The nitty-gritty: A high stakes, emotional tale that explores language and communication between species, The Language of Liars is both thrilling and heart-wrenching. “He’d only wanted to understand them. How many Linguists had told themselves that lie? A lie enough repeated until it becomes true.” The Language of Liars is a beautifully written science fiction […]
The nitty-gritty: Magical, funny and surprising, The Book Witch is a delightful, “can’t miss” story that embraces the joys of books and reading. “All stories are love stories if you love stories.” Book lovers rejoice! The Book Witch might be the best love letter to books and readers I’ve ever come across, and while I’ll […]
The nitty-gritty: A mind-bending, bloody mystery, Japanese Gothic blends time travel and folklore into an emotional and heartbreaking story. “Words carried easily through this house—it was a skeleton, and when you slid open enough doors, the whole world passed through it. There was no such thing as a secret in this house.” Japanese Gothic is […]
The nitty-gritty: A woman must return to the faerie world she was thrown out of in this fun and twisty fantasy debut. Books about faeries and the fae realm seem to be everywhere these days, so it’s nice to come across one that feels a little different. There are familiar elements in The Tricky Business […]
The nitty-gritty: Epic love story meets the apocalypse in T.J. Klune’s latest, a harrowing and emotional tale about self forgiveness and acceptance. If you’re looking for a short but powerful story about coming to terms with your life when the world is about to end, then you won’t want to miss We Burned So Bright. […]
The nitty-gritty: A promising, fast paced debut, Morsel is big on folk horror atmosphere but tried to do too much to be completely successful. Morsel is a strange little book that started out very strong, but at some point it took a weird turn and ended up in a place I wasn’t expecting. And I’m […]
The nitty-gritty: Mind-bending and menacing, The Caretaker is weird psychological horror at its best. “If you are reading this, it means you have failed the first Rite.” The Caretaker is Marcus Kliewer’s second book, and it’s just as bizarre and unsettling as We Use To Live Here. This is another mind fuck of a story […]
The nitty-gritty: History and magic combine in this engaging debut fantasy story. The Geomagician wasn’t quite what I expected, but I ended up enjoying so many elements, even if there were a few things that didn’t work for me. Debut author Jennifer Mandula has taken a real life figure from history—Mary Anning, an English paleontologist […]
The nitty-gritty: Shocking, gross and eye-opening, Nothing Tastes As Good is both hard-hitting and wildly entertaining. “We’re all hungry, aren’t we? You’ve made us all into monsters.” I read my first Luke Dumas book a few years ago and enjoyed it (The Paleontologist), but Nothing Tastes As Good is so much better in just about […]
The nitty-gritty: A mysterious cellar is at the center of this short but impactful tale about change and acceptance. The Cellar Below the Cellar is an odd little story with a strong folktale vibe, and I enjoyed it! It’s sort of a mash-up of different genres, so it’s hard to pigeonhole it into just one. […]