The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft

 

I picked this up from a lending library because I really liked the cover and it had a mixed media mystery format that kind of reminded me of Marisha Pessl's NIGHT FILM, which is one of my favorite books of all time.

THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY is a pretty bizarre book. This literary phenom of an author (compared to authors like Borges, Ishiguro, and Murakami) is in the middle of the Polish wilderness, surrounded by a summit of her translators who at first self-identify and identify each other by the languages they work on. Our narrator is Spanish, but there's also Swedish, Serbian, English, etc.

Irena Rey is about to release a new book, which is why they're all there, but instead she's acting super weird. Her husband is nowhere in sight, now she's claiming that there isn't a book, she's feeding them weird mushrooms and shit, and ceremonially dispenses these weird and creepy goodie bags that none of them can figure out.

And then she goes missing.

I liked the premise of this book a lot but it didn't feel like it knew what it wanted to be. So it ended up being one of those really strange and bizarre books where I couldn't tell if it got lost in its own mythos or if I genuinely was too stupid to figure out what was going on. I often feel this way after reading some of Mona Awad's work, so if you're a fan of that author, you may well enjoy this. I almost DNFed but I wanted to pull through just in case the ending was worth the pay-off (it was not, imo).

2.5 out of 5 stars

Given to the Ghoul by Desirée M. Niccoli

 

GIVEN TO THE GHOUL was a free download during the Monster SYKD event and I was excited for this one because even though I don't read a ton of monster romance, I was familiar with this author's work and knew I really enjoyed her writing style.

GIVEN TO THE GHOUL is a very short novella about a woman living in a desert town that kind of has a sort of death cult lottery system: to appease the ghouls that live in the desert, they occasionally sacrifice one of their own. This year, because she rejected his advances, the sheriff has decided to rig the system and make sure that Mina's name is the one that is called. Not before he offers her a Judge Claude Frollo "choose me or the fire" moment first, though.

Mina is dumped in the dessert with a single bottle of sunscreen and a canteen of water. The days are hot and the nights are freezing, and when she meets the ghoul she's exhausted-- but he isn't what she's expecting: he brings her a sandwich and promises he isn't going to eat her. Well... not in that way, anyway. Hehehe.

I really liked this story, for what it was. Like other reviewers, I wish it was longer. I think she could have gotten a whole book out of this premise and raised it to R. Lee Smith survivalist horror heights. Not that I'm telling the author how to write-- I just wanted more, because their society was so twisted, and it was such a "maybe humans are the real monsters" moment that I was curious about how they functioned. The pacing is super fast burn but I thought the relationship between Garyth and Mina was cute. Get you a man who gets you the skulls of your book-burning enemies for your garden.

Read this book and then get yourself FOLLOW ME TO THE YEW TREE as a little treat afterwards.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

Such A Good Guy: A Brother's Best Friend Dark Romance by Kate Raven

 

SUCH A GOOD GUY was a surprisingly humorous read: it's about a sociopath who's obsessed with the younger sister of his so-called best friend. He's also a pop star with a bubbly golden retriever personality that the heroine describes as a "psychotic surfer" and who self-describes as having a "reptilian" personality with a "brain full of a forest of knives." So yeah, he's a fun, rabid little golden retriever man.

Luna, the object of his affections, is an introvert who owns a crystal shop. She bemoans the lack of good men out there, and sees Luke, Mr. Psychopop, as one of the last morally decent guys out there. We know better of course, but part of the fun is waiting for her to realize that he's been busy hoarding her hair and teeth and impregnating her in her sleep, when he's not murdering people in Plant Daddy t-shirts.

I don't know how Kate comes up with these stories but I hope she never stops. Luke is up there now with Viscount St. Erth and Je Sweet as one of my favorite psychos.

Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a copy!

3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

 

If you're a dark romance author or content creator and you have a video go the tiniest bit viral on Instagram or TikTok, you will have no shortage of comments telling you to go to therapy. Ironically, I'm in therapy, and both therapists I've had have been fully supportive of my writing career, which kind of makes me suspect that these helpful armchair diagnosticians might not have my interests at heart (ikr?!).

When I first heard about this book, I was a little skeptical because it felt like it could be another gimmicky pseudo self-help book like EAT, PRAY, LOVE (which I struggled with-- especially in the PRAY and LOVE portions). But to my surprise, MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE hooked me right in from the get-go: it's about an LA therapist talking about some of her more difficult and emotionally draining clients, but also about what led her to get into therapy in the first place... and what eventually made her seek out a therapist of her own.

This book made me laugh and it also made me cry multiple times. I just lost my dad to cancer, and we sometimes had a difficult relationship, so a lot of passages in this book really hit hard. But it also provided a lot of consolation, too, knowing that a lot of other people are in the exact same boat, and that life goes on... until it doesn't. MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE is like reading a book from a comforting friend who doesn't pull back any punches when it comes to the hard truths. And it turns out, I really needed that.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk

 

There's something very old-fashioned about THIRST. It has the vibes of one of those older vampire novels from the 90s and before that go heavy on the old skool goth vibes (mausoleums, family tragedies, creepy statues, Europe), but it feels fresh even as it feels familiar because of the unique Argentinian setting: this book is set entirely in Buenos Aires.

There are two parts in this book. Part I is about the vampire herself and the shenanigans she gets up to, making people into her helpless thralls who are only too happy to give up their blood (eventually), her doomed attempt at making companions, and the solitude that comes from having a thirst that spells out doom for anyone mortal.

Part II is about the human, a single mom newly separated with a mother who has MS (I think?). She's trying to navigate her newly single status even as she attempts to come to terms with her mother's looming death. The way that the two stories intertwine is unsurprising, but what makes this read interesting is the listlessness of the narrative, and the dimensionality given to both protagonists.

If you read a lot of vampire books, I don't think you'll be surprised by anything in THIRST. It's sapphic and Argentinian so even though it's an old story, the portrayal of the characters and the setting are what make it novel and different. It's a pretty depressing read so if you've recently had a loved one pass of a degenerative disease, this book could be triggering because it dives into full detail about the psychological effects of seeing that and as someone who just lost her father to brain cancer, that was really hard for me.

Overall, though, this book was great and I really enjoyed it.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates

 

Darcy Coates is one of my autobuy authors but some of her books can be a little hit or miss. That said, I think THE HAUNTING OF ASHBURN HOUSE might actually be her best one yet. It has everything I love about books by authors like T. Kingfisher-- scrappy heroine who feels a little neurodivergent coded, animal sidekicks that don't die, emphasis on female relationships-- with some genuinely scary moments of horror that actually gave me nightmares.

Adrienne is surprised when she inherits Ashburn from her distant aunt Edith. She only has one memory of ever going there as a child, and it involved her and her mother fleeing in a car and the scent of blood. When she gets to the house, something is immediately off. Only the downstairs is wired for electricity, there are strange notes and instructions carved into every surface, and paintings of the family that seem to shift and turn to watch her as she goes down the hall.

The townsfolk remember her grandmother as a cold and distant woman who occasionally demonstrated moments of goodness, but that seems at odds with the portrait the house paints of her: a twisted and increasingly unstable woman who might have done terrible things whose marks remain in the very walls. Adrienne must find out what kind of woman her aunt really was-- her life may depend on it.

I thought Adrienne was a fantastic and resourceful heroine and I adored her cat, Wolfgang. I also thought that in addition to the focal horror element, this book is primarily focused on relationships between women (Adrienne meets a group of would-be friends that end up playing a significant role in the story) and connections between family matriarchs (in this case, her aunt Edith). It felt empowering and surprisingly touching, and even though I generally prefer my gothic horror with a generous side of romance, there's nothing I would have changed about this book. I read it in about three hours.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

 

BLESSINGS is a fascinating coming-of-age story about Obiefuna, a queer Nigerian man who navigates his sexuality amidst the changing landscape of the country, starting from its post-militarization and ending with the criminalization of homosexual marriage in Nigeria.

If you love boarding school settings, I think you'll really enjoy this book. Obiefuna's school is draconian, and filled with hypocrisy (similar to the books I've read about the British school system, older boys take advantage of younger boys, sometimes sexually, and some of the teachers and admins are predatory). In boarding school, he meets his first love, a boy named Sparrow, who makes him feel things that he's never felt about anyone, which makes him feel valid and whole.

The story about his mother, Uzoamaka, was less interesting and also very sad. She ends up sort of being the catalyst that ultimately ends up leading to the conversation that Obiefuna never had with his father, but this also makes her kind of feel like a literary sacrifice. But many parents sacrifice for their children, so this narrative device didn't bother me as much here as it might have in another story. Especially when all of the characters were so poignant, and they all felt very realistically flawed and troubled.

Picked this up on a whim and was, once again, not at all disappointed. An excellent work of African lit.

3.5 out of 5 stars