Gallows Pole by Eris Adderly

 

GALLOWS POLE was a fun, quick read that felt like it was inspired pretty heavily by 80s and 90s bodice-rippers. The heroine, Emmat, is a highwaywoman. Her brother is also a criminal and one day, her parents send her out to prevent his execution, telling her that if she can't come back with him, she shouldn't come back at all. Desperate, with a hangman unwilling to take her bribes, Emmat offers herself in her brother's stead.

There is dub-con, obviously, but this is not a dark romance where the heroine feels like a victim (for those of you who don't like that). It also has a surprising amount of genuinely funny moments. She is spirited and full of fire, and gives back as good as she gets. Vane, the hero, is a morally complex man with a tragic backstory who comes to her in darkness when he isn't wearing his hangman's hood (so I guess you could say there's a Masked Man element to this book, too).

Some of my favorite moments were when the heroine lies about having his period to avoid sleeping with him and he tells her that her hand isn't on its period (lol). The fact that he shame-facedly trotted out to wash at the well as SOON as the heroine told him he smelled was also great. We stan a man who wants to look and smell good for his lady. I also lol'd when he stormed out to find a chaplain to marry them in his weirdly dark depressed-person house. A+

I've never read anything by Eris Adderly before but I will now definitely be reading more Eris Adderly.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

 

JUST LIKE HOME is one of the weirdest horror novels I've ever read, but I really liked it. Vera is an emotionally stunted young woman who grew up in pretty terrible circumstances: her mother was abusive and distant and her father was loving but also a serial killer. Now her childhood home, Crowder House, is a place of spectacle and speculation. When Vera's mother asks her to return home, an avalanche of old memories is released, tying Vera to her traumatic past and the dark secrets that still lurk in the house's even darker shadows.

I loved the writing style of this book. It was so evocative and visceral and gritty and gross. Body horror is something I have a hard time with usually, but the way Gailey couched it in all this metaphorical, poetic language made it feel almost like fairytale violence. I also liked how this book straddles several genres of horror-- serial killer, haunted house, family secrets, moral corruption, splatterpunk, monsters. Go in expecting fluids and trauma for sure, but prepare yourself for an ending that is probably more touching than you'd suspect.

4 out of 5 stars

Before We Were Strangers by Brenda Novak

 

This is the third book I've read by Brenda Novak and it was so good. Like, seriously, could this woman please spare some talent for the rest of us? It is very rude of her to hoard it all to herself, please and thank you. That said, if she keeps writing gothics and historical romances and dark small town romantic suspense novels, maybe she can keep at least a little all to herself, because holy shit, this was good.

BEFORE WE WERE STRANGERS is a second chance romance set in a toxic Texas town called Millcreek. Sloane is a famous model who has taken a break ever since her father figure/agent got sick. Plagued by questions of something disturbing she saw as a child, she goes home to find out whether her father really did murder her mother, as she's suspected all along.

Her father is the mayor of Millcreek and doesn't take kindly to the prospect of being implicated in old crimes, especially from the estranged black sheep daughter who ditched her boyfriend when she left, causing him to turn to her ex-best friend. Now he's a cop and a father and an ex-husband, who's more than still half in love with Sloane. Enough that he'll probably help her with an investigation if she asked, which is a big NO as far as her dad is concerned.

This was just so deliciously messy and the suspense was really well done and blended nicely with the romance. Honestly, this was perfectly paced, with some great twists, and as always, I appreciated how realistic and fleshed out all of the side characters were. Paige, Sloane's ex-BFF, did some terrible things but she was never a cartoonish villain. You could see why she did what she did even if you kind of hated her for it. I also literally never read cop romances, so the fact that this won me over to a trope I normally avoid speaks so much in its favor. Like, job well done, Ms. Novak. Seriously.

I'm so glad that I could buddy read this with my friend, Sarah. She joined me on my other two Novak adventures and we're three for three in solidly good books at this point. 

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

 

It's 1995. A teenage girl named Kerry goes to the 24 Hour Laundromat to get her younger brother's stuffed koala bear, only to find herself in the middle of a dangerous situation: a group of adults are holding a teenage boy hostage, claiming that he's a vampire. The plan seems to be to kill him-- right in front of her. After she ends up getting held hostage, too, Kerry takes advantage of a moment's lull to free the boy.

She thinks that he's innocent, like her. But she's wrong.

The result is a road trip of the night, where she's forced to play Scheherazade to a vampire's twisted plans for revenge... or die.

COMPANIONS OF THE NIGHT is one of my favorite vampire books of all time. The writing style reminds me of L.J. Smith's, and even though it takes place over only a couple of days and is a very short book (a novella, really), it feels cinematic. You read it, thinking that it would make a great, campy 80s style movie with a rock soundtrack.

I know it's YA but it's good YA, with complex themes about mortality, morality, and some of the best banter I've ever seen. Everyone who loves vampires should read this.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Winterscape by Anastasia Cleaver

 

Screaming, crying, throwing up. WINTERSCAPE is a gothic romance written by one of my favorite authors, Natasha Peters (although Anastasia Cleaver is her gothic-specific pseudonym). I don't think I've given a single one of her books less than five stars. Whether she's writing first person or third person, she is a TALENT. Her literary references and attention to detail are just fantastic, and nobody does cruel, flawed, and seductive heroes the way she does. Like, no one.

Helena is the daughter of a piano musician who has spent most of her life poor, traveling from gig to gig with her father. Her father was two steps removed from Chopin, but the two of them are the literal definition of starving artists. When she sees an ad for a piano teacher after her father's untimely death, she answers it. But the family she's working for is strange. They are the Vallelongas family, and the patriarch, Andreas Vallelonga is a manic trickster cast in the mold of Edward Rochester whose once-beautiful wife is now haggard and dying, and he himself was once a piano master who destroyed his hands while drunk by cutting them on broken glass.

Her job is to tutor Andreas's son, Michele, who has a hump and a limp, and has been treated like shit by both his parents. She was actually hired by his uncle Daniele, and has quite the nasty surprise when Andreas intrudes on one of their lessons and says, "If I can't play piano, NO ONE CAN!" But Helena is unfazed and dresses him down, which he finds intriguing and amusing enough to let her stay. What results is a family drama of the finest order, with drunken aunts, crazy religious aunts, player uncles, scheming uncles, and an evil patriarch and matriarch who are used to having everyone dance to their own tune. Everyone is playing along because the family inheritance is on the line, but when someone dies unexpectedly and poison is suspected, suddenly, Helena finds herself in the line of fire...

The writing in this book was amazing. There's a great line where Andreas is described as a Lucifer encased in his own frozen tears. And Helena does feel very Jane Eyre-sque, especially with her no-nonsense demeanor and the fact that she feels a little too good for the manbaby love interest who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way and parades one of his old flames in front of her to make her jealous. Interestingly, there's a bit of a taboo element as well because

***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER***

Andreas's wife was Helena's mother, so when they get together at the end, she's kind of getting together with her stepfather. Very demure, very mindful, very cutesy. I just read another gothic romance recently where the girl ended up with her stepbrother, so who knew that the 70s gothics lines liked to get so down and dirty? Dark romance is quaking in its boots.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Lucas by Kevin Brooks

 

I still remember the first time I read LUCAS, and how fucking betrayed I felt by that ending. When I was a teenager, LUCAS was one of my favorite books of all time, because I related to the heroine so much-- she's passive, bitter, and depressed, dreaming of the future while also fearing it, and I think that chaotic and malleable state is going to resonate with a lot of teens. It certainly did for me. And the writing! The descriptions of small town life and complex interpersonal dynamics! Oh my god!

At its heart, this is a dark small town story about the suspicion and animosity that can bubble up like rot as intolerant people close ranks against people they see as different and a threat to their continued way of life. The eponymous Lucas is a drifter who comes to a British island town, and the heroine, Cait, sort of ends up becoming fascinated with him because of how mature and different he is from other boys.

I don't want to say too much else, but this book is HEAVY. It deals with violence, an attempted SA, xenophobia, suicide, alcoholism, and police corruption. Reading it as an adult in 2024, I also noticed some things that flew over my head when I read it back in 2000-whatever. For example, one of the plotlines involves a girl lying about her rape to punish an innocent boy. The heroine is very much on the innocent boy's side, and says all this stuff about how the girl involved is a slut and should be examined more thoroughly. It just felt very odd, because lying about being raped is so rare and to have this girl just nlog her way through her crush's innocence felt icky.

In fact, on my second readthrough, most of the other girls in this book are portrayed very badly, and kind of obviously inferior to Cait. There aren't really any positively portrayed female characters in this book except for her dad's sort-of girlfriend, who isn't really in the picture much at all. It feels like a spot-on portrait of slut-shaming 2000s party culture, and how that might look in a small town in the UK. Which makes this book feel quite dated, but not in a way that feels comfortably removed from today. I felt a lot of things while reading it, and while I still really liked it, I do wonder how much of that is nostalgia because I don't love it anymore.

Also, the quasi-paranormal stuff is just... bizarre. Why does he need to know the future? WHY?

4 out of 5 stars

One of Us Is Dead by Jeneva Rose

 

ONE OF US IS DEAD has big May Cob energy. Someone asked me what this was about and I said it was like Real Housewives of Atlanta crossed with one of those cheesy murder shows. Our cast of bitchy character is as follows: Shannon, the ex-queen bee, now cringing in shame at being ousted from society and her marriage; Olivia, the new queen bee and possible sociopath, who will stop at nothing to get to the top; Keisha and Jenny, the employees of the poshest salon in town; Karen, a realtor with a failing marriage; and Crystal, the trophy wife who ousted Shannon from her own marriage (accidentally, ofc).

This is one of those books where everyone is horrible and hard to root for but that makes it extra fun. "What are these awful women going to do next?" I asked myself, as I turned the pages gleefully, supporting women's wrongs. Jeneva Rose is very good at writing flawed and compelling female characters and twist endings. Every time I think I've got it all figured out, she ends up surprising me.

One of the criticisms I've seen for this book is that the writing is repetitive and not "good," and yeah, if you're picking this up expecting Donna Tartt's Little Friend or even Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects, you're going to be disappointed. Honestly, this is like a beach read with a little bit of glitter trash influence, courtesy of Jackie Collins. The focus isn't on telling a beautiful story so much as a compelling one that keeps you turning pages. I didn't like this one as much as her other book, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE, because the middle was a bit of a repetitive slog, but apart from that, I thought this book was both amusing and memorable. The perfect quick read.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen

 

I have literally never read anything by Leah Konen before but now I think I might have to read more. Her style reminds me a lot of Greer Hendricks's and Sarah Pekkanen's, so if that's your vibe, I think you'll enjoy this one a lot. I found this in a little free library and stealth-read it, and it was a breezy read I finished in about two days.

Mary and Willa are friends, but we know from the dual timeline that something went wrong. They aren't friends anymore, and Mary has suffered some kind of betrayal. Willa, the pretty younger friend, was responsible for said betrayal and then she disappeared. Or did she? Because one day, Mary sees her again but she won't respond to her name.

This was a wild rollercoaster of a read with several twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Some of that was because the twists and turns in question didn't always fully make sense. But I was entertained. And, also, I really liked the feminine empowerment/girlpower themes of the book. All of the female characters were way more than they first seemed at face value, and I really liked that.

So it was a little silly, yes, but I was entertained.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Cracked by Eliza Crewe

 

CRACKED was published in 2013 and it shows, but not in a bad way. The tough as nails, sentient-Hot-Topic-tee, soul-devouring, ball-busting heroine is perfectly cast in the mold of Anita Blake-inspired, "strong female protagonists" that were popular in the day. She comes across as a little one-dimensional now, but I did enjoy her arrogance and sarcasm, and how she's an obvious reactionary response to the more Bella Swan-y heroines that were also popular at this time. If you enjoy Wednesday Addams-coded heroines, you'll love this.

The book literally opens with the heroine inside a mental asylum, pretending to be an inpatient so she can attack a predatory male nurse who preys on his female patients. His end is gory, and attracts the attention of some demons on the scene, who also planned to take the man's soul. Instead, they try to come for her and Meda, the heroine, is saved by some well-meaning but inept teen demon slayers called "Templars," including a doofy golden boy himbo named Chi.

Meda plays up the damsel in distress act while hiding her half-demon identity, determined to learn more about her heritage and this new, potentially dangerous enemy. The results are honestly pretty funny, and the book is fast-paced and filled with action, in a way that would honestly make it equally appealing to readers of all genders. I would have liked this more if I'd read it when it first came out, because I was in my early twenties then. Now, it's a little too YA for me, and Meda's one note sarcasm shtick got a little old after a while. I appreciate what this book represents, and it's a testament to its quality that it's aged as well as it has, but Harley Laroux has basically spoiled me for all other demon books.

That said, if you love the TV show, Wednesday, and are looking for something with similar vibes for Halloween, this would be a great pick. And the ebooks for the entire series are very affordably priced.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Where Ivy Dares to Grow by Marielle Thompson

 

WHERE IVY DARES TO GROW is a really interesting gothic romance about a woman named Saoirse who is engaged to a man named Jack, who comes from the Page family: a titled family that own a massive estate called Langdon, which has a rich and stately history. They are the most pretentious group of fucks that you could ever hope not to meet, and have even developed a cute little phrase for the things that they deem worthy of their time and notice: "Page important."

When Jack brings her home to tend to his dying mother, Saoirse realizes how "Page unimportant" she is, as she watches her husband-to-be fall out of love with her and treat her like a burden, not speaking a word in her defense when his parents castigate her for her worthless history PhD, for being too high maintenance and neurotic, and basically just treating her like so much dust on their damask curtains.

Pretty soon, though, strange things start happening. Saoirse starts to see shadows and strange things that shouldn't be there. She starts losing track of time. And then she meets a man named Theo, who is Jack's ancestor. But she likes him so much more than she ever did Jack. Which begs the question: is it really cheating to sleep with your fiance's ancestor's ghost? WHAT A PREMISE. Marielle Thompson, I love you.

This book got panned pretty heavily on Goodreads but I actually liked most of it. The writing is beautiful. Some people didn't like the prose but Thompson is trying to emulate the quintessential gothic novel. Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, they all wrote like this. And the references to Jane Eyre-- this was intentional. Even though this book is set in 1994, it feels timeless, kind of straddling the various timelines like Langdon in this book. So in that sense, I think this book was actually quite successful in what it set out to do.

The love story was eh. I thought it was inoffensive, but I didn't feel much chemistry between the leads. It was still very beautifully written, but the middle really dragged because that's when she really starts to set up things between Saoirse and Theo. The beginning was the best and the ending was surprising and satisfying. I also liked the afterword where the author talked about her own mental illness, and how she never saw good representation of herself in media, so writing Saoirse with depersonalization-derealization disorder was actually quite cathartic for her.

3 out of 5 stars

Streams and Schemes by Rebecca Kinkade

 

Five stars is not enough. Rom-coms are hard for me to get into, because so many of them kind of feel sweet and empty: the romance equivalent of those dry Safeway sugar cookies with the cheap frosting and dollar store sprinkles. Like, I'm not denying that they are comfort eating for some people or that they taste sweet, but I personally don't like them and they make me feel empty and kind of sick. NOT THIS BOOK, THOUGH. Seriously, STREAMS AND SCHEMES was everything that I do like in a romance novel. The romance equivalent of eating a molecular gastronomy cookie made with cloudberry mousse and yak butter, or something like that. AMAZING.

The heroine of this book, Valeria, is my absolute favorite. She's a camgirl and she loves her profession, and she is totally sex positive without being cringe. I also loved that she was Mexican and how the author portrayed both the positive and negative sides of what it can mean to grow up in that culture. Also, she SIGNS MEN UP for romance authors' newsletters when they piss her off. Genius.

The hero, Lander, is my new book boyfriend. An intimidating lawyer built like a tree who's a consent king in the streets and a "take it you little slut" in the sheets? We stan. He did the absolute sweetest gestures for the heroine and every time I didn't think I could swoon anymore, I did. He might be one of my favorite rom-com heroes of all time after Callum from MORBIDLY YOURS. I loved him.

These two are neighbors and are aware of each other-- possibly more so than either would suspect. When they get a text message saying that a ballistic missile is coming to DC in less than twenty minutes, Valeria goes to his door and they end up tearing each others' clothes off. And then they find out that the missile was a false alarm, so that last-fuck-on-earth is just hanging between them like a glittery dildo on a string, daring them to make eye contact with their unwanted sexual attraction. This book is so funny and has a lot of heart, and I will absolutely be diving into this author's backlist.

5 out of 5 stars

The Two Kinds of Decay: A Memoir by Sarah Manguso

 

THE TWO KINDS OF DECAY is about the author's experience with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), which was first misdiagnosed as Guillane-Barre syndrome. She was first hospitalized in 1994, and had her last flare-up in 1999, although until 2004, she was still suffering from emotional and psychological complications (depression) from the drugs she'd been on.

Medical gore is a trigger of mine so I was a little hesitant to read this, but the sample was fascinating and I felt like the blurb did a pretty good job setting the stage for the idea that this would be a graphic book. And indeed, much of this is lengthy descriptions of Manguso's medical treatments (some of which were experimental for the time), what it was like to go from being able-bodied to chronically ill, and the toll her illness took on her emotionally, socially, and physically.

The writing style was very beautiful and poetic (which is fitting because I think she is a poet). I didn't always understand the medical jargon and the end did start to feel a little repetitive after a while, but this was still a very interesting and fascinating read on a subject I knew nothing about. This also definitely feels like one of those memoirs that was written more for the benefit of the author than the reader, which I think helps knowing going in. Maybe this book could even save someone's life, if they recognize the symptoms in themselves.

Do NOT read this if medical descriptions or chronic illness are triggers for you. I could see this being a traumatizing read for someone who has experienced a recent loss or is in the process of/just finished receiving treatment. Some of the descriptions were a bit much for me, especially the needle insertion passages. (Blood and needles make me faint, sometimes even just reading about it is enough.)

3.5 out of 5 stars

Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

 

I honestly can't believe this was written by the same author who did ACE OF SPADES, which is one of my favorite YA dark academia books. I kept waiting for this one to suck me in but that never happened. The pacing is slow and there are a lot of tonal inconsistencies (quirky hijinks a la Disney channel shows like hamster escapes juxtaposed against very dark and serious issues, like SA and institutional discrimination). It just didn't work for me.

2 out of 5 stars

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

 

WHERE DARKNESS BLOOMS snagged my eye immediately with that haunting cover art. With god as my witness, I will never pass up creepygirl lit. Ever. In fact, that's how you'll know that I've been made into a pod person. You'll be like, "Hey, Nenia, want to read some creepygirl lit?" And Pod Nenia will be like, "Ew, no."

Set in the small Kansas town of Bishop, our story has three primary narrators: Whitney, Bo, and Delilah. They're all friends, united by their tragedy: two years ago, on the night of a bonfire, all three of their mothers went missing. In a town filled with sunflowers, and shaded by dark legacies, they're all three certain that something is rotten in Bishop. Something dangerous.

Something that might spell out death.

I powered through this in a day. It's a marvelous small town horror novel with culty vibes and feminist themes. However, it is a flawed read. All three girls sound pretty similar to each other and the story takes forEVER to pick up steam. It starts to become a really strong story in the middle/towards the end, although the ending was dragged out more than necessary. It honestly feels more like a debut than the work of a seasoned author, though according to the author's note, it sounded like this might be her first book after a long break, so in that case, it kind of is like a debut, I guess. Getting back into writing again after a long hiatus can be hard.

Honestly, I would recommend this to people who loved STARLINGS by Amanda Linsmeier and WHAT WE HARVEST by Ann Fraistat. Same vibes. In fact, do yourself a favor and just binge all three, back to back. Have yourself a creepygirl summer. You deserve it, babe.

I will never look at sunflowers the same way.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

Three Hearts Hideaway by Luna Day

 

I grabbed this for SYKD and thought it looked super cute. The girl on the cover kind of reminded me of Dua Lipa. THREE HEARTS HIDEAWAY is not what I was expecting at all, though, and I mean that in a good way. It's not just a small town romance, it's a smutty small town romance, about a woman who leaves her narcissistic and abusive ex after he humiliates her, somehow finding her way to what I can only imagine must be the Disneyland of Canada (Little Greenfield), picking up two hot B&B owners and entering into a poly relationship with them where they explore all her fantasies that she was shamed for having with her ex.

Man, I can't even find one dude who will treat me right and she found TWO? A real man could never compete with a fictional man, I swear.

Of the two I think I liked Logan more than Roman just because he gave off almost dark romance vibes. But I thought the dynamic was well done, and the enthusiastic consent and constant conversations and checking in were great. I've seen criticisms that some poly romances don't really handle this aspect well and I think it was done quite well here. Also, when they're not railing her six ways from Sunday, they treat her like a queen. Gin tasting? Gourmet chocolate? SIGN ME UP.

My only issue with the book was that it was a little too insta-lusty for me. Like some of the other readers, I wish there had been more build-up and tension to the relationship. But I understand that that wasn't necessarily what the author wanted to do with this book. It's just why it didn't work for me quite as well as it could have. I do highly recommend THREE HEARTS HIDEAWAY to anyone who really likes Eve Dangerfield, however, as I feel like they have very similar styles. It's the girly girl with the kinky heart that did it for me.

Also, seeing her horrible ex get punched in the face was solid gold.

3 out of 5 stars

Hide by Kiersten White

 

Once again, I'm shocked that the reviews for this are as negative as they are. HIDE is not a perfect book but it's a really interesting one, with some of my favorite tropes. At first, it kind of starts out feeling very dystopian, a sort of Hunger Games-esque quest for survival with fourteen contestants starring in a reality TV show about eluding capture in an amusement park. But the truth is creepier than that.

I don't want to say too much else because I actually think the twist is really great. There's a lot about breaking cycles of abuse and the legacies of violence, which I thought was really interesting. I'm guessing the low ratings are because of the unlikable characters, the supernatural elements, and the somewhat unsatisfying and abrupt ending, but none of those things really bothered me all that much. I do feel like the story is a little unpolished and it feels more like a debut than a seasoned author's work, but it's also a really fun, short horror novel and I appreciated that she held back on the violence and splatter.

There's something very Stephen King-like about this book. It kind of felt like a threeway cross between IT, JOYLAND, and THE LONG WALK.

3 out of 5 stars

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

 

This was great, kind of a cross between Knives Out and THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO. There's three narrators: Ruby, the infamous patriarch of the McTavish fortune, who survived four unlucky husbands, and kidnapped as a child; Camden, her heir by means of adoption, hated by all of the by-blood McTavishes; and Jules, Camden's wife, a calm and ruthless woman who is determined to see to it that her husband gets everything that he deserves.

I could not put this down and was utterly obsessed with it. When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about it, and wondering what would happen next. It's similar to the stories that I like to write, and even references a folktale I've used in one of my own works because it's such a sinister favorite (The Scorpion and the Frog! It's so good), which felt like kismet. I feel like one of the biggest compliments that you can give another author is saying that you wish that you'd written the story-- except that's not true, because with the historical elements, mixed media format, and three distinct and vicious voices of the narrator, I could not have done this book justice the way she did.

I've read and loved THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, because it was a Jane Eyre retelling (another one of my favorite books), but this one was even better. There's more of a romance angle, which I loved, and Camden was hot. It had the same doomed family legacy vibes as Roanoke Girls and Fall of the House of Usher, so if that's your vibe, you'll eat this up. I hope they make it into a Netflix series.

5 out of 5 stars

The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab

 

I've read a lot of YA titles about religious abuse and religious trauma but THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH is the first book I've read that discusses teens using religion as a crutch for their other problems. The heroine of this book is a girl named Caro, who is a typical bratty teen girl with the usual litany of bratty teen girl problems, except for one: her older sister has returned from the convent that she joined at age eighteen and is acting super weird. Everyone in the family is tiptoeing around her and she's eleven years older than Caro, so the age-gap and the weirdness is totally not the vibe.

When Caro gets stressed out, she panics and lies. When she was younger, this earned her the nickname "Caroliar," and old habits die hard. She starts dating a cute Polish guy but when he starts asking questions about her homelife, she panics and starts lying to him, too, as well as her friends. Tensions sky rocket in her family and her friends start to get angry about her pushing them away, and the reader is left with the glaring question: what happened to send Hannah away to the convent for all those years and why is she back now?

There were some charming dated references, like iPods and K'nex and Facebook being the ultimate college networking site (lol), which I thought were really fun. I also liked the "unlikable" and difficult heroine. She felt super realistic. A lot of YA writers won't let their teens be teens but Caro really felt like one. I do think this was too long and maybe a little too ambitious. I think it tried to tackle too many subjects at once which detracted from having a central plot to follow and gave this a convoluted vibe. But the writing was great and it reminded me a lot of Sarah Dessen's angsty teen girl books. Also, I liked the religious angle. I think a lot of people will probably find it very relatable.

3 out of 5 stars

Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz

 

TEETH is such an immersive, interesting story. Reading it kind of felt like watching one of Hayao Miyazaki's darker, more adult movies, like Princess Mononoke, where human nature is put under the microscope and nothing is resolved with easy answers. It's set on an island with magical fish. Eating them cures any disease and prolongs life. Rudy is there with his family because his younger brother has cystic fibrosis, and if he doesn't eat the fish, his lungs don't work.

One day, while on the shore, Rudy meets a being named Teeth. Teeth is a mermaid-- sort of-- but not the kind that they make dolls of. He's hideously ugly and every night, he opens the fish traps and frees the fish, depleting the supply that all of the islanders desperately need. He also hates humans, but for whatever reason, he lets Rudy get close. And as the story progresses and the two boys grow closer, Rudy learns more about the mysterious Teeth and the secrets the island harbors.

This was not a perfect story by any means-- I do feel the ending lacked closure and some of that was intentional and some of it felt like an omission-- but it was transportive, lyrical, and beautiful, with a truly well done cast of "unlikable" and flawed characters, and a setting that was practically a character itself. I'm shocked that this book has fallen into obscurity instead of becoming a classic, because it is SO good. Thank god I have more Hannah Moskowitz books on my Kindle. I think I might have to read everything she ever wrote because this was just... amazing.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Clever Creatures of the Night by Samantha Mabry

 

CLEVER CREATURES OF THE NIGHT is such an interesting book, part gothic, part survivalist horror. There's a very isolated and desolate vibe to the book, almost dystopic, and I would describe the vibe as "assemble style gothic": the heroine ends up in a remote area, trapped with a somewhat large cast, all of whom have something to hide, when she goes to first seek out answers about why her friend invited her to a rural Texas house out in the middle of nowhere-- and then, later, why she appears to have gone missing.

The 2.77 rating shocked me because the writing style is fantastic and Mabry did a great job writing an unlikable but relatable heroine. Apart from the somewhat surreal atmosphere and, I guess, slightly anticlimactic ending, the unlikability is the only thing I saw that would even slightly warrant a rating like this. And even so, I feel like I can think of similar titles that didn't elicit a reaction like this.

Personally, I fell in love with this author's writing after reading TIGERS, NOT DAUGHTERS, and knew I would have to read everything else she ever wrote. The MEXICAN GOTHIC comp is honestly fairly on-point, maybe with a dash of SADIE by Courtney Summers. If you're into raw and visceral young adult books, with fierce girls and a hint of tragedy, you'll probably love this book.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux

 

I'm feeling some major Halloween vibes right now so all I want to read are gothic romances and vampires, and HER SOUL TO TAKE was, like, exactly what I needed in this moment to scratch the itch. Not only is it a deliciously smutty story about a demon with a degradation kink, it's also darkly atmospheric, with cults, demons, eldritch horrors, sacrifices, creepy small towns, and cannibalism. Wooooo.

I actually don't have too much to say about this one, to be honest, mostly because I think it's best to go in cold (unless you need to review the trigger warnings). For a horror romance, it's pretty lite on the actual horrors; I think the biggest triggers are probably the degradation scenes and the nipple piercing. The romance itself is actually pretty sweet once it gets rolling and the banter is top-tier, even as it shifts from enemies to lovers. Loved Rae's alt girl blogger vibe and the shenanigans Leon got up to with his fork tongue. The cemetery "dining" scene will be living rent-free in my head for a while. Also, there's a chubby kitty named Cheesecake that lives.

Can't wait to read more of their work.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

 

I was so curious about BRIDE ever since I heard that Hazelwood was breaking from her usual female-lab-scientist-in-love formula to do a PNR. And it was going to be Omegaverse lite??? With knotting? Yeah, there was no way I was knot going to read that. But this book was so hard to get a copy of. For a while, there were no used copies available and everywhere was sold out. It was popular AF. I was intrigued AF.

Now that I've finally read it, I can see why. It still has the rom-com vibes of Hazelwood's other books, but she takes a breather on the "oh my god, I'm so smol" descriptions that her heroines usually have. Misery, the vampire heroine, is still a STEM heroine-- she's a computer hacker who has been living amongst the humans for years-- but she's a lot more likable and interesting than some of Hazelwood's other heroines, and oh my god, I loved the dry humor and medical jargon. This is definitely a more scientific take on vamps.

I also loved Lowe, the hero. He was so charming and hot and nice, and kind of reminded me a little of Curran, from the Kate Daniels series. Actually, BRIDE as a whole very much has a sort of aughts paranormal throwback vibe to it, and reading it made me very nostalgic for some of the urban fantasy romances that I read back when I was in college. I'm sure that's part of the reason why other people love it, too. Even though there's not a ton of plot, it's a fun journey and there's some fantastic twists. Especially if you love her take on fake dating/misunderstanding tropes.

And I heard she's writing a sequel? Thank GOD.

4 out of 5 stars

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

 

NATURAL BEAUTY is a weird fucking book. It definitely feels like a debut, but not necessarily in a bad way. Sometimes debut books are brave experiments, where the author takes a risk and tells the story the way they envisioned it, even if it takes you to dark and twisted places. This is a timely, almost darkly satirical piece about women's bodily autonomy, the sadism of the beauty industry, and the very real danger of unregulated beauty and pseudo-medical supplements.

The unnamed protagonist used to be a piano prodigy until a terrible tragedy made her lose her heart in playing. She's working a minimum wage job at a restaurant when she's scouted by a beautiful woman who recognizes her from her piano playing days, who works at a business called Holistik. She offers the FMC a job.

Right away, Holistik feels a little... off. All of their medical treatments and products have bizarre ingredients and they are adamant that employees try the supplements and products-- as many as possible. Including the experimental ones, although they won't force you to do that. Probably. Probably, right?

Half of this book is very slow and more unsettling than horrifying. The last half is a rollercoaster of body horror and gore. I'm a wuss, and several scenes had me turning away and going, "Oh my god, EW." You'll definitely want to check the triggers on this one if animal cruelty and SA are triggers for you. Ultimately, I thought that this was more interesting than good. V.J. Chambers has a similar Stepford Wives-by-way-of-the-beauty-industry book that I enjoyed a little more called PERFECT. This book felt like that, if it were written in one of Mona Awad's surreal fever dreams.

2.5 out of 5 stars