Tag: fantasy

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June 2026 Book Blog

Rather a light reading month for me. I was busy.

Books Reread

The cover of Rapture of the Deep shows a girl in a swimming costume diving for treasure at the bottom of the ocean.
Harcourt Children’s Books

Rapture of the Deep by L.A. Meyer
Bloody Jack book 7 of 12
Continuing my re-listen of this series. In this installment, Jacky is tasked by British Intelligence to use the brand-new scientific intstrument, the diving bell to recover Spanish gold lost off the Florida Keys. As usual, full of memorable characters and fun hijinks. There isn’t a bad book in this series, but I think this one is not my favorite. The pirates of the Caribbean stuff is good though. I do love Jacky and Jaimy’s starcrossed love, but I also think Jaimy is not my favorite of Jacky’s league of devoted men.
4.5/5 moray eels

New Books Read

The cover of Light of the Jedi shows four Jedi, two human, one Wookie, one Twi’lek, brandishing lightsabers and looking noble while star cruisers fly overhead
Del Rey

The Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule
The High Republic book 1 of 8 (the novels, not the graphic novels)
CW: death
This book scratched the itch I had to live in the world of Star Wars when the Jedi were in their golden age. This is the first book of the High Republic series. There are lots of helpful reading order guides if you were also overwhelmed when looking at the list of Star Wars novels. When a transport ship carrying immigrants to the Outer Rim collides in the hyperlane, remnants of the ship are thrown out of hyperspace at light speed. Before the emergencies can decimate several Outer Rim systems, the Jedi must do what they can to help and figure out how this catastrophe happened. I enjoyed this. It has the feel of the movies, where you’re following several groups of characters and hopping around. You can almost imagine the screen wipe transitions between chapters. I enjoyed getting to meet new Jedi, especially the non human ones. The ensemble cast did make it a little hard to really fall in love with any one character, though I did like them all. I did think more Jedi died than needed to. We’ve already seen that in Episode III. I don’t need more of that. I did really like whenever they said “We are all the Republic;” just makes me feel nice in this era of political division.
3.75/5 lightsabers

The cover of The Fifth Season shows a stonework carving of leaves and spirals

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin***
**Book Hangover Alert
Broken Earth Trilogy book 1 of 3
CW: abuse, manipulation, murder of children, prejudice
Incredible. I don’t know how to blurb this book, so I’m going to let you read the back cover copy when you go buy it. Or don’t even bother, because the back cover copy doesn’t really do it justice either–just read it. Fascinating world and innovative magic system. Super interesting use of 2nd person POV. Pacing and unfolding of the narrative was very well done. Super ready for the next one. Luckily, they’re all out.
5/5 stones

The cover of Godkiller shows a stag lifting his antlers before the moon, as a twisted tree trunk grows to pierce the animal in the breast
HarperCollins

Godkiller by Hanna Kaner***
Fallen Gods book 1 of 3
CW: death of parents
I wanted to like this more. I’ve been meaning to read it for a long time because I absolutely love the cover. And it’s possible that reading it during and after I finished The Fifth Season made me like it less by comparisson. In a world filled with as many gods as their are worshippers, but in a country where god’s are outlawed, a Godkiller attempts to help a child who is bound to a god. I felt the POVs weren’t very strongly differentiated. It felt like the author had written it in omnicient third person and then was told they had to change it to limited third and label all the chapters. I think the omnicient third could have worked, but because each chapter was labeled with a character’s name, I was annoyed when we head hopped or when I forgot whose head I was supposed to be in. I also thought Elo had way more chemistry with the king than with Kissen. Loved the disability rep. Thought the world was interesting, but I don’t know, it just fell a little flat for me.
3.5/5 shrines

The cover of I’m Glad My Mom is Dead shows a young white woman (Jennette McCurdy) in a pink suit holding a pink urn. Her expression is like “sorry, not sorry"
Simon & Schuster

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy***
CW: eating disorders, abuse, grooming
Very difficult to put down. I feel like I need to create a little Venn diagram of the themes of memoirs I’ve read. This one hits on childhood fame and Hollywood, eating disorders, abusive parents, and grief of losing one’s mother. Former child actress and star of iCarly, Jennette McCurdy explores her feelings after the death of her mother, untangling complicated feelings of love and grief and realizing the abuse she suffered. The vignette style had punch and kept me reading, but felt slightly disjointed at times. I would be interested to know if Jennette ever spoke more with her father or her brothers about her mom’s behavior and impact on their homelife growing up. I was shocked (as I always am in memoirs like these) that no one stepped in or stepped up or seemed to recognize the abuse happening. Why did they let Jennette’s mom behave like this for so long? So many people failed her.
4.5/5 therapists

The cover of The Subtle Art of folding Space shows layers of universes as a box of dim sum as it appears in our universe, shifting through different permutations through space
Tor Books

The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu***
This was a really fun little sci-fi. Maintainer of the physics of the multiverse, Ellie discovers a secret cabal of Maintainers trying to alter physics and thereby rule it. I won’t pretend I followed the stuff about physics. But I really enjoyed Ellie and Daniel and his creating food out thin air. And really the story was about Ellie’s relationship with her sister, not physics.
3.75 skunkworks

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be lying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Fifth Season for a classic of the fantasy genre written by one of the greats, who happens to be a Black woman. Read Godkiller for excellent disability rep including ambulatory wheelchair users, amputees, and Deaf indivudals. Read I’m Glad My Mom Died because I think it will make you more empathetic. Read The Subtle Art of Folding Space for queer and Asian rep in sci-fi.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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May 2026 Books Read

Books Reread

On the Cover of My Bonny Light Horseman, a soldier dressed in a French uniform falls off the back of their horse. More soldiers follow behind brandishing weapons
Harcourt Children’s Books

My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer
**Book Hangover Alert
Bloody Jack book 6 of 12
Continuing my reread of this series. This is one of my favorites out of the series. In this book, Jacky is recruited as a spy by British Intelligence. She’s back in disguise, this time as a messenger in Napoleon’s army. Just as charming and full of hijinks as the other books in the series. I’m particularly fond of her French Clodhoppers and Captain Bardot.
5/5 legions of honor

The cover of Dungeon Crawler Carl shows a man in a leather jacket and boxer shorts and a Persian cat running away from a goblin driving a bulldozer at them

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 1 of 8
I made my dad start listening to this on a road trip we did to Missouri. He liked it, but thought there were too many rules and things to remember. I won’t review it again. But you can refer to my original review here.
4.5/5 achievements

The cover of A Wrinkle in Time shows three children in what looks like a blue egg. Breaking out of the top of the egg is a strange winged creature
Yearling Newbery

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle*
If you had asked me if I remembered this book, I would have said not really. But then I relistened to it and I actually remembered basically all of it. It’s a weird one, but a good one. It’s a classic for a reason. Meg Murray and her prodigy brother Charles Wallace must travel across space and time to rescue their father. The novel deals with authoritarianism, assimilation, coming of age, and more.
5/5 beasts

New Books Read

The cover of We Fell Apart shows the hazy silhouette of a girl on a colorful background

We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart*
We Were Liars book 3 of 3
CW: Institutionalization
Though these books technically all stand alone, I would still read them in publication order. When Matilda receives an email from her famous and estranged father, whom she has never met, she travels to his crumbling castle on Martha’s Vineyard to uncover the secret of the family she has never known. I really enjoy these books. They have a really nice modern gothic feel to them. I will say, however, that the voice for all three books kinda sounds the same even though there is a different protagonist for each one.
4/5 paintings

The cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries shows the text surrounded by drawings of flowers, bones, and mushrooms

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett*
**Book Hangover Alert
You know me, I love a Victorian inspired voice, an epistolary novel, and footnotes. This book was everything I wanted. Cambridge professor of dryadology Emily Wilde heads to the far north to study the faeries of that region for her encyclopedia. But when she discovers the town is plagued by Fae who steal girls, Emily must put her theories into practice. Very cozy and fun. Loved the academic take on faeries and folklore.
5/5 small ones

A black cat with its tongue just poking out peers over the corner of an open copy of Winter's Orbit
Forgot to take a picture of the cover of this book so please enjoy this picture of my cat instead.

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell***
CW: domestic violence
Everything I wanted as more. I binged this in two days. Pitched as Red, White & Royal Blue meets Ancillary Justice, which was spot on. Big fan of the world, the characters, the romance, the yearning. The only thing I didn’t love were the names of all the characters. Just didn’t really roll off the tongue. I’ve already forgotten all of them.
5/5 arranged marriages

On the Cover of No Body No Crime, a plane crashes in the lower right and in the smoke rising up behind it, we can see two women running, being pursued by dark figures

No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe
Very enjoyable. Like reading an action movie. PI Mel is sent to find the girl she’s been in love with since she was 16, who disappeared without a trace at 18. She’ll uncover the secret that’s kept Chloe in hiding for all these years. This was a fun, easy, fast-paced read. There were moments where I thought some of the action and the bad guys were a little unbelievable, but if it had been an action movie, I totally would have accepted it, so not sure where that resistance came from.
3.75/5 peacocks

The cover of On Earth as it is on Television, a UFO hovers at the top, it's tractor beam shining down on the author's name.
Hyperion Avenue

On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane*
We listened to this one on a road trip. I was trying to find something everyone would like and I think I succeeded. After aliens arrive in ships that hover over 12 (? maybe more, I can’t remember) major cities, then mysteriously depart, humanity must grapple with the implications. The novel follows 3 families in the wake of the visitation. This book has: rowdy children, humor, talking cats. It was a good time.
3.75/5 cats

The cover of She shows a sensual woman removing what looks like a cloak or veil in a cave.
Longmans

She by H. Rider Haggard*
CW: racism, misogyny
I read this for research. It’s a good example of the male quest romance genre. Holly and his adopted son Leo travel to Africa searching for the truth of Leo’s history which was hinted at by an ancient pot sherd left to him by his father. I liked the voice (though if you’re not into Victorian lit you probably won’t). I liked the adventure. It did drag through the middle. I did not like the racism or misogyny, obviously. Something interesting about the male quest romance is that it was a reaction to the successful novels by women that dominated the first half of the 19th century and were mostly about women and domestic affairs and romance (Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot). These novels center men’s relationships with each other and often have few to no women in them (think Treasure Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth). I was fascinated by the love triangle between the two men and She, especially because their bond to each other was just as strong if not stronger than their bond with She (and proved to be the bond that won out in the end). She is also evil and demonstrates why a matriarchal society will never work (allegedly). I also appreciated the frame narrative, the footnotes and the ‘editor.’
2.5/5 lions

The cover of Not for the Faint of Heart shows two girls dressed in Robin Hood type clothes riding a white horse.

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher***
**Book Hangover Alert
A very fun Robin Hood inspired sapphic romcom. Robin Hood’s granddaughter who was raised in the Merry Men must confront whether the organization still lives up to it’s mission when they kidnap a healer with more romantic views of the famous Merry Men. Very funny. Good characters, good banter, nice queer representation. I didn’t need the one sad thing that happened to have happened, but I guess it’s fine.
4/5 arrows

The cover of Psychopomp and Circumstance shows the profile of a young Black woman dressed in early 20th century fashion. Her earrings have a skull on them and her broach is the shape of a skeleton hand.

Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce***
A nice little novella I picked up at the library as a treat. After her estranged aunt’s unexpected death, Phee must take on the arrangement of her funeral. It’s a lovely little meditation on grief and family, and it’s set in a very intriguing fantasy alternate Reconstruction era. Would love to read more set in this world.
3.5/5 caskets

The cover of Funeral Girl shows a wallpaper style pattern of skulls, coffins, and flowers and leaves.

Funeral Girl by Emma K. Ohland
What do you do if you’re terrified of dying but you live in a funeral home and your parents are funeral directors? Oh, and also, you can raise ghosts. That’s Georgia’s life. And when a boy from her school dies in a tragic accident, she raises his ghost looking for answers about the afterlife, but gets a little more than she bargained for. This is a nice YA book. Really nice themes of friendship and grief and death.
3.5/5 scrapbook pages

The cover of The Murder at the Vicarage shows a headstone with the title inscribed on it.
Collins Crime Club

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie*
Miss Marple book 1 of 12
I have to be honest, I’m not sure my full attention was on the audiobook while I was listening to it, but I did still enjoy this. After a murder occurs at the vicarage (who’d have guessed, right?) a dear old lady who never misses anything solves the murder. Now as premises go, that’s excellent, right? And the mystery was very fun and the ending was quite satisfying. I think the thing that didn’t quite work for me was the POV. The story is told from the first person perspective of the Vicar. And he’s like fine. It would be more interesting to be in Miss Marples’s head, but if we were in her head, then we’d know from the start that she’s the smartest person in the town and we’d lose that subversion of expectations. Curious about the POV for the rest of the books in the series. Are they all told by the Vicar? Other people in town? Does Miss Marple get to narrate one? More research is necessary.
3.5/5 exploding crystals

*This book only includes straight white cis people. 

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Winter’s Orbit for queer rep in sci-fi. Read Not for the Faint of Heart for a queer Robin Hood retelling. Read Psychopomp and Circumstance for Black characters in fantasy and an alternate Reconstruction era.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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April 2026 Book Blog

New Books Read

The cover of John Irving's Setting Free the Bears shows a ring of keys on a blue background textured like wood

Setting Free the Bears by John Irving*
CW: war, death, animal death and abuse
Have been wanting to read this one for a while because I love bears and it’s been a while since I read a John Irving book. In 1960s Vienna, two young men hatch a plan to set free the animals of the Vienna zoo. The book is a coming of age story about grief and generational trauma and war and friendship. Struck me as a bit gay. I did enjoy this. It has the absurdity of other Irving works, including a wild and ridiculous death. I didn’t think it was as funny as some of his other books, and the middle section about Siggy’s family history did drag. But I loved the final image of the bears.
3.5/5 bears

The cover of Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss shows a family standing on the ground before a tree house
Orell Füssli

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss*
CW: death of animals
When a family is shipwrecked on a deserted coastline on their way to colonize Australia, they set up their home in the jungle instead. It is rather fun, although apart from the shipwreck they experience absolutely no hardship whatsoever. They are cheery and industrious about the whole thing and are never upset that they will never see another human again. This does get a bit tiresome after a while, so the middle drags until the 10 years later epilogue which has more action than the whole rest of the novel. I also didn’t love that they had to shoot absolutely every animal they encountered, even when it wasn’t threatening them and they didn’t need more food. Would have been nice if at least one of the children was a girl. Also, I know this was published in 1812, but Wyss clearly had no idea what flora and fauna actually might be found on a South Pacific island and so included whatever he wanted. I’ve heard there’s another edition that includes conflicts with natives, which sounds probably racist, so I’d recommend this edition.
3/5 kangaroos (for some reason)

The cover of Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik shows a dragon flying over a Chinese palace
Del Rey

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
Temeraire book 2 of 9
I’m currently obsessed with these. In book 2, Laurence and Temeraire travel to China to try to resolve diplomatic tensions which have arisen since Temeraire was a Chinese dragon taken by the English navy. I love to see Laurence and Temeraire’s relationship develop, and it was fun to see more of the world and the way dragons are incorporated into Chinese society. I think I liked it just a smidge less than the first one, just because there’s a little more conflict between Laurence and Temeraire, and I just love them so much.
4.5/5 jewels

The cover of The Malady of Death by Marguerite Duras shows a black and white image of a woman in profile, hunched forward, her hair swept over one shoulder

The Malady of Death by Marguerite Duras*
I was going to get rid of this book without reading it because I didn’t think it looked that interesting, but then I saw it was only 60 pages and had large type. I thought I could read it in less than an hour, and I was right. I was also right that it wasn’t that interesting. It tells the story of a man who hires a woman to try to teach him how to love. The prose is at times lyrical and lovely, but the man was predictably terrible and the woman had no personality. Which was perhaps Duras’s point, that you can never learn to truly love something you don’t see as more than an object. But I’m not interested enough to think that hard about it.
2/5 unnamed characters

The cover of Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hockhauser shows gold words on a background of flowers. A falcon perches on the L

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser*
CW: rape (off page), incest, death
I loved this. I love a Cinderella (or any fairytale) retelling. Through the eyes of Lady Tremaine, we see the familiar story anew, exploring what a mother will do to better the lives of her daughters. This version is historical rather than fantastical, and explores feminist themes of motherhood.
5/5 falcons

The cover of The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow shows a sword in which we can see the reflection of half of a woman's face. Vines and flowers twist around the sword and words
Tor Publishing Group

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow***
CW: death
Another banger. I love Harrow’s work. This is probably my second favorite of her books after The Once and Future Witches. The myth of Sir Una Everlasting, Knight of Dominion is the founding myth of Dominion society and the research subject of veteran and scholar Owen Mallory, but when a rare and mysterious manuscript appears in Owen’s office, he’ll discover just how important this story is, and how history may be rewritten. Spanning centuries, this is a fated love story that explores how important propaganda is to an authoritarian regime. I love Harrow’s prose.
5/5 yew trees

The cover of Jackal by Erin E. Adams shows a silhouette of a woman's head with a star-filled night's sky filling it
Bantam Books

Jackal by Erin E. Adams***
CW: racism, serial murder
I keep reading thrillers because I want to like them, and then I don’t like them that much. I almost put this book down after the prologue because I hated the writing style of the prologue. The majority of the rest of the book was better though. Young Black girls have been going missing every summer in this Pennsylvania town on the edge of the woods. When her best friend’s daughter disappears, Liz must unravel the mystery and why everyone has been looking the other way for years. I liked the idea a lot, especially the themes of systemic racism. I didn’t love the execution. I don’t mind fantastical elements in thrillers, but I like to know whether that is likely in the world of the novel. I hated the sex scene, I had to skip it.
2.75/5 hellhounds

The cover of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane shows a shadowy figure like the reflection of a shadow in water on a gray-blue background
Catapult

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane***
This book was a bit of a downer, which is absolutely not a fair assessment for a dystopian book about grief. In a world where those who have “hurt others” are assigned an extra shadow, and subsequently shunned and discriminated against, a woman must learn to raise her child in the wake of the death of her wife. Because childbirth was the cause of her wife’s death, the child is assigned a second shadow at birth. This was a really lovely meditation on surveillance, grief, right and wrong, and what it means to hurt someone. It was a bit depressing though. And I’m not a parent, so maybe this criticism is irrelevant, but the child read older to me than the age she was described throughout the book.
3.75/5 scorpions

The cover of The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia shows a ghostly green hand with black nails reaching toward a bird stuck with pins

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia***
I loved this. In three parallel timelines, women from three generations investigate a vanishing by a malevolent witch. I loved all the witchcraft elements and the way the three stories were braided together. I did guess who the witch was, but I’m not mad about it.
5/5 bird talismans

Books I did not finish

The cover of The Improvisers by Nicole Glover shows a Black woman dressed as a pilot looking into the sky. Her biplane is in the lower foreground
Harper Voyager

The Improvisers by Nicole Glover***
CW: murder
It always makes me so sad to DNF books. I really really wanted to like this. It’s a companion to a series, so maybe I should have tried the series first, but this is supposed to be a stand alone. I loved the idea of a prohibition era smuggler and trick pilot solving magical murders with the help of her family’s funerary business. That is SO up my alley. But I just wasn’t that into it. I didn’t feel like I was connecting with the characters and I didn’t feel the need to find out the solution to the mystery.

*This book only includes straight white cis people. There was gay subtext in Setting Free the Bears.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be lying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Jackal for an examination of systemic racism. Read The Everlasting to learn about how propaganda weaponizes nationalism in service to authoritarianism. Read I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself for a queer dystopian exploration of grief and surveillance. Read The Bewitching to see Mexican folklore and queer characters in fantasy/horror. Read The Improvisers to see Black characters in historical fantasy–maybe it will hit for you.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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March 2026 Books

New Books Read

The cover of The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark shows a fire made of pages of text on a black background

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
CW: murder, sexual abuse of children
A thriller/mystery about a woman hired to ghostwrite her estranged father’s memoir about the unsolved murders of both of his siblings in their teens. I enjoyed this. It was a propulsive and easy read. The prose was nothing special, but it kept us moving.
3.5/5 film reels

The cover of The Vegetarian by Han Kang shows a woman's silhouette gazing into the sky on a red background

The Vegetarian by Han Kang***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: institutionalization, eating disorder, domestic violence
I don’t know how to blurb this book. It was really good. Weird, but good. Here’s the blurb from Wikipedia: “The Vegetarian is a three-part novel set in modern-day Seoul and tells the story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and home-maker, whose decision to stop eating meat after a bloody nightmare about human cruelty leads to devastating consequences in her personal and familial life.” I don’t really feel like that does it justice, but I guess it’s not wrong? I don’t know, it fails to capture the weird atmosphere and mood throughout. I also thought the POV choice was interesting as in each part of the novel we switch POVs but none of the main POVs are Yeong-hye herself. You could talk about a lot of different themes in this book, but I think the patriarchy and expectations of womanhood and wifehood, as well as disability in Korea are the ones that stood out most to me.
4.5/5 bloody dreams

The book Pests by Bethany Brookshire held up in front of a disgruntled gray tabby
Pip offended at the implication that she might be a pest

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire***
Nonfiction. It’s what it sounds like. Brookshire examines the vertebrates that humans across the globe consider pests (including but not limited to rats, mice, pigeons, pythons, cats, horses, elephants, wolves, bears, and deer) and how and why these animals receive that designation. I thought this book was fascinating in the way Brookshire interrogated the way humans conceptualize animals and nature and where they belong and don’t belong (deer in the forest far from my house = good, deer in my hard eating my garden = bad). She brings up a lot of interesting things to think about when it comes to how we can manage invasive species, what we consider nature (where animals should be) and human spaces (where animals should not be), and how we can share this planet we all live on.
4/5 rats

The cover of Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood shows a ship sailing on a sea of barbed wire waves

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood*
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: death of a child
A retelling of the Tempest in which a retired theater director uses a production of the Tempest put on in a prison as a way to get revenge on those that forced him into retirement. Atwood is just so clever. I loved the layering of the play within the novel which is itself the play and the themes of prisons, literal, societal, and mental. It was also funny! ( I mean so is the Tempest)
4.5/5 swimming caps

The cover of The Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson shows a child sitting facing away from the viewer in the window of a ruin, looking at a burning building in the background
37 Ink

Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson***
CW: racism, racial slurs, assault, child abuse
Look, I’ve read a lot of WWII historical fiction, okay? There’s a lot out there. But this book was unique in its subject and perspective, so we’ll allow it. In 1950s Germany, Ethel, the wife of an American officer, discovers an orphanage of half-Black children fathered by African American service members during the war with German women. Many German women felt they couldn’t keep the children, whether because of prejudice or economic concerns, so Ethel works to get the children adopted by American families. Woven into Ethel’s narrative is that of Ozzie, an African American service member stationed in Germany in the late 1940s and Sophia, an African American teenager in the 1960s who is one of the first to integrate her boarding school but who longs to learn the truth of her history. You can see how all of these threads will intertwine. I enjoyed this. I thought Johnson’s writing was well researched and evocative. It seemed to me that there were maybe more non-racist white characters than was believable (but I’m not the one who did the research and I wasn’t alive then). And one more thought is a spoiler:
Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

I loved the happy ending, but it did feel a little unbelievable that Sophia just ‘always felt she didn’t fit in’ and then conveniently just happens to meet another kid who was one of these adopted babies from Germany and then manages to actually find her family and it turns out they really did want her after all. It’s the fantasy of all children who grow up in unhappy homes that they’re actually adopted and parents who want them are somewhere out there and they were just separated by an accident of faith. But how likely is that story really? I did also think it was a little weird that they never once mention Katia’s unique hair color in his storyline. I know she was trying to keep it a mystery that Sophia is that child, but it was pretty obvious…

4/5 nuns

The cover of Voices by David Elliot shows a young girl in armor before a gold halo made up of words

Voices by David Elliott*
CW: death
A novel-in-verse about the last hours of Joan of Arc’s life. Elliott weaves in real quotes from the Trial of Condemnation and the later Trial of Nullification. We also get poems from Joan as she waits on pyre and poems in a variety of voices from the people and objects around Joan including her parents, the saints and angels guiding her, her sword, her armor, her clothing, the candle that lights the pyre, the fire itself, and more. I really enjoyed this. I thought the structure was fascinating. Elliott uses specific poetic forms for different voices and I was a big fan of the concrete poems in the collection. My only quibble was that I hated the font chosen for Joan’s poems.
4/5 voices

On the cover of Semi-Well-Adjusted-Despite-Literally-Everything, the author Alyson Stoner smashes their face against glass as though peering at the viewer as an animal in a zoo
St. Martin’s Press

Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything by Alyson Stoner***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: body dysphoria, religious trauma, domestic violence, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, drug and alcohol abuse , sexual assault
If you think you don’t know who Alyson Stoner is, yes you do. Child actor known for Isabella on Phineas and Ferb, ‘the little white girl’ in the Missy Elliott video, Caitlyn in Camp Rock, and many more, Stoner opens up about the addictiveness of fame and the damaging way the industry works, especially in relation to minors. This memoir was not as painful to read as Elliot Page’s but I still think there are a lot of people who owe Stoner apologies. I thought the memoir was well written and the chapters were well structured. I was happy that in the end
Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

Stoner is on their way to healing and a much more healthy relationship with work and their body and using their platform to advocate for minors in the industry.

4.5/5 call backs

The cover of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath shows a bird's eye view of a bear walking through a forest holding a shovel and dragging a bag that is trailing blood
IDW Publishing

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
CW: murder, gore
Adorable serial killer? This book is pitched as Dexter meets Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town and that is correct. Adorable bear Samantha is an upstanding citizen in her small town, but when she visits the city, anyone might find themself her victim. But when someone starts terrorizing Sam’s town, she must stop the serial killer before they ruin the town or unmask her. The art in this book is really incredible. It’s dark but it was fun.
3.5/5 newspaper articles

Books I did not finish

The cover of The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart shows too snakes snarling at each other

The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart
This pains me so much because I LOVED Stewart’s Drowned Empire series, but I’m still trying to achieve my goal of not finishing anything I’m not enjoying. Life is too short. I’m not super good at it but I’m trying. I read 200 page of this book and was STILL not into it, so I finally gave up. I think the problem was that with so many POVs, by page 200, it still felt like we were on page 50 in the development of the narrative. I think Stewart should have focused on just Hakara and Rasha (and this from someone obsessed with writing huge casts and multi-pov stories *sobs*). It just wasn’t working for me. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and I didn’t feel like I totally understood the world and I wasn’t interested enough to want to. Very sad about it.
1/5 altered

*This book only includes straight white cis people. 

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be lying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Vegetarian for great Korean literature. Read Pests to learn more about humans’ relationship to nature and how we can all thrive. Read The Keeper of Lost Children for an untold story of African Americans during WWII. Read Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything to learn about how capitalism destroys everything.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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February 2026 Books

Books Reread

The cover of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley shows a monstrous figure on a cliff looming over a man who looks up, points, and screams

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley*
I wanted to read this again because I saw the Guillermo Del Toro movie and was like that’s not how I remember it. The Del Toro movie is good, excellent acting, stunning visuals, costumes, and sets. Nice that Elizabeth gets more of a personality. And I don’t think Del Toro is wrong necessarily for focusing on the father/son theme in his interpretation, but I also think it does flatten all the other themes that appear in the book. Especially since the theme of scientific advance without any ethical responsibility is so relevant right now?? Back to the book: I like the frame narrative used, I always think those are super interesting. Still think the themes of disability, monstrousness, and revenge are fascinating. I relate to Frankenstein needing to lie in bed about things, but my guy, you created these problems for yourself. In the words of Jeff Goldblum, “You were so focused on whether or not you could, you never stopped to think whether or not you should.”
4/5 murders

New Books Read

The cover of Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune shows a house out on a promontory of rock with a phoenix rising above it and a red bus driving away from the house

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune***
Cerulean Chronicles book 2 of 2
CW: cultural genocide, abuse of children, fantasy racism, death of parents
In the second book of the Cerulean Chronicles, Arthur Parnassus shares his story of abuse at the hands of government for being a magical child in the hopes of creating change for magical people. But speaking his truth might bring danger to the magical children in his care, which he hopes to formally adopt. I enjoyed this. It is very sweet and lovingly told. I love the characters, especially the children and the way they are growing up. The novel advocates for reparations, political change, protection of the vulnerable, and self-confidence and acceptance. The audio is also excellent; Daniel Henning does a great job.

Now to address the controversy: Klune has been criticized for being inspired by the horrific genocide committed by the Canadian (and American) government against Native peoples, specifically the residential school system and cultural genocide. Many people feel that it is reprehensible to take that horrifying history and turn it into a cozy fantasy, especially as Klune is a cis, white man. Now, I have to say I don’t remember the first book super well. I don’t remember connecting the first book to this history, which I am fairly knowledgable about, though I am not part of the Native community. Some claimed that the theme of the work was assimilation, forcing the magical children to assimilate into non magical society the way residential schools forced assimilation on Native children. I don’t remember getting that from the novel, to me it seemed to be advocating for acceptance of magical people by non magical people, rather than segregation or assimilation. Some concerns were also raised about Linus being a white savior trope. Again, I don’t remember the first book well enough to fully comment on these things, though they weren’t things I picked up on during my first reading (which doesn’t mean they aren’t valid critiques! Just that I don’t feel I can comment on them).

This second book feels like it was maybe a reaction to those critiques raised after the first book. The parallel to residential schools is much stronger and there is a clear critique of governments and policies that harm minorities and government accountability. There is also a theme of Land Back in this book.

About the concern about the children never being reunited with their families, I got the idea from the book that these children didn’t have families to go back to for whatever reason, but I see why the exclusion of any possibility of their being reunited with their parents in the narrative might be painful for anyone affected by the residential school system, or the racist adoption policies that removed Native children from their parents and gave them to white parents. Even if that wasn’t a possibility for Arthur’s children, perhaps it should have been addressed more fully.

I don’t think there is necessarily anything inherently wrong with being inspired by true historical tragedies as long as in the resulting art these tragedies aren’t minimized, whitewashed, erased, excused, or sanitized. And I don’t think it was Klune’s intention to do any of these things. He wrote a book that celebrates love and weirdness and resistance and kindness and acceptance. But also author intentions don’t matter as much as reader interpretation, so if readers, especially ones from Native communities feel that Klune did minimize, whitewash, erase, excuse, or sanitize their history, then that’s valid.

You can like things and still be critical of them, so I’m going to give this a
4/5 bellhops

The cover of City of Ghosts by V.E. Schwab shows a foggy city and the silhouette of a girl and her cat moving through the mist

City of Ghosts by V.E. Schwab*
Cassidy Blake book 1 of 3
CW: drowning
So fun. I love a spooky little middle grade novel. Cassidy Blake’s parents are ghost hunters filming a TV show about haunted Edinburg, but every since a near death experience, Cassidy is the only one who can really see ghosts. With the help of her ghost best friend, Cassidy must face a dangerous spirit terrorizing the streets of Edinburg. Going to have to read the rest of the books now.
4/5 ghosts

The cover of We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds shows a light brown skinned girl with freckles and curls looking out at the future over a background of stars and a foreground of sunflowers

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: racism, lynching, generational trauma, abuse
Gorgeous, queer, contemporary YA novel. When Avery’s grandmother’s health declines, her family moves from DC out to the sticks in the South to be with her, despite the fact that Avery doesn’t remember ever meeting her, and her mom and grandmother can’t seem to have a conversation without fighting. As Avery finds new friendships and attempts to navigate her family’s tense relationships, she discovers a history of trauma and racism buried in this southern town. I loved the exploration of friendships in this book as well as complicated histories of generational trauma and how that is bound up in histories of racism, and the question of who gets to be remembered.
4.5/5 monuments

His Majesty's Dragon my Naomi Novik shows a dragon flying above a ship that tosses on the sea

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik*
Temeraire book 1 of 9
**Book Hangover Alert
I adored this. This was everything I wanted in a dragon book. During the Napoleonic Wars, a British Navy captain takes a dragon egg as prize from a French ship. When the egg hatches, he and the dragon become bonded and join the dragon rider branch of the military as the threat of Napoleon’s army grows stronger. I’m looking forward to seeing how the themes of duty to King and Country evolve as the series goes on. It did take a long time before there were any important female characters, but they were there eventually. Laurence and Temeraire are so cute; I love them so much. This book was what I wanted when I read Fourth Wing.
5/5 dragons

The cover of Moomin by Tove and Lars Jansson is yellow and shows the titular character Moomin, a round, lovable, hippo-like creature

Moomin Adventures by Lars and Tove Jansson
Moomin Adventures book 1 of 2
Delightful. Collected comics about the Moomin family. These are so fun and so cute. I also enjoyed the themes of anti-capitalism.
3.5/5 millions hidden under a pebble

The cover of Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake shows two hands holding the hilt of a sword with an eye reflected in the sword and shadowy figures on horseback twisting around the hands and blade

Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake
Heromaker book 1 of 2
CW: death, war
I enjoyed this, even though I am fundamentally against the idea that war is glorious in any way. Reed is an initiate of an order of immortal warrior women (and their immortal horses) who train heroes in service to the goddess of glory. I don’t think I liked this one quite as much as Blake’s other series, Three Dark Crowns, but I still had fun with this one. I also just think it’s so cute that she dedicated this book to her horse.
3.5/5 horses

The cover of Constituent Service by John Scalzi shows a human in a scuba suit holding a chicken, in front of a variety of extra terrestrials
Subterranean Press

Constituent Service by John Scalzi***
A Third District story
This is super fun little novella set in the world of the Third District. One of the few humans in a majority alien district of the city, Ashley starts a new job in constituent services at the district. Listening to various complaints from constituents, Ashley discovers a threat to an upcoming parade that will endanger all attendees. This was so fun and silly but also demonstrated a beautiful ideal where city services listens to the people that live there and actually cares about them. Sad that that’s my fantasy right now. A government that cares about its people, all of them, even the extra terrestrials.
3.5/5 potted plants

The cover of Katabasis by R.F. Kuang shows two figures running along an Escher staircase that continues to infinity.

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: misogyny, abuse, manipulation, sexual assault, ableism
Kuang’s work is so refreshing in an age of anti-intellectualism. Her work is unapologetically intellectual. And even if you don’t understand all the references or the logic theory (and I didn’t) it’s still accessible. After her advisor is killed in an accident, Alice Law, analytic magic postgrad, and her fellow advisee Peter Murdoch journey to Hell to bring back his soul. I did really enjoy this. I appreciated the critique of academia, its misogyny and ableism and elitism and the way it pits people against each other. I enjoyed Kuang’s take on Hell in comparison to other works that have explored the concept.
4.5/5 bone creatures

The cover of The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi shows a stylized plait of red, orange, and pink meant to evoke hair

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: homophobia, misogyny, domestic violence, lynching (mention)
While I was reading this, I was like this reminds me of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and then I saw in the acknowledgements they acknowledge that work as an inspiration. It’s basically a queer Nigerian Chronicle of a Death Foretold where the story orbits the death of a young queer Nigerian. This was beautifully written and very sad. It grapples with the taboo subject of homosexuality and queerness in Nigeria and the idea that the protective fear we have for our loved ones (especially those that may be othered by society) is as dangerous as the fear of society itself.
5/5 necklaces

*This book only includes straight white cis people. It pains me to put His Majesty’s Dragon on here, but I fear it must be done.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be lying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! I’m still listing Somewhere Beyond the Sea here. I think that even with a cozy fantasy lens, you can still learn a lot about the purposeful government policies that marginalize, other, and attempt to erase minorities. I also think if you’re in a book club (or you just like to engage critically with what you read–which everyone should), it’s worth discussing residential schools and the way the way they are referenced in this story does more harm or good. Read We Deserve Monuments to learn about generational racial trauma and young queer love. Read Constituent Service for a city employee sincerely doing her best to help citizens, even ones very different from herself. Read the Death of Vivek Oji for a story about queer Nigerians.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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January 2026 Books

Books Reread

The cover of Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer shows a girl in a red dress playing a fiddle and dancing on the cabin of a keelboat on a river

Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer***
Bloody Jack book 5 of 12
CW: slavery, n-word, racism, racial slurs
Continuing on with my re-listen of this series, one of my all time favorite series. In this book, Jacky is hiding from the British government who still wants to arrest her for piracy by traveling down the Mississippi River in a keelboat that’s also a floating tavern and musical and theatrical revue. As always it’s very fun, though on a reread, I might like this one a little less than I remember. I just think Jamie is very annoying in this one. He’s always complaining and while, yes, bad things happen to him, bad things happen to Jacky too and she always has a good attitude about it. Also I don’t love the way he treats Clementine. It feels different than the way Jack treats her various beaus throughout the books.
4/5 tall tales

New Books Read

The cover of To The Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage shows an erupting volcano, stars, and the moon
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage***
CW: domestic violence, trauma, racism
I liked this but I think not as much as my sister did. Steph is determined to be the first Cherokee astronaut, a journey that will span decades and continents and whose consequences will ripple out in her family and relationships. This is an important book that examines themes of culture, identity, appropriation, and the effects of colonization.
3.5/5 sharks

The cover of Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler shows the title and author on a blank white background rimmed in yellow and purple

Who’s Afraid of Gender by Judith Butler***
Fascinating examination by one of the world’s foremost gender scholars of what everyone’s so afraid of when it comes to ‘the gay agenda.’ Unfortunately, this is one of those books where the people who most need to read it are also the people least likely to. But even if you’re not afraid of gender, this book can still help you understand the fear of the Right and give you the tools to combat it.
4/5 phantasms

The cover of Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman shows Carl running through a circus about to throw a stick of dynamite in his trademark boxers, Princess Donut the cat on his shoulder and Mongo the velociraptor at his heels
Ace Publishing

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 2 of 8
CW: gore, body horror, death
The second installment of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books follows Carl and Donut down to the third floor of the Dungeon–created when an alien corporation zoned the Earth for mining and killed nearly everyone and everything on the surface, leaving all the survivors to fight for survival in a real life video gameshow being streamed to every corner of the universe. I’m still enjoying these, particularly the audiobooks. I think I liked this one just a little less than the first one, but I am enjoying the development of the geopolitical aspects. I’m interested to see how the governments and corporations outside the Dungeon develop.
4/5 bombs

The cover of Don't Let the Forest in by CG Drews shows a black and white drawing of a boy in a school uniform with what looks like claw marks ripping the image across his face. From the tears, flowers and throrns and bugs creep through
Feiwel & Friends

Don’t Let the Forest in by CG Drews
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: child abuse, neglect, trauma, PTSD, gore, body horror
Impossible to put down. I loved this dark, obsessive horror. I don’t know how to blurb this one (I’m going to try anyway), but I think you should read it. When Andrew arrives back at boarding school for senior year, he’s haunted by something he can’t quite remember, an accident from last year. With his twin keeping an odd distance from him and his best friend Thomas’s abusive parents missing, Andrew is desperate to figure out what’s going on. But there’s something dark awaking in the forest. Can the boys keep it from consuming them and the rest of the school? Obsessed. I’m not saying Thomas and Andrew had a healthy relationship, but I’m also not saying I’m against it.
5/5 monsters

The cover of The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie shows a mustachioed Peter Dinklage as Poirot standing before a shadowy train
Audible

The A.B.C Murders by Agatha Christie*
CW: murder
Always fun to read a Poirot novel. In a challenge to Poirot, a serial killer is working their way through the alphabet. Can Poirot catch them before too much blood has been spilled? This one was kind of fun. I liked the way the reader was led through the mystery because I felt like I was figuring things out a little ahead of Poirot, but then there would be a twist. The Audible full cast performance was very good, and Peter Dinklage was perfect as Poirot.
3.5/5 railway guides

The cover of The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch shows a split image, one side Christmasy with a drawing of the Christmas Prince in a red coat and the other side Halloweeny with the Halloween Prince in black. They eye each other playfully
Bramble

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch***
A delight. Red, White and Royal Blue meets The Nightmare before Christmas. The Prince of Christmas falls for the Prince of Halloween, but the running of one of the world’s biggest holidays is more fraught than he could have imagined. Is revolution coming to the Christmas monarchy? I loved the banter and the characters and the magic of the holidays. And I loved that it wasn’t just a romance but also a political revolution.
4.5/5 swear word jack-o-lanterns

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
CW: death, suicide, trauma
I really enjoyed this. It was dark, atmospheric, and moody, but also surprisingly hopeful and heartwarming. When a mysterious woman washes ashore nearly dead on Shearwater Island at the edge of Antarctica, the family of caretakers on the island, must decide whether they can trust her with the island’s dark history. I loved the themes of climate change as well as trauma and healing. I really liked the prose. I have one more thought but it’s about the ending. Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

I was hoping for a happy ending though.


4.5/5 seals

The cover of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden shows a lit cabin in a winter night. The silhouette of a girl stands before the cabin in the snow.
Del Rey

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden*
**Book Hangover Alert
I didn’t like this book quite as much as Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts, but it was still good. Inspired by Russian folklore, the story follows Vasya, a wild young girl whose grandmother may have been a witch, and the struggle between two brothers Fear and Death. The book examines themes of tradition, religion, and feminism. I loved the magical world and all of the different folktale creatures we get to see. I really loved the examination of Christianity as a way to exercise control and enforce conformity through fear. I don’t really feel like that gets talked about enough. A little sad the bear was the bad guy.
4.5/5 hearth spirits

*This book only includes straight white cis people. Aside from Poirot, who obviously is queer coded, The ABC Murders only includes straight white cis people.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be lying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Mississippi Jack for themes of slavery and indigenous conflict with colonizers. Read To the Moon and Back for queer indigenous perspectives. Read Who’s Afraid of Gender because it will make you smarter and more thoughtful. Read The Nightmare before Kissmass for queer joy and also revolution and reparation in fantasy. I’m not tagging Dungeon Crawler Carl yet but I have a feeling that as the books go on, they’re going to get more and more political.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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End of Year Round Up 2025

Total books read: 124

Number of pages read: 43,227

New books read: 109

Books reread: 15

Number of books by women, trans, and nonbinary people read this year (only counting new books read): 73

Number of books by BIPOC this year (only including new books read): 30

Number of books by disabled authors this year (only including new books read)*: 3
*This can only include authors I know are disabled. More on the list could be and I might not know. 

Breakdown by genre (only counting new books read):
-Fiction: 88 (children’s literature: 2; classics: 1; contemporary fiction: 6; fantasy: 20; graphic novel: 3; historical fiction: 12; horror: 5; literary fiction: 9; mystery: 3; romance: 1; science fiction: 9; thriller: 1; YA: 16
-Nonfiction: 20 (biography: 1; children’s literature: 1; history: 2; memoir: 3; philosophy: 1; science: 9; social science: 1; travel: 1; true crime: 1
-Poetry: 1

First book of the year: Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adyemi

Last book of the year: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Most read author of the year: Rick Riordan, for the second year in a row (I guess if it’s going to a straight white man). I read 4 books by him.

Best books of the year (in no particular order; not including rereads):
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
My Friends by Frederick Backman
The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Icarus by K. Ancrum
The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
Ocean’s Godori and Teo’s Durumi by Elaine U. Cho
The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Chlorine by Jade Song
The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie

Lowest-rated books of the year:
Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adyemi
The Home for Wayward Girls by Marcia Bradley
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Books I didn’t finish:
My reading goal this year was to not finish any books I wasn’t enjoying. I didn’t quite meet my goal. I did still finish a few things I thought weren’t great, but it’s an ongoing process
Time Travelers: Victorian Encounters with Time and History edited by Adeline Buckland and Sadiah Qureshi
Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith
The Basic Kafka by Franz Kafka
Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr

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September 2025 Books

New Books Read

The cover of Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda shows a Greek mask and a snake in psychedelic pinks and purples
G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda*
I attended an author event with Ivy Pochoda in conversation with the incredible Emily Wilson, so I was really excited to read this book. After the death of her controlling husband, Lena finds herself under the thumb of her controlling son. At the luxury resort he now owns in Greece, Lena meets a group of eccentric partying women on the beach and learns the power of female rage and the freedom of ecstasy. This was dreamlike and propulsive and a little gritty. The prose was spare but evocative, and you know I love a story inspired by Greek mythology.
3.5/5 DJs who might be gods

The book the Bad Ones by Melissa Albert held over some pink flowers. The cover shows a pink statue of a crying angel

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert
**Book Hangover Alert
Melissa Albert writes books you inhale in one night and then wonder if it was a fever dream. Was this Albert’s best book yet? I’m not sure. Honestly I don’t remember the previous ones all that well except that I loved them and read them far too fast. Nora receives a mysterious text from her estranged best friend Becca the night that four people in their town, including Becca, go missing. When Nora begins finding clues Becca left her that evoke the Goddess Game, a childhood game from the community, Nora suspects something more supernatural than a kidnapping is going on. I loved the focus on friendship, the eeriness, the propulsive tension, and the fact that a teenage protagonist in a YA novel had two good parents. Very refreshing.
4.5/5 goddesses

The book The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong held over some dying flowers. The cover shows a young man's silhouette against a setting sun

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong***
CW: suicide attempt, war, trauma, racism, addiction
I was a little disappointed by this to be honest. Ready to take his own life by jumping off the bridge in East Gladness, Hai is stopped by Grazina, an old Lithuanian woman living near the bridge. She invites Hai to live with her and take care of her, but they really take care of each other. Vuong’s writing is gorgeous as always, but this one didn’t hold me like On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous or his poetry. I thought it was a little slow and there was too much description. It was beautiful description, but it wasn’t needed. It was also kind of a bummer, which is an unfair assessment for a book about addiction. I don’t know. There were some lovely moments, but I did struggle to get through it.
3/5 pieces of cornbread

The book Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao held outside. The cover shows a dreamy cloudscape and the reflection of a city with paper boats floating in the water

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao***
I wanted to like this more than I did. I mean look at that stunning cover. On the morning Hana is set to take over her father’s pawnshop, she wakes to a ransacked shop and her father and a precious artifact missing. But this is no regular pawnshop; it accepts only the choices people regret, giving customers a chance to forget. Hana must journey through the dreamlike realm in which the pawn shop exists to find her father and the stolen choice. I liked the world, which was beautiful and inventive, but I felt like the tension was a little lacking. There were stakes for Hana, but for some reason they didn’t seem all that important.
3/5 puddle jumps

Held over a green bush, the book The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden shows two ghostly hands emerging from darkness holding a poppy flower

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: war, trauma, abuse
I loved this so much. When Laura’s brother is reported missing, presumed dead during WWI, Laura, a combat nurse discharged honorably with an injury, returns to Europe to find him. After an explosion that leaves him trapped in a pillbox with a German, Laura’s brother Freddie and the German decide to keep each other alive, but in protecting Hans Winter, Freddie makes a deal with the mysterious and charismatic Fiddler, who haunts battlefields and the stories of half mad soldiers. Will Laura be able to save him before he loses himself? I’m now obsessed with Katherine Arden. I have to find everything she’s ever written and read it immediately. I had to clear off a spot on my favorites shelf to squeeze this in. Gorgeous prose, fascinating characters, haunting and beautiful story. I can’t say enough good things about it.
500/5 motorcycles

The cover of Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher shows a snake made of plants and flowers curled around a red apple
Tor Books

Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher*
**Book Hangover Alert
This was such a fun, refreshing Snow White retelling! When the king appears in Anya’s workroom asking her, an expert on poison, to save his daughter, whom he is sure is being poisoned, Anya has no choice but to go with him. But Anya gets more than she bargained for because Princess Snow isn’t ingesting small amounts of arsenic or hemlock, but something far more strange and dangerous. I don’t want to say too much more about it because it was very cool and I want to let you be surprised. I love when a retelling is fresh and surprising.
4/5 roosters

The cover of Flux by Jinwoo Chong is yellow with a splash that looks like old TV static across the cover
Melville Books

Flux by Jinwoo Chong***
**Book Hanover Alert
CW: racism
This was weird. I’m not sure I know how to blurb this book. When the protagonist is laid off from his job at a magazine at Christmas, he immediately gets a new offer that sounds too good to be true from a hot new start up that’s promised to change the world of energy as we know it. But something strange happens in his office every day at 9am and maybe the company isn’t making batteries after all. I’m stealing this sentence from the Amazon blurb: “Chong’s dazzling, time-bending debut…blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction.” Unpredictable and fascinating, I’m going to be thinking about this one for a while. It reminded me of Zeroville by Steve Erickson but I’m not sure why, since they weren’t really alike at all.
3.5/5 clicks

Held over some dead flowers, the cover of Vera Wong shows an older lady peeking through Venetian blinds

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto***
**Book Hangover Alert
Incredible. I loved every moment of it. When Vera Wong finds a dead man on the floor of her teahouse, she knows the useless police aren’t going to solve this one without her help, so she posts an ad in the paper that brings the suspects to her. Now she just has to figure out who did it. She just doesn’t count on building a found family in the process. I’m obsessed with this book. A cozy murder mystery with a nosy little old Asian lady protagonist? Sign me up.
5/5 clues

The Book of Elsewhere held up in front of pink flowers. The cover is black with a sketch of a babirusa skull in pink

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville*
CW: death, war, trauma, torture, suicide, attempted suicide, gore
I feel like I’m still processing this one, so this is going to be probably a not very articulate review. This book takes place in an alternate universe to the BRZRKR universe, which I’m not familiar with at all. The story follows immortal warrior Unute’s journey through the millennia to understand his own immortality. The way the story orbited Unute was interesting. I think a lot of people might complain that the writing style was too academic for a book about a comic book supersoldier, and I will say I looked up a lot more words in the dictionary than I have recently. But I hope that people will still try books that are a little more challenging and don’t lend themselves to easy conclusions.
3.5/5 babirusas

*This book only includes straight white cis people. I guess Javier in Hemlock & Silver might not have been white, but it was subtle enough to be easy to ignore. The Book of Elsewhere was not only straight white cis people, but somehow it felt like it was?

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be lying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! I just think you’ll be a better person if you read The Warm Hands of Ghosts. Read Flux for Asian rep in sci-fi and an examination of Asian representation in media. Read The Emperor of Gladness (or one of Vuong’s other books) for LGBTQIA+ and Asian rep. Read Water Moon for a Japanese inspired fantasy. Read Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers for heartwarming community building across the Asian diaspora.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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August 2025 Books

Books Reread

George Allen & Unwin

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien*
Such a comforting reread in these trying times. I think The Two Towers is still my favorite book of the series, but of course this one is good too. I love Merry and Pippin’s friendship in this one, which I think is shown in even sharper relief because they aren’t together for most of this book. Once again, the book is split into ‘what everyone else is doing’ first, and then ‘what Frodo and Sam are doing.’ I also forgot how much more stuff there is after they (spoiler) destroy the ring. I did also listen to the appendix this time as well, which I think I skipped the first time I read this book.
4/5 fell beasts

New Books Read

Atria Books

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas
CW: abduction of a child, murder
This one was fun! A spooky thriller set in a run down museum, it’s a little Night at the Museum meets Jurassic Park plus a murder mystery. Paleontologist Simon Nealy returns to the Hawthorne Museum where his sister disappeared in their childhood determined to finally figure out what happened to her. But the museum is haunted by the ghosts of prehistoric beasts. Can Simon help all these restless souls find peace? Overall I really enjoyed this. Good tension building and fun concept, although I did predict the murderer almost immediately and I did feel like I had a few unanswered questions by the end.
3.5/5 dino ghosts

Joseph Henry Press

Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere by Peter D. Ward and David W. Elhert
I read this as research for a future project, though it was perhaps not very helpful for that. I still read the whole thing though because it was interesting. The authors’ main argument was that the level of oxygen in the atmosphere on prehistoric Earth was the main driver of speciation. They argued that in times of low oxygen, there was more species diversification, then in times of high oxygen levels, those species which had developed very efficient breathing were able to grow much larger and dominate. I thought their arguments sounded convincing, though I don’t know that I know enough about chemistry or geology to comment. This book also came out in 2006 and I don’t know if there are any updates to the research since then.  It did not answer the question of whether humans could have breathed the atmosphere in the Permian, which was not necessarily in their research purview, but it is an important question to me. 
3/5 species

Random House

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro*
I had kind of a hard time getting into this one. In a post-Arthurian Britain where no one can retain long-term memories, an older couple named Axl and Beatrice set off in search of their son. I read in Maggie Stiefvater’s review of this book that it reminded her of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi though she found Piranesi “warmer and sadder.” I would agree with that assessment. I liked the exploration of memory and grief and conflict, but it didn’t fill me up or unmoor me the way Piranesi did.
3/5 she-dragons

W. W. Norton & Company – I really dropped the ball with this one. I could have photographed the copy I read in the museum in front of a bear diorama, but I didn’t

Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie***
I always try to read something on-theme in the museum so this was my latest nonfiction pick. Dickie writes about each of the eight bear species we have on earth with clear-eyed compassion. Each chapter focuses on one bear species where she charts the ecological and social threats to each species. I learned a lot from this book, and I hope everyone reads it so we can work together to save these wonderful animals from extinction.
4.5/5 bears (duh)

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson***
CW: mass shooting, death, grief, suicidal ideation
**Book Hangover Alert
I loved this. Full disclosure, Jen was my mentor at Drexel’s MFA program, so I am a little biased. This book is a Sapphic Orpheus and Eurydice retelling set in Chicago. After losing her sister in a mass shooting, Charlie finds herself able to see ghosts–but not her sister. Searching for her sister’s spirit, she stumbles upon a lighthouse at the edge of the lake run by the Ferryman who ferries souls to the underworld every night. But Charlie finds more than she bargained for in the Station Master’s daughter Nera. It was so excellent. I loved the multi-POV narration. I loved the world. I loved the concept. I loved the remnants scattered throughout the narrative. I loved the prose.
5/5 remnants

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 1 of 8
These books are all the rage right now. And for good reason. They are really fun. When the Earth is turned into a huge mining site for extraction by the Borant Corporation, all surviving humans are thrown into the Dungeon, a real life video game beneath the Earth’s surface televised for the whole Universe. Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat Princess Donut must team up to survive the Dungeon. It’s a little Hunger Games meets Squid Games meets Ready Player One. Perfect for fans of DnD. It was really fun, and I highly recommend the audiobook because the narrator was excellent.
4.5/5 achievements

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor***
The Nsibidi Scripts book 1 of 3
This was so fun! A Nigerian inspired fantasy, Sunny, an albino American-Nigerian living in Nigeria, discovers she’s a Leopard-person gifted with magic. She joins her peers to learn to control her magic and the young Leopard-people must discover the secrets of the Black Hat serial killer menacing children near their village. I loved the developing friendship between Sunny, Chichi, Sasha, and Orlu. I thought the world was really cool. I started a new tag on StoryGraph for books about Magic School that Aren’t Hogwarts. So if you’re looking to fill that void without supporting a terrible person, check this one out!
3.5/5 juju knives

*This book only includes straight white cis people. Once again the classics, which is unfair but still true.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Eight Bears to learn more about these wonderful creatures, conservation, climate change and what humans can do to reverse the detrimental effects we’ve had on the environment. Read The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World for Sapphic fantasy and Jewish representation in fantasy. Read Akata Witch for Nigerian inspired fantasy.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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July 2025 Books

Books Reread

George Allen & Unwin

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien*
The Lord of the Rings book 2 of 3
**Book Hangover Alert
I forgot that this book is in two parts, one about the rest of the fellowship and one about Frodo and Sam, and does not go back and forth between them like the movie does. This movie also starts and ends in a slightly different place than the book. Otherwise it’s very faithful. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are on the trail of Merry and Pippin who were kidnapped by orcs but then rally the ents into resistance in Fangorn Forest. Frodo and Sam continue on toward Mordor, enlisting the unwilling and devious help of Gollum. I haven’t yet reread the third book, but I still think this one might be my favorite. I also love to see the developing friendship between Legolas and Gimli.
4.5/5 ents

Macmillan

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne*
I’ve read this book before, but it was kinda fun to reread it with the backdrop of all the Victorian scientific history I’ve been reading lately (who knew context helps you enjoy something more fully??). Verne was really just excited about geology, like everyone else was at the time so he wrote this adventure novel that talks about rocks probably way more than today’s average reader would be interested in. After finding an account of a man who (you guessed it) claimed to have journeyed to the center of the earth, Dr. Lidenbrock and his reluctant nephew Axel follow in his footsteps down a volcano in Iceland to uncover the secrets hidden under the rocks. This was also fun to read right before I went to Iceland. Overall, I enjoyed it much more than when I read it originally for school in the summer before 8th grade. Of course I have to critique the lack of female characters. And after Axel’s sweetheart Gräuben says she wants to come on the adventure! Axel didn’t want to go! Take her instead!
3.5/5 prehistoric monsters

New Books Read

Doubleday Anchor Books

Darwin’s Century by Loren Eiseley*
Yet another book about Victorian scientific history. This one was cited a bunch in Taylor’s and Dolnick’s books so I went ahead and read it too. It was pretty good. Mostly focused on what paved the way for Darwin’s theory of evolution (he argues Darwin wasn’t a one of a kind genius who came out of nowhere with this crazy idea).
3/5 barnacles

Delacorte Press

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
We Were Liars book 1 of 2
**Book Hangover Alert
A good fast paced read. I really enjoyed this one. Cadence Sinclair comes from a privileged family and spends every summer on a private island near Martha’s Vineyard. But after an accident the summer she was 15, Cady is struggling to remember what happened and no one in her family will tell her. My one critique is about how the prose sometimes devolved into poetry. I just think prose doesn’t become poetry just because you put some line breaks in it. I think the author would have been better off writing lyrical prose than half-baked, partial poems. Do a novel-in-verse or a novel of lyrical prose, but don’t try to do both.
4/5 dogs

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic
All for the Game book 4 of ?
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: abuse, trauma, brainwashing, sexual assault, assault, suicide
The way Sakavic has her fandom by the throat. Taking place after the original trilogy, this book is from the perspectives of Jean Moreau and Jeremy Knox as Jean unlearns how to be a Raven and learns how to be a Trojan instead. We love to see that healing journey. And I’m also loving meeting all the new characters. Sakavic has always had a knack for writing extremely lovable, flawed, complicated characters.
4.5/5 ravens

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Hild by Nicola Griffith*
The Hild Sequence book 1 of 2
CW: slavery, incest
I wanted to like this more than I did. I just really like the cover tbh. Historical fiction set in the seventh century in Britain, young Hild must navigate the complicated politics of kings and lords vying for power to gain what power she can as a young woman. Griffith’s prose is really nice, but I struggled to get through this one. I liked Hild and Begu and Cian. I’m not sure what it was that made it hard for me to get into. There were a lot of characters and difficult names–it was almost like reading a high fantasy–and they were hard to keep straight.
3/5 prophesies

Delacorte Press

Family of Liars by E. Lockhart
We Were Liars book 2 of 2
This one was good too. I think not quite as good as the first one, but still a quick, easy, enthralling read. It’s a prequel, set before the events of the first novel, but has spoilers for the first one, so read it second. This novel follows Carrie, Cadence’s aunt in her seventeenth summer on the island, exploring the secrets her family keeps and the relationships of the three sisters. It helps to explain how Cady’s mom and aunts ended up the way they are. I liked the voice in the first book, but this book had the exact same voice, even though our narrator is a different character. Would have loved to see some variation in the voice.
3.5/5 ghosts

The Golden Raven by Nora Sakavic
All for the Game book 5 of ?
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: abuse, trauma, brainwashing, sexual assault, assault
I didn’t realize there was going to be more than one book about Jean Moreau. I should have waited to start any of them until all 3 were out. But alas. When I finished the first one, I immediately read this one. And now I wait. Still enjoying these. Sakavic’s prose is so readable, if a little unpolished and repetitive.
4/5 Trojans

Atria Books

My Friends by Frederik Backman***
CW: child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault (mentioned), drug use, drug abuse
Nobody does funny-sad like Backman. I adored this. By like 5 minutes in I was crying and laughing and then that continued for the whole novel. When homeless teen Louisa breaks into an art auction in order to see her favorite painting in person, she could never imagine that she’d meet the artist (in an alley behind the auction, while running from authorities who think she was there to vandalize the painting). And when the artist passes away the next day, Louisa could never have foreseen he’d leave the painting to her. Now Louisa’s got a priceless painting and no idea what to do with it except follow the man who gave it to her, the artist’s best friend to learn the story of the artist and the painting. As unpredictable as real life, the story is fantastically human, full of love and heartbreak and friendship. Rarely do I ever see a book that celebrates or captures true friendship the way this book does. Possibly my new favorite Frederik Backman book.
5/5 farts

Thames and Hudson

When Life Nearly Died by Michael J. Benton*
Another one I read for research. This is about the Permian mass extinction event, the largest mass extinction in history. It gives a good amount of background on some of the other extinctions as well, especially the KP event and the history of our understanding of mass extinctions. It was very interesting. I won’t pretend to understand all the geology and paleontology at work here, but overall I thought Benton did a good job of laying out his argument and evidence in an understandable way. Though, I don’t plan to set my novel near the end-Permian event, so not sure how relevant this actually was to my research.
3/5 Lystrosauruses

The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham***
CW: racism, n-word
I enjoyed this. Hungry for a change at being a serious reporter, Nelly, a young Black woman from a well-to-do family, takes an assignment to find the Mayor of Maxwell Street, a shady figure who seems to run all of Chicago’s underworld. But is Nelly in way over her head? With her charmed life on the line, Nelly must decide what she’s willing to do for her freedom. I thought this one was fun, but I’m not sure I was completely satisfied by the ending.
3.5/5 glittering parties

*This book only includes straight white cis people. We know those classics are just going to be straight white cis people. It’s probably not fair to label the history books with this label, since the gender and sexual identity of the researchers isn’t relevant, however, women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ individuals have long been excluded from scientific research. I’m not labeling the We Were Liars books with this designation, not because they’re not almost entirely straight white cis people, but because there is some critique of race, class, and heteronormativity. I don’t have any idea if there were people of color in Britain in the seventh century, so maybe this isn’t fair for Hild either, and there is a whiff of homoeroticism in this book, but there could have been more.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read My Friends because it will make you a better person. Read The Mayor of Maxwell Street for a 1920s historical fiction focused on the Black community of Chicago.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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