en-US Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:34:58 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Katie 0 currently-reading 3.52 2024
author: Miranda July
name: Katie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 218695937 A novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.]]> 336 Laila Lalami 0593317602 Katie 4 3.65 2025
author: Laila Lalami
name: Katie
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:
Fascinating read given the unfortunate state of the U.S. right now coupled with the fast advancement of AI. I adored Sara as a protagonist and learning about the other women in the "prison." Although there isn't a huge amount occurring plot wise, I didn't mind because I was so invested in the characters. I've seen others say this, but my only critique was the ending - I don't know if I wanted a devastating or uplifting ending, but the ending fell a bit flat. However still highly recommend.
]]> 203578763 The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?

But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Something has gone wrong, and someone out there knows far too much about her late brother, her late husband, and possibly about Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far and worked too hard to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story—and she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.]]> 304 Jean Hanff Korelitz 1250875471 Katie 3 3.59 2024
author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
name: Katie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves:
review:
I greatly enjoyed The Plot so had been anticipating this as soon as I heard of its release. Anna is a fascinating character, but the other characters and 1/3 of this book fell a little flat for me. Part of me feels bad saying this because this book is incredibly self-aware and directly states that sequels are so difficult to pull off.
]]> 56179382
It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?]]> 103 Catherynne M. Valente 1250816211 Katie 4 3.57 2021
author: Catherynne M. Valente
name: Katie
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
What a fun little surprise this was! I read Deathless years ago and adored it but have not read something by Valente since. If you need something quick and interesting for a flight, I promise you will not guess where this is going. This makes me want to pick up another book by her immediately - stunningly lyrical writing.
]]> 63094957
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.]]> 304 Caroline O'Donoghue 0593535707 Katie 4 4.06 2023
author: Caroline O'Donoghue
name: Katie
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:
What a breath of fresh air this was! Not at all the genre of book I typically pick up, but I adored the dialogue. I kept thinking to myself for the first 70%...not much at all is happening, but I don't at all mind. I highly recommend this as an audiobook. I would also be about the same age as the narrator so there was a heavy amount of nostalgia as well.
]]> 207611566 There’s power in a book�

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Katie 0 currently-reading 4.00 2025
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Katie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 205436018 Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history.

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn’t yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend’s house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates a forgotten chapter in Korean history, buried for decades—bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.]]> 256 Han Kang 0593595459 Katie 0 currently-reading 3.87 2021
author: Han Kang
name: Katie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 178019710 The final installment in the most lauded trilogy in the history of horror literature

It’s been four years since Jade Daniels last set foot in Proofrock, Idaho. Since then, her reputation, and everything around Indian Lake, has changed dramatically. There’s a lot of unfinished business in Proofrock, from serial killer cultists to the rich trying to buy Western authenticity. But there’s one aspect of the savage history of Proofrock, Idaho, no one’s got the mettle to confront � no one except a final girl, making her last stand, this time for everything.

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones has crafted an epic horror trilogy of generational trauma and stolen hope. It’s the story of the American West written in blood. And it’s the story of one girl who doesn’t know how to give up.]]> 455 Stephen Graham Jones 1668011662 Katie 5 4.15 2024
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Katie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:
4.5/5 stars. The 17+ hour audio book has taken me weeks to get through but that's not an indication of my enjoyment. I've mentioned in the past that I sometimes have trouble following the plots of this books and that did occasionally happen here but less so than with his past books. The moves at a break neck pace and was an incredible conclusion. I will truly miss reading about Jade.
]]> 199757490 A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,� from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box
Ěý
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’sĚýMommy,ĚýDaddo,Ěýand Grandma Ruth.ĚýBut there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”ĚýĚ�
Ěý
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay.Ěý
Ěý
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.ĚýĚý
Ěý
But Other Mommy needs an answer.Ěý
Ěý
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.]]> 367 Josh Malerman 0593723120 Katie 4 3.61 2024
author: Josh Malerman
name: Katie
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves:
review:
I have been pretty horrific at keeping up with my Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ, and I just realized I never reviewed this! This was one of my most anticipated horror novels of 2024, and in many ways it lived up to my expectations. Passages of this read like a creepypasta, and I mean that as a complement.
]]> 12075494 99 Sarah Kilby 1873993218 Katie 4 4.12 2010
author: Sarah Kilby
name: Katie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:
A bit of a random read, but I picked this up when I as in England a few months back and adored it! This is my version of a perfect coffee table book. The amount of information for each historical figure was engaging and digestable.
]]> 57360704
Merritt Coletto and her husband, Luca, have the life they dreamed of: a coastal home, a promising future, and a growing family. That dream ends with a late-night knock on the door.

Weak, broken, and emaciated, it’s Luca’s first wife, Lydia. Missing for ten years, presumed dead, and very much alive, she has quite a story. Her kidnapping. A torturous confinement that should’ve ended with her dead. And finally, escape. Racked with guilt over the beautiful life they’ve built, Merritt and Luca agree to help get Lydia back on her feet—it’s the least they can do.

But the more enmeshed Lydia becomes in Merritt’s family, the more questions Merritt has. What is it about Lydia that’s especially unnerving? Why hasn’t she gone to the police with her harrowing tale? What does she really want of them? The answers, when they come, are terrifying.

Because Lydia isn’t the only one with secrets.]]> 252 Minka Kent Katie 2 3.99 2022
author: Minka Kent
name: Katie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
This had been on my TBR for a very long time after hearing it recommended on a podcast years back. While this was a very interesting premise for a story and I enjoyed the twists I found the plot very lacking. I kept wanting more when it came to the characters, complexity, and storylines. Incredibly heavy, topics were just breezed by a never delved into. This was fast paced and held my attention, but that’s about it.
]]> 899392 195 Larry Niven 0671695320 Katie 3 3.93 1987
author: Larry Niven
name: Katie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
This is one of my dad's favorite books, and he has been hounding me to read it for years! Finally got around to it, and although I don't tend to gravitate towards sci-fi, I did really enjoy this. The setting was beautifully built and the monsters were horrifying. My only complaint was I despised the protagonist. I think if you're a woman it would be really hard to even remotely want to root for him.
]]> 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Katie 4 4.15 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Katie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
Very late to reviewing this! This is a perfect read for the summertime if you want a mystery novel with likable characters. This didn't WOW me in the way I was hoping, but it was incredibly enjoyable. I know this doesn't fall in the "cozy" mystery genre, but this is my ideal for a cozy mystery.
]]> 200101541 A chilling twist on the “cursed filmâ€� genre from the bestselling author ofĚýThe Pallbearers Club andĚýThe Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part?ĚýOnly three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid� is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions � demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost?Ěý

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film� that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.]]> 277 Paul Tremblay 0063070014 Katie 4
Also thought the voice actors did such a good job! Highly recommend as an audio book.]]> 3.31 2024
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Katie
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:
This book hit me much harder than I thought it would. This wasn't what I was expecting at all going into the book - I was thinking it was going to be a found footage-type Halloween joyride...and this felt more depressing than I was anticipating. However I don't mean that as a negative. I think I'm going to think about this book for a long time.

Also thought the voice actors did such a good job! Highly recommend as an audio book.
]]> 60521937
This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.

Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.]]> 292 S.T. Gibson 0316501077 Katie 4 3.91 2021
author: S.T. Gibson
name: Katie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:
I have been meaning to pick this one up for some time now, and it was such a pleasant surprise! It has been so long since I have picked up a vampire/gothic story that I've loved. I was swept away by the characters and setting and didn't mind that they were someone lose about their abilities/how they managed to go unnoticed. If you've been searching for a vampire tale, I highly recommend.
]]> 28016509
Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life.

The request seems odd, even intrusive - and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating.

Emma

Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant - and it does.

Jane

After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street, she is instantly drawn to the space - and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home's previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror as the girl before.]]> 341 J.P. Delaney 0425285049 Katie 1
]]> 3.67 2017
author: J.P. Delaney
name: Katie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:
I was not a fan of how this review showcased abuse (in multiple ways). While I normally enjoy dual perspectives from different time periods, this got very repetitive very fast. Full review is below:


]]> 52878453
While on her normal daily walk with her dog in the forest woods, our protagonist comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground with a frame of stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body". Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to area, having moved her from her longtime home after the death of her husband, and she knows very few people. And she's a little shaky even on best days. Her brooding about this note quickly grows into a full-blown obsession, and she begins to devote herself to exploring the possibilities of her conjectures about who this woman was and how she met her fate. Her suppositions begin to find echoes in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to form into a concrete and menacing shape. But as we follow her in her investigation, strange dissonances start to accrue, and our faith in her grip on reality weakens, until finally, just as she seems be facing some of the darkness in her own past with her late husband, we are forced to face the prospect that there is either a more innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one - one that strikes closer to home.

A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, 'Death in Her Hands' asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both guide us closer to the truth and keep us at bay from it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, only this time the stakes have never been higher.]]> 259 Ottessa Moshfegh 1984879359 Katie 4
Note: I would not recommend the audiobook as that made this a slightly less positive reading expereince for me (although I understand that is is very fitting for the character).]]> 3.25 2020
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Katie
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:
3.5/5 stars. I'm working my way through reading all of Ottessa Moshfegh, and I'll admit that as far as being halfway through this book, I nearly gave up multiple times. I knew with this being Moshfegh that this would by no mean be a classic murder mystery, but her books typically have at least slightly more plot weight to them. Once my mind settled into the fact that this was a character study, I enjoyed the book significantly more.

Note: I would not recommend the audiobook as that made this a slightly less positive reading expereince for me (although I understand that is is very fitting for the character).
]]> 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Katie 0 to-read 4.13 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Katie
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Katie 0 to-read 4.22 2020
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Katie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58045504 An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.

The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.]]> 480 Evelyn Waugh 0141182482 Katie 0 to-read 4.04 1945
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Katie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1945
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 424 The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America—particularly California—in the sixties.

It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

It contains Didion's famous essay, "Goodbye to All That".]]> 238 Joan Didion Katie 0 to-read 4.20 1968
author: Joan Didion
name: Katie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17899948 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.]]> 449 Daphne du Maurier 0316323705 Katie 0 to-read 4.28 1938
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Katie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 131177 Hangsaman is Miss Jackson's second novel. The story is a simple one but the overtones are immediately present. "Natalie Waite who was seventeen years old but who felt that she had been truly conscious only since she was about fifteen lived in an odd corner of a world of sound and sight, past the daily voices of her father and mother and their incomprehensible actions." In a few graphic pages, the family is before us—Arnold Waite, a writer, egotistical and embittered; his wife, the complaining martyr; Bud, the younger brother who has not yet felt the need to establish his independence; and Natalie, in the nightmare of being seventeen.

The Sunday afternoon cocktail party, to which Arnold Waite has invited his literary friends and neighbors, serves to etch in the details of this family's life, and to draw Natalie into the vortex. The story concentrates on the next few critical months in Natalie's life, away at college, where each experience reproduces on a larger scale the crucial failure of her emotional life at home. With a mounting tension rising from character and situation as well as the particular magic of which Miss Jackson is master, the novel proceeds inexorably to the stinging melodrama of its conclusion. The bitter cruelty of the passage from adolescence to womanhood, of a sensitive and lonely girl caught in a world not of her own devising, is a theme well suited to Miss Jackson's brilliant talent.]]> 191 Shirley Jackson 0445031174 Katie 0 to-read 3.78 1951
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Katie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]> 368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Katie 3
The hardest time I have with this book is Gagne is simultaneously is trying to garner empathy for how challenging her sociopathy has been while also often giving off the impression she thinks it is cool/a superpower.

There were so many scenes from her childhood that felt like they were pulled straight from a movie, that I will admit I had a hard time believing a a few scenes.

This was a highly entertaining read and I think would be a great choice for a book club as it would certainly garner a lot of discussion. Have any of you read this? Would be curious to hear your thoughts.]]> 3.74 2024
author: Patric Gagne
name: Katie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves:
review:
I'm having a very tricky time with this one. I have an M.A. In I-O Psychology, so although I by no means an expert in in this realm of psych, I have spent many years resrach and reading psych articles/studies/meta-analyses etc. It would be nice if she made her dissertation public, but it's hard to find this information online

The hardest time I have with this book is Gagne is simultaneously is trying to garner empathy for how challenging her sociopathy has been while also often giving off the impression she thinks it is cool/a superpower.

There were so many scenes from her childhood that felt like they were pulled straight from a movie, that I will admit I had a hard time believing a a few scenes.

This was a highly entertaining read and I think would be a great choice for a book club as it would certainly garner a lot of discussion. Have any of you read this? Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
]]> 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Katie 0 to-read 3.66 2024
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Katie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59808603 Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses� advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.]]> 456 Ray Nayler 0374605955 Katie 0 to-read 3.87 2022
author: Ray Nayler
name: Katie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30292689
Now Mike has arrived to Japan to meet Yaichi and his daughter Kana. Yaichi has to face his own preconceptions and come to terms about who his brother really was.]]> 180 Gengoroh Tagame Katie 5 4.11
author: Gengoroh Tagame
name: Katie
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/11
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves:
review:
Absolutely adored this! Highly recommend if you're in the mood for a heartwarming manga :)
]]> 150246179 The Fallon Spring Reads Book Club Pick

A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.

In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants.]]> 368 Tracy Sierra 0593654765 Katie 4 3.79 2024
author: Tracy Sierra
name: Katie
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves:
review:
This was one of my most anticipated thrillers of the year, and it did not disappoint! Although the plot seems simple on the surface, I promise there is more to this. Removing one start only because the last 1/3 of the book dragged a bit for me.
]]> 45303582
A not-so-evil queen is terrified of her monstrous stepdaughter and determined to repel this creature and save her kingdom from a world where happy endings aren't so happily ever after.

From the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, Nebula Award-winning and Sunday Times-bestselling writer Neil Gaiman (American Gods) comes this graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran (Troll Bridge).]]> 64 Neil Gaiman 1472262913 Katie 2 4.01 2019
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Katie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves:
review:
I was gifted this by a friend a read it a couple weeks ago before the news around Gaimen came out. 2 stars because the artwork was beautiful. Plot and writing were nothing memorable.
]]> 60460704
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women� taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.]]> 275 Victor LaValle 052551208X Katie 5 3.68 2023
author: Victor LaValle
name: Katie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves:
review:
One of I believe my first 5 star reads of the year! LaValle is staring to rise the ranks of one of my favorite horror novelists. The setting, characters, and plot are nothing like any other horror novel (or book in general) that I have ever read.
]]> 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Katie 2 3.97 2024
author: Ashley Elston
name: Katie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/03
date added: 2024/07/03
shelves:
review:
I read this a few months back and forgot to review it...which is an indication as to how I felt about this one. Very standard thriller that I've already forgotten about as I'm typing this.
]]> 200634672 A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers.

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.

Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.]]> 443 J. Courtney Sullivan 0593319168 Katie 0 to-read 3.81 2024
author: J. Courtney Sullivan
name: Katie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200555235 A searing novel about being a wife, a mother, and an artist, and how marriage makes liars out of us all, from the author of Very Cold People and 300 Arguments.

“Painful and brilliant—I loved it.”—Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or

A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I’d always known that. But I’d never suspected how easily I’d fall into one anyway.

When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including—a few years later—all the attendant joy and labor of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.

As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.

Combining the intensity of Elena Ferrante’s Days of Abandonment and the pithy wisdom of Jenny Offill’s Dept of Speculation, Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.]]> 272 Sarah Manguso 0593241258 Katie 0 to-read 3.67 2024
author: Sarah Manguso
name: Katie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 46251368
From the moment Lucy met her husband's mother, Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana was exquisitely polite, and properly friendly, but Lucy knew that she was not what Diana envisioned. But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice who helped female refugees assimilate to their new country. Diana was happily married to Tom, and lived in wedded bliss for decades. Lucy wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was five years ago.

Now, Diana has been found dead, a suicide note near her body. Diana claims that she no longer wanted to live because of a battle with cancer.

But the autopsy finds no cancer.
The autopsy does find traces of poison and suffocation.
Who could possibly want Diana dead?
Why was her will changed at the eleventh hour to disinherit both of her adult children and their spouses?

With Lucy's secrets getting deeper and her relationship with her mother-in-law growing more complex as the pages turn, this new novel from Sally Hepworth is sure to add to her growing legion of fans.]]> 347 Sally Hepworth Katie 4 3.94 2019
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Katie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves:
review:
This was my first introduction to Sally Hepworth, and I'm thoroughly impressed! I adored the dual perspectives and how I was constantly changing my opinions on both protagonists. The ending felt a bit cheesy, but other than that, I adored this.
]]> 60657589
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.]]> 336 Heather Fawcett 059350013X Katie 4 3.98 2023
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Katie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
review:
What a pleasant surprise this was! This made me wish I was reading it cozied up by the fire during the wintertime. I don't read a lot of fantasy, and this book made me think I should read more. Highly recommend if you want to read some lovable characters with some darker elements to the story.
]]> 59366246 Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones.

Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho.

Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday.

Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.]]> 457 Stephen Graham Jones 1982186593 Katie 4
I was happy with the new and returning characters and the continuation of their stories. I talk through is in the linked video but I unfortuatnely had quite a hard time following this book and many of the characters' motivations. However I still highly recommend if you also enjoyed the 1st.

Now it's time to read the finale to this trilogy!

]]> 4.04 2023
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Katie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
review:
I was highly anticipating this after My Heart is a Chainsaw being one of my favorite horror novels of all time.

I was happy with the new and returning characters and the continuation of their stories. I talk through is in the linked video but I unfortuatnely had quite a hard time following this book and many of the characters' motivations. However I still highly recommend if you also enjoyed the 1st.

Now it's time to read the finale to this trilogy!


]]> 57693184 Titanic meets The Shining in S.A. Barnes� Dead Silence, a SF horror novel in which a woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended.

A GHOST SHIP.
A SALVAGE CREW.
UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.]]> 343 S.A. Barnes 1250819997 Katie 3
I loved the the setting and initial premise, but the plot during the 2nd half of the book fell a little flat for me. This would make a good fast-paced beach read if you love horror novels.

Full video review here: ]]> 3.76 2022
author: S.A. Barnes
name: Katie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
review:
The idea of essentially Titanic drifting in space to explore is a perfect setting for a horror novel.

I loved the the setting and initial premise, but the plot during the 2nd half of the book fell a little flat for me. This would make a good fast-paced beach read if you love horror novels.

Full video review here:
]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Katie 3
I was left with decidedly average feelings on every aspect of the book. It's my least favorite in comparison to her other books, but I also did not despise it. ]]> 4.02 2021
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Katie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves:
review:
I picked this up on a whim because 1) I have enjoyed her other books and 2) this happened to be available with no wait on Libby.

I was left with decidedly average feelings on every aspect of the book. It's my least favorite in comparison to her other books, but I also did not despise it.
]]> 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]> 384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 Katie 5 3.99 2023
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Katie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves:
review:
4.5/5 stars. I typcially adore Jessica Knoll and this was no exception. I think I'll film a dedicated spoil-free video review because I'm still processing my feelings on this one and have a lot to say.
]]> 65212029 Nat Cassidy is at his razor-sharp best again with his horror novel Nestlings, which harnesses the creeping paranoia of Rosemary's Baby and the urban horror of 'Salem's Lot, set in an exclusive New York City residential building.

Ana and Reid need a break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling―with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia, but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on their baby.]]> 293 Nat Cassidy 1250265258 Katie 4 3.81 2023
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Katie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves:
review:
Such a solid follow-up to Mary! Flew through this one and enjoyed the blend of horror genres. I also appreciated how much story and character was packed into a relatively quick read.
]]> 59109077 A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.]]> 401 Geraldine Brooks 0399562966 Katie 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Katie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 75495002 When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another--both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.]]> 387 Angie Kim 0593448200 Katie 0 to-read 3.72 2023
author: Angie Kim
name: Katie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 Katie 3 3.75 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Katie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves:
review:
3.5/5 stars. What a dark an unpleasant way to kick off the year! Did this disturb me the most of any book I have read recently? Yes. Do I think it delivered the themes it was trying to executive particuarly well? Somewhat.
]]> 23019294
To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.]]> 287 Paul Tremblay 0062363239 Katie 4 3.78 2015
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Katie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves:
review:
A little late to reviewing this but in a way I'm glad. When I initially finished this I was slightly let down especially by the ending. But the more it has sat with me the more and more I appreciate just how dark and sad this book is. So glad I finally picked it up.
]]> 58613645 31 Skottie Young Katie 2 3.91 2021
author: Skottie Young
name: Katie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/19
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves:
review:
I loved the initial premise and artwork, but I was not a fan of where this plot went. This felt predictable, but maybe I would enjoy future editions of the series more.
]]> 61953755 Eastbound is both an adventure story and a duet of vibrant inner worlds. In evocative sentences gorgeously translated by Jessica Moore, De Kerangal tells the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom with a striking sense of tenderness, sharply contrasting the brutality of their surrounding world.]]> 160 Maylis de Kerangal 1953861504 Katie 4 4.01 2012
author: Maylis de Kerangal
name: Katie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves:
review:
I saw this listed as a NYT 2023 best book of the year, so picked this up on a whim and so glad I did! This is a quick read but packs a big punch. I felt transported on the train and was surprised by the high level of tension I was pulled into it.
]]> 60301558 Nat Cassidy’s highly commercial, debut horror novel An Awakening of Terror, blends Midsommar with elements of American Psycho and a pinch of I'll Be Gone in the Dark.Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself.But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer. Then the killings begin again.Mary’s definitely going to find herself.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 400 Nat Cassidy 1250265223 Katie 5
Full review here - ]]> 3.76 2022
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Katie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves:
review:
Easily a new favorite horror novel! This was gory and horrifying and had some images/scenes that will surely stick with me for a very long time. Cannot wait to read more from Nat Cassidy.

Full review here -
]]> 25526296 Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.]]> 176 Seanan McGuire 0765385503 Katie 4 3.81 2016
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Katie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves:
review:
Cannot wait to continue with this series! I don't read a large amount of fantasy, but I have a feeling I will enjoy this series even more as they delve into the other worlds.
]]> 60784409 A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family.

"Mom seems off."

Her brother's words echo in Sam Montgomery's ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone.

She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam's excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out.

But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be. Gone is the warm, cluttered charm her mom is known for; now the walls are painted a sterile white. Her mom jumps at the smallest noises and looks over her shoulder even when she’s the only person in the room. And when Sam steps out back to clear her head, she finds a jar of teeth hidden beneath the magazine-worthy rose bushes, and vultures are circling the garden from above.

To find out what’s got her mom so frightened in her own home, Sam will go digging for the truth. But some secrets are better left buried.]]> 247 T. Kingfisher 1250829798 Katie 4 3.65 2023
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Katie
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/07
date added: 2023/11/20
shelves:
review:
This was my second book by T Kingfisher and I will certainly be reading more. This was a wonderful cozy horror novel. If you like horror but are in the mood for something lighter and funnier, I highly recommend. I adored every single character. Only wish this was longer!
]]> 61986136 A young woman pretends to be someone she isn't in this stunning novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls.

Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.

A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.

With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarified world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.

Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline's The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.]]> 304 Emma Cline 0812998626 Katie 4 3.29 2023
author: Emma Cline
name: Katie
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/01
date added: 2023/11/07
shelves:
review:
Although the plot of The Girls would at face value seem much more up my alley, for some inexplicable reason, I enjoyed this much more. This is certainly not plot driven, but if I think if you enjoyed My Year of Rest and Relaxation, you would also enjoy this. The book simultaneously does not have a lot happen but also moves at a frantic pace. It made be uncomfortable and cringe in a way that I didn't necessarily enjoy but definitley left an impact.
]]> 2403733
Miraculously, Sarah soon had a new lover -- one who came to her in dreams, who promised her anything she wanted, in return for a small favor, an innocent sacrifice...

Anything she wanted -- even Brian. For her own, forever.

In exchange, all Jade wanted was Sarah's soul...]]> 279 Lisa Tuttle 0812526449 Katie 3 3.53 1983
author: Lisa Tuttle
name: Katie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/07
date added: 2023/11/07
shelves:
review:
I'm so confused because I thought I reviewed this months ago. Whoops! I love the idea of reading lesser known horror novels from the 80s, so I'm a big fan of this line of books. Familiar Spirit was entertaining but I didn't connect with the main character. I oddly think I would enjoy this more as a movie.
]]> 30244 368 Laurell K. Hamilton 0425209067 Katie 0 4.14 1997
author: Laurell K. Hamilton
name: Katie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves:
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 Katie 0 to-read 4.23 2021
author: Brom
name: Katie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11550
Originally published: New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1984.]]> 407 Robert McCammon 0671769928 Katie 0 to-read 3.90 1984
author: Robert McCammon
name: Katie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 124948406 From the author of the “raw, ingenious, and utterly fearless� (Wendy Walker, USA TODAY bestselling author) Temper comes a dynamic psychological thriller about two women who give bad men exactly what they deserve.

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.

Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.

Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident—everything Carly wishes she could be—and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay...and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.

Featuring Layne Fargo’s trademark “propulsive writing style� (Kirkus Reviews) and “sinister, of the moment� (Chicago Review of Books) suspense, They Never Learn is a feminist serial killer story perfect for fans of Killing Eve and Chelsea Cain.]]> 349 Layne Fargo Katie 4 3.86 2020
author: Layne Fargo
name: Katie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/16
date added: 2023/08/16
shelves:
review:
I'm not sure what category to place this book. Although it has some thriller elements, this was much more character-focused than I was anticipating since I kept hearing that this was "female dexter." This held my attention from beginning to end and never lagged. If you want a character focused thriller with some spicy elements, I really recommend :)
]]> 60784312
Is it enough?

Does he respond to texts? Honor his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. But when he shines his light on her, the world makes sense, and Adelaide is convinced that, in his heart, he’s fallen just as deeply as she has. Then, when Rory is rocked by an unexpected tragedy, Adelaide does everything in her power to hold him together—even if it means losing herself in the process.

When love asks too much of us, how do we find the strength to put ourselves first?

With unflinching honesty and heart, this relatable debut from a fresh new voice explores grief and mental health while capturing the timeless nature of what it’s like to be young and in love—with your friends, with your city, and with a person who cannot, will not, love you back.]]> 304 Genevieve Wheeler 1250280842 Katie 5 3.93 2023
author: Genevieve Wheeler
name: Katie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/18
date added: 2023/08/16
shelves:
review:
My friend recently said to me "Katie, I'm so glad you recommended Adelaide to me. It's not like anything I've read before." This made me realize...I read this months ago and never posted a review here! This is pretty starkly different from the horror novels I pick up. Even if you're out of your 20's you'll find ways to relate to Adelaide. This book brought up a lot of intense emotions. Although it's about dating I would look at this more like a character study than a romance novel. Highly recommend!
]]> 60879779
I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let's get started.

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

My brother

My stepsister

My wife

My father

My mother

My sister-in-law

My uncle

My stepfather

My aunt

Me]]> 371 Benjamin Stevenson 0063279029 Katie 4 3.75 2022
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Katie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/02
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 45885644
Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…]]> 327 Simone St. James 0440000173 Katie 5 3.99 2020
author: Simone St. James
name: Katie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/28
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:
Immediatley want to read more by Simone St James! Some may say 70% of the plot moves slow, but I could have stayed in this world with the characters for so much longer. Irritated with myself or taking so long to read this.
]]> 51169341
The new season of Rachel's podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?]]> 341 Megan Goldin 125021968X Katie 0 to-read 4.02 2020
author: Megan Goldin
name: Katie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Katie 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Katie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61884832 A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction� (The Washington Post).]]> 338 S.A. Cosby 1250831911 Katie 0 to-read 4.19 2023
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Katie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60833953
In the name of national security, the CIA in partnership with Silicon Valley wunderkind Cy Baxter have created the ultimate surveillance program known as FUSION. Ahead of its roll out, ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test the groundbreaking system.

At the appointed hour, each of the ten will have two hours to “Go Zero”—to turn their cellphones off, cut ties with friends and family, and use any means possible to disappear. They will then have 30 days to evade detection and elude the highly sophisticated Capture Teams tasked to find them using the most cutting-edge technology. The goal is to see if it is possible to successfully go “off the grid� and escape detection.

The stakes are immense. If FUSION is a success, Cy Baxter will secure a coveted 10-year, $100 billion dollar government contract and access to intelligence resources he truly believes will save lives. For any participant who beats the massive surveillance, it means a $3 million cash prize.

Among the contestants is an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day. She’s been chosen as the gimme, the easy target expected to be found first. But Kaitlyn excels at confounding expectations. Her talents at this particular game are far more effective than all the security experts suspect, and her reasons for playing far more personal than anyone can imagine. . . .]]> 304 Anthony McCarten 006322707X Katie 0 to-read 3.84 2023
author: Anthony McCarten
name: Katie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57933306 Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back.

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions--even abandoning his phone for three months--but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention--and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.

We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers' productivity.

Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus--as individuals, and as a society--if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.]]> 357 Johann Hari 0593138511 Katie 5 4.22 2022
author: Johann Hari
name: Katie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/01
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves:
review:
I can't remember a time a book has altered my behavior (in a positive way). Whether it's improving my sleep, minimizing multitasking, or reading in the morning, each has had a tangible impact. I cannot think of a person I would not recommend this book to.
]]> 56084054 An annual backpacking trip has deadly consequences in a chilling new novel from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.

Emily is having the time of her life--she's in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of their trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she'd been flirting with attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year's trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can't believe it's happened again--can lightning really strike twice?

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving head-first into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her friend's motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their coverups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can she outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom--even her life?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781984820464.]]> 304 Andrea Bartz Katie 2 3.46 2021
author: Andrea Bartz
name: Katie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2023/06/08
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves:
review:
Read this about a month back and forgot to review it which will be similar to my review. I think this would work better as a fun movie than a big. The characters and plot didn't hold my attention.
]]> 60610668 Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this debut crime novel.

When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding community are thrust into chaos. Unsatisfied with the officials' response, sardonic and headstrong Sister Holiday becomes determined to unveil the mysterious attacker herself and return her home and sanctuary to its former peace. Her investigation leads down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets in the sticky, oppressive New Orleans heat, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way.

Sister Holiday is more faithful than most, but she's no saint. To piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must first reckon with the sins of her checkered past-and neither task will be easy.

An exciting start to Margot Douaihy's bold series for Gillian Flynn Books that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end.]]> 320 Margot Douaihy 1638930244 Katie 4 3.16 2023
author: Margot Douaihy
name: Katie
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/08
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves:
review:
3.5/5 Stars - Incredibly behind on reviewing this! I adored the protagonist, and will be sure to pick up the sequel but the mystery aspect was a bit bland.
]]> 564877 The Horrifying Conclusion...
Trapped on an island filled with the stench of mutating bodies, can teenager Tadashi save his girlfriend from a fate worse than death? Or will the cure prove worse than the disease? Hold your breath until all is revealed--along with the final stinking secrets of the "walking fish of Okinawa"!]]> 208 Junji Ito 1421513889 Katie 4
Merged review:

This is a quick manga, but if you're looking for something creepy to fall asleep too, I highly recommend!]]> 4.31 2002
author: Junji Ito
name: Katie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/29
date added: 2023/06/06
shelves:
review:
This is a quick manga, but if you're looking for something creepy to fall asleep too, I highly recommend!

Merged review:

This is a quick manga, but if you're looking for something creepy to fall asleep too, I highly recommend!
]]> 61053829
But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.]]> 438 Rebecca Makkai 0593490142 Katie 0 to-read 3.57 2023
author: Rebecca Makkai
name: Katie
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61358659 Your next stay-up-all-night thriller, about identical triplets who have a nasty habit of killing their boyfriends, and what happens when the youngest commits their worst crime yet: falling in love with her mark.

Make him want you.
Make him love you.
Make him dead.

Sissy has an...interesting family. Always the careful one, always the cautious one, she has handled the cleanup while her serial killer sisters have carved a path of carnage across the U.S. Now, as they arrive in the Arizona heat, Sissy must step up and embrace the family pastime of making a man fall in love and then murdering him. Her first target? A young widower named Edison--and their mutual attraction is instant. While their relationship progresses, and most couples would be thinking about picking out china patterns and moving in together, Sissy's family is reminding her to think about picking out burial sites and moving on.

But then something happens that Sissy never anticipated: She begins to feel protective of Edison, and then, before she can help it, she's fallen in love. But the clock is ticking, and her sisters are growing restless. It becomes clear that the gravesite she chooses will hide a body no matter what happens; but if she betrays her family, will it be hers?]]> 352 Ren DeStefano 0593438302 Katie 0 to-read 3.66 2023
author: Ren DeStefano
name: Katie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Katie 4 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Katie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/27
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves:
review:
I heard so much chatter about this, and it did not disappoint. The only reason gave 4 instead of 5 stars because I wanted more - so much of this book built of to her realization of the abuse she went through and that piece felt somewhat rushed. I still could not recommend this enough and will be eager to see what Jeanette does next.
]]> 58945991 Come Closer and the Claire DeWitt series.

A mysterious book that promises unlimited power and unrivaled sexual pleasure. A down-on-her-luck book dealer hoping for the sale of a lifetime. And a twist so shocking, no one will come out unscathed.

After a tragedy too painful to bear, former novelist Lily Albrecht has resigned herself to a dull, sexless life as a rare book dealer. Until she gets a lead on a book that just might turn everything around. The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a 17th century manual on sex magic, rumored to be the most powerful occult book ever written—if it really exists at all. And some of the wealthiest people in the world are willing to pay Lily a fortune to find it—if she can. Her search for the book takes her from New York to New Orleans to Munich to Paris, searching the dark corners of power where the world’s wealthiest people use black magic to fulfill their desires. Will Lily fulfill her own desires, and join them? Or will she lose it all searching for a ghost? The Book of the Most Precious Substance is an addictive erotic thriller about the lengths we’ll go to get what we need—and what we want.]]> 319 Sara Gran 0578947099 Katie 4 3.53 2022
author: Sara Gran
name: Katie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/27
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves:
review:
Don't let the fact that it took me....nearly a year to finish this book fool you. I absolutely loved it. This was twisty and nasty in the best possible ways, and it really does not compare to any else that I have ever read.
]]> 56179377
Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.]]> 243 T. Kingfisher 1250244048 Katie 5 4.07 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Katie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/27
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves:
review:
A 5 star fantasy read. Who am I?!? I'll tell you who I am - someone who wants to pick up all of T Kingfisher's books immediately. If you have a favorite of their's please let me know :D
]]> 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 Katie 5 4.69 2019
author: Chanel Miller
name: Katie
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/27
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves:
review:
So behind on reviewing books! This was recommend to me by so many of you when I mentioned in passing that I wanted to read more non-fiction this year. Holy sh*t did this set the bar high. This may be the most I've had to pause and close a book because the writing struck me so intensely. If somehow you have not picked this up, please do so <3
]]> 48758708 672 Mariana EnrĂ­quez 8433998854 Katie 0 to-read 4.44 2019
author: Mariana EnrĂ­quez
name: Katie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42036538
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.]]> 448 Tamsyn Muir 1250313198 Katie 0 to-read 4.19 2019
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Katie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50548197
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) � until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate� or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.]]> 320 Naomi Novik 0593128486 Katie 0 to-read 3.93 2020
author: Naomi Novik
name: Katie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Katie 3 3.82 2020
author: Lucy Foley
name: Katie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/03/14
shelves:
review:
I’m making it a goal to read and review the “goodreads best thriller”every year. I was very let down by the silent patient so I came in this is pretty low expectations but I found it to be so fun! Yes, the number of characters backstories that intersected in such a perfect way was incredibly unbelievable (and the twist is fairly obvious), but I was highly entertained. Perfect if you’re looking for a creepy easy beach read.
]]> 37570548
What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.

Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women.

In this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally gives these women back their stories.]]> 352 Hallie Rubenhold Katie 0 to-read 4.06 2019
author: Hallie Rubenhold
name: Katie
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59414094 Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.

When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.

Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.

But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…]]> 419 Grady Hendrix 0593201264 Katie 5

]]> 3.65 2023
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Katie
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/21
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves:
review:
4.5.5 starts - It's no secret that I was not a fan of Final Girl Support Group, so I was keeping my expectations at bay for this. This gripped me from page 1 and as insufferable as some characters I'm sure were intended to be, this was the most fun I've had reading a horror novel in a long time. Such a fun unique spin on a classic haunted house tale.



]]> 57203848
With Mary defiantly silent, Elspeth turns to the islanders. But no one will speak of what happened to William. Just as no one can explain the hypnotic lullabies sung in empty corridors. Nor the strange dolls that appear in abandoned rooms.

Nor the faint whistling that comes in the night...

As winter draws in and passage to the mainland becomes impossible, Elspeth finds herself trapped.

But is this house haunted by the ghosts of the past?

OR THE SECRETS OF THE LIVING..?

Chilling, twisty and emotionally gripping, The Whistling is an atmospheric page-turner with shades of the classics, yet a unique character of its own. Perfect for fans of Susan Hill and Laura Purcell.]]> 378 Rebecca Netley 0241533996 Katie 0 to-read 3.65 2021
author: Rebecca Netley
name: Katie
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7445 THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.]]> 288 Jeannette Walls 074324754X Katie 4 4.32 2005
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Katie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/26
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 59539716 336 Mya-Rose Craig 1787333205 Katie 0 to-read 3.95 2022
author: Mya-Rose Craig
name: Katie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49046268
Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.]]> 346 Adam Cesare 0062854593 Katie 3 3.73 2020
author: Adam Cesare
name: Katie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/11
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves:
review:
3.5/5 stars. I so wish I had read this during Halloween! This feels like a 80s teen horror slasher but modern day. I loved the characters and was swept away by the first half. While I love some entertaining gore the 2nd half lost me a bit - but that is 100% on me as I'm not a huge action fan and the 2nd half is very action packed. I'll still definitely check out the sequel.
]]> 20342617
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned.

Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.

One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was sentenced to die for the murder of a young white woman that he didn’t commit. The case exemplifies how the death penalty in America is a direct descendant of lynching � a system that treats the rich and guilty better than the poor and innocent.]]> 336 Bryan Stevenson Katie 0 to-read 4.62 2014
author: Bryan Stevenson
name: Katie
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60704443
And they want in.

But they can’t exert their alien will without a connection to our world.

They come at your weakest moment, at your most vulnerable, and they offer a deal. A pact. A favor for you, now. In return, you do a favor for them, later.

Any favor. Something as simple as posting a letter at a certain time. Or something as ghastly as murder. You won’t know until it’s time to fulfill your end of the bargain.

Five individuals make their Pacts out of love. Love of family. Love of self. Love of success.

Alissa Sorrow, a poor scholarship student at Taliaferro Mann, the private school of choice for the elite, finds herself at the center of these Pacts. A point of convergence. These entities want her.

But she doesn’t know any of that. She’s just trying to navigate the treacherous social waters of Taliaferro Mann.

What price will she pay to survive?]]> 284 S.K. Nova Katie 0 currently-reading 0.0
author: S.K. Nova
name: Katie
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 28449257
An educated sceptic, Lib expects to expose the fast as a hoax right away. But as she gets to know the girl she becomes more and more unsure. Is Anna a fraud, or a 'living wonder'? Or is something more sinister unfolding right before Lib's eyes?

Written with all the propulsive tension that transported readers of Room, The Wonder asks what lengths we would go to for the love of a child.]]> 291 Emma Donoghue 0316393878 Katie 4 3.60 2016
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Katie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/30
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 34065268
When best-selling horror author Sam McGarver is invited to spend Halloween night in one of the country’s most infamous haunted houses, he reluctantly agrees. At least he won’t be alone; joining him are three other masters of the macabre, writers who have helped shape modern horror. But what begins as a simple publicity stunt will become a fight for survival. The entity they have awakened will follow them, torment them, threatening to make them a part of the bloody legacy of Kill Creek.]]> 416 Scott Thomas Katie 5 3.73 2017
author: Scott Thomas
name: Katie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves:
review:
This had been on my TBR for years, and now I'm kicking myself for taking so long to read it. I love meta horror so this was right up my alley. I'm surprised to see this was a struggle to get through for some. Easily one of my favorites of the year.
]]> 55315487 Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot is a psychologically suspenseful novel about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it.

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing� of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?]]> 320 Jean Hanff Korelitz 125079076X Katie 4 3.75 2021
author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
name: Katie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/28
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves:
review:
The was the fastest I flew through a book this year. This was excellent until the very very end (in my opinion). This may or may not make an appearance in my best books of the year ;)
]]> 5797 867 William Makepeace Thackeray 0141439831 Katie 0 to-read 3.80 1847
author: William Makepeace Thackeray
name: Katie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1847
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Katie 0 to-read 4.23 2022
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Katie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57190581
When Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors—macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are these bizarre dreams the dark imaginings of a man losing his hold on sanity—or are they harbingers of terrible events to come?Ěý

As Hilton battles both the sociopath threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep, the line between reality and fantasy dissolves . . .Ěý

Chilling and utterly convincing,ĚýThe BetweenĚýis the haunting story of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves as he slowly loses himself.Ěý]]> 304 Tananarive Due 0063157675 Katie 4 3.97 1995
author: Tananarive Due
name: Katie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/28
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:
I adored The Good House, so I was excited to finally pick up a second book by Tanararive Due. While I enjoyed this slightly less it was still a thrilling read. It's premise of a white supremicist is still (unfortunatley) very relevant to 2022 even though this was written a while back.
]]> 58890948
The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.]]> 240 Kiersten White 0593359232 Katie 3 3.30 2022
author: Kiersten White
name: Katie
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/11
date added: 2022/12/07
shelves:
review:
Still playing a bit of catchup on books I read this year. I read this throughout my trip in Ecuador, and this was a perfect fast-paced vacation read if you're a horror lover. Some aspects were predictable, but I did find myself fairly riveted by the story. I also did adore quite a few of the side characters.
]]> 59693959 In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet

Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him as a baby, as she did so many of the village’s children. Ina’s gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina’s home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place.

Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, civility and savagery, will prove to be very thin indeed.]]> 313 Ottessa Moshfegh Katie 2 3.53 2022
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Katie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2022/12/07
date added: 2022/12/07
shelves:
review:
Eileen was one of my favorite books when it released and I enjoy MYOR&R, so I was anticipating this book all year. As you can guess by the rating, this book was an unpleasant surprised. I enjoy dark, nasty little books, but I could find 0 to enjoy here. There was some humor and themes I enjoyed, but I was profoundly bored by Marek. This was decently written but a slog.
]]> 59314692 The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song.

What if the coolest girl you've ever met decided to be your friend?

Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses.

Okay, that part was a little weird.

So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things—terrifying things—that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right?

Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she's making cuts.

Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, The Pallbearers Club is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unusual and disconcerting relationship.]]> 278 Paul Tremblay 0063069911 Katie 2 3.08 2022
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Katie
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2022/11/11
date added: 2022/11/27
shelves:
review:
Unfortunatley this was one of my biggest disappointments of the year so far. I read The Cabin At the End of World and enjoyed it and in general hear nothing but praise for Tremblay. This is not a horror novel in any respect - this is a depressing character study...and I had 0 interest in the main character. Full review here -
]]> 156427 208 Robert Bloch 0747545251 Katie 5 4.12 1959
author: Robert Bloch
name: Katie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/01
date added: 2022/11/27
shelves:
review:
Considering I review horror novels/movies, you would have thought I would be aware that Psycho was based on a book...but this was new information to me ;) Even if you have seen the movie, I would still highly recommend reading the book. I adored the way the women were written and it's a perfect quick read for the fall season. Full review here -
]]> 58438554 Frankenstein, which brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us.

1978: at her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she's home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

The Children on the Hill takes us on a breathless journey to face the primal fears that lurk within us all.]]> 338 Jennifer McMahon 1982153954 Katie 4 3.84 2022
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Katie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/03
date added: 2022/11/27
shelves:
review:
I was so excited to read another book by Jennifer McMahon. I waited far too long considering how much I adored The Winter People. This does take a good 3/4 of the way for the story to pick up but the fact I was still so engaged is a testament to her writing style. Full review here -->
]]> 7054123 The Poisoner's Handbook Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook—chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler—investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, Barnum and Bailey's Famous Blue Man, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler work with a creativity that rivals that of the most imaginative murderer, creating revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. Yet in the tricky game of toxins, even science can't always be trusted, as proven when one of Gettler's experiments erroneously sets free a suburban housewife later nicknamed "America's Lucretia Borgia" to continue her nefarious work.

From the vantage of Norris and Gettler's laboratory in the infamous Bellevue Hospital it becomes clear that killers aren't the only toxic threat to New Yorkers. Modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner. Automobiles choke the city streets with carbon monoxide; potent compounds, such as morphine, can be found on store shelves in products ranging from pesticides to cosmetics. Prohibition incites a chemist's war between bootleggers and government chemists while in Gotham's crowded speakeasies each round of cocktails becomes a game of Russian roulette. Norris and Gettler triumph over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice during a remarkably deadly time. A beguiling concoction that is equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten New York.]]> 319 Deborah Blum 1594202435 Katie 0 to-read 4.00 2010
author: Deborah Blum
name: Katie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Katie 4
Did I enjoy this as much as Eileen? No. But then "enjoy" is an odd word when it comes to the feeling of describing her books. This left an impact and I couldn't put it down (although I'm not sure what impact Moshfegh was trying to have). ]]> 3.62 2018
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Katie
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/06
date added: 2022/09/06
shelves:
review:
The cover of this book has been mocking me front the front of every bookstore for a year now. I read Eileen years back. Eileen left a big impact on me, so I'm shocked it took me so long to read MYORAR.

Did I enjoy this as much as Eileen? No. But then "enjoy" is an odd word when it comes to the feeling of describing her books. This left an impact and I couldn't put it down (although I'm not sure what impact Moshfegh was trying to have).
]]> 57840571 Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.]]> 352 Isabel Cañas Katie 4 3.83 2022
author: Isabel Cañas
name: Katie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/19
date added: 2022/08/29
shelves:
review:
This perfectly set the town for the Halloween season! My only regret is that I didn't wait until Sept/Oct to read this. I can see why so many said that if you enjoyed Mexican Gothic, you will love this.
]]> 16096824
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1619634449 Katie 0 4.17 2015
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Katie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 35458733 When newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge, what greets her is far from the life of wealth and privilege she was expecting . . .

When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure —a silent companion �-that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition--that is, until she notices the figure's eyes following her.

A Victorian ghost story that evokes a most unsettling kind of fear, this is a tale that creeps its way through the consciousness in ways you least expect--much like the silent companions themselves.]]> 305 Laura Purcell 014313163X Katie 0 to-read 3.86 2017
author: Laura Purcell
name: Katie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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