The nitty-gritty: Supervillains are super fun in this laugh-out-loud tale with sentient cats and dolphins, a secret lair and plenty of the author’s trademark social commentary. Scalzi takes on supervillains—sort of—in his latest comedic offering, and boy was this a bunch of fun. I think if I’d read this blind without knowing who the author […]
The nitty-gritty: A weird and bloody tale with plenty of surprises, Hailey Piper’s latest is a nightmarish trip to Hell and back. This is my first time reading Hailey Piper, and I’m not sure why it took me so long! Cruel Angels Past Sundown has such an interesting mix of elements, and it did not […]
The nitty-gritty: Romance, history and horror combine in this well written and dramatic tale. After hearing so many good things about Isabel Cañas’ last book, The Hacienda, I was very excited to dive into her latest. And I can see what all the fuss is about! Vampires of El Norte is an engaging historical romance/drama […]
The nitty-gritty: Truth and fiction blur together in Catriona’s Ward’s latest, a complex tale about death, love and stories. “Friends can break your heart, it seems, just like love.” I never know what to expect from a new Catriona Ward book, other than it’s sure to be complex and different, and Looking Glass Sound is […]
The nitty-gritty: Folk magic and relatable characters are front and center in Willa Reece’s latest Morgan’s Gap story. “Community was like wildwood magic, a precious gossamer thing, light and fleeting, which could easily slip from your grasp.” Wildwood Magic is set in the same small rural town of Morgan’s Gap, Virginia that Wildwood Whispers was […]
The nitty-gritty: With colorful characters and an intriguing setting, What Never Happened is a fun mystery with some great twists. Rachel Howzell Hall is a new author for me, and I’m so glad I had the chance to read her latest book. This was a fun, boisterous, guilty pleasure of a story. It’s not perfect, […]
The nitty-gritty: Chuck Tingle tackles some big themes in his latest, a fun, entertaining and heartfelt story about being yourself. “This is my parents’ worst nightmare,” I announce, gazing at the living room ceiling with a pillow behind my head. “Their gay daughter and her lesbian girlfriend in a spooky old farmhouse doing drugs with […]
The nitty-gritty: Caroline Hardaker’s latest explores the pain of transformation and the beauty of becoming one’s true self in this emotional tale of one man’s journey through mental illness and grief. Mothtown is an unusual, dreamlike novel that follows a character named David through childhood and into adulthood as he tries to come to terms […]
The nitty-gritty: Four scientists undertake a dangerous mission to uncover the mysteries of a curious hole, in Christopher Paolini’s tense survival thriller. Sometimes going into a book with no expectations is a good thing, and that was my experience reading Fractal Noise, a prequel of sorts to Paolini’s To Sleep In a Sea of Stars. […]
The nitty-gritty: A dark and gritty look at a codependent relationship, with vampires. “At six o’clock, I break a teacup from the kitchenette against the wall and use a shard of porcelain to cut a second hole in my arm. I let it pool into a paper Dixie cup and tell Mom to come drink […]