horror – Krista Beucler

May 4, 2026May 4, 2026

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 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.

February 18, 2026February 18, 2026

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.

***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.

November 6, 2025November 17, 2025

October 2025 Books

Books Reread

The cover of Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams shows the famous ruins in a drawing as they may have appeared with Incas living there

Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams*
I’m planning another trip to the Inca Trail so I reread this book. Adams does a good job balancing his personal travelogue of his trek in the Sacred Valley, history of Hiram Bingham’s expeditions, and history of the Incas and the conflict with Pizarro. He also covers current controversies over the Incan artifacts in Yale’s care. Very readable.
3.5/5 llamas

The cover of Bloody Jack by LA Meyer shows the front of a ship with a figure of indeterminate gender on the bowsprit — I know this cover isn’t the same style as the rest of the series. It hurts me too, but this one is signed.

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer *
**Book Hangover Alert
Bloody Jack book 1 of 12
CW: attempted rape, war, death, plague
This is one of my all time favorite books from one of my all time favorite series. Orphaned in London in 1799, little Mary Faber joins a street gang but when the leader of their gang is killed, Mary rechristens herself Jack and joins the crew of HMS Dolphin as a ship’s boy. The series follows Jacky’s historical hijinks and escapades including but not limited to naval engagements, piracy, finishing school, horse racing, spying in the Napoleonic wars, and so, so much more. Even though we’ve all heard it before, my family and I listened to it on a road trip. I cannot recommend the audiobook highly enough. Katherine Kellgren does a superb job with these books including all the voices, dialects, and songs therein.
5/5 kites

The cover of The Curse of the Blue Tattoo shows a girl dancing on a dock surrounded by sailors

Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L.A. Meyer*
**Book Hangover Alert
Bloody Jack book 2 of 12
CW: attempted rape
Book 2 follows Jacky at finishing school in Boston after she’s discovered to be a girl. And if it doesn’t sound like she could get in much trouble at school (compared to in disguise as a boy in the Royal Navy) well, you’d be wrong. This is maybe one of my least favorite books in the series but there aren’t any bad books in the series.
4/5 sheepdogs

New Books Read

The cover of Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi shows a light skinned Indian woman in a green sari

Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi***
This was one of my Book of the Month books. I enjoyed it. When an influential Indian artist dies mysteriously in a hospital in Bombay in 1937 where nurse Sona works, Sona must undertake a quest to clear her name from suspicion and return several paintings to the artist’s friends. It was interesting to read a historical fiction set in India shortly before partition with an Anglo-American protagonist.
3.5/5 paintings

The cover of Teo's Durumi by Elaine U Cho shows two figures holding hands before a Japanese style pogoda with a space ship flying overhead

Teo’s Durumi by Elaine U. Cho***
**Book Hangover Alert
The Alliance book 2 of 2
CW: gore, serial murder
I’m obsessed with this duology! I’m dying for someone to make it into an action series. It would be so good. Framed for the murder of his family, Teo must clear his name and bring the perpetrators to justice with the help of his ragtag crew of misfits. It has a very cinematic, space opera feel and I just adored it.
5/5 skin suits

The cover of Falmer by Mike Curato shows a drawing of a boy giving the Boy Scout salute surrounded by flames — Henry Holt and Company

Flamer by Mike Curato***
CW: homophobia, religious trauma, suicide attempt
I like to celebrate Banned Books Week all month long. This graphic novel follows Aiden, a closeted teen, at Boy Scout camp as he comes to terms with his sexuality and his own internalized homophobia. I really liked the art in this graphic novel. Several really gorgeous panels, and I really loved the color palette choices.
3.5/5 canoes

The cover of the Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson shows a closeup of colorful bird feathers — Viking Press

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson***
**Book Hangover Alert
A nonfiction book about the craziest museum heist I’ve ever heard of. Johnson traces the crime: the theft of hundred’s of rare, historical, and endangered bird skins from an outpost of the Natural History Museum in London. Why would you steal bird skins from a museum, you ask? For the bizarre and niche hobby of salmon fly tying. Johnson excavates the community’s problematic obsession with using endangered bird feathers in the art form. This book was so wild. I can’t recommend it enough.
4.5/5 birds of paradise

The cover of Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo shows a neon-lit Chinatown street at light with a couple under a streetlight

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: homophobia, racism
The second book I read for Banned Books Month, and it was excellent. Set in the 1950s in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Last Night at the Telegraph Club follows Lily, a teenager trying to navigate her sexuality and culture as well as racism and the Red Scare. It’s such a loving book with interesting and nuanced characters. I really loved getting to read a historical fiction book in this time and place, as it’s not one I’ve read about before.
4.5/5 male impersonators

The cover of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson shows an etching of two girls surrounded by ominous looking villagers — Viking Press

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson*
**Book Hangover Alert
Just a lil something spooky for Halloween. The Blackwood sisters live with their ailing uncle in their estate on the outskirts of town, shunned by the villagers for a tragedy that killed the rest of their family six years ago. But are the girls as innocent as they seem. Jackson is such a master of atmosphere; I really have no idea how she does it. I’m also a big fan of Mary Katherine, the unreliable narrator of the story.
3.5/5 black cats

A Thousand Times Before by Asha Thanki***
CW: domestic violence, religious conflict, colonialism
I said above I’d never read a historical fiction set in the partition of India, but I read two this month. This book is a family saga that follows three generations of women in India during and after partition. A magical tapestry allows the women to pass down their stories and histories and gives the woman from the current generation the power to create change through art. I loved the concept of this book, but I felt the pacing was off. I wanted to be into it, but it dragged.
3/5 tapestries

The cover of Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy shows a waning sliver of moon

Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy*
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: suicide attempt
This one is an early release. I heard Levy speak at the Aspen Literary Festival and her humor convinced me to buy the book. I enjoyed this. It was weird, but good. I’m struggling to write a blurb for it that makes sense. I felt like this book captured what it feels like to be alive right now. To have lived through Covid, to be surviving under capitalism, to be watching America’s descent into fascism and still be trying to live your life. Set in New York City in the near future, “Flat Earth is a story of coming of age in America, a novel about commodification, conspiracy theories, mimetic desire, and the difficulties of female friendship that’s as sharp and sardonic as it is heartbreaking” (I took that from the Penguin Random House blurb). I’m not sure I would say I liked it, but I can’t stop thinking about it?
3.5/5 documentary films

The cover of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison shows a young black girl hunched at a window

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: rape, misogyny, racism, death of animals, incest, child sexual abuse, n-word
The last book I read for Banned Books Month. You know, I had resisted reading this one a bit because I always feel like Morrison’s books are kind of a bummer. (Very important, obviously! But not happy books.) But I actually really liked this one–although, that’s not to say it wasn’t a bummer. The book orbits Pecola, an ‘ugly’ black child who longs to have blue eyes. I thought the choice of POV was super interesting as well as the engagement with the themes of whiteness and internalized racism and beauty standards and the way these systems self perpetuate. Morrison also writes some beautiful prose.
4/5 blue eyes

*This book only includes straight white cis people. Perhaps unfair to give this designation to Turn Right at Machu Picchu and The Feather Thief. The later Bloody Jack books are more diverse, but these first couple are pretty white and straight.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Six Days in Bombay to learn about India before partition and the experience of being Anglo-Indian at that time. Read Teo’s Durumi for an Asian-inspired sci-fi with queer characters. Read Flamer for a queer coming of age. Read The Feather Thief to consider the impact humans have on the earth. Read Last Night at the Telegraph Club for untold queer, Asian history. Read A Thousand Times Before for more about Indian partition and queer history. Read The Bluest Eye to learn about internalized racism and the insidious value placed on whiteness.

July 1, 2025July 1, 2025

June 2025 Books

Books Reread

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien*
What a nice comfort book to read in these trying times. When Frodo’s uncle leaves him an enchanted ring, Frodo is pulled into a struggle to save middle earth. Peter Jackson’s movie is excellent and that is in part because he had great source material. A classic. It was nice to visit Tom Bombadil again too.
4/5 barrow-wights

New Books Read

The Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao***
Iron Widow book 2
CW: see content warning from the author at the beginning of the book
I won’t do a little summary of this book, because I don’t want to spoil the first book. This book was good, but I wouldn’t say I really enjoyed it. The first book was fun. I loved how Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi interacted with one another and how they took on the establishment. In this book they almost don’t interact at all, which I found disappointing. I liked the examination of Laborism and the continued themes of feminism, especially how Zetian is learning her own shortcomings as a feminist. But the first half of the book dragged a bit. Still fascinated by the world. I’ll probably still read the next book.
3.5/5 suits of spirit armor

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang***
Gods Beyond the Skies book 1
I love when authors thank each other in their acknowledgements. It was a coincidence that I happened to pick this book and Heavenly Tyrant up at the library at the same time, but I loved seeing both authors thank each other in the acknowledgements. Ruying has the power to pull the life force from someone’s body, but she is one of a conquered people. When a conquering prince discovers her power, Ruying is forced to become his personal assassin to save her family. But the prince is charismatic. He seems to want peace and unity between their people as much as she does. As Ruying is drawn in by his promise of peace, she must learn to trust herself to do the right thing for her people. I enjoyed this. I liked seeing Ruying’s character develop throughout the book.
3.5/5 blessings from Death

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle***
**Book Hangover Alert
This one was fun. Screenwriter Misha made it in Hollywood by writing queer horror movies, but then the studio tells him he has to kill off his gay leads right at the culmination of their relationship. Despite being closeted in his hometown in Montana, Misha is ready to stand for his principles until he starts being menaced by monsters from his own movies. Are these crazy stalker fans or something more sinister? I really enjoyed this. Great tension building. Important themes about technology and art and capitalism (spoiler: this book is anti-AI) that I was left thinking about long after the story ended. My one critique is that I hated the dialogue tags. This is probably just a personal quibble.
4/5 horror monsters

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: ableism, Nazis, racism
Stiefvater’s adult debut is a sparkling historical fiction with elements of magical realism. After Pearl Harbor, the US government requisitions several luxury hotels to house Axis diplomats and foreign nationals in the hopes that if the diplomats are well treated, the American diplomats in Germany will be as well until a prisoner swap can be arranged. Hotel general manager June must figure out how to host the enemy, keep her staff under control, and balance the mineral water springs that flow beneath the hotel which return the same energy they are given. I can’t say enough good things about this book. I don’t feel like I explained it very well, but just trust me, you should read it. Gorgeous prose as always. Interesting and compelling characters. Magical and ethereal setting that fills you with longing. I adored it. I also loved seeing the themes of disability in this book, especially a consideration of the way Nazis were persecuting disabled people, which I think often isn’t talked about enough. My only caveat about this book is that you should not read about a luxury hotel while staying at a budget hotel. Lends itself to too much comparison.
5/5 dachshunds

Earth Before the Dinosaurs by Sébastien Steyer
A book I read for research. This book has gorgeous illustrations. It went a little more in depth on evolutionary history than I needed it to. I really just wanted to know what kind of animals were alive in the Carboniferous and Permian periods.
3/5 dimetrodons

Camp by L.C. Rosen
This was a very fun, easy read. Randy has been coming to queer camp as a theater kid for several years now, but this year he has a plan to catch the eye of butch gay boy Hudson who has never so much as looked at him. All he has to do is give up theater, his friends, his style, and everything he loves about camp. But when Hudson looks at him in his new masculine clothes, it’s all worth it. Or is it? I enjoyed this. I read it very fast. I did think maybe there was some trauma that didn’t really get fully addressed and it did seem like there was kind of a lot of sex for a YA book. I try not to be a prude (and I am and 100% against banning books), but I do think sexual content in YA books should be approached differently than in an adult book.
3.5/5 painted nails

Books I didn’t finish

Time Travelers: Victorian Encounters with Time and History edited by Adelene Buckland and Sadiah Qureshi
This book was just a little more niche than I needed it to be. I read it as research for a novel I’m thinking about, but a few of the essays were more academic and focused than I wanted. I read the essays that interested me and skimmed the rest.

*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 Heavenly Tyrant to learn about Laborism, overthrowing fascist regimes, and the subjugation of women in many different government systems. Read To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods for a fantasy inspired by the true events in Manchuria during WWII under Russian and Japanese subjugation. Read Bury Your Gays for queer rep in horror (with a happy ending!) and a critique of AI and the commodification of art. Read The Listeners to learn more about the Nazis and disability. I’m not marking Camp as a Book for a Social Conscience, not because it doesn’t have good representation, or because you shouldn’t read it, but just simply because I don’t think it will make you a better person if you read it. Which again doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

February 12, 2025May 6, 2025

January 2025 Books

Books Reread

The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro***
CW: trauma
Still on my reread every Percy Jackson book kick. Nico and Will must journey to Tartarus to save an old friend. You can read my original review of this book here. I think I liked this one a little more on my second read. I was just reminded about the troglodytes because I’ve read the Trials of Apollo books recently. The first time I read this book I hadn’t read those recently and I did not remember who they were. So having that context was nice.
4/5 stories for Gorgira

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, sex trafficking, rape, sexual harassment, racism, domestic violence, alcoholism
Still excellent. I don’t have much more to say about this than what I said in my first review. It’s Erdrich at her best. A little more serious in theme than some of her other works, but moment of her humor still shine through. I’m upping my rating of this one, I think.
5/5 blue bull costumes

Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew***
I read this very recently, but I read it again because I assigned it to my students for my English 102 class for this quarter. I think it was even better the second time, and my students have been responding really well to it. I’m upping my review for this one too.
5/5 prosthetic feet

New Books Read

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi***
Legacy of Orïsha book 3 of 3
It seems like it’s been a long time since the first two books from this series came out. And I do not remember the first two books super well. But I have to say I’m disappointed. Zélie, Tzain, Amari, and Inan must work together to face a threat from forces outside Orïsha who’ve been waiting to strike until the country is in chaos. Four first person POVs and I couldn’t tell them apart without checking the chapter heading. Barely any thoughts, feelings, or interiority coloring the way any of the characters were observing the world or what was happening. I felt like I was in a little robot screen rolling around watching what was going on. Also not great world building. Here in this third book we’ve just found out that there are more civilizations within 2000 miles of the island country we spent the first two books in. And none of the characters knew about them?? Geography education in Orïsha leaves something to be desired. Especially because the people in the 2 new countries speak the Orïshan language?? And you’re telling me the despot king from the first 2 books wouldn’t have tried to conquer these other places?? Anyway, can’t remember if the first 2 books were also bad or if I just knew less then.
2/5 dreamscapes

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer***
**Book Hangover Alert
Excellent. Author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer returns with a long essay focusing on how the natural world creates abundance and thrives on reciprocity and suggests a way for our human economies to mimic that structure. Like all Kimmerer’s writing, it’s hopeful, thoughtful, well-reasoned, based in both science and indigenous wisdom, and leaves me full of longing for this world that we could be living in.
4/5 serviceberries

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz*
**Book Hangover Alert
The Anatomy Duology book 1 of 2
The Drexel MFA program bought this book for me during the residency we had in New York City. When one of my cohort mates saw my choice he said “Corpses. That tracks.” So I guess I have a brand. In Edinburg in 1817, Hazel is sure she’d be an amazing surgeon, but she’s a girl and no teachers will take her on as a student. So Hazel strikes up an agreement with a dashing resurrection man so she can continue her studies. But they’ll discover a much bigger, darker plot affecting the poor of Edinburg. I loved this. It was dark and gritty but also followed a girl just trying to chase her dreams and falling in love along the way.
4.5/5 corpses

In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker
There’s a secret in Yarrow, Kentucky, a summer the whole town forgot and a death they were never able to properly grieve. Two magical families must come to terms with their connection and remember so they can heal (that was not a good blurb, I’m sorry. I don’t want to try again). I liked the magic system in this book. It was also cool to see this take on auras and the language of flowers. At the beginning of the book, I didn’t like the way the flashbacks were separated from the narrative and italicized. It made the narrative flow a little clunky like they were just thrown in there. Later it made more sense because Parker wanted to make it clear to the reader what things were memories stolen by the Bonners, but I was put off by it at first, especially for memories that weren’t stolen, just flashbacks.
3.5/5 tea leaves

Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong***
This was a really cool way to do a memoir. Wong writes a multimodal memoir that includes essays, podcast transcripts, photos, art, crosswords, and all kinds of other things. I’m familiar with Wong’s work, but this book made me feel like I knew her personally.
3.5/5 cats

Real Sugar is Hard to Find by Sim Kern***
This is a speculative fiction short story collection that imagines a lot of different possible futures, some hopeful, some not. It’s really great. My favorite stories in the collection were “The Lost Roads,” “Real Sugar is Hard to Find,” “The Propagator,” and “Unwhole.” They’ll definitely stick with me.
4/5 obsolescent hot wheels

Chlorine by Jade Song***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: trauma, grooming, body horror
Goodness but this was good. Swimming is Ren’s life and she’d do anything to become a mermaid and live forever in the water. Anything. Incredible prose and tension building. Super cool magical realism. I was also a swimmer, and a butterflier to boot, all through grade school so I can definitely relate to the obsessive nature of competitive swimming that Song describes.
5/5 butterfly races

Smothermoss by Alisa Alering
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: murder, hate crimes
Two women are murdered on the Appalachian Trail in the 1980s. Two local girls, sisters are pulled into the mystery, terrifyingly real and otherworldly. I loved the magical realism of this. It was also super atmospheric and did such a good job of evoking place, making the mountain almost a character in its own right.
4.5/5 rabbits

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas*
Lady Sherlock book 1 of 8
This was so fun. A spin on Sherlock Holmes, where Sherlock is actually Charlotte, a woman disgraced from society and trying to survive on her own in Victorian London. I really liked the take on Watson and I’m looking forward to reading more of these.
3.5/5 murders

The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope by Daniel Greene***
This one was dense but good. There’s a perception that access to technology or skills based training is enough to alleviate poverty and it’s often left up to schools and libraries to provide these things. Then when poverty persists, it’s blamed on individual failings or the failings of schools and libraries, not recognizing that they are criminally under resourced. Greene’s ethnography examines several sites, a school, a library, and a startup, to examine where this perception comes from and how this solution to poverty falls short. Greene’s analysis is well researched and well reasoned. Just frustrating that we’re still putting the burden of solving systemic problems like poverty on individuals and institutions like schools and libraries that can’t do everything.
3.5/5 computer men

Dinotopia by James Gurney*
Dinotopia book 1 of 4
It’s worth reading this book for the art alone. A man and his son are shipwrecked in the 1850s and eventually wash up on the shores of Dinotopia, an island where dinosaurs survived extinction and live in peace and harmony with the humans that have washed up there over the years. This was delightful, both just to look at the art and also to imagine a world where I could ride a dinosaur as public transit.
4/5 dinosaurs

*This book only includes straight white cis people. I loved Anatomy but it does only include straight white cis people. A Study in Scarlet Women is also very straight white and cis, though it does engage with themes of female agency. I had to mark Dinotopia as only including straight white cis people (there are a few people of color) but I feel compelled to add that it also includes dinosaurs.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Sun and the Star to see more LGBTQIA+ rep in fantasy and a nice healthy gay relationship. Read The Night Watchman to learn about the termination of Native American tribes, a very important piece of history. Read Against Technoableism for a disability studies primer. Read the Legacy of Orïsha series for a richly imagined world based on African history and mythology. Read The Serviceberry for indigenous wisdom on climate and economics. Read Year of the Tiger to learn more about one of the biggest names in disability justice. Read Real Sugar is Hard to Find for LGBTQIA+ rep in speculative fiction. Read Chlorine for a queer POC horror. Read The Promise of Access to learn more about the systemic problems related to poverty.