en-US Mon, 05 May 2025 09:33:33 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 218155602 A New York Times Best Horror Fiction of the Year Selection â€� Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ Choice Award Nominee for Horror â€� A Parade Best Horror Books of the Year Selection

“A gruesome, action-packed monster novel about a mother and daughter with a terrible secret, on the run from an obsessed and crumbling detective . . . Terrific.� �The New York Times Book Review

In Stuart Neville’s horror debut, a mother's undying love and a daughter's insatiable hunger carve a bloody trail across the highways of the Southwest.

On a cold December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a passing stranger. Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered.

Meanwhile, Special Agent Donner of the FBI has been hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains their victims of blood before severing their spinal cords. As Agent Donner’s investigation brings him closer to the Carters, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly imperiled.

In this riveting, blood-soaked take on the vampire myth, nobody is safe and nothing is certain—not even the line between predator and prey.]]> 400 Stuart Neville 1641297077 Jessica 0 to-read 3.50 2024
author: Stuart Neville
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205015141 When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.

As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone� is up.

And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent � and death stalks their every move.]]> 360 Dan Hanks 1915202949 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 3.60 2025
author: Dan Hanks
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 40545956 In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay―just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.]]> 332 Glendy Vanderah 154204006X Jessica 0 read-in-2025 3.98 2019
author: Glendy Vanderah
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 43834909 Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then, one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.]]> 482 Liz Moore 0525540679 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 4.02 2020
author: Liz Moore
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 209575702 Cult authors Edward Lee and Mary San Giovanni’s novel follows an insufferable horror-con lurker as he spurns the wrong woman and is cursed to a monstrous dimension full of Lovecraftian creations.

Professor Everard, weird fiction scholar and proclaimed critic of H.P Lovecraft's works, is no stranger to making people mad. Giving convention presentations on the triteness and melodrama of Lovecraft's work pays the bills, though. Sometimes he even gets laid.

When he angers a beautiful but dangerous witch and devotee of Lovecraft's work, she casts a spell on him, sending him to a dimension where Lovecraft's works are very real � and very deadly. Everard must find a way through this alternate dimension to get home, before the worst of Lovecraft's horrors prove what a master of monstrosities he really was.

Edward lee’s humorous transgressive style meets Mary San Giovanni’s literary touch to carve out the Lovecraftian dimensions that is Strange Stones.]]> 140 Edward Lee 1960988417 Jessica 2 read-in-2025 3.48 2025
author: Edward Lee
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
The cover of Strange Stones promised something strange and literary, maybe even a bit absurdist—but what I got felt more like Lovecraft fanfiction. The concept had so much potential, but the execution really fell flat for me. The protagonist wasn’t just unlikeable—he was disgusting—and I found myself not rooting for him at all. Despite the short length, I was bored and just wanted it to be over. It’s frustrating when such a cool idea doesn’t live up to its own premise.
]]> 227782108 Employees of the organization contribute to its mission to apply non-traditional methods to the non-traditional problems of today.
To ensure that all employees have the same opportunity to thrive, the organization's state-of-the-art live and work facility has all the comforts of home, plus technology that maximizes their opportunities for collaboration.
Without the organization, Clarissa Knowles would have nowhere else to go. That is, unless she can make it to Dick's house, the professor she's been talking to online. Haunted by her failed relationship with Maurice (the existentialist), and the deaths of her parents, can Clarissa shake off the values of the organization, pack up her cat - and go?
The Organization is Here to Support You is an existential bureaucratic horror satire in the tradition of Franz Kafka, J.G. Ballard, and Sayaka Murata.]]> 158 Charlene Elsby 1951658485 Jessica 3 read-in-2025
3.5 because it was original and affecting.]]> 4.38
author: Charlene Elsby
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
I’m not sure I fully understood everything in this book—maybe I wasn’t supposed to. It captures the unsettling feeling of being a cog in a machine or just another number in a seat, and it’s both darkly funny and deeply distressing. The story feels unfinished and unresolved in a way that might be intentional, but left me uneasy. It’s definitely weird. I’m still not sure if I actually enjoyed it.

3.5 because it was original and affecting.
]]> 221583320
In the early '60s, in a seemingly more "innocent" time, a group of teenagers were lured into a supposedly haunted house. The place on Sycamore Lane has a morbid history, but that's just hearsay and rumor, isn't it?

THE HOME

His name was Robbie Miller, and he was a killer. Driven mad by the THING that lived in The Home, he now exists to serve. He'll do whatever the creature that calls itself Mr. Friendlyman asks . . . He'll even become a ghost . . .

THE HOME

Now, decades later and much older, they are returning to The Home. A retired fantasy writer, A doting grandfather, and a mysterious old woman who seems to know things she should not . . .

THE HOME

A dark storm is brewing over this wicked house. A storm that will break down the very fabric of reality. A storm that demands blood and sacrifice, and feeds on the ghosts of anyone who dies within it's premises.]]> 275 Judith Sonnet 1955745919 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 3.89
author: Judith Sonnet
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
This was a wild ride. I went in expecting a haunted house story and was pleasantly surprised by the blend of genres—it veers into full-on cosmic horror in a way that really worked. I usually steer clear of splatter, and this was definitely gory and disgusting to the max, but also twisted and imaginative. That said, the writing style wasn’t my favorite and the dialogue felt stilted (I don't think people really talk this way), so it’s not a book you pick up for the prose. But if you're in the mood for a gory, genre-bending cosmic horror nightmare, this delivers.
]]> 57773248
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.

Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.]]> 306 Danya Kukafka 0063052733 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 4.04 2022
author: Danya Kukafka
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
I really enjoyed this book—it stuck with me even when I wasn't reading, and I kept looking forward to getting back to it. One of the most memorable parts is the man on death row, convinced he's brilliant and misunderstood (he’s even writing a manifesto), yet he's so tragically mid to everyone around him. It's savage in the best way. While he might be the central figure, the real heart of the story lies with the women whose lives intersect with his. They're the ones who truly matter and who kept me hooked. I’d definitely recommend this.
]]> 214537790 FromĚýPulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestsellingĚýauthor of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. A gripping Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town

The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch," whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples� memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.

Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be.]]> 432 Karen Russell 059380225X Jessica 0 to-read 4.02 2025
author: Karen Russell
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203579244 370 C.J. Leede 1250857929 Jessica 2 read-in-2025 4.05 2024
author: C.J. Leede
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Not for me. Melodramatic and heavy-handed, while still somewhat boring. I didn’t enjoy Maeve Fly either, so maybe this author is not my style.
]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Jessica 4 read-in-2025 3.86 2020
author: Richard Osman
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 25489025
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.]]> 188 Han Kang 0553448188 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 3.62 2007
author: Han Kang
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 216351768
If you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn't you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words�Let Them—will set you free. Free from the opinions, drama, and judgments of others. Free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you. The Let Them Theory puts the power to create a life you love back in your hands—and this book will show you exactly how to do it.

In her latest groundbreaking book, The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins�New York Times bestselling author and one of the world's most respected experts on motivation, confidence, and mindset—teaches you how to stop wasting energy on what you can't control and start focusing on what truly YOU. Your happiness. Your goals. Your life.

Using the same no-nonsense, science-backed approach that's made The Mel Robbins Podcast a global sensation, Robbins explains why The Let Them Theory is already loved by millions and how you can apply it in eight key areas of your life to make the biggest impact. Within a few pages, you'll realize how much energy and time you've been wasting trying to control the wrong things—at work, in relationships, and in pursuing your goals—and how this is keeping you from the happiness and success you deserve.

Written as an easy-to-understand guide, Robbins shares relatable stories from her own life, highlights key takeaways, relevant research and introduces you to world-renowned experts in psychology, neuroscience, relationships, happiness, and ancient wisdom who champion The Let Them Theory every step of the way.

Learn how

Stop wasting energy on things you can't control Stop comparing yourself to other peopleBreak free from fear and self-doubtRelease the grip of people's expectationsBuild the best friendships of your lifeCreate the love you deservePursue what truly matters to you with confidenceBuild resilience against everyday stressors and distractionsDefine your own path to success, joy, and fulfillment. . . and so much more.

The Let Them Theory will forever change the way you think about relationships, control, and personal power. Whether you want to advance your career, motivate others to change, take creative risks, find deeper connections, build better habits, start a new chapter, or simply create more happiness in your life and relationships, this book gives you the mindset and tools to unlock your full potential.

Order your copy of The Let Them Theory now and discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words.]]> 311 Mel Robbins 1401971377 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 4.16 2024
author: Mel Robbins
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 214151601 The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]> 192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668051885 Jessica 5 read-in-2025 Possibly the most frightening story I've ever read. ]]> 3.63 2023
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
So visceral. Far better than Tender is the Flesh, in my opinion.
Possibly the most frightening story I've ever read.
]]> 211004350
Then she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day, and he has a proposition for her: Thirteen-year-old Alice Webber claims a witch is haunting her. Living with her family in the remote village of Banathel, Alice finds her symptoms are getting increasingly disturbing. Taking this job will give Mina some experience and much-needed money; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better—Mina is sure of it.

But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of…dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.]]> 295 Daisy Pearce 1250334381 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 3.36 2025
author: Daisy Pearce
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 215149232
For the first few months all Yeongju does is cry, but the long hours in the shop also give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store. As she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she eases into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.]]> 320 Hwang Bo-Reum 1639736379 Jessica 0 to-read 3.76 2022
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214988433
Even the simplest tool contains multitudes. Once a living tree, then a manufactured commodity, a pencil in the hands of a young artist becomes the key to a rich imaginative world. In this expansive, gorgeously illustrated story, creator Hye-Yun Kim asks us to see and appreciate the full value—and infinite possibilities—of the pencil, as well as other seemingly mundane objects around us. This powerful aid for teaches readers essential visual literacy skills and celebrates the creative process.]]> 48 Hye-eun Kim 1662665539 Jessica 0 to-read 4.37
author: Hye-eun Kim
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Jessica 5 read-in-2025 4.25 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
I really enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written, and the different perspectives added depth to the story in a way that felt natural and engaging. The author did a great job capturing what it means to be a parent and the depths you'd go to for your children.
]]> 211178725
Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades—a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is.

Part horror, part western, part thriller, Old Soul is a fearlessly bold and genre-defying tale about predation, morality and free will, and one man’s quest to bring a centuries-long chain of human devastation to an end.]]> 336 Susan Barker 0593718291 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 3.76 2025
author: Susan Barker
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
This would have been a 5 star read had it been just a smidge shorter. After a while, the stories within felt repetitive and didn't offer anything new. 4.5 stars for being unique, easy to read, and quite scary.
]]> 220652200 New York Times bestselling, acclaimed horror author Paul Tremblay delivers an unforgettable middle grade debut in this bone-chilling tale of an unsettling, unbreakable friendship.

When Casey Wilson’s parents tell him that his friend is coming for a sleepover, he has no idea who that might be. Ever since the Zoom Incident, everyone treats him like a pariah, and his tics are worse than ever.

When Morel appears, he’s not like any friend Casey has ever met. His skin is like clay, and he doesn’t speak. But Casey’s parents are charmed by the strange kid, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to besides his sister, Ally, who is away at college. As his normally loving parents grow distant from Casey, they gush and fawn over Morel. Casey knows something is wrong—but with no end in sight to the sleepover, he’s exhausted. And in the dark, out of the corner of his eye, Morel doesn’t look like a kid at all. . . .]]> 256 Paul Tremblay 0063396351 Jessica 0 to-read 4.19 2025
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207595731
“Sadie Smith� is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader.

Sadie has met her love, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone Sadie targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts”—shadowy figures in business and government—instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more.

In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who communicates only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past.

Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.]]> 416 Rachel Kushner 1982116544 Jessica 0 to-read 3.58 2024
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211004023 A spine-tingling thriller by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about a 10-year-old girl with an impossible power, her father, and an unlikely stranger, who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all costs. A strange story of family, love, comets, and bacon. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 1250890438 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 4.10 2018
author: T.J. Klune
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Did not live up to my expectations. This feels like a retread of Cerulean Sea mashed up with ET and Stranger Things - but not in any new or exciting way.
]]> 17165596 The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

The 10th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller and international classic loved by millions of readers.

]]> 371 Khaled Hosseini Jessica 0 to-read 4.46 2003
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 201872341 STAY ON THE MOVE. STAY OUT OF SIGHT.

In LA Times Book Prizewinner Stuart Neville’s daring foray into horror fiction, a mother takes desperate measures to protect her daughter in a sinister, blood-chilling highway pursuit across the Southwest.

On a snowy December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a man in a pickup truck—Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered by anyone they meet.

Meanwhile, Special Agent Marc Donner of the FBI has spent the better part of two years hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains victims of blood before severing their spinal cords, leaving a trail of bodies throughout the country. As Agent Donner’s investigation brings him closer and closer to where Rebecca and Moonflower are hiding out, in the foothills of Colorado, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly imperiled. Ěý

In this deadly, high-stakes game of cat and mouse by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning author of The Ghosts of Belfast, nobody is safe and nothing is certain—not even the line between predator and prey.]]> 384 Stuart Neville 1641295422 Jessica 0 to-read 3.78 2024
author: Stuart Neville
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212421066
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.

Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband—doting father, eternal optimist—is the gunman.

What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says...

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Jessica 2 read-in-2025 3.70 2025
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Not only was this boring but also dumb.
]]> 217313011
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

By an “endlessly inventive� (Vulture) author with a “wicked sense of humor� (NPR), The Tainted Cup mixes the charms of detective fiction with brilliant world-building to deliver a fiendishly clever mystery that’s at once instantly recognizable and thrillingly new.]]> 432 Robert Jackson Bennett 1984820710 Jessica 0 to-read 4.34 2024
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216937494 “Jones crosses into the noir badlands of No Country for Old Men—bloody and throwing sparks but cool as a killer angel—and by sundown he owns the joint.� —Will Christopher Baer, author of Kiss Me, Judas

Smuggler Dodd Raines just got the job of a lifetime. He’ll finally earn enough money to secure a decent future for his young daughter and start over on the right side of the law. There’s just one his cargo is made up of moon rocks—with mass-casualty levels of radiation.

Getting across the border from Mexico into the United States isn’t easy, even though Raines has done it hundreds of times. If the blazing sun and hungry coyotes don’t take him down, the border cop obsessed with catching him will. And then there are the moon rocks. No one delivering them is meant to survive—especially after already being killed. But that’s the twist. One that transforms Raines into an undead rabbit-eared monster starving for vengeance, on a path straight into his orphaned daughter’s lifeĚý.Ěý.Ěý.

]]> 206 Stephen Graham Jones Jessica 5 read-in-2025
I’d honestly give this 4.75 stars because it gets a little confusingly trippy, and I know that’s the point and that’s SGJ’s style, but I wanted a little more closure. ]]> 4.18 2010
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
The most tender and nuanced book you’ll ever read about a bunny-headed zombie out for vengeance.

I’d honestly give this 4.75 stars because it gets a little confusingly trippy, and I know that’s the point and that’s SGJ’s style, but I wanted a little more closure.
]]> 55825273 The new uplifting book from Matt Haig, the New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library, for anyone in search of hope, looking for a path to a more meaningful life, or in need of a little encouragement.

“It is a strange paradox, that many of the clearest, most comforting life lessons are learnt while we are at our lowest. But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard.�

The Comfort Book is Haig’s life raft: it’s a collection of notes, lists, and stories written over a span of several years that originally served as gentle reminders to Haig’s future self that things are not always as dark as they may seem. Incorporating a diverse array of sources from across the world, history, science, and his own experiences, Haig offers warmth and reassurance, reminding us to slow down and appreciate the beauty and unpredictability of existence.]]> 272 Matt Haig 0143136666 Jessica 4 read-in-2025 4.07 2021
author: Matt Haig
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 205363963
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.

As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural� death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural?

Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.]]> 304 Rivers Solomon 0374607133 Jessica 0 unfinished 3.71 2024
author: Rivers Solomon
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: unfinished
review:

]]> 213395480
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning.

Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.]]> 208 Virginia Feito 1631498630 Jessica 5 read-in-2025 Stunning 3.61 2025
author: Virginia Feito
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Stunning
]]> 38709
It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.]]> 272 Louis Sachar 0439244196 Jessica 4 4.01 1998
author: Louis Sachar
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
Read along with my 12 year old, who cites this as one of their favorite books and was very excited to read it together.
]]> 63077620 On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son's death--but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules...

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son's bedroom, she's perplexed. She's never heard of it before, but soon learns it's a tiny island off of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow's home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island's twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She's been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders' beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow's brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth--that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined--he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

If he can get out alive...]]> 439 Jimmy Juliano 059347192X Jessica 0 to-read 3.68 2023
author: Jimmy Juliano
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211049576 28 Zac Thompson Jessica 0 read-in-2025 3.92
author: Zac Thompson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 203579107 It's never too late for new beginnings.

On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.

As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.

As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.

Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?]]> 320 Lynda Cohen Loigman 1250278104 Jessica 3 4.06 2024
author: Lynda Cohen Loigman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
review:
This is a well-written story but the MC is one of the most frustrating and miserable characters in the book. Her best friend, her niece, her aunt, her love interest, her sister - all charming and lovely characters. But the MC lets one mistake from 60 years ago haunt her and I couldn’t really feel any empathy because she was so� mean. Also, why can’t people just, you know, talk to each other?
]]> 204642427 A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.

Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station.

Determined to find a way out again, he starts to explore the rooms and corridors ahead of him. But no matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedral-esque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight.

The more he explores his strange new prison, the more he becomes convinced that he hasn’t been trapped there accidentally, and amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realise that he almost certainly is not alone.

A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.]]> 139 Sofia Ajram 1803369620 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 3.07 2024
author: Sofia Ajram
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Ultimately, I found this disappointing. I came for the cosmic horror but was ultimately let down. The [spoilers removed] ending felt gimmicky and essentially pointless. Unless the point is that [spoilers removed] is the only happy ending. I will give points for some nice gruesome horror elements, but this didn't make me feel anything.
]]> 29918785 New York Times bestselling author of the “twisty-mystery� (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea.

In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong�

With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10—one that will leave even the most sure-footed reader restlessly uneasy long after the last page is turned.]]> 350 Ruth Ware 1501132946 Jessica 4 read-in-2018, read-in-2025 3.80 2016
author: Ruth Ware
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/24
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: read-in-2018, read-in-2025
review:
I liked this one better than the other 2 books I’ve read by this author. The pace felt quicker and more interesting (though I called the “twist� very early on).
]]> 199116296
Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.]]> 320 Peter Swanson 006320505X Jessica 4 read-in-2025 3.82 2024
author: Peter Swanson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Pretty good! I think I want to go back and read the first in this series. I like the morally gray character Lily.
]]> 216670080
A pregnant woman’s sketches on a seemingly innocuous blog conceal a chilling warning.

A child’s picture of his home contains a dark secret message.

A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth down a rabbit hole that will reveal a horrifying reality.

Structured around these nine childlike drawings, every one holding a disturbing clue, this novel invites readers to piece together the harrowing truth behind each and the overarching backstory that connects them all. Strange Pictures is the bestselling international debut from mystery-horror YouTube sensation Uketsu—an enigmatic masked figure who has become one of Japan's most talked about contemporary authors.]]> 236 Uketsu 0063433087 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 4.04 2022
author: Uketsu
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> 127280062 Torn apart by war. Reunited by love?

Two weeks have passed since Iris returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over.

Roman is missing, lost behind enemy lines, with no memory of his past, or Iris. Hoping his memories return, he begins to write again � but this time for the enemy.

When a strange letter arrives through his wardrobe door, he strikes up a correspondence with a penpal who seems at once mysterious� and strangely familiar.

As their connection deepens, the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.]]> 420 Rebecca Ross 1250857457 Jessica 3 read-in-2018, read-in-2025 3.98 2023
author: Rebecca Ross
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: read-in-2018, read-in-2025
review:
I loved the first book but this one had some pacing issues. It took too long for Iris and Roman to be reunited and the divine war among the gods seemed confusing and unsatisfying. Although I didn’t enjoy this book as much, I’m sad to say goodbye to these charming characters
]]> 207677131 A woman investigates her brother's mysterious death while coming to terms with her own haunting past in this atmospheric novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unmaking of June Farrow

The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’sĚýdeep connection with her twin brother,ĚýJohnny,Ěýhas gone beyond intuition—she can feel what he feels.ĚýSo, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone—truly alone—for the first time in her life.Ěý

When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settleĚýher brother’sĚýaffairs,Ěýshe’sĚýforced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.Ěý

But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one. What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.]]> 288 Adrienne Young 0593598709 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 3.69 2025
author: Adrienne Young
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
This would be a great tv series (moody and mysterious like Broadchurch) but was so boring to read. Too much of a slow burn for me.
]]> 62929342 Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family, and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? ]]> 399 Rachel Khong 0593537254 Jessica 5 read-in-2025 3.93 2024
author: Rachel Khong
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Beautiful, well-written, compelling characters. Loved the ending.
]]> 211004079 A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.]]> 291 Kate Alice Marshall 1250343054 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 Kind of forgettable. 3.78 2025
author: Kate Alice Marshall
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Kind of forgettable.
]]> 210387322 “Keep the door locked night and day…�

It’s been forty years since Becky Sharp’s mother vanished without a trace. Becky has given up all hope of finding her, until she makes a strange discovery that may hold the key to solving her mother’s disappearance.

Three unmarked videotapes, hidden in the wall of her childhood home. And as Becky watches the tapes, she finds herself drawn into a horrific mystery far greater than she could possibly have imagined.

For Becky has unwittingly summoned a long-forgotten nightmare—a creature that threatens the lives and sanity of all around her. Rotten Tommy has come to play� and nothing on Earth can sate his diabolical bloodlust.

A grisly and bizarre horror fever dream, Rotten Tommy is the latest disturbing shocker from David Sodergren, author of The Haar and Maggie’s Grave.]]> 288 David Sodergren Jessica 5 read-in-2025
I technically rate this a 4.5, because it was diabolical to skip over the “exposition� and give us zero answers! ]]> 3.95 2024
author: David Sodergren
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
This is the third horror book about a cursed retro children’s television show, and my favorite one yet. Sodergren is certainly one of my favorite authors.

I technically rate this a 4.5, because it was diabolical to skip over the “exposition� and give us zero answers!
]]> 62919847 A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida
June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.]]> 576 Tananarive Due 1982188340 Jessica 5 read-in-2025 Probably a perfect book. 4.44 2023
author: Tananarive Due
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Probably a perfect book.
]]> 27687495
What no one knows is that Phil is a prisoner, and that up until a few weeks ago and a chance encounter at a grocery store, he had never seen the child before in his life.]]> 84 Kealan Patrick Burke Jessica 4 read-in-2025 3.61 2015
author: Kealan Patrick Burke
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
I love cosmic horror and this had a nice touch of it. It was frightening in a psychological way. In most cases I prefer a tight story, but I do think this one could have benefited from more pages. Give us more Adam. Give us a little more about Mora.
]]> 195790904 Anna Downes's extraordinary next thriller Red River Road follows a woman desperate to discover what happened to her sister on a solo road trip through the Australian outback.

Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?

And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.

Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory.]]> 369 Anna Downes 1250868017 Jessica 3 read-in-2025 3.74 2024
author: Anna Downes
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
Just ok. I didn’t like the ending but the rest of the story was interesting.
]]> 63241104 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 309 Ann Patchett 006332752X Jessica 5 read-in-2025 3.92 2023
author: Ann Patchett
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
The Meryl Streep narration is wonderful. 5 stars, no notes.
]]> 21717
But another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer's trail in the most coincidental of ways—someone who may be the key to breaking the case wide open...]]> 393 Karin Slaughter Jessica 0 to-read 4.11 2006
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195607710 The house breathes.

The house contains bodies and secrets.

The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes.

It was built by a small-time hustler as a means of controlling his wife, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter can’t leave.

They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subjects of public scorn, combine forces with the spirits that haunt them in pursuit of something that resembles justice.

Layla Martínez’s eerie debut novel Woodworm is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun.]]> 124 Layla Martínez Jessica 5 read-in-2024 3.86 2021
author: Layla MartĂ­nez
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 343 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.]]> 263 Patrick Süskind Jessica 3 read-in-2024 4.05 1985
author: Patrick SĂĽskind
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this
]]> 217387837 Set in the unforgiving maw of the Rocky Mountains, Nowhere Burning is the latest harrowing novel from bestselling author Catriona Ward, perfect for fans of Riley Sager and the hit series Yellowjackets.

A refuge for lost children may also be their prison.

In the middle of the night, Riley pulls her younger brother Oliver out of bed, and the two run away from home. Riley is intent on joining a group of teenagers squatting in the abandoned ruins of an infamous movie star’s ranch, Nowhere. For actor Leaf Winham, Nowhere was a place to hide from his fame, and to hide his crimes―until a fire ravaged his home and exposed him as a murderer.

It is rumored that the ranch nestled in the peaks of the Rocky Mountains is now home to group of feral children, a place where adults cannot enter, and Riley hopes to find a new family there. But the Nowhere Kids are fierce in defending their turf and their clan, and Riley quickly realizes that while she and Oliver may have left the devil they knew, this group is a new type of diabolical.

For something dark lives in the burned shell of Nowhere, something which asks a terrible price for sanctuary...]]> 304 Catriona Ward 1250860059 Jessica 0 to-read 5.00 2025
author: Catriona Ward
name: Jessica
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216971219 A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .]]> 388 Chuck Wendig 0593156560 Jessica 0 to-read 3.80 2025
author: Chuck Wendig
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 218185743
These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can't be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.]]> 304 Kylie Lee Baker 0778368459 Jessica 0 to-read 4.23 2025
author: Kylie Lee Baker
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 211004203 The Girl in the Creek by Hugo Award winner Wendy N. Wagner is an atmospheric and eerie story about a Pacific Northwest forest that seems to be devouring all who enter. A perfect read for fans of T. Kingfisher and Jeff VanderMeer’s cli-fi cosmic horror.

The Clackamas National Forest has always been a sanctuary for evil—human and alien. The shadows of looming trees and long-abandoned mines shelter poachers and serial killers alike. Then there’s the ruined hotel on the outskirts of picturesque small town Faraday, Oregon, nestled in the foothills of Mt. Hood. The one drowning in mushrooms and fungus not even the local expert can identify. Not to mention the stacks of missing persons cases. Freelance writer Erin Harper arrives in Faraday to find out what happened to her brother, whose disappearance in the forest has haunted her for years. But someone else has gone missing. And when Erin finds her in the creek, the girl vanishes again � this time from the morgue, and days later her fingerprints show up at a murder scene. Maybe it’s a serial killer, or maybe it’s the spores infecting the forest and those lost inside. Erin must find answers quickly, before anyone else goes missing. But she might be next�

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 272 Wendy N. Wagner 1250908647 Jessica 0 to-read 3.50 2025
author: Wendy N. Wagner
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217896248 From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters� or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.]]> 352 Caitlin Starling 0063418819 Jessica 0 to-read 4.01 2025
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217387953 Lucky Day is the newest novel of terror from Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Bury Your Gays, where one woman must go up against the most horrifying concept of all: nothing.

Vera is a survivor of a global catastrophe known as the Low Probability Event, but she definitely isn't thriving. Once a passionate professor of statistics, she no longer finds meaning in anything at all.

But when problematic government agent Layne knocks on her door, she's the only one who can help him uncover the connection between deadly spates of absurdity and an improbably lucky casino. What's happening in Vegas isn't staying there, and the world is at risk of another disaster.

When it comes to Chuck Tingle, the only thing more terrifying than a serious horror novel is an absurd one...]]> 240 Chuck Tingle 1250398657 Jessica 0 to-read 4.45 2025
author: Chuck Tingle
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214565614 A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.]]> 448 Stephen Graham Jones 1668075083 Jessica 0 to-read 4.20 2025
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 21936809 The Girl on the Train will love this modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith’s classic Strangers on a Train from the author of the acclaimed The Girl with a Clock for a Heart—which the Washington Post said “should be a contender for crime fiction’s best first novel of 2014.�

On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his marriage that’s going stale and his wife Miranda, who he’s sure is cheating on him. Ted and his wife were a mismatch from the start—he the rich businessman, she the artistic free spirit—a contrast that once inflamed their passion, but has now become a cliché.

But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for what she’s done. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, “I’d like to help.� After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse. . . .

Back in Boston, Ted and Lily’s twisted bond grows stronger as they begin to plot Miranda's demise. But there are a few things about Lily’s past that she hasn’t shared with Ted, namely her experience in the art and craft of murder, a journey that began in her very precocious youth.

Suddenly these co-conspirators are embroiled in a chilling game of cat-and-mouse, one they both cannot survive . . . with a shrewd and very determined detective on their tail.]]> 320 Peter Swanson 0062267523 Jessica 0 to-read 3.98 2015
author: Peter Swanson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 83814905 An American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family's Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village's grim history.

Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma's aloof and handsome brother.

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she'd ever imagined?

Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.]]> 96 Peter Swanson 0063297450 Jessica 5 read-in-2024 A fun Christmas thriller 3.58 2023
author: Peter Swanson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
A fun Christmas thriller
]]> 205673392 In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.� Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.]]> 336 Kay Chronister 1640096620 Jessica 3 read-in-2024 3.59 2024
author: Kay Chronister
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 211004123 The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible � a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 125033778X Jessica 4 read-in-2024 3.63 2025
author: Alice Feeney
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
This was really fun. Sure, it’s not a believable book in any way but it was quick and easy and I didn’t see the twist coming. Would recommend for something light.
]]> 60214567 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818392 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 4.20 2022
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 211003759 In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most � love and work, community and knowledge � will survive.]]> 304 Eiren Caffall 1250353521 Jessica 0 to-read 3.55 2025
author: Eiren Caffall
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217163697 #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Jessica 0 to-read 4.60 2025
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Jessica 5 4.46 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves:
review:
I probably don’t have anything new to say about this book that hasn’t been said before. It’s obvious how and why this has rightfully won so many prestigious awards. The audio narration brought this to life and I really enjoyed it.
]]> 55333938 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780593101537.

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.]]> 341 Marie Benedict Jessica 0 to-read 3.98 2021
author: Marie Benedict
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1637250 320 Nick Sagan 0399151869 Jessica 3 read-in-2007 3.65 2004
author: Nick Sagan
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: read-in-2007
review:
The book was ok, but definitely could have been better. The ending was a tad anticlimactic, but there is one more book left in the series. I'm sure I'll read it at some point, but it's not super high on my list.
]]> 127305853
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 4.58 2024
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
I really didn’t think I’d like this - historical fiction and war novels are not my thing. But it was very well written and taught me a lot about the Vietnam war experience. Toward the end it veered a bit into “women’s fiction� territory with some soap opera drama but I admit it was kind of fun to have those jaw dropping moments. I see why this is so highly rated. I’m glad I read it.
]]> 50534595 The greatest haunted house story ever written, the inspiration for a 10-part Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton
Ěý
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting�; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
Ěý
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.The greatest haunted house story ever written, the inspiration for a 10-part Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton
Ěý
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting�; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
Ěý
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 158 Shirley Jackson Jessica 5 read-in-2024 3.69 1959
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 156009464
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.

But this is no ordinary book�

It is the Book of Doors.

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there.

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.]]> 404 Gareth Brown 0063323982 Jessica 0 to-read 4.01 2024
author: Gareth Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205064715 In this Southern gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth. They’re under a curse, and they think she can break it.

In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago—and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance to start over.Ěý

But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn’t what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette.ĚýAnd soon the shocking truth comes The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it.

As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails.]]> 384 Del Sandeen 0593639529 Jessica 0 to-read 3.62 2024
author: Del Sandeen
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 192724951 A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation.

All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on—just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her—things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down.

But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects that something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands.

After over a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets, horror, and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers…but as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to wonder whether it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.]]> 370 Nick Medina 0593546881 Jessica 0 to-read 3.58 2024
author: Nick Medina
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203163914 In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, a group of five teenage boys, living in Puerto Rico, seek vengeance after one of their mothers is murdered; a doomed tale of devotion and the afterlife of violence. Ěý

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.]]> 345 Gabino Iglesias 0316427012 Jessica 0 to-read 3.84 2024
author: Gabino Iglesias
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203956643 A diabolical collection of stories featuring achingly human characters whose lives intertwine with ghosts, goblins, and the macabre, by “one of Latin America’s most exciting authors� (Silvia Moreno-Garcia)

On the shores of this river, all the birds that fly, drink, perch on branches, and disturb siestas with the demonic squawking of the possessed—all those birds were once women.

Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. In twelve spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal, and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women—these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.

Lyrical and hypnotic, heart-stopping and deeply moving, Enriquez’s stories never fail to enthrall, entertain, and leave us shaken. Translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, A Sunny Place for Shady People showcases Enriquez’s unique blend of the literary and the horrific, and underscores why Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, calls her “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”]]> 257 Mariana Enríquez 0593733258 Jessica 0 to-read 3.79 2024
author: Mariana EnrĂ­quez
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204593914 Welcome to Phantasma. There are only two rules to the game: Stay alive. And don’t fall in love.

When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize—a single wish.

Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.

Every day the house creates new monsters. But just as Ophelia’s fears threaten to overwhelm her, a mysterious stranger offers her a bargain.

Charming, arrogant and infuriatingly attractive, Blackwell claims he can guide her through the lethal trials ahead. All he asks in return is ten years of her life.

Ophelia knows she shouldn’t trust him. Blackwell doesn’t seem dangerous, but appearances can be deceptive. Worse still, she feels a dark and irresistible attraction drawing them closer and closer.

Her life is on the line. But in Phantasma, the only thing deadlier than losing the game is losing your heart . . .]]> 497 Kaylie Smith 1538769255 Jessica 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: Kaylie Smith
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204811915 People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?�

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,� Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”]]> 326 Elizabeth Strout 0593446097 Jessica 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]> 338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 Jessica 0 to-read 3.74 2024
author: Natalie Sue
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Jessica 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208503280 She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim.

Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.

Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.

Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.

Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim...

A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…]]> 368 Freida McFadden 1728296226 Jessica 3 read-in-2024
Maybe because I've been leaning into my horror side, but I'd rather read a book that picks up after the ending in which we follow [spoilers removed]

In reality, 3 and a half stars I guess.]]> 3.95 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
I don't know how to rate thrillers because this was not good, but it was easy to read (or listen to, in my case) and kind of like a movie you have on in the background while you're cleaning the house. It's entertaining. Every character sucked and/or was dumb as heck and I DESPISED the whiny MC but I think that might be par for the course with these kind of popcorn thrillers.

Maybe because I've been leaning into my horror side, but I'd rather read a book that picks up after the ending in which we follow [spoilers removed]

In reality, 3 and a half stars I guess.
]]> 204294822 At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her. Sometimes in the morning we find her in places. We never see her move. We just come upon her.

Aoileann is cursed. She has no friends, never gone to school. She has never left this windswept craggy isle off the coast of Ireland.

Her mother is cursed: a silent wreck Aoileann calls the “bed-thing.� Alongside her grandmother, Aoileann’s days are an endless monotony of feeding, changing, and caring for the bed-thing.

Their island seems cursed, whispering secrets only Aoileann hears. Then Rachel, a vivacious artist from the mainland, arrives with her colicky newborn. Rachel arouses yearnings Aoileann cannot fully comprehend. Soon, the unfolding of her mother’s secret tragedy and Aoileann’s pursuit of her own dark desires are both destined to unleash a maelstrom upon all three of their lives.]]> 256 Sophie White 1645661857 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 3.66 2022
author: Sophie White
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 199897848 From “one of the hottest horror authors on the planet� (Paste) and writer of the #HorrorBookTok sensation The Troop—a heart-pounding novel of terror about a young woman searching for her missing friend and uncovering a shocking truth.

On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it and is greeted by a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most people in town—even the police—think she’s dead.

Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything, know the most intimate details about each another…except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed, and death. And now Charity wants Margaret to know her story—the real story.

In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend—a person she never truly knew at all�.]]> 381 Nick Cutter Jessica 4 Hey so that was wild 3.72 2024
author: Nick Cutter
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:
Hey so that was wild
]]> 204294824
Dark and twisting at every turn, fans of Catriona Ward will love this chilling new tale from the deviously inventive horror author that Peter Farris calls the “clear heir to Stephen King.�

Beware the one who got away . . .

Father Silence once terrorized the rural town of Twisted Tree, disguising himself as a priest to prey on the most vulnerable members of society. When the police finally found his “House of Horrors,� they uncovered nineteen bodies and one survivor–a boy now locked away in a hospital for the criminally insane.

Nearly two decades later, Father Silence is finally put to death, but by the next morning, the detective who made the original arrest is found dead. A new serial killer is taking credit for the murder and calling himself the Outcast.

The detective’s daughter, Tess Claibourne, is a detective herself, haunted by childhood trauma and horrified by the death of her father and the resurgence of Father Silence’s legacy.

When Tess’s daughter is kidnapped by the Outcast, Tess is forced to face her worst fears and long-buried memories. With no leads to follow, she travels back to Twisted Tree to visit the boy who survived and see what secrets might be buried in the tangled web of his broken mind.

With captivating prose and an old-school horror flair, Sleep Tight is a must-read, haunting tale from a true master of the genre.]]> 336 J.H. Markert 1639108734 Jessica 0 to-read 3.64 2024
author: J.H. Markert
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 194020321
While going through their parents' belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.]]> 256 Jeneva Rose Jessica 0 to-read 3.77 2024
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 203164368 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]> 525 Jodi Picoult 059349721X Jessica 0 to-read 4.09 2024
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Jessica 0 to-read 4.22 2024
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Jessica 0 to-read 3.86 2024
author: Sally Rooney
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 133938826 should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.

Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.]]> 307 Hwang Bo-Reum Jessica 0 to-read 3.93 2022
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60718943
Along with his wife, Nora, and their teenage daughter, Alice, the family uproots their lives in Ohio and moves south. At first, they are seduced by the natural beauty of the farm and enjoy the bonding experience of fixing the old house, but that all changes when they discover a hidden room in the basement with a well, boarded shut and adorned with crucifixes.

Local legends about the previous owner’s predilection for performing exorcisms come to light, but by then, all Hell has broken loose.]]> 287 Nick Roberts Jessica 0 to-read 3.93 2022
author: Nick Roberts
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205064706 A mother must fight for her daughter’s life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic.

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?]]> 365 C.J. Cooke 059381696X Jessica 0 to-read 3.74 2024
author: C.J. Cooke
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204593562 B&N Best Horror of 2024
A Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award Finalist
A Book of the Month Club Pick

A new mom in need of help opens her door to her long-estrangedĚýmother—only to invite something much darker inside—in this "fast-paced and frightening debut" (Rachel Harrison) about the long shadows cast by family secrets, perfect for readers of Grady Hendrix or Ashley Audrain.

Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband still deployed, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur.

Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up: Flora’s own mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora’s mother isn’t telling her about the events that led to their estrangement?

As stranger and scarier events unfold, Flora begins to suspect the house is not as empty as she once thought. She must determine: is her hold on reality slipping dangerously away? Or is she, in fact, the only thing standing between a terrifying visitor and her baby?Ěý]]> 297 Jacquie Walters 0316580295 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 3.50 2024
author: Jacquie Walters
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 201632539 In this emotionally raw and propulsive folk horror-mystery, a journalist goes to a small town and unravels a dark secret that the women have been keeping for generations.

Marshall is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. After she is involved in a terrible accident, her editor sends her to the small, backwards town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor: that a horse has given birth to a healthy, human baby boy.

When Marshall arrives in Raeford, she finds an insular town that is kinder to the horses they are famous for breeding than to their own people. But when two horribly mangled bodies are discovered in a field—one a horse, one a human—she realizes that there might be a real story here.

As she’s pulled deeper into the town and its guarded people, her sense of reality is tipped on its head. Is she losing her grip? Or is this impossible story the key to a dark secret that has haunted the women of Raeford for generations?

Unbearably tense and utterly gripping, this atmospheric tale of female rage, bodily autonomy, and generational trauma hails the arrival of a masterful storyteller.]]> 320 Leslie J. Anderson 1683694295 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 3.30 2024
author: Leslie J. Anderson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
I love folk horror, I love female rage, I love revenge. I wish this was a little heavier on the horror though.
]]> 218362004 A young man who has improbably escaped death twice reveals his secret in a spine-tingling short story by New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill.

Martin Lorensen is a twenty-three-year-old counselor for disturbed teenagers. He’s bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing. He’s also—and this is the most interesting thing—not dead. Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disasters that claimed dozens of lives. The kid is riding one hell of a lucky streak. Two federal agents think there is something darker at play. Now that they’ve arranged to interview Martin, they want answers. Martin is ready to share everything he knows. One thing is for certain: when it comes to escaping death, luck doesn’t figure into it at all.]]> 29 Joe Hill 1662527942 Jessica 5 read-in-2024 4.23 2024
author: Joe Hill
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
This short story is a testament to Joe Hill's talent for crafting compelling narratives, even within a limited word count. The characters are surprisingly well-developed, drawing the reader in and evoking empathy. The stunning book cover is the cherry on top of this chilling literary treat. For these reasons, I'm giving the story 5 stars despite a somewhat familiar plot.
]]> 203955668 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?]]> 397 Richard Osman 0593653238 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 4.26 2024
author: Richard Osman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
Really fun, lovable characters. Now I want to try out The Thursday Murder Club.
]]> 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]> 367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Jessica 1 read-in-2024
First and foremost, how do you make a book about dragons excruciatingly boring?

It tries so hard to be a feminist story, but is not thought-provoking or provocative in any way, nor does it tell an untold story or do anything to inspire passion within. Instead, it centers around white, somewhat privileged women with no acknowledgement of women of color or trans folks. It feels as though the author threw in some lesbian characters to check the "inclusivity" box. It simply does not cut it for a book written for adults in the year 2022 specifically about gender and power disparity.

You want me to believe that 650,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons and [spoilers removed]I'm really not sure what the author is trying to say here but I would argue that it's not a very successful or inspiring ending to the story.

There is also a very strong argument here that this veers into TERF territory, or, at the very least, gender essentialism. Again, not cool or forgivable for a book written in 2022. ]]> 3.79 2022
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
This book offended me on several layers.

First and foremost, how do you make a book about dragons excruciatingly boring?

It tries so hard to be a feminist story, but is not thought-provoking or provocative in any way, nor does it tell an untold story or do anything to inspire passion within. Instead, it centers around white, somewhat privileged women with no acknowledgement of women of color or trans folks. It feels as though the author threw in some lesbian characters to check the "inclusivity" box. It simply does not cut it for a book written for adults in the year 2022 specifically about gender and power disparity.

You want me to believe that 650,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons and [spoilers removed]I'm really not sure what the author is trying to say here but I would argue that it's not a very successful or inspiring ending to the story.

There is also a very strong argument here that this veers into TERF territory, or, at the very least, gender essentialism. Again, not cool or forgivable for a book written in 2022.
]]> 203579112
When Mina encounters a stranger near her home, she fears the worst - for she knows the figure is not what it seems. Soon, people she has encountered start to disappear.

Mina knows the Watchers' power is growing. She flees for her life, but when she reports her fears she finds her sanity questioned. Can she convince people that the Watchers are real, and ready to strike - or will she suffer the fate she has dreaded since she first encountered those malevolent beings?

A chilling modern twist on the Gothic horror novel, perfect for fans of Kealan Patrick Burke, T. Kingfisher and classic horror.]]> 320 A.M. Shine 180454793X Jessica 5 read-in-2024 3.89 2024
author: A.M. Shine
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: read-in-2024
review:
Perfect Irish fae horror, looking forward to the next in the series
]]> 6324651 Alternate cover edition of ASIN: B001BANK32

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.]]> 674 Stephen King Jessica 5 read-in-2024 4.45 1977
author: Stephen King
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 16130549 The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless � mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 531 Stephen King 1476727651 Jessica 0 currently-reading 4.11 2013
author: Stephen King
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 62990826 Can you hear them whispering? The secrets from the sea, the stars?


When two estranged siblings travel to their dead uncle's hoarder house near the shore, they uncover a deep and dark truth, forcing them to confront their troubled pasts. From the author of The Switch House and Malignant Summer comes a new short novel of trippy terror.]]> 172 Tim Meyer 1732399395 Jessica 4 read-in-2024 3.25
author: Tim Meyer
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: read-in-2024
review:

]]> 56179372 Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it.

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger � only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.

Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken ... and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.

Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.

Complete with 8 pages of Brom’s mesmerizing full-color artwork and chapter illustrations throughout, his latest book is sure to delight.]]> 305 Brom 125062200X Jessica 0 to-read 4.23 2021
author: Brom
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55711617
That’s not the only thing that’s getting carved up, though � this, Jade knows, is the start of a slasher. But what kind? Who’s wearing the mask? Jade’s got an encyclopedic recall of every horror movie on the shelf, but� will that help her survive? Can she get a final girl trained enough to stop all this from happening? Does she even want to?

Isn’t a slasher exactly what her hometown deserves?

This new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones, called “one of our most talented living writers� by Tommy Orange, explores the changing landscape of the West through his distinct voice of sharp humor and prophetic violence.

Go up the mountain to Proofrock. See if you’ve got what it takes � see if your heart, too, might be a chainsaw.]]> 405 Stephen Graham Jones 1982137630 Jessica 0 to-read 3.52 2021
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>