Books Read in 2023: Remaining Three-Star Books

Some of these reviews are a little thin, so I will begin by gifting you NO I HATE THE WORD 'GIFTING', by bestowing on you a hilariously humiliating anecdote about myself. 

Matt's maternal grandparents were quite young when he was born and a big part of his life. I first met them when we were dating in university, and they were subsequently also a big part of my life, and my kids' childhood. They lived about an hour away and we saw them often. When they died it was considerably more wrenching to me than when I lost my own grandparents, who lived far away and who I had seen rarely since my own childhood. 

At Matt's Nana's funeral, I met her younger sister Myrna, who looked much like her and who I was surprised to learn seemed to know a lot about me and my family. I resolved to keep in touch with her, and that Christmas sent a long letter with a card and pictures. I got a response from her the next November, apologizing for being eleven months late, which made me feel like she was even more a kindred spirit than I suspected.

Last year I left her card for later, thinking I would write a longer update than in some others, and then never got to it. I left the supplies out for months, but slipped into my winter depression and never got to it. This year I started a long letter to her at the beginning of doing my Christmas cards, composed a five-page missive over several days, and mailed it in early December. I got a response back quite quickly and was very happy.

Yesterday Eve and I took Lucy for a walk and got the mail. In the mail was my amply-stuffed card and letter, returned for 'no such post office'. 

I stared at it for many minutes, feeling the world destabilize around me. We walked home and Eve was trying to talk to me about other stuff and I was like quiet, I'm having an existential breakdown. I messaged Matt's aunt who had given me their address for the first card and told her what happened. She said "did the letter refer to your letter?" and I said "YES, she said she was reading it and it was like having a visit and she should have poured a glass of wine!" and then I texted Matt and said you read it, right? I didn't imagine it? And he confirmed. And I clutched my head and moaned a little more.

Then I searched the main floor until I found the letter.

It said she reread my PREVIOUS letter and looked at the pictures. In the very first goddamned line. 

You guys, it's not that outlandish to say I practically read for a living. When something happens as a result of me not reading carefully enough, I tend to find it either hysterically funny or deeply mortifying, depending on my mood. I am rather ping-ponging between the two at the moment. I'm mostly grateful that the letter came back so at least I figured it out and could resend it. 

Three-Star YA Sci-Fi/Horror and Mystery

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham: Synopsis from Goodreads: Jennifer’s Body fans will clamor for this new sapphic horror standalone from New York Times bestselling author Kayla Cottingham.

Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal, albeit with lasting fear and distrust for the people they'd pejoratively dubbed ghouls.
Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are all ghouls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before their graduation they decided to attend a musical festival in the desert. They have a cooler filled with hard seltzers and SynFlesh and are ready to party.

But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral, and ends up killing and eating a boy. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is drugging ghouls and making them feral. And if they can't figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is safe.

-"'As fun as sharing a bed with every softball butch in Aspen Flats sounds, I've sworn off activities that require sweating.' Val rolled onto her stomach to look at me and Celeste."

-"My shitty gay heart did a backflip in my chest."

I love zombies! I maybe don't love recovered zombies quite as much. This was fine but everything was telegraphed well in advance. Good gay representation, and the scenes with the friends just hanging out were very enjoyable.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson: Synopsis from Goodreads: The brand new unmissable crime thriller from Holly Jackson, best-selling, award-winning author of the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .
Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It’s a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.

The only quote I copied was "Her skin was beginning to look pale and pallid". Oof. 

Maybe Holly Jackson was exhausted from putting out the tri-fold awesomeness that was The Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy. Maybe she was rushing to meet a deadline. Maybe she just really hates RVs. For whatever reason, all the smart, resourceful, personable teenagers from her previous books have departed and been replaced by petty, insanely immature dimwits who could not be worse under pressure. I definitely added a star because of how much I liked the author's previous work. This was pretty bad. 

Girl Forgotten by April Henry: Synopsis from Goodreads: Piper Gray starts a true-crime podcast investigating a seventeen-year-old cold case in this thrilling YA murder mystery by New York Times bestselling author April Henry. 

Seventeen years ago, Layla Trello was murdered and her killer was never found. Enter true-crime fan Piper Gray, who is determined to reopen Layla’s case and get some answers. With the help of Jonas—who has a secret of his own—Piper starts a podcast investigating Layla’s murder. But as she digs deeper into the mysteries of the past, Piper begins receiving anonymous threats telling her to back off the investigation, or else. The killer is still out there, and Piper must uncover their identity before they silence her forever.

This was pretty good. The podcaster, unlike with most books I've read, is just starting out rather than already established, and her learning process was interesting. The story is not materially different from similar ones, but it's well done, even though 17 years old is really freaking old in cold case terms. 

Three-Star Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Supernatural

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet: Synopsis from Goodreads: A Children’s Bible follows a group of twelve eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their parents, the children decide to run away when a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, embarking on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside. Lydia Millet’s prophetic and heartbreaking story of generational divide offers a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

-”Yes, it was known that we couldn’t stay young. But it was hard to believe, somehow. Say what you like about us, our legs and arms were strong and streamlined. I realize that now. Our stomachs were taut and unwrinkled, our foreheads similar. When we ran, if we chose to, we ran like flashes of silk. We had the vigor of those freshly born.

Relatively speaking.

And no, we wouldn’t be like this forever. We knew it, on a rational level. But the idea that those garbage-like figures that tottered around the great house were a vision of what lay in store – hell no.

Had they had goals once? A simple sense of self-respect?

They shamed us. They were a cautionary tale.”

Read for book club. Unsure why I gave it three stars and not four - maybe because the symbolism was so heavy-handed. But I enjoyed reading it. It was bleak and vivid and laugh-out-loud blackly funny. The children's game of trying not to let any other kids know which parents belonged to them was so demented and so hilarious. The perpetually drunken and clueless parents were somewhat less amusing, although point taken, I guess. I am really tempted to go back and amend the rating to four stars, but I will trust my initial impression.

Afterland by Lauren Beukes: Synopsis from Goodreads: Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues -- but a world run by women isn't always a better place.

Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie -- all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.
To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that's all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step . . . even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.
A sharply feminist, high-stakes thriller from award-winning author Lauren Beukes, Afterland brilliantly blends psychological suspense, American noir, and science fiction into an adventure all its own -- and perfect for our times.

-”The tank is down to a quarter full and they need to refuel. And the bitch about the new world order: it requires money, same as the old one. She feels betrayed by all the apocalypses of pop culture that promised abandoned cities ripe for the looting.”

I am cursed to keep thinking that Lauren Beukes books sound right up my alley and then finding out that, for the most part, they are actually up the alley just a couple of alleys over from mine. I liked Zoo City quite a bit. Subsequent books sounded great and then were just missing something key for me. I loved the tv series for The Shining Girls, so I reread the book, which didn't move the needle that much.

This felt like a great set-up with a substandard, under-edited pay-off. I was all in for the first third, and then I was mostly just heartily sick of Billie's frothing-at-the-mouth selfish violent raving (yeah, we get it, she uses the c-word a lot, she's not a sympathetic character, she has a massive head wound, move on), frustrated at Miles's sudden change in demeanour with no explanation, and uncertain about why anything was happening the way it was (attempting to blend psychological suspense, American noir AND science fiction might have been a genre too far?) And the ending, after many, many, many extraneous pages? Not quite good enough to be worth the wait. 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Synopsis from Goodreads: After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

I was determined to read the five Canada Reads books and the five books on the Giller Prize shortlist last year - okay, looking these up it appears I read the Giller Prize shortlist books for 2022 in 2023, curious. For the most part I enjoyed them, except for Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage which was in my one-and-two-star post. I am not a huge fan of the Gothic genre, so take my review of this book advisedly; most of the things I didn't like about it were indeed directly related to its Gothic-ness (Gothicity?).  Violence, madness, nightmares, visions of blood and doom - I like horror, but I like my horror a little more... streamlined? Modern? Noemi was a good protagonist and I was rooting for her (ha ha, if you know you know), and I appreciated the way the reveal played into the zeitgeist (sorry, trying not to be spoiler-y), but this wasn't quite for me. 

The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan: Synopsis from Goodreads: A horrific crime that defies ordinary explanation. A rookie FBI agent in dangerous, uncharted territory. An extraordinary hero for the ages.

Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself-it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death. Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named John Silence, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil.

Mildly diverting. Guillermo del Toro is a really good filmmaker and as a horror novelist he's a really good filmmaker. This reads as if it was published decades ago, and would make a better screenplay. 

Self-Portrait With Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka: Synopsis from Goodreads: If a picture paints a thousand worlds...

Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother.
That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgangers from parallel universes.
Researching the rumors, Pepper couldn’t help but wonder:
Was there a parallel universe in which she was more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love?
A universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping?
A universe in which Ula’s rejection didn’t still hurt too much to share?

-”There was a painting on an easel he’d started but hadn’t finished, of a man who looked like him, except he only had half a face. Gordon couldn't see the rest clearly yet, but he wanted desperately for the man to look somehow different, to look happier, or richer, or less alone. He wanted him to be the kind of man who was into horses, who had a stable and a mare whose coat was a warm chestnut color, whom he brushed methodically every evening, listening to some old jazz record, savoring a nice port, while she swished her shiny tail. He wanted the man to be the kind of person who was cool enough to stay put when he heard, as he did now, the arrival of an unfamiliar vehicle in his driveway.”

Again, I loved the concept so much, but the execution missed me just slightly. I kept waiting for it to click in more firmly, and it just never did. There was still a lot to like. 

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald: Synopsis from Goodreads: Your happiest memory is their deadliest weapon.

THIS IS PROPHET.
It knows when you were happiest. It gives life to your fondest memories and uses them to destroy you. But who has created it? And what do they want?
An all-American diner appears overnight in a remote British field. It's brightly lit, warm and inviting but it has no power, no water, no connection to the real world. It's like a memory made flesh - a nostalgic flight of fancy. More and more objects materialise: toys, fairground rides, pets and other treasured mementos of the past.
And the deaths quickly follow.
Something is bringing these memories to life, then stifling innocent people with their own joy. This is a weapon like no other. But nobody knows who created it, or why.
Sunil Rao seems a surprising choice of investigator. Chaotic and unpredictable, the former agent is the antithesis of his partner Colonel Adam Rubenstein, the model of a military man. But Sunil has the unique ability to distinguish truth from lies: in objects, words and people, in the past and in real time. And Adam is the only one who truly knows him, after a troubled past together. Now, as they battle this strange new reality, they are drawn closer than ever to defend what they both hold most dear.

The beginning was fascinating. Characterization was well established. Weaponized nostalgia? Fantastic, tell me more, oh shit, I didn't mean that much more! It just went on and on and on and on and on, in desperate need of an editor, or possibly a flamethrower. Tighten it up, for the love of god, leave some stuff on the cutting room floor. The good stuff was drowned and suffocated by the other stuff, the so much rambling look-at-me-I'm-so-clever stuff. I wasn't quite ready to abandon it and yet I started to dread picking it up again. The relationship between Adam and Sunil was nearly worth it, but unfortunately by the end I was nearly skimming. 

Little Eve by Catriona Ward: Synopsis from Goodreads: A heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist.

“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”
On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.
The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.
A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.
And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.

-”My tongue slips in and out of my mouth, black. I see through it. I taste the world. Each tiny current of air is a brushstroke. It paints a great ringing canvas. The sea a cauldron of minerals and rot. Bruised grass rising green, each flint buried in the chalky earth a dark exclamation. The splintered scent of a grasshopper, the fizzing of midges in the air.

The drumming goes on. It is the cold beat of my heart, buried between my ears, behind my brain.

I have a name in the old tongue from when the world was young and my fathers ruled the earth, taking aurochs whole into their bellies, leaving acres of forest crushed by their passage. My name is not rendered in sound, but in tiny movements of my head, a delicate, precise secretion of chemicals. It means something like dark-soil-and-mouse-blood, my name.”

I can't claim that I didn't know this was an older work of Ward's being republished - I kind of did. I took a crack at it anyway. It's not bad, it's just not what I wanted and doesn't really measure up to the other two books of hers that I've loved. There's some extremely arresting imagery that still sticks in my mind. This is a personal preference, but I'm just not a huge fan of reading about cultish behaviour and the manipulative techniques of cult leaders. I fully understand and sympathize with why cult followers would end up participating in their own mistreatment and subjugation, but it's still enraging to read. This all culminates in something not remotely surprising being presented as a surprise, I think? This will not deter me from continuing to read anything else produced by Catriona Ward.

The Drift by C.J. Tudor: Synopsis from Goodreads: Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. During a hasty escape from a secluded boarding school, her coach careened over a hillside road during one of the year's heaviest snowstorms, trapping her inside with a handful of survivors, a brewing virus, and no way to call for help. If she and the remaining few want to make it out alive, with their sanity--and secrets--intact, they'll need to work together or they'll be buried alive with the rest of the dead.

A former detective, Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She is in a cable car suspended far above a snowstorm and surrounded by strangers in the same uniform as her, with no memory of how they got there. They are heading to a mysterious place known to them only as "The Retreat," but when they discover a dead man among their ranks and Meg spies a familiar face, she realizes that there is something far more insidious going on.
Carter is gazing out the window of the abandoned ski chalet that he and his ragtag compatriots call home. Together, they manage a precarious survival, manufacturing vaccines against a deadly virus in exchange for life's essentials. But as their generator begins to waver, the threat of something lurking in the chalet's depths looms larger, and their fragile bonds will be tested when the power finally fails--for good.

I really like this author usually, and I try not to fault an author for wanting to try something new. In this case it didn't work as well for me as her other books, and that's fine. What I usually like is the understated feeling of menace and dread and the characters, whereas here the characters weren't as fully realized and the menace was hit-you-in-the-face. The story wasn't uninteresting, and the reveals were effective, it just would have needed a little more dimension for me, whereas the short, punchy chapters and sections would probably work just fine for others. It's a little different reading about pandemics now that we've actually lived through one, but I don't think that was really my issue.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak: Synopsis from Goodreads: A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, about a woman working as a nanny for a boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

"Widly inventive" is wildly overstating things. 

Books Read in 2023: Three-Star Mystery

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on the last post while also acknowledging that I was feeling insecure and probably sounded a little bit compliment-fishy.

It is a funny stretch of days right now. The days between Christmas and New Year's are always a little bit marshy and strange. Angus and I worked on our puzzle a little bit every day which was a nice way to punctuate all the reading and get me out of my room. My sister's family came for New Year's instead of Christmas because my niece is doing a master's in the UK right now and they didn't want to make her get in the car for a six-hour drive the second she got home. So it was also a nice way to rouse ourselves for a little more family time. Angus left on the 2nd because he had been invited by his undergrad college to go to the coaching conference he went to last year with his friend who also coaches the team. 

Eve and I went over and had lunch with my mom and dad and sister's family yesterday and then went to the mall to replace her beige t-shirt bra that desperately needed replacing, and go to Sephora to replace her eyebrow gel ("I'm a girl with a lot of brow") and spend a little Christmas money. We also bought popcorn at Kernels so we could come home and have popcorn while watching the silly movie we'd been meaning to watch all break (Family Switch - so dumb, so funny). Eve and my niece Charlotte are so fun to watch together and have such a great time. Charlotte is hysterically funny, and made up a poem about everybody in the family's birthdays that I wish we had recorded because we were all on the floor by the end (the only line I remember is "my Poppa's birthday is September 23rd/ *whistle* *whistle* *whistle* - that's a bird". She is also a very out-and-proud lesbian, and I take great delight in shopping for presents for her. After I gave her a throw pillow with a rainbow 'homosexu-whale' on it (which she loved), I said that I would on some occasion buy her something that was not directly related to her sexual orientation.

This was not that occasion:

Today it is finally sunny and a little bit of snow fell, and Eve went out to run errands and brought me a chai latte, and is now reading Bluebeard's Egg on the couch while I type on the kitchen table. The book is for the lit course she has this term, taught by my old professor, and the book is mine, AND she just found a McMaster University Bookstore on the back, so this is all kinds of feel-good full-circle shit.

Three-Star Mystery

I really try to be more selective then previously when reading mysteries, because a really great mystery is still a really great mystery, and I think the best mystery novels resonate with the way we all search for meaning and answers in so many ways. But when you've read a lot of mysteries, there are some tropes that start to lose their freshness, and you can be surprised, but it takes a little more. So all of these books have the potential to be great reads to someone who hasn't squeezed the mystery genre like an orange.

Killers of a Certain Age by Dianna Raybourn: Synopsis from Goodreads: Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.

They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death.
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman--and a killer--of a certain age.

-”They both shrug. ‘Pretty, yes,’ Gilchrist admits. ‘Beautiful even. But she’s what we Canadians call a Winnipeg winter.’

‘A Winnipeg winter?’

‘Great natural beauty but capable of freezing your dick off if you’re stupid enough to get naked,’ Sweeney explains. He surveys Billie with a practiced eye. ‘Of course, you would just –’

Billie holds up a hand. ‘Never mind. I don’t want to know. Coffee is brewing.’”

I was a little disappointed by this, after thinking this was a killer concept. I just wanted something a little more gritty, and I felt like instead of Helen Mirren I got - okay, never mind, I don't want to insult some lesser actress than Helen Mirren. Instead of a big-budget blockbuster this was more like a movie-of-the-week. No delving into the questionable ethics of only assassinating people some shadowy entity deems 'evil'. No chewy internal monologues. The motivations are shallow, the dialogue is phoned-in, the one love story is laughably cheesy and instant. I slightly regretted spending my first reading hours of 2023 on this one, although I'm sure it would be a fun time-passer in another context.

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian: Synopsis from Goodreads: Meet Chloe Sevre. She’s a freshman honor student, a leggings-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. Her hobbies include yogalates, frat parties, and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.

Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study for psychopaths—students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.

When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths—and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.

-”Is it slutty to be messaging one boy when you are on the way to meet another? Maybe not if you’re planning on killing one of them.”

-”What a dumb name – Daisy. That sounds exactly like someone who would kill themselves instead of carefully plotting a way to destroy their enemies.”

A little messy and possibly doesn't adhere closely enough to true psychopathic personalities in the characters, but interesting with some good twists and black humour. I felt like one of the characters' secrets was underused and the story overall could have used some tightening.

Rise the Dark (Mark Novak #2) by Michael Koryta: Synopsis from Goodreads: Rise the dark. These were the last words written in Lauren Novak's notebook before she was murdered in a strange Florida village. They've never meant anything to the police or to her husband, investigator Markus Novak. Now the man he believes killed her is out of prison, and draws Markus to the place he's avoided for so long: the lonely road where his wife was shot to death beneath the cypress trees and Spanish moss in a town called Cassadaga.

In Red Lodge, Montana, a senseless act of vandalism shuts the lights off in the town where Sabrina Baldwin is still trying to adjust to a new home and mourning the loss of her brother, who was a high voltage linesman just like her husband, Jay. As the spring's final snowstorm calls Jay deeper into the mountains, chasing the destruction on the electrical grid, Sabrina is abducted by Garland Webb, the man Markus Novak believes killed his wife. Drawing them all together is a messianic villain who understands that you can never outpace your past. You can only rise against the future.

Well-plotted and paced mystery/thriller. Possibly suffered by comparison to the previous book which was really good. I was and remain baffled about how the protagonist has no idea who killed his wife in the previous book (not a spoiler, right in the jacket copy) and now suddenly does, with no explanation why. Unless I missed something, this seems like a really weird choice. There are some good female characters and the writing is good, even if the villains often read like something out of central casting.

A Sorrow Called Sarah by Charlotte Roddy: Synopsis from Goodreads: The oldest secrets are the deadliest.

Sarah Hopewell had it all—popular student, loving sister, her parents’ favorite child. Until, weeks before her high school graduation, Sarah vanished from her San Francisco home. An infamous serial killer was convicted of her murder. Justice was served. Or was it?
Fifteen years later, Sarah’s younger sister embarks on a dangerous mission to finally confront her beloved sister’s killer. But as she begins uncovering secrets that threaten to tear her world apart, the bodies of young women start turning up in Golden Gate Park. All of them have dark hair and blue eyes.
All of them look just like Sarah…

-”’Welcome to my house. This is my opioid addicted mother. I don’t think you’ll get a chance to meet my workaholic dad. He never really comes home anymore. Then there’s my brother, Robert. But you don’t have to worry about meeting him. He’s been committed to a mental institution for years after decapitating the neighbor’s dog. So, do you want me to heat up some mac and cheese?’”

Free Kindle read, which I picked up even though the melodramatic title gave me pause. Not terrible, not great. The first bit with the younger sister and the serial killer had me rolling my eyes and about to DNF - completely formulaic, the charming, snarky psychopath and the victim's relative obliging with tears and fury and asking questions that predictably don't get answered.

After this it shifts gears a little and becomes more readable, although never lifts itself above usual thriller fare. There are some twists that are pretty well done. 

The writing is pedestrian - the main character 'screams', 'almost screams', 'tries to keep from screaming' her words much too often. A character who claims to have been in love with Sarah says "she came onto ME", "she was everything in the world to me", and a solitary tear rolls down his cheek. The sections about the mysterious killer dwelling on his connection with the victims are repellent but, again, not groundbreaking. In all fairness, much better than several free reads I read early on in my Kindle experience.

The Kind Worth Killing (Henry Kimble/Lily Kintner #1) by Peter Swanson: Synopsis from Goodreads: A devious tale of psychological suspense involving sex, deception, and an accidental encounter that leads to murder. Fans of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train will love this modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith’s classic Strangers on a Train from the author of the acclaimed The Girl with a Clock for a Heart—which the Washington Post said “should be a contender for crime fiction’s best first novel of 2014.”

On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his marriage that’s going stale and his wife Miranda, who he’s sure is cheating on him. Ted and his wife were a mismatch from the start—he the rich businessman, she the artistic free spirit—a contrast that once inflamed their passion, but has now become a cliché.
But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for what she’s done. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, “I’d like to help.” After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse. . 

-”He wasn’t the only houseguest that summer. In fact, there was never only one guest at Monk’s House, especially in summertime, when my parents’ teaching duties died down and they could focus on what they truly loved – drinking and adultery. I don’t say that in order to make some sort of tragedy of my childhood. I say it because it’s the truth.”

There's something about Swanson's writing that I don't love, so my review should be taken with a grain of salt. This was well-plotted and did something I didn't foresee halfway through. Swanson may not be for me, but I can see why he's popular.

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers: Synopsis from Goodreads: Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her sick uncle, it feels like walking into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembered: genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under eerily similar circumstances. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and solve January’s murder once and for all.
But the police, the family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could the killer still be out there? Could it be the same person who kidnapped Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night?

Not bad. An insular small-town setting can really add depth to a mystery. The details about the protagonist's relationship with her uncle who is descending into dementia, and the mother who was finding her marriage stifling even before the tragedy, would have made a fine book on their own. They've stuck in my mind more than the details of the actual mystery. The abruptness of the ending was a really curious choice, in my opinion.

Before She Finds Me by Heather Chavez: Synopsis from Goodreads: Julia Bennett has worked hard to create a stable life for her daughter, Cora, in Southern California. So when Cora leaves for college, the worst thing Julia expects on move-in day is an argument with her ex-husband and his new wife. But a sudden attack leaves the campus stunned—and only Julia’s quick actions save Cora’s life. Shaken in the aftermath, and haunted by a dark secret, Julia starts to wonder: What if the attack wasn’t as random as everyone believes?

Newly pregnant Ren Petrovic has an unusual career—she’s a trained assassin, operating under a strict moral code. Ren wasn’t on campus that day, but she knows who was: her husband, Nolan. What she doesn’t know is why Nolan has broken their rules by not telling her about the job in advance. The more Ren looks into the attack, the more she begins to question: Who really hired Nolan? And why did one woman in the crowd respond so differently from all the rest?

I really have no well-defined reason for why this was a three and not a four. It was an interesting concept, had two strong female leads, and the writing was fine - good, even. I've been up for a story about a pregnant assassin with a moral code ever since Kill Bill. I found the pacing lagged a bit in the second half, but many people loved it, so I am an outlier.

The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman: Synopsis from Goodreads: It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the terrible storm that caused the double tragedy. Now, the college President—who has his own reasons for drawing attention to the notorious incident—is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a winter storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.
When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?

Oh, I was hoping to love this. Dark academia! Stranded by a snowstorm (one trope of which I never tire)! Descriptions of beautiful old college buildings! Technically probably three-and-a-half stars, because I think it was good, just not as good as I was hoping for. The setting was flawless. The rendering of cut-throat academia and the heady and turbulent experience of being a young, idealistic student with lofty aspirations were really good. The descriptions of how Nell felt about the income and social class disparities between her and the other students were good, if a bit formulaic. It tended a bit to the overly dramatic for my taste and strained the bonds of credulity even more than the average murder mystery (and I am not a stickler for verisimilitude or realism - my belief fairly BEGS to be willingly suspended). 

Dark Corners (Rachel Krall #2) by Megan Goldin: Synopsis from Goodreads: Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his freedom approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? Why was she visiting him in the first place?

When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel Krall goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.
When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Here it is, I thought, a follow-up to The Night Swim, surely THIS will be the Megan Goldin I've been longing for. 

Well, sort of. I think in The Night Swim, if I'm remembering it correctly (entirely possible I'm not and have just thrown some golden filter over it for whatever reason), there was more attention paid to the victim of the crime and less to Rachel Krall herself. 

Is anyone else kind of tired of hearing about the female protagonist's 'delicate beauty'? If I go the rest of my life without reading about some chick's burnished gold hair or sky-blue eyes, I'll be happy. Oh, and since she's a podcaster, naturally her voice is dead sexy - because getting turned on while listening to descriptions of serial killers is totally normal and not at all off-putting. Shouldn't the emphasis be on the podcaster's research skills and professionalism? The most interesting characters, in my experience, don't tend to be conventionally attractive, and the more her looks were described the less engaging she became.

The plot was perfectly serviceable, and I didn't figure out how it would all turn out, and in fact I think there WAS a thread of the socioeconomic commentary that I loved in The Night Swim. I wonder if Goldin was pressured to up the sexy factor of the main character for more mainstream appeal or something. 

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain: Synopsis from Goodreads: From the author of THE PUSH, a pageturner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens--and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices.

The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.
The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children's. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life's most difficult decisions. 

-"The kitchen window is open and the echo of the city floats in. Albert is gone, and she's the only witness to the end, and it all feels impossibly unremarkable."

-"The way Blair has about her. How Chloe is so effortless to enjoy, their love synergistic. Sometimes Xavier feels to her like a gift given by someone who should know her better; something meant for her that feels nothing like her. Her heart hurts in the same way sometimes, of being misunderstood."

I did read Yellowface this year, and although I am not, and no longer aspire to be, a published author, I am intensely aware that some of my critique of this book and the hype around the author could definitely be ascribed to envy.

I might have been less underwhelmed by this if it had come before The Push rather than after. I read The Push almost against my better judgment, the plot-line sounded so off-putting. It absolutely was, but it was also pretty much the electrifying and expertly-written psychological roller-coaster ride it was touted as ("five stars but also one star because it was masterfully written but I hated it" was my review). This was much more a run-of-the-mill novel with some insights about motherhood and social dynamics that aren't bad but are much less incisive and merciless than in The Push. The writing is still very good.

 I just feel like the hype hasn't done Audrain any favours - apparently an international publisher referred to her as 'one of the biggest talents to have emerged this century' and that just raises the bar way too high. The way her path to being published is described sounds ever-so-slightly massaged - she had a child who was medically fragile, which meant she couldn't go back to work because of all the caregiving but somehow she did have time to get away and write (yes, I know, it's very possible she did find refuge in the writing. It's quite probably true, it just sounds a little contrived). She is beautiful and blond and her photo shows her dressed effortlessly in jeans and a blazer and a tucked-in white shirt (no shade here, just envy, she is beautiful, and also probably a publisher's dream (yes, that does sound like shade, but I think it's probably true)). So absolutely it makes sense that she put all that ambivalence about motherhood into a novel, with some generational trauma thrown in to boot. And that was always going to be a hard act to follow.

I did appreciate her writing about how complicated and conflicting the experience of of motherhood is for many women, and how people living in a neighbourhood can have no idea what goes on behind everyone else's doors. But I didn't at all have to read the final twist twice to believe it. The Push was a really great psychological thriller. This was just a good one, in my (not remotely objective) opinion.

Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #1) by Mia P. Manansala: Synopsis from Goodreads: The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer....

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila's left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

-"All five wheeled around as one. I don't know if you've ever been stared down by an elderly Asian woman, but It. Is. Terrifying. Don't be fooled by the cute florals and jaunty visors -- these women will end you, wielding nothing but their sharp tongues, bony elbows and collapsible shopping carts."

Take this one with several grains of artisanal smoked salt, because I was probably never going to be the target audience for a culinary cozy. But I'm trying to read more women, and more POC authors, and I loved the title and the cover.

Even for a cozy, I found some of the reactions to people being killed and attacked odd. At one point the main character goes to meet someone for lunch, then finds out the person didn't show up because they were beaten into a coma. Then she goes to her friend's coffee shop and spends a few hours baking and just... forgets to tell anyone about the person in the coma? I mean, I'm as flighty as the next person, but that's weird, right?
I try really hard to be respectful of cultural differences, but the older members of the family being what sounded like flat-out abusive towards Lila got grating after a while, along with the cop being incredibly unprofessional, even for a small town.
The love interest(s) weren't really described in any kind of detail that made it clear why they were attractive to Lila other than being physically appealing and her having a "crush" on one.
Unlike some people, I had no issue with all the food descriptions - those were my favourite part. I'm not sure I'll continue with the series, but I will absolutely be taking a crack at making chicken adobo.

Books Read in 2023: One and Two-Star Reads

Happy new year! I am not hung over, but I am tired. We were up until two new years eve-ing, then came home and got ready for bed, then Eve came home at three and we talked for a bit and then I read a little, so it was four before I turned off the light, and then I had twitchy legs like mad, so lord knows what time I actually fell asleep. 

139 books this year. More than last year, fewer than the year before. If I was Eve I'd be annoyed I didn't round it out at 140, but being me I kind of like the spiky screw-you-ness of 139. Speaking of Eve, she was convinced she wasn't going to make her goal this year of 20 books (demanding course load, musical rehearsals, etc.). Then she came home and reread the Hunger Games trilogy and then reread Fantastic Mr. Fox to make 20 and is calling it, with accustomed restraint, The Comeback of the Century. 

Only 32 books are three stars or fewer. I might be getting better at book selection, or I might be getting more generous with my star ratings. I'm fine with either. I don't tend to agonize over ratings as much as I used to. If I really liked reading a book, I really liked reading it. If I read reviews later that bring up good points about why the book might be open to criticism, that's fine, but the fact is I still enjoyed reading it. I also acknowledge that books that I don't like may very well be enjoyed by other people. I don't subscribe to "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" in book reviews, although I'm fine being argued with - god knows I can be downright combative if I don't watch myself. 

As usual, I've considered just not including the one or two star reads, and then included them anyway. I'm a creature of habit. Or compulsion. Or something. I've also considered not doing these posts anymore since I now know many blog friends who read as much or more, and lay out their year's reading in succinct little posts with statistical breakdowns and pie charts, or review more throughout the year so it's less of a monolithic wall of review. But I've worked hard to get to a place where I don't compare myself to others where I don't compare myself to others as much, and I have IRL friends who enjoy the posts. And some books I want the space to ramble about. And the structure of putting the posts together helps a little with my January depression, or at least postpones it for a while (I just typed Kanuary instead of January more times than I'm comfortable admitting).

One-Star Reads 

Stray Dogs: Stories by Rawi Hage: Synopsis from Goodreads: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZEFrom the internationally acclaimed author of the novels De Niro’s Game , Cockroach , Carnival and Beirut Hellfire Society , here is a captivating and cosmopolitan collection of stories.

-”He was paid relatively well but led a frugal, melancholic existence, weathering constant regret that he had appeared in the world only after all the great thinkers and prophets had long gone. In his youth, his contempt for modern life had led him to his current state: dwelling in the permanence of the obscure.”

I read this because I was trying to read all the books on the Giller Prize Shortlist from last year. I wish I had started with another of Hage's books. My review means that I didn't like reading the book, not that it was necessarily a bad book. There may very well be some thread that connects these stories, but I couldn't see it. They seemed like a fairly random collection of scenes, some Kafkaesque, some icky in a very male-sexual-gaze way (I understand some people like that kind of thing), some clever, but then I'd move on to the next story and be back to square one. If it was all some brilliant metaphor, it was lost on me. At the end of it all I remained uncaptivated and kind of wanted a cosmopolitan.

The Last Laugh (The Initial Insult #2) by Mindy McGinnis: Synopsis from Goodreads: In the dark and stunning sequel to The Initial Insult, award-winning author Mindy McGinnis concludes this suspenseful YA duology as long-held family secrets finally come to light . . . changing Amontillado forevermore. Tress Montor murdered Felicity Turnado—but she might not have to live with the guilt for long. With an infected arm held together by duct tape, the panther who clawed her open on the loose, and the whole town on the hunt for the lost homecoming queen, the odds are stacked against Tress. As her mind slides deeper into delirium, Tress is haunted by the growing sound of Felicity’s heartbeat pulsing from the “best friend” charm around her fevered neck.

SO SAD about this. The Female of the Species is one of my favourite YA reads of all time - I can still remember whole scenes and passages from it. Eve included a review of it in her application for the Arts and Science program and we suspect it played a big part in her getting in. Nothing I've read by McGinnis since has been as good, in my opinion, but I still liked the first book in this series. Merciless teenage girls, deep family secrets, body horror. The conclusion just seemed like a bloody (burny, barfy) mess. I am by far the minority in this opinion, so who the hell knows, it might have been the wrong time in my life/perimenopause.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides: Synopsis from Goodreads: I read one other thriller by this author and it was completely passable and diverting. This was, um, not so much. The twist was surprising only because it was so ridiculous.

The Camp by Nancy Bush: Synopsis from Goodreads: Perfect for readers of Riley Sager and Grady Hendrix, a chilling new read from the New York Times bestselling author where a diabolical modern twist on Friday the 13th meets Yellowjackets at a summer sleepaway camp isolated in the woods of Oregon. There are always stories told around the fire at summer camp—tall tales about gruesome murders and unhinged killers, concocted to scare new arrivals and lend an extra jolt of excitement to those hormone-charged nights. At Camp Luft-Shawk, nicknamed Camp Love Shack, there are stories about a creeping fog that brings death with it. But here, they’re not just campfire tales. Here, the stories are real.

Not my only summer camp thriller this summer, thank goodness. I have read Riley Sager and Grady Hendrix, and seen Yellowjackets and Friday the 13th, and this deserves NONE of those comparisons, hmph. Badly written, badly plotted, skimmed most of the second half. I'm getting a little better at checking whether I've read an author before (a little) so hopefully I won't try any more by this one. 

Two-Star Reads

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca: Synopsis from Goodreads: Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires.

What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Given that description, one would be within their rights to say what the hell did you expect? I did not read this on the strength of that synopsis, it was actually recommended to me. I am not one to shy away from dark writing. Black humour, twisted murdery stuff, bring it all on. Not sure if this was worse than usual or if I'm getting more delicate in my old age. Other reviews cover a range between "shocking and depraved in a good way" and "stop writing trauma porn about lesbians", so....? I will be steering clear of this author in the future, but if you're looking for something super gross and maximally disturbing, fill your boots. 

Seasonal Fears (Alchemical Journeys #2) by Seanan McGuire: Synopsis from Goodreads: Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul. Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world. So, when a new road is laid out in front of them—a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together—walking down it seems to be the only option. But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts. It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all….

Never in a million years would have guessed that I would one-star a Seanan McGuire unless it was to signal that I was being held hostage, and yet here we are. I didn't love Middlegame (the first book in the series) either, although I was inordinately amused that I was reading it at the same time as Middlemarch and The City in the Middle of the Night. McGuire is an astoundingly prolific writer whose quality always impresses me given the quantity. She has so many series I love - Wayward Children? Adore: Ghost Roads? Smitten: October Daye: So fun: Newsflesh (as Mira Grant) - Devoured. Also a couple of standalone ghost stories that were bittersweet and haunting (ha), and Into the Drowning Deep, which if it doesn't get a sequel I may cast myself into the ocean.

Ahem, I have meandered. McGuire wrote that even one of her close friends and fans isn't a fan of the series, so maybe it's just not my thing. It just seemed like so much more telling than showing, and not a whole lot happened, it was just pages and pages of setting the stage and then the action was brief and abrupt. I only borrowed the second book because I saw it on the library ebook collection and it was available. I should skip the next one - it remains to be seen whether I will. 

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin: Synopsis from Goodreads: Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive. In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style―but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost. Invited to participate in an escape room challenge as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

-”’Lisa wants a church wedding – I think her parents are behind it. I told her, ‘No fucking way. I don’t believe in God.’

‘The only thing that you worship is your investment portfolio,’ the other said, laughing. ‘You’d think she’d know that by now.’

‘Exactly. I pointed to the fucking rock on her finger and told her that investment bankers don’t need religion. We don’t need to wait for the next life to enjoy paradise, not with the money we 

make.’

The Night Swim by this author was an amazing book - a thriller about a woman who does a podcast, but also a biting social commentary thread about how girls from a lower socioeconomic rung are treated in life and death. I've been chasing that high with Goldin ever since, fruitlessly, FRUITLESSLY I say! This was super dumb. The parts about working as an investment banker in a top firm are interested for about four pages and then very much not. The part where four people are stuck in an elevator for a day and a half, and no one has to pee, and some people actually experience sexual arousal and consider having sex IN AN ELEVATOR WITH TWO OTHER PEOPLE IN IT, and these supposedly highly intelligent people can't figure out the most basic of codes, and still worry about their bonuses while they're facing death? Like I said, super dumb. I am find reading a book with no likable characters. Just make them do interesting stuff. 

The Pledge by Cale Dietrich: Synopsis from Goodreads: Scream meets Clown in a Cornfield in this young adult horror novel by bestselling Cale Dietrich featuring a masked killer who targets frat boys. Freshman Sam believes that joining a fraternity is the best way to form a friend group as he begins his college journey – and his best chance of moving on from his past. He is the survivor of a horrific, and world-famous, murder spree, where a masked killer hunted down Sam and his friends.

Sam had to do the unthinkable to survive that night, and it completely derailed his life. He sees college, and his new identity as a frat boy, as his best shot at living a life not defined by the killings. He starts to flirt with one of the brothers, who Sam finds is surprisingly accepting of Sam’s past, and begins to think a fresh start truly is possible.
And then... one of his new frat brothers is found dead. A new masked murderer, one clearly inspired by the original, emerges, and starts stalking, and slaying, the frat boys of Munroe University. Now Sam will have to race against the clock to figure out who the new killer is - and why they are killing - before Sam loses his second chance – or the lives of any more of his friends.

I like horror, and I'm always up for a YA book with representation. Gay romance in a frat, where it's kind of no big deal? May stretch the bonds of credulity a bit, but yes, I'm absolutely on board. Masked killer enters stage left? Tell me more. But the writing was mediocre, the dialogue clunky and the characterization didn't really make anyone's death as poignant or affecting as it should have been. It's fair to say that representation matters even in shitty forgettable books - god knows the straights have enough of those, and no shade to this guy for getting published. I hoped for more. 

Clown in a Cornfield (Clown in a Cornfield #1) by Adam Cesare: Synopsis from Goodreads: Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it until graduation. She might not make it to morning.  Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

Obviously I couldn't resist this title (some would say I need to put more effort into resisting titles. And tropes.) There was a good story in here somewhere, but it needed a few more passes. The main character (I can never remember characters' names even if I like them) and her father are pretty well drawn, but no one else is given enough nuance or time to develop to the point that we care about whether they die or are revealed to be a villain. I did enjoy one twist quite a bit, to be fair. Apparently this is the first in a series, but I don't think I'll be following any further unless I hear that there's been a significant improvement.