Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “Worm”

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Book: “Worm” by Edel Rodriguez

Publishing Info: Metropolitan Books, November 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: From “America’s illustrator in chief” ( Fast Company ), a graphic memoir of a childhood in Cuba, coming to America on the Mariel boatlift, and a defense of democracy, here and there.

When Edel was nine, Fidel Castro announced his surprising decision to let 125,000 traitors of the revolution, or “worms,” leave the country. The faltering economy and Edel’s family’s vocal discomfort with government surveillance had made their daily lives on a farm outside Havana precarious, and they secretly planned to leave. But before that happened, a dozen soldiers confiscated their home and property and imprisoned them in a detention center near the port of Mariel, where they were held with dissidents and criminals before being marched to a flotilla that miraculously deposited them, overnight, in Florida.

Worm tells a story of a boyhood in the midst of the Cold War, a family’s displacement in exile, and their longing for those they left behind. It also recounts the coming-of-age of an artist and activist, who, witnessing American’s turn from democracy to extremism, struggles to differentiate his adoptive country from the dictatorship he fled. Confronting questions of patriotism and the liminal nature of belonging, Edel Rodriguez ultimately celebrates the immigrants, maligned and overlooked, who guard and invigorate American freedom.

Review: Every once in awhile my Mom will send me a link to an article through the New York Times that has a review of a book that she thinks that would interest me. More often than not I’ve already read it or it was at least on my radar, but sometimes she will send one my way that is totally novel. In this case it was “Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey” by Edel Rodriguez. Perhaps you know of Rodriguez as an artist, specifically the artist behind the viral and infamous Trump artwork that has been on the likes of Der Spiegel and Time Magazine. Rodriguez felt it important to call out Trump on his dangerous and totalitarian tendencies, something he recognized even during the 2016 Primaries when a Trump Presidency was seen as merely a fantasy (we all know how that went). Rodriguez knows this because his family fled Cuba in the 1980s, after his family was being watched, surveilled, and threatened by the Government. “Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey” is that story, as well as story about life in a totalitarian regime, and how even a country that seems filled with idealism can fall into that trap.

Rodriguez combines modern Cuban history, starting with the Cuban Revolution, and moves through it until the 80s, tracking his family’s experience living under Castro in the town of El Gabriel. His father was a photographer while his mother stayed at home, but joined up with the local CDR, a group that was made up of Cuban citizens that would essentially ‘keep an eye’ on the community for any anti-regime activities or sentiments. Edel and his sister grew up with a meager education, and with parents who were constantly worried about watching what they said or did, all while trying to keep their family alive under pretty poor conditions due to poverty and corruption. We follow Edel through various childhood anecdotes and experiences, from the mundane involving friends and family, to the disturbing (such as the time Edel contracted a parasite that went through his legs, and the local hospital didn’t have enough medicine to treat him). As times become more dire as Edel grows older, his family make the choice to leave when Fidel allowed anyone who wanted to leave to leave so long as they could find a boat (and so long as they weren’t killed in the process whether it be by the Government or their own communities, who saw them as traitors and ‘worms’). It’s a deeply harrowing and emotional memoir, and as someone who knows very little about the Cuban Revolution and had certain ideas about Cuban immigration in my mind, this was pretty educational and eye opening (little did I know that the Cuban Immigrant community has MANY reasons to leave, not just because they were Batista loyalists). It also tracks the story of what adjusting to America was like for the family, not only through the eyes of Edel, but also through the eyes of his parents, who came with nothing and had to find their way to provide for their children in a wholly new environment. His parents are so well depicted in all of their complexities, and Rodriguez also touches a bit on how the traumas of escaping this kind of life can spill over into a new life with new challenges.

But this isn’t only a memoir about escaping a totalitarian regime: it is also a warning about the rise of totalitarianism through the eyes of someone who lived it, and how romanticizing or ignoring it is so, so dangerous. Rodriguez doesn’t only take those who romanticize Castro’s Cuba to task, he also REALLY digs into the way that America is embracing their own totalitarian tendencies, as Trump became President and his stink has infected so many other people (or perhaps just let them let their own stink loose). The connections that he draws between the life his family fled and how it all has to start somewhere is bleak and really alarming, and the way he compares the lies of January 6th and the Unite the Right Rally and other far right rage and venom to the violence he saw back home is really, really stark. And we’d best pay attention.

And the artwork is just astounding. It’s visceral and surreal in some ways, but always knows how to cut to the bone. In mostly blacks, whites, greens, and reds, it has a unique and signature style that is reminiscent of Rodriguez’s political works, but which still feels very personal. There is a LOT of text in this book, it almost feels like more of a memoir with an artistic backdrop on each page, but it never feels overwhelming and is still very easy to read.

(source: Metropolitan Books)

“Worm” is a fantastic memoir with an artistic and emotional edge. It’s so important to learn history, especially from those who lived it, and to remember that just because things feel abstract or like they couldn’t happen in your own life, that there will always be people to tell you that you may be wrong. Edel Rodriguez is here to do that.

Rating 9: A harrowing and deeply personal memoir about fleeing totalitarianism, and the looming threat of it in a new home, “Worm” is a fantastic graphic memoir from an outspoken artist.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Worm” is included on the Goodreads lists “NPR’s Books We Love 2023: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels”, and “Memoirs Published in Year: 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Forgotten Sisters”

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Book: “Forgotten Sisters: A Novel” by Cynthia Pelayo

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, March 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: A city’s haunted history and fairy-tale horrors converge for two women in an addictive novel of psychological suspense by a multiple Bram Stoker Award–nominated author.

Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They’re tethered to a disquieting past, and with nowhere else to go, nothing can part them from their family home. Not the maddening creaks and disembodied voices that rattle the old walls. Not the inexplicable drownings in the area, or the increasing number of bodies that float by Anna’s window.

To stave off loneliness, Anna has a podcast, spinning ghostly tales of Chicago’s tragic history. But when Anna captures the attention of an ardent male listener, she awakens to the possibilities of a world outside.

As their relationship grows, so do Jennie’s fears. More and more people are going missing in the river. And then two detectives come calling.

They’re looking for a link between the mysteries of the river and what’s housed on the bank. Even Anna and Jennie don’t understand how dreadful it is—and still can be—when the truth about their unsettled lives begins to surface.

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

I’ve been following Cynthia Pelayo on social media for a few years now, and that was where I first caught wind of her newest novel “Forgotten Sisters”. I had hopes that there would perhaps be very early ARCs of it at ALA last year, and while that didn’t come to fruition (hey, a girl can dream and I DID get “Loteria” and “The Shoemaker’s Magician”), I waited patiently for this “Little Mermaid” inspired dark fantasy horror novel. I was pumped when I saw that it was available on NetGalley, and when my request went through I was very eager to start. Pelayo is one of the more unique horror authors out there right now, a multi- Bram Stoker Award winner, and this one was REALLY tantalizing.

While I thought that “Children of Chicago” was more full on malevolent horror, “Forgotten Sisters” leans more into dark fantasy, with references to “The Little Mermaid” being crafted into a melancholy tale about sisters Anna and Jennie. Through Anna’s perspective we learn about the terrible loss that they have endured, the way that they have clung to each other, and the river side house that they have been living in since their childhood, which may be housing a number of ghosts as well as grief and haunting memories. Anna has been running a podcast about the haunted history of Chicago, and while she loves her sister and can’t see herself leaving their troubled home, she does seem to long for more, in spite of Jennie clinging all the more at any hint of Anna pulling away (which becomes all the more complicated when Anna meets a man named Peter through her podcast). When we start we know that Anna isn’t necessarily reliable due to the unknown unresolved trauma she has endured, but Pelayo does a good job of easing into the peeling back of the tragedies that these women have had to live with, and what cost their enmeshment has taken and how that warps Anna’s perceptions. It’s dreamy and weird and uneasy, and it was both mesmerizing and unsettling at once, and while I pieced together bits and pieces just based on hints laid out and a knowledge of the history of Chicago, I thought that it was a well done dark fairy tale at heart. That said, sometimes I got lost in the flowery and dreamlike elements of this part of the story, which could take me out of it once in awhile.

I did like the police procedural parts quite a bit as well. I am a huge sucker for a procedural, and Pelayo succeeds at writing gritty and cynical dialogue and setting up interesting and tense crime beats. In this book we have Detectives Kowalski and Rodriguez, a seasoned long timer and an idealistic rookie, who are investigating the mysterious deaths of young men who are found drowned in the Chicago River under strange circumstances. It has hints of the Happy Face Killer theory, and with the criminal history of Chicago always lurking (after all this is the city of John Wayne Gacy and H.H. Holmes, amongst others) you get a more sinister vibe and a sense of dread as these two detectives try to piece things together. I liked their dynamic, and I liked seeing them slowly circle in on a potential serial killer, and the connection to Anna and Jennie and the River itself. It comes together really well and makes for a satisfying combination of dark fantasy and cop thriller, balancing each other out in ways that caught me by surprise.

One of the things that always strikes me when I read a Pelayo book is that she so clearly loves the city of Chicago, and that love comes through her tales even if they are about the darker histories of this city. As a Midwesterner I’ve been to Chicago multiple times, and it’s always a joy seeing the references to various locations and historical footnotes, as she so effortlessly sprinkles them in as well as making her book just so grounded in the city itself. This really comes through in both the hard boiled cop procedural aspects, as well as through the pieces we see of Anna’s podcast. Pelayo has such a strong knack for writing and developing a sense of time and place, and it makes the city shine, even if it’s the darker sides of the history.

“Forgotten Sisters” is another well done dark fantasy horror tale from Cynthia Pelayo. I’m always intrigued by what she writes, and this haunting story is sure to please her fans.

Rating 8: An eerie and melancholy dark fairy tale meets a gritty no nonsense procedural, “Forgotten Sisters” is another tribute to Chicago from Cynthia Pelayo!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Forgotten Sisters” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward To in 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “Peril in Pink”

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Book: “Peril in Pink” by Sydney Leigh

Publishing Info: Crooked Lane Books, March 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I was sent an eARC by the author via NetGalley.

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

Book Description: Everything is coming up rosé for innkeeper Jess Byrne until a murder on opening weekend gives her B&B’s killer vibe a whole new meaning. Schitt’s Creek meets Only Murders in the Building in this sparkling debut mystery.

It’s the grand opening of The Pearl B&B in Hudson Valley, and owner Jess Byrne has prepared the ultimate, Insta-worthy welcome, complete with her ex-boyfriend—reality singing sensation Lars Armstrong—performing live. As guests check in and mimosas are poured, Lars arrives with his stepdad-turned-manager Bob in tow. But things go south when Bob is found dead, and Lars is the prime suspect.

After a desperate plea from Lars, and knowing the reputation of her B&B is at stake, Jess agrees to help clear Lars’ name, but the more she digs, the less sure she is that he’s innocent. Especially when he’s found at the scene of another murder.

With the guests under lockdown, the B&B in the press for all the wrong reasons, and a killer on the loose, Jess is in over her head. With the help of her best friend and business partner Kat, Jess is determined to uncover the truth before Lars is put behind bars and The Pearl is permanently cancelled.

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

It may seem kind of funny that the blogger whose focus tends to trend towards horror, thriller, and the darker things in literature, is the one who has some consistent cozy mystery reviews going through her posts. It seems kind of funny to me, even! But I realize that I do like to cast a wide net in my genres, and if a book works for me, it works, even if it’s not as expected. So when Sydney Leigh reached out with her novel that was being compared to both “Schitt’s Creek” and “Only Murders in the Building” (both comfy and cozy shows I really enjoy) I felt like I had to read it! Thus I was sent a copy of “Peril in Pink”, a book about a cute bed and breakfast, an eccentric small town, a charming set of heroines, and a scandalous murder at the opening of their new business venture.

The mystery itself is fairly straightforward with familiar beats for a whodunnit. Jess Byrne and business partner/best friend Kat have opened up The Pearl, a bed and breakfast in their small town of Hudson Valley. When Jess manages to book her ex boyfriend Lars to perform, whose star is on the rise due to being on a popular musical reality show, she hopes it will serve as a fantastic opening weekend, but when Lars’s manager/stepfather George is found dead on the property, it sets off a murder investigation where her new business is a crime scene and her ex boyfriend is the main suspect. Leigh has a huge cast of characters, many of whom are suspects, and knows how to throw in clues and red herrings and multiple twists to create a mystery that kept me guessing. I always love an amateur sleuth who can be a BIT in over their head, and Jess and Kat fit that trope to a T. I also loved the descriptions of The Pearl and their business model, as hey, a cozy mystery needs a hook and this one has a really bubbly one in this adorable Bed and Breakfast.

But it’s the characters that really sell this story for me, as any cast of players in a cozy mystery should. I really enjoyed Jess as our main character, with her hopes and ambitions being lifted up in the story and her investment in this first murder making her easy to root for and become invested in as readers. I really loved her relationship with business partner and best friend Kat, who is a fun sarcastic foil to her earnest nature as they team up to try and save their business as well as Jess’s ex boyfriend from a murder charge. Leigh is very much paying tribute to true crime bestie dynamics here, even referencing “My Favorite Murder” as inspiration for Jess and Kat in their amateur detective ways (as a kind of dormant Murderino myself it made me nostalgic for the show and I may pick it back up!). But even the supporting characters have a certain charm about them, whether it’s Jess’s pragmatic brother Nate and his zen-minded yoga instructor wife Sarah, or Jess’s hippy aunt, or some of Jess and Kat’s high school rivals, and may more. One of the things that I do like about cozy mysteries is that if you have a sparkling cast of familiar characters, it makes for an all the more engaging story.

All in all, I found “Peril in Pink” to be charming and fizzy, an entertaining mystery that sets the stage for the potential for more bed and breakfast adventures with two fun heroines. I hope we see more of Jess and Kat and whatever crime befalls Hudson Valley!

Rating 8: A fun and cheeky cozy mystery with some Murderino flair, “Peril in Pink” is an entertaining series debut that I intend to follow forward for more charming capers.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Peril in Pink” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on the list “Hotels, Motels, Inns, B’nBs and Guesthouses”.

Kate’s Review: “Thirst”

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

Book: “Thirst” by Marina Yuszczuk and Heather Cleary (Translation)

Publishing Info: Dutton, March 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: Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America’s feminist Gothic.

It is the twilight of Europe’s bloody bacchanals, of murder and feasting without end. In the nineteenth century, a vampire arrives from Europe to the coast of Buenos Aires and, for the second time in her life, watches as villages transform into a cosmopolitan city, one that will soon be ravaged by yellow fever. She must adapt, intermingle with humans, and be discreet.

In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman finds herself at an impasse as she grapples with her mother’s terminal illness and her own relationship with motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites within the two women—and they cross a threshold from which there’s no turning back.

With echoes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and written in the vein of feminist Gothic writers like Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, and Carmen Maria Machado, Thirst plays with the boundaries of genre while exploring the limits of female agency, the consuming power of desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.

Review: Thank you to Dutton for sending me this eARC via NetGalley!

As many people know, I love vampire horror, but along with that loves comes a pretty picky set of standards. I would love to frame it as ‘passionate’ but I’m sure part of it is being a bit of an elitist/a bit bratty when it comes to vampiric tales. But I couldn’t help but have my attention snagged when access to an eARC of Marina Yuszczuk’s “Thirst” arrived in my inbox. The cover is already eye catching, for one. For another, a horror novel about a female vampire that has a historical element, as well as Sapphic themes, just sounds INCREDIBLY tantalizing. I kept thinking about “The Hunger” and the characters of Darla and Drusilla from “Buffy”. I was hopeful going in.

Honestly just give me an entire prequel book series about these two with Spike and Angellus all being very sexually fluid together. (source)

The first half of this book was amazing. I loved the way that we follow our nameless Vampire from her transformation, to her liberation from her sire, to her need to escape once people in Europe start hunting her and her kind down, to her arrival and time in Buenos Aires. It is such a compelling arc and background for her, examining how she became a vampire and how she slowly accepts it and turns into a predator with a shade of seductive longing. The time and place is so well formed and presented, and the eeriness and horror moments are very well done. I LOVE predatory vampires in vampire fiction, and ones that have a little bit of dangerous eroticism is always a great harkening back to the way vampire lore has always had shades of longing and desire within it. And the explorations of feminine longing and feminine power and agency in this section is so interesting as we see her prey on her victims while also feeling a need for connection as she moves through her existence as times change. I also really enjoyed the setting of Buenos Aires during the Yellow Fever plague and how mass death and illness could make for both a good place to fade into the background, but also a dangerous place as hysteria ramps up and her cover could be blown. I found Part One to be so, so interesting and enthralling.

Which made it even more disappointing when Part Two was a bit lackluster. In this part we have Alma, a modern day woman living in Buenos Aires who is grappling with a divorce, her sensitive son Santiago, and now the impending death of her mother. She soon finds out that the family has had a key to a mausoleum passed down for generations, and now she has to figure out if she’s going to sell the mausoleum or what. I’m sure you can guess who is living in that tomb, which is ABSOLUTELY a great set up. But my problem with Alma’s story was that, while it’s a pretty standard examination of an unhappy woman at a crossroads, I didn’t feel like it tied in SUPER well with the Vampire’s story, as when it goes come together there isn’t much exploration of it before the book was done. I appreciated trying to draw a dichotomy between the feminine struggles that the vampire faced, even as a vampire but also before, as well as the struggles that Alma was experiencing as a woman in the modern times. But there wasn’t enough time with the Vampire and Alma actually connecting and interacting, and because of this certain choices made and plot points that shook out didn’t really work for me because not enough time was spent building up to them. I think that had there been a third part from both Alma’s and the Vampire’s perspectives to see a full picture, as well as more interaction and relationship building, would have really fixed this. But as it was it just felt a bit abrupt.

Overall, “Thirst” is fantastic in the first half and ultimately evens out to a still entertaining read, even if I wanted more from it. I will absolutely be checking out more from Marina Yuszczuk in the future if we get more translations of ehr works.

Rating 7: A fabulous first half followed by a not as fleshed out second half made for a meet in the middle read. But I REALLY loved the historical moments and the concept itself.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Thirst” is included on the Goodreads lists “Girly Pop But Make It Insane”, and “Weird Woman Book Club”.

Kate’s Review: “Murder Road”

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

Book: “Murder Road” by Simone St. James

Publishing Info: Berkley, March 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: A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases .

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.

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

I’ve been reading and reviewing thrillers from Simone St. James since this blog was founded eight years ago, and my track record with her has been pretty stellar. I really enjoyed “The Sundown Motel”, “The Book of Cold Cases”, and “The Broken Girls”, and when I saw that she had a new book called “Murder Road” coming out I KNEW that I had to read it. The description was tantalizing, as a married couple stumbling upon murders and urban legends on a stretch of lonely road is SO up my alley, and my expectations were pretty high given my enjoyment of her past stories. So imagine my shock when “Murder Road”, after being so promising, was a bit of a disappointment.

But first the good stuff. Character wise, “Murder Road” had some standouts. The first and most obvious is our protagonist April, who is on the way to her honeymoon with new husband Eddie when they run into trouble in a small Michigan town when a injured hitchhiker they try to help ends up dying, and the local police set their eyes on them as suspects. April and Eddie soon learn that many people have died on that same stretch of road, and take it upon themselves to clear their names and solve the mystery of The Lost Girl, an urban legend of a ghostly hitchhiker who may have malevolent intent. April is telling this story through a first person perspective, and we know from the jump that she is trying to start over and leave a dark and mysterious past behind her. I liked slowly getting to know her and seeing her try to solve this, if only so she and Eddie can try and go back to the anonymity she needs to survive and let go. There were also some people in the town that I greatly enjoyed, whether it’s the no nonsense Rose, who takes April and Eddie in and has a combative and complicated history with the police that are hounding her boarders, or the Snell sisters, two teenage amateur sleuths that are plucky and weird Nancy Drew wannabes.

But I think that what hindered it for me, ultimately, was that the supernatural aspects and the suspense never really took off. I love the premise of a cursed stretch of road that has numerous strange deaths associated with it, and I really love the urban legend of a vengeful ghost picking off hitchhikers that are unlucky enough to spot her. But I feel like we didn’t REALLY get a good expanded deep dive into what was going on with this ghost for a LONG time, and by the time we did it started to feel kind of rushed, with lots of twists and reveals stuffed in and very few of which made me go ‘ah, yes, I can see how we got from point A to point B with these reveals’. I’m being vague because I don’t want to spoil it, but I definitely felt like I needed more explanation as to what was going on, and I needed there to be more build up to the solution to the mystery because when we got there it fell flat. Even incongruous at times. And as I said, it felt rushed at the end, but at the same time there was a good chunk of the story where I felt like it was spinning its wheels a bit. And while St. James is usually really good about holding cards to her vest, one of the big surprises was telegraphed SUPER early, and took the wind out of those sails almost immediately.

I was sad that this newest Simone St. James novel didn’t connect for me. “Murder Road” had a strong main character and some fun supporting ones, but the thrills and chills fell flat.

Rating 5: This was a surprising miss from an author I usually really enjoy.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Murder Road” is included in the Goodreads article “Reader’s Most Anticipated Mysteries & Thrillers 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “Blood Sisters”

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

Book: “Blood Sisters” by Vanessa Lillie

Publishing Info: Berkley, September 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women…one of them her sister.

There are secrets in the land.

As an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land’s indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own.

While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.

When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, vanishes, Syd knows she must return home. She refuses to let her sister’s disappearance, or the remains, go ignored—as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.

But not everyone is glad to have Syd home, and she can feel the crosshairs on her back. Still, the deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing indigenous women cases going back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in the town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.

The truth will be unearthed.

Review: During the holiday season, I took a Saturday where I spent the whole day doing shopping for my loved ones, and while I was wandering around Target trying to find gifts that would stand out as winners, I saw the book “Blood Sisters” by Vanessa Lillie. While I was supposed to be finding gifts for others, I bought it for myself, which I acknowledge is ironic but what are you gonna do? It took me a bit to get to it (as that tends to go with books I own), but I did eventually get to it at the start of the month, not sure what to expect. This was definitely one of those roll of the dice reads, but it was a gamble that mostly paid off!

I really loved the mystery of this book. It was part procedural, part social commentary, part family drama, part self discovery, and Lillie mixed it all together and balanced all of the elements pretty handily. There is a fairly straight forward hook for our investigator Syd Walker, a BIA archaeologist who has left her hometown in Oklahoma for the East Coast, but is called back when a skull is found in her hometown and she is recruited to go investigate. But when she does return home, a place where she herself was almost murdered along with her sister Emma Lou, she not only has to face the trauma she left behind, but also the fact that Emma Lou is now missing. This would already be enough to go with, but Lillie adds in the past violence, in which Syd has blamed herself for her friend Luna’s death, who was also at the sleepover in which Syd and Emma Lou were nearly killed, as well as the very true and bleak truths about small town poverty, systemic oppression of Indigenous people and how that is seen in communities, missing and murdered Native women, meth, and the beginnings of legalized drug abuse in the form of pill mills and the opioid epidemic, as Oxy is being prescribed quite a bit in Picher (as this takes place in 2008). It’s a lot, but Lillie strings it all together and connects the dots pretty well, setting up motives, red herrings, suspects, and an undercurrent of violence while people are trying to survive. There were lots of surprises that caught me off guard, and it really kept my interest.

I also liked how complicated Syd’s background was due to the aforementioned trauma, as well as other factors of growing up in Picher and the difficulties that came from that. Syd is a serious and driven investigator, who is more than happy to call out the bullshit of people, but is also hindered by her own single mindedness in some ways. She is also plagued by her own insecurities, and it comes through in her relationship with her wife Mal, who is newly pregnant right as Syd has to go back home. I tend to have a hit or miss reading experience with female protagonists who have a tortured background that has continued to affect them and affects their storyline in a book I’m reading, especially thrillers, but I thought that Syd was compelling and earned her complexity and the bad decisions that come out because of it.

There is a bit of a flip side with the character of Syd, however. While I liked her background, and I liked how complex she was due to her trauma and disconnection with her family and identity, I found the first person voice to be pretty simplistic. At times it read more like a YA protagonist with how she would always be explaining exposition or spelling out implications that could have stood on their own for the reader. This doesn’t necessarily apply to the details that were about Indigenous culture and history, as there are many, many people in this world who are completely unfamiliar with those themes (as someone who used to do interpretation of the history of the Dakota in Minnesota at Fort Snelling, I can assure you MANY people don’t know or don’t care to know this stuff), so spelling it out in simpler or blunt terms is warranted. But other things, like Syd’s anxieties about parenthood, or frustrations with Emma Lou and her assumptions about that, or even just thoughts about what is going on mystery wise, didn’t read like a seasoned BIA archaeologist/investigator, but like a total greenhorn. It made for more telling rather than showing, and I much prefer the latter, especially in mysteries.

“Blood Sisters” was a solid thriller mystery. If Vanessa Lillie were to continue the adventures of Syd Walker, I would definitely keep going. At the very least I will pick up Lillie’s next novel to be sure.

Rating 7: A really well done mystery and an interesting perspective and main character is hampered a bit by a narration that does a lot of telling and not as much showing.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Blood Sisters” is included on the Goodreads list “52 Book Club 2024: #46 Featuring Indigenous Culture”.

Kate’s Review: “Earthdivers (Vol.2): Ice Age”

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Book: “Earthdivers (Vol. 2): Ice Age” by Stephen Graham Jones, Ricardo Burchielli (Ill.), Patricio Delpeche (Ill.), & Emily Schnall (Ill.).

Publishing Info: IDW Publishing, February 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: Guest artists Riccardo Burchielli ( DMZ ), Patricio Delpeche, and Emily Scnall join Stephen Graham Jones— New York Times best-selling author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is a Chainsaw —for a mission to the Ice Age exploring America’s pre-Columbian past!

When Martin and Tawny’s children disappeared, the couple barreled into the desert to track them down at any cost. Instead, they ran afoul of another group of rovers who claimed to be saving the world by traveling through a cave portal to the year 1492 to prevent the creation of America—an idea that defied belief until the grieving parents were lured into the cave and vanished in time and space.

Now alone, Tawny must adapt to the wild marshlands of prehistoric Florida, circa 20,000 BC, and the breathtaking and bloodthirsty megafauna are the least of her problems when she’s caught in a war between a community of native Paleo-Indians and an occupying Solutrean force. Tawny’s odds of survival are in free fall, but she’s a mother on a mission…and she’s holding on to hope that the cave brought her here for a family reunion.

In the tradition of Saga , the next chapter of the critically acclaimed sci-fi epic is here in Earthdivers Vol. 2 . Collects Earthdivers #7-11.

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

When I first started Stephen Graham Jones’s fantasy/Sci-Fi time travel series “Earthdivers”, for whatever reason I thought that it was only going to be focused on what the first volume covered: the time travel assassination of Christopher Columbus. Why I thought it was only going to be that is beyond me, but when that arc came to an end at the start of “Kill Columbus”, I wondered where we were going next, with no clue or idea as to what the path was going to be. Who were we going to follow now? Was it still going to be historical fiction time travel-y? Our protagonist’s storyline pretty much definitively ended, what is going to happen now? And then I saw the cover for “Earthdivers (Vol. 2): Ice Age”, and I was blown away. BACK IN TIME TO THE ICE AGE?! HELL YES! And when I saw that we were following another time traveller, this time Tawney, a mother who was searching for her children, I was all the more excited. And shocking absolutely no one, “Earthdivers: Ice Age” is suspenseful, intriguing, and enthralling.

I really love that we are starting to explore stories of other characters in the book who have fallen afoul the mysterious cave. In “Ice Age” our focus is on Tawney, a grieving mother who had been looking for her missing twins when she and her friends were lured into the cave by Emily as an act of self defense. When Tawney wakes up, she is no longer in the 22nd century, but all the way back to the Ice Age and the Paleolithic era of humans. This is such a great choice, narrative wise, as it not only opens up a slew of possibilities as to what stories are going to potentially be told next (after all, there were multiple people who ended up in the cave around the time that Tawney did….), but it also gives us lots of different character possibilities. Tawney was a good first choice, because her motivation is based on her love for her kids, and it drives not only her want to survive in this wholly new setting, but also the choices that she makes while there. I really loved Tawney as a main character for this volume, and I loved the idea of the Ice Age as a setting and having her have to figure out how to survive in this totally new environment. Whether it’s dealing with smilodonts, having to adapt to the cold, or trying to find ways to communicate with the people she meets and connects with, it makes for a gripping story of a stranger in a strange land.

And in true Jones fashion, “Ice Age” also taps into societal injustices that feel very true today and places them even in the Ice Age. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this volume, as I thought that the Ice Age would have different hardships, but Jones keeps with the fighting against colonialism theme, using the clashes between Indigenous people and Solutreans (a controversial theory that Europeans settled in the Americas during the Ice Age by traveling over the frozen waters, HERE is a pretty good write up as to why it’s unlikely and also racist). It’s genius because it’s laying not only another kind of invading force story, but also tapping into Tawney’s inner turmoil about how to proceed when she finds herself protecting and becoming attached to a Solutrean child, as she sees her own children in him. These led to some really emotional beats, as Tawney, unlike Yellow Kid in “Kill Columbus”, draws lines when it comes to children as victims, no matter how much it could seem like a ‘greater good’. I also love how Jones has taken this fringe theory of Solutrean discovery and torn it apart by having Tawney basically fight back against the invading forces with her know how from her own time period. It’s very creative and makes for a really interesting volume! Throw in some more backstory for the Earthdivers and their motivations, as well as world building for the ravaged planet they are trying to reset, and the story arc continues to build on its complexity in very rewarding ways.

And finally, the artwork. We have some new artists in this volume, Ricardo Burchielli, Patricio Delpeche, and Emily Schnall. I liked the new styles that they brought, as while they still fit in with the previous Volume, they did bring their own aesthetics and signatures to the work.

(source: IDW)

I’m still really digging “Earthdivers” and how outside the box Stephen Graham Jones is taking it. I can’t wait to see who we follow through the cave next, and what time period it’s going to be.

Rating 8: Another creative and intense time travel story from Stephen Graham Jones! I’m loving the world building at the creative time and place.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Earthdivers (Vol. 2): Ice Age” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but would fit in on “Graphic Novels & Comics By The Aboriginal, Indigenous, and Native Peoples of the World”, and “Time Travel”.

Kate’s Review: “The Bad Ones”

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Book: “The Bad Ones” by Melissa Albert

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, February 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC23.

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

Book Description: Goddess, goddess, count to five. In the morning, who’s alive?

In the course of a single winter’s night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town.

Nora’s estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca’s disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her town’s past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local folklore: a legendary goddess of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca’s own childhood games…

An arresting, crossover horror fantasy threaded with dark magic, THE BAD ONES is a poison-pen love letter to semi-toxic best friendship, the occult power of childhood play and artistic creation, and the razor-thin line between make-believe and belief.

Review: Thank you to Flatiron Books for providing me with and ARC of this novel at ALAAC23!

It has been more than half a year since Serena and I attended to Annual ALA Conference in Chicago, but we have my last straggler of an ARC that I got while on that fantastic trip. When I saw that “The Bad Ones” by Melissa Albert wasn’t coming out until February, I placed it in an organized pile, and coming back to it in January was like letting go of that trip (though we’re planning on going to San Diego in fourish months, so, I’m not exactly shedding nostalgic tears). I loved the cover when I first got it, and it still really stands out as an eerie yet poppy image of a creepy angel. I didn’t really know what to expect, honestly, and once I was in it I started building expectations. Some of which were well exceeded! Others of which were not.

But as always, first the good. I really thought that Albert captured the complicated, sometimes toxic, and certainly enmeshed relationship between our narrator Nora and her missing best friend Becca. You get to see through Nora’s perspective as well as a series of flashbacks for Becca just how close these two girls are, and how they mean so much to each other, but how that can also lead to codependence and an unhealthy relationship. I thought it was great that neither girl was being judged for this, per se, but how it is also pointed out that both girls, especially Becca, have some pretty hefty baggage that is seeping into their interactions, and how that isn’t fair to either of them. Albert is careful not to villainize Becca, and instead looks at the ways that teenage girls can be failed by a community that tries to hide or look away from trauma or predation, and how that can damage a person. I also did like seeing Nora slowly piece together the mystery of her missing best friend, and the other missing people who disappeared on the same night, and how that connects to the town’s past. The mystery itself was well conceived and it had me guessing for awhile.

But the downside of all of this is that “The Bad Ones” is a horror/supernatural/dark fantasy tale, and I think that this was the weaker aspect of the novel. I liked the slow reveal of Becca and Nora’s Goddess Game and how it was far more powerful than Nora realized, and I REALLY loved the imagery of the creepy angel statue in the cemetery that was looming throughout the narrative (it reminded me of the Black Angel in Iowa City, which I loved to visit when I was in town seeing my Aunt). But once we got into the full on nitty gritty of the horror and supernatural aspects, and we got one of the big reveals in the last third of the book, I was left underwhelmed, as it was suddenly a whirlwind of wrapping things up and tying it all together. The revealed motivations of the bigger picture (no spoilers) were also pretty well worn territory, thematically wise, and while I liked said motivations, it didn’t set itself apart from other stories like this. This could, however, be more about my own vast experience with these kinds of stories, and me not being the target audience.

“The Bad Ones” is a book I found entertaining and enjoyable, and I know exactly who I would recommend it to. I will definitely be keeping my eye on Melissa Albert going forward, as this one had lots of potential, horror wise, and lots of wins, realism wise.

Rating 6: I really liked the mystery at hand and thought that the exploration of enmeshed friendships was interesting, but the supernatural and horror bits weren’t as fleshed out as I had hoped they would be.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Bad Ones” is included on the Goodreads lists “Bubblegum Horror”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “Island Witch”

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Book: “Island Witch” by Amanda Jayatissa

Publishing Info: Berkley, February 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: Inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, award-winning author Amanda Jayatissa turns her feverish, Gothic-tinged talents to late 19th century Sri Lanka where the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.

Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise.

Now someone—or something —is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.

As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother’s frantic. No one can find out what happened .

Lush, otherworldly, and recalling horror classics like Carrie and The Exorcist , Island Witch is a deliciously creepy and darkly feminist tale about the horrors of moral panic, the violent space between girlhood and adulthood, and what happens when female rage is finally unleashed.

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

If a book has references to “Carrie” and “The Exorcist” and adds in the promise of feminist rage in a not as seen setting, I am absolutely going to want to get my hands on it. That is just catnip for me, really. So seeing the description (and FANTASTIC) cover for Amanda Jayatissa’s new horror novel “Island Witch” really, really caught my interest. I love horror that takes on wider societal themes, I love feminist exploration within the genre, and there is also THAT AMAZING COVER. I was really excited to read this book, and had really high hopes. But I’m dismayed to report that they weren’t really met, at least not as much as I had expected them to.

I’ll start with the good, though. What I really liked about this book was how Jayatissa takes on the concepts of misogyny, religious zealotry, and colonialism and imperialism with her setting of 1800s Sri Lanka, as a young woman named Amara is seeing her village slowly turn against her and her father, the local Capuwa (or demon priest, as he performs rituals and exorcisms to ward off demons) when mysterious attacks leave men dead. Amara is an intriguing main character, as she finds herself a target of her community as their Christian belief system sees her and her family as threatening, and starts to realize that there are other dangers beyond the potential demonic attacks. I love how Jayatissa explores the way that Amara’s community, former friends, and even at times family holds her gender against her, her family against her, and her non-Christian beliefs against her, and how Amara’s desperation to clear her father’s name becomes more about clearing her own. Jayatissa doesn’t shy away from violence, sexism, prejudice, and trauma, and Amara’s journey harkens to other feminist horror tales of women taking back their power from those that want to take it away and snuff it out. I also found a lot of the demon lore and other horror aspects to be pretty good, and at times more ambiguous as opposed to cut and dry about good and evil.

But I had a really hard time with the first person perspective of this book, because while trying to show Amara’s coming of age, and her journey to find out the truth about what is happening in her community and both the dead men and the women they left behind, made for a lot of telling instead of showing. I definitely get that Amara is starting out as a somewhat naive and hopeful person, and has to become more hardened as she is finding out dark truths about those around her and the potential demonic activity, but her voice was very stilted, and at times hamfisted in execution. There were many times that it took me out of the story, and her inner thoughts would project a very obvious plot point that was coming up because of how much telling she was doing. It was too bad, because I think that had Amara’s voice been a little more complex this would have connected a lot better with me.

“Island Witch” was a mixed bag for me. I loved the effort and the greater themes, but the narrative style muddled it up a bit.

Rating 6: Overall I liked the themes of misogyny and colonial oppression and group think, but I thought that the voice of the main character was a little more simplistic than I had hoped for, and made it a stilted flow.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Island Witch” is included on the Goodreads lists “Popsugar 2024 #40: A Horror Book Written by a BIPOC Author”, and “Historical Fiction 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “Almost Surely Dead”


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

Book: “Almost Surely Dead” by Amina Akhtar

Publishing Info: Mindy’s Book Studio, February 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: A psychological thriller with a twist, Almost Surely Dead is a chilling account of how one woman’s life spins out of control after a terrifying—and seemingly random—attempt on her life.

Dunia Ahmed lives an ordinary life—or she definitely used to. Now she’s the subject of a true crime podcast. She’s been missing for over a year, and no one knows if she’s dead or alive. But her story has listeners obsessed, and people everywhere are sporting merch that demands “Find Dunia!” In the days before her disappearance, Dunia is a successful pharmacist living in New York. The daughter of Pakistani immigrants, she’s coping with a broken engagement and the death of her mother. But then something happens that really shakes up her someone tries to murder her. When her would-be killer winds up dead, Dunia figures the worst is over. But then there’s another attempt on her life…and another. And police suspect someone close to her may be the culprit. Dunia struggles to make sense of what’s happening. And as childhood superstitions seep into her reality, she becomes convinced that someone—or some thing —is truly after her.

Review: I was such a fan of Amina Akhtar’s “Kismet” when it came out, and I knew that I was going to be waiting on pins and needles for her next thriller novel to make its way to my book pile. And the time has finally arrived, as “Almost Surely Dead” has finally been released! I preordered this book for my Kindle, as between my love for her previous book, the description, and the cover, it was a hugely anticipated release for 2024 for me. And much like “Kismet” before it, once I sat down with it, I basically devoured it in about two sittings.

As a thriller mystery, Akhtar has a lot of the twists, turns, and slow build of suspense that I like to see in the genre. When we first meet Dunia, she is being attacked in the subway by a man she has only seen in passing, and when his attack fails, he throws himself in front of a train, saying that he ‘had to’. This kicks off a strange and unnerving mystery about who wants Dunia dead, and what lengths they will go to to make it happen, with a narrative told from her perspective as she grows more and more paranoid, as well as a podcast transcript that fills in the gaps that she can’t see after she has gone missing. We also get flashbacks to her childhood, and see her family life that consists of her cold mother, her caring (but not long for this world) father, and hot and cold older sister Nadia, as well as an overall fear that she was being haunted by something as a child. Through all of these perspectives, we see a woman who has endured a lot of trauma in her life, and whose recent victimization and subsequent disappearance has a lot of reveals that worked well for me. Some things were a but more obvious than others, but then there would be a huge twist that did, in fact, catch me off guard, and made for a gripping read that I could hardly put down.

And I really, really liked the dark fantasy and horror beats that are whispering throughout this novel. Akhtar does a good job of weaving in the jinn myth and showing how sinister this creature can be, and the ways that it can mess with a person’s perception of reality while pulling them into a devious web. I liked the ambiguity of some of this, while also knowing that SOMETHING supernatural is going on, and that Dunia’s childhood interest in jinns may have had something bigger going on besides just a general fascination. While it’s clear from the jump there there is SOMETHING supernatural going on, Akhtar still manages to effectively blur the lines between otherworldly and all too worldly threats (obsessive exes, toxic parental relationships, trauma), which makes for a suspenseful tale that kept me guessing. I also liked how it was so tied to Dunia’s culture, and how the thing that she may be experiencing isn’t going to be wholly comprehended properly through a Western lens without the cultural context.

I did have one small quibble that I wanted to note, however. I mentioned the podcast transcript device earlier, and I overall enjoyed that choice and how it made it so we could see other sides of the mystery that Dunia herself couldn’t see or portray in a first person perspective. I also just love ‘found media’ and epistolary tropes. But the one thing that took me out of it a bit was how two dimensional the two podcast hosts, Amanda and Danielle were, and how they really just felt like personifications of the criticisms of ‘true crime appeal’ as a whole. Whether they are simpering over the mystery in a disingenuous way, or hawking products in a gauche manner, or being clueless and distasteful in how they present the case (or in how they have taken it on as a podcast), it felt a BIT like a not at all subtle ‘true crime is gross’ take that has been done a LOT in the past few years when it comes to using true crime as a plot point. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily fully disagree with this take (and this is coming from someone who listens to true crime podcasts), and do think that some platforms DO tread a bit into a distasteful and exploitative area. But as a take it’s not really a new one, and in this case it was ham-fisted and more about statement versus driving the plot forward. If it had been less obvious about it I’d probably have enjoyed it more.

But that’s merely a drop in a sea of a really fun and entertaining thriller! “Almost Surely Dead” was a breezy and suspenseful read, with dark fantasy and horror elements that meshed well with the story. Another win from Amina Akhtar!

Rating 8: A fast paced and suspenseful thriller tale with solid horror elements, “Almost Surely Dead” is another fun and gripping read from Amina Akhtar!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Almost Surely Dead” is included on the Goodreads list “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”.