Category: Kate’s Reviews

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

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

Publishing Info: Inklore, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: “We have to make an example of her.”

Chaos reigns in Olympus as Zeus publicly declares Persephone a traitor and issues a warrant for her arrest. But Hades defies his brother’s decree, sheltering Persephone in the Underworld—and as the pair spend more time together, they are able to speak openly about their pasts. The goddess of spring admits the truth behind the bloody secret that led to Zeus’s ire, and the king of the Underworld shares the trauma he suffered at the hands of his power-hungry father, Kronos.

But as Hades and Persephone’s relationship grows stronger, others begin to fall apart. The bond between Hades and Zeus is stretched to its limit, threatening to fracture the peace between their realms. Persephone and Artemis’s friendship hangs by a thread as the goddess of the hunt slowly uncovers the vile truth about her twin, Apollo. A line is being drawn in the heavens, putting everyone’s loyalties into question as all the gods are forced to choose sides.

And as the cracks in the foundation of the pantheon spread, something darker and more earth-shattering might soon be released. . . .

Review: I’m starting to really enjoy being able to count down to new “Lore Olympus” volumes as they have come out, usually one in the Spring and one in the Fall. It’s nice having a guaranteed amazing read to look forward to, and this Spring we are now on “Lore Olympus: Volume Six”. I try not to let myself bank too heavily on the quality of a highly anticipated read, but in the case of Rachel Smythe and her amazing reimagining of Greek Mythology I am pretty sure that I have no need to worry. She knows what she is doing. And what she is doing is putting some of my favorite deities through the ringer. Like, repeatedly. And skillfully. So on we go into the newest “Lore Olympus” collection, and man, did it once again blow me away.

When we left off, we saw Zeus demanding that Persephone and Demeter be returned to Olympus as fugitives so that Persephone could be punished for her crime of smiting morals, with Demeter punished for covering it up. Persephone ran into hiding, and Hades went looking for her. We don’t take too much time dilly dallying about Persephone on the run, and once Hades does reunite with her he now has some choices to make. He can either be loyal to his brother, who is also his ally in their alliance as Gods, or he can be loyal to Persephone, the woman he is falling in love with. It’s a great conflict and it’s a really good way to showing what a fucking narcissistic buffoon Zeus is, as the Gods all argue (over zoom call) as to what should be done next. Also, this zoom call is hilarious even thought it’s discussing some pretty heavy stuff. I especially liked Artemis being stuck on mute and not realizing it, and Hera just chain smoking in disdain for her husband and peeking into his frame every once in awhile. Smythe still has so many hilarious moments even as the story gets more and more intense and high stakes, and it never feels out of place or jarring.

In this volume, we are finally starting to get some full on answers about Persephone’s secret as the Bringer of Death. Earlier we got one version of the story, in that it was said that she massacred a number of mortals for pulling flowers in a forbidden area, which resulted in the deaths of many of Persephone’s flower nymph friends. What I really loved was that that initial explanation had been originally hyped up and sensationalized, and we had another version that seemed far more reasonable, if still disturbing. But Smythe decided that go even deeper, and to explore the idea that perceptions and realities might not line up still, and by letting Persephone tell it in her own words, and to open up to Hades about this, was a clever twist on its own. But this also leads to us learning more about Hades, and his own traumatic past of being swallowed and imprisoned by his father Kronos, and how that has affected his life going forward. In the previous volume Hades mentions that he didn’t really KNOW Persephone, and in this volume they now know each other in incredibly intimate ways, and their relationship is evolving and growing apace in a healthy way because of it. It is making this romance a slow burn for sure, but it’s also showing how two damaged people CAN find love and intimacy in spite of their baggage, and in a healthy way, and that they deserve to heal and be loved. It’s pretty clear to me that so much of “Lore Olympus” is about unpacking and healing from trauma, and I love seeing these two heal together.

It’s also the attention and expansion of the supporting characters that has always made Smythe stand out, and in this volume we not only expand upon previous characters and their motivations, but we also get to see new interactions between the characters that clearly set up or harken back to the source mythology. I really love seeing nods to tertiary players like Echo and Daphne, and Smythe opts to make these originally quite passive characters into three dimensional beings that I have fully come to care about (and which makes me nervous for their fates as the series goes on). The thing that really caught me by surprise was how suddenly invested I was in the burgeoning romance between Daphne, a flower nymph who is striving to be a fitness and beauty influencer, and Thanatos, God of Death who has been a resentful lackey to Hades and who has been plotting against Persephone with Minthe and Thetis. I never would have imagined these two interacting, and yet Smythe has built it up in a way that feels wholly natural, and gives Daphne the agency that she doesn’t get in the original myth (though as mentioned above, I’m very worried about where this is going).

Oh and new characters too! New characters that are fully representative of their original characterization, but still feel like their original intent. The biggest one in this Volume is that we finally get to meet Hephaestus, one of Zeus and Hera’s sons who, in the original myth, was ostracized from Olympus by Hera due to his disability (two club feet and inability to walk), but became a master craftsman and blacksmith. In this, it seems that he has extricated himself of his own choosing, and has an estrangement with his parents that is a bit more muddled. Perhaps it’s because he is an amputee, but you get the sense that it’s more about emotional unavailability from his parents (and the more we learn about Hera’s backstory, the more it becomes clear that being a neglected wife to Zeus is the LEAST of her traumas, which almost certainly affects her relationships with everyone). He is also more of a computer and tech wiz as opposed to a metallurgist, and I really, really loved that update. Oh, and now Leto is here too, aka the mother of Apollo and Artemis, and it’s pretty clear that HER appearance is going to set up the another big antagonistic arc for Apollo in this story. God he’s just the worst, and now we know that his mother played a part in that.

I’ve once again gone on and on in a review for this series, but “Lore Olympus: Volume Six” is another home run from Smythe. I’m always worried that it’s going to fall off, or start showing cracks, but man, it’s still going strong. I’m still wholly enamored.

Rating 9: New revelations, new relationships, and new threats are all emerging, but Smythe keeps the joy, humor, and heart in play.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Lore Olympus: Volume Six” isn’t included on many Goodreads lists just yet, but it would fit in on “Hades and Persephone”.

Kate’s Review: “My Darling Dreadful Thing”

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Book: “My Darling Dreadful Thing” by Johanna van Veen

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2024

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

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

Book Description: In a world where the dead can wake and walk among us, what is truly real?

Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the only good thing in Roos’ life, which is filled with sordid backroom séances organized by her mother. That is, until wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop attends one of these séances and asks Roos to come live with her at the crumbling estate she inherited upon the death of her husband. The manor is unsettling, but the attraction between Roos and Agnes is palpable. So how does someone end up dead?

Roos is caught red-handed, but she claims a spirit is the culprit. Doctor Montague, a psychologist tasked with finding out whether Roos can be considered mentally fit to stand trial, suspects she’s created an elaborate fantasy to protect her from what really happened. But Roos knows spirits are real; she’s loved one of them. She’ll have to prove her innocence and her sanity, or lose everything.

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

I do love me a scary story that involves a séance or two, as the idea of speaking to the dead is a trope in horror that I have been a fan of ever since I saw “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” as a little girl (the BEST Bill and Ted story, in my opinion, and not just because of Missy’s séance club). I also love Gothic horror stories, and Gothic shenanigans and séances go together OH so very well. Because of this it shouldn’t be any surprise that I was super game to read “My Darling Dreaful Thing”, a Gothic horror story about a young woman who has a spirit attached to her, and who catches the attention of a wealthy young widow after performing a fake séance. Though our protagonist’s ability to take her spirit friend inside of her to perform is very real. Or is it? Which is the question at hand after someone ends up dead. YUP, I was SOLD.

There is so much to like about this book. First and foremost, I really loved the setting of 1950s Netherlands, with the Second World War still bearing wounds. It is the perfect set up for Roos, our protagonist, to be used for grieving people in fake séances at the behest of her mother, because of COURSE a fascination with speaking to those who’ve been lost would be palpable in this setting. Roos does, however, have an actual spirit attached to her. This spirit, Ruth, appears to Roos as a decaying corpse (as it seems that she was alive centuries prior and thrown into a bog), but is her only companionship as her mother is severely abusive and their clients are either desperate with grief, or shady and violent. So when a wealthy young widow named Agnes Knoop meets Roos during a séance, and is so taken with her that she wants to bring her to her dilapidated country manor Rozentuin, Roos jumps at the chance to escape her life with her mother. It is there that she confides that she also has a spirit guide, and the two women form a bond. I really liked this set up, and I REALLY liked the descriptions of Ruth, the grotesque physical imagery being well described and yes, super scary, even if Ruth is something of a comfort for Roos. But we know from the jump that something isn’t right, as Roos has been accused of a murder and those around her believe that Ruth is actually a hallucination of a psychotic mind. The mystery about the murder is an engaging one, and went in a direction that I wasn’t expecting, which made for a more satisfying read because I was genuinely surprised and shocked by a few of the twists at hand.

And, like with any good Gothic horror novel, some of the greatest strengths of “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is the ambiguity and unreliability of our main character Roos, whether it’s regarding Ruth as a presence that is haunting her, or the mental state that Roos herself is in as the story unfolds. We are given a view into her own perspective through her first person narration, but we are also given an outside view through the notes of the doctor assessing her in preparation for her trial. The doctor sees a very mentally unwell woman with delusions due to a massive amount of trauma, and what I liked about this aspect is that 1) it makes for a mystery within the mystery of who has died and whether Roos did bit, and 2) this could ALSO be unreliable because of the time and place of the story and the way that medicine has a tendency to write women off as hysterical. I always love the way that a Gothic story can create more questions than answers, and this one does that very well and in unexpected ways.

If you like Gothic horror as well as Sapphic romances, “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is sure to be a winner. Just know that, like so many great Gothic horror tales before it, there is tragedy to behold, from many sources. So steel yourself for that as well.

Rating 8: A creepy and unnerving horror story peppered with a tragic story of love and loss, “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is a Gothic tale that will please fans of the genre.

Reader’s Advisory:

“My Darling Dreadful Thing” is included on the Goodreads lists “Sapphic Fiction 2024”, and “Queer Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “A Friend Indeed”

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Book: “A Friend Indeed” by Elka Ray

Publishing Info: Blackstone Publishing Inc, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from Roger Charlie.

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

Book Description: When single mom Jo Dykstra was at her lowest—jobless and penniless—her childhood friend Dana McFarlane helped her out bigtime by securing her a teaching job and thus an opportunity for a new life in the affluent Pacific Northwest town of Glebes Bay. So, when Jo gets a frantic late-night call from Dana, sobbing and desperate for help, it feels like a chance to help her friend in return.

The last thing Jo expects to see when she arrives at Dana’s oceanfront mansion? Her friend’s handsome and wealthy husband, Stan, dead, sprawled face down on the floor. Dana admits to killing her husband following years of secret abuse and begs Jo not to call the police. For nearly two decades, Dana’s marriage and family had looked picture perfect. Who’d ever believe that pillar-of-the-community Stan was a monster? Determined to cover up her husband’s killing and shield her kids from scandal, Dana convinces Jo to help her dispose of the body.

But the cover-up starts to crumble when a blackmailer threatens to expose their crime. Hounded by gossipy neighbors, ill-fated lovers, and zealous cops, truth and lies are laid bare between Jo and Dana, putting their families in danger and threatening to shatter a thirty-year friendship. Shocking and fast-paced, A Friend Indeed is a riveting tale about the power of friendship and the deadly weight of lies.

Review: Thank you to Roger Charlie for sending me a finished copy of this novel!

Summer is so close I can almost taste it, and while it’s not my favorite season (uh, it’s actually probably my LEAST favorite season?), I do like having pool time while the weather is hot. Because at the pool I like to bring easy to read and entertaining books. And when I think of a good poolside read, I think of the kind of book like “A Friend Indeed” by Elka Ray. A tantalizing thriller, with some shady and desperate characters, and some far hidden secrets between friends who find themselves in over their heads when a body lands at their feet. PERFECT POOL READING!

(source)

As someone who has always enjoyed the tongue in cheek ‘a real friend will help you dispose of the body’ meme because of its gallows humor, it’s no surprise that the plot of “A Friend Indeed” is a huge plus in my eyes. When Jo gets a panicked phone call from her long time best friend Dana to come to her house in the middle of the night, she drops everything to help her. When she finds Dana standing over the body of her now dead husband Stan, she is horrified. but decides to help her dispose of the corpse. It’s a great set up on its own, and then you throw in a potential blackmail storyline as well as the rampant gossip of suburbia and it has all the ingredients for an addictive thriller. And I was pretty sucked in. The pacing is fast, the dual perspectives between Dana and Jo are well done, and I loved the examination of a close friendship that is REALLY being tested because of the crazy circumstances… And how perhaps Dana isn’t being fully open with Jo. I really enjoyed seeing both of these women trying to keep it together, and I really liked the examination of their friendship through the years and how, perhaps, it’s not as give and take as it seems. I had a hard time putting this one down because I was so taken with the breakneck pacing and the interesting perspectives of both women.

But I think that where this one stumbled a bit for me was with the amount of reveals, twists, and shocking developments that it throws at the reader. I’m a bit of the belief that less is more when it comes to thrillers and mysteries when doling out twisty moments, and that if you oversaturate the narrative with surprises and shocks it becomes less effective, bordering on tedious. And I felt like that happened a bit with “A Friend Indeed”. I don’t want to delve too deeply into it because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it felt like I was being bombarded with so many reveals, so many shocking moments, and so many twists and turns that it was too much. What could have been a tight thriller with some serious punch got bogged down in the need to be unpredictable, and that derailed my experience a bit. And of course we got another last minute twist. And we all know how I feel about those.

“A Friend Indeed” is going to be a good choice for a pool or beach read with the upcoming summer, as it’s entertaining and addictive. I just wish that it hadn’t relied on too many gotcha moments.

Rating 7: It has a really addictive mystery and it kept me interested until the end, but there are a few too many twists and reveals for my liking.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Friend Indeed” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but if you liked the Netflix show “Dead To Me” you will probably like this.

Kate’s Review: “When She Was Me”

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

Book: “When She Was Me” by Marlee Bush

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2024

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: There’s only one way out of these woods…

Ever since that night, twin sisters Cassie and Lenora have been inseparable. As the sole permanent residents of Cabin Two, their refuge on an isolated Tennessee campground, they manage to stay away from prying eyes, probing questions, and true crime junkies. Just the two of them, Cassie and Lenora against the world. The peace and quiet is almost enough to make them forget what happened all those years ago. Almost.

Until a teenage girl camping at the neighboring cabin goes missing, and the memories come rushing back. As the crime becomes ever more recognizable—they know better than anyone that so-called ‘happy families’ can be anything but—each sister suspects the other knows more than she’s letting on….

Trapped in the isolating, claustrophobic wilderness, Cassie and Lenora must piece together the truth of what happened—and the sinister truth lurking in their own pasts—before it’s too late.

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

What can I say, I love a good cabin the woods story, as I myself love a cabin in the woods. You know, assuming it’s not one of those pesky horror movie ones where everything goes terribly wrong. But I do love a book where there’s a cabin in the woods where everything goes horribly wrong, so of course I was interested in “When She Was Me” by Marlee Bush. The cover is clearly SCREAMING ‘I’m a cabin in the woods and things are about to go wrong!’ It also has twin sisters, a missing girl, some unreliable narrators, and promises of dark secrets. All of this is totally my jam!

To start, I really liked getting into the minds of twin sisters Cassie and Lenora, who have a shared traumatic past and a fierce devotion to one another. A devotion that is probably bordering on unhealthy. We jump between their two perspectives, learning about each other both from their own thoughts, but also sometimes from the other sister’s perception of the narrator at the time. I especially liked how this device made for. both better insight as well as a potential layer of unreliability. After all, Cassie may know more about Lenora than Lenora would like to admit (and vice versa), but there may also be misconceptions each has about the other due to their shared history and shared secrets. Sometimes when this kind of story of siblings, especially with twins, is taken on it can be have mixed results, but this was the strongest aspect of the book for me.

Now the mystery itself. It is definitely easy to read, and entertaining when the reader is in the thick of it. But I will say that it was pretty standard for a thriller, with all the boxes checked that you would expect to be checked (unreliable narrators, an isolated setting that makes for more difficult maneuvering, twist after twist after twist), without really doing too much outside of the box, or doing it in a way that is unique. There are misdirections that I could predict coming (though not to their full resolution or reveal, I will say), and I wasn’t invested in many of the characters outside of Cassie and Lenora, and even then that was more because of their dynamic and not because I was particularly attached to them as characters. It’s serviceable to be sure and I could see it being a perfect breezy beach read, and one that I enjoyed in the moment. But it didn’t really stand out from the litany of thrillers that came before it.

“When She Was Me” is entertaining and an enjoyable read. When I was in it I was in it. But it didn’t wow me as much as I had hoped it would.

Rating 6: It’s a pretty standard thriller, entertaining and addictive, but not really reinventing the wheel.

Reader’s Advisory:

“When She Was Me” is included in the Goodreads article “42 New Reader-Approved Mysteries for Spring”.

Kate’s Review: “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit”

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

Book: “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” by Nadine Sander-Green

Publishing Info: House of Anansi Press, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from Zg Stories.

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

Book Description: A woman’s coming-of-age through a toxic relationship, isolation, and betrayal―set against the stark landscape of the far north.

Millicent is a shy, 24-year-old reporter who moves to Whitehorse to work for a failing daily newspaper. With winter looming and the Yukon descending into darkness, Millicent begins a relationship with Pascal, an eccentric and charming middle-aged filmmaker who lives on a converted school bus in a Walmart parking lot. What begins as a romantic adventure soon turns toxic, and Millicent finds herself struggling not to lose herself and her voice.

Events come to a head at Thaw di Gras, a celebration in faraway Dawson City marking the return of light to the north. It’s here, in a frontier mining town filled with drunken tourists, eclectic locals, and sparkling burlesque dancers, that Millicent must choose between staying with Pascal or finally standing up to her abuser.

In the style of Ottessa Moshfegh’s honest exploration of dysfunctional relationships, and with the warmth and energy of Heather O’Neill, Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit illuminates what it’s like to be young, impulsive, and in love in one of the harshest environments in the world.

Review: Thank you to Zg Stories for sending me an ARC of this novel!

While I am usually a person who loves predictability and not so much spontaneity, one of the areas where I DO tend to divert from the norms is my reading. And while that isn’t shown as much on the blog, I found myself compelled to dip my toes outside of my usual genres when the book “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” by Nadine Sander-Green came across my path. I was wholly taken with not only the setting of a small town in The Yukon (far up North small towns are very near and dear to my heart, even if my frame of reference is more Minnesota and Wisconsin versus Canada), and it sounded like an interesting character study of a woman trying to find herself, and unfortunately being targeted and manipulated by a toxic older man. So while it MAYBE had some thriller potential due to the latter bit of that, I felt that even if it was ultimately not a thriller, I still wanted to give it a go. And I’m happy I did, because “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” hit a nerve in a good way.

“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” is a contemporary novel that follows Millicent, a twenty four year old woman who has uprooted her life to take a job at a small town newspaper in an isolated community in The Yukon called Whitehorse. Her only initial connection is her roommate Sophie, a friend from university whom she has drifted from, and her new job has left her with a serious case of imposter syndrome as she is at her heart a poet, not a journalist. The small town setting is both claustrophobic, but also striking and very grounded. I could imagine Whitehorse, I could almost see all the people, and the dark winter landscape as Millicent tries to adjust. I also got a full sense for the community as a whole and the very real issues that happen within the time and place, with references to relevant social issues in the Yukon in regards to politics and the First Nations people who are living there, and the ins and outs of a dying newspaper that Millicent works for. It’s a quieter novel, but I found it very engaging perhaps in part because of that. Millicent is a bit of a fish out of water, and her isolation, even from her supportive roommate and coworkers, makes it easy for her to be drawn to Pascal, a local eccentric who fancies himself and artist and is living a transient lifestyle in a bus like a mercurial bohemian. His eccentricity makes him stand out in this setting, which is so well drawn out by Sander-Greene that his appeal, at least on the surface, is wholly believable (and more on him in a bit).

Another thing I enjoyed about this book is how straight forward it is in terms of the plot and narrative. As we follow Millicent’s story, there are few bells and whistles, very little melodrama, no twists, and no big reveals to upend expectations of the plot. Instead we just have a very clear cut story about a young woman who is trying to find herself in a new environment that can feel quite isolating, and who becomes wrapped up with a manipulative and charismatic man in the hunt for connection. And this thread in the book was what stood out to me the most, this portrayal of a toxic relationship and how a smart young woman could find herself entangled within it. Pascal is absolutely a villain in this book, but his villainy is very well done in that it is very subtle and very easy to see why Millicent, who is yearning for connection and with an idealistic view of the world, could be sucked in by him. He’s charming, his life seems artistic, romantic, and interesting, and how many times have we heard of older men preferring the company of young women because of, at least in part, how much they can control them, and manipulating them to feel connected and genuine. Pascal is sinister as hell, but he never feels like an moustache twirling antagonist that is over the top with his malevolence, and if anything that makes him that much scarier.

“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” was a gratifying shift from my usual genres, with a powerful new voice for contemporary and literary works. I will certainly be looking out for more works by Nadine Sander-Green in the future!

Rating 8: A compelling, quiet, and intense story about isolation, identity, and finding oneself in the face of abuse and hardship.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on the Goodreads list “The Yukon”.

Kate’s Review: “Missing White Woman”

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

Book: “Missing White Woman” by Kellye Garrett

Publishing Info: Mulholland Books, April 2024

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

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

Book Description: The truth is never skin deep.

It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline. But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, she’s shocked. There’s a stranger laying dead in the foyer, and Ty is nowhere to be found.

A Black woman alone in a new city, Bree is stranded and out of her depth—especially when it becomes clear the dead woman is none other than Janelle Beckett, the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed with. There’s only one person Bree can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. As the police and a social media mob close in, all looking for #JusticeForJanelle, Bree realizes that the only way she can help Ty—or herself—is to figure out what really happened that last night.

But when people only see what they want to see, can she uncover the truth hiding in plain sight?

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

Two years ago I really enjoyed Kellye Garrett’s book “Like A Sister”, as I found it tense, complex, and endlessly readable. Because it was such a win for me I was absolutely interested in reading anything new that she came out with, so of course “Missing White Woman” was going to make my must read 2024 list. Already enjoying the author is a huge plus, but the name alone carries promise of deconstructing certain problematic issues in media and the public when it comes to in real time true crime. Just icing on an already promising cake, really.

Approaching this as a thriller first and foremost, Garrett has once again crafted a really interesting mystery that not only has some solid twists and turns, but a perspective that has some greater weight due to the sad realities of systemic racism (and societal but more on that later) in the United States. Our protagonist is Breanna, a Black woman who is on a much needed short vacation at an Airbnb in Jersey City with her new boyfriend Ty. While it starts out well, the on the last day Breanna wakes up in the house to find not only Ty has disappeared, but there is a dead body in the house, who appears to be that of Jenelle Beckett, a missing white woman whose disappearance has gone viral online. Breanna is met with some suspicion by the cops, though their focus is mostly on Ty, who is missing. It’s a simple story about a woman trying to clear her name and also the name of her new boyfriend, with the help of her former best friend turned lawyer Adore, and it has a lot of good surprises, red herrings, and suspenseful moments based not only in Breanna perhaps being in danger, not only because of not knowing Ty’s involvement, or the public starting to gnash for blood, but also because of the fact she’s a Black woman who is a person of interest in a dead white woman’s murder. It doesn’t help that Breanna has a VERY traumatic history with law enforcement, as she was the victim of police mistreatment when she was a young woman and a police officer pulled her over and profiled her as a Black woman, which led to an unjust arrest and conviction that ruined her life. This means that it not only makes Breanna more likely to be cagey around law enforcement and make her seem more suspicious to them, but that we also have to worry about it happening to her again even though we know she didn’t do it. It’s a dynamic layer that really worked for me.

Garrett also does a fantastic job of tackling some pretty relevant issues in regards to the pitfalls of true crime as it exists on the Internet and on social media platforms. And she does it in a way that doesn’t feel ham fisted or preachy! The most obvious is the subplot of a beauty influencer named Billie Regan who has platformed the story about Jenelle and is blasting it on her TikTok to seemingly build up views and to bring attention to herself/get some clout on the back of someone else’s tragedy. I really enjoyed the transcripts of Billie’s lives as she puts on a huge performance about how worried she is about Jenelle, and how she is feeding the frenzy of her followers and true crime addicts who fancy themselves armchair detectives and whips them into a hysteria about this missing white woman. Add into the way that she does her own unethical and reckless investigating and blasts Ty and Breanna to millions of followers, and makes them targets of random people who are out for blood and it’s all the more upsetting. It combines the already insidious racist implications of the ‘missing white woman syndrome’ (see the title) and how that kind of case gets ALL the focus while victims of color are all too often ignored, with a misguided mob of people who take a real tragedy and try to make themselves a part of it for clout, attention, or to feel like they are doing SOMETHING by targeting two Black people. It would be SO EASY to make this kind of commentary about true crime and social media feel well meaning and correct but SO clunky and preachy that it’s just obnoxious, as we have seen this kind of thing before (looking at you, “Black Christmas” 2019). But Garrett nails the tone, captures the gravity of it, and finds the nuance and trusts her readers to be able to parse it out without having to spoon feed it. Apparently this is a fine line to walk for some, but Garrett succeeds.

One quibble that I will note because it probably explains the lower rating number after all the well earned praise: the ending. It’s not a bad ending by any means, but it did feel a bit rushed and anticlimactic because of it. I also would have perhaps liked a little bit more time to see some of the fallout of how it all shook out. I never like feeling super rushed in a thriller.

But that’s just a quibble! Overall I enjoyed “Missing White Woman” quite a bit. It’s engaging and addicting, and with summer coming up and a need for vacation reads about to skyrocket, this is a good one to keep in mind!

Rating 8: A twisty thriller with a really well presented message about racism, social media, and missing white woman syndrome is hampered a bit by an ending that feels a little underwhelming.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Missing White Woman” is included on the Goodreads lists “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”, and “2024 Books By Black Authors”.

Kate’s Review: “First Light”

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Book: “First Light” by Liz Kerin

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, April 2024

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

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

Book Description: “I came all this way to watch you burn.”

It’s been nine months since the catastrophe in Tucson sent Mia fleeing from her home. But she’s not running away from the darkness―she’s running toward it, obsessively pursuing the man who gave her mother a thirst for blood and destroyed their lives.

But when Mia finds the monsters she’s been hunting and infiltrates a secret network of fugitives, she discovers she might have been their prey all along. To escape their clutches, she’ll have to reckon with her mother’s harrowing past and confront a painful truth: that they might be more alike than she ever imagined.

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

After “Night’s Edge” blew me away last year, I had high high hopes for Liz Kerin’s follow up, though I was also apprehensive for a few reasons. The first is always that fear that a follow up to a well loved read will somehow be a let down or underwhelming. The second and more relevant reason here is that “Night’s Edge” left off on such a bummer of a note that I was steeling myself for a story that had the very real potential to destroy me. And you know what? It did.

Actual image of me sobbing over my kindle in the dark at 3am during an insomnia charged reading session (source).

Before I go into the things that kicked my emotions square in the ass, I want to talk about “First Light” in how it has expanded and further explored the vampire themes and the horror/thriller themes as a whole. So first a refresher where we are as we start this book (and this review will have spoilers for “Night’s Edge”, though I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers for this one): our protagonist Mia is a young woman living in a world where vampires, or Saras, are confirmed as real and seen as threats to the world. Her mother Izzy had been turned into a Sara by her toxic boyfriend Devon when Mia was a child, and since then Mia had been helping hide her mother’s condition, protecting her, devoting her life to her, and bloodletting to her when needed. When Mia met and fell for a free spirited musician named Jade and was going to leave, Izzy lashed out and was going to kill Jade, so Mia killed her. Now we are catching up with Mia, who is now obsessed with finding Devon and getting her revenge on him for ruining her mother’s life and therein her own. She has been tracking him and the fringe group he runs, known as ADAPT, that has been recruiting Saras online to join them and to make more Saras so that Saras can outnumber humans, and become apex predators.

While there is some bit of Mia that knows this is on a whole wrong, she is more driven by her personal hatred of Devon, and the cat and mouse game that ensues, both at a distance and close up, it riveting, tense, and very well done. I liked learning more about how society has been trying to contain and control Saras, as we go from underground terrorist groups to charity run Sara houses that try to keep them safe and cared for (but also away from others), as well as how Mia finds herself drawn to a Sara named Cora, who may know something about Devon’s and ADAPTs whereabouts. The action rarely stops as we jump from past to present, and I found it incredibly engaging as a horror thriller and very unique and enjoyable as a vampire story and all the bloody bells and whistles that go with it. I especially was horrified by some of Devon’s manipulations and greater plans if only because he is still SO charismatic, which is terrifying in and of itself.

But at its heart, beneath all the vampire goodness and gore and vengeance parable is a story about healing and a story about a woman having to find herself after losing her complicated mother, who had been the only person she had really truly lived for, and now has to live without. Mia is focusing so much of her energy and time on tracking down Devon and getting revenge for Izzy and for herself, that she isn’t trying to heal from the terrible loss not only of Izzy at the end of “Night’s Edge”, but also the loss of a functional childhood long before she has gotten to this part and new traumas as this narrative goes on. She obsesses with finding Devon and his ADAPT group of potential terrorist Saras, doing research, delving into volunteer work at a Sara house to try and get information from those who may know something, and falling into a bottle as well as a desire for revenge, that she isn’t finding closure or peace. But Kerin, instead of making this a tragic tale of all consuming revenge, does that on that as a warning, and has Mia start to navigate her traumas even as she gets close to her goal. Even if that means reconciling devastating truths about her mother. Even if that means having to accept new truths about herself. Even if that means seeking closure with Jade, her love interest and spark for a yearning for a better life in “Night’s Edge”, and learning to trust people again, specifically Cora, a Sara that has potential connections to ADAPT and whom Mia first seeks out for information purposes, but then starts to fall for. There are so many gut wrenching moments as Mia goes on this journey, and it all culminates with a lot of action that feels incredibly fulfilling while still tearing my heart out for various reasons. It’s just so good.

“First Light” is a fantastic conclusion to the story of Mia and her vampire mother Izzy. I absolutely loved this book and will dive headfirst into anything that Liz Kerin writes next, whether it’s expanding upon her Sara world building, or bringing us something totally new. Simply exquisite.

Rating 10: A tense, unforgiving, and deeply emotional sequel that tackles vengeance, identity, and forgiveness and expands upon an already unique and effective vampire mythos.

Reader’s Advisory:

“First Light” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Best Adult Vampire Books”.

Previously Reviewed:

Kate’s Review: “Indian Burial Ground”


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

Book: “Indian Burial Ground” by Nick Medina

Publishing Info: Berkley, April 2024

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

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.0rg | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on—just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her—things are finally looking up for her. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down. But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands.

After more than a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets and horror and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers…but as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to question whether it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.

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

Last year I read and reviewed Nick Medina’s “Sisters of a Lost Nation”, a horror novel that had its scariest moments not in the supernatural bits (though those were also great), but in the way it addressed the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic. It was such a visceral read that I knew I needed to see what Medina was going to write next, and so when “Indian Burial Ground” ended up on my radar I was ACHING to read it. NetGalley came through, and it ended up on my Kindle. I knew that I needed to carve out some time, because it was going to take up my literary focus once I started. And lo and behold my prediction came true. “Indian Burial Ground” had my full attention.

Like in “Sisters of a Lost Nation”, we return to the fictional Takoda Reservation in Louisiana, and not only do we get a revisit to this setting, but also so some of its side characters (I love it when authors do this, honestly, so that was a bit of a treat from the jump). “Indian Burial Ground” is told in two separate timelines. The first is in the modern day, where we mostly follow Noemi, whose boyfriend Roddy was just killed after being hit by a car, the death officially called a suicide. Noemi just can’t believe that Roddy would do that, and starts to think that something else is at play, just as her uncle Louie returns home after being away from the reservation for years. The next is in the summer of 1986, where Louie has been balancing trying to take care of his toddler niece to help out his teenage sister Lula, as well as trying to keep the family above water as their mother sinks deeper and deeper into alcoholism. During this time, strange deaths start to happen on the Takoda Reservation, as well as some desecrations at the tribal cemetary where bones are being stolen. As Louie starts piecing together rumors, histories, and seemingly supernatural clues, he starts to panic over protecting his niece. Medina effortlessly pulls these two timelines together, switching between the perspectives of Noemi and Louie, and shows an undercurrent of unrest on the Takoda Reservation that is still affecting the people who live, or lived, there. The two stories are both compelling in their own ways, one of which being supernatural and eerie, and the other more of a mystery about a tragedy and whether or not the official explanation is the actual one. And then bringing them together to tell a bigger story with realistic truths couched in supernatural horrors.

And the horrors, supernatural or not, are ample, twisted, and deeply emotional. or the more fantastical scares, I enjoyed the folklore inspirations that Medina created for the Takoda characters, with morality tales that are perhaps playing out in real time as members of the community start diverting from the path that is promoted in their culture and identity, and how that is possibly causing the destruction and deaths in the community in the summer of 1986. There were so many bits of unnerving creepiness, and it is clear to me that Medina is very talented at the slow build scary story. Whether it’s a coyote eating from a corpse in a brazen way, or a dead body suddenly rising up as if alive, I was creeped out many times during my read. But it’s also the real life horrors that Medina delves into in this book that pack a serious punch, with themes of addiction, mental illness, systemic racism, poverty, and many other tragic circumstances of the Takoda people living on the reservation. It could be teenage Louie being parentified to care for his cousin and another child in the community, or his and Lula’s mother being in the throes of alcoholism to the point where she isn’t caring for her children anymore, or the possible mental illness that Noemi just can’t accept as a very real truth in Roddy’s life. It were these moments that really got to me because they were all so emotional and frank about living as an Indigenous person on a reservation in America, and the lack of societal supports given.

“Indian Burial Ground” is dark and unrelenting, and it is another triumph from a fresh new voice in horror writing. Definitely recommended.

Rating 8: A deeply disturbing and heart wrenching horror novel that takes its scares from folklore inspiration, as well as the all too real horrors of being Indigenous in America.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Indian Burial Ground” is included on the Goodreads lists “Indigenous Fiction 2024”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “You Know What You Did”

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Book: “You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen

Publishing Info: Dutton, April 2024

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

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

Book Description: In this heart-pounding debut thriller for fans of Lisa Jewell and Celeste Ng, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares past and present…

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.

A prominent art patron disappears, and the investigation zeroes in on Annie. Spiraling with self-doubt, she distances herself from her family and friends, only to wake up in a hotel room—naked, next to a lifeless body. The police have more questions, but with her mind increasingly fractured, Annie doesn’t have answers. All she knows is this: She will do anything to protect her daughter—even if it means losing herself.

With dizzying twists, You Know What You Did is both a harrowing thriller and a heartfelt exploration of the refugee experience, the legacies we leave for our children, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

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

It’s been a little bit since I’ve tackled a straight unreliable narrator thriller on the blog, though that isn’t super surprising because of all the tantalizing horror novels that have been coming out this Spring. But we are finally firmly back in this genre, and this time with a debut that caught my eye awhile back! “You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen has been patiently sitting on my NetGalley for awhile now, and like I almost always do with my NetGalley books this was because I wanted to read it closer to the release date. By the time I came to it it had been kind of simmering on my book back burner, and I was eager to dive in.

As far as a thriller and as a mystery, I generally enjoyed this one. It has a unique hook and a unique voice, as we follow Annie, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee who has tried to maintain a complete control over her life and identity in the face of a difficult upbringing and OCD diagnosis. After her mother dies, Annie starts having a potential relapse of her disgust driven OCD, and starts to question her reality and the things that she is, or maybe isn’t, doing. It’s a pretty solid device that is meant to deepen the mystery of what is going on with Annie (more on that below), as well as what involvement she may or may not have when one of her clients goes missing, and her erratic behaviors ramp up. In terms of the straight up mystery of Annie’s role in the combustion of her sanity and her potential propensity towards violence that she can’t recall, I had a pretty good guess from the jump as to what was going on. That isn’t to say that Nguyen didn’t have a well thought out mystery, as she did. The puzzle pieces were placed very well and it all came together seamlessly. The suspense about Annie’s mental state was also well done, as I was definitely worried about her. But if you look past the various red herrings, the truth of it all was fairly easy to predict.

And while I am generally apt to kind of side eye thrillers that have mental illness as a plot device to propel the conflict, I thought that “You Know What You Did” did a VERY good job with these themes. It almost certainly helps that Nguyen has an author’s note about her own experiences with OCD, and how that helps contextualize the symptoms and the thought processes that Annie has which intrude upon her every day thinking, and adds to her unreliability. Her OCD makes her fixate on things and makes it so she has a hard time potentially knowing what is real and what isn’t, and as strange and at times violent things happen in her vicinity, it makes for questions about how much is due to her own actions, even if she doesn’t realize it. But it also never paints it as a grotesque caricature of the condition, which can be a trap when various mental illnesses are used to drive the conflict of a thriller. I also appreciated that this doesn’t just apply to Annie, but also as we peel back the layers of her emotionally distant and abusive mother. When we start learning about Annie’s mother, we see a woman who is a hoarder, who does little more but insult her daughter, and who has decimated her self worth to make her dependent on her and within her control. But we also explore what made her this way, by learning about the trauma and loss as a refugee in the years after the Vietnam War. It doesn’t make excuses, but shows how generational trauma and untreated mental illness can have far reaching consequences, and how we don’t always know the full picture of things, be it a person or a thriller novel.

I am definitely eager to see what K.T. Nguyen brings next, because “You Know What You Did” was entertaining as hell.

Rating 7: A unique and well plotted thriller that succeeds in using mental illness as a plot device without being exploitative, this mystery is entertaining, though perhaps easier to untangle than I was expecting.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Know What You Did” is included on the Goodreads lists “Mystery & Thriller 2024”, and “Female Psychological Thrillers/Suspense Written by Women”.

Kate’s Review: “Immortal Pleasures”

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Book: “Immortal Pleasures” by V. Castro

Publishing Info: Del Rey, April 2024

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

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

Book Description: An ancient Aztec vampire roams the modern world in search of vengeance and love in this seductive dark fantasy from the author of The Haunting of Alejandra.

Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche: a Nahua woman who translated for the conquistador Cortés. In the centuries since, her name has gone down in infamy as a traitor. But no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortés destroyed her people.

In the ashes of the empire, she was reborn as Malinalli, an immortal vampire. And she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands. But she has also been in search of something more, for this ancient vampire still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love.

When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of Aztec skulls—artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history—she finds something else: two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways.

For the first time she meets a mortal man—a horror novelist—who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there is also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart. Now Malinalli is on the most perilous adventure of all: a journey into her own desires.

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

V. Castro is one of my favorite horror authors, and I had been waiting patiently (maybe not so patiently) for her to take on a vampire story. So when I saw the announcement for “Immortal Pleasures” and that it not only was going to be a vampire story that centers on La Malinche, but that the cover looked like a full on “From Dusk Til Dawn” aesthetic, I rejoiced. Of all of the V. Castro books I’ve looked forward to, this was up there with “The Haunting of Alejandra” (which I also loved). So I dove into “Immortal Pleasures”, eager and filled with anticipation.

So, first thing’s first. I am absolutely going to praise the praiseworthy things about this book, and there are lots of things that I really, really liked. For starters, the concept of the woman who was La Malinche being turned into a vampire with the name Malinalli, and using her immortality to reappropriate the items and objects from the Nahua culture back from Western clutches is PHENOMENAL (especially since Cortés is ALSO a vampire now and they are on a path to run afoul each other again). I am so thrilled that there has been more discussion about the Spanish conquest/invasion in Central and South America in fiction as of late, as I’ve seen this in multiple horror novels in the past couple of years, and what a neat idea to take the figure of La Malinche, the Nahua woman who worked as a translator and advisor for Hernán Cortés during his bloodthirsty mission, and to give her a voice and to give her something of a redemption arc when as of late she has been vilified for her role in advising and enabling Cortés (if you want some background on La Malinche, take a look HERE). Castro is game to dive into the themes of the colonial violence and genocide that the Spanish committed during their invasion and conquest, and to show La Malinche, now Malinalli, as a victim who wants to atone for the role she played, even if it was a role forced upon her as an enslaved woman. So yes, I absolutely love her as a reborn vampire who is traveling the Western world to bring pre-Columbian Meso- American cultures’ artifacts back from museums, universities, and collectors. It makes her powerful, it makes her redemptive, and it makes her complex. I also really like that she is finally in charge of her own sexuality, as when she was alive she was absolutely a victim of rape and sex trafficking as an enslaved woman forced into the role of Cortés’s accomplice. As Malinalli she is able to have agency in her sexuality. And given that there are many sex scenes in this book between her and a horror writer, as well as her and another vampire (whose twist of an identity made me SCREAM with both glee and also confusion but in a good way, I assure you), she takes control of her sexual narrative repeatedly. Also, very explicitly.

But here are the roadblocks that made this book a harder read for me, and it’s mostly a narrative choice in how the story is told. This is not only a first person narrative, with Malinalli telling the reader her story both in past and in present, but it is also done in a way that makes it feel very matter of fact and conversational, which means that the flow is almost ALL telling and very little showing. It felt to me like Castro was going for an Anne Rice “Interview with the Vampire” vibe, which I absolutely appreciate because that’s iconic. But I think that the problem was that it just made for a less interesting narration because again, it was more telling and less showing. I also didn’t feel nearly as much connection to the modern story of Malinalli trying to retrieve two skulls in the United Kingdom as I did to the historical story of her as La Malinche and her start as a vampire. I almost wonder if it’s because her modern story has the meandering paths of her relationship with Colin, the aforementioned horror writer, and the many many sex scenes she has with him. Some bordering on the ludicrous. I like to think that I’m not a prude in any way shape or form, and again, I LOVE giving Malinalli the agency she has in her sex life. But man, there were a LOT of sex scenes that felt superfluous. And oddly written. And Colin himself just wasn’t super interesting to me, and I couldn’t figure out why she was interested in him to begin with. Though that said, she drops him like a hot potato REALLY fast once she meets fellow vampire Alex, but that also felt rushed and hastily resolved. It just felt like a pacing issue, or indecisiveness on what to focus on.

So, overall, “Immortal Pleasures” wasn’t what I wanted it to be. There were aspects I liked, but it felt like a rare stumble from V. Castro in a lot of ways.

Rating 6: The themes and ideas of this book worked so well for me, but the narrative voice and the choices that came with it were a bit too stilted for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Immortal Pleasures” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.