this codependent relationship well.
I was also so impressed with her depiction of mental illness and, in particular, the OCD-esque tendencies that Cora has. It felt extremely relatable, especially when it came to repetitious actions and intrusive thoughts.
I did think that the middle bit had some disjointed pacing issues, and it was a little repetitive. That said, I really enjoyed my time with this book. I highly recommend it -- and don't skip out on the Afterword. It's brilliant. ...more
Didn't love this as much as the first book, even though I loved the premise. There was really no growth in character for Mary Elizabeth between this aDidn't love this as much as the first book, even though I loved the premise. There was really no growth in character for Mary Elizabeth between this and the first novel, and I found a lot of her inner dialogue to be quite repetitive. ...more
The biggest issue for me here was the pacing. There's a large chunk of this novel, like the first half or so, when nothing is really happening. Then the tension and action really pick up, and it ends quite quickly.
Still, had a good time reading and already have the next book ready to download. ...more
Outdated, but nostalgic. This felt like watching Girls. I probably would have liked it more in my early 20s. I'm glad the afterword touched on some ofOutdated, but nostalgic. This felt like watching Girls. I probably would have liked it more in my early 20s. I'm glad the afterword touched on some of the outdated issues presented in the text, but it also felt a little self aggrandizing.
I never understood why our MC and Finn were so obsessed with one another and stuck in this toxic cyclical spiral. ...more
This was a lot of fun! I definitely get the Suspiria comps, as it does definitely feel Suspiria coded. I didn't know the audiobook I picked[3.5 stars]
This was a lot of fun! I definitely get the Suspiria comps, as it does definitely feel Suspiria coded. I didn't know the audiobook I picked up was modernized, so I'm interested to see how the original version reads, and have already purchased a vintage copy. This has a great creepy boarding school atmosphere, and I enjoyed Kit as our main character. Happy to have read this! Definitely recommend if you're feeling in a bit of a nostalgic mood. ...more
Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Nightfire, and Netgalley for an e-arc of When the Wolf Comes Home! You can catch this novel when it releases oThank you so much to the publisher, Tor Nightfire, and Netgalley for an e-arc of When the Wolf Comes Home! You can catch this novel when it releases on April 22, 2025.
[4.5 stars]
For those of you with daddy issues, do I have the book for you!
Synopsis: A woman down on her luck and the young boy she comes across one terrible evening flee on a road trip across the country, finding terror and horror in their wake. That is all you need to know! Oh, and there's a huge werewolf. Wolfman? Gigantic beast.
I love a good creature feature, so I was so excited when this novel was released, even though werewolves are often a hard sell for me. And, I'll be honest, I was unsure how I felt about this novel for the first 30% or so of the novel. The plot is propulsive, barely giving the reader time to breathe. It's also a little wacky (when it's not incredibly gory -- the body horror in this is top notch), feeling like a campy 90s horror movie. It didn't feel like what I was promised in the synopsis.
It is, but it's not. There's also a lot of heart here, as our main character, Jessa, attempts to befriend and keep her young charge safe. She's battling more than just a twenty foot werewolf; her father has just died and her acting career has fizzled out, leaving her unsure of what she's even doing. We watch as she's trying to navigate her own fears while quelling the young boy's, and I found her voice to be authentic and realistic. She's kind of a mess, but wouldn't we all be in this situation?
What I love about Cassidy's work is how he manages to balance the moments of gore and horror with a message that resonates with many of us: in this case, it's centered around fear and insecurity and the darkness that terrifies us because it reflects our own faces back at us. This novel, while not perfect (I wish the last 5% had a bit more space to breathe), is great and so fucking gross and a big win for those of us with daddy issues. And by big win, I mean emotionally devastating, of course.
And, I hope Cassidy continues writing such heartfelt afterwords. They're beautiful....more
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this novel!
[4.5 stars]
In A Drop of Corruption, we find Din and Ana in Yarrowdale, whThank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this novel!
[4.5 stars]
In A Drop of Corruption, we find Din and Ana in Yarrowdale, where a seemingly impossible crime has occurred. A man has been disappeared, all traces of him vanished, but his room and windows have been locked from the inside with no sign of entry.
That's all you really need to know: Din and Ana are off to solve an impossible crime, and what an impossible crime it is.
Robert Jackson Bennett does such a fantastic job at blending fantasy and mystery, both in the first novel in this series and in this one. Starting with the infamous locked room mystery set up, Jackson Bennett expands out, revealing more of this world than we've previously been introduced to. This is a novel that is rife with politics and mythmaking (particularly of the regal variety), and it is so well done. If I had any critiques, it would be that it's a bit heavy handed, but that did not take away from the story for me.
As with the first novel, I loved Din and Ana here, though I do wish we had learned just a bit more about their characters. I'm hoping as we delve into future books, we get to see more of their personalities outside of their roles in the Iudex.
There's a great secondary cast of characters here. I especially enjoyed Malo, a warden with augmented senses of smell, hearing, etc, who helps them as they unravel what's been happening in Yarrowdale.
As with the first novel, there's a great array of quite nasty body horror as we learn more about the consequences of coming into contact with any part of a leviathan. There's a scene in this that's particularly brutal, but so well done.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this novel! Blood on Her Tongue releases March 25, 2025.
A short summary: Upon receivThank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this novel! Blood on Her Tongue releases March 25, 2025.
A short summary: Upon receiving a disturbing letter from her twin sister, Lucy leaves her home and employer to find out what's wrong. When she arrives at her sister's and brother-in-law's home, she finds her sister unwilling to eat and raving about the woman they recently uncovered from a bog near the house. From there, Lucy finds herself caught in her sister's madness, attempting to figure out how to save her sister from herself.
I read the author's first novel and found it, while written well enough, a bit disappointing in its structure and pacing. This novel is better paced and has some really good moments of body horror and gore. Definitely one that might make you a little squeamish.
That said, I don't really feel like it's a gothic novel. Instead, it reads as an imitation of a gothic novel. The beginning opens with the sort of description and atmosphere we would see from novels like Dracula, but this quickly fades and the novel reads much more modern. Some of the dialogue choices really took me out of the novel -- you would never know that this took place in the Netherlands if it weren't for some very small naming conventions and its mention in the synopsis. It could easily be set in England.
I also thought that it lacked a lot of tension in the latter half. Once a key plot point happens, it feels like the plot sort of deflates and we just get a series of the same thinking and actions happening over and over again rather than a smooth progression of the story, and then it ends so abruptly and neatly. A key element of the gothic novel is the slow unraveling of what's happening, the character usually questioning their reality or uncovering an increasing amount of horrific things before finally reaching the denouement. We don't get that here. And the novel tries to do a bit too much with the elements of gothic novels it brings in: is this a book about madness? About queer Othering? About patriarchal violence? About obsession? In trying to do too much, it does very little.
The characters' motivations left me scratching my head at times, as well, because the characterization falls a little flat. Lucy has no character traits aside from being very codependent upon her sister, and the men in the novel very much act like stereotypical gothic men with nothing else added to their personalities or backstory.
I will give the author some props for having a relatively unique take on vampirism. I don't know that I necessarily love it, but I certainly wasn't expecting it.
van Veen's novels are easy to read, but at the end of the day, they leave me questioning why. Why should I pick up this novel instead of a classic gothic novel? There isn't anything all that interesting being said about queerness (which is a very small part of the novel) or any of the other traditionally gothic elements I mentioned above. I just feel like there is something missing from the characters and the plots.
Yeah, this didn't really work for me. Firstly, Gia is an idiot. What thirty year old woman doesn't tell her friend, or anyone, where she's [2.5 stars]
Yeah, this didn't really work for me. Firstly, Gia is an idiot. What thirty year old woman doesn't tell her friend, or anyone, where she's going? She was late on rent once, I did not get the sense that she was in such dire straits that it made sense she would go along with what Nathan wanted. If we saw her try to find other sugar daddies and fail, her debt looming larger and larger over a series of months, then maybe I could buy it. From the beginning, I don't buy her decisions.
I also thought the pacing and the characterization were way underdeveloped. Once Gia is in Nathan's house, we very quickly move through the plot in a way I didn't find particularly well crafted. We don't really get to see how Gia is coping with her captivity; we're told, by her narration, which does not change after being in captivity for multiple years, how she is changed but I never really bought it. She sounded like the exact same person she was in the beginning of the novel. I found the inconsistency with how she referred to Nathan as "Master Nathan" also kind of annoying. Like when did that start and why, why does she refer to him like that, etc. And then the whole (view spoiler)[ growing fur and canines and claws came out of nowhere all of a sudden. Was there a magical 'I'm going to turn into a dog on year seven' switch? Was it in her head? Nathan saw the fur so...presumably it wasn't in her head (hide spoiler)]? I couldn't tell you.
I don't think that the novel I read aligns with the author's vision laid out in the author's note. I didn't read a novel of rage and vengeance, I read a novel of a deeply mentally ill woman becoming, ostensibly, more mentally ill.
There were some gory moments of body horror near the end that I thought were well done, but yeah, overall, a bit of a miss for me. ...more
This has such a strong opening and then it kind of loses me by the end. While there are elements I quite enjoyed, I felt this book lacked cohesion in This has such a strong opening and then it kind of loses me by the end. While there are elements I quite enjoyed, I felt this book lacked cohesion in a way that made me not want to pick it up, and I didn't feel like the characters were as realized as they were in Autumn. There's a lot to be said here, of course, about politics and where we were (specifically Britain, but also America) in 2017. To be reading this now, during a second Trump administration, is...something. I do also like how Smith blends her literary influences into her work.
Still excited to continue on with the series, but I wish I had loved this a bit more. ...more
An incredibly mid novel. It's really nothing I haven't read before. The writing is fine, but the storytelling is so incredibly slow. I also[2.5 stars]
An incredibly mid novel. It's really nothing I haven't read before. The writing is fine, but the storytelling is so incredibly slow. I also felt the characterization fell flat -- I don't feel like I really know any of the characters by the end of the novel (beyond like three or four personality traits). Likewise, I really didn't think it was that atmospheric? It was fine, but I think the novel could have built tension and suspense more effectively; the pace really undercut both.
Easy enough to listen to, but a book I'm going to definitely forget.
I also thought the ending was a bit too Lifetime. ...more
This is a brief collection of essays, speeches, and other reflections that covers important topics related to the colonization of Guam and [3.5 stars]
This is a brief collection of essays, speeches, and other reflections that covers important topics related to the colonization of Guam and the Marianas by the United States. A climate lawyer and activist, Aguon covers the fight for libration and climate freedom on behalf of his homeland. While I enjoyed many of the reflections in this collection, and I learned about an area I have not previously read from before (an error on my part, due to my country's heavy involvement in the area), I struggled with finding a cohesive thread to what I was reading. Climate change and the fight for liberation is definitely there, but it's not cohesively woven into all of the pieces. I did love how, clearly, Aguon loves the writers who have inspired him (majority women of color and other Native/Indigenous women) and that he uplifts their work and their importance in his own activism and writing. I just wanted there to be more of a cohesive thread throughout this.
I do still very much recommend this, though heavy trigger warning for the essay "Fighting Words," which covers the "banality of brutality" and, while very important, does get very graphic in a way I wasn't expecting because it was a tone change from the rest of the collection. ...more
While I thought this was super cute, it didn't quite work for me as much as We Could Be So Good. While I liked Mark and Eddie's relationship by the enWhile I thought this was super cute, it didn't quite work for me as much as We Could Be So Good. While I liked Mark and Eddie's relationship by the end of the novel, I didn't buy in right away. I do love the golden retriever loves black cat energy they have. Mark's personality did seem a bit different from what we see in WCBSG but perhaps that's just because we were in Andy and Nick's POVs.
My biggest critique for this one is that so much of the interior monologuing for both Mark and Eddie is repetitive. While it makes sense given the fact that Mark is grappling with his grief and they're both trying to navigate being together in a time when it was illegal, I do wish there was a balance between all the monologuing and action on the page. Like more dinners with Mark's friends or seeing Mark at the Chronicle or something.
I did think that the way Sebastian handled Mark's grief was well done and the way Eddie handled it was so gentle and caring and beautiful to see.
Selfishly, I also wish we saw more of Nick and Andy.
I hope Sebastian returns to these characters and this world she's created -- I'd love to see a sapphic midcentury novel from her!...more
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