the bookshelf

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

(Copied from Goodreads) On Christmas Eve, Fritz and Marie excitedly await the arrival of Godfather Drosselmeier and the marvellous gifts he brings for them every year. When Marie discovers a curious nutcracker doll among the presents, she suddenly finds herself caught up in an age-old battle before being transported to a magical world of sugar-frosted castles, chocolate kings, and true love.

This was certainly a book that I read. That's it. That's the review. Barbie in the Nutcracker did it better.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

The Master and Margarita is a Russian modern classic split into two timelines. The first takes place in Soviet Moscow, when the devil arrives and wreaks havoc in the atheist city. The other takes place in ancient Jerusalem, following the meeting of Pontius Pilate and Christ.

I initially started reading a different translation of this book before switching to the audiobook due to travel. Overall, I liked this book, but I don't have much to say. I think a lot of the satirical elements went over my head, due to my lack of knowledge of Soviet Russia. Also, listening to the audiobook didn't help. I'd probably benefit from doing a physical reread of this book. I liked the Pontius Pilate plotline more. I didn't really care about the Master and Margarita's storyline and was mainly interested in whatever shenanigans Behemoth and company were up to. However, I did like the way the two storylines were intertwined and found the ultimate conclusion to be satisfying. This book came on my radar after I read The Warm Hands of Ghosts earlier this year, which featured the character of Faland, an enigmatic fiddler. Faland is (probably) a reference to Bulgakov's Woland, but aside from them both being the devil, I didn't really see much resemblance between the two. Woland is definitely more interesting than Faland. If Faland is supposed to be Woland during WWI, then he definitely acquired a lot more verve in the time between late 1910s Belgium and 1930s Russia.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

After getting a divorce and quitting her demanding job, Yeongju decides to move to a quiet residential neighborhood and open a bookshop. However, running a bookshop isn't easy and is an incredibly risky financial move. For months, all Yeongju could do was cry as she struggled to get her store to flourish and heal from her old life. But as time passes, Yeongju finds her footing as she reflects on what it means to be a good bookseller and have a place in the local community. Gradually, the Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes a haven for people seeking refuge from fast-paced, highly demanding societal expectations.

Listened to this via audiobook. Really enjoyed this, but I can see a lot of people being underwhelmed if they go into this with the wrong expectations. Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a very cozy, slow-paced read. I'd categorize it as "healing slice-of-life," which isn't really a genre category that exists in western contemporary fiction. I think a lot of western readers may find this book to be boring, monotonous, plotless, and/or trite, especially if they aren't familiar with the background of Korean societal topics that the book is in conversation with. As a Korean-American, I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a very comforting read. In Korean society, if you aren't perfect, then you aren't enough. If you don't have a successful career at a chaebol or, heaven forbid, are a divorced woman, you are viewed as dysfunctional, as lesser. There is an intense intrinsic pressure to both strive for perfection and conform in Korean society, and this book says that it's okay to settle for less and even welcomes it. I think that's why it became a hit in South Korea and why it speaks to so many readers. Even if you aren't Korean, I think you could appreciate this book, as a lot of the issues touched on are also reflected in general in modern capitalistic societies, such as the pricing of housing, the hopeless prospects of younger generations, and an all-encompassing sense of burnout in every facet of life. My only critique is that the characters felt a little too 'logical'. Like, the way they express their thoughts and have conversations doesn't seem entirely realistic. I couldn't see real people speaking like the way some of the characters do.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Slewfoot is a standalone fantasy novel set in colonial New England. After the death of her husband, Abitha struggles to preserve her freedom and independence as her brother-in-law seeks to take ownership of her husband's property and turn her into an indentured servant as punishment for her outspoken, "unwomanly" behavior. However, due to the patriarchal structure of Puritan society, all odds are stacked against her, and she may need to resort to using the assistance of Slewfoot, an ancient spirit that lurks in the nearby woods.

This was... fine. I mainly picked it up because I liked the illustrations. It was an incredibly predictable read and your bog-standard book about witchcraft in colonial times. Not a memorable read and I don't get why it got so popular in the last few years. Aside from the illustrations, there's literally nothing about it that stands out.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Best Served Cold is the first First Law standalone novel and the fourth book overall in the First Law world. Monza Murcatto is the feared Snake of Talins, the most famous and ruthless mercenary employed by Grand Duke Orso. Her numerous victories have made her popular, too popular, among the common folk and so Duke Orso betrays her and leaves her for dead. After years of service, Murcatto is rewarded with a broken, mutilated body and an unquenchable desire for revenge. No matter the cost, the seven men that were present at her betrayal must die.

Listened to this via audiobook. I initially started this book earlier this year but decided to do a reread (re-listen?) of the first series after I couldn't remember certain characters. While this book is separate from the first series, it takes place chronologically after it, and you'll see references to the events from the first series as well as some returning characters. As always, the audiobook was lovely. Steven Pacey is a fantastic narrator, and, in my opinion, listening to these books is superior to reading them. Pacey is just that good. This was a very solid book but nothing special. I felt like it was too long and overall, I'm pretty indifferent to revenge stories. I did like the references to the OG trilogy and seeing how the world is progressing after the trilogy.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Taking place in a small Spanish village, Woodworm is a novella about an old woman and her granddaughter, both stuck living in a dilapidated house filled with chittering ghosts and insectoid angels. When the disappearance of a young boy brings renewed attention upon the ostracized and isolated women, they seek their own form of twisted justice as their tale of generational abuse, poverty, misogyny, and class violence unravels.

Read this for book club. Our ratings for this book were split, with me and another member being the most positive at 4 stars. The others rated it at 3.5 and 2.5. One member struggled with none of the characters being likable. She also felt like it was too heavy-handed with its theme of class struggle/differences. I didn't mind this and liked the exploration of generational cycles of poverty. She also struggled with how angry everyone was, but again, I didn't mind. The entire village seethed with anger and bitterness, which I felt was pretty accurate to my own experiences visiting small rural towns. Everyone who could leave, did. Those that remained behind were often not there by choice. I thought that the differences in language between the classes were interesting (comído vs comío). We thought the narrative structure was very effective in creating a claustrophobic, fever dream-esque atmosphere and liked how the house was characterized as a living being.

This was a reread. Please refer to my original review from October 2022.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

When she first published an article in The Atlantic titled "Was Shakespeare a Woman?", Elizabeth Winkler received an unprecedented amount of backlash, with Shakespeare scholars decrying the article. Following this incident, Winkler decided to look further into the matter of Shakespeare's identity and learn why the subject was so taboo. To question the Bard's identity was akin to blasphemy, with some Shakespeare scholars comparing it to Holocaust denial or vaccine conspiracy theories. However, there is very little evidence to suggest that William Shakespeare, the man from Stratford-upon-Avon, was definitively the same person as William Shakespeare, the poet and playwright. In Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, Winkler dives into alternate theories for the Bard's identity and presents the case for them.

Read this for book club. I greatly enjoyed it, but I think I was the most positive of the group. Two members weren't the biggest fans of the writing, and I agree with their criticisms. The writing felt kind of meandering and disorganized. Winkler would often go off on in-depth tangents before circling back to the original topic, and I often found myself confused about which Shakespeare scholar she was talking about. One member compared the writing to that of a thesis dissertation, as there were A TON of Shakespeare quotes littered about. While I felt the writing could be tightened up, I found all of the information presented by Winkler to be really fascinating. I never really thought much about the identity of William Shakespeare. In my experience of studying Shakespeare, we pretty much never touched on his life in relation to the text. Which, now that I think about it, is kind of weird because for other authors, we would usually discuss how the author's life impacted their writing, etc. The figure of William Shakespeare always felt so distant and remote to his works, and some of the theories presented by Winkler make so much more sense and fit better in line with his writing. For me, the Oxford theory was the most compelling. Consider me Oxford-pilled and anti-Stratfordian. I think my primary critique is that the beginning felt especially repetitive. I also feel like the book would be stronger if Winkler had cut one of the earlier chapters and included a chapter presenting evidence/arguing FOR Shakespeare actually being the Stratford-upon-Avon guy.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Steve Wheeler is a retired cop turned private investigator. However, his investigations mainly involve finding lost cats and figuring out who keeps tossing their trash in someone's bins. His daughter-in-law, Amy Wheeler, is a private security guard. Her current task is to watch over renowned author Rosie D'Antonio on a remote private island. However, when someone dies on an island nearby, the evidence points to Amy as the killer. She must find out who is trying to frame and kill her with the help of her father-in-law.

Listened to this via audiobook. I read "The Thursday Murder Club" by Osman and liked it, so I figured I'd give his latest release a try. Overall, this was alright. A pretty standard read. Something I noticed while listening to the audiobook was how repetitive the writing was, especially the conversations. A lot of "he said, she said". The characters were alright. Pretty indifferent to the mystery, and I never really felt any sense of tension because I had zero doubts that everything would turn out okay. This isn't a cozy mystery, but it definitely is a more lighthearted one.

This was a reread. Please refer to my original review from September 2022.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Jobless and drowning in debt, a 29 year old woman decides to commit suicide by jumping off Seoul's Mapo Bridge before she is stopped by Ah Roa, the magical girl of clairvoyance. Ah Roa is on the search for the strongest magical girl of all time, and she believes that our protagonist may be just who she's searching for.

This novella was short and sweet but honestly, I don't remember much about it at this point (and I didn't take notes...). I do remember liking the illustrations at the start of each chapter in the English edition. I thought the lesbian romantic subplot was sweet, and I enjoyed the themes of societal isolation, climate change, and capitalism. However, I do feel like the story was a bit too short to explore anything in depth. It was more of a touch-and-go approach. Not the greatest, but I still enjoyed reading it and appreciated it as a homage to the magical girl genre.

This was a reread. Please refer to my original review from August 2022.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Between Two Fires is a historical grimdark fantasy set in 14th century France, in the midst of the Black Death. Thomas is a disgraced knight who rescues a young girl, Delphine. She tells him that the apocalypse has arrived. The plague heralds Lucifer's second war on heaven, with the world of men being the battleground. The angels of God have spoken to her, and she needs Thomas to take her to Avignon, where she will fulfill her mission to confront the evil ravaging the earth. Against his better judgment, Thomas agrees and along the way, they are accompanied by Père Mathieu, a priest who has abandoned his flock. However, the journey to Avignon will be perilous, and they will not only have to face earthly horrors like bandits, murderers, rapists, and the ever-ravaging plague, but also supernatural forces, as the demons of Hell will stop at nothing to prevent Delphine from completing her mission.

Read this for book club. Overall, our opinions were split on this book. I and another member felt more positively, while the other two were more negative. Their main issue was the characters, which I agree with. I didn't really connect with the characters either, but I liked the priest the best. He felt like the most fully realized character. He had his obvious flaws and was painfully aware of them, but still strived to be good. His ultimate fate was both pitiful and noble, fitting for him as a character. I didn't mind Delphine as much as the others, probably because I didn't listen to the audiobook like they did. She was pretty one-dimensional and felt unrealistic, especially considering the bleak setting. In general, this is an issue I have with the author's writing. I read another book by him, "The Blacktongue Thief," and also couldn't connect to those characters. They all feel really distant. A minor complaint I have is that the plot felt too meandering. I think the author was trying to do a thing where each encounter they faced represented one of the seven deadly sins or something, but it was too much. For me and the other member that liked this book, the setting really carried this book for us. The author did a fantastic job in depicting 14th-century France during the Black Plague. The setting felt fully realized, and you could tell the author did a lot of research. The book's atmosphere was so bleak, grim, and grimy, to the point of feeling suffocating.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Home Is Where the Bodies Are is a thriller following three estranged siblings. After the death of their mother, they reunite to sort through their mother's estate. They discover a collection of old home videos, and on one of the tapes, they see a video of their father drenched in blood, asking his wife to help him get rid of a body. The tape abruptly ends, and the siblings must decide whether to uncover their parents' deadly secrets or leave the past in the past. Meanwhile, the eldest sibling, Beth, wonders if the video is in any way related to her mother's final words, "Don't trust."

Listened to this via audiobook. The audiobook itself was fine, but I wouldn't recommend it because I feel like it's spoilery in the way it was recorded. I can't really elaborate because spoilers, but yeah. This was an incredibly predictable read, with an unnecessary amount of POVs. The writing was serviceable but the book overall was really boring. I don't mind if things are predictable, but they have to be entertaining, at the very least. Unfortunately, this book was not and was almost offensive in how predictable it was.

I normally don't review DNFs (books I did not finish), but since this was a book club pick, I'll include it here. Out of everyone in our book club, only one of us finished it. Everyone else DNF'd. Normally, I try my hardest to finish book club reads, even if I'm not having a good time. I always feel really guilty going into a book club meeting not having read the book. But this book is truly awful. I made it halfway before calling it quits. We all ended up hating it lmao. The writing was atrocious. The characters were really bad and had the same voice. Each perspective was pretty much indistinguishable and while reading, I kept getting confused on who's who because they all read the same. The author also used sexual violence in a really weird, gratuitous way. I made the joke during book club that he wrote this one-handed because he was busy jerking himself off, but we all agreed that it was really weird. To be fair, he also included sexual violence against a male character, so it wasn't only female rape, like it usually is with these Male Authors™. Initially, I thought that this was a debut novel because of how bad the writing was. But apparently, this author has written like a billion books. Yikes! If you see his name on a book, avoid!!

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

After being illiterate for a good portion of the summer, I decided to pick up this book. Not gonna lie, this was 100% a cover pick. I really like how it looks! Anyway, A Crane Among Wolves is a YA historical fiction novel set in 1506, during the Joseon period of Korea. After her older sister was stolen away for the tyrannical King Yeonsan's pleasure grounds, Iseul makes a promise to save her sister. She must travel through forbidden territory to reach the capital and find her sister. But rescuing her sister means defying the king, and to challenge his rule means certain death. Meanwhile, Prince Daehyun is the younger half-brother of the king. For years, he has lived in fear. In order to preserve his life, he has masqueraded as a fervent supporter of the king. But for how much longer can he endure?

This was a very solid 3-star read! Not bad by any means, but also lacking in the wow factor. Still, it feels nice to have finally finished a book after so long. I enjoyed reading about this period of history. I think in general, historical Korea is a setting that you don't see often in media outside of Korea. Historical Japan or China is a little more common. I liked how the author didn't shy away from the atrocities committed during King Yeonsan's rule, but I also felt like she made it appropriate for a YA audience. You'll really hate men/patriarchal society by the end of this book, and she does a great job in illustrating the injustices done to women who had no recourse. I think my primary issue is that the character interactions are very weak. It often felt like they were talking AT each other, rather than TO each other. Additionally, the writing was a bit repetitive. Why was everyone whispering? Still, a solid read overall. I think if you want a standalone novel set in historical Korea, this is a decent choice.

Disclaimer: I didn't write reviews for the last part of 2024. I'm writing this in Jan. 2025 to catch-up, so this review will probably not be the greatest. Sorry!

Listened to this via audiobook. The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction book about the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the murders that occurred during it. This is the second Erik Larson book I've read this year. However, I think I prefer The Splendid and the Vile. Overall, The Devil in the White City was alright, but it wasn't what I wanted. It focused too much on the architects at the world's fair. I didn't really care about them and only picked it up for the true-crime element. You know, the murders. The 'devil in the white city'? Instead, this book focused partially on HH Holmes but was mainly a historical recollection of how the Chicago World's Fair came to be.

The Spear Cuts Through Water is a standalone high fantasy novel. What is interesting about it is its narrative format. The book is told primarily in 2nd person, with occasional switches to 1st and 3rd person, and is split between two alternating timelines. In one timeline, 'you' are learning about the life of an unnamed narrator who is watching a play in a magical theater in his dreams. The second timeline is the story of the play, and the book seemlessly merges the two timelines by making references to the performance of the play before switching back. While the narrative choices are interesting, the book itself has a pretty simplistic plot. Two warriors, Keema and Jun, escort a dying moon goddess across the land to free it from the rule of a tyrannical emperor. The emperor and his sons, the Three Terrors, rule the land with an iron fist, and its people suffer as the land slowly dries up due to the moon goddess's absence in her proper place.

It's interesting. From a narrative perspective, this book is similar in some ways to Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Both books are told primarily in 2nd person, with swaps to 3rd/1st person. However, while I really liked Harrow, I was less impressed with The Spear Cuts Through Water. Harrow had narrative reasons for this stylistic choice, but in this book, I felt like the author mainly wrote it like this to be artsy-fartsy. Nothing wrong with that. I feel like more authors should push the boundaries of how they can tell a story. I just wasn't that impressed by this book. The characters all felt a little flat, with Keema probably being the most developed. While I thought the dynamic between Jun, his father, and his brothers was very interesting, Jun himself was a boring character. I feel like the author could have done more with him, especially considering he spent six months essentially having his mind broken by the goddess. Instead, he was just a mopey coward. Some aspects of the world building were interesting. I liked the apes and tortoises, as well as the Red Peacocks. I also liked how creepy some parts of this book were. The scene with the Second Terror and the tortoise was pretty gross lmao. I enjoyed the exploration of fatherhood, both in the unnamed narrator's father as well as the fathers in the imperial line.

My primary issue with this book is the pacing. It is simply too long. By the halfway point, the book definitely loses steam, and the ending was a little rushed. The Third Terror just came out of nowhere, and I feel like he could have been cut from the book. While I admire the amount of plot threads the author was juggling throughout the book, I felt like by the end, he just rushed to weave things together. I think in some ways, he bit off more than he could chew. The usage of 1st person, where we would jump into the heads of minor characters, was overdone. It's nice in moderation, but this narrative technique was overused and made the book a little tedious to read. I also didn't like the epilogue of the book. I felt like it undercut the impact of the book's ending and wrapped things up too easily. I didn't care at all about how the spear was passed around before it eventually reached him. It felt like a worldbuilding tidbit the author included just because he could. There were some writing choices I didn't care for. While this book isn't grimdark fantasy, it contains, in some ways, the edgy 'grittiness' of grimdark in its descriptions. I didn't care for the descriptions of shit and bodily fluids. I also didn't like the erotic aspects of the book. I didn't like or see the point of talking about pornographic tablets and thought the way the author described sex scenes was incredibly unappealing. I've read the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, which is a grimdark fantasy series known for very unappealing sex scenes. However, Abercrombie purposefully writes these scenes to be as gross and messy as his battle scenes. In the case of this book, I simply couldn't tell if the author intended the scenes to be weird, or if he was just bad at writing them. Also, I don't really get why he kept mentioning nipples. Like, what's up with that? Does he have a fixation on nipple play or something?

Anyway, I read this for book club. My rating was in the middle, with the overall ratings being: 4.5, 3.5, 3, and 3. There were definitely aspects of this book I didn't like, but I think if you're looking for a standalone fantasy novel or a book with interesting narrative structures, maybe give this book a try.

Edit: Rating later dropped to a 2.5 because the negatives stuck more with me than the positives

Emily Wilde is a socially awkward and reclusive professor who studies fairies. When she arrives in the far northern village of Hrafnsvik, she hopes to focus only on her studies and the development of her fairy encyclopedia. Unfortunately for her, she has somehow managed to offend the entire village in less than a week. Worse, her irritating academic rival and fellow professor, Wendell Bambleby, has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She suspects he arrived to coast off of her own hard work, and she is even more irritated when he manages to effortlessly charm the villagers. But Emily must set her differences with Wendell aside when people in the village start disappearing. Suspecting they have been abducted by fairies, she must work with Wendell to rescue these people and uncover the secrets of the Hidden Ones, the most elusive of the fae.

Pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this, especially considering I basically only read it because I liked the cover lol. This book is a cozy fantasy romance. I normally don't find cozy fantasy to be appealing. For me, 'cozy' usually means that the book is going to be boring and underdeveloped. However, I did enjoy this book. I liked Emily's dynamic with Wendell and thought Wendell was a very adorable himbo. I enjoyed learning about Emily's work and the fairy folklore of this world. However, while reading this book, I never felt a sense of tension. I was never worried about the characters or if a situation was going to turn out alright. I'm not sure if this is because of the way the book is written (it's told via Emily's journal entries) or if this is just a fundamental aspect of the cozy fantasy subgenre. Regardless, I had a good time reading this book and would recommend it if you want a light read.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is the latest release by Katherine Arden, author of the Winternight trilogy. I read and enjoyed her prior trilogy, so I was looking forward to this, and she did not disappoint! The story takes place during WWI. I'm not sure if this qualifies as historical fantasy, as it's basically a historical fiction novel, but it does contain minor speculative elements.

In 1918, Laura Ivern was a former field nurse who was discharged after being injured. While at home in Halifax, Canada, she receives news that her brother is missing in action, presumed dead. But something doesn't add up. How could her brother be missing if she was delivered his personal items, like his uniform and tags? And so, Laura returns to Belgium to investigate her brother's disappearance. Upon arriving, she hears rumors about haunted trenches and a strange traveling hotel, and Laura fears her brother may have fallen victim to something sinister.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I liked the religious themes throughout the book and felt like they helped to emphasize how the Great War felt apocalyptic, with the trenches and frontlines being hell. The exploration of old vs. new was also interesting, as this time period was very transitional. WWI had chemical warfare and artillery, as well as cavalry forces. I liked how the author didn't shy away from depicting the horrors of war. Some parts of this book were rather bleak. My primary criticism was that the characters felt a little flat. The most interesting one for me was Faland. I was also indifferent to the romantic subplots. While I liked the romance in the Winternight trilogy, here, the relationships were rushed and underdeveloped. I feel like the author didn't explore the... consequences, shall we say, of one of the relationships, especially considering the time period. (I'm trying to word this vaguely so as not to spoil things.) But overall, I quite liked this book. I think I've given everything I've read by Katherine Arden 4 stars, which is a very solid rating in my book. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her future adult releases.

Gideon the Ninth is the first book in the Locked Tomb series and if you want a more detailed description, refer to my 2022 review. This was a reread (relisten?) for me. It was the first time I listened to it on audiobook, and I really enjoyed it. Moira Quirk does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life. I especially love the prissy voice she gave Harrow lol. Would definitely recommend the audiobook! I originally listened to this because, allegedly, the final book is coming out this year. I haven't heard any news so that seems less likely. I think I will still go on to listen to Harrow because it's my favorite in the series, but I might wait on Nona until we get an announcement book for the final book.

The Silkworm is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series. After solving the case from the first book, Strike finally has a steady stream of clients for his private investigation business. One day, a woman comes to Strike, asking him to find her missing husband. Her husband, novelist Owen Quine, is known for his eccentricity and dramatics. This isn't the first time Quine has vanished, and so at first, she wasn't worried. But now that several days have passed, she wants Strike to find him. Initially, the case seems straightforward, but the more Strike digs, the stranger it becomes. Quine has recently written an allegorical book exposing many people in his life, and it seems like this book may have foreshadowed his own death.

I read the first book last year and gave it the same rating as The Silkworm. However, I actually like this book better. It felt a lot more 'settled', if that makes sense. More smooth and in the groove of things. I enjoyed the unraveling of the mystery and found the case to be a lot more interesting than the one from the first book. It reminded me in some ways of Hannibal (NBC) in terms of its gruesomeness. The author writes 'fair play mysteries', meaning that if you pay attention, you can solve the mystery as you read. And I'm pleased to announce that I correctly guessed whodunnit! Ohoho! Admittedly, I was suspicious of everyone and assumed every character was the murderer at some point, but still. I solved it! I noticed a specific characteristic about a certain character, formed a hypothesis, and was correct! Anyway, I thought this book was good and enjoyed the character development of Robin and Strike. Looking forward to the next book and whenever Robin ends up dumping her trash fiance.

The Grace of Kings is the first book in The Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy series inspired by Han dynasty-era China. The book is split between multiple perspectives and is about a rebellion against an empire.

I read this for book club. It was my pick and our first read of the year! Unfortunately, none of us really liked it lmao. Out of all of us, I liked it the best. I initially gave it 3 stars, but after further consideration, I dropped it to 2.5 and then to 2 stars. Ken Liu is known for his short stories, and I believe this book is his first real foray into actual novel writing. You can tell. The book is less a cohesive narrative and more like a collection of short stories that relate to one another. I knew this going in, so I tempered my expectations accordingly, but my book club members didn't know and did not like this writing choice. I think if you aren't aware of this, the book can be very confusing, as it seems like it jumps randomly from one perspective to another with no discernible reason. The character work was very lackluster, with most characters being one-dimensional. The writing itself was a little strange. It switched from being utilitarian to archaic and flowery to slangy at times. While reading this book, I was 100% aware that I was reading a book. Not once did I get lost in the story or absorbed by the characters. I think my biggest issue with this book is that it is a literal retelling of the start of the Han dynasty. Like seriously. A one-to-one retelling. I'm not super familiar with the Chu-Han Contention, but even I was able to recognize certain events or realize which characters had real-life historical analogues. I'm fine with books being inspired by history, but I don't think I've ever read a book whose plot is literally spoiled by actual historical events. Like what??? What's even the point then?? I was debating continuing on with the series, as I've heard nothing but good things about the sequel. However, after looking up spoilers for certain characters, I saw that their fates were basically the same as their historical counterparts, so I decided not to. If I wanted to read about those events, I'd read a history book lol.

Killers of the Flower Moon is a nonfiction book that follows the investigation into the murders of the Osage people during the 1920s. After the Osage people were forced from their lands to a reservation in Oklahoma, they became the richest people per capita in the world upon discovering valuable oil fields in Osage County. Each tribe member was paid royalties by oil companies that leased the land to produce oil. However, the Osage people couldn't access their wealth directly and were forced to have white guardians by the US government. During this time period, members of the Osage tribe were dying one-by-one in mysterious ways. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her entire family started to die. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI sent agents to investigate, unraveling a sinister conspiracy to kill the Osage people for their wealth that permeated through all echelons of white society in Oklahoma. Officially, the investigation only covered a certain set of years in the 1920s, but evidence suggests that the murders started years before and continued for years after, with the total deaths possibly being in the hundreds.

Listened to this via audiobook. The audiobook was pretty good, although I wasn't the biggest fan of the male narrators in parts 2 and 3. Despite that, I highly recommend either reading or listening to this book. It's absolutely fascinating, and it was staggering to realize the sheer scale of the conspiracy. The fact that people got away with it is astounding and deeply upsetting and clearly demonstrates the anti-indigenous sentiment at the time (and that still exists today).

Belladonna is a YA fantasy romance following Signa, a teenage orphan girl who is unable to die and can see Death and ghosts. Misfortune follows Signa as she is passed from relative to relative, with each caregiver dying after Signa enters their lives. After her latest guardian dies, Signa is taken in by her remaining relatives, the mysterious and wealthy Hawthornes. Her uncle mourns the recent death of his wife, while his son struggles to help with the family business, and his daughter is bedridden with a mysterious illness. Signa wants to keep her head low until she becomes old enough to inherit her mother's fortune. But one day, after encountering the ghost of her late aunt, Signa realizes that her aunt had been poisoned, and she suspects her cousin may be dying of poison as well. Signa needs the help of Death to investigate and must learn to trust him and her powers in order to save her cousin.

This was okay. I enjoyed it about as much as I did Divine Rivals. While Belladonna is technically a romance, most of the book focuses on a slow-burn mystery, so if you're looking for a romance-heavy book, this might not work for you. I don't really read YA anymore, but I decided to pick this up since it's been so hyped and because I love the 'Death and the Maiden' trope/motif. Unfortunately, this didn't really scratch the itch. Yes, the romance is between Signa and Death, but Death acts a lot like the stereotypical YA bad boy. Some of the interactions between him and Signa made me cringe, and I absolutely hate it when the love interest uses a pet name for the main character. It almost never works and comes across as super forced and cringy. The mystery itself was okay, I guess. However, I feel like Signa was a little dumb during her investigation. Her justification for not telling her uncle her suspicions about her cousin being poisoned was pretty dumb. Eventually she did tell him, but Signa keeping her suspicions to herself just felt like a way for the author to artificially make things more difficult for Signa. That being said, Belladonna is the first book in a trilogy, and I think I'm more likely to continue with this series than read the sequel to Divine Rivals.

The Splendid and the Vile is a historical nonfiction book following Winston Churchill as prime minister during WWII. It draws on historical documents such as diaries and intelligence reports to paint a picture about life during this time in England as it follows Churchill, his family, his advisors, and ordinary citizens. I listened to this via audiobook. I really enjoyed this! I know the broad strokes of the war, but learning more about the day-to-day life was really interesting. The author did a great job in bringing these historical figures to life, particularly in the way he described Churchill himself. Although hearing about the politics and drama within 10 Downing Street was fascinating, I think my favorite parts are when the author brings up diary entries written by ordinary citizens. During this time, citizens were encouraged to write diaries for a project called Mass Observation to document the mundane details of British life. It was super fascinating to hear about people enjoying a stroll while they watched German and British planes dogfight above them, or how the wealthy youth went clubbing during air raids.

Misquoting Jesus is a nonfiction book about the many ways the scripts of the New Testament have been changed over the course of history, and how this has impacted historical and modern understandings of the Bible. As Ehrman explains it, across the thousands of known copies of these religious manuscripts, there are more differences between them than there are words in the New Testament. I listened to this via audiobook and I'm not gonna lie, this is a boring book. Not sure if I'd have finished it if I was reading it physically lol. The most interesting part for me was the last chapter, Chapter 7, which discusses the ways the Bible has been purposefully altered to suppress the role of women in the church and to promote anti-semitism. An example given is of Junia in Romans 16. In this, Paul greets members of the Christian community in his letter, specifically mentioning someone named Junia as an apostle. During the Middle Ages, Junia's gender was disputed, as it was viewed that women could not have been prominent members of the church, let alone apostles, so in some copies, Junia's name was changed to the masculine form, Junias, or she was simply viewed as being male. (It should be noted that Junias was an extremely uncommon name, with only one example found in Greek literature and no examples in earlier Latin texts. Meanwhile, Junia was a fairly common female name.) Today, most scholars agree that Junia was a woman, but the misconception continues amongst some Christians due to sexism and copy errors that persist throughout history.

Divine Rivals is the first book in a duology set in a WWI-inspired world. It is a historical fantasy romance following Iris Winnow and Roman Kitt. After centuries of sleep, the gods awaken to start a war. When her older brother leaves to join the war effort, Iris gets a job at the Oath Gazette to support herself and her alcoholic mother. She is competing for the position of columnist with her rival, Roman. To cope with her fear and stress, Iris begins writing letters to her brother and placing them in her wardrobe. The letters disappear every time, and Iris believes that her brother is actually receiving them. However, one day, Iris gets a response from someone who isn't her brother. Thus begins a correspondence where Iris pours out her heart to this stranger as the war creeps closer and closer.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I thought Iris and Ronan's relationship was really cute. I would have liked to see more of it, particularly during the 'rivals' part. This book bills itself as 'enemies/rivals-to-lovers' but you really don't see a lot of the 'rivals' part. The writing was fine and easy to read. But the plot and worldbuilding were clumsily done. The world was WWI-inspired and I wish the author didn't bother with the fantasy aspect because it was really poorly done. I feel like she only made it fantasy because this is a YA book and historical fiction isn't popular, especially in YA. If she didn't want to get into real-world politics or history, she could have just made it a secondary world where it's basically WWI-era England. None of this gods shit because it just isn't good. You don't need to make it fantastical in order to have a fictional setting. The worldbuilding around the gods and their conflict was nonsensical and poorly thought out. The way people responded to it also didn't make any sense. Maybe I'm being too harsh because I'm an adult reading a YA book but whatever, I don't really care. The ending of this book kind of annoyed me lmao. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the sequel, Ruthless Vows, because I've heard really mixed things. I'm also not sure if I care enough to continue? I'm pretty sure I could predict exactly how the sequel will go lol. Idk, who knows. Maybe I'll pick up the sequel later as a palate cleanser read or something.

The Last House on Needless Street is a horror/thriller-ish book following a strange man named Ted. Something is not quite right about Ted. He lives in a boarded-up ramshackle house and drinks heavily, trying to ignore the large gaps in his memory that seem to happen more frequently. His daughter Lauren sometimes visits, but is forbidden to go outside, not after what happened last time. She can't walk and her personality bounces between being sweet to incredibly violent. Of the three that reside in that house on Needless Street, Olivia the cat is the most 'normal'. She enjoys napping, admiring the pretty tabby outside, and reading the Bible. One day, a new neighbor moves in next door. Dee is investigating the disappearance of her younger sister and a lead has brought her to Needless Street. She suspects that Ted may have abducted her sister. Secrets unravel as what is buried in the forest out back comes to light.

Listened to this via audiobook, which I highly recommend! The narrator did a great job! As for the book itself, I'm more neutral towards it. This book is classified as a horror/thriller but I didn't really find it to be scary or thrilling in the slightest. A bit weird and dark, yes, but not frightening. The book is slow-paced, which I didn't mind, but some people might think it's boring. I enjoyed the use of an unreliable narrator. You obviously can't trust Ted, since he outright admits he can't remember everything, but Olivia, Lauren, and Dee were also unreliable in their own ways. I appreciated all of the twists in this book, although 'twist' might be too strong of a word? I feel like when you think of twists in thrillers, it's like a super shocking turn of events with a dramatic 'dun-dun-DUN!!!'. The twists in this book were more like the (very slow) unraveling of a yarn ball. You are led to suspect one thing, but the truth is actually something different. The narrative takes advantage of your own preconceived notions to misdirect you. While listening to this book, I could pinpoint the exact moment I was misdirected as things were revealed, and this happened multiple times. The author did a great job in crafting the story in this way. However, I decided to give this book a 3.5/5 because my ratings are mostly arbitrary and determined by my overall enjoyment. I thought that this was a well-crafted book but I wasn't ever really invested in it.