How well do you remember your childhood? Are you sure you’re remembering it correctly?
Lenny Marks is alive, but she’s not living. She’d be fine with How well do you remember your childhood? Are you sure you’re remembering it correctly?
Lenny Marks is alive, but she’s not living. She’d be fine with that if it weren’t for the fact she knows it makes her mom (well, her former foster mom but the closest thing to a mom she’s had in a long time) upset if she doesn’t at least try and engage with the world around her. If Lenny had it her way she’d keep to her strict routines and schedules, never letting anyone get too close to her or know anything much about her. It’s safer that way. No one can abandon you if you don’t let them in, after all.
The themes of abuse, abandonment, fear, anger, loneliness, and loss are all at the heart of Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder. If you think this book is lighthearted at all, be forewarned it’s not. I cried more than once. My eyes are unhappy with me.
Debut author Kerryn Mayne has written a book with an extraordinary protagonist who will rip your heart out from your chest, break it, then repair it before placing it back inside and stitching you back up all shiny and new. Lenny Marks is written as a neurodivergent character who also has a large issue with dissociation surrounding a traumatic event from her childhood. Lenny’s type of neurodivergency isn’t explored or explicitly stated, but Mayne did a terrific job of writing a neurodivergent character without coming across as precious or exploitative. If you don’t fall in love with Lenny I don’t know what kind of person you are, because Lenny is so easy to love. I think that’s why this book has been so widely lauded for breaking people’s hearts and making them cry. You just feel so much for Lenny and what she’s been through. And after all she’s been through, she’s still out there trying her best to survive and do right when so many people who should know better choose to do wrong.
The pacing of this book is lovely, with a natural progression and no filler. Mayne’s writing style is sharp and insightful, with a dark sense of humor and a deep well of emotion. Her characters are well-drawn and her plotting is clear and well-rounded. The dialogue in this book is a delight and one of its best features.
This is definitely women’s fiction, but it’s definitely on the lit fic side of women’s fiction. It’s women’s fiction because the book deals with, in a large amount, issues that widely affect women and their children. The take on these issues is more on the darkly humorous side, which I always enjoy. If you love a tale that ultimately results in revenge, then you’ll end up loving this.
TW for child abuse TW for mild animal abuse (one scene) TW for violence TW for child death TW for domestic abuse
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Dark Comedy/Disability Rep/Literary Fiction/Women’s Fiction...more
There is a difference between envy and jealousy. People seem to forget that sometimes. Jealousy is a secondary emotion borne of fear or anger. Envy isThere is a difference between envy and jealousy. People seem to forget that sometimes. Jealousy is a secondary emotion borne of fear or anger. Envy is when you’re aware that you resent that someone else has something you covet. Most of the time, envy is a subtle thing. Like, “Oh man, I really like those shoes! Those are much better black heels than mine!” Other times, however, envy can grow into something painful and blistering hot. Envy can make people murderous.
In Rouge, we have an envy pas de deux: a mother and daughter who sadly can’t keep away from the toxicity of envy between one another. A daughter who feels so different from her mother due her darker skin color (from her Egyptian father) and dark hair when her mother has red hair, blue eyes, and luminously pale skin. A mother who feels envious of her daughter’s skin because she believes it will age so much better than hers will. A daughter who’s envious of all the men who parade through her mother’s life and take up all the time, love, and affection her mother could be giving her. A mother who’s become so narcissistic she is oblivious to the wide rift she’s created between her and her daughter, how toxic it’s become, and how she’s unwittingly left it so open to dangerous influences.
The sharply funny, barbed satire prose passages lambasting the skin care industry were some of my favorite passages in this book. I just couldn’t keep from smirking at the laundry list of products, even if I’m guilty of using a night cream that does indeed have snail slime in it myself. What was tragic about Belle’s (our main character’s) hyper-vigilant use of these expensive products in a ritualized manner was how she thought she needed to do all this to look more like her mother. She grew up thinking her mother was perfection and she was obsessed with trying to reach it, even if her melanin-rich skin wasn’t meant for it.
The rest of the book, the cult-ish/secret society part of the whole story, was written so impeccably I just don’t know how words could describe it very well. It was all vibes and atmosphere. It had the rich darkness of gothic fiction, the fantastical elements of urban fantasy, the creepy eeriness of occult fiction, the gore and shock of supernatural horror, and the overall lovely, elegant swoop of literary fiction. The whole thing is simply covered in beauty, lust, envy, blood, pain, and grief. I loved every page.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Cult Fiction/Dark Comedy/Gothic/Literary Fiction/Occult Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Satire/Secret Society/Supernatural Horror/Urban Fantasy
Merged review:
There is a difference between envy and jealousy. People seem to forget that sometimes. Jealousy is a secondary emotion borne of fear or anger. Envy is when you’re aware that you resent that someone else has something you covet. Most of the time, envy is a subtle thing. Like, “Oh man, I really like those shoes! Those are much better black heels than mine!” Other times, however, envy can grow into something painful and blistering hot. Envy can make people murderous.
In Rouge, we have an envy pas de deux: a mother and daughter who sadly can’t keep away from the toxicity of envy between one another. A daughter who feels so different from her mother due her darker skin color (from her Egyptian father) and dark hair when her mother has red hair, blue eyes, and luminously pale skin. A mother who feels envious of her daughter’s skin because she believes it will age so much better than hers will. A daughter who’s envious of all the men who parade through her mother’s life and take up all the time, love, and affection her mother could be giving her. A mother who’s become so narcissistic she is oblivious to the wide rift she’s created between her and her daughter, how toxic it’s become, and how she’s unwittingly left it so open to dangerous influences.
The sharply funny, barbed satire prose passages lambasting the skin care industry were some of my favorite passages in this book. I just couldn’t keep from smirking at the laundry list of products, even if I’m guilty of using a night cream that does indeed have snail slime in it myself. What was tragic about Belle’s (our main character’s) hyper-vigilant use of these expensive products in a ritualized manner was how she thought she needed to do all this to look more like her mother. She grew up thinking her mother was perfection and she was obsessed with trying to reach it, even if her melanin-rich skin wasn’t meant for it.
The rest of the book, the cult-ish/secret society part of the whole story, was written so impeccably I just don’t know how words could describe it very well. It was all vibes and atmosphere. It had the rich darkness of gothic fiction, the fantastical elements of urban fantasy, the creepy eeriness of occult fiction, the gore and shock of supernatural horror, and the overall lovely, elegant swoop of literary fiction. The whole thing is simply covered in beauty, lust, envy, blood, pain, and grief. I loved every page.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Cult Fiction/Dark Comedy/Gothic/Literary Fiction/Occult Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Satire/Secret Society/Supernatural Horror/Urban Fantasy
Merged review:
There is a difference between envy and jealousy. People seem to forget that sometimes. Jealousy is a secondary emotion borne of fear or anger. Envy is when you’re aware that you resent that someone else has something you covet. Most of the time, envy is a subtle thing. Like, “Oh man, I really like those shoes! Those are much better black heels than mine!” Other times, however, envy can grow into something painful and blistering hot. Envy can make people murderous.
In Rouge, we have an envy pas de deux: a mother and daughter who sadly can’t keep away from the toxicity of envy between one another. A daughter who feels so different from her mother due her darker skin color (from her Egyptian father) and dark hair when her mother has red hair, blue eyes, and luminously pale skin. A mother who feels envious of her daughter’s skin because she believes it will age so much better than hers will. A daughter who’s envious of all the men who parade through her mother’s life and take up all the time, love, and affection her mother could be giving her. A mother who’s become so narcissistic she is oblivious to the wide rift she’s created between her and her daughter, how toxic it’s become, and how she’s unwittingly left it so open to dangerous influences.
The sharply funny, barbed satire prose passages lambasting the skin care industry were some of my favorite passages in this book. I just couldn’t keep from smirking at the laundry list of products, even if I’m guilty of using a night cream that does indeed have snail slime in it myself. What was tragic about Belle’s (our main character’s) hyper-vigilant use of these expensive products in a ritualized manner was how she thought she needed to do all this to look more like her mother. She grew up thinking her mother was perfection and she was obsessed with trying to reach it, even if her melanin-rich skin wasn’t meant for it.
The rest of the book, the cult-ish/secret society part of the whole story, was written so impeccably I just don’t know how words could describe it very well. It was all vibes and atmosphere. It had the rich darkness of gothic fiction, the fantastical elements of urban fantasy, the creepy eeriness of occult fiction, the gore and shock of supernatural horror, and the overall lovely, elegant swoop of literary fiction. The whole thing is simply covered in beauty, lust, envy, blood, pain, and grief. I loved every page.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Thirst is a lovely vampire (though the term is never used) origin story, following one woman from old Europe (the text is open to interpretation, but Thirst is a lovely vampire (though the term is never used) origin story, following one woman from old Europe (the text is open to interpretation, but the timing and the general narration suggests vampires originated from Vlad Dracul) to the newly opened port at Buenos Aires in the late 18th century where she spends near a century contemplating her never-ending thirst, the pain but necessity of loneliness, her monstrous existence, and the heavy knowledge of her immortality as she chooses to live eternally, locked inside of a lovely mausoleum inside of the labyrinthine La Recoleta Cemetery.
The first 50% of the book is this lovely, sweeping historical fiction that I just described to you. The prose is heavy, gothic, violent, and full of anger aimed both internally and externally.
Then the book switches gears and protagonists for the second half and the story is being told by a human woman with a five year-old child, a mother dying from a disease that is briskly paralyzing every part of her body, and living with the knowledge that disease will come for her someday too. Everyday is another crisis and it’s all blending together until her mother gives her an envelope with the ownership papers and keys to a crypt in the La Recoleta Cemetery. Her mother can’t talk anymore or write more than short words, but there’s something about this crypt that just speaks to her.
Both of these women were just trapped: One by thirst and loneliness, one by family obligation and fear of her own impending demise. This book turns the historical (and still relevant) lack of female agency and the fragility of human life into a sapphic romance about escaping the trappings of men and embracing the arms of monsters.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Sometimes you just know, as soon as you start a book, that it’s going to be a five star read.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books was one of mySometimes you just know, as soon as you start a book, that it’s going to be a five star read.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books was one of my most-anticipated books of the year. Miller’s previous novel, The Change, was one of my top ten reads of 2022. Some call her writing too on the nose. Some say she beats you over the head with the moral of the story. I say she’s brilliant and they’re wrong. Come fight me.
If The Change was magical realism mixed with literary fiction, then Lula Dean is dark satire mixed with literary fiction. (I won’t even pretend that these two mixtures aren’t two of my favorite genre blends in all of fiction). It’s an exaggerated portrayal of a Hollywood-stereotype small town in Georgia that’s suddenly been plagued by a group of “concerned parents” who want to ban books for the “good of the children”. Too bad knowledge always finds a way, right? Because “banned books” find their way into the community through unlikely means, into unlikely hands, and those books are like pebbles in a pond, creating ripples that start to shift everything in the community.
You want to read a book that includes issues plaguing America right now? It’s in this book. All that hate, all the fear, all the ignorance, all of the shame, and all of the misplaced pride. There’s history, cruelty, and tragedy. Kirsten Miller somehow manages to weave it all together with a dextrous panache that never makes the material feel so heavy you can’t lift the next page.
It’s an absolutely fabulous read that pulled me in, hooked me, and I couldn’t put it down.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Literary Fiction/Satire ...more
Often I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and myOften I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and my friends call “jungle juice”: a bottle of this wine, a bottle of this liquor, a bottle of that liquor, a bottle of champagne, a bottle of some clear soda like 7-Up, a whole lot of frozen, chopped up fruit thrown in to keep it cold and to mask the taste of the alcohol… You know? A little bit of everything thrown into one big bowl until it becomes something dizzying, delightful, and unpredictable.
That’s what The Ministry of Time is: part-spy thriller, part-time travel romance, part-science fiction novel, part-psychological fiction, a whole lot speculative fiction (which is really what this novel should just be classified as, but try telling that to marketers), and it’s all wrapped up in such lovely storytelling prose I can only describe it as literary fiction.
This book led me through hill and dale, up mountains and down into valleys. It was funny, only to take a steep drop into darkness. Romantic one second, only to turn around and be bereft the next. Often I didn’t know if I should be crying or not. Sometimes I’d find myself crying and didn’t know I had started. This story and these characters wound themselves around my heart, latching on with hooks, for good or for ill, and I knew this could only end in heartbreak but it was worth holding on anyway.
Insofar as the dynamic between our two main characters and their sociocultural norms and mores, that’s an intrinsic issue built into the framework of the book and is too much to explore in a review. It’s completely interesting, though. I highly recommend the whole thing.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is This book may clock in at 577 pages, but it feels like it’s so much longer. I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a compliment. This book is not a trifling thing–it’s a deep, dense, carefully-constructed, intricately-woven, and ineffably magical text that takes little to no time at all to sink a hook in you before reeling you into a story of an alternative history where Korea has had a shadow government at work behind the scenes since the 19th century. All of its members work to keep Korea unified, but not all of them agree as to how to do so. Some members don’t even know they’re members. Some become members posthumously. Some are tapped to be members, unwittingly, since birth. Cogs become sprockets that move the chain along the track.
To tell you the truth, it’s difficult to describe this book, because it’s not a singular book. There’s essentially four “books” inside Same Bed Different Dreams.
1.The present-day story of our main protagonist, Soon Sheen, a sometimes-author who works for a tech conglomerate called GLOAT;
2. The five “Dreams” that make up the “book” within the book, called “Same Bed Different Dreams”;
3. The story of Parker Jotter, a Korean War veteran/POW and author of a series of sci-fi novels;
4. A handful of miscellaneous stories about historical events that are tied to fiction and fact by tenuous yet absolutely fascinating strings, like absurd Reddit conspiracy theories or internet train wrecks you just can’t look away from;
There are two phrases repeated throughout the text, like magic, ritual, or religion. One’s a riddle and one’s evocative of an axiom or a proverb.
“Did the straight line murder the circle?” (Or variations on this riddle.)
“Same bed, different dreams.”
The first? Well, that you’ll have to figure out yourself, just like I did.
The second? Korea is the same bed. Everyone: the Koreans (North, South, or otherwise), Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Americans? They all have different dreams for that same bed. None of them involve unifying Korea as Korea. They all involve molding Korea into some kind of vision of what they think Korea should be.
This entire book is about the shadow government known as the KPG and their intergenerational efforts to bring about the unification of Korea no matter what. Kick everyone out of the bed. Same bed, same dream. No matter how delusional the vision, no matter how tenuous the ties. No matter how far-fetched the plans or how desperate the hope.
The research that must have gone into this book has to have been insane and had to have taken ages. From obscure film references to real and imagined Korean authors to real-life cults like the Moonies to American games shows to slapstick silent films to the assassination of President McKinley to the fate of KAL flight 007. The list could go on and on. What matters is that not only is the Korean War extensively researched for the purposes of this book (since a great deal of this book centers around the division of Korea), but that every real-life event and/or person has been extensively researched for the matter of this book so that when Park inevitably twists the narrative to fit his alternative history spin on matters, everything that needs to connect does so seamlessly, as if it was always meant to be that way.
Ed Park is an extremely talented author, deftly writing four books in one, all with different tones, tenors, and modes. Soon Sheen’s story of working at GLOAT and reading “Same Bed Different Dreams” in pieces is written like a contemporary fiction novel, with Soon playing the part of a beleaguered father and corporate drone that has become enraptured with a secret book that fell into his hands seemingly by accident. “Same Bed Different Dreams” has a harsh tone and clipped economy of words that reminds one of both a confession and a manifesto. The story of Parker Jotter, Korean War vet, POW, and sci-fi author is written almost like a psychological fiction novel where the protagonist is a psychologically-compromised war vet whose thoughts and ideas might not all be his own. All the miscellaneous stories about historical events and people sprinkled throughout the book here and there vary in tone and complexity but never vary in interest.
This book is a wonder, and one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s barely got a plot. It’s barely got a vibe. It’s barely got atmosphere. So what does it have? Beauty. The beauty of words. That’s all. It’s just a book that’s made up of beautiful words made into beautiful sentences made into beautiful pages made into a beautiful book.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without any offer or acceptance of compensation.
Here in Avalon is a literary fiction novel that exists in a liminal space: it’s a fantasy that’s not quite a fantasy novel, it’s a mystery that’s not Here in Avalon is a literary fiction novel that exists in a liminal space: it’s a fantasy that’s not quite a fantasy novel, it’s a mystery that’s not quite a mystery novel, it’s a thriller but not quite a thriller novel, and it’s magical but not entirely magical realism. The best way I can describe Here in Avalon is it’s a love letter: to New York, to cults, to sisters, to beauty, and to love itself.
I’ve made it no secret that I adore Tara Isabella Burton. I own both of her other novels and adore them. So maybe I’m coming from a place of bias as I read this book and as I’m writing this review, but reading a Burton book is like sinking into a dreamscape. She simply doesn’t see the world the same as I do. Maybe it’s different for other people, but to me she writes the world like it still has mystery, magic, and enchantment to it. For a very cynical person like me who tends to fear everyone and think catastrophically, books like hers are like fairy tales. Maybe that’s by virtue of her academic background. Maybe that’s just intrinsically who she is at heart. Who knows? All I care about is that she keeps writing utterly beautiful books like these for as long as it makes her happy to do so.
The story of Rose, Cecilia, and The Avalon is compelling from the start, from Rose and Cecilia’s negligent childhood and their insistence that New York City raised them to Cecilia’s adult wanderlust that carries her all over the globe to Rose’s adulty-adultiness to the events that lead Cecilia and then Rose to The Avalon…It’s what happens once they get there that starts to whip your heart into a frenzy and turn page over page. The days bleed into nights into weeks into months. It’s so beautiful and sad and lovely.
When I came to the end I was both sad and satisfied. Sad because I had finished yet another Tara Isabella Burton novel and would have to wait for the next. Satisfied because it was perfect.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Cult Fiction/Literary Fiction ...more
I went to a writing workshop taught by author Christian Kiefer once and he said something along the lines of, “Every story is basically The Odyssey toI went to a writing workshop taught by author Christian Kiefer once and he said something along the lines of, “Every story is basically The Odyssey told over and over again in different ways”.
A Short Walk Through a Wide World (to be known as ASWTAWW from here on out) is, essentially, an Odyssean story, save Odysseus starts the journey in 1885 as a nine year-old girl named Aubry finds an enigmatic wooden puzzle ball on the ground in front of the house of a neighbor who has died in her home city of Paris. Very shortly after Aubry finds this ball, she becomes struck with some sort of weird affliction that keeps her on the move: She can’t stay in a city for more than a couple of days without starting to die, and she can never go back from whence she came.
This is a wonderfully written book: It’s engaging, interesting, emotional, insightful, and incredibly intriguing. The book is informally broken up into three acts: The beginnings of Aubry’s journey and some of her lessons in love, her adventures in friendship and the beginnings of discovering what the book calls the “Terra Obscura”, and then the book gets more retrospective and sentimental as Aubry grows older and more forgetful after wandering the Earth for almost her entire life before starting to tie some things together for the ending.
It’s a thoughtfully crafted story, written by an author who obviously treasures knowledge in all forms and put a lot of care into his story.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Coming of Age/Historical Fantasy/Literary Fiction/Magical Realism ...more
Magical realism takes fantastical events and portrays them in a realistic tone. So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t agree with categorizing The PaMagical realism takes fantastical events and portrays them in a realistic tone. So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t agree with categorizing The Parliament as a fantasy novel like it’s being marketed. Because this isn’t a fantasy novel, dark or otherwise. This is a magical realism novel, first and foremost, with philosophically dark themes and horror tropes.
It was everything I hoped for from Aimee Potwatka’s second novel: The prose soared, I sobbed, I felt all the feelings, and I was completely swept away by this incredibly immersive story.
Calling this book “The Birds meets The Princess Bride” (as it states in the marketing material) is a gross oversimplification and absolutely does this book no justice. In mythology, owls symbolize everything from evil omens to talismans of wisdom. In fantasy, a parliament of owls has been used more than once as an unbiased council of judgment. In real life, they are beautiful and peaceful by day but chaotic and bloodthirsty by night.
“In the night, when the owl is less than exquisitely swift and perfect, the scream of the rabbit is terrible. But the scream of the owl, which is not of pain and hopelessness and the fear of being plucked out of the world, but of the sheer rollicking glory of the death-bringer, is more terrible still. When I hear it resounding through the woods, and then the five black pellets of its song dropping like stones into the air, I know I am standing at the edge of the mystery, in which terror is naturally and abundantly part of life, part of even the most becalmed, intelligent, sunny life—as, for example, my own. The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world.” - Mary Oliver
I chose to view the titular parliament as a combination of that fantastical body of judgment and symbols of the underworld. It seems to best fit the themes of this book: grief, regret, anger, violence, abandonment, desolation, loneliness, helplessness, and trauma. Of losing your voice, not having a voice, fighting to have a voice, regaining your voice, and what comes after regaining your voice. Of flight, fight, and freeze. Of responsibility, fault, and blame. About sacrifice.
Aimee Potwatka delivers an amazingly complicated novel containing hugely emotional themes with a deft hand and sweeping prose that carries you away. You’ll feel drawn in and ensconced with these characters as they contemplate how to escape their judgment and survive the parliament of owls.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Disability Rep/Horror/Literary Fiction/Magical Realism ...more
Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern PMary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a dual timeline reimagining of Mary Shelley’s life before she completed her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In one timeline, we are with Mary in Dundee, Scotland, in 1812 as she fostered long-term with the radical Baxter family. In the other, we are with Mary in 1816, “the year without a summer”, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland with her husband Percy, their son William, and her stepsister, Claire. They’re splitting their time between their smaller cottage where they stay with William and his nanny and Villa Diodati, where Lord Byron and John Polidori are staying.
I absolutely loved this book. Adored it, even. Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of my favorite poets, and the mythology of the events surrounding what happened during the “year without a summer” at Villa Diodati is a fascinating subject to me. Mention Villa Diodati within my hearing range and I immediately will swivel my head in fascination. Not to mention the fact Mary Shelley is one of my heroes.
This book was originally written in Dutch, but as far as I can tell, the translation was exceptional. The prose was smooth as silk and never felt awkward to read. I don’t know if this is what translators want to hear, but it didn’t feel like a translation–it felt natural.
The book itself does take some liberties with history when it comes to Mary’s time with the Baxters, but since the book’s most fanciful, whimsical, and even mystical moments take place during this timeline it would make sense for Eekhout to shuffle some things around to make room for her narrative. Mary is only 14 when she arrives in Dundee, happy to be away from crowded London, her indifferent father, the stepmother she doesn’t get along with, and her overdramatic stepsister. She is immediately transfixed by Isabella Baxter, who is a year older than her, and they form an incredibly close bond. It’s here that Mary hears the most stories and begins telling her own. It’s here that Mary discovers the first villain in her life that takes something from her.
No one knows quite for sure what all happened in 1816 at Villa Diodati. We know this is where Claire Claremont fell pregnant with the child that Lord Byron would own up to fathering. This is where Mary Shelley started to pen her infamous novel. Some say this is where Percy Bysshe Shelley became convinced he saw his doppelganger one night. In Eekout’s book, however, this is the place where Mary Shelley remembers the villain she met in Dundee and the stories she heard there. This is where her anger at men and marriage grows. This is where her grief simmers and her depression deepens. This is where she takes up the effort to write a ghost story and decides to write about a monster, instead.
I will tell you that this book is all vibes, imagery, and emotion. While Eekhout is careful not to neglect her supporting characters, you can be sure the focus of her energy is definitely on the complexity that is Mary. You can tell she’s studied Mary Shelley extensively and has her vision of Mary down to a science because her characterization is utterly consistent.
The worldbuilding is lush and atmospheric and the prose is languid, even dreamy in places. It’s a well-crafted and beautiful novel and a lovely fall read.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
When this widget crossed my email I decided to pick it up because I’m always intrigued by the lesser-known female Egyptian rReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
When this widget crossed my email I decided to pick it up because I’m always intrigued by the lesser-known female Egyptian royals and I rarely get a chance to read these ancient historical fiction novels (think like Madeleine Miller’s books). The female Egyptian queens and pharaohs are always intriguing figures, but the daughter of Hapshetsut, whom little is known about? That had the potential to be a great story.
It’s an interesting story, but the execution was average.
Evans, an expert in ancient Egyptian history, clearly knows what she's doing when it comes to world building and imagery. I had no trouble imagining the Egypt of Neferura’s time, from the land to the people. Likewise, her characters were interesting, if a little rote.
The issue I had is that the storytelling was lacking in any kind of flair or color. While readable, it wasn’t special. It was okay for one read, but I wouldn’t read it again. I’d consider it if you’re really digging some ancient Egypt vibes, but not if you’re looking for a dynamic story.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I really have to give this book points for trying.
Unreliable narrator writing an account of her deeds and misdeeds in hindsReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I really have to give this book points for trying.
Unreliable narrator writing an account of her deeds and misdeeds in hindsight to an unknown third party? I loved that up until I found out who she was writing the account for.
The plot of the book being that the narrator is attempting to avenge her sister’s untimely death by gaming academia and the professor she feels is responsible for what happened to her sister? I’m always down for fighting the patriarchy.
A woman who is clever, manipulative, cunning, and willing to lie and cheat to get what she wants? I am always, always down for that.
Throw in lectures and inner discussions about the intersection of law and literature and I mean, come on, that’s just catnip for someone like me.
It’s just…this book took something that could’ve been a slice-and-dice takedown of academia and tamed it down. It felt like every time Hennigan built up to something revelatory or explosive, she backed away. What could’ve been brilliant was turned sentimental.
This book takes place over the fall and spring semester of 2016-2017, so the presidential election of that year here in the US plays a large part in the sociopolitical commentary in this book and I think that takes a lot of the focus off of the main narrative. I think that was a mistake. To me, it read like a crutch for all the other characters in the book to lean on. Even our protagonist and antagonist lean on it from time to time, as if it can explain away actions or reactions. A book set in academia is already going to lean heavily on the themes of patriarchy. There wasn’t really a need to add in the election.
I just think it was a whole lot of material with more potential that could’ve been developed better. It’s still a pretty great read if you like your dark academia on the softer side, but if you like your dark academia with a hefty dose of vengeance then this might let you down.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed here are mine and mine alone. This review was written without recompense. Thank you.
File Under: Dark Academia/Literary Fiction/Psychological Fiction ...more
Ilium is the debut novel by author Lea Carpenter, a espionage thriller with the prose of literary fiction set just after theReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Ilium is the debut novel by author Lea Carpenter, a espionage thriller with the prose of literary fiction set just after the opening of the 21st century in Europe as the third act in an ongoing play of espionage is opening, and a new asset is needed to bring the play to a close.
Enter our unnamed protagonist, a female orphan with a naive sense of romance and no money. She falls in love with a man who owns the house her mother worked in while she was growing up–the one which used to have a garden she fell in love with and dreamed of owning for herself. The man, who is older than her and used to have a reputation as a career bachelor, decides to settle down with her. Right after he does, he tells her two little secrets: he’s dying, and…
This is how our unnamed protagonist is swept up in a plot to gather intelligence on a former Russian operative living in France, near Cap Ferret in a highly-protected compound. First she is there to listen. Then she is there to listen, watch, and process. Then she is there to listen, watch, process, and learn.
I loved the story, as a whole, and the characters. If you read my reviews you know I love spy novels and spy stories. So I thought this would be a win overall. However, the prose style really threw me off. While I can understand Carpenter’s narrative style choice here, it really didn’t suit me well as a reader and I felt it made the story messy. It also slowed down the pacing, which I felt did the story a disservice. I know that as the story leans more toward literary fiction it’s not beholden to the conventions of a standard thriller; therefore, it isn’t held to the same standards of tension and suspension that thrillers are. That doesn’t mean a reader expects there to be so much slowing down for the sake of narrative construct.
It’s a solid read and worth checking out, but not something I’d go out of my way to buy. If you can find it for sale or in a library you might want to give it a go, though.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Things You Must Know Before You Attempt To Read This Book:
1. If you are not already a fervent Chuck Pahalniuk fan (like I am), this book is definitelyThings You Must Know Before You Attempt To Read This Book:
1. If you are not already a fervent Chuck Pahalniuk fan (like I am), this book is definitely not where you want to start reading his work. This is not for beginners.
2. If you ignore my previous point, PLEASE be aware there is a lot of content in this book that could be considered as triggering to readers and in literary fiction it’s not standard practice to include a list of content or trigger warnings. So, take care before you read.
3. This book is going to be very divisive. It will be a book people will want banned. It is going to be a book a lot of people will DNF. I am not one of those people.
4. Chuck Pahalniuk books are almost never about the plot or the characters. They are almost always about the atmosphere, vibe, and the message. Everything else is wrapping paper. Not Forever But For Now is one of those books.
Onto the actual review!
I am so happy to be back in Pahalniuk land! Where everything is as gross and screwed up as possible but the prose is so sharp and the sentence construction is so immaculate I can’t tear my eyes away from the page. A land where the majority of people are only going to see and talk about the most obvious things they read about on the most obvious layer of the book and cast it aside as trash but will never take the time to consider the deeper themes surrounding toxic masculinity and the aristocracy, the dark comedic edge to the text, or the satirical take on the notion of the man child that just absolutely delighted me to no end (having been married to a man child for 18 years myself).
I see review after review calling for a plot, or for this book to be shorter, or (of course) how gross this book is, but all of these pleas are completely missing the point of a Pahalniuk novel: Chuck doesn’t write for the plot or the characters. He doesn’t care if you’re grossed out. After all, art is subjective and art should make you feel. If you feel grossed out then Chuck’s done his job. Chuck’s books are all about the journey, the vibe, and the message. He wants to tell you a story. He has a point, and he’s going to tell it his way. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
This book reminded me a lot of my favorite Pahalniuk book, Invisible Monsters, in the repetition of phrases, in the way Cecil learns everything he knows from his brother Otto and absorbs these nuggets of wisdom like they’re proverbs or psalms. It’s there in Cecil feeling that same sense of ennui that Daisy St. Patience felt as she traveled North America with Brandy Alexander, feeling at times the best of times was behind them and all that lay ahead was to age or to somehow self-destruct. At the same time, I think Invisible Monsters has the better overall story and message.
So, if you’re a Pahalniuk fan, then give it a go, but be aware that you’re in for a real trip. And if you’re not a Pahalniuk fan? I’d consider starting on another one of his novels before attempting this one.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This is the second meta book about, well, books and readers of said books I’ve read in the last couple of weeks (the last being Taylor Adams’ thrillerThis is the second meta book about, well, books and readers of said books I’ve read in the last couple of weeks (the last being Taylor Adams’ thriller The Last Word) and I’ve got to say I’m not hating it. This one is maybe a little more relatable simply because every time I go to write an ARC review I can see what other reviewers think of the same book I just finished reading and sometimes it seems like they read a totally different book than I did. That’s the thing about art, though: It’s subjective. Art is meant to be seen differently by every person that views it. Books are meant to mean something different to everyone who reads them.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It’s subdivided into ten different parts, one for the writer of the book, and then nine others for readers of the book and how it affected their lives. At first, this format is enjoyable. Somewhere around the sixth part, though, the format (and the book, really) starts to become less entertaining and begins to lose steam and impact. In my opinion, it begins to quickly lose the resonance that came through so clearly in the earlier parts. Did I like the ending? No. It was wrapped up too neatly for my tastes. It seemed too serendipitous for a book that is full of messy people and messy lives.
That doesn’t change the facts: No Two Persons is a beautifully written book about a very simple and relatable concept that happens every day. It’s about people from different walks of life who somehow all pick up the same book in different ways and it affects them all differently, which causes them to do what all of us do every day: Think, make choices, change plans, make decisions, move on, maybe even get inspired.
And, hey: Maybe you should pick it up, simply because you’ll get something different out of it than I did. That’s the whole point anyway.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All views, ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I’m sitting here humming “Moon River” as I start this review, because I’m thinking of Ely and Wyatt as the two drifters who are off to see the world aI’m sitting here humming “Moon River” as I start this review, because I’m thinking of Ely and Wyatt as the two drifters who are off to see the world and there’s such a lot of world to see. These two people who are so similar in many ways and yet have a large gulf between them, adrift in life and moored in their mutual, chosen loneliness. Two miserable dinghy-people, just bailing water out as fast as they take it on.
This book could’ve turned out so badly. A nudge one way and it comes out saccharine. A nudge the other way it comes out too pessimistic. Somehow, Victoria Lee kept it steadily walking that earnest and vulnerable line, where she opens up her characters for us and we fall in love with them and watch as they each fall apart and put each other back together, over and over again. This story is sensual, sweet, and optimistic (without coming across as so sunny you’d think Pollyanna was turning the pages for you).
In most romances, I don’t so much get on board for genuine, heartfelt happiness. For some reason, when it comes to LGBTQ romances, that’s all I want for them. I want all the genuine happiness. Maybe it’s a reflection of how many unhappy endings LGBTQ people (especially transgender) get in real life and how much that upsets me. Maybe since I’m LGBTQ and I have a LGBTQ child I just want to see the LGBTQ people in romance novels end up happy because I didn’t and I want better for my own kid someday. This book genuinely moved me. The way Wyatt and Ely propped each other up even when they weren’t romantically involved, the way they supported each other in their sobriety, and the way they were so reverential with one another’s bodies when they were together was an honest show of how much it meant to them to shed every layer and be bare before one another in every way. To drop every veil and reveal everything, including every insecurity and every scar.
Now, I’m new to Victoria Lee’s work, but not only did she show off some serious research chops in this book, but she also brought beautiful prose and excellent dialogue skills to the table. Her characters jumped off the page and added just enough background color and noise that they never took away from our two main protagonists–they just garnished them the right amount.
I loved that this book ended happily, but not with a tidy little bow. Because life is messy. We don’t always get everything we want. But what matters is that we keep trying and holding onto the ones we love. This book definitely conveys that.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I want anyone reading this review to understand something: This isn’t a bad book. It’s actually a really good book. It’s just not a good book for me. I want anyone reading this review to understand something: This isn’t a bad book. It’s actually a really good book. It’s just not a good book for me. Art is entirely a subjective thing. That’s the entire point of it. Everyone gets something different out of it. I can see how much so many people love this novel. Believe it or not, I was extremely excited to read this because I thought I’d adore it; but in the end, it just wasn’t a book that resonated with me in any way. Furthermore, it wasn’t a book I really enjoyed that much, in the end.
Siddiqi is obviously a force to be reckoned with and I hope they continue to write more books. I’ll be watching for the next one and be waiting to read it because she has a distinct and strong writing voice that I feel probably has a lot of brilliant stories to tell. Her prose so easily moves between the dreamy and ethereal to the present and stark reality it’s truly a gift. I greatly enjoyed and appreciated the amount of research that had to have gone into this book, as well as the worldbuilding. I feel her dialogue could use some work, but no author starts out perfect.
The plot was definitely interesting, I just think the satirical aspect of the book and how it was done felt rather cliche in some aspects. It also felt just a little too beaten into the reader, like dough that’s been kneaded so much it can no longer rise. If you beat the reader over the head with something constantly throughout the book they have nothing to rise and discover alongside with as they read the novel.
I absolutely don’t want to discourage anyone from reading this book, though. I feel this book is a matter of personal decision. I encourage you to read it and make up your own mind.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
As per personal policy, this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller websites due to receiving a rating of three stars or under.
File Under: Just Not For Me/Literary Fiction/Satire/Suspense Fiction ...more
The Professor is Nossett’s second novel after 2022’s The Resemblance (which I also rated five stars), the second to feature Marlitt Kaplan as the protThe Professor is Nossett’s second novel after 2022’s The Resemblance (which I also rated five stars), the second to feature Marlitt Kaplan as the protagonist, and so, of course, it follows the same genre feel as its predecessor: a murder/crime thriller with dark academia themes set on and around the University of Georgia campus. Where The Resemblance has a plot centering around sexual assault, rape culture, and Greek life; The Professor focuses on the mental health of both professors and students, how little colleges and universities do to help either party deal with these matters, and how hard it is for professors to maintain a healthy work-life balance with their workloads and pressure to publish or perish in order to gain tenure so they don’t have to work for peanuts.
It’s also a bit about setting boundaries, knowing when to say you’re sorry, acknowledging your failings, accepting the things you can’t change, and rebuilding your life from the ashes.
I am going to note that this book can be read as a standalone, but it’s a whole lot more enjoyable and easier to relate to if you read The Resemblance first. Telling you why would require a lot of exposition, and that’s not what reviews are for. But you’ve been warned.
Lauren Nossett has honed her protagonist, Marlitt, into a fine blade, and she knows exactly how to wield her. You can tell that Nossett must spend a lot of time living inside Marlitt’s head, just thinking and hypothesizing as to how Marlitt would react to any given situation, because Marlitt’s inner narrative and dialogue just flows so seamlessly throughout the pages. There’s not a single hiccough. Nossett also thinks every single plot thread through, leaving nary a string loose. She doesn’t rely on logical fallacies to hold up her plot: you won’t find any red herrings here. We are shown the exposition via the lens of those who experience it and those scenes inform the characterizations of the major players in a way third-person POV never could. It was a very effective tool to humanize characters we otherwise wouldn’t have gotten close enough to so we could empathize with their pain. Putting us right there with them helped us identify with their plights and struggles, letting us inside their heads where not even Marlitt could go.
It’s another brilliant effort by Nossett and I’ll need it in my bookcase ASAP. I have a feeling the next one will end up there too. I can’t get enough.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. In this case, I’d like to extend my thanks directly to author Lauren Nossett, who was kind enough to personally ensure a NetGalley widget made it to my inbox. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without any offer or acceptance of compensation. Thank you.
It’s not a good house for anyone, actually. Maybe a solitary adult male, but it seems that hypothesis has yet to be tested. Honestly, I think the housIt’s not a good house for anyone, actually. Maybe a solitary adult male, but it seems that hypothesis has yet to be tested. Honestly, I think the house just needs to be left alone. Maybe even knocked down. I don’t care how pretty and old and historic it is.
This book was honestly a creepier read than I thought it would be, but I think that may have something to do with being a mom. (If you aren’t a mom and it still creeped you out, then please feel free to let me know). I don’t creep out easily. I don’t get scared watching most horror films or reading most horror books, but one trigger I do have is my fitness as a mother and/or my capability to keep my children safe. A large part of this book has to do with mothers questioning their ability to keep their children safe and their fitness as a mother.
The setting does nothing but add to this dread. The titular house is called The Reeve, and it’s on a cliff in Dorset County in England. The house was built in the early 19th century, on top of those legendary Jurassic-era cliffsides, and has hardly been updated since. There are woods on one side of the property, and a large garden. In the early timeline, there’s a pond on the grounds. In the later timeline, the pond has been haphazardly filled in and covered with grass. This dwelling is far, far from any major city, sitting on the very southern coast of England where no one but locals and tourists have much interest in coming through because there’s not even a ferry crossing near the area. It’s isolated, on top of a hill, and doesn’t exactly look inviting. Not to mention, the locals all know The Reeve has a history to it, even if they don’t like to talk about it.
In the past timeline, set in the late 1970s, the story is told from the point of view of Lydia, a nanny for a widow named Sara who has four children. When Sara’s husband died, she sold their home in London and moved all of them out to The Reeve, which Sara’s husband had purchased for them as a summer home before he passed away. Sara works from home as an accountant, Lydia cares for the children, and a local lady named Dot comes in and does the cooking and some light cleaning.
In the present timeline, The Reeve is purchased by Nick and Orla, who were looking to move to the countryside and closer to his mom and dad. However, Nick didn’t even consult Orla before purchasing the home, and she felt obligated to go along with his decision. Their son, Sam, has selective mutism, and they have an infant girl as well. Nick promises to be home every weekend as he works during the week in Bristol, to help with the massive amount of repairs the house needs, and to buy Orla a car since he’s taking their only one. Nick, of course, either falls short on these things or doesn’t follow through at all.
Collins writes this book with an incredible sense of atmosphere and imagery. Her imagination is vibrant and she manages to capture on page these scenes filled with a combination of morbid wonder and fascinating dread: ghostly children sitting together on tree branches, ghost-white limbs disappearing around tree trunks, bushes, and through fields of tall grass. Dark hair whipping around a corner. A marble rolling down the stairs. Do ghosts live in a realm that adheres to temporal linearity? Are ghosts trapped only in their present and future, or is it possible that we can see ghosts of people who haven’t died yet?
I saw something that called this a feminist tale, and I have to disagree. Lydia doesn’t fully understand, comprehend, or try to empathize with Sara’s grief. All the women in town know there’s something wrong with Orla, yet they only make a token effort to intervene and support her. In the end, everyone–even the women–give up on Orla and Sara. No one tries to rescue them. It feels as if the mothers pay the price for the children, and that’s not feminist. Not at all.
Sadly, in a lot of cases it is realistic. And then those children are left without their mothers. Who says if they’re better off after that?
This book will creep you out and freak you out, but then it’ll make you think about the sacrifices women make in the name of motherhood and all the additional sacrifices we ask them to make. Ultimately, how much is too much to ask of a woman?
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
“...And women like hunting witches, too/ Doing your dirtiest work for you…”
From the first page until the last, this book is a deep well of sorrow and m“...And women like hunting witches, too/ Doing your dirtiest work for you…”
From the first page until the last, this book is a deep well of sorrow and mourning. It’s an elegy turned into a novel, a lament for all women lost to witch hunts (especially the specific one this novel is centered around). These pages are flooded with slow, creeping sadness; an ever-hovering sense of inevitability telling us readers things will only get worse. Things will only get uglier. Things will only get sicker.
We know how the witch hunts went. We know why they happened. We know how they spread. As much as we’d like to wholly point our fingers at the men in these stories, books like these remind us that we also need to check ourselves and remember we pointed our fingers at one another as well, ready to sacrifice even our sisters if it meant saving our own skins.
I applaud Margaret Meyer for choosing to write a main protagonist whose disability serves as both a physical and metaphorical plot device. Martha’s mutism (caused by a childhood illness) takes away her physical ability to speak up for herself or for any other woman and leaves her vulnerable to both ignorant and willful misinterpretation to those who would only see what they wish to see. In tandem, her mutism also metaphorically symbolizes the ways in which all women were not listened to, how their pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears, how no matter what they said their words were turned against them, and how in the end they fell silent on the noose. This aspect of the novel was both the saddest and most touching part, because no matter what Martha did, she knew there was precious little she could do to help when she had no voice. And that only made her feel guiltier.
Meyer composed a deeply moving novel that may be set against witch trials, but the themes of misogyny, internalized misogyny, male privilege, religious zealotry, bigotry, ableism, and more are all interwoven in an even, seamless pattern that starts off as simply ominous until all common sense, human compassion, or even a sense of human decency has been bled out of Martha’s village of Cleftwater. Then, and only then, when the village has hit its lowest low, can the tide begin to change. By this time, Cleftwater is left with a collective trauma.
Even though this book is full of despair and shows the deep, dark ugliness that can lie inside the human heart, it’s so impeccably crafted and beautifully written that I couldn’t stop reading it. I was glued to the page because I needed to see how these women would survive. I needed to know who would make it and how. I needed to see if any of them would make it, frankly. I needed to see if there would be vengeance. I needed to see what would be left at the end of the madness. I was engaged, I was invested, and I felt like I needed to witness this.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Folk Horror/Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction/Women’s Fiction ...more
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