Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “A Girl Like Us”

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Book: “A Girl Like Us” by Anna Sophia McLoughlin

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, February 2025

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: Succession meets Saltburn in a crackling locked-room thriller of inconceivable wealth, unchecked power, and the secrets poised to bring a powerful family down.

It’s 2004 and former reality TV star and party girl Maya Miller has just married the most eligible bachelor on the planet: Colin Sterling, of the globally famous Sterling family whose history of aristocratic titles and land holdings rival a British royal and whose media empire is comparable to the Murdochs. To some, Maya represents the American dream. To others, a gold digger. But when Colin’s cousin Arianna, the heiress to the family’s immense fortune, is found murdered, Maya is thrust into the spotlight: first as she is revealed to be the next heiress to the fortune, and then as the prime suspect.

Swiftly, the entire Sterling family goes into lockdown at Silver House, the family’s ancestral estate in the English countryside. They’re told it’s for their own safety—but Maya becomes convinced that it’s not to keep threats out, but to keep secrets in. Now, she has no choice but to find and expose the truth hidden within the Sterling family, and why Arianna, a girl she had never met, chose her to take her place. But Maya has secrets of her own. And she knows that in order to survive the Sterlings, she’ll have to beat them at their own game.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

You’d think that with the state of EVERYTHING going on right now I would be fully turned off of books about disgusting billionaires with way too much power being full on villainous, and yet it’s still a sub-genre of thrillers that I greatly enjoy (I mean I guess we will see if that continues going forward? Maybe it the stories all end like “Ready or Not”?). Regardless of my existential dread, I picked up “A Girl Like Us” by Anna Sophia McLoughlin in hopes of a soapy and easy to digest escapist thriller with twists and turns and maybe something a little more. I got basically everything except for the last bit.

In terms of mystery, this one is fairly straight forward. We have the uber wealthy steeping in their privilege and cruelty, as well as a newcomer who is dying to fit in but has some salacious secrets of her own, and a mysterious murder and a slew of suspects. It’s the exact kind of thriller that I would associate with a day by the pool or a long plane ride, one that makes the time go fast and keeps the reader entertained. Given how billionaires are really showing their asses lately (or even being fully super villain!) I am always down for a story that puts their terribleness front and center, and with Maya being a bit of a wild card and kind of a villainess in her own ways herself it’s fun to root for a morally grey character against a backdrop of really nasty people with too much money and power. And it just adds more some really soapy moments that felt right out of an episode of “The Bold and the Beautiful” circa the early 2000s when I was watching it in the student union when I was between classes in college. I was entertained to be sure.

But as I said above, by being fairly straight forward it doesn’t really go outside the box of what I’d expect from the genre, and while it’s fun seeing two dimensional villains claw at each other, it also makes for a tale that doesn’t really stand out in the long run. There are some interesting dynamics at play as we follow the perspectives of both Maya in the present and then Arianna in the past through her journal entries, but this too just stuck to familiar pathways and formulas. None of this is a bad thing, necessarily, though I have been finding myself more intrigued and compelled with thrillers that go the extra step. Would I recommend this as a fun read? Absolutely. But that being said, it didn’t wow me in the way that some recent thrillers have.

“A Girl Like Us” is a solid thriller that checks a lot of boxes of the genre. I was entertained, but not blown away.

Rating 6: Entertaining and soapy, but it didn’t really reinvent the wheel when it comes to thrillers.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Girl Like Us” is included in the Goodreads article “A Month-by-Month Guide to 2025’s Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “Listen To Your Sister”

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Book: “Listen To Your Sister” by Neena Viel

Publishing Info: St Martin’s Griffin, February 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: For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.

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

I’m the oldest daughter in my family, though given it was just me and my younger sister and that I’ve always had various mental health and learning disabilities I’ve contended with I’ve never felt like I’ve been ‘the one who holds it all together’, as many Oldest Daughters do. But my late Aunt Jan was absolutely the prototypical Oldest Daughter, having basically raised my mother (who was the youngest of five) due to a twelve year age gap and the burden of parentification thrust upon her over, and whenever I think about Oldest Daughter stories I always think of her. So when I heard about the general plot of “Listen To Your Sister” by Neena Viel I was very interested in the Oldest Daughter/Sister theme, and then even more so when it was being compared to Jordan Peele movies. What a combination! And I was pretty pleased with what I found.

In terms of the themes and the horror elements of this book, I really enjoyed the way that Viel portrays Calla, one of of three protagonists and eldest sister to her brothers Dre and Jamie, who is a teenager to whom she has been made legal guardian. Calla is clearly overworked, spread too thin, and deeply anxious about having to be a guardian to Jamie, who has been getting into various dust-ups that come back to her (as wholly justifiable as they may be in many cases). I don’t want to give too much away about this book and the horror beats that it possesses, as I think that these things are being held close to the vest for a reason, but I thought that the metaphors for an overburdened eldest child really worked in this book. The horror beats really do harken to the likes of a Jordan Peele movie, and I kept thinking about “Us” as I was reading, though that’s about all I am willing to say in regards to that, fearing I’ve already given too much away. Just know it’s uncanny and a bit freaky at times, but it all fits perfectly into the social commentary that Viel is putting forth.

I also loved the way that Calla, Dre, and Jaime clearly love each other, but are all still SO young and reeling from their traumatic childhoods and the racism that they face every day, and how that makes for difficult processing and damaged relationships in spite of their love for each other. The sibling relationships and the ups and downs that come with them felt very real, and this book has a HUGE heart that I enjoyed but isn’t afraid to put the dysfunction and messiness on display. Viel gives a lot of solid characterization to Calla, Dre, and Jamie, and by seeing the story through all of their eyes I could sympathize with all of them as well as get frustrated with all of them depending on the choices they were making.

I will say that there was a bit of a pacing issue in this book, at least for me, as it lagged a bit in the first half and then REALLY sped up in the second. As someone who tends to have attention issues when it comes to reading, especially when feeling high anxiety (and I mean LATELY that’s been ramping up again), the pacing disparities were noticeable. This may not be the case for all readers, but it was a hiccup for me.

Overall, I enjoyed “Listen To Your Sister”! It’s always great to see new horror voices and I’m going to keep an eye on Neena Viel in the future.

Rating 7: An entertaining horror story about family, generational trauma, and trying to hold it all together that has a lot of good symbolism and metaphors.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Listen To Your Sister” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Old Soul”

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

Book: “Old Soul” by Susan Barker

Publishing Info: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, January 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: The woman never goes by the same name. She never stays in the same place too long. She never ages. She never dies. But those around her do.

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake’s best friend and Mariko’s twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances. Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko – and then disappeared.

Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko’s revelations. It’s a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died – in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways – and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.

And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

Review: Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing me with an ARC at ALAAC24!

I don’t really read too much literary horror, but I always try to be open minded about the titles that I pick up even if they are not in my usual wheelhouse. When Serena and I went to ALAAC24 last summer I found myself with the book “Old Soul” by Susan Barker, and if I’m being honest it initially ended up in my ‘I could probably give this book away’ bag that I always find myself with at the end of the conference. After I had sorted things out and figured out what books I was going to read and which ones I was going to give to other librarians et al, “Old Soul” sat in a bag that was books that were just left over at the end of it. But then I kept seeing it on various horror lists, and my interest grew and grew. And I thought to myself ‘you know what, it’s not your usual go to sub-genre, but go for it!’ So I grabbed it from the bag it had been sitting within, and I dove on in. And in general I’m glad that I did!

“Old Soul” is a multi perspective tale about a mysterious woman who has existed through the decades, never aging but always preying on various people she encounters, who become unhinged and die horrible deaths shortly after meeting her. A chance meeting between a man named Jake and a woman named Mariko makes them realize his best friend and her brother were both victims of this woman, and we go backwards seeing the Woman pull people in and destroy them, sometimes through her perspectives, sometimes through the perspectives of loved ones of her victims. It’s such an interesting story structure that made the reading experience unnerving and dreamlike, with the strange outcomes and horrors building and twisting up super tense until it all snaps. The Woman is such a mysterious antagonist, and as we follow her both from her perspective at times but also through the eyes of others we get an eerie and almost Lynchian (rest in peace, sir) feeling that is both uncanny and cosmic, horror wise. It’s incredibly unique and I really appreciated that, and I do love seeing the bounds that literary horror will push and the ways that it will interpret the genre.

On the flip side, however, this book does move a little slower than I would have liked at times. I wholly understand why Barker wanted to give us all of the context of the mysterious Woman, and to show the ways that she has manipulated and preyed upon multiple people over the decades as she goes forward with her cosmic horror-y purpose, but it was getting to the point where I was feeling like it was a bit repetitive. I didn’t need to follow basically all of her victims for the point to come across, so by the time we were delving into one of the later ones I found myself skimming because it felt like more of the same to me. This could also be because in general cosmic horror hasn’t been SUPER on my radar until very recently, and perhaps as a sub-genre its one that doesn’t connect as well and it would work REALLY well for those who do like it AND literary sensibilities.

“Old Soul” is certainly compelling and a fascinating literary horror novel. People who like something kind of weird and unsettling who like a bit more experimental writing styles should definitely pick it up.

Rating 7: Eerie and strange, “Old Soul” is unique and compelling, but is a little slow at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Old Soul” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror Books of 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Lore Olympus: Volume Seven”

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

Book: “Lore Olympus: Volume Seven” by Rachel Smythe

Publishing Info: Inklore, October 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: The rifts between realms grow ever wider as the temporary shelter Persephone had found in the Underworld is destroyed. Apollo has captured Demeter, turning the fugitive goddess over to Zeus in an attempt to win the king’s favor. Persephone and her mother must now stand trial for concealing Persephone’s unsanctioned act of wrath—though the goddess of spring feels secure with Hades on her side.

But safety is not guaranteed in the world of the gods.

As the trial brings to light truths and betrayals that threaten to upset everything—even Hades and Persephone’s relationship—the other gods face perils of their own.

Eros uncovers Ampelus’s secret during a fight in the Mortal Realm. Thanatos and Daphne’s budding relationship is threatened by a vengeful Apollo. Minthe is trapped in her cursed form until Persephone gains full control over her powers. And Hera is haunted by the specter of Kronos, whose influence in Olympus seems to be growing. . 

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

Review: Guys, the end of 2024 was just a lot. A LOT. Not only was my anxiety exploding, I was also having issues balancing out my reviews and reading paths, to the point where when “Lore Olympus: Volume Seven” by Rachel Smythe came out in October, I just whiffed on fitting it in on my review schedule. This shows how totally scatterbrained I was given how much I LOVE this series. But it’s finally time, and I finally picked it up, and I shouldn’t have waited. Because coming back to Hades, Persephone, Hera, Hecate, and all the Greek deities and their shenanigans was so, SO healing.

My anxiety while I was reading this book (source)

So many wonderful beats in this volume, from the cute to the cathartic to the absolutely devastating. We are seeing Persephone and Hades get closer as she continues to stay with him in the Underworld while Zeus wants to bring her and Demeter to trial for hiding Persephone’s wrath that led to the deaths of many mortals sand permission. So we do have some lovely moments of closeness between Hades and Persephone that still feels appropriate and respectful from both of them, while still building up the romance. But my favorite part of this volume for these two is that Persephone has started the therapy process, and is starting to unpack her anxieties, her tumultuous relationship with her mother, and her sexual assault by Apollo. These scenes were so well handled as Persephone goes through so many emotions and breakthroughs, and I really, really appreciated how Smythe shows how raw and messy but powerful and empowering therapy can be for a person like Persephone. Seeing this kind of portrayal of mental health care in a book is always gratifying, and it fits in with the other themes that Smythe has been touching on from the jump.

We are also getting some more depth and richness for some of our other characters, whether it’s Eros and his changing relationship with Ampelus (who is Psyche in disguise, as suggested by Aphrodite), or Hera starting to have horrifying visions of Kronos (and setting up another potential arc in this story, as we know that Kronos’s strength is growing in spite of his imprisonment). I also really, REALLY loved getting more backstory on the relationship between Hades and Hera, as while I of course ship Hades and Persephone, the connection between these two is tragic even if it’s come to a certain comfortable understanding (and yes, Zeus was involved). We also get more interesting inversions of the original myths that these characters come from, with an especially harrowing and alarming take on the Daphne and Apollo myth that left me completely floored. Smythe is so good at pulling the themes from the source material and adapting it to fit this story, and I am continuously impressed by it.

I’m still absolutely loving “Lore Olympus”. We have ended on another cliffhanger, of course, but luckily it’s only a couple months before the next one comes out!

Rating 10: STOP DEVASTATING ME, RACHEL SMYTHE! This volume has so many heart wrenching beats, but hope is always present as well. Just fantastic.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Lore Olympus: Volume 7” is included on the Goodreads list “Great Graphic Novels Released in 2024”.

Previously Reviewed:

Kate’s Review: “Death in the Downline”

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

Book: “Death in the Downline” by Maria Abrams

Publishing Info: Quirk Books, January 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: It’s multi-level murder in this darkly funny mystery novel about the glamorous world of MLM “huns”—and the dangerous secrets at the top of the pyramid.

Drew thought she was destined to rise above her small New Jersey hometown and make it as a serious journalist in New York City. But now she’s back in Clearfield, pushing thirty, newly single, and living with her father.

After a chance encounter at the grocery store, she reconnects with her former best friend, Steph, who married young and never left their hometown. But Steph looks . . . good. She’s tanned, clear skinned, and glowing. She drives an expensive car and wears only name brands. What’s her secret? A multi-level marketing scheme called LuminUS that’s taken the ladies of Clearfield by storm. With nothing left to lose, Drew gets sucked into this glamorous world of downlines, sales parties, and girls’ trips.

But when a LuminUS distributor dies under mysterious circumstances, can Drew uncover the dark secret at the heart of the organization—and save her best friend—before it’s too late?

Laugh-out-loud funny and a pitch-perfect skewering of pyramid schemes, Death in the Downline is a page-turner that will have readers nodding in recognition and cheering for Drew until the cathartic conclusion.

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

While I myself haven’t been sucked into an MLM/multilevel marketing/pyramid scheme, I know some people who have. One of whom was my grandmother! I have memories when I was a girl and we would visit my grandparents in Iowa and she would have all these Aloe Vera based skin products, be it lotion, bug spray, or analgesic heat cream for muscle aches. And confession, the heat cream was fantastic, as I used it a lot when I was playing softball and it really did the job. But it didn’t really make her any money, with her main customers being her close friends and kids. I’ve been obsessed with the scammy and manipulative nature of MLMs for awhile, and the way they suck people in and drain them for all they are worth. Because of this I was really, really excited to read “Death in the Downline” by Maria Abrams. Not only is it a murder mystery, which I am into, but a satire on MLMs?! Yes! I want it!

As a mystery I really enjoyed “Death in the Downline”. It starts with Drew, a down on her luck journalist who had to leave New York City with her tail between her legs and move back in with her father in her small hometown. She reconnects with her former best friend Steph, who seems to have a picture perfect life of wealth and luxury, seemingly all due to her ‘business’ LuminUS, a wellness brand that sells creams, supplements, and other ‘healthy’ things. Steph convinces Drew to join her ‘team’, and Drew, needing money and feeling desperate, agrees. But soon she realizes that some things about LumiUS aren’t adding up, and then a member of the team is murdered while they’re all on a conference. I love a journalist trying to break a story, and Drew is a really fun protagonist because she’s scrappy, a little sour, and gets sucked into figuring out what happened to her acquaintance and how much Steph, and LuminUS, is hiding. The mystery is well done with some good curves, but it always feels a little cozy and fizzy as we see these MLM huns going to really forced parties, sniping at each other, and scrambling to make sales even as their friend is dead. But Abrams even expands it to feel not only a little “Real Housewives”, but also to feel a little corporate conspiracy, as not only is there a murderer at hand, but also the very real potential of a shady company trying to cover its own ass in regards to its pyramid scheme. I loved the two mysteries and thought that Abrams blended them well with some fun and bitchy characters to round it all out.

But what I loved even more is how Abrams tackles the very upsetting reality that MLMs are predatory scams that target (predominantly) women of varying circumstances (be it a wish to provide for their families while feeling unable to work outside the home, or a need for money, or other circumstances of desperation or drive) and suck them dry while walking away with their money. I think about my grandmother who had all this product and not much to show for it, and the horror stories you hear about places like LulaRoe or Monat or what have you. In this book it’s LuminUS, which has taken a small town and surrounding suburbs by storm as the local economies shake and the need for money is dire for some. While Drew is more within it because she smells a story, we see other women like bestie Steph and the women on her ‘team’ who have their own reasons to join, betting their life and their investments on this sketchy product. The LuminUS lore draws from a lot of MLM inspirations and brings in not only the way that it manipulates and scams people and drives them to debt while promising riches, but also some serious questions about the lack of regulations on ‘wellness’ products that we hear about time and time again when it comes to MLMs. I loved this angle because it gave it a little more bite and could perhaps open up some reflection from potential readers who would otherwise be tricked.

I really liked “Death in the Downline”! It was cozy but also a little snide, but in a way that wasn’t off putting. I will definitely be checking out more books by Maria Abrams in the future!

Rating 8: Fun, funny, twisty, and just an all around good time, “Death in the Downline” is a witty mystery that takes on predatory MLMs and the unachievable promises they make with a dash of murder on the side.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Death in the Downline” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “#Girlboss Mysteries”.

Kate’s Review: “Mask of the Deer Woman”

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

Book: “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove

Publishing Info: Berkley, January 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: To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself. At rock bottom following her daughter’s murder, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation that raised him, but they need a new tribal marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the last decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some dead, others just… gone.

Now, local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save. Starr feels lost in this place she thought would welcome her. And when she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her. What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.

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

I’m always on the lookout for more procedural mysteries. It’s a sub-genre I have enjoyed for a long time, ever since I’d watch “Law and Order” with my father in middle and high school. So when a new one comes across my radar, I am usually all in to give it a try, and “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove was no exception. I was already sold on a story about a woman law enforcement officer looking for a missing woman, but when I saw that it had an Indigenous main character and a setting on a reservation I was even more sold. Expanding the possibilities in a sub-genre is always a plus for me.

As a procedural mystery, “Mask of the Deer Woman” had a lot of moving parts that worked really well for me as a reader. Our protagonist is Carrie Starr, a former Chicago detective who has taken a job as a tribal marshal on the reservation where her father grew up. Carrie is a deeply flawed and damaged protagonist, who is still reeling from the death of her daughter Quinn and has slid into depression and substance abuse. When she has to start investigating a missing woman on the reservation, she at first thinks that it’s just another person who ran off, but the more she digs the more she starts to see patterns of many missing and murdered women, and starts connecting dots to a higher and more complicated mystery. As a main character she is at times hard to like, but I didn’t need to like her to want her to succeed, and I found her grief and trauma realistic and made her all the more complex. I also enjoyed the dissonance that she has having returned to a culture that she has so little connection to, and her return starts to bring out memories, connections to locals when they are sure how much they can trust her, and a vision of Deer Woman, a story from her culture that speaks to the violence towards women and a vengeance because of that. And that’s the big mystery here: the missing girls, with Chenoa Cloud the grad student in the present and more missing women in the past. Many people want to write them off as runaways or addicts, but it’s clear to many that that isn’t the case. Carrie starts to look into many missing women and uncovers some dark truths that have long gone ignored. It is a strong and very pertinent plot point (more on that in a bit), and I enjoyed how Dove slowly revealed her cards, and how there were intricate and more powerful pieces in play than I expected. I found it to be well plotted and very, very sad as well, given how MMIWG2S is an epidemic of violence that is too often ignored.

My favorite aspect of this book is a reflection of this point, which was the way that Dove wove in very timely and important to talk about issues that many Indigenous communities face in America today, usually due to our country’s history with colonialism and genocide and the trickle down consequences of that. Carrie has returned to her father’s community on a reservation in Oklahoma to work as a tribal marshal, and the realities the rez faces play huge parts in this book. Whether it’s the poverty the community faces, the drug and alcohol addiction that is rampant, the large number of missing and murdered women and girls in the community, and the way that local governments try to take advantage of the Indigenous people for their land and money making opportunities, specifically with oil companies trying to grab up their land. The systemic racism that the Government still holds towards Indigenous communities is a huge undercurrent in this story, and Dove finds a lot of inroads to address these themes and to connect them to the violence and mystery at the heart of the story.

I enjoyed “Mask of the Deer Woman”. I hope that Laurie L. Dove keeps writing Carrie Starr stories, because I will absolutely continue reading them.

Rating 8: Tense, well plotted, and heartbreaking. “Mask of the Deer Woman” is a solid procedural mystery that also centers very real struggles that Indigenous people in America face due to colonialism and systemic racism.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mask of the Deer Woman” is included on the Goodreads list “Diverse Releases of 2025 – Mystery, Thriller, Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “Tell Me What You Did”

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

Book: “Tell Me What You Did” by Carter Wilson

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, January 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: She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…

Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her “guests,” but her show grants simultaneous anonymity and instant fame—a potent combination that’s proven difficult to resist. After an episode recording, Poe usually erases both criminal and crime from her mind.

But when a strange and oddly familiar man appears on her show, Poe is forced to take a second look. Not only because he claims to be her mother’s murderer from years ago, but because Poe knows something no one else does. Her mother’s murderer is dead.

Poe killed him.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Dead Girl in 2A and The New Neighbor comes a chilling new thriller that forces the question: are murderers always the bad guys?

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an eARC of this novel via NetGalley!

I am someone who really enjoys her true crime and weird tales podcasts, and I really enjoy seeing podcasts being incorporated into horror and thriller fiction. A podcast that I discovered last year was one called “Radio Rental”, where people write in their strange experiences and then record the stories themselves so that they are the ones to tell the story to the audience as opposed to a static host. I fell off it a little bit, but its really fun and I should probably go back and revisit it. I couldn’t help but think about that podcast when I read the premise for Carter Wilson’s “Tell Me What You Did”, but instead of real life scary or strange stories it was a story about a podcast that lets people anonymously confess crimes to the host Poe, who has some secrets of her own. But then an unhinged guest calling himself Ian calls in and claims that he killed her mother when Poe was a teenager. Which doesn’t make sense, because Poe is convinced that she already killed her mother’s killer. All of this sounded great, and Carter Wilson was a new name to me, so I thought why not take a chance on it? And I’m so happy I did, because “Tell Me What You Did” was loads of fun.

While it’s true that I was able to predict a few of the reveals in this book, that didn’t stop me from feeling the suspense as it built up in pacing and intensity. There were also a couple red herrings that did make me question my predictions, and a few things did catch me by surprise. I think that one of the biggest strengths of this was that it was an effective cat and mouse game as Poe realizes she is being stalked by a very dangerous lunatic, but also as we learn about her own past with stalking and cat and mouse shenanigans as she hunted down the man she believe brutally murdered her mother. I found myself tearing through in the last third of the book, really itching to see how it was all going to shake out, and man, were the twists and turns effective. To add some icing on this cake we also have some REALLY scary moments involving Ian and the lengths he will go to torment Poe. He’s the kind of villain that would translate SO WELL to a screen, and he was well realized in this.

But I also liked the ambiguity about Poe herself and her characterization. We know that she’s deeply traumatized due to witnessing her mother’s murder, and we slowly learn about how she herself committed a murder against who she thought was her mother’s killer. Her circumstances definitely make you sympathize, but we also have to ask some hard questions about revenge and vengeance and whether her actions against this person were justified. Especially when there is a sudden possibility that maybe the man she was so convinced was the murderer was actually an innocent man. I liked seeing Poe have to reckon with this possibility, and have to reflect on her certainty and perhaps need to come to terms with not REALLY being able to know. I feel like sometimes these ‘messy female protagonist’ tropes fall into obvious and well worn categories, but Poe’s horrific backstory AND her murderous past elevated this trope to new heights.

All in all, what a fun thriller! I’m happy that I took a chance on “Tell Me What You Did”, because it was very entertaining and a suspenseful read. If you have a winter getaway planned, consider bringing it along!

Rating 8: Twisty, turny, fast paced and at times genuinely scary, “Tell Me What You Did” is a fun and breakneck thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Tell Me What You Did” is included on the Goodreads list “Most Anticipated Releases of 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls”

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Book: “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” by Grady Hendrix

Publishing Info: Berkley, January 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: They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).

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

I am always so excited when Grady Hendrix has a new horror book coming out. I have enjoyed basically all of the books he has written and the way that he can create narratives with some humor, some heart, and some genuine horror moments. He always feels so genuine in his books, and I always feel like I’m on pins and needles waiting for a new one. And now it’s finally time for him to take on witches and witchcraft!!

I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. (Source)

Clearly my expectations were high, and I will say from the jump that they were a bit upended, but not in a bad way at all. This is perhaps Hendrix’s least obviously scary story, as the witchcraft is definitely present and it does have moments to shine. But at its heart “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” is less about actual witches and covens and spellcasting, and more about finding power within when powerless, and the injustices of violent misogyny towards vulnerable women.

First let’s talk about the witchcraft themes, as we all know how much I LOVE a witch story. And I mostly liked it in this one! I love the idea of a witch posing as a librarian in hopes of finding more women to empower and bring into a Coven, and I really liked the way that it shows Fern, Zinnia, Holly, and Rose find a crumb of power in their powerless situations as pregnant teenagers in an oppressive unwed mother’s home in Florida. The magical systems are interesting and the spells cast are engrossing and at times nasty, and I found the Coven led by librarian Miss Parcae to be equal parts compelling and in some ways sinister. Mostly due to Miss Parcae herself, who really felt like Agatha Harkness in the way she is grey as hell in her characterization. And of course there are themes of being careful what you wish for as four teenage girls who are desperate start to use magic they don’t really understand or comprehend. I do kind of wish that Hendrix had been a little more willing to lean more into the idea of the witchcraft even at its most destructive being a necessary wickedness in the face of the oppression and violence and harm that the teenage girls were suffering at Wellwood. I definitely understand making things less black and white and I always appreciate messy answers or difficult answers in stories, don’t get me wrong. But I think that the absolute horrors that these girls, many of them children, were enduring, as many were in real life during the times before Roe vs Wade was implemented, could have had some more vengeance thrown at them. Especially since in real life this kind of vengeance wasn’t doled out to those who deserved it nearly as much as it was in this book. And still isn’t being doled out at times.

And that brings me to the aspect of this book that I think worked the best for me, and that is the very realistic portrayal of the way unwed pregnant women and girls were treated by society during the time period, and the realistic portrayals of pregnancy and birth. And all of the horrors that come from those things. Fern, Rose, Zinnia, Holly, and all the girls at Wellwood home are dehumanized, insulted, shunned, and shamed by most of the people who work there, being implied to be whores, or stupid, or bad, with no actual reflection on their circumstances and the various steps it took to get them there (and for many of them they were victimized in various ways leading up to their pregnancies by other people, and very much so the men who impregnated them). The absolute rage I felt for all of these girls and the way they were treated was incendiary, and the horrific circumstances so many of them dealt with was just heartbreaking and horrifying. And with continued attacks on reproductive rights in this country with an uncertain future about how far that is going to go really just hits that point home in this book. On top of that we have two very different but very graphic depictions of childbirth in this book that felt very real, and didn’t hold back in the portrayals of both the clinical and unnecessary things that were done in a hospital birth, as well as the way things can go wrong in a home birth setting. If you have triggers associated with birth, and pregnancy loss, I would definitely say proceed with caution. I know some people think that birth scenes shouldn’t need trigger warnings because they are ‘natural’, but I don’t subscribe to that as it can be VERY traumatic, and this book doesn’t shy from that.

All in all, I really enjoyed “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls”. It has anger, it has magic, it has hope, and it has heart.

Rating 9: Filled with magic, friendship, and raging against sexism and misogyny that continues to seep far beyond the setting, “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” is a witchy and unrelenting story that reads like a refusal to go back to the past.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” is included on the Goodreads lists “Witches, Goddesses, or Nuns”, and “Witchy Books for Autumn”.

Kate’s Review: “Missing Mom”

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Book: “Missing Mom” by Lynn Slaughter

Publishing Info: Fire and Ice Young Adult Books, January 2025

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: Devastated by her mom’s sudden disappearance and the evidence pointing to suicide, seventeen-year-old Noelle, an aspiring ballet dancer, doesn’t believe her mom would ever have taken her own life. She undertakes her own investigation to find out what really happened to her mother.

Meanwhile, Noelle is dealing with growing romantic feelings for Ravi, her best friend and fellow dancer. And she’s worried about her little sister, Whitney, who won’t talk about why she doesn’t want to visit their dad.

Threaded throughout the novel is also the story of Savannah, a young woman whose escape from an abusive marriage nearly two decades earlier turns out to be connected to Noelle’s investigation.

Review: Thank you to Books Forward for sending me an ARC of this novel!

We all know that I’m a huge sucker for stories about missing people, especially when their loved ones take on the mantle of figuring out what happened. So it’s probably not super shocking that when Lynn Slaughter’s new YA mystery “Missing Mom” ended up in my inbox, I was pretty on board to give it a whirl. I’ve enjoyed Slaughter’s mysteries in the past, and when you take a trope I love and offer it up to me I’m almost always going to be game.

Our main narrative is that of Noelle, a teenager whose mother has disappeared unexpectedly, leaving Noelle with her younger sister Whitney and her stepfather Carl reeling and worried. To make matters worse, Noelle has other stresses in her life, like her strained relationship with her father (who Whitney is unwilling to be around), and her growing romantic feelings for best friend/dance partner Ravi. Noelle’s storyline was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, I did enjoy seeing her try and do her own investigating about her missing mother when the authorities seem to be dropping the ball, as that kind of mystery is always tantalizing to me. On the other hand, I thought that sometimes her voice didn’t feel as authentic and read abrupt or immature. I also thought that her nerves about Ravi and their relationship and the conflicts there felt a bit out of place given all the other traumatic things that were coming out in her life, not only with her mother, but revelations about Whitney (side note/spoiler alert: content warnings are definitely needed in this book for pedophilia and CSAM, so be warned in that regard). But the mystery at hand, especially the one I’m about to talk about, mostly made up for it.

I think that the stronger narrative in this book was that of Savannah, the woman whose story we are following from almost two decades prior as Noelle is trying to find out what happened to her mother. Savannah is a young wife who is starting to realize that her marriage to her new husband Mack is an abusive one. I thought that these chapters were incredibly suspenseful as we see her find herself as a frog in a pot of slowly boiling water, and thought that these were pretty straight forward portrayals of escalating abuse. And while it was a bit simplistic in presentation like the Noelle parts, I was still really hoping that Savannah would find her way out (and honestly I knew she would, but still, I was very eager to see her journey to freedom from Mack and his violence).

So while I think that some of the characters of this book were a bit stilted, I was interested enough in the mystery to find out how it all came together at the end.

Rating 7: A suspenseful mystery with some compelling flashbacks makes for an entertaining read!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Missing Mom” isn’t on any Goodreads lists but it would fit in on “Missing People Books”.

Kate’s Review: “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes”

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

Book: “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” by Clay McLeod Chapman

Publishing Info: Quirk Books, January 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: From Vulture’s “master of horror” Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and When Evil Lurks

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

This ambitious, searing novel from “one of horror’s modern masters” holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.

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

I’m going to preface this review with the following statement: I’ve had a few interactions with Clay McLeod Chapman and he has always been INCREDIBLY kind. He’s always been very genial in the times we’ve chatted, be it at conferences or on social media or in messages exchanged in regards to his books and my reviews. I’ve always found him to be a super kind human being and I’ve enjoyed all the times we’ve spoken/written each other. That being said, he is also one of the authors that I feel PERSONALLY VICTIMIZED BY WHENEVER I READ ONE OF HIS HORROR NOVELS.

Just superimpose his face on Rachel McAdams, I say! (source)

This is in jest, obviously. But Chapman’s books always hit a nerve with me, and always get under my skin, and his newest book “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is his scariest one yet. And this is because of a couple reasons. The first being that Chapman is a master of suspense and horror imagery, being more than willing to push the envelope when it comes to the lengths he will take his reader within his stories. He’s usually pretty unflinching and brutal, and unapologetic about it, and that is definitely the case in this book. But the other, and more effective, reason is pretty straightforward this time around: “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is a satirical and incredibly gory spin on the way that far right propaganda has seeped into the collective consciousness of a huge percentage of the American public, and in this book it turns them into literal rage possessed zombies that want to destroy everyone and everything with their hate and need for violence. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. This is basically a book that is a manifestation of my mental health crises I had last summer and then again after the Election. So that’s great.

First, though, I want to talk about the straight up horror elements of this book. The basic premise is that a man named Noah, a liberal man living in Brooklyn, as noticed that his parents in Virginia have been becoming more and more obsessed with the right wing cable network Fax News (it’s blatant, and I’ll talk about why I’m fine with that later in the review), parroting talking points and becoming more and more paranoid and hateful. When he goes down to check on them after not being able to get in contact with them, or his brother and his family, he finds his folks basically wasting away watching Fax…. until something switches and the catatonic turn into violent, rage filled zombies. The zombies start attacking all non zombies while shouting ‘WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES!’ and ‘JUST THE FAX!’. He eventually finds his seven year old nephew and hopes they can make it back to Brooklyn. As far as the zombie-esque horrors go, it’s nasty, it’s violent, and it’s unrelenting. Once we are in an action moment, the pedal is to the metal and it’s VERY violent and gross. He also knows how to build up the tension as we see various characters start to succumb to the indoctrination/possession, with SO MANY nasty body horror moments and gory bits, things that even made me feel a little nauseated as I read (trigger warnings abound here too: animal death, sexual assault, school violence, it’s all here). It’s effective and disturbing, which is the exact right tone for this book.

Chapman doesn’t just limit himself to the low hanging fruit of Fox News and far right cable news (correct as this indictment may be), though, which makes this even more sinister and astute. He also takes on the all too real pipelines of wellness influencers and the Pastel QAnon movement with it’s anti-science/anti-medicine/anti-vax bent (with Noah’s sister in law), as well as the incel and red/black pill movements (with his older nephew). Both of these are mostly centralized online and on social media, and show up in algorithms like snakes in the grass. I think that the Fox News angle is pretty obvious (not that it’s incorrect!), but I know that I’ve had to explain to people about trad wives and the wellness to alt-right pipeline as well as incel bullshit, and how it is radicalizing completely different demographics into far right wing ideology, so to see him have THESE THINGS in this book made the satire that much more powerful. And scary. GOD this book is scary. Because while no, people like my grandfather was when he was alive aren’t mindless violence craving ghouls with no impulse control and a need to murder everyone in their vicinity, there are people who feel like they have lost their loved ones to a sickness of hate, fear, and bigotry, which can be violent and traumatizing in their own ways. Chapman really, really gets that, even if he has it under guise of blood soaked automatons that are killing machines and splattergore moments. And he doesn’t just have grievances for the brainwashed and hate filled, but he also indicts Noah himself (and other go along to get along liberals) as someone who just sat back and let it happen, like so many have done in the face of not wanting to rock the boat or to just be pleasant, until it’s too goddamn late.

Are the horror elements in this book over the top? Maybe. Is it absolutely NOT subtle? Completely. But I think that the time for subtlety has passed us. Chapman has his finger on the pulse of America right now. And I’m writing this as the new president elect is gearing up to take back his power, partly in thanks to these kinds of manipulations, propaganda, and indoctrination that this book has amped up to levels that may be fictional, but are rooted in a very bleak reality. And I’m honestly terrified.

(source)

“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is another top notch horror tale from one of the kindest authors I’ve met who still manages to personally victimize me Regina George style with his books (I mean that in the best way). It’s a must read.

Rating 9: Easily one of the scariest books I’ve read in a long time, if only because when you peel back the supernatural and satirical bits you find something that feels very, very real.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward To In 2025”.