Month: June 2024

Kate’s Review: “Follow Her Down”

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Book: “Follow Her Down” by Victoria Helen Stone

Publishing Info: Lake Union Publishing, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a print copy from the publicist.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Decades of doubt, fear, and suspicion won’t let a woman overcome her trauma in a riveting novel of suspense by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of Jane Doe and The Hook.

The murder of Elise Rockwood’s sister shattered her family. Their mother’s anxiety kept her housebound. Elise’s paranoid brother, Kyle, saw conspiracies everywhere. Elise numbed her grief in an aimless lifestyle that left her emotionally broken. All of them victims. A local boy eventually confessed, but the damage was already done.

Years later, Elise is reinventing herself. She’s bought a mountain lodge to be close to home again and to find stability. Not even an email from her ex tempts her into revisiting the past. But Kyle won’t let it go. He still believes there’s more to their sister’s murder—and the confession—than meets the eye. When Elise’s ex is found dead in the same forest where her sister went missing decades before, Elise is finally willing to listen.

The traumas of the past are reemerging. So is the truth. Elise’s greatest fear now is who will survive it.

Review: Thank you to Lake Union Press and Kaye Publicity for sending me an print copy of this novel!

I feel like after having a fair amount of focus on horror for awhile I’m finally getting back into throwing in thrillers to balance it out. And there have been some pretty good ones that have come my way without me seeking them out. One of which is “Follow Her Down” by Victoria Helen Stone. I hadn’t read anything by Stone before, but the premise of a woman still reeling from her sister’s unsolved murder years before caught my attention pretty handily. I had no idea what to expect, but I was very pleased with this one.

The mystery is solid and entertaining. We follow our protagonist Elise, a standoffish woman who owns a campground whose older sister Robin disappeared decades ago, and whose death basically destroyed her family. When her ex-lover Christian reaches out after radio silence, and Elise rejects seeing him again, his body is found in the wilderness near her campground, which also happens to be in the same area Robin disappeared years earlier. It’s a good set up, and it was interesting seeing how Christian’s murder may or may nto be connected to Robin’s, especially as Elise’s obsessive brother Kyle starts to hyper-focus on the possibility. I liked Elise as a protagonist as she tries to steer focus away from herself by law enforcement, while also trying to convince herself that Kyle is just doing his usual conspiracy theory nonsense, even as more and more strange clues pop up that could be convincing. Elise is flawed and damaged, which always has the potential to be a little cloying in the genre, but Stone does her justice, mostly because she herself is the skeptic as opposed to the loose cannon.

But what I liked the most about this book was that there was such a focus on the way that the trauma of a missing person can have shattering effects on the people in their lives. For Elise it’s the way that she has shut herself off from most people in her life, focusing on her campground and trying to not think about what happened to Robin all those years ago, unable to connect with many people. For Kyle, he dives into conspiracies and dodgy theories of cover ups, hyperfixating on improbable things because at least with the improbable things there is some kind of explanation. For their mother, she rarely leaves the house, her anxiety too much to bear. While there are plenty of thrillers with the theme of a lost family member that touch on the fallout, I thought that this one really nailed the way that a family can be torn apart due to unresolved trauma, resentment, and survivor guilt. The relationship between Elise and Kyle in particular could turn on a dime, so much so that it would be deeply uncomfortable and at times completely heart wrenching. I do wish that the book had kept this theme the focal point more, and hadn’t succumbed to more well worn tropes to the genre.

At the end of the day, “Follow Her Down” is a suspenseful and at times deeply upsetting thriller that doesn’t hold back in a lot of ways. I had hoped it stuck more to the more unique aspects to the story, but it was an enjoyable read overall.

Rating 7: An emotional mystery that examines unresolved trauma and the havoc it can cause, “Follow Her Down” is raw and at times devastating.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Follow Her Down” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on the Goodreads Shelf “Missing Women Books”.

Serena’s Review: “Fiasco”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Fiasco” by Constance Fay

Publishing Info: Bramble, June 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Cynbelline Khaw is a woman of many names. She’s Generosity, a cultist who never quite fit in. She’s Bella, the daughter who failed to save her cousin’s life. And then there’s Cyn, the notorious bounty hunter who spaced a ship of slavers.

She’s exhausted, lonely, and on her very last legs―but then a new client offers her a job she can’t refuse: a bounty on the kidnapper who killed her cousin. All Cyn has to do is partner with the crew of the Calamity, a scouting vessel she encountered when she was living under a previous alias. One tiny little issue, she’s been given an additional deliver the oh-so-compelling medic, Micah Arora, to the treacherous Pierce Family or all her identities will be revealed, putting her estranged family in danger.

Hunting a kidnapper doesn’t usually mean accidentally taking your sexy new target to dinner at your parent’s house, a local mystic predicting you’ll have an increasingly large number of children, or being accompanied by a small flying lizard with a penchant for eating metal, but, as they field investigative hurdles both dangerous and preposterous, Cyn and Micah grow ever closer. When a violent confrontation reveals that everything Cyn thought about her past is wrong, she realizes that she has the power to change her future. The first part of that is making sure that Micah Arora is around to be a part of it.

Previously Reviewed: “Calamity”

Review: I’m always so pleased when I come across a new author, especially one who is writing in a subgenre that you don’t see much of, in this case romantic science fiction! I’m even more pleased when I read a second book from the same author and can confirm that it was more than a “one hit wonder” situation! And such has been the case here; while I think I might still have preferred “Calamity” to this book, “Fiasco” is an excellent book in its own right!

I had a guess that these would be the two characters we followed in this book, based off which side characters were best set up in the first book. That said, from what we had there, I knew a lot more about the male love interest, Micah, the ship’s medic, than the mysterious woman who flits in and out of that story. That left this book with a lot of blank canvas to tell a fresh story about a character who was practically brand new to the readers. And Cyn turned out to be fantastic! In many ways, she is a much more tragic figure than our original leading lady. Carrying around not only a ton of family baggage, Cyn is also plagued by crippling PTSD from traumatic events in her past. Her life up to this point has been largely solitary, so much of her arch in this story is learning how to trust and depend on others, especially challenging perhaps with the force of personalities that make up the crew of the Calamity!

The plot revolves around a serial kidnapper, an individual Cyn has spent the majority of her life chasing down. There were a number of twists and turns here, and I enjoyed them all! I found a few things a bit predictable, but as so much of the story really depends on the reader caring about Cyn’s own growth and feelings, I think this worked fine. The last third of the book, in particular, was very action packed and there were a few moments that ratcheted up the emotional stakes so high as to be quite thrilling.

The story also delves a lot into family trauma and the way tragic events can re-shape an entire group of people. I really liked a lot of what we saw here between Cyn and her parents in particular and their mutual realizations that they didn’t truly understand one another. At the same time, much of the first half to three quarters of the book presents most of these family members in a pretty negative light, and even understanding their circumstances, Cyn was more forgiving than I was. I wish there had been a little bit more push back on some of the tactics they used and how unhealthy the way that they treated Cyn truly was.

As for the romance, it was sweet, but I think this was the area where the story took a clear second to the first book in the series. While I liked Micah as a romantic lead, I never felt like I really understood the connection built between him and Cyn. The reader isn’t given many reasons for why these two characters are drawn to one another, only that they are. This was all the more frustrating because in many ways Micah’s character is the sort that I particularly enjoy as a leading man in romance novels: quiet, but incredibly capable, with deeper wells of emotion buried deep. But, again, it felt like much of this wasn’t fully utilized as the love story progressed.

Overall, however, I very much enjoyed this book! Cyn’s arc was incredibly sympathetic, and the overall plot was action-packed and thrilling. The love story was also sweet, but if there was one area that I think could have used just a dash bit more…something…this was it. Either way, I’m fully on board with this series and can’t wait to see what comes next!

Rating 8: A great leading lady, a thrilling adventure, and a story jam-packed with family trauma, and that’s all before you even get to the swoon-worthy romance!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Fiasco” is on this Goodreads list: June 2024 Most Anticipated Romance Releases

Kate’s Review: “youthjuice”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “youthjuice” by E.K. Sathue

Publishing Info: Soho Press, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: American Psycho meets The Devil Wears Prada: outrageous body horror for the goop generation.

A 29-year-old copywriter realizes that beauty is possible—at a terrible cost—in this surreal, satirical send-up of NYC It-girl culture.

From Sophia Bannion’s first day on the Storytelling team at HEBE, a luxury skincare/wellness company based in New York’s trendy SoHo neighborhood, it’s clear something is deeply amiss. But Sophia, pushing thirty, has plenty of skeletons in her closet next to the designer knockoffs and doesn’t care. Though she leads an outwardly charmed life, she aches for a deeper meaning to her flat existence—and a cure for her brutal nail-biting habit. She finds it all and more at HEBE, and with Tree Whitestone, HEBE’s charismatic founder and CEO.

Soon, Sophia is addicted to her HEBE lifestyle—especially youthjuice, the fatty, soothing moisturizer Tree has asked Sophia to test. But when cracks in HEBE’s infrastructure start to worsen—and Sophia learns the gruesome secret ingredient at the heart of youthjuice—she has to decide how far she’s willing to go to stay beautiful forever.

Glittering with ominous flashes of Sophia’s coming-of-rage story, former beauty editor E.K. Sathue’s horror debut is as incisive as it is stomach-churning in its portrayal of all-consuming female friendship and the beauty industry’s short attention span. youthjuice does to skincare influencers what Bret Easton Ellis did to yuppies. You’ll never moisturize the same way again.

Review: Thank you to Soho Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I am someone who has very little knowledge about skin care and beauty routines outside of knowing that I need to hide my pale pale body from the sun at all times. It probably doesn’t help that I absolutely cannot abide the feeling of any kinds of lotion on my skin, which makes skin care a little trickier. But even though I know very little about the beauty industry and anti-aging fads and techniques, I was still interested in giving “youthjuice” by E.K. Sathue a whirl. The cover itself is eye catching, with a pale pink background and a simple beauty jar with a bit of blood dripping from it. What’s not to love, really? After all, in a time when skincare and anti-aging beauty products have delved into the likes of bloodletting strategies like vampire facials (with some sometimes horrendous results), this kind of thing seems ripe for the picking in body horror, and Sathue rises to the occasion.

(source)

First let’s talk horror elements, because “youthjuice” has them in spades. Firstly, we have the obvious body horror stuff, as we follow Sophia Bannion as she begins a new job at the beauty company HEBE, and finds out that the new product she is testing ‘youthjuice’, may have some pretty macabre origins and ingredients. It’s a bit of a spoiler, but I’m sure that one can guess based on the book cover alone, that this new product contains some human derived ingredients, with some horrifying means to procure them. It’s still a pretty jarring trope, though it has a long and storied run not only in fiction (vampires living off of blood in their immortality), but also world history (Elizabeth Báthory, anyone?), and Sathue revives it here for a new generation, with a bit of an influencer and capitalistic twist. And it makes for some pretty gory and downright disgusting beats, with descriptions of blood of all types and conditions being thrown on the page. There were some bits that could have been expanded upon more in terms of cause and effect, though perhaps the ambiguity will work better for others reading it. The other horror aspect that I mostly enjoyed was Sophia herself, and how we come to find out she is an unreliable narrator of sorts, and why that is. We blend the modern day with a flashback to a time during her youth where she is learning about desire, power, and attraction, and how she comes to value these things in a way that turns her into the ambitious young woman in a new job that has some pretty dark secrets. It didn’t reinvent the wheel per se, but it worked for the story and I found it believable to the character and her arc.

And there are, of course, the satirical elements of this book that lampoon not only the beauty industry as a whole, but also the framing of a ‘mysterious girl boss’ leader who has captured the imaginations of her acolytes, her fans, and the industry as a whole. The CEO of HEBE is Tree Whitestone, an almost ethereal being of a woman whose is poised, articulate, charismatic, and ageless, who promises beauty and youth to her followers and consumers while exuding power and grace. Sathue paints the perfect picture of a dynamic engaging leader of a brand that feeds on a cult like devotion as well as a social media induced sense of FOMO, and how devotees with do just about anything, including getting into bathtubs full of actual blood, to have a chance to experience the newest miracle product that will surely solve their problems by restoring their youth. I couldn’t help but think about more recent online discourses about aging and beauty products/surgical options being used by younger and younger people because of this fear. Bathing in blood is pretty farfetched, but remember the vampire facials thing I mentioned above? It’s in the same general vicinity, I’d say.

“youthjuice” is an intriguing horror tale that parodies the beauty industry with some gross bits of body horror. It will be a fun pool read for the summer I would say.

Rating 7: An entertaining satire with some gnarly body horror moments, “youthjuice” is as enjoyable as it is, at times, disgusting.

Reader’s Advisory:

“youthjuice” is included in the Goodreads article/book list “From Time Travel to Tech Startups: Five Cross Genre Trends We’re Noticing”.

Highlights: June 2024

It’s official: Summer is here! Serena is planning to spend as much time outside as possible, as this season can feel all too short in Minnesota, and Kate is planning on also being outside, but shaded by an umbrella at the local pool. Oh, and the ALA Annual Conference is at the end of the month, and you know we will be there! But until then, we have some books that we are looking forward to this month!

Serena’s Picks

Book: “The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King” by Carissa Broadbent

Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Why I’m Interested: The first book in this duology, “The Serpent and the Wings of Night,” is probably my favorite purely romantasy book I’ve read in a while! It also ended with some big reveals and then dropped readers with a massive cliffhanger. That being the case, I’ve been anxiously awaiting this sequel for a while! While I’m expecting the late-game reveals in the first book to greatly affect the political stakes and lead to much in-fighting and shifting, I’ll be honest: I’m mostly here for the romance and I can’t wait to find out how Raihn and Oraya navigate this shift in their relationship. How do you rebuild trust in this situation? I’d typically be more concerned going in, but Broadbent wowed me with the first book, so I feel fairly confident that she’ll be able to bring it all together here in the end!

Book: “Foul Days” by Genoveva Dimova

Publication Date: June 25, 2024

Why I’m Interested: I’m always on the lookout for a new author and an original-sounding story! And this book promises both! The story follows a witch who has spent her life fighting the monsters that plague here walled city. And for the last several, this fight has included a constant state of flight from the most powerful of them all, the Zmey. So when she finds herself caught up in a murder investigation alongside a frustratingly dedicated policeman, she’s dismayed to find their investigation drawing them closer and closer to this terrifying being. I have incredibly high hopes for this ones!

Book: “A Rivalry of Hearts” by Tessonja Odette

Publication Date: June 12, 2024

Why I’m Interested: This is another one coming out from an indie author whom I’ve never read before! But this book sounds so much like others I’ve enjoyed before (“Emily Wilde” and “Half a Soul” come to mind) that I knew I wanted to check it out the moment I saw it! The story follows an author who goes on a book tour in the land of Fae, a place she’s never been but where her romance books are incredibly popular. Only problem is that she must share the press with a rival author, a frustrating Fae himself. We can all see where this is going, right? I know I can, and I’m here for it!

Kate’s Picks

Book: “Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay

Publication Date: June 11, 2024

Why I’m Interested: The most obvious reason is that it’s Paul Tremblay. But since I have to go into more detail than that, I will say that the idea of Paul Tremblay, one of my favorite horror authors, tackling a ‘cursed film’ story and no doubt bringing his own brand of creepy disturbing and pathos ridden terror to it is SO tantalizing. We meet a nameless man who had been the slasher in a hardcore art house horror film made on a shoe string budget with his friends, but it never saw the light of day due to on set tragedy. And then people involved in the film just kind of died over the years. When three scenes were posted online and the buzz and rumors of a cursed film made it go viral, Hollywood wants to make a reboot, and want him involved. And how can be do anything but accept? This is a most anticipated read of the year for me, and I’m sure it will destroy me.

Book: “Middle of the Night” by Riley Sager

Publication Date: June 18, 2024

Wby I’m Interested: One of the sure signs of summer is that Riley Sager has a new thriller coming out, which makes perfect sense because his thrillers are the PERFECT summer reads. So many twists, so many turns, so many messy protagonists! In this one we have a man still deeply haunted by the disappearance of his childhood friend when they were kids, living in a quiet community that was completely blindsided by the crime. When he returns to his childhood home decades later, he tries to keep it together. But in the middle of the night he hears strange noises outside, and sees a strange figure skulking around his yard. Could it be his friend? Or is something more sinister at work? I’m SO excited to find out!

Book: “Not In Love” by Ali Hazelwood

Publication Date: June 11, 2024

Why I’m Interested: I really love Ali Hazelwood’s romances, ever since I absolutely devoured “The Love Hypothesis”, so of course I’m excited for this book! I always enjoy her awkward and quirky (and potentially neurodivergent coded) protagonists, as well as the science-y themes even though I am not science minded in the least, and “Not In Love” sounds like it’s taking a forbidden romance trope and tossing some STEM on it! Rue is a biotech engineer for a promising startup run by a close friend and mentor. But when a corporate takeover by an outside group threatens her job, she is determined to stave it off as best she can…. the only problem is that one of the outsiders, Eli, is someone she knows and kind of connected with. And now they are sharing a heavy attraction to each other in spite of being on the opposite sides. I’m sure it will be spicy and humorous and charming.

What books are you looking forward to this month? Let us know in the comments!

Serena’s Review: “How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying” by Django Wexler

Publishing Info: Orbit, May 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Davi has done this all before. She’s tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she’s rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she’s been defeated every time.

This time? She’s done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that’s who she needs to be. It’s Davi’s turn to play on the winning side.

Review: This book had a lot of things going for it when I first picked it up. For one thing, I’ve really enjoyed all of the books I’ve read from Django Wexler in the past, including his most recent trilogy which just finished up a year or so ago. So he’s an author I’ve read recently and enjoyed. Secondly, I typically enjoy fantasy novels that take a comedic, tongue-in-cheek approach to storytelling. T. Kingfisher, for example, is one of my current favorite authors, and all of her books have a distinct humorous aspect to them. All of this to say, when I actually started reading this one, I had high hopes. But by the time I’d finished the last page (a feat unto itself, honestly), those hopes had thoroughly crashed and burned.

I can see the bones of a good story here, and I know that Wexler is a capable author, able to create unique worlds and people them with characters with whom readers can become invested. However, this book seemed to fall into one simple problem in almost every arena: excess. Take any single good idea, but then see that thing multiplied by a million. This applies to every area, but the first and most obvious has to do with the humor itself. It simply doesn’t let up! It’s joke after joke after joke in what quickly becomes an exhausting exercise of pure endurance. The reader is never given the necessary moments to really sit with the characters, to take any sort of breath and find a reason to actually care about the people and what they’re going through. Instead, it’s just a barrage of quips and takes.

One clear example is the use of footnotes. Now, I think this technique can be very successful if used well. But one of the key parts, in my opinion, is knowing exactly when and how to use a good footnote. Here, not only did these fall into the same category of used to excess, but the notes themselves were simply the same sorts of jokes found in the narrative. There was no rhyme or reason to why certain quips warranted a foot note and why another would simply be inserted into the body of the story.

Other than the sheer amount of humor that was packed into this book, much of it failed to land on its own merits. I don’t consider myself prudish by any means, but right off the bat, many of the jokes felt overly crude and crass. At many points, it felt like shock value was being prioritized over actual humor, and I found myself cringing more than anything through much of this.

As for the plot mechanics, I liked the overall idea of a “Groundhog’s Day”/video game scenario where whenever the main character dies she “respawns” at the same starting point and must make her way forward from there once again. But this quickly became tiresome, and in the beginning of the book, much of this history is simply presented to the reader, something our main character is already resigned to. Again, the reader has very few opportunities to truly become invested in her situation.

By the time I finished this book, all that remained was sheer exhaustion. I know that Wexler can write good fantasy; I even know that he can write humorously, as most of his novels included good, quippy characters who made me laugh. I’m not sure what went wrong here. It’s almost like he set out with the goal to right a comedic book and got so carried away with this one feature that he left out all of the rest. I honestly can’t recommend this one to most readers. Perhaps if you read the first page or so and the style of humor is working for you? But for most readers, I think this is a severe departure from the quality of Wexler’s previous books.

Rating 5: The jokes didn’t land and there were too many of them; a very disappointing read.

Reader’s Advisory:

“How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying” can be found on this Goodreads list: Best Outside-the-box Speculative Fiction (maybe not “best” though).