Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “Bone of My Bone”

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

Book: “Bone of My Bone” by Johanna van Veen

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at PLA 2026

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

Book Description: The year is 1635.

Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, and Elsebeth, a sharp-witted peasant, escape a band of marauding soldiers and disappear into the Bavarian forest. War scorches the land, and no one survives it alone. Amid the devastation, they find something in the arms of a dying the gilded skull of a saint.

It is said that if you reunite the saint’s skull with her body, a wish will be granted. Desperate for salvation, and each with secret desires of their own, Ursula and Elsebeth follow a ragged map across the blighted countryside. But darkness follows them. A necromancer, drawn to the relic’s power. The saint herself, whispering at night. And as the lines between blessing and curse blur, the women must face a harrowing the magic they seek comes at a cost.

At the journey’s end, they’ll face an impossible choice—one that could tear apart everything they know… or bind them to each other forever.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC of this novel at PLA 2026!

Serena and I had the pleasure to go to the Public Library Association Conference this past April because it was in Minneapolis! How great that we could hop in a car and drive not even fifteen minutes away from my house and attend a book conference (we’ll be driving to ALA this year as well but Chicago is decidedly a longer trip). I restrained myself a bit when it came to ARCs as I knew that ALA was on the horizon, but I was THRILLED to see Johanna van Veen’s newest sapphic horror novel “Bone of My Bone” was available! I have enjoyed her past historical horror novels, and the creepy nun holding a skull on the cover definitely caught my eye. As I read the description I knew that I was going to be in for a treat. A dark and deeply upsetting treat, but a treat nonetheless, because it felt like a nice heady mix of “Evil Dead” and “The Witch” in a lot of ways. So obviously MY THING.

I was positively grinning from ear to ear! (source)

Our story has two protagonists with two perspective chapter types. The first is Sister Ursula, a nun who escaped from her nunnery leaving her sisters behind as mercenaries and soldiers descended. The second is Elsebeth, a peasant who has lost everything in the wake of the war due to violence from the soldiers. The two women team up, and then find what appears to be a Saint’s skull after meeting a dying man in the forest who has it in his possession. Believing that they could reunite it with its body and in turn receive wishes as reward (as they both have things they are desperate for), they go on a journey, the skull speaking to Elsebeth in her dreams. What they don’t know is a necromancer, assisted by a shambling corpse he has enslaved, is also in pursuit. I loved van Veen’s supernatural monsters of choice in this book (more on the real life monsters in a bit), with the main focus being split into two camps: necromancers/witches, and possessed dead called Nachzehers that necromancers use to achieve their own ends. The witchcraft is so appropriate for the time with the fears of witchcraft being incredibly prevalent, and I loved how creepy the necromancer was. As for his Nachzeher Otto, he is a former soldier who is being used against his will, though it becomes clear that he deserves whatever hell the necromancer brings to him (and the necromancer seems to think so too). The witchcraft was so creepy but powerful, and the Nachzeher, a folk monster from German culture, felt so Kandarian Demon Deadite in a lot of ways that I REALLY liked it. And don’t worry; there are other creepy creatures in these pages, though van Veen had me rather emotional with a couple of them due to the horrible ends that some met in life.

And van Veen’s choice of taking place during the Thirty Year’s War is such a dark but fantastic one. I don’t know as much about German history as I would like, especially during this time period, but to me this read as very unflinching and realistic in the horrors that a war that potentially killed 35% of the population would bring forth. This is probably one of the most brutal books I’ve read recently when it comes to the honest approach to the hell that civilians go through during wartime, with starvation, isolation, land loss, murder, and rape being pretty prevalent in the story (though the rape is mostly off page and referred to as opposed to depicted; this book also has a great list of trigger warnings in the back). A lot of the trauma experienced by Ursula and Elsebeth is haunting and emotional, and we explore their journeys of unpacking it and trying to work through it in ways that feel deeply tender and empathetic. Elsebeth in particular has had a terrible go of it, and her crisis of faith in contrast to Ursula faith as a nun bring up interesting and philosophical points as they are trying to reunite a potentially holy skull with its body in hopes of getting one wish. As mentioned I couldn’t help but think about Robert Eggers’s film “The Witch” at times in this book, as witchcraft is certainly a huge theme, but it also tackles just how much brutality women in dire circumstances had to endure, and how loss in one’s faith or the temptation to turn to something new is wholly understandable.

And I also just loved Ursula and Elsebeth’s burgeoning relationship. Their companionship starts due to shared trauma and determination, but then it turns into something so much more and I loved their growing romance. They just complement each other so well, and as they become more and more devoted the stakes just get higher and higher as they are in constant danger. I loved their love story.

“Bone of My Bone” is phenomenal. I cannot recommend it enough to horror fans. If you haven’t read anything by Johanna van Veen, consider this your sign to start.

Rating 9: Brutal and creepy while also being philosophical and tender, “Bone of My Bone” is van Veen’s best story yet. Just incredible.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bone of My Bone” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Books Set Pre-1800”, and “Horror Releases Coming in 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge”

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

Book: “A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge (Saffron Everleigh Mystery #4)” by Kate Khavari

Publishing Info: Crooked Lane Books, June 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: Saffron Everleigh returns to Ellington Manor after her grandfather suffers a heart attack. Back in her childhood home for the first time in years, Saffron faces tense family relationships made worse by the presence of the enigmatic Bill Wyatt, hired on as a doctor to the ailing Lord Easting. But the man is no doctor—in reality, he is a mysterious figure involved in the trafficking of dangerous government secrets, and his presence at Ellington can only mean trouble.

When their neighbors, the Hales, invite a spiritual medium into the village who starts angling for Saffron’s mother’s attention, Saffron realizes that there is more afoot in her hometown than she originally thought. Not to mention inviting Alexander to Ellington has put their budding relationship under her family’s microscope.

As tensions rise at Ellington, Bill demands that Saffron hand over old research documents belonging to her late father. With her relatives under his power as their ‘doctor,’ Saffron fears she may be forced to surrender the files along with her hopes of ever understanding her father’s obscure legacy. Nothing and no one is as they seem at Ellington. It’s through the perfumed haze of the séance’s smoke that Saffron must search for the truth before it’s too late.

Review: It is once again time to return to post WWI England and into the world of crime and botany! As I mentioned last time I reviewed this series, I am going to read and review the most recent Saffron Everleigh mystery by Kate Khavari when it comes out next month, but I needed to play catch up! So now I’m taking on “A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge”, in which our plant minded heroine Saffron Everleigh has to return to her family estate due to her grandfather having a heart attack, and finds that a dangerous nemesis has seamlessly placed himself there as well. And it may be true that a lot of mystery readers like a nemesis, but this time around it didn’t really work for me.

But first the positives! This biggest part of this book that worked for me was the plot about spiritualism, which had a huge resurgence after World War I due to the fact that so many soldiers died in a horrific way. Khavari has mentioned the losses that our characters, be they Saffron or her friend Elizabeth, have had to endure, with Saffron’s own father being killed in the trenches as well as her childhood sweetheart Wesley, who also happened to be Elizabeth’s brother. When Saffron, Alexander, and Elizabeth return to Ellington they find out that Elizabeth’s parents, the Hales, have hired a medium to have a seance to try and communicate with Wesley to make sure he is at peace. While none of our main characters believe in it and know the woman is a fraud, this was not uncommon during this time to see grifters who took advantage of people’s grief for monetary purposes. I really enjoyed how Khavari brought this in and made it one of the big mysteries, as they KNOW she is lying, but she sure seems to be on the level.

I also always enjoy the relationships between Saffron and her loved ones. The first and most pertinent in this book for me is her friendship with Elizabeth, who is dealing with the fallout from her suitor in the last book being a lying murderous criminal. She is deeply hurt by these revelations and isn’t doing so hot, and I enjoyed how Khavari doesn’t make this an easy experience for her and how it is causing strain between her and Saffron, who is trying to be a good friend but has her own problems. Eliza is still my favorite character in these books (with Lee being a close second, and he DOES show up here for a bit!), and it was kind of refreshing having her be more than the free spirited snarky friend. As for Alexander, I’m still not his biggest fan, but now that we are done with the will they or won’t they and he is just being a supportive boyfriend (who has to impress her incredibly judgmental family, specifically her grandparents the Lord and Lady Easting) who has his own knowledge and skills to add to the plot. I also liked the setting of the aristocratic manor of Saffron’s family, as it felt a little bit “Downton Abbey” as she deals with her snooty grandmother and her ailing grandfather, as well as the secrets that her mother Violet seems to be hiding.

But there was the other aspect of this book that had a huge theme and plot point, and that is the nefarious character of Bill, who showed up in the previous book as an antagonist and has managed to weasel his way into Saffron’s circle by masquereding as a doctor for the Lord Easting. He was introduced a bit out of the blue in the previous book, and in this book we find out he wants research from that Saffron’s father left behind. He is set up as an ultimate nemesis for Saffron, and the idea of wanting research secrets is interesting enough, but I felt like his presence made for the least amount of botany themes that we’ve seen in this series. I also didn’t enjoy their battles of the wits as much as I had hoped I would, because we’ve seen the Sherlock and Moriarty nemesis trope so many times and unless you really reclaim it, it just kind of comes off as hackneyed these days. Having the two mysteries at hand and one of them being so focused on Bill just threw the pacing off and made it feel like it dragged on and on.

“A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge” had its ups and downs, and I hope we get a bit more back into direct botanical research and themes for the next book.

Rating 6: I enjoyed the spiritualism storyline and Saffron’s relationships are still enjoyable, but wasn’t as into this new ‘prolonged nemesis’ angle that we got with Bill as it really bogged the rest of the story down.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge” is included on the Goodreads list “‘Revenge’ in the Title”.

Previously Reviewed:

Kate’s Review: “To The Last Gram”

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

Book: “To The Last Gram” by Shreya Davies & Vanessa Wong (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Difference Engine, April 2026

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

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

Book Description: Through her school days, where she must negotiate a precarious balancing act between her culture and fitting in, to her teenage years where appetites must be managed to keep up appearances, to her early adulthood where responsibilities feel overwhelming, Divya journeys from feelings of emptiness to finally finding fulfillment within.

To the Last Gram is an honest and hopeful story of feeling at odds with and finding a home in one’s community, family, and body, and of the yet-unfurling journey to embrace the fullness of life.

Review: Thank you to Difference Engine for sending me an eARC of this graphic novel!

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to lose some weight. I’ve always had a tricky relationship with my body, and while I had found myself feeling generally okay for a long time, in the past few years I’ve been more self conscious as having a child, being in my early 40s, and probably being in perimenopause or on the verge of it has made my body change in ways that felt upsetting to me as an elder Millennial who absolutely has self perception issues. So I signed up for a diet plan that touted itself as being flexible, giving you a calorie range to fall into to lose weight but still be able to maintain a healthy caloric intake. Well, me being me decided ‘why not just shave a few hundred calories off of that and never get in the range and always stay below it?! That’s the ticket!’ Spoiler alert: it was not the ticket and I found myself in a bad place mentally and verging on physically, and dropped the program. I came to the conclusion that I’m a little too susceptible to disordered eating and quit while I was ahead. I kept thinking about this moment in time while I was reading “To The Last Gram” by Shreya Davies. Because while I have never found myself dealing with a full blown eating disorder, the fact that it can and does happen doesn’t shock me. I went into this book steeling myself for an emotional story, and it absolutely was.

This is a fictional tale, but one gets the sense that it’s a bit personal as well. We follow Divya, a teenager girl who is trying to fit in at school in a culture that she isn’t familiar with, and who stands out not only due to her skin color but also because of her body size. She’s larger than her peers, she stands out in her gymnastics class, and even her pediatrician says that she’s obese and needs to eat better even though her mother prepares pretty typical homemade meals. As she tries to conform more to the beauty standards her new home finds acceptable, and as she becomes a teenager, she starts greatly restricting her caloric intake, and starts exercising excessively, until she is in full blown anorexia and fully obsessed about her weight. Divya’s story is incredibly emotional at times, but never treads into exploitative or (and I hate to say it in regards to EDs but I can’t think of another word) melodramatic, making it very easy to relate to Divya and to understand how she got to the point where she is alarmingly thin. Davies portrays the obsessiveness in a really well done way, whether it’s Divya shrinking before our eyes during work out montages or the imagery of food looking evil and scary in her mind’s eye. It definitely captures the complicated nature of EDs and how it is also a mental struggle that a person can get caught in.

I also appreciated that this story is fairly realistic and candid about eating disorders and how difficult they can be to work through, and that recovery isn’t always linear. We see the origins of Divya’s anorexia as a way she hopes to fit in and be more well liked, dropping calories and obsessing over exercise, but it isn’t a straight forward ‘she loses weight, develops anorexia, gets help, and lives happily ever after’. If anything it shows that she struggles with her disordered eating and body image on and off, sometimes falling back into anorexia, sometimes being able to stave it off for a bit, but never being fully ‘cured’. I felt like it reflects the reality of eating disorders, and while I’m sure that there are people who feel like they have been able to leave it behind, there are probably others who feel like it’s going to be a constant issue that needs mitigating and attention. I thought that showing this aspect gave the book a nice mix of hope and bittersweetness.

And finally, the artwork by Vanessa Wong worked pretty well for me. It’s a very unique style that I thought at first wouldn’t fit in with the topic, but it became pretty clear that it was going to capture the tone well with the designs and color schemes.

(source: Difference Engine)

“To the Last Gram” is a candid and hopeful graphic novel. It’s an emotional one too, but that makes it all the better.

Rating 8: A thoughtful and bittersweet but hopeful story about disordered eating, a search for belonging, and the non-linear path of healing from an eating disorder.

Reader’s Advisory:

“To the Last Gram” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Body Image in Graphic Lit”.

Kate’s Review: “Welcome to Hell”

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

Book: “Welcome to Hell: From the West Bank to Gaza” by Mohammad Sabaaneh

Publishing Info: Street Noise Books, June 2026

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

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

Book Description: A new graphic novel memoir chronicling the recent horrific days in Palestine, from Mohammad Sabaaneh, the winner of the Palestine Book Award.

This powerful graphic novel sheds light on the reality of life in both the West Bank and Gaza during this terrifying time. Told from the perspective of the author’s brother’s experience in prison and that of those in Gaza struggling to survive displacement, starvation, and attack.

In October of 2023, Sabaaneh went on a tour in Europe to promote his book about life under occupation in Palestine. Whether a Palestinian is inside a detention center or in any city or village, they are all in a big prison. The book ends with one message: ‘we will not leave.’ Upon his return to Palestine, he was trapped within the walls of his home—unable to see his aging parents, or his brother, who was locked away in an Israeli detention center.

So begins this vital story of struggle and survival.

Review: Thank you to Street Noise Books for sending me an eARC of this graphic memoir!

Memoirs are always a bit harder for me to evaluate because I never feel super comfortable critiquing a person’s lived experience, but what I do like to look for his how candid a memoir is and how it makes me feel. And because of this it’s probably not super surprising that many of the books that I’ve read about the Israel/Palestine conflict over the years that have resonated with me have been in graphic memoir or journalism form. Whether it was Joe Saccos’s book “Palestine”, or, interestingly enough, two books by “American Splendor’s Harvey Pekar, “Our Cancer Year” (written with his wife Joyce Brabner) and “Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me” (which was published after his death), I’ve found comics to be the things that have resonated most with this topic. So I was eager to check out “Welcome to Hell” by Mohammad Sabaaneh, expecting it to have a similar impact as the previous ones, and I was mostly right. Perhaps even more as this was written by a man who has been living the current genocide first hand, and speaks the truth that he, his family, and many others are facing at the moment.

“Welcome to Hell” is a short book, but within it’s fewer pages are a lot of gut punches and a lot of truths that are difficult to digest but also important to acknowledge. Sabaaneh is telling two different stories here; the first is that of his brother Thamer, who is a prisoner in an Israeli prison, and the second is that of numerous Palestinian families living in Gaza during the bombings done by Israel after October 7th, 2023. Sabaaneh draws comparisons between the way that his brother has to live in the literal prison, with violence, starvation, torture, and abuse being heaped upon him and his fellow prisoners, and the constant movement, starvation, fear, and violence that civilians living their lives in Gaza have to face, showing that the two realities aren’t terribly different and both are horrific. It’s not a very long graphic memoir, but Sabaaneh doesn’t waste a page and has a lot of important and devastating things to say, and does so effectively. Sabaaneh centers his brother as well as other people, though he does address his own experiences after October 7th and how getting home was perilous and then how restricted he was as well, unable to visit his family for months. It’s a harrowing and incredibly personal story, and it was a difficult read even though it’s absolutely a necessary one, especially as things just keep escalating in the Middle East at the moment and the death toll going up.

The art in this book is so incredibly unique it immediately stood out. It’s very much a cubist style, which makes the Israeli IDF/guards at the prison all the more surrealistic and monstrous, but also finds a way to find the vulnerability of Thamer and others who are being abused and displaced. At first I didn’t really know what I thought of the style (I am not a person who has a lot of knowledge of or connection to the cubist style and its history), but as the story went on and through my various revisits before reviewing it really grew on me. It made some of the violence less graphic, but didn’t take away the emotional impact.

(source: Street Noise Books)

“Welcome to Hell” is a timely and powerful graphic memoir. It’s a difficult read, but one that feels incredibly necessary to understand and reckon with.

Rating 9: A powerful and deeply personal read about the people of Palestine who experience trauma, violence, and displacement at the hands of an oppressive regime and their fight to survive.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Welcome to Hell” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Palestine Reading List”.

Kate’s Review: “Abyss”

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

Book: “Abyss” by Nicholas Binge

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, May 2026

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

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

Book Description: Severance meets Lovecraft in this surreal tale of corporate horror and existential dread.

Joe always had potential, but he doesn’t expect much, and he hopes that his new job as an admin assistant won’t expect much of him. But when he enters the offices of Ponos—a company he’s never heard of and knows nothing about—he discovers that potential is exactly what they want from him.

A feverish dive into the inhumanity of both late-stage capitalism and the crippling anxieties of modern life, Abyss adds a new level of meaning to ‘wage slave’.

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

I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of novellas lately, or at least more than usual. Sometimes novellas can worry me in the same way short stories do in that it can be trickier to convey a story with a more limited page count, but it obviously can be done, and I’ve had a pretty good run of novellas as of late. “Abyss” by Nicholas Binge is the most recent one, and I was able to get through it in about a day. Not only because of the length, but how fast paced it flowed as a horror story about not only dimensional monstrosities, but also the monstrosities of corporate culture and late stage capitalistic greed and exploitation.

I’ve never had a corporate job, but from what I’ve heard from my friends who have the metaphors in this book work. (source)

I’ve made mention before that cosmic horror isn’t exactly a sub-genre that I delve into often, but “Abyss”‘s hook was too good to pass up, and as a Lovecraftian kinda tale it is pretty good at hitting the components that are expected. There is a slow building unease as our protagonist Joe starts his new menial job at Ponos, a corporation he isn’t familiar with but will pay the bills. From the jump there are strange things about it, like the complete lack of people outside of a few oddballs he stumbles upon, an over enthusiastic A.I. ‘assistant’ who keeps messaging him in stranger and stranger ways, and the skittishness of his higher up. As the job goes on the tension rises, as the reader follows Joe into creepier and creepier situations until he his fully confronted with a cosmic threat that is not only running this lucrative and powerful company, but is possibly using the blood of the workers to fuel itself. I like the high strangeness of the being and the creepiness of the peons that are trying to please it, with a solid backstory to why it is here contrasted with a stodgy and boring but also threatening corporate setting. I know “Severance” is how people are comparing, but I kept thinking about “Office Space” as a horror story, and that’s a good thing.

The true beating heart of this novella, though, are the satirical elements and messages that Binge puts forth. The main metaphor at hand is that the cosmic being that is being fed at Ponos has been put in place by the wealthy to maintain their power and to suck as much from the workers as possible all in the name of profits, and while that’s certainly a cathartic and relevant bit of satire, it’s kind of an obvious one when it comes to a story like this. For wholly understandable reasons we’ve seen a lot of commentary about the uber wealthy and their money hoarding within horror stories by sacrificing and downplaying the working class, so much so that it’s a little obvious. But there is a whole other point in “Abyss” that is connected to Joe and the story at hand, and that is the concept of the isolation and ennui of modern worker life, especially post pandemic. We live in a time where technology should theoretically make it all the easier to connect thanks to social media and varied means of communication. But Joe’s life is incredibly isolated, as he goes to work, goes home and dicks around online, and that’s about it. He isn’t really in touch with his mother and doesn’t seem to have any in real life friends. One of the main defenses against the horror and ruin at the hands of the cosmic in this is the idea of connection, with tech making it harder to connect under guise of bringing people together. That, to me, was a far more interesting avenue to explore because it felt so emotionally resonant.

“Abyss” is sure to please those who like cosmic horror as well as satirical observances of modern late stage capitalism. It’s a fast read, so consider adding it to your list!

Rating 7: The satire is a little on the nose but the message at the heart resonates. Add in some fun cosmic horror and a nefarious corporate setting and you have an enjoyable horror novella.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Abyss” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “Molka”

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

Book: “Molka” by Monika Kim

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at PLA 2026 from the publisher!

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

Book Description: molka (n): the Korean term for spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often to capture voyeuristic images and videos

Dahye can’t believe her luck when she finds herself in a whirlwind romance with handsome, charismatic Hyukjoon, the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

But then a shocking revelation threatens: the couple has been caught on a spycam amid Korea’s growing molka epidemic, and the video is all over the internet. When Hyukjoon flees the country to avoid the intense public scrutiny, Dahye is left to grapple with the ramifications on her own; and the demons from her childhood, long dormant, begin to surface.

Amid the chaos, she catches the attention of Junyoung, a nerdy, introverted IT tech at work. Junyoung harbours a dark secret: he has been spying on the women at work with his own hidden cameras. As Dahye’s life begins to unravel, she unknowingly becomes the sole target of Junyoung’s perverse obsession.

When the facts surrounding the invasion of her privacy come to light, Dahye is faced with the humiliating truth. Her pain and hurt turn to rage as she faces her past. Her desire for vengeance is insatiable, and she will not rest until the men who have wronged her have paid in blood…

Review: Thank you to Erewhon Books for giving me an ARC at PLA 2026!

Okay, before I even go into my introduction to my review, I want to let people know that this review is going to be covering some triggering topics like rape/sexual assault, and sexual exploitation. So just be aware that it’s going to get heavy.

As I was reading “Molka” by Monika Kim the disgusting revelations of a so called online ‘Rape Academy’ broke in the news cycle, where men would drug their partners, rape them, film it, and then upload it for other users to see. It was horrifying but not all that surprising, and it just made me shake my head because the book I was reading was unfolding in real life in a lot of ways. “Molka” is a horror story to be sure, with a good majority of the horrors being completely man made, and Kim doesn’t hold back in her storytelling even if it makes for an incredibly triggering read. But a necessary one, as evidenced by the fact this shit is happening off page and in reality.

Our story takes place in Seoul and has two main POVs. The first is of Dahye, a young woman who has been swept off her feet by Hyukjoon, the son of a millionaire who showers her with gifts and incredible experiences… until footage of them having sex pops up online, seemingly filmed without their knowledge. While Hyukjoon has the wealth and privilege to ride the storm (being a man also helps… more on that in a bit), Dahye does not, and finds herself spiraling as the footage is everywhere, bringing up memories of her sister Euhnye, who killed herself years ago at seventeen after being impregnated by an older man and being terrified of the fallout. Our second POV is that of Junyoung, one of the IT guys at her work who has installed his own hidden cameras, or molkas, in the women’s restrooms so he can spy on unsuspecting women and see their privates, with Dahye catching his eye. Both POVs are so upsetting, whether it’s getting into the head of a predator like Junyoung, or seeing how absolutely wrecked Dahye is because of the violation and because of how women in molka cases are blamed, ignored, and shamed. And seeing them both escalate in their own ways, whether it’s Junyoung’s obsession becoming more dangerous, or Dahye’s mental health spiraling and her rage building, makes for such suspense and tension. Especially when it seems like Eunyhe’s ghost may be manifesting more and more as Dahye becomes more and more frenzied. I loved the bits with Eunyhe, with little hints of water and fleeting glances turning into a full on vengeful ghost egging Dahye on.

But potential supernatural themes aside, the really scary aspect of “Molka” were the real life themes of violent misogyny, sexual exploitation, and gender double standards within societies when it comes to sexuality. For characters like Dahye and Eunhye, as women who experience violence because of their sexuality (whether it’s the assault and exploitation in Dahye’s case or Eunhye killing herself after her out of wedlock teen pregnancy is revealed) are shamed and shunned and driven to the brink. But for people like Hyukjoon and Junyoung, who are men, they can either be wholly unaffected by scandal, or even be abusers either out in the open or hidden in the shadows, and even if their nastiness becomes known they are excused because boys will be boys. There were so many infuriating moments in this book that had to do with the disgusting ways Dahye was sexualized and violated, and Kim makes sure to tread a very fine line that makes sure the reader knows exactly what’s going on without making it feel all the more exploitative of, even worse, titillating. It is a VERY difficult read at times, especially when we see how objectified and dehumanized women are in the eyes of their abusers, but it’s also a searing and unflinching portrayal of feminist rage that has moments of catharsis to balance out the incredibly triggering moments.

“Molka” is a dark and upsetting horror novel, but it also feels like a very timely read, unfortunately. I definitely recommend it to any reader who likes a ‘good for her’ story.

Rating 9: A dark and difficult but unfortunately timely horror story about misogyny, violence against women, and the double standards between the treatment of genders in sexual situations. “Molka” is filled with content warnings, but the message is cathartic and the feminist rage burns bright.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Molka” is included on the Goodreads list “2026 Women in Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “The Drop”

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

Book: “The Drop” by S.R. Masters

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, April 2026

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: A terrifyingly twisty, wholly original thriller following a group of amusement park visitors who get stuck on a roller coaster high above the ground—with no way down.

Six hundred and fifty feet in the air, no one can hear you scream.

Some might say that thirtysomething Cady Ellison landed herself a strange creative career, but Cady finally feels like she’s found her footing. Now an online theme park influencer, she is invited to the opening of a brand-new park by her old friend, Danny, who wants to use her online profile to help build buzz for its flagship ride, Hysteria, a record-breaking 650 foot-tall roller coaster.

When she arrives at the half-complete theme park site in the middle of the desert, Cady is unexpectedly met with her old college friend Femi, an award-winning actor, Naseem, a decorated novelist, and Winston, a member of a popular rock group. Wanting them all to sing the praises of Hysteria online, Danny has arranged an exclusive private ride for them, capped off with the stunning desert sunset. But when their coaster cars get to the top of the first hill, the ride stalls 650 feet above ground. With no one due on site for days and over 100-degree heat awaiting them once the sun rises, the four friends soon realize that they must unravel the secrets from their complicated past if they are to find their way to safety.

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

While I can still do some mid level rollercoasters whilst visiting a theme park here or there, it’s been a long time since I could do something really intense. While at Disney World a couple years ago I was fine on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Snow White’s Mine Cart Ride, but I steered clear of the likes of Tron, Space Mountain, and Guardians of the Galaxy. I definitely envy people who can do the big scary coasters (this will be my kid in the future almost assuredly), but I imagine even they would have a problem with being stranded on a rollercoaster ride with no ride operators to be found. That’s basically the premise of “The Drop” by S.R. Masters, a new thriller where a group of friends from university have a reunion at a not yet opened theme park in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, only to be trapped by themselves at the top of the highest coaster in the world. I love creative thriller premises like this, and “The Drop” really leans into the hook with pretty solid results.

Cady is a youtube influencer who reviews and livestreams amusement park rides, and is thrilled when she is contacted by her university friend Danny, who is working for a company that has a theme park being built to be the best in the world. She arrives, sees that hers and Danny’s friends from college Femi, Naz, and Winston, are also there, and Danny puts them in the cars of Hysteria, the tallest rollercoaster in the world, and promises them a good time… Only for the car to stall hundreds of feet above the ground, and Danny to basically ghost them. It’s a good device, and it has a growing dread as the friends go from amused, to irritated, to absolutely horrified that they may be stuck with no help coming, no water, and no shade as the hot sun is set to rise in hours. These kinds of thrillers can be hard to pull off, but when you do pull it off it makes for such an unsettling experience for the reader/viewer. I mean the very idea of being trapped in this way is SO scary to me, especially since it is drawn out and mentally torturous as well as physically. We have reasons as to why this is all happening, and while it’s not super creative or reinventing anything in terms of motivations the setting of being trapped on a coaster more than makes up for it.

But I will admit, I also loved all of the over the top soapiness that came with this book. All of our characters, be they be the ones trapped on the rollercoaster as the night goes on and the threat of desert temps has them terrified, or the ones who have a beef with others, are dramatic and have things they are hiding and stewing over. I found twist after twist and reveal after reveal to be enjoyable and very sudsy, and while some characters felt more caricatures than others, I was definitely turning the pages to see who had backstabbed whom, and how it was all going to shake out after their revelations were out in the open. We get insights not only through their confessions in the moment, but also in flashback sequences for the various players to show where they were coming from when they were making the choices they were making.

If you are looking for a fun read, especially with summer approaching sooner rather than later, “The Drop” is one to add to your to be read pile. And it may put you off rollercoasters for a bit.

Rating 7: A creative thriller with a suspenseful main storyline (and some soapy asides to build the suspense even more) kept me reading and invested.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Drop” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Theme Parks”.

Kate’s Review: “The Caretaker”

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Book: “The Caretaker” by Marcus Kliewer

Publishing Info: Atria/Emily Bestler Books, April 2026

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

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

Book Description: Follow the Rites…

Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake.

From Marcus Kliewer, a new “titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), comes a supernatural horror about a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist, only to discover the position has consequences far greater—and more dangerous—than she ever could have imagined.

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY:
Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.

Macy Mullins can’t say why the job posting grabbed her attention—it had the pull of a fisherman’s lure, barbed hook and all—vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she’s not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for.

Besides, it’s only three days’ work…

Three days, cooped up in a stranger’s house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness.

What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property—and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity.

Follow the Rites… Follow the Rites… Follow the Rites… ..— / ….. / —..

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

I somehow missed the book “We Have Always Lived Here” by Marcus Kliewer when it came out, and I still haven’t worked it into my reading schedule in spite of the fact basically all of the praise it has received. Like not just from reviewers or influencers, but also people in my life who like horror. It entered my mind that I hadn’t read it yet as I started Kliewer’s newest book “The Caretaker”, as I had a fleeting thought of ‘oh I wonder if I should get to that eventually’. And as I was reading “The Caretaker”, I realized why everyone was praising “We Have Always Lived Here”. Because “The Caretaker” is TERRIFYING.

I did not read this book at night for a reason. (source)

I will reiterate: this was a scary read for me. It read really fast even though it’s a pretty average length of a book, and Kliewer has the pacing and vibe down pat. It starts with a terrifying bang and then cycles back down to a level that has time to build the dread and tension, and BOY does it build. We are following Macy, a woman who finds herself down on her luck and desperate for employment as she has to try and care for herself and her sister in the wake of their father’s tragic death. So a strange ad for a caretaker needed sounds like a good deal, and she applies and gets the job for a LOT of money…. but the instructions seem odd. I loved how strange and out there the rules were, which sound crazy and innocuous, but as Macy fails to follow them (oh my GOD, MACY, GET IT TOGETHER!) things go from weird to horrifying. There were so many moments of just absolute DREAD for me as the tension builds and builds, and I found myself putting the book down a couple of times because I was so stressed out. I don’t want to spoil any of it for people who want to check it out, but let me tell you, the rules may sound innocuous (to a point), but they are anything but. Especially as they all start to fall apart. I also enjoyed how ambiguous things are in this book. I know that sometimes ambiguity or a lack of explanation of supernatural or magical systems are frustrating in books (I find myself irritated from time to time with this kind of thing), Kliewer’s ambiguity adds to the story because it means that the reader can see themselves in Macy’s shoes when the really strange things start happening. And the really strange and weird things REALLY messed with my head.

And Macy herself is an interesting heroine because she is such a mess, but a mess whose messiness makes sense as we find out about her thanks to flashbacks to her childhood, and the loss of her dad. She is clearly struggling with depression and grief, and has to try and pull herself together because of her desperation to keep herself and her sister Jemma (who is a mess in hew own way) afloat. It makes for a lot of her choices and decisions as the story progresses to be believable for the most part. I definitely had a lot of anxiety as she continued to mess up the instructions, though I will fully admit that once we got into some of the late stage ones they do seem a bit impossible or COMPLETELY insane, and a lot of that was because of how much I empathized with her. Kliewer did a great job fleshing her out and making it both easy to root for her and easy to get so frustrated (while fully recognizing I’d probably also mess up like she did).

“The Caretaker” is so incredibly scary and engrossing. I really enjoyed it and if you want something weird and terrifying definitely check it out.

Rating 9: High intensity, a slow building dread, and an overall unsettling and WEIRD vibe that turns into abject horror. “The Caretaker” is scary as hell.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Caretaker” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “Bodies of Work”

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Book: “Bodies of Work” by Clay McLeod Chapman

Publishing Info: Titan Books, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it

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

Book Description: At sixty-six years old, Winston Kemper has always been a nonentity. No one notices him. His simple existence barely registers for those who come into contact with him. Some call him feeble-minded. He is a janitor at the local church, a groundskeeper by default, and that’s it. No friends, no family. When he’s done with work, he returns home—a remote, single room apartment located above a garage—and that is where his true work begins.

Winston Kemper is a collector of voices, and his magnum opus—The Butterfly Girls—is a sprawling epic of untapped imagination. It has no single canvas, no particular frame. It is everywhere—scribbled on the walls, the floor, and countless notebooks.

Winston is creating a fantasia which exists in words, images and blood. As part of his ‘art’ he has been murdering forgotten women. Poor souls who slip through the cracks of society, who no one’s looking for. Mothers, sisters, daughters to someone, but no more.

Winston takes their lives, their voices.

But now he can hear them. They whisper to him. They talk of revenge.

Winston Kemper might not believe in ghosts, but he is about to learn they are very real. And they are very, very angry.

Review: Hooray! A new Clay McLeod Chapman book is out! Chapman’s books have been some of the most unsettling, disgusting, and fun books that I’ve read in recent years, his horror style being WAY out there and at times uncompromising while never feeling like it’s trying to be too edgy. I reminded myself of this when I read the description for his new novella “Bodies of Work”, as a book about a serial killer who takes ‘artistic inspiration’ from the women that he brutally murders. Because when a story like this is handled by a less talented author, it could very easily feel in bad taste or exploitative. But I’m happy to say that “Bodies of Work” didn’t feel that way to me, and it ended up being a quick and gripping horror tale.

This is a novella, so Chapman has less pages to work with, but he uses the pages effectively. We jump between the story of a serial killer named Winston Kemper who murders women (generally who fall under the ‘lesser dead’ umbrella who won’t be as obviously missed due to their circumstances) and is trying to implement them into a broader artistic vision, recreating them as butterfly women in a fantasy world that he has been obsessing over for many, many years. Our story is a combined narrative of the voices of the women he has killed acting as something of a Greek chorus, who act as muses as well as victims, as well as the fantasy story that is being created in his mind of butterfly women going to battle. It combines creepy serial killer scares with a strange dream-like whimsy, and it is such a weird and unsettling but also ethereal tale. There is gore, there are some very triggering aspects to it (violence towards women, child abuse, as well as other content warnings), but there is also an undercurrent of the bonds of friendship and the slow build up to revenge that balance out the very disturbing things. I quite enjoyed getting the perspectives of the victims as they tell the story in a flowing train of thought kind of way along with a straight forward narration. It blended well.

There is also a pretty brutal examination of how traumatic childhood combined with other uncontrollable factors can combine to create a dangerous predator of a human being who will go on to do unspeakable crimes. We get some insight into not only the women he has killed and their backstories (at least a bit; the voices have been losing their memories or blending together as time has gone on), but also into Winston’s background. I know that some people are burnt out of completely over stories where we learn about the back stories of the villain, and I also know that some people see such things as apologia for these characters. And while I can definitely understand this line of thinking and won’t tell people otherwise if that’s how they feel, I, myself, find these kinds of character studies to be interesting and, honestly, kind of important. Because in so many cases monstrous human beings they aren’t born monsters, and are instead created, and it’s so much easier to just say that it doesn’t matter and to not acknowledge it as opposed to confronting it. But Chapman also makes sure not to be making excuses for Kemper and his crimes, as he makes sure to give just as much weight and attention to the women that he kills to remind us that while Kemper’s victimization as a child due to trauma, abuse, and implied neurodivergence is tragic, it doesn’t excuse what he does later in life. I felt like Chapman balanced the realities pretty well.

It’s another winner from Clay McLeod Chapman, just in a shorter format this time around. I found “Bodies of Work” to be as tragic as it is visceral.

Rating 8: A surreal and brutal story about a serial killer who considers himself an artist, a chorus of victims who want their stories to be told, and an examination of trauma turning victims into monsters.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bodies of Work” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “What We Did To Survive”

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

Book: “What We Did to Survive” by Megan Lally

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, March 2026

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: A vacation in paradise turns deadly when four teens’ sailing charter hits stormy seas in this propulsive new thriller from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Megan Lally!

Hannah is having an incredible spring break. A week at a resort in Mexico with her best friend Emmy and her family is perfect for de-stressing from senior year, even if it’s awkward being around Emmy’s older brother, Jackson, who she’s had a crush on for as long as she can remember.

Still, the beach is gorgeous. So is the guy they meet in the surf. Except Hannah is now the third wheel in Emmy’s vacation romance.

Eager to impress Emmy, her wealthy new boyfriend charters a private sailboat to make the most of their last day in paradise, and Hannah and Jackson are invited along. As the clouds roll in and the skies darken, their boat is the only one leaving the marina. And the further they get into open water, the more unsettled Hannah becomes. A storm is brewing onboard that’s as deadly as the one racing toward them. Forget surviving graduation. Who will make it back to land alive?

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

Even though Spring Break has come and gone (and I opted to spend it someplace not so tropical, but the lake called), I feel like I always enjoy survival thrillers where a tropical vacation goes wrong any time of the year. When I received “What We Did to Survive” by Megan Lally in the mail I knew that it was going to be a fun vacation based survival thriller, as tourists in trouble is always a fun sub-genre within a sub-genre. I jumped into it expecting a ride.

And it was a fun ride in a lot of ways. The basic premise is a familiar one for survival thriller tales: a group of people set out into a wilderness situation unprepared and things go south quickly. In this case it’s teenagers Hannah, her best friend Emmy, Emmy’s brother Jackson (who is also Hannah’s crush), and Emmy’s vacation/situationship based hook up Ben, who are all on vacation at a resort in Puerta Vallarta and want to do more for the last day. Ben charters a boat outside the resort’s purview, and they sail into a storm, with danger and death ensuing. It’s a familiar set up but it’s one that is always entertaining, as they have to fight the elements, secrets, and perhaps even each other to survive. I definitely had a hard time putting it down because Lally keeps it going apace, not wasting any moments and making bad situations worse until it’s clear that not everyone is going to make it out of this. The tension builds well and it reads nice and fast because of it.

But on the other hand, the characters in this were all pretty two dimensional. I did like Hannah a fair amount, probably because we got the most in her head, and I liked her and Jackson, but ultimately Jackson didn’t really bring much outside of a protective love interest for her (though she doesn’t think that it would ever be more than a crush on her part, natch) and a protective big brother to Emmy. Emmy and Ben, however, are both pretty insufferable in their own ways, whether Emmy is the shallow best friend who will drop all sense for a boy, or Ben is an over the top villain built of wealth, privilege, and cowardice. I recognize that sometimes YA novels have a bit more direct characters and want to spend time telling rather than showing, but I think that it’s a disservice to their target demo to assume that such OBVIOUS villains and antagonists are needed as opposed to something more complicated. But then again, seeing how all these rich and privileged people are behaving these days maybe Ben isn’t too far off and I’m just being naive. Nevertheless, it made it less suspenseful than it could have been because I wasn’t as invested in their fates as I could have been.

So fun popcorn reading that would be good for a vacation read, but it doesn’t reinvent the wheel outside of a simple survival thriller story. But sometimes that’s exactly what is needed.

Rating 6: A fun survival thriller that was an entertaining read, though some of the characters were a little flat.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What We Did to Survive” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Suspense/Thriller/Mystery”.