It begins with a book and an impressionable group of girls questioning and exploring tOne of my favorites of 2020!
This book. Readers—you will love it.
It begins with a book and an impressionable group of girls questioning and exploring their sexuality at a boarding school in 1902. Then, a century later, a book is written about the tragedy that occurred there, which is then adapted into a movie. But those are just the broad strokes! There are layers upon layers to unpack here as the book switches back and forth between 1902 and the modern-day happenings and how they connect, influence, and haunt each other.
I adored the sly narrator who injects herself with little comments and jibes throughout. That piece alone sets such an interesting tone, making the book cozy and feel catered just to you, the reader. It's your own personal bedtime tale, but be careful—it can sting.
When I began reading, I actually had no idea who Mary MacLane was (or that she was even a real person) but after doing some research, I really want to read a book of hers, especially as her writing was obviously a huge influence on this book.
With a large cast of diverse characters, the book manages to switch in between them all seamlessly and it spends about half the book just building up the tale. The writing style feels so familiar and has a wry, humorous edge that just enveloped me every time I opened it up. There is no dead space or wasted words in this book. Every sentence builds on the mythology of the boarding school and the widening circle of people who are influenced by what happened there (whether they know the full story or not!). I simply devoured every page, hungry for more. And it just kept surprising me! One of my favorite motifs was (of course) the yellow jackets and their strange premonitory appearances.
One of the main themes of the book is questioning the truth: stories and legends vs the true history (and who decides what's true), what is presented as truth vs what actually is, online personas vs real-life ones, all shades of acting (pretending to be someone you're not to fit in as well as being an actor in movies), making a movie vs the movie-making process. . . I could think about all the threads of this for ages.
A meta-horror, gothic, sapphic novel with illustrations and footnotes about the influence of literature that comments on artistic creation and interpretation—this book is truly an experience. Danforth is a brilliant writer, and one who I can't wait to read more from....more
“Making a language feminist does not start with making the vowels, consonants, or even vocabulary feminist. It starts with transforming the ideologies“Making a language feminist does not start with making the vowels, consonants, or even vocabulary feminist. It starts with transforming the ideologies of its speakers.”
This book will without a doubt be in my top ten list for the year.
“No matter what is wrong with Bunny, whatever you want to call it, one thing is cerThis book will without a doubt be in my top ten list for the year.
“No matter what is wrong with Bunny, whatever you want to call it, one thing is certain—to be sick in the head is not at all the same as being normal sick. If you are normal sick, people will at least pretend to care.”
Darkly comedic while offering a wry and keen perspective on the strange necessity of human interaction and relationships, Kirshenbaum explores depression and mental anxiety—those invisible disorders of the mind.
I related to main character Bunny in so many ways. She just wants to be left alone to read. She says what she thinks and feels in situations—almost especially when it is the wrong thing to say. When she feels like throwing something across the room, she does it. And all the time, there’s something ticking in her mind, something that says—why me? Why am I different, why do I act this way? Why do I feel this way? Why can’t I stop it?
I think we all feel alone in the crowd, at least sometimes.
The first half of the story follows her descent from her point of view, the debilitating feeling of being stuck in your own head and not being able to get out. When no one quite understands what is wrong or how to help you, when it has been a lifetime of struggling just to get to a place of semi-normality. I loved how the narrative—mostly set on December 31, 2008, as Bunny prepares to go out to dinner and a New Year’s Eve party with her friends—is constantly in flux as she remembers pieces of her past, as little moments and objects fit together into a wider narrative of childhood, loss, friendship, and the buildup of her depression.
The second half of the story is what happens next, when it all becomes too much, and in Bell Jar, Girl, Interrupted, and Cuckoo’s Nest fashion, an abrupt new way of life begins, for better or for worse—for real or imagined.
Brilliant, thought-provoking, emotionally stirring, truly relatable, and a true reminder of the power of fiction.
My thanks to Soho for my copy of this one to read and review. ...more
It may be a Boy’s Life, but it sure is a girl’s life too, because I had some strong feelings and connections while reading this book. I didn’t grow upIt may be a Boy’s Life, but it sure is a girl’s life too, because I had some strong feelings and connections while reading this book. I didn’t grow up in this same time period or in the South, but McCammon creates such relatable characters and gets to the universal truths of childhood and the human condition: love, belief in magic, adventure, friendship, and darker truths like grief, loss and the realization of the darknesses that exist in people, like racism and prejudice, poverty, and the capacity for murder.
This book has it all.
I was captivated from the opening, where eleven-year-old Cory and his father witness a car with a dead man sinking into a lake. That is the mystery that plagues Cory throughout the book, always at the back of his mind through encounters with bullies, oversized alligators, and severe storms, through his development as a writer, as a friend, and into a young man.
This is a coming-of-age tale, a mystery, an adventure tale, a horror story—there’s something for everyone. It sheds light on realistic situations like prejudice and outright racist sentiments toward the black people of the community. Cory watches his father go through the trauma of reliving that day at the lake and how it consumes him. He experiences persecution of his own with boys that torment him for seemingly no reason at all. Sometimes it is sad—we lose those we love, those who go before their time. But it allows for the magic of childhood to shine through, with scenes of boys imagining themselves flying on their bikes, heroic triumphs against the bullies, and the fun of summer that can only be had when you’re eleven.
This book is a masterpiece, a triumph. It is definitely a new all-time favorite of mine (though it came out in 1991). McCammon writes horror the way King does, getting to the core of the characters—the people—and what they feel, what makes them scared, what makes them happy, what motivates, frustrates, and moves.
A brilliant novel that stands the test of time. ...more
re-read via audio. I would have loved it even more if it had been narrated by a woman, since the book is mostly from Clarice's perspective, but Frank re-read via audio. I would have loved it even more if it had been narrated by a woman, since the book is mostly from Clarice's perspective, but Frank Muller is quite good....more
Peter Mendelsund has long been on my radar as my favorite cover designer—I swear I can spot a Mendelsund cover face out on any shelf upon entering a bPeter Mendelsund has long been on my radar as my favorite cover designer—I swear I can spot a Mendelsund cover face out on any shelf upon entering a bookstore. What a truly wonderful surprise to find out he is a talented wordsmith as well as a designer!
While this story is probably not for everyone (though I’m going to recommend it to everyone like it is), if you are someone who struggles and triumphs through your own creative pursuit day after day, you will find much in this book to relate to. It is a story working on several different levels: it is telling a story of its own, imitating a story, offering a metafictional inditement about identity and simulacra, and inciting a book-length metaphor all at once. It both exists as a novel and as a parody of the form all at once.
And not only that (as if all that weren’t enough), but it is also impeccably crafted, a true masterwork of language with innovative stylistic choices, vivid and unique imagery, and great characterization. I expect many more novels to come from Mendelsund.
It took me a while to fully settle into the story, and while I generally speed through a book in two to three days, this novel took me about a month to read. Every time I opened it up, I fell into a meditative rhythm that I don’t often find while reading and I really felt that I was absorbing every word, every sentence, every sentiment.
One of the most intriguing paths of the book is a strange shop that main character Percy visits, the titular Same Same shop, where anything Percy gives the proprietor is replicated to perfection. So begs the question (that Baudrillard would have us ask) which is original? Which is real? And does it matter?
All of a sudden, something clicked for me. This wasn’t just a story about a man who comes to a secluded Institute to finish his unspecified great project alongside other fellows, it was an extended metaphor for the creative process, for the idea that nothing exists, nothing is real, unless we create it—pluck it from the thin air of our thoughts and write it, dance it, code it, build it—whatever.
Toward the end, the book turns inward, reflecting on self-identity, the nature of individuality, and revealing Percy as an unreliable narrator.
I loved every minute of this book. It is one I feel I need to read again to fully comprehend, and I’d do so gratefully, just to spend more time between the covers. Unmistakably, a work of great care and genius.
My thanks to Vintage/Random House for my copy of this one to read and review....more
If you are looking for a true master of the short story format and want something to chill your bones for this spooky month of OctobeAces all the way.
If you are looking for a true master of the short story format and want something to chill your bones for this spooky month of October, look no further. By turns dark and devious, inventive and spilling over with brilliantly turned out prose, this book is perfection and a perfect companion for the creep in all of us. ...more
This book grabbed hold of my heart, and I think a piece of it lives there now.
Davidson writes with this truly “Memory becomes what we need it to be.”
This book grabbed hold of my heart, and I think a piece of it lives there now.
Davidson writes with this truly timeless quality that doesn’t wax nostalgic about any specific era but rather about the human condition. Wading through the waters of loss, the frailty of memory, and how the past informs the present, this feel-good, coming-of-age tale will resonate no matter what decade you grew up in.
Who can say how memory really works? When we look back on certain events, do we view them through rose-colored glasses, filtering out the bits that weren’t as great? Will other people remember events differently because they actually happened differently, or just because they had a different perspective or feeling at the time? And what about when memory stops working altogether? Who are we without our memories?
I loved the slightly meandering style of the writing, how Jake looks back on this specific summer of his childhood through the lens of his adult experience while still not claiming to have all the answers. His character felt so real, like there could be a little piece of all of us in him and his friends. Though the story Jake tells is very unique and specific, at its core, it is a universal story, and one that we constantly deal with, even after we grow up.
Can I also say that I hope and dream for stores like the Occultorium to exist forever and ever? I wish there was one in my town. Oddities stores are just the best, and I’d love to visit the one described in this book. It sounds epic.
This is my idea of a perfect summer read, one to be read on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the middle of a cemetery. And that’s just where I enjoyed it. Hit me up if anyone is looking to start some kind of Saturday Night Ghost Club irl, because I am in.
Truly an underrated and neglected horror author, Ken Greenhall and this book should be considered classics in the genre.
The book doesn't scream for atTruly an underrated and neglected horror author, Ken Greenhall and this book should be considered classics in the genre.
The book doesn't scream for attention but instead has an insidious heartbeat always just beneath the surface. I was constantly surprised by the insightful comments from the characters that really got to the core of human behavior. Greenhall had a real eye for what makes people the way they are and the human condition.
For being so slim, this volume really packs it in and took me several days to read, though you definitely could devour it in one sitting. There is just a lot to unpack!
The story follows Baxter, a psychopathic bull terrier (my diagnosis). He tries to figure out people and live the life he wants to live, the life he believes he deserves, even when the people who own him seem to be getting in the way.
Baxter is not the only narrator, though. For only 139 pages at a small trim size, there is a whole cast of other human characters offering their voice to the page and the reader is given a look into the workings of their vicious, lazy, neurotic, thoughtless, and truly unique minds.
To my mind, this is truly a master work.
I am looking forward to getting my paws on his other reissues from Valancourt. ...more
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby is without a doubt in my best-of-2017 list for the year. It is the type of book that as I came closer to the end, I found myself reading smaller chunks at a time, savoring the book and trying to keep it from ending. It is a phenomenal achievement and it is so impressive that it is Cherise Wolas’s debut novel.
The book centers around Joan Ashby, who, in the beginning, is a wildly successful literary author in her mid-twenties. After having sworn off men, love, marriage, and especially children, she gets married and finds herself expecting a child. Knowing full well that it will change her life and the trajectory that she has in mind for herself, she decides to have the baby anyway, to start a family and make her husband happy, though it isn't what she wants. One becomes two, and her writing, though she tries to keep it alive, gets pushed to the background in the intervening years as motherhood consumes her.
The novel is an exploration of self and identity, what it means to find yourself and how your experiences and choices collect and culminate to make you who you are. It is devastating, opening, and ultimately a redemptive story—one that I felt very at home in, despite not having much in common with Joan’s personal struggles.
The character of Joan is so richly rendered that she feels very real, so real, that I expected to be able to walk into a bookstore and find one of her own titles sitting there on the shelf. I loved that bits of her novels were worked into this book; they were an unique passageway not only into her own mind but even more so, into how others chose to view her.
Not only is the story compelling, but the writing is just exquisite. This is the type of literary novel that you want to get completely lost in. Rich descriptions of place and vivid depictions of people (not just characters, but seemingly three-dimensional people) just permeate each page.
I can’t recommend this book more highly. Not only will it top my list this year, but I will be recommending it for a long time to come.
Thank you so much to Flatiron Books for sending me a finished copy of this book....more
Man, oh man. Maybe it's goodbye to the age of the zombies and hello to the age of demonic possession.
After some heartwarming backstory, the narrative really kicks in when Abby's best friend Gretchen begins acting strange after she gets lost for a night in the woods. Abby knows Gretchen like she knows the back of her own hand, so she knows something is wrong, but no one else seems to share her concern. At least, they don't seem to think that something else has taken over Gretchen's body. Her other friends drop Gretchen like yesterday's gossip and somehow Gretchen's parents think that Abby is the cause of the change in their daughter and ostracize her.
It's an intriguing, witty, and often tense mix of Mean Girls and Scream where you don't quite know who to trust, cliques are reorganizing daily, and you aren't sure who is going to make it to the end of the story.
Abby is determined to figure out what's going on with Gretchen and drag her back from whatever hell she's writhing in, even if it means that Abby is going to have to make some sacrifices along the way.
Although the idea of Horrorstör was interesting, I found the execution to be less than solid, so for this book to skyrocket up to 5 stars is pretty phenomenal. I read this guy in one sitting and I know I'll be diving back in.
There are lots of people who write thrillers, but there aren't lots of people who write horror, let alone lots of women, Brilliant, simply brilliant.
There are lots of people who write thrillers, but there aren't lots of people who write horror, let alone lots of women, so this book already stands out in the genre. Plus, although this book is definitely horrific at times, it is also an intelligent crossover that will appease fans of both genres. I'm not really sure how I missed it last year when it came out, but I read her second book, Broken Monsters, and had to get my hands on this one. It's deliciously twisted and a little bit supernatural, but it still inhabits our world in a way that makes you wonder...
I love the time travel aspect, and the fractured way the details are revealed really makes the reader work to put the story together. For me, the character Kirby is a perfectly written mid-twenties girl, which is not an easy task to take on. She's smart, but not obnoxiously so, sassy, but not a diva, and she's not afraid to get her hands dirty and do whatever it takes to find her would-be killer. She is truly likeable, unlike so many of her counterparts in other thriller type books.
Lauren Beukes is a writer who I look up to and hope to emulate in my own writing. I can't wait to read what she comes up with next!...more
Audra (ouija.reads)
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