Umm, could someone please explain A House at the Bottom of a Lake to me? Because I sure as hell don’t get it. Admittedly, that could just be me. This could be another Bunny situation going on, where I’m just not existential enough to understand what I just read. This novella by Josh Malerman (of well-deserved Bird Box fame) is a horror story…kinda. Two teenagers row out to some hidden lake where they go swimming and discover an actual...
Two people in two days told me to read The Midnight Library, and I'm rather glad they did. I'm also glad that I listened to them. This unique, thought-provoking novel by Matt Haig takes a "road not taken" approach -- a suicidal woman, Nora, is magically transported to the "midnight library," a place where each book contains the story of the life she could have lived, if she had only... . Nora then emarks upon various choose-your-own-adventure...
I never really think of December as a spooky time of year, but author Cassandra Parkin manages to change that with her book The Winter's Child. This suspenseful novel is full of twists and turns, ghostly premonitions and ghastly visions as main character Susannah waits for her long-lost -- and possibly deceased-- son to return to her on Christmas Eve. Susannah's a frustrating main character. She's clearly grieving and needs mental help, but...
Midnight at the Blackbird Café is as wonderful and lovely as its book cover. Please read it. There. DONE! Book review complete. Oh, okay. I suppose I should tell you a little more about why I blazed through this utterly charming novel by Heather Webber. Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe combines all of my favorite genres: Southern fiction and magical realism and foodie fiction (oh my!). The minute I stepped into Wicklow, AL and main character Anna...
The Lost Apothecary is one of my favorite books of 2021. BOOM! I’ve said it. This debut novel by Sarah Penner has been making waves across the literary world, and it’s easy to see why: one page, one paragraph into the story, and I was completely sucked in, like a muddy boot into the bottom of the Thames. Penner’s writing is as gorgeous as The Lost Apothecary’s book cover. (Fellow writers: you know the “unicorn author” that we all...
I uttered "What the fuck?" an unprecedented number of times while reading Bunny. That’s pretty much the only reaction you can have to this novel by Mona Awad. It's a complete What the actual eff??? ride from beginning to end. Bunny takes place at a prestigious art school. There’s a pack of hoity-toity, grad school women there who behave like middle schoolers; they roam around in a pack, affectionately calling each other “Bunny” like...
In Five Years isn't the book I thought it'd be. In a good way. Everyone seemed to be reading this Rebecca Serle novel last year during quarantine, so I was excited to score a copy from my library as quickly as I did. I'd just read two heavy books back-to-back, and I wanted -- nay, needed -- a fun, breezy women's fiction/romance to lighten up my mood. Well. In Five Years was NOT the book to pick up for that. But, I'm glad I read it anyway. You'll...
House of Salt and Sorrows is aptly named: there's a heck of a lot of Salt, and there's way more sorrow than necessary plaguing the Thaumas family. The more you read, the more you're like, Sheesh, hasn't this family been through enough??? Despite having more money than Pontus, the one thing they don't have is the ability to keep their women out of harm's way: in the past few years, Annaleigh Thaumas has lost her mother and four -- four! --...
Little Darlings by Melanie Golding is So. Freakin’. GOOD. I’m not usually a fan of stories that blur the line between supernatural and psychotic – is there really something otherworldly going on, or is the main character just crazy? – but Little Darlings may be one of the best exceptions I’ve ever come cross. Fair warning: don’t read this book if you have an intense fear of child abduction. This book made me sleepless, and I don’t...
Aunt Dimity and The King's Ransom is cozy AF. I know, probably not how you expected me to begin this book review. Especially with the name "Aunt Dimity" in the title. But, "cozy AF" is the best way to describe this light, cute, and almost wholesome mystery. It begins with a cozy family living in a cozy Cotswold village. *swoon* Main character Lori is overstressed, so her too-perfect-to-be-true husband books them a romantic weekend away at a...
