Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “Julie Chan Is Dead”

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Book: “Julie Chan Is Dead” by Liann Zhang

Publishing Info: Atria Books, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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

Book Description: In this razor-sharp, diabolical debut thriller, a young woman steps into her deceased twin’s influencer life, only to discover dark secrets hidden behind her social media façade.

Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything. Except a pulse.

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.

Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.

Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realizes she might be the next target.

Review: Thank you to Atria for sending me an eARC of this book via NetGalley.

Summer is right around the corner, and that means that lots of readers are probably looking for some perfect books for vacations, for poolside, for early evenings on the deck. I love having sudsy and fast paced thrillers for times like those, and I have a recommendation (though Serena and I will have more in June with our annual Beach Reads post!). “Julie Chan Is Dead” has a catchy title, an intriguing premise, and sounds like a “Parent Trap” story from Hell, with a woman named Julie being reunited with her long lost twin Chloe, who is a famous influencer… and then ends up usurping Chloe’s identity down the line after she finds her dead. Sounds sudsy! But it’s also whip smart and a sharp social satire as well as a crazy twisty thriller.

So there are two mysteries at play in this thriller: the first is whether Julie is going to pull off her identity switch after taking over Chloe’s life, and if she can seamlessly transition her behaviors, mannerisms, and full self into that of her beloved and powerful twin sister. The second is the mystery of what actually happened to Chloe. The latter takes a bit of a back seat, at least until later in the story, and it’s more about Julie trying to keep her identity swap secret so she can indulge in the life that Chloe had without being caught as a fraud. Julie isn’t exactly a GOOD person, but as a reader I fully understood why she made the decisions she did, having grown up in rotten circumstances after her parents horrible deaths while also being separated from her twin, who was adopted into a new wealthy family and leading a seemingly charmed life. I held my breath when Julie would be faced with the threat of her cover being blown, and I was very curious to see how far she would go to maintain her new life. To make matters more suspenseful, we get some hints that Chloe’s circle of influencer friends, whom have invited Julie on an exclusive retreat with them, may be hiding things as well, and the weird sinister vibes slowly build up as the story goes on.

But the most effective theme of this book was how Zhang takes on and satirizes influencer culture and the privilege/conspicuous leisure that comes with it, as well as pointing out the racism that can also come with it. I don’t really follow any influencers of this kind in real life (mostly political ones, as well as a guy who cleans and repairs/treats cow hooves?), but the idea of being a picture perfect vision of aspiration for an audience of millions (and to encourage them to consume consume consume!) is SO fascinating, and I always love a deconstruction and satire of the harmful aspects of the whole concept. Julie finds herself one of the only non-white women in a tight and popular circle of influencer friends, not only trying to perform as Chloe to keep up her ruse, but also to perform in a way that would be appealing to white audiences, and to perform for her new ‘friends’ and colleagues, especially when she finds herself on a retreat on a private island surrounded by them with no exit.

And here is the thing that really shocked me about this book: we got a bit of a CRAZY swerve in terms of plot and reveals… and I didn’t hate it! Normally when a thriller has a huge game changing moment that feels totally out of the blue I will be a bit put off. It really takes a talent and an engaging storyteller to pull it off, and Zhang really pulls it off here. I think what also helped was that a big part of this twist (I am not going to spoil it here) was left somewhat ambiguous, with room for the reader to question what exactly HAD happened, as opposed to completely shifting things definitively and too abruptly.

“Julie Chan Is Dead” is a well done thriller that kept me hooked. PERFECT poolside reading for the summer!

Rating 8: A wild thriller that has a crazy swerve that actually worked for me, “Julie Chan Is Dead” is about privilege, race, influencer culture, and getting a luxurious life at any cost.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Julie Chan Is Dead” is included on the Goodreads list “2025 Mystery Thrillers True Crime”.

Kate’s Review: “Leap”

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

Book: “Leap” by Simina Popescu

Publishing Info: Roaring Brook Press, November 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: A coming-of-age graphic novel following two dancers at a conservative performing arts school―exploring friendship, first love, and what it means to fall out of step with your own dreams.

Ana has been studying contemporary dance since she was little, but her heart isn’t in it anymore. Instead her focus is on Carina―a beautiful, ambitious ballerina whose fear of being outed keeps Ana in the closet and their fragile relationship from seeing the light of day. Risking her own career, Ana gives up more and more in order to fit into the shadows of Carina’s life.

Sara, on the other hand, is fielding whispers she may be the best dancer their school has produced in years. Much of that is thanks to her mentor and instructor, Marlena, who plucked Sara from the classical track and encouraged her to blossom as a contemporary dancer. Sara has always been in awe of Marlena, but recently, that admiration has sparked into something more, and Sara’s not sure what to do about it.

As junior year at their performing arts school begins, Ana and Sara are assigned as roommates. What starts off as a tentative friendship soon becomes a much-needed anchor.

Review: Sometimes I have a hard time writing reviews because I find myself somewhat unable to express why I feel a certain way about a book outside of the very simple and concise phrase ‘vibes, man’. It never feels fully constructive, but sometimes it is what I find myself falling back upon. “Leap” by Simina Popescu is absolutely one of those books, as once I had finished it I was chiller and calmer and happier than when I’d started it, all because of the vibes. But then it was time to explain why, exactly, it made me feel that way, and I found myself having a hard time articulating. So you may have to forgive me as you read this review, as it very well may fully turn into a written out screed that all comes back to vibes. But hopefully that can be enough sometimes?

Okay fine, even I’m unconvinced, I’ll give it a shot! (source)

“Leap” has a very straightforward plot: two young women, Sara and Ana, are two dance students at a fairly conservative academy in Romania. They are both in a more contemporary program, though Ana is dating an ambitious ballerina named Carina on the sly, as Carina isn’t ready to come out. Ana and Sara become roommates and start to forge a friendship through a shared interest in dance, as well as the realization that they are both queer women in a setting where they are a bit more invisible, though Ana would love to be out and Sara is grappling with the possibility of doing so. It’s a bit slice of life, and I enjoyed watching their friendship build as they support each other through the highs and lows of what’s going on in their lives (Sara’s unattainable crush on Marlena, one of the teachers at the school, and Ana’s ennui with dance and her somewhat one sided relationship with Carina). The issues were important and weighty without feeling overwrought, and their separate but easily relatable journeys felt very real and fit together well, leading to believable conflict but nothing a little communication and empathy couldn’t fix.

Another aspect that really worked for me, and I do have to spoil a bit here to talk about it but it doesn’t really spoil anything too much, is that this book’s focus really was on the importance of friendship instead of focusing on romance. Ana and Sara are two queer friends who are both going through difficult moments in their personal lives in the romance department; Ana is having to hide her relationship with Carina, and Sara is discovering her sexuality through crush on her teacher Marlena (and which is wholly unattainable for many reasons). While these relationship woes are definitely a conflict for them and unrequited and painful, Ana and Sara are always there and supportive of each other, and the story never hints at a possible romance for the two of them. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve read that would have taken the opportunity to show that these two girls would fall for each other in the end (not that I dislike that kind of trope, friends to lovers can be fun!), and in this case I loved that Popescu instead decided to show that platonic love and intimacy can be more than enough for connections between two people.

“Leap” is a calm and lovely coming of age story that felt cozy and earnest. If you are looking for something sweet to read this Spring, this is a great choice. Vibes galore.

Rating 8: A sweet and charming coming of age tale about friendship, self discovery, and connection.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Leap” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Graphic Novels Featuring LGBTIQ+ Themes”.

Kate’s Review: “Bochica”

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

Book: “Bochica” by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro

Publishing Info: Atria/Primero Sueno Press, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

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

Book Description: A real-life Latin American haunted mansion. A murky labyrinth of family secrets. A young, aristocratic woman desperate to escape her past. This haunting debut gothic horror novel is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and The Shining.

In 1923 Soacha, Colombia, La Casona—an opulent mansion perched above the legendary Salto del Tequendama waterfall—was once home to Antonia and her family, who settle in despite their constant nightmares and the house’s malevolent spirit. But tragedy strikes when Antonia’s mother takes a fatal fall into El Salto and her father, consumed by grief, attempts to burn the house down with Antonia still inside.

Three years later, haunted by disturbing dreams and cryptic journal entries from her late mother, Antonia is drawn back to her childhood home when it is converted into a luxurious hotel. As Antonia confronts her fragmented memories and the dark history of the estate, she wrestles with unsettling questions she can no longer Was her mother’s death by her own hands, or was it by someone else’s?

In a riveting quest for answers, Antonia must navigate the shadows of La Casona, unearthing its darkest secrets and confronting a legacy that threatens to swallow her whole.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Anyone who knows me or has been reading this blog for awhile knows that I really adore Gothic stories, especially if they are within the horror genre. Isolated settings, tormented heroines, questions of hauntings or ghosts or hallucinations, I love it all. So obviously the book “Bochica” by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro really called out to me, given that not only is it a Gothic story with a mansion that has a haunting history, it’s also in the jungles of Colombia! In the early part of the 20th Century! All of this is just catnip to me, and I had been really looking forward to digging in once it was getting closer to review time.

I absolutely loved the setting of this book. For one, I really enjoyed the time and place, with the focus on Colombia in the 1920s and 1930s, centered mostly in a Gothic mansion nestled in the jungle by a large waterfall (based on an actual mansion that has its own history that somewhat mirrors this story). I love Gothic stories, and to have one centered with a Latin American backdrop and a rich and complex historical basis really compelled me. I loved the way that Flórez-Cerchiaro paints a portrait of this opulent hotel with a dark history, and how I could just see it all come to life as I read the book. I also greatly enjoyed the histories that this story touched upon, whether it was the Muisca mythology and folklore, as well as the ways that the book would touch upon colonialism and imperialism, and the role that the Catholic Church has played in such things ever since the Spanish-led conquest/genocide in this area. There are also some creepy and eerie moments that really unnerved me, with strange shadowy figures or weird moments in the dark.

On the flip side, outside of our main character Antonia, I wasn’t really blown away by our cast of characters, as everyone that wasn’t her didn’t really interest me or feel well expanded upon. Whether it was a complicated relationship between Antonia and her father Ricardo that felt limp, or a romantic connection between Antonia and her love interest/journalist Alejandro that never really crackled, or even an antagonist with secrets in Doña Pereira, who has a past connection to Antonia and her mother and has taken over El Salto as a hotel, none of the characters really did much for me, and the way that Antonia interacted with any of them just didn’t really take off. And because of that, my reading experience never felt very high stakes, and I wasn’t as engrossed with the story as much as I had hoped I would be. I think that going in with a lot of high hopes set it up for a bit of a free fall when they weren’t met, and while I would certainly recommend this book as a Gothic horror story with a unique POV, it doesn’t really stand out beyond that.

A bit of a mixed bag. I definitely suggest checking it out if you have been thinking about it, but the comparisons to other stories like “The Shining” and “Mexican Gothtic” aren’t quite on point.

Rating 7: The setting is eerie and very unique with great explorations of the history of the area, but the characters were kind of flat, and I was never fully pulled in. Overall, lots of potential, but it didn’t quite channel it.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bochica” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “See How They Fall”

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

Book: “See How They Fall” by Rachel Paris

Publishing Info: Scarlet, April 2025

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

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

Book Description: In this compulsive debut thriller set in Sydney’s wealthiest suburbs, one detective’s investigation into a family tragedy threatens to collapse a powerful dynasty. . . .

When Skye married into the wealthy Campbell family, she thought she was entering paradise. But lately, she’s been unhappy in her marriage to Duncan and hiding a few secrets of her own as she tries to maintain a normal, happy life for their six-year-old daughter, Tilly.

Now the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, has died and his three sons are set to inherit the luxury goods empire upon which he built their fortune. But plans for a seamless handover are complicated when a fourth, hitherto unknown, heir named Cody comes forward. The Turners gather for an intimate weekend retreat at an opulent seaside estate in order to meet this newcomer and figure out their next steps. With so much at stake, tempers flare and egos clash within their first few hours together. But even as the tensions rise no one could predict that their very first night would end with a shocking poisoning that leaves one family member dead and another fighting for her life.

Sergeant Mei O’Connor is assigned to investigate the incident and though her superiors are keen to close the case as swiftly as possible, the evidence just isn’t lining up. Mei already has enough on her mind as she struggles to care for her terminally ill mother and recover from her broken engagement, but she can’t help poking around the Turners, convinced that there’s more to the suspicious poisoning than a simple accident. As Mei continues to push for answers, she may just send the carefully laid dominoes of the Turner empire crashing down.

Review: Thank you to SparkPoint Studio for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Hoo boy, buckle up everyone because I have once again brought you all a novel that has scummy rich people behaving badly! Nope, this trope still hasn’t gone out of style for me, and the more frustrated I get with real world examples of this, the more cathartic I find novels that center nasty wealthy sleaze balls and show them for what they are. So of COURSE I wanted to read “See How They Fall” by Rachel Paris! I like soapy thrillers, I like dysfunctional families, and I like murder mysteries. It was bound to be a winner.

The premise is simple. The Turners, a billionaire family still reeling from the patriarch’s death a few months earlier, are gathering with their loved ones for a weekend at a summer estate, with hopes of hashing out the inheritance, while also dealing with a new surprise heir in the form of an illegitimate son of the middle son, Duncan. During the weekend, one of the brother’s wives is dead, and Duncan’s daughter Tilly is hospitalized in grave condition, both victims of arsenic poisoning. Skye, Tilly’s mom, is desperate to find out what happened, while Duncan hides her away, and Mei O’Connor, a detective assigned to the case, starts to peel back the nasty layers of this wealthy family. Our mystery is mostly who poisoned Tilly and her aunt Nina, but as we see it through Skye and Mei’s perspectives, the mystery becomes more about what the family as a whole has to hide. It’s suspenseful, it has believable twists and turns, and it has high stakes with a little girl near death, her mother becoming more unhinged as more secrets come out, and our lead investigator finding lots of dirty laundry, therein putting a target on her back as well. The Turner Family is filled with complete sociopaths, and as the story continued the more tense I became, fearful for Skye AND Mei and what they may uncover. Paris has a lot of tricks up her sleeve, and many of them were pulled off seamlessly.

I also enjoyed the dual perspectives between Skye and Mei, as both of them have some really well constructed back stories, well thought out motivations, and their two takes on the story as it is happening complement each other as they each present different clues to the reader about what is going on and who could be behind the poisonings. Skye is deeply sympathetic as her daughter lies unconscious after being poisoned, and while her husband Duncan is lying, gaslighting, and hiding something from her, and trying to keep her from finding out family business that may or may not be tied to Tilly’s attempted murder and Nina’s actual murder. I was seriously worried for Skye as well as enraged on her behalf, and Paris nails the way that the most insidious of wealthy people will manipulate even those that they purport to love if it will keep power within their grasp. Mei, on the other hand, has problems of her own, and it makes this case deeply personal, whether it’s because she is still reeling from a break up with a manipulative jerk, or because when she was a child her younger sister went missing, and she sees her sister in Tilly. I really felt for her, and if there was a series following her as a detective I would definitely read it.

Overall, “See How They Fall” is fun, addictive, and an entertaining thriller. If you like the genre, definitely seek it out.

Rating 8: Lots of reveals, lots of scandal, and two interesting character perspectives make this book an addictive thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“See How They Fall” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on the list “Novels If You Like ‘Succession'” in the Goodreads article “What To Read Based on Your Pop Culture Obsessions”.

Kate’s Review: “Murder Land”

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

Book: “Murder Land” by Carlyn Greenwald

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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

Book Description: Murder Land opens tonight. Not everyone will survive. Buckle up for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

Seventeen-year-old Billie feels like she is on top of the world. She gets to spend the summer with her best friend, sparks are flying with her crush, and she has received a promotion to ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new attractions in the theme park she works at. But the first night on the new job takes a dark turn when her creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, when she isn’t authorized to be running it.

At first, it seems like he died by heart attack, but by the time she returns to the body with help, it looks like a broken neck. Had she just imagined him sitting upright a few minutes ago? It’s as if someone is trying to pin his death on her, and she has one night to figure out who is really responsible before she is blamed.

Billie recruits the help of her friends to sneak around the park after-hours and search for the truth. But as the night stretches on and more people wind up dead, Billie realizes she may not make it out of Murder Land alive. And her friends may know more than they’re letting on.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an eARC via NetGalley!

Outside of Disney World, I am not REALLY a fan of theme parks. We have a couple here in Minnesota, there’s Valley Fair a bit south of the cities, and the Mall of America has Nickelodeon Universe, which my five year old loves and I only tolerate for her sake (also, here’s some lore: it USED to be called Camp Snoopy and was Peanuts themed, but alas, those days are long over). But even though I don’t really like theme or amusement parks, I do love the idea of a horror or thriller novel set in one. It just opens up so many different opportunities for suspense and horror. Because of this I was definitely interested in checking out “Murder Land” by Carlyn Greenwald, a new YA thriller that has a murderous night at a popular theme park as its premise. Nickelodeon Universe could NEVER. Plus I really like that cover. It just screams Santa Cruz Boardwalk by way of “The Lost Boys”.

No vampires, though. (source)

But promising premise and my own dorky associations aside, I am sorry to say that, for me, an old hat connoisseur of the thriller genre, “Murder Land” was a bit of a let down.

But first, the good. As I mentioned above, the premise and potential of this story is off the charts for me. There is a precedent in thrillers and horror stories for theme parks or carnivals or festivals to be unique and unsettling settings, and I, for one, wouldn’t be opposed to more of it. And that translates over to “Murder Land”, with clear homages to places like Knotts Berry Farm. And I always love a theme of greedy corporations hoping to hide scandals for profit purposes, and the conspiracies that can come to fruition because of it. And also, as a YA thriller, I could see this being a solid introduction to the thriller genre, as there is definitely a plotted out mystery that does feel planned and thought out. I also love a device that uses epistolary or ‘found footage’, so the way that we have transcripts from a website/channel that is all about the history of CaliforniaLand and references ‘urban exploration’ along with it. That all worked for me.

But, on the flip side, I am definitely not the target audience for this book, and I have read so many thrillers over the years, that nothing about “Murder Land” really stood out to me despite all of the potential that it had. I thought that our main characters, rounded out by protagonist Billie and her friend group Grace, Leon, and Sawyer, were pretty cookie cutter in their personalities and their relationships with each other. We have a bit of a love quadrangle going on, which I can usually grin and bear if it’s basically sidelined, but within this story, taking place in ONE night with lots of death and murder and tragedy at hand, it felt clunky and out of place. I also felt that the way that the reveals were done, outside of a few in the transcripts, didn’t have that much weight. I think this is probably due to the fact that I wasn’t as invested in the story because I wasn’t as invested in the characters, but I DO feel like even if I don’t connect with any characters in a thriller I can still be, well, thrilled. And I wasn’t held in much suspense as this story was going. I do think that it’s very possible (maybe even probable) that if I was a teen reading this it would have worked better, but for this forty year old, it just didn’t click.

Overall I think that this didn’t work for me because I’m not the audience it caters to. “Murder Land” was a disappointment for me, but it probably won’t be for everyone!

Rating 6: This is a solid thriller for the age group it is intended for, but seasoned thriller fans in general may be a little underwhelmed.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Murder Land” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Releases of May 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng”

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

Book: “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker

Publishing Info: MIRA, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

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

Book Description: Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner—but the bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. The killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: “bat eater.”

These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can’t be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

While I am still checking into the University of Minnesota’s wastewater analysis site weekly to see see what COVID is doing in my area, and still wear masks in crowded indoor places, I will say that we have come a long way in the five years since the pandemic started. We are now entering a point in media where the pandemic is serving as a backdrop, and in my periphery my most recent experience with this is the book “Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker. This was a new kind of Kylie Lee Baker for me, as I read her book “The Keeper of Night”, which is a YA dark fantasy. This book is a straight up adult horror novel. I didn’t know what to expect with her taking that on, but let me tell you, this book is FANTASTIC. A ghost story, a pandemic story, a story about the ugliness of white America, it has so many beats and notes that I just loved. And yes. It’s very, very scary.

The ghost story is what I will cover first, and it’s great. I have been very interested in Hungry Ghost mythology for awhile now, and Baker has our main character, Cora Zeng, haunted by a potential hungry ghost who may also be the ghost of her murdered sister Delilah, who was shoved in front of a subway in front of Cora. Cora doesn’t really believe in ghosts, but now there is a contorted and terrifying presence in her apartment that is following her wherever she goes, and messing with her mind, maybe. The descriptions of this ghost were SO terrifying I actually had to put the book down a couple of times, and Baker builds the dread up in ways that make the reader know that something is going to break, it’s only a matter of when. And when it does? MAN, it is SO scary and SO good.

But now I want to talk about the more realistic horrors of this novel, as to me so many horror novels really shine when they take on the real world scares. And in this book it is a combination of the terrifying unknowing of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the disgusting and violent racism hurled towards Asian Americans, particularly women, during this time and beyond. Cora works as a crime scene cleaner, and she and her coworkers (who are also of Asian heritage) have noticed a scary pattern of Asian American women being brutally murdered and having bats left at the crime scene. Not unlike when Cora’s sister Delilah was murdered by being shoved in front of a subway train by a white man, after being called ‘Bat Eater’. Baker has built up a disturbing serial killer story, but she pulls the rug out from beneath it in ways that felt all the more upsetting while also feeling tragically realistic, and perfectly captures the fear and anxiety that so many women like Cora were feeling as violence was being directed at them during this time period and beyond. And not just violence, but also the little cuts of racism that BIPOC deal with in everyday life, like Cora going to Church with her white Aunt who doesn’t realize that Cora feels VERY unwelcome, and refuses to understand why that may be. It’s enraging and heartbreaking all at once and it boosts the narrative impact.

And she also perfectly captures the tension and fear of the early days of lockdowns during the early days of the pandemic. Cora is VERY scared of contracting COVID, as this is pre-vaccine access AND set in New York City in 2020. You know, the place that had bodies spilling into streets from refrigerator trucks and constant siren wails throughout the Burroughs (my sister and her wife lived this, living in Brooklyn in a small apartment, only leaving to do laundry or go grocery shopping). It’s such a close memory at this point, and Baker nailed it. I was actually shuddering to myself as Cora would start to have an anxiety attack while in public over the fear of contagion, because I was once in that same place, where I would hyperfocus and fret about getting sick just from grocery shopping, even when wearing my mask.

“Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” is a phenomenal horror story about the things that haunt a person, be it trauma, racism, or actual ghosts. I highly recommend it.

Rating 9: A terrifying ghost story but also a deeply disturbing exploration of racism during the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic, “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” is an effective and searing horror novel.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” is included on the Goodreads lists “Weird Girl Lit”, and “Diverse Releases of 2025 – Mystery, Thriller, Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “The Staircase in the Woods”

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

Book: “The Staircase in the Woods” by Chuck Wendig

Publishing Info: Del Rey, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

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

Book Description: A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

Chuck Wendig has cemented himself as a must read horror author for me, as his books always keep me on the edge of my seat while also sending me on an emotional rollercoaster. Because of this, whenever he has a new book I am always immediately going to seek it out. His newest novel “The Staircase in the Woods” was no exception, and given the premise involves a super unnerving urban legend that has fascinated me for years, I was eager to get my hands on it and see what Wendig would do. Once again, it did not disappoint.

I really enjoyed the foundation of the horror of the story: a mysterious staircase to seemingly nowhere in the middle of the woods. This urban legend has always fascinated me, and I remember reading threads on this on Reddit years ago, so when I saw that Wendig was taking it on for his new book I was eager to see what he would do with it. There is a lot of wiggle room with this baseline concept, as the staircases in most of the urban legends aren’t ever really explained outside of the uncanny (at least in the experiences that I have with this kind of plot), so Wendig could pretty much do anything. And what he DOES do is so unnerving and unsettling and creepy and unique. I don’t want to spoil much because going in without any hints makes it all the more impactful, and WOW does it have its moments of nightmare fuel. And mind bending weirdness.

But, and it comes as no surprise to me because this is usually the case, it’s the very human aspects of this story that elevated it to the levels it rose to. Especially in regards to the complicated friendships between high school friends who grew apart due to time, distance, and a shared trauma that none of them have reckoned with. As someone who keeps up with only three high school friends decades later, the way that Wendig captures the relationships between Owen, Lore, Hamish, and Nick (as well as the now missing Matty) with such bittersweetness, nostalgia, and heartache had a serious emotional impact. I remember those friendships from my teenage years when we were all trying to discover ourselves, and the highs and the lows and how back then we thought we’d never change… only to fall away from each other. Granted, my friend group drifted due to very common reasons, not because one of our friends disappeared at the top of an impossible staircase in the woods, but the melancholy and grief and difficulties of the severed friendships and the tricky reunion felt very, very real. Wendig really just knows how to portray the complexities of human nature and human relationships, and brings it out in the midst of the scary stuff that is at the forefront of this novel.

“The Staircase in the Woods” is another winner of a horror novel from Chuck Wendig. If you still haven’t checked this guy out, what are you waiting for?

Rating 8: Deeply creepy and in many ways emotional and bittersweet, “The Staircase in the Woods” is another winner from Chuck Wendig!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Staircase in the Woods” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “When The Wolf Comes Home”

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Book: “When The Wolf Comes Home” by Nat Cassidy

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

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

Book Description: One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they’re up against, but she’s about to learn there’s more to these surreal and grisly events than she could’ve ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Every once in awhile I encounter an author that has some pretty solid and good hype around their work, and then when I try it out it doesn’t REALLY click with me. A lot of the time with a one off I am inclined to give said author another go, especially if the hype of future works continues. That’s been my experience with Nat Cassidy, as I didn’t really gel with his book “Mary”, but kept seeing others praise that book as well as his other works after the fact. When I saw that happening with “When The Wolf Comes Home”, I told myself that it was time to give it another go. I hoped that I would have a better result with this book. And it was…. kind of a similar experience as last time?

Firstly, however, there were a lot of things I did like about this book. For one, wow is this a gnarly and gory monster story, with some solid moments of suspense and some breakneck action. We follow Jess, an aspiring actress who has kind of found herself stalled out and working in a diner, who stumbles upon a mysterious young boy who is being chased by his father, who also happens to be taking the form of a monstrous killer wolf. So, at the jump, this starts like a really graphic and absolutely insane (I say this in a praising way) monster tale, with no holds barred monster horror with lots of nasty beats of gore and body horror. I can’t help but cackle a bit at the fact that at the start of the month I was saying how I hadn’t seen much werewolf horror in recent years, and then in April I had three books with werewolf-esque themes. Cassidy brings his usual uninhibited scares to the story, and man, it’s bloody and nasty. But what struck me more about this tale is that it also has a lot of deep and emotional explorations of trauma, grief, and complicated relationships with fathers. For the mysterious Boy it’s pretty clear, but as we get to know Jess we find out that her father abandoned her as a child and it’s something that she has had to deal with and process her entire life. We also get a really poignant author’s note from Cassidy after the ending detailing his inspirations for this story from his own life, and it added another layer to an already intense thematic that I really liked.

But, even with all of that great action and gnarly/poignant characterization, there were a couple things that didn’t quite land for me in this book. The first is that there is a HUGE swerve from what has been laid out as the main issue/plot point of this novel. I definitely thought that was I was getting was a werewolf story when I picked this book up. And, to be fair, there are certainly elements that would make this a werewolf story. But once it was revealed that there was, in fact, something else going on, I was taken aback, but wasn’t quite as enthralled as I had been because it felt so out of left field. It’s not BAD, don’t get me wrong, but it just felt like a huge deviation and it never quite stuck that landing nor recovered from it. On top of that, we had a moment early on that was alluded to as being significant (I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m going to be vague), then was kind of cast aside but still mentioned, and then once we came back to it it threw another grenade very close to the end that blew a huge chunk into the ending and story overall. And then how it wrapped up kind of confused me. This very well could just be a ‘me’ problem, though. But I was left with wanting more.

So another chance on Nat Cassidy had another mixed bag of results with “When The Wolf Comes Home”. The things that worked really really worked, but the things that didn’t were clunky.

Rating 6: I was into it for a good chunk, but then a swerve of a plot twist and a somewhat confusing ending kind of knocked it down a few points for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“When the Wolf Comes Home” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Ballad of Nod (#1): Waking Up From Nightmares”

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Book: “The Ballad of Nod (#1): Waking Up From Nightmares” by James Burton and Kira Burton

Publishing Info: Scattered Comics, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eBook from the author.

Where You Can Get This Book: This first issue has not been published yet, but when it does it will be available at James Burton’s website Angry Brain Artworks when it comes out sometime in May.

Book Description: The Ballad of Nod is the story of a young girl named Fey who is grieving the loss of her Father to cancer. The regrets, fear and pain is attracting the nightmares of the dream world to invade her reality every night. The only thing stopping them is the courage of her Guardian, a Teddy Bear named Patches, who each night fights back the darkness. That is until the worst of the worst a night prince called the Phobetor drags him into the dark. Now Fey must choose to find her courage to go in and save him or hide and loose someone else she loves.

Review: Thank you to James Burton for sending me an eBook of this comic!

I am one of those adults who just couldn’t part ways with a couple of my childhood stuffed animals. There are two in particular that I felt a need to hold on to, the first being Carmichael the Cat, the second being Bump the Bear. Both of them now officially belong to my five year old and reside in her room, but every once in awhile when I’m feeing deeply anxious or down I will bring Bump to my room to hang out for a few days before returning him. So I absolutely understand a bond a child has with a beloved childhood toy. And in “The Ballad of Nod (#1): Waking Up From Nightmares” by siblings James and Kira Burton, we get a really good dark fantasy tale that not only captures the security of a childhood toy, but also the deep grief of mourning a parent who has passed away long before their time.

Judging by the cover of this first issue, you can immediately tell that this is going to be a horror story, with a monstrous face being front an center. But then there is this adorable and quite determined looking silhouette of a teddy bear, and that is part of the real crux of this story: the bond between a girl and the guardian teddy that protects her from monsters and beasts every night as she sleeps. Fey is a little girl whose father died of cancer, and has found comfort in a bear named Patches, so named because when she wakes up in the morning he has rips and tears that need to be mended. I love this concept on its own, feeling like a dreamy dark fantasy that also has some very real human elements. I’ll start with the horror first, and I can say right off the bat it worked well for me. I love the idea of a security toy actively fighting off the monsters under the bed or in the closets, as these toys are so loved and so ingrained in childhood as a way to fight anxiety (I mean hello, I still use the aforementioned Bump to help quell my ADULT anxieties!), so the metaphor worked very, very well for me. And then to flip the concept and to have Fey have to be the one to take the first steps to rescue Patches and to face her fears to do so is also a great twist on the expected plot. We only have issue one that has a fair amount of set up, but the monsters that we saw were effective and intimidating, and it has a lot of promise to be VERY creepy for the audience as the story goes on.

But the other huge theme of this comic is the deeply emotional story about Fey losing her father to cancer, and having to navigate her grief and the trauma around it. This story feels personal, and is very well explored and had me tearing up during certain moments. Our first issue has a lot of exposition to set up Fey’s history and her emotional state, and I thought that it did it very well with flashbacks to her father’s hospitalization, implied times right after his passing, and also seeing how Patches came into her life as a buoy during a very dark and difficult time. It makes Patches’s mission feel all the more poignant, and then Fey’s own mission to be the one to save him feel all the more powerful. The dreamy earnestness of it all reminded me of something similar to the likes of “Locke and Key”.

And finally, the artwork. I thought it was well matched to the tone, and it has the ability to be both unsettling and scary as well as adorable (Patches is ADORABLE).

(source: Scattered Comics)

I definitely want to read more to see how this goes. “The Ballad of Nod: Waking Up From Nightmares” is a stellar start to what promises to be an emotional and heartfelt (and scary) series.

Rating 8: Emotional, creepy, and heartfelt to the core, “The Ballad of Nod (#1): Waking Up From Nightmares” is a promising start to a new dark fantasy comic series.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Ballad of Nod (#1): Waking From Nightmares” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it gives me serious Joe Hill vibes.

Kate’s Review: “Another Fine Mess”

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

Book: “Another Fine Mess” by Lindy Ryan

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a hardcover copy from the publisher.

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

Book Description: Making sure dead things stay buried is the family business…

For over a hundred years, the Evans women have kept the undead in their strange southeast Texas town from rising. But sometimes the dead rise too quick–and that’s what left Lenore Evans, and her granddaughter Luna, burying Luna’s mother, Grace, and Lenore’s mother, Ducey. Now the only two women left in the Evans family, Luna and Lenore are left rudderless in the wake of the most Godawful Mess to date.

But when the full moon finds another victim, it’s clear their trouble is far from over. Now Lenore, Luna, and the new sheriff—their biggest ally—must dig deep down into family lore to uncover what threatens everything they love most. The body count ticks up, the most unexpected dead will rise–forcing Lenore and Luna to face the possibility that the undead aren’t the only monsters preying on their small town.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity for sending me a finished copy of this novel!

So the reason that I grabbed “Bless Your Heart” by Lindy Ryan from the library and reviewed it last week was because I had the opportunity to read the new sequel! “Another Fine Mess” is a continuation of this Southern horror series that is part “Gilmore Girls” and part “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with a little bit of “True Blood” to really tie it all together, and I am pleased to report that it continues to be a fun, charming, and sometimes INCREDIBLY gory ride.

Just to be clear, there will be some spoilers for “Bless Your Heart” in this review. Proceed with caution.

We are picking up shortly after “Bless Your Heart” ended, with grandmother Lenore Evans and granddaughter Luna Evans reeling from the deaths of Lenore’s mother/Luna’s great grandmother Ducey, and Luna’s mother/Lenore’s daughter Grace, who died protecting the community and Lunda from Andy, Luna’s vampire (known as strigoi in this) boyfriend. Who Luna accidentally turned because it turns out her father Samael was a master strigoi that fell in love with Grace. Who has been buried by the Evans’s funeral home. Got that? Okay. Lenore and Luna don’t have much time to grieve, however, as some kind of new monster has started terrorizing the town, as pets start to go missing and animals AND people start showing up mutilated. The horror elements in this are a bit more, shall we say, lupine this time around, and I thought that it was not only a great next choice of monster, but it also makes for more gnarly, and I mean GNARLY, kills. It also gives Ryan the chance to expand upon the lore of the monster mythos and world building for strigoi and other creatures, as well as fleshing out the family history of the Evans and the roles they play in order to balance out the supernatural threats that are constantly creeping up on them. While also showing how damn hard that it can be being an Evans woman, bound to a destiny that makes you so, so burdened.

And I am still really loving Luna’s arc in this story, as now we know that she is part strigoi, and that her powers are a little unpredictable. Which is exactly what an awkward teenage girl who just lost her mother and grandmother needs to make her life all the more complicated. Luna is, for me, the character with the most potential, and her growing relationship with weirdo new kid Crane while also learning more and more family secrets (and perhaps having an opportunity to connect with her strigoi father Samael) made for a very interesting subplot, and I thought that she felt like a pretty real teenager who is dealing with a LOT of shit thrown her way, without feeling shrill or cloying. Seeing more clues and puzzle pieces come together, for ALL of the Evans women, was really fun in general, and adding more friends to their insular circle, like new make-up tech Kim (because corpses need to look nice too!), or a closer relationship to the new Sheriff Taylor (who had been quietly in love with Grace when she was alive), really made this ensemble stand out. Even if one development left me feeling ABSOLUTELY HEARTBROKEN, GOD DAMMIT.

AND LOOK, it was hinted to in a few places that there may be another supernatural path to be taken here, but this was basically my reaction… (source)

But hey, that just means that now I am waiting on pins and needles to see where we are going next!! “Another Fine Mess” made the Evans Women all the more interesting, and made me fall for this world all the more. When does the next one come out?

Rating 8: Another entertaining and utterly charming horror story following a family of women who take care of their town by stopping the undead, no matter the cost.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Another Fine Mess” is included on the Goodreads list “All the New Horror, Romantasy, and Other SFF Crossover Books Arriving in April 2025”.