Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer”

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Book: “I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer” by Doug Wagner & Daniel Hillyard (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Image Comics, December 2025

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

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

Book Description: Rennie Bethary has just been accepted into New York City’s most prestigious fashion school. Her designs are daring, edgy, and singular…and made of human flesh. Did we forget to mention Rennie is a serial killer who simply wants to be a fashion designer instead? Stupid, pesky, murderous urges!

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

Happy New Year everyone! 2025 was a mess in a lot of ways, but we are starting off fresh and we can only hope that we can rise above whatever the hell that was last year (though we’ve said that so many times before). But I thought that starting off with a bit of a bang would be fun, and with that I present a graphic horror/thriller novel that really caught my eye: “I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer” by Doug Warner and Daniel Hillyard just sounded like a lot of campy nasty fun, as someone who likes serial killer thrillers/horror AND satires of fashion and style. I had really high hopes for this one. Unfortunately it didn’t quite match my enthusiasm.

But first the positives! The biggest positive is that the premise is such a freakin’ fun one. I love the idea of a serial killer also having a passion for fashion design and having a dream to become a designer, while also making clothing and muck out of people who are wronging her and those around her, be they her friends, or the downtrodden, or those who are victimized. It feels a bit like “Dexter” while also having a bit of an undercurrent of ‘we love women’s wrongs’ that can be kind of fun in this day and age. I also enjoyed Rennie a lot, as she feels/knows she is a full on psychopath, but manages to find at least a tiny bit of humanity in her heart while she not only pursues a passion, but also makes a human connection with her classmate Sofie, who is so lovely and friendly and serves as a fun (though perhaps a bit old hat these days) foil for our more cynical and dark protagonist.

But on the other hand, I did find the pacing to be uneven. We have a pretty slow build, watching Rennie ease into her school life while also taking out sociopaths and predators, taking a couple of issues to establish her mindset and relationship and aspirations, connecting not only with Sofie but also with various mentors or butting heads with snotty classmates. And then in the third of the book we get some wild reveals and a huge confrontation that felt incredibly rushed and didn’t feel like it paid off because of it. I will say that the big reveal DID have some hints and build up and didn’t come completely out of left field, but at the same time once we did get the reveal out it still fell a little bit flat. I think that if there had been more issues there could have been a bit more of a reveal that matched the slower pacing.

And finally, I did enjoy the artwork, finding it to be cute and kind of retro at times, while also being SUPER disgusting at others. I don’t really want to show any of that here because I know that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Daniel Hillyard’s style matched the story well.

“I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer” had loads of potential and a really fun protagonist, but it didn’t quite hit the levels that I hoped for. I think it’s worth checking out, but I had hoped for more.

Rating 6: The premise is so good and I really enjoyed Rennie as an anti-hero, but it built almost too slowly and then rushed through the ending.

Reader’s Advisory:

“I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of late, but if you like books about women getting grisly revenge on those who wrong them or the patriarchy this could be a good fit!

Kate’s Review: “The Dead Husband Cookbook”

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

Book: “The Dead Husband Cookbook” by Danielle Valentine

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: She has the recipe for the perfect murder…

Maria Capello is a celebrity chef like no other. A household name, an inspiration, an icon. Her dozens of cookbooks and weekly television show, broadcast from her beautiful Italian-style kitchen, not to mention her line of bestselling supermarket sauces. And of course there’s her history. Once just the timid wife of famous chef Damien Capello, she stepped into the spotlight after Damien’s mysterious disappearance twenty years before. An event she’s never spoken about publicly until now, when it is announced that she is looking for a publisher for her memoirs.

Why is Maria willing to finally break her silence? Why does she turn down seven-figure offers from large publishing houses and sign up with a small press? And why does she do so on the condition that it is edited by Thea Woods? Thea is a lifelong fan but has never met Maria and can’t figure it out, plus she had been planning to hand in her notice that very day. But when she is invited to Maria’s remote farm to work on the manuscript, she can’t resist. After all, she may finally learn whether the rumours are that Maria killed Damien for his recipes and the legendary ‘secret ingredient’…

Review: I was kicking myself when I realized that I completely missed an opportunity to read “The Dead Husband Cookbook” by Danielle Valentine in time for the publication date. In part due to the fact that I really enjoyed Valentine’s previous book “Delicate Condition”. But also due to the fact that the premise of a celebrity chef being rumored to have murdered her husband, and potentially spilling all of the T regarding it to a desperate and ambitious editor. Oh, and the implied cannibalism. Because who doesn’t love a weird and twisted cannibal story? But I did eventually get it from the library, and when I started it I had a hard time putting it down, even in the whirlwind of the holiday season! Because “The Dead Husband Cookbook” is compulsive and incredibly addictive, and maybe I’m a weirdo for saying it, but also made me a little hungry…

Is this spoilery? Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll never tell. (source)

The premise is pretty straightforward. Thea Woods is a talented editor, but has found herself on thin ice at her publishing house due to the part she played in a pretty huge scandal that rocked the publishing world. She’s convinced she’s gong to be fired, but is shocked when she is instead requested to be the editor for the memoir of celebrity chef and powerhouse Maria Capello, who rocketed to stardom after her chef husband went missing and she followed in and improved upon his footsteps (and has been hounded by rumors and conspiracies of the role she played in the whole debacle). Thea jumps at the chance, desperate to close this deal in spite of the fact she has to go to Maria’s estate by herself and is soon drawn into weird shenanigans. The mystery at hand (did Maria murder her husband? Why did she insist upon Thea as her editor? Just what is happening at the estate?) is told through Thea’s perspective, as well as chapters from Maria’s memoir as she hands them to Thea bit by bit, and I thought that the structure was tense and intriguing, with both Thea AND Maria acting as unreliable narrators with secrets to hide and a lot to lose. The pacing is fast, there are some genuinely interesting and surprising twists, and I found myself shocked more often than not as I read through. I also really like that I found myself going back and forth in my head about whether or not Maria did, in fact, murder her husband, and I like having to really question the foundation and bare bones of a mystery like this.

But I also really liked the way that Valentine tackles themes of motherhood, the expectations of being a wife, and the way that married women and mothers have to constantly deal with frustrating expectations when it comes to how they can ‘have it all’. Whether it’s Thea who loves her child but feels like her husband doesn’t really understand the true challenges of being a mother and having a full time job, or Maria who had her own aspirations and dreams and ambitions but had to set them aside for her less talented (and caddish) husband, you find sympathy for two women who are both making terrible decisions and, in Maria’s case, possibly committing horrific acts. Valentine touched on similar issues in “Delicate Condition”, and while this one didn’t have the same level of oomph that that one had, it still had my blood boiling at times, whether it was because Thea’s husband was crumbling under the pressure of parenthood after one solitary night, or because Maria’s husband was complaining that she isn’t really fun anymore now that she’s a wife and mother while he’s running a business that she dreamed of. Feminine rage abound, and Valentine captures it quite well once again.

Oh, and yes, there are some really tasty sounding recipes in this book. I was absolutely tickled that Valentine threw in a lot of Italian dishes with some snappy/sarcastic names, and while I’m not a talented enough cook to know if they sounded like they were going to be amazing, I was, nonetheless, very interested in giving at least a few of them a whirl. The only Italian dish that I really know how to do is lasanga, but now I have some ideas to potentially try my hand at…

“The Dead Husband Cookbook” is another fun and suspenseful mystery from Danielle Valentine! I’m sorry I missed it on the first go around, and I will definitely be more in tune with what Valentine comes out with in the future!

Rating 8: A twisty mystery, a lot of righteous indignation about marriage and relationships, and some pretty fun recipes combine to make another enjoyable thriller from Danielle Valentine!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Dead Husband’s Cookbook” is included on the Goodreads list “Food-Related Fiction”.

Kate’s Favorite Reads of 2025: Picks 5-1

Another a year, another almost impossible task trying to each choose our Top 10 Reads of the year! Like past years I won’t be including re-reads, sometimes my opinion of a book could change and evolve after I had read it, so some surprises may be up near the top, as well as perhaps a book or two that didn’t make my reviews on here initially due to genre limitations. But here they are, ready for a countdown! And since it’s the end of the reading year, don’t forget to enter our “Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway”! Today I’m going to countdown my favorite reads, five to one.

5. “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker

“Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” Review

I had read some of Kylie Lee Baker’s YA fiction before I picked up “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng”, so she wasn’t an unfamiliar author to me. But I was completely blown away by this book, in part because it was so incredibly creepy. But also because I felt like it captured so much of the reality of the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic in its early days, as well as the horrors of racism perpetrated against Asian Americans during that time, especially the violence against Asian American women. Cora is a great protagonist, and the mystery of the hungry ghost following her (who may also be the ghost of her murdered sister) was unsettling and eerie, and sometimes downright nightmare fuel. I am very excited to see what Baker does next (and luckily for me she has a new horror novel coming out in 2026, so stay tuned for that!).

4. “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Well it was bound to happen! Sometimes a Top Read of the year for me comes outside of my usual genres, and this time it was Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new historical fiction novel “Atmosphere”! I love Jenkins Reid’s books in general, but I think that this one is my favorite (CRAZY that it could dethrone “Malibu Rising”, but here we are!). This one follows NASA’s Space Program in the 80s when they were just starting to let women into the fold, and we follow two lady astronauts who have big dreams of going to space, not only dealing with the boys club that is NASA, but also dealing with their feelings for each other. It left me sobbing, like so many of Jenkins Reid’s books do.

3. “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

“The Mean Ones” Review

I am always so excited to discover a new must read author, and that totally happened with Tatiana Schlote-Bonne due to her folk horror/feminine rage horror novel “The Mean Ones”! I had been dying to get this book at ALA and it was one of my greatest finds there, and when I read it I was completely enthralled. There’s backwoods horror! There are unreliable narrator beats! There are complicated/straight up toxic female friendships! All of these things are sure to get my attention, and “The Mean Ones” went pedal to the metal and didn’t let up until it was good and ready to.

2. “Not Quite Dead Yet” by Holly Jackson

“Not Quite Dead Yet” Review

I loved Holly Jackson’s “Good Girls Guide to Murder” books, and when I found out that she was going to take on an adult novel I was very interested to see what that was going to look like. I got “Not Quite Dead Yet” from NetGalley and planned to read it on and off during our trip to Philadelphia, but then ended up just tearing through it, totally invested and also crying on and off. The idea of a woman named Jet having to solve her inevitable murder due to a head wound caused by a mystery person was so interesting, but then I fell in love with Jet and it became all the more devastating. The mystery is sound, the characters are great, and it was just so damn good I knew at the time that it was making my top three of the year. If you were wondering if Jackson could make the jump from YA to adult fiction, “Not Quite Dead Yet” proves that not only could she do it, she excelled at it.

and 1. “King Sorrow” by Joe Hill

“King Sorrow” Review

It had been so long since Joe Hill had written a full length novel, and not only was I looking forward to his return to form, I was looking forward to a horror novel about a dragon!!! And my God, this book completely and fully blew me away. It’s almost one thousand pages but I still managed to read it in a few days because I just couldn’t put it down. Hill has not only created an amazing dragon, but also some fantastic lore, unforgettable characters, INCREDIBLE tension, and a story about friendship, greed, power, and sacrifice. I so loved this book. Joe Hill continues to leave me amazed and in awe of his vision and his storytelling. It was well worth the wait.

That’s it for my favorite reads of 2025! What were some of yours this year?

Kate’s Favorite Reads of 2025: Picks 10-6

Another a year, another almost impossible task trying to each choose our Top 10 Reads of the year! Like past years I won’t be including re-reads, sometimes my opinion of a book could change and evolve after I had read it, so some surprises may be up near the top, as well as perhaps a book or two that didn’t make my reviews on here initially due to genre limitations. But here they are, ready for a countdown! And since it’s the end of the reading year, don’t forget to enter our “Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway”! Today I’m going to countdown my favorite reads, ten to six.

10. “Dark Sisters” by Kristi DeMeester

“Dark Sisters” Review

This one eeked in at the very last minute, but I had to have it on the list because it so thoroughly entranced me and kept me on the edge of my seat. This witch story that takes on patriarchal religion, misogyny, and generational trauma has a lot of feminine rage, a compelling family line, and a super creepy community that leans into their conservative Christianity while demonizing an entity known as the Dark Sisters that they say brings disease to the women in the town. Kristi DeMeester is a solid voice in horror and this one was a winner!

9. “The Scammer” by Tiffany D. Jackson

“The Scammer” Review

It had been a bit since I’d read an addictive YA thriller from Jackson, and we once again get a ripped from the headlines story that not only snares the reader into its web (cults after all!), it also focuses on the way that psychopaths can manipulate people around them to do their bidding and to keep them under their thumbs. Jackson also touches on the fact that marginalized groups that have been the victims of those in power can have their own unique susceptibility to lies and conspiracies because they have been victimized, harmed, and lied to so many times. I really enjoy everything by Jackson and this one was a great thriller.

8. “Everyone Is Lying To You” by Jo Piazza

“Everyone Is Lying To You” Review

My morbid fascination with tradwife propaganda combined with a fun murder mystery and made this super fun and twisty read that had been on my ‘must read list’ ever since I heard about it. Because while the actual tradwife to alt right pipeline scares the crap out of me, I LOVE a good murder mystery that has some witty and biting social commentary. Piazza knows her stuff and I got a good deal of her references, and her scathing critique of the hypocrisies of these influencers (and some of the creepier husbands) was really fun to read.

7. “The Possession of Alba Díaz” by Isabel Cañas

“The Possession of Alba Díaz” Review

Isabel Cañas is one of my favorite horror authors writing at the moment (we actually just read “The Hacienda” for book club so watch out for that review in January!), and “The Possession of Alba Díaz is quite possibly my favorite of her works. I say this as someone who doesn’t generally go for possession stories unless they have some great deconstructions or subversions of the sub-genre, and that’s obviously because this one does all of that really effectively. Mostly because there are bigger threats to Alba Díaz than the demon that is possessing her… Like colonialism and the Inquisition. Throw in a heady romance and you have a winning horror novel for me!

6. “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones

“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” Review

It’s always a joy to read Stephen Graham Jones’s horror novels, as he brings in a focus on Indigenous culture as well as a true literary flair to his stories that really elevate them, and “Buffalo Hunter Hunter” is another superb tale of terror. I love the way that he weaves an epistolary tale, as well as one that is steeped in folk lore and history, with unreliable narrators and unexpected beats. And a very intriguing vampire! I found this take on vampirism on conjunction with a take down of Manifest Destiny to be especially harrowing, and as we peeled back layer after layer the real life horrors of American violence towards Indigenous People became far more scary than any vampire Jones could throw at the reader. Which is certainly by design. God I love Stephen Graham Jones’s works.

So that’s ten through six. Next time I will give a countdown of my top five. What have been some of your favorite reads of 2025?

Kate’s Review: “Hark the Herald Angels Scream”

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

Book: “Hark the Herald Angels Scream” by Christopher Golden (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Anchor, October 2018

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. Marley untying the bandage that holds his jaws together. The hideous children–Want and Ignorance–beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The heavy ledgers Marley drags by his chains. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts.
Bestselling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.

Review: I have sort of made it a tradition to try and read and review some kind of holiday horror in the days leading up to the Solstice/Christmas here on the blog, and I actually had a harder time finding something this year. Unlike the previous two years we didn’t have a brand new collection of holiday horror tales (at least none I could find), so I went back to 2018 with the anthology “Hark the Herald Angels Scream”, edited by Christopher Golden. I do like Golden’s books for the most part, and the collection does boast a good deal of pretty fun horror authors. I settled into it, getting into the Christmas spirit in a spooky kind of way! And it was a pretty okay read, all things considered. One that definitely got me in the spirit.

Footage of me getting into said spirit. (source)

You guys no doubt know the drill, but here it is again. I will review in detail my three favorite stories in the collection, and then review the collection as a whole.

“Absinthe and Angels” by Kelley Armstrong: I love it when a short stories collection starts off with a bang, and did it ever with this first tale in the anthology. Michael and Ava are spending a solitary Christmas Eve in an isolated cabin, miles from any other person, hoping to have peace and quiet and to read Dickens over drinks. But then a group of mummers knock on the door, singing carols and demanding food and wine. And they aren’t so willing to leave without getting what they want. The building dread and uncanny weirdness of the Christmas Eve visitors was deeply unsettling, feeling like we were on the brink of an home invasion or something worse, and I really liked the creepiness. It’s a great way to start us off!

“It’s A Wonderful Knife” by Christopher Golden: Christopher Golden contributed a story to the collection and it was definitely a fun one that didn’t HAVE to be Christmas-y, but benefited from it because of a puntastic title. A young woman named Cassie has the opportunity to not only attend an elite Hollywood Christmas party, she also has the chance to tour a strange collection of Hollywood artifacts owned by a powerful (and predatory) producer. In this collection is a strange knife… This was a cathartic and satisfying read, with scummy Hollywood predators getting some comeuppance along with some nostalgic Hollywood factoids. Not super scary, but definitely very wicked and gratifying.

“Hiking Through” by Michael Koryta: This was probably my favorite story of the lot, because man oh man does it hit so many sub-genres and tropes that I love. A young man hiking the Appalachian trail in Maine during the winter hears story around the campfire with fellow hikers of a strange woman who may be a witch. I mean come on. I love a witch story, I really like wilderness horror, and the winter setting in Appalachia made it all the more weird and eerie. I also loved the way that it flowed, feeling both incredibly tense but also somewhat lackadaisical. And the final line? WOW.

There were a couple other stand outs (I was laughing out loud repeatedly at the story “Good Deeds” by Jeff Strand because it just EVISCERATES that stupid “Christmas Shoes” song, which I have hated forever), but there were also a few that really didn’t work for me. I also kind of found a repetitive theme of children coming to harm, which just felt a bit repetitive as time went on. This whole ‘it’s the most wonderful time of year that children look forward to, so let’s make children suffer’ vibe just kind of felt unoriginal every time it happened, and I feel like you can do more to subvert a favorite children’s holiday than by just doing child death and injury.

But that said, if you are looking for some Christmas horror tales as we inch closer and closer to the big day, “Hark the Herald Angels Scream” is a pretty good place to start! The ones I liked I really liked.

Rating 7: There are some really fun holiday horror tales here, as well as some middling ones, but there is almost certainly something for every kind of horror fan in these pages.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Hark the Herald Angels Scream” is included on the Goodreads lists “Creepy Christmas”, and “Holiday Horror Books”.

Kate’s Review: “Dark Sisters”

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

Book: “Dark Sisters” by Kristi DeMeester

Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Press, December 2025

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

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

Book Description: Three women. Three centuries. One legacy of fury, love, and a power that refuses to die

In this fiercely captivating novel, horror meets historical fiction when a curse bridges generations, binding the fates of three women. Anne Bolton, a healer facing persecution for witchcraft, bargains with a dark entity for protection—but the fire she unleashes will reverberate for centuries. Mary Shephard, a picture perfect wife in a suffocating community, falls for Sharon and begins a forbidden affair that could destroy them both. And Camilla Burson, the rebellious daughter of a preacher, defies conformist expectations to uncover an ancient power as her father’s flock spirals into crisis.

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

Every year around the holidays when I’m doing my shopping, I try to grab some goodies from the Etsy shop Scent from Hell. It’s a candle store that is inspired by horror movies. I have a few of the candles that have been available over the years, with scents inspired by such wonderful things as “The Witch”, “Dracula”, “The Blair Witch Project”, and more. And to make things even better, the owner, Kristi DeMeester, is a horror author that I really enjoy! And her newest novel “Dark Sisters” is out, and I was VERY excited to read it! I love stories with dark magic, witches, and horror as a metaphor for generational trauma already, and when you add in a critique of a zealous religious fervor? Oh gosh yes I am all about it.

This story is told through three different perspectives in three different time periods, all within the community of Hawthorne Springs, a deeply Christian, deeply prosperous town with a devout church culture. In 2007, pastor’s daughter Camille is gearing up to finally attend her first Purity Ball, as much as her mother is reluctant to let her do so. But people in town, specifically women, are getting sick, with an illness that is thought to be due to a witches curse that is known as The Dark Sisters. In 1953, Mary Shepherd is trying to do her best to be a doting wife and loving mother as a housewife, but she falls in love with a pagan woman who makes her feel like herself. And in the 1750s, a healer woman named Anne is hoping to keep herself and her daughter Florence, who is deeply Christian and longs for her own path, safe, bargaining in a way that goes wrong and has deadly consequences. I really liked all of the stories, and enjoyed how DeMeester slowly unfolds all of these women’s paths, connecting them in ways that could be obvious, but feel fresh and interesting. I thought that the witch and magical aspects of this book were appropriately creepy while also feeling powerful and awe inspiring, and as we see the unfortunate consequences start to unravel the tension and scares go faster and faster, with the stakes high not only because of a dark magic that is dangerous and deadly, but also because of a patriarchal religious culture that does its own damage, and takes advantage of the women within it to gain more power and influence whilst causing harm to said women.

And let’s talk about those themes, because they were the most compelling part of this book. The feminine rage in this book is tied to the way that Hawthorne Springs credits its success and wealth to a good Christian devotion, so much so that those that stray (mostly women) are shunned, rebuked, sent away for reprogramming, and in some cases fall ill with an affliction that may or may not kill them. DeMeester isn’t shy when portraying such things as religious abuse, misogyny, and high control tactics used by men to control the women they wish to be subservient, but she is also very good at pointing out the differences of experience between the women, which can make them pit themselves against each other in hopes of being spared or seen as an exception. She makes sure to show it in all of the timelines, whether it’s Florence hoping that choosing a Christian path (and betraying her mother) will keep her safe, or gossip setting off a domino effect that sets Mary’s life towards ruin, or Camille being willing to be the perfect pastor’s daughter to reap the benefits whilst rebelling flagrantly when others are sent off for re-education for much less. I really found that to be upsetting, while also fully recognizing how on point it is, especially these days.

“Dark Sisters” is a creepy and angry horror novel that I really enjoyed. If you’ve been experiencing some feminine rage as of late, I highly suggest checking it out.

Rating 9: A dark and angry tale about control, men who take advantage of women’s power, and feminine rage at the breaking point, “Dark Sisters” feels unfortunately timely and brings a lot of witchy scares.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dark Sisters” is included on the Goodreads lists “Witches, Goddesses, or Nuns”, and “Feral Women”.

Kate’s Review: “Carried Away”

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

Book: “Carried Away: Surviving the Unimaginable” by T.J. Derry

Publishing Info: Dead Icon Collective, November 2025

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

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

Book Description: A tropical surf escape turns catastrophic when a tsunami hits, stranding four best friends in a fight for survival. Injured, disoriented, and cut off from the world, they face a brutal test no one could have prepared for.

For Cole, the trip was meant to be a reset—surf, sun, and nothing serious. But an unexpected connection with Kendal, a grounded, perceptive traveler, changes everything. Just as their romance begins to take root, disaster sweeps it all away.

Days stretch into an ordeal of dehydration, exposure, predators—and unraveling minds. The paradise they came to enjoy becomes a crucible that tests every instinct, bond, and belief.

Told with visceral realism and poetic restraint, Carried Away explores the thin lines between fear and love, chaos and clarity, life and loss. For fans of The Beach, Into the Wild, and Unbroken, it’s a gripping debut about friendship, survival, and the beautiful brutality of waking up to your own life.

A portion of the proceeds from book sales will be donated to Sungai Watch, an organization dedicated to reducing ocean pollution by cleaning up Indonesia’s rivers.

Review: Thank you to Dead Icon Collective for sending me an ARC of this novel!

It’s going to be incredibly cold in Minnesota this weekend. Like, -25 degrees below cold. This is how it can be here in L’Etoile du Nord, so perhaps spending some time leading up to it reading a book about a surfing trip gone horribly wrong made the impending frigid temps not feel so bad…. Maybe. But I will say that as I read “Carried Away” by T.J. Derry, I found myself thinking I was grateful this ice box of a state doesn’t have to worry about tsunamis. I do love this kind of survival story, so I wanted to read it when it came across the inbox.

I will say that this book moved a little slow for me at first. I wholly understand the need for laying the groundwork as Cole and his friends Kavi, Logan, and Fern settle in for an ambitious surfing trip in Indonesia, setting up the beautiful backdrop, the charming people they meet on their journey (including the effervescent Kendal, with whom Cole shares a deep connection). But for me, I was really excited to get to the survival thriller aspect of the book, and I’m wholly impatient which is probably on me.

But once we got to the tsunami and the aftermath of it, I was basically locked in. I LOVE wilderness survival tales, as someone who doesn’t do much ‘wilderness’-ing, and this one felt like a mix of “The Shallows” and the old TV movie “Two Came Back” (which is based on the actual survival story of Deborah Scaling Kiley). As Cole and his friends have to survive on a makeshift raft with no food or water, and then on an isolated and decimated small island, the deteriorating conditions of him and his friends and their situation is tense and gripping. I enjoyed how the danger didn’t really go away once they were on land, but just shifted due to the presence of a giant salt water crocodile and one of their friends being gravely injured and becoming weaker and weaker. I love crocodilians, and it’s not often that I’ve seen one being used in a survival story like this.

So while the start was a bit slower, once the meat of the survival tale began I was locked in. “Carried Away” had solid suspense and some interesting introspection the things you may miss out on if you chase adventure to situations that may not let you go.

Rating 7: Once we got to the wilderness survival aspects of the book I was fully invested! Its hard to say no to sharks and a giant crocodile!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Carried Away” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Wilderness Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “Midnight Somewhere”

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

Book: “Midnight Somewhere: A Short Story Collection

Publishing Info: Blackstone Publishing, December 2025

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

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

Book Description: From Bram Stoker Award–nominated author Johnny Compton, Midnight Somewhere is a frightening collection of thought-provoking stories perfect for fans of Stephen King’s Night Shift , Tananarive Due’s The Wishing Pool , and the work of Junji Ito.

A man gets into a car that can take him anywhere he can imagine—including the past, into the worst mistake of his life, a memory he does not want to relive, cannot escape, and is even more afraid to alter …

A seemingly harmless, forgettable film about “alien hand syndrome” inspires a wave of self-harm among viewers—and even stranger things among those who become obsessed with it …

A woman tries to bring her dead lover to life through a macabre ritual that requires attacking his corpse. Is it because she longs to be with him again … or because the two of them have unfinished business?

The assorted characters in this thrilling collection encounter horrors that range from mysterious to murderous, discovering that darkness can find anyone, anywhere, at any hour of the day. After all, it’s always Midnight Somewhere …

Review: Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for sending me an eARC of this book!

I may just have to refer to 2025 as the Year I Read ALL The Short Story Collections”, because it was a LOT this year. Even though I had great luck with all of the anthologies and collections I read this year, I was always kind of waiting for the bubble to pop, wondering if THIS one would be the one that reinforced my general wariness of the format. When Blackstone Publishing reached out with Johnny Compton’s new horror collection “Midnight Somewhere”, I was interested, but in the back of my mind I was wondering if this was when the other shoe was going to drop. After all, I read his book “The Spite House” and it didn’t really click with me. But I decided to go for it, and am I ever glad I did! Because “Midnight Somewhere” was a great short stories collection!

As I usually do for short stories collections, I will review my three favorite stories, then I will review the collection as a whole.

“The Death Grip Challenge”: This was one of the first stories in the collection and it was the one that made me really settle in with excitement about what I was reading. A girl has been noticing that her father has been starting to act strangely after he started getting really into a viral video trend involving a B-horror film with a possessed hand. This one has a slow burn build up where you just know that something is creeping up on the characters (AND the reader), and I was so tense by the time we got to the climax I was totally wrung out. It’s weird and unexplained and also taps into very real anxieties about viral trends and everyone needing to get in on the action, no matter how harmful.

“Monster Bites”: As someone who loves her three cats to death (as well as all cats I’ve owned throughout my life), I was obviously going to have a special place in my heart for the scary story with the pet. Elisa hasn’t really connected with her girlfriend Grace’s dog Dandy after moving in, keeping her at arm’s length except for their evening walks. But when Elisa and Dandy run afoul something one evening, their true colors come out. This one is one of the less scary tales just because of how damn wholesome it is, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have scary bits! Some of the descriptions of the threat really, really set me on edge, and one is ALWAYS nervous when animals as involved in a horror story. But not to fret: no trigger warnings for animal harm in this one, and that’s all I will say.

“He Used to Scare Me By Accident”: This was probably my favorite story in the collection, and man does it kind of just kick you in the gut with creepiness and a quiet sadness to boot. Olivia and Stephen are a happy couple, though Olivia’s jumpiness manages to lead to Stephen scaring her by accident more often than not. Still, their marriage is solid and he is more than happy to try and warn her whenever he is coming just in case. Except the one time he doesn’t…. I can’t talk about this one TOO much without spoiling it, but I will say that I found myself deeply saddened by a few of the turns it took, if only because so much of what this story is about is regret, loss, and the things that we have done that continue to haunt us. I actually said ‘wow’ when I turned the last page.

And really, this is a very strong collection as a whole! Compton has a lot of different tones and ideas here, some of them deeply scary, others a little sweet, and even others incredibly witty and sometimes laugh out loud funny. And some of them are just so out there in the best ways (a rollercoaster coming to life and running off into the wilderness, what on EARTH?!). I don’t think that any were true clunkers, and the ones that didn’t hit as much were more about personal preference than anything the stories themselves did. It’s been a huge year of short story collections in my reading, and it’s collections like this that made me really pleased to give the format so many chances for the past year.

“Midnight Somewhere” is a lot of fun! I’m so glad that I decided to check it out, and horror fans really should too. Guess I have to go back and read Compton’s “Devils Kill Devils”!

Rating 8: A varied and incredibly entertaining collection of short horror stories with lots of different tones, vibes, and scares.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Midnight Somewhere” isn’t included on many Goodreads lists as of now, but it would absolutely fit in on “Horror: Short Stories”.

Kate’s Review: “Oxford Soju Club”

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Book: “Oxford Soju Club” by Jinwoo Park

Publishing Info: Dundum Press, September 2025

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

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

Book Description: When North Korean spymaster Doha Kim is mysteriously killed in Oxford, his protege, Yohan Kim, chases the only breadcrumb given to him in Doha’s last breath: “Soju Club, Dr. Ryu.” In the meantime, a Korean American CIA agent , Yunah Choi, races to salvage her investigation of the North Korean spy cell in the aftermath of the assassination. At the centre of it all is the Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in Oxford, owned by Jihoon Lim, an immigrant from Seoul in search of a new life after suffering a tragedy. As different factions move in with their own agendas, their fates become entangled, resulting in a bitter struggle that will determine whose truth will triumph.

Oxford Soju Club weaves a tale of how immigrants in the Korean diaspora are forced to create identities to survive, and how in the end, they must shed those masks and seek their true selves.

Review: Thank you to River Street Writing for sending me an eARC of this novel!

I’m not really one for spy and espionage thrillers, but when “Oxford Soju Club” by Jinwoo Park ended up in my inbox I had a hard time saying no. Maybe it’s because I am always trying to stretch my reading boundaries. But I also was super intrigued by the idea of North Korean spies trying to maneuver in England with the CIA hot on their tails. I decided to go for it, and I’m happy I did because I found this spy story contained surprises I wasn’t expecting.

So yes, the spy elements are pretty present, but it is done in a way that was interesting to me. We have three separate perspectives for each chapter, setting up a flashpoint of North Korean spies in the face of a shifting political landscape, a CIA agent trying to keep track of their movements, and a South Korean restaurant owner whose business serves as a backdrop for politicking, all set in Oxford, England. Yohan Kim’s mentor, fellow North Korean spy Doha Kim, has been stabbed to death, and with his dying breath he tells Yohan to go to the Soju Club restaurant to meet with the mysterious Dr. Ryu. It starts the novel off with a bang, and it’s only the start as Yohan tries to keep himself safe and discreet, while CIA agent Yunah Choi starts to make moves for the American side of spies as the heat starts to turn up in the wake of North Korean regime change and political shifts, making openings for American intelligence. And while spies make moves, they all center at the Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in Oxford that is run by South Korean immigrant Jihoon Lim. The story goes quickly in the present, while flashing back to see all of the characters paths that lead up to this point with double crosses, deaths, conspiracies, and unthinkable pressure. I do admit that sometimes I found the pacing and time jumps to be a little confusing, and found myself having to read back to keep up a fair amount. Spy stories are complicated enough without hasty time jumping.

The other huge theme of this book, and the theme that resonated the most for me, was a common feeling between all of our characters, be they spies or civilians, about their connection to their Korean identity and how it informs their choices and movements forward. For Yohan, his ties to the North are mostly because of his relationship with his mentor Doha, whose influence has shaped Yohan’s entire perspectives as this point, and whose companionship is really all he’s ever known. For Yunah, she is the daughter of Korean immigrants who raised her in New Jersey, and who has been treading a line between her American childhood and her relationship with parents who have so many dreams for her that she can’t quite line up with. And for the non-spy Jihoon, he is trying to make an homage to his mother, who ran a restaurant in Seoul and whose love has inspired him to open his own Korean restaurant in Oxford. We followed all of these perspectives and got an insight into all of their motivations, and I found it poignant and emotional given that in spy/espionage stories there are few happy endings.

“Oxford Soju Club” was a tense thriller with a lot of emotions at its center. It was a pleasant surprise that went to places I didn’t expect! Confusing timeline shifts aside, I enjoyed it.

Rating 7: While it is a spy thriller on the surface, “Oxford Soju Club” is also an examination of identity, culture, loyalty, and the conflicts that can come with them.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Oxford Soju Club” is included on the Goodreads list “ATY 2026: Korean or Korean Diaspora Author”.

Kate’s Review: “Watch Us Fall”

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Book: “Watch Us Fall” by Christina Kovac

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster, December 2025

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

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

Book Description: Lucy and her three best friends share a glamorous but decaying house in the heart of Georgetown. They call themselves “the Sweeties” and live an idyllic post-grad lifestyle complete with exciting jobs, dramatic love lives, and, most importantly, each other.

But when Addie, the group’s queen bee, discovers that her ex-boyfriend Josh has gone missing, the Sweeties’ worlds are turned upside down. In the days leading up to his disappearance, Josh, a star investigative journalist from a prominent political family, was behaving erratically—and Lucy is determined to find out why. All four friends upend their lives to search for him, but detectives begin to suspect that the Sweeties might know more than they’re letting on.

As the investigation unfolds, Lucy’s obsession with the case reaches a boiling point, and with it, her own troubling secrets begin bubbling to the surface of her carefully curated life. A thrilling account of the lies and delusions that lurk beneath cloistered groups of female friends and the sinister realities of celebrity, Watch Us Fall is a gripping mystery and an examination of the things we tell ourselves when we can’t face the truth.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity for sending me an ARC of this novel!

After a couple years of slow starts to Minnesota winters, we FINALLY got a solid amount of snowfall just in time for Thanksgiving! And it looks like it’s going to be a cold and snowy winter for the foreseeable future. I, for one, am stoked, because I LOVE having snow on the ground for the holiday season. I also love having books to read that match the feel of the winter wonderland that we get for winters in Minnesota, and “Watch Us Fall” by Christina Kovac is a perfect pairing for the weather. Does it have a snowy setting? Yes. Does it have a strange mystery at its heart involving a missing person, a political dynasty, and close roommates who also have secrets? Yes. Does that make something I definitely want to read? Oh yes.

We have two narratives at hand with this mystery: the first is that of Lucy, our first person narrator who is connected to missing person Josh through her roommate/dear friend Addie, and who is trying to piece together what happened after the fact. The second is that of Josh himself, told in a third person narrative in the time leading up to his disappearance, generally starting around the time he began seeing Addie. Sometimes I am a bit hesitant when a story switches between POV styles, but I thought that it worked for the most part in this book, mostly because it helped peel back some layers of the mystery in ways that we couldn’t have if it was just one or the other. Along with that, it is an interesting way to throw in some misdirections and red herrings in ways that kept me on my toes, as I found myself thinking ‘ah, okay, I think I have this figured out’, only to then say ‘no, wait, that’s not it, maybe it’s THIS’. As we make our way to the point where both narratives converge, we have learned a fair amount about both Lucy and Josh that then made for the final push to be suspenseful and gripping.

I think that one criticism I had was that when I read the description it sounded like we were going to have a lot of focus on all of the Sweeties and their friendships as they connected to each other in different ways. But instead of having a number of interesting female friends with differing dynamics, we didn’t really get to see much of Estella and Penelope. Lucy as a character was fine, but at times I found her to be a bit grating, and if we had a bit more from Estella and Penelope to balance it out a bit I think that it would have worked better for me. On top of that, I’m not sure if I felt that some of the final twists and reveals were earned. I found myself a little underwhelmed by aspects of the solution to the mystery as a whole, but that is very possibly a very subjective thing and it may not apply to everyone.

BUT! The winter setting is basically perfect for this time of year. Like I stated above, I love it when winter settles in and the books I pick up match the vibe, and “Watch Us Fall” definitely has that winter mystery vibe! If you have the snow like we do and you like thrillers, consider picking it up!

Rating 7: A suspenseful mystery with generally successful dual narratives (though I wanted more from other characters), “Watch Us Fall” is a perfect winter read for thriller fans.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Watch Us Fall” is included on the Goodreads lists “I Support Women’s Wrongs”, and “Books With Unreliable Narrators”.