About: A book club style review of the Animorphs series of books from the 90’s! One life-long, slightly obsessive fan (Zach), one one-timer (Patrick), and one total newbie (Alex) gather together around the proverbial fire to power through the full Animorphs kids’ sci-fi series, with plenty of side tangents along the way. Buckle up!
I’m back to Animorphs! And probably not in the way you want…
Yes, there are, like, four new graphic novels that I still haven’t covered. I have no excuse…
Instead, I’m here to promote a podcast that I was invited on as a guest! Guess being nerdy on the Internet about a decades-old children’s book series has finally paid off! The podcast is a combination of a read-through of the entire series alternated with episodes that cover other random ’90s goodness. I, of course, was happy to join one of the book review episodes. Luckily for me, the book they happened to be on with the timing of it all was from one of my favorite characters’ perspectives: Marco’s book, The Android! It also introduced some important world-building aspects that I’m sure they will discuss more as it comes up.
It was a great discussion all around! Their group is made up of three people, two of whom have read the series (though one only once, I believe, and long ago) and one who is reading the series for the first time. As such, they don’t discuss spoilers for the rest of the series on their show. And man, was it tough to bite my tongue, but I think I managed to not ruin anything for anyone. Phew!
Definitely give the episode a listen, as well as check out the rest of their show! Like, subscribe, all that fun stuff!
Book Description: They called it hysteria. She called it survival.
Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu’s carefully crafted life begins to unravel.
When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman’s constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew―and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?
In the vein of The Bell Jar and The Hours, The Mad Wife weaves domestic drama with psychological suspense, so poignant and immersive, you won’t want to put it down.
Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!
I have watched “Mad Men” a couple of times with my husband (I haven’t seen the full series like he has but I’ve seen plenty), and one of my favorite characters is Betty Draper. I like her so much I named one of our kittens after her. I love how messy she is, I love how complex she is, I don’t love how she treats her kids but it fits with her characterization, and I ultimately feel super, super bad for her. Because the great tragedy of her is that she is a person who was forced into a lifestyle she didn’t want as a homemaker with little to no agency (plus all the trauma from her childhood. Cycles keep on cycling!). Which wasn’t uncommon for many of the women in those positions during that time period. I kept thinking about Betty Draper as I read “The Mad Wife” by Meagan Church, which is also about a homemaker being forced to put on a pleasant face and a perfect facade, until it starts to break her.
There is a bit of a mystery here in this historical fiction thriller. Lulu is a 1950s housewife living in an idyllic suburban community, and while her outer veneer is perfection, she feels incredible pressure to keep a tidy house, keep a high standing in the social circle, and to keep her husband and son happy with her support, love, and care. Right around the time she gives birth to her second child, new neighbors move into the neighborhood, and Lulu thinks that something strange is going on with them, especially the wife, Bitsy. It’s a plot ripe for the picking when it comes to domestic thriller, and Lulu is a great protagonist because while we are inside her head and are seeing the strange things she is seeing, she is also more and more unreliable as the story goes on as all of the pressures of idealized 1950s femininity and homemaking start to catch up with her. It makes for some well done suspense and tension, and getting further into Lulu’s unraveling also ups the unease to make it all the more unnerving.
But it’s Lulu’s plight trying to be the perfect wife in a suburban nuclear family that really made this work for me, as we are constantly reminded and shown how little agency she has as a wife, as a mother, and even as a woman just trying to live her life. So much of her identity is wrapped up in perfection that she can just barely achieve (or not achieve, as no one is perfect even when society wants them to be with threat of judgement and shunning if they are not) that when things do start to come undone, not only is she worried about losing her friends, or her marriage, she also has to worry about other horrifying consequences as a ‘hysterical’ woman. There are talks about pills with no real explanation as to what to expect, involuntary psych holds, and even lobotomies for women who are deemed mentally unfit, as well as women who feel so trapped that they end up killing themselves to escape it all. I found myself fearing for Lulu, especially as more details are slowly revealed (one bit which I KIND of saw coming, but still absolutely gutted me). It’s a start reminder that these supposed ‘good old days’ that so many people want to force us back were really not so good for so many people.
“The Mad Wife” is harrowing and a well done thriller tale about a woman who is treading towards the end of her rope. I quite enjoyed it.
Rating 8: A slow burn of unease and a commentary on the housewife ideal from decades ago (as it makes an insidious comeback in modern times), “The Mad Wife” is haunting and suspenseful and a well done domestic thriller.
Book Description: His dark destiny awaits, and nothing will stand in his way. Except her.
Dark lord Demon spawn Prophesied realm destroyer
With a demon for a father, Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne’s destiny could be nothing but nefarious, and with the completion of his most vicious spell, Damien is on the cusp of fulfilling the evil inevitability all of his dark machinations have led to.
And then, her.
Bubbly Obnoxious Blonde
Harboring secrets of her own, a tiny yet troublesome thief calling herself Amma completely upsets Damien’s malevolent plans when she mistakenly gets chained to his side through magic, forcing him to drag her across the realm. Killing her would fix things, of course, but the nauseatingly sweet Amma proves herself useful on Damien’s unholy crusade and then proves herself the source of something even more sinister: feelings.
Will Damien be forced to abandon his villainous birthright to help the tender thorn in his side? Or will he manage to overcome the virtue Amma insists on inspiring and instead cut it out at the heart?
Review:I lurk on a lot of fantasy/fantasy romance subReddits and, as such, I’d heard quite a lot about this book before it was picked up by a traditional publisher. Suffice it to say, it’s very beloved by many indie readers, often recommended as an improvement on some of the lower-quality fare that has been coming out recently, now that romantasy is trending so hard. So, I was excited to see what all the fuss was about. And… I’m still wondering, honestly.
Here’s the thing: this book will be a hit for a lot of readers, and I can understand why it is so beloved by those who read it as an indie book first. If you’re a fan of the grumpy x sunshine dynamic, this is the epitome of everything that romance has to offer. Beyond that, on a technical level, the writing flows easily, and the banter can be quite witty at times. Unfortunately, subjectively, I really dislike a lot of what this book was doing. That being the case, go ahead and take this entire review with a grain of salt. If you like the things I just mentioned, you should probably check this one out. If you are questioning things, let’s get into my problems.
For one thing, while the writing was fine, I really dislike the inclusion of modern lingo in books like this. Now, again, I get that this is a fairly standard approach for fantasy romcoms like this, à la Assistant to the Villain and books of that ilk. However, I will probably never not hate it. Like those other books, I immediately felt disconnected from the world and characters, attempting to strike some mental balance where I’m in this high fantasy world but regularly coming across words like “kiddo” and “pops.” All the worse, these two examples, at least, were coming from the “villainous” love interest. Which, I get what the book was trying to do—defying genre conventions and all that—but in reality, it just made me cringe and have a hard time taking him seriously in any capacity, evil or not.
However, my real problem stemmed from the FMC. Man, did I dislike her. If you want to look up the dictionary definition of “character with no agency” or “damsel in distress,” here’s your girl. Again, there are “reasons” and all of that for these choices. But that doesn’t do away with the fact that I’m left with a fairly hefty book where the female main character does practically nothing. What’s worse, we’re stuck in her mind for a good chunk of the time and, boy, nothing is happening there either. If I had to sum up her personality, it would be “nice” and “whiny.” (It’s not lost on me that those two traits shouldn’t go together, and you’d be right there too.) And, let me be clear, when I say “nice,” I’m going full Minnesotan on the word and really mean “boring as hell.” I didn’t find her panic in the face of danger cute. I didn’t enjoy her cutesy response to the brooding MMC. And no reveal toward the end would change this.
I don’t want to rant anymore about this because, again, as I said at the top, much of my dislike of this book is fully wrapped up in my own personal preferences for romances. I’ve long known that I usually struggle with grumpy/sunshine (too often I feel like authors think “sunshine” simply means “dumb as a rock”). And I also often have a hard time buying into the cozy factor of these romcom-like romantasies. However, the romance fantasy subReddit really sold me this book hard, and I was incredibly disappointed with what I got. That said, if you enjoyed Assistant to the Villain or the grumpy/sunshine trope in general, I really do recommend you check out this book! It just wasn’t for me.
Rating 6: Why, oh why, do authors write “sunshine” characters as just plain ridiculous and stupid?? This one was definitely not for me, but I do think that it will appeal to readers who enjoy romcom fantasy novels!
Book Description: New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson delivers another stunning, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, following a freshman girl whose college life is turned upside down when her roommate’s ex-convict brother moves into their dorm and starts controlling their every move.
Out from under her overprotective parents, Jordyn is ready to kill it in prelaw at a prestigious, historically Black university in Washington DC. When her new roommate’s brother is released from prison, the last thing Jordyn expects is to come home and find the ex-convict on their dorm room sofa. But Devonte needs a place to stay while he gets back on his feet—and how could she say no to one of her new best friends?
Devonte is older, as charming as he is intelligent, pushing every student he meets to make better choices about their young lives. But Jordyn senses something sinister beneath his friendly advice and growing group of followers. When one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, she must enlist the help of the university’s lone white student to uncover the mystery—or become trapped at the center of a web of lies more tangled than she can imagine.
Review: Than you to HarperCollins for the ARC of this book (and to Tiffany D. Jackson for signing it!)!
It has been a little bit but I am so pleased that Tiffany D. Jackson has a new YA thriller out for the world to read! I had the privilege of meeting her at ALAAC25 this past summer and not only did I get a copy of “The Scammer”, she also signed it for me. I waited for a little bit to pick it up, and when it was finally time I told myself that I would take it slow and savor it. But I ended up reading it in two long sessions over the course of two days. Yep. Tiffany D. Jackson is BACK, baby! “The Scammer” was addictive and everything I had hoped it would be!
“The Scammer” takes some inspiration from the Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult, in which a 63 year old man manipulated his daughter’s friends at Sarah Lawrence to become fully dependent upon him and held a sway over them like so many cult leaders do. But instead of at Sarah Lawrence we find ourselves at an HBCU in Texas, and our protagonist Jordyn is hoping for a fresh start after living with her high strung parents in the wake of her brother Kevin’s tragic death. When Jordyn’s roommate Vanessa asks the other girls if her brother Devonte can crash on their couch they all say yes, and Devonte has lots of ideas and philosophies that sound insightful and mind blowing. And it, of course, starts to spiral as Devonte manipulates, intimidates, seduces, and harms Jordyn’s friends, and expands his reach across campus, turning his ire on Jordyn when she doesn’t fall in line. I love a cult story, and I love the suspense of seeing people fall one by one to a charismatic leader who has dangerous ulterior motives and no conscience. It’s frightening and maddening, especially as people start targeting Jordyn and making her life a living hell when she dares question and push back. There are also some twists her, some of which aren’t super surprising others of which REALLY shocked me, and all of them felt well crafted and earned. As a thriller it’s really enjoyable, and as I mentioned above I couldn’t put it down very easily.
But I also appreciated how Jackson (as she does in so many of her books) layers in social themes to her narrative, particularly themes and issues that the Black community has to deal with, and in this book it’s the way that racism and systemic injustice can make members of the Black community connect with conspiracy theories that have some origins of truth within them but become warped and twisted into something completely different. Lord knows that misinformation and disinformation and conspiracy theories have been flourishing as of late, and I really appreciated Jackson’s nuanced take on those who fall prey to scammers and liars who use them as weapons for their own benefit. It doesn’t excuse the harm that some of these true believers subject Jordyn to, but it does try to unpack it to better understand how this kind of thought can be used to harm others, and I really liked that.
“The Scammer” is another sharp and suspenseful YA thriller from Tiffany D. Jackson! There’s a reason she’s one of my favorite thriller authors, and this book is a top notch return to novels!
Rating 9: A fast paced and incredibly suspenseful thriller from one of my favorite thriller authors!
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Scammer” is included on the Goodreads list “Dark Academia”.
The holiday madness seems to start earlier and earlier each year (Serena lives across from a house that goes all out on the Christmas light display, and they were already out getting lights set up on Nov. 1!). But we are ready and able to hide from it all with our ever-growing TBR list! Here are some books we’re looking forward to checking out this month!
Serena’s Picks
Book: “Fallen City” by Adrienne Young
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
Why I’m Interested: While I’ve been enjoying Adrienne Young’s turn toward contemporary fantasy romance, I was incredibly excited to see that she was going to return to more traditional fantasy. This one looks to be a mix of a Roman setting and some sort of Romeo and Juliet retelling, from what I can glean, and I’m into it! I’ve never been led astray by this author, and I think she’s one of the better romantic fantasy writers (as opposed to romantasy) currently writing today. Can’t wait to see what she has in store next!
Book: “Murder at Donwell Abbey” by Vanessa Kelly
Publication Date: November 25, 2025
Why I’m Interested: Both of the historical mystery series I’ve been regularly reading over the last few years are Jane Austen retellings. It speaks to the strengths of Austen’s original characters that they can be picked up by so many different authors and used well! I wouldn’t have thought of it on my own, but Emma is the perfect Austen character to rewrite as an amateur sleuth. Indeed, who else would be as fully confident that she could do it so much better than the authorities—and be right, to boot! This second book moves the main mystery to Donwell Abbey, which I’m hopeful means we will get even more scenes between Emma and Knightley!
Book: “The House Saphir” by Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
Why I’m Interested: I really loved Marissa Meyer’s Rumpelstiltskin reimagining, so I was thrilled to see that she was returning to another fairytale. This time she’s tackling the less well-covered story of Bluebeard. Even better, from the book summary, it seems that the story will be more than a straight retelling, instead telling a new story that takes place many years after the events of the original fairytale. Given how creative her takes on previous fairytales have been, I’m super excited to see what she does with a lesser-known one like this!
Kate’s Picks
Book: “Death and Dinuguan” by Mia Manansala
Publication Date: November 25, 2025
Why I’m Interested: I love the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery” series, and I’m so happy that it’s still going strong six books in. Now we are going to join Lila with a Valentine’s Day themed mystery, a chocolatier in danger, and hopefully some delicious dessert recipes for readers to try and make! When Lila’s boyfriend’s cousin Hana moves to Shady Palms and opens her own chocolate store, Lila is excited to get to know her. Unfortunately, Hana is attacked by an unknown assailant, and left in a coma. Lila is surely on the case! I will have to decide if I showcase this close to the publication date, or save it for February. But I’m excited no matter when I eventually post my review!
Book: “Shiny Happy People” by Clay McLeod Chapman
Publication Date: November 11, 2025
Why I’m Interested: If Clay McLeod Chapman is involved I’m obviously going to be interested. But I’m even more interested because this is his first YA novel! I’m VERY curious to see what a YA Clay McLeod Chapman novel looks like. We follow Kyra, a teenager who is still dealing with the traumas of her mother’s drug addiction from years ago. When a new drug starts to circulate in her school community, she steers clear. But everyone starts to act differently, and she starts to feel like she doesn’t really know her loved ones anymore. And things just get stranger and worse. Congratulations, young adult demographic! You are about to embark into the warped mind of one of my favorite horror authors!
Book: “The Place Where They Buried Your Heart” by Christina Henry
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
Why I’m Interested: Even though October is over and Halloween is behind us, we all know that doesn’t stop me from getting my spooky on year round. And “The Place Where They Buried Your Heart” by Christina Henry sounds creepy and like the kind of haunted house story I absolutely adore. When Jessie was a kid there was a house on her street that everyone said was haunted. And when she dared her little brother to go inside, he never came back out. Now years later Jessie hasn’t left the street, and has a child of her own to take care of. But that house is still there, and it may still be hungry. Creepy stuff. Very interested to see where it goes.
What books are you looking forward to this month? Let us know in the comments!
Book Description: Silla Nordvig is running for her life.
The Queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.
After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively.
Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?
Review: I knew very little about this book when I picked it up this month other than the fact that it had been long neglected on my NetGalley backlist and maybe had something to do with Vikings? Turned out, I’d been sitting on a real winner! (The other side of this, of course, is that now I’m committed to a series that is already up to three books and seems to be continuing on!)
There was a lot to like about this one! For one thing, I always appreciate it when I pick up a fantasy romance that is written in third person and not the pervasive first person that has taken over the genre recently. Beyond that, the author included several POVs beyond Silla herself. We get into the heads of two of the men of the Bloodaxe Crew as well as see through the eyes of the ruthless woman hunting her down. This kind of variety not only lessens the weight of the high page count, but through it, the story and world were expanded in a way that pushed the narrative toward an epic-like feel. Always a good thing to see in a fantasy series that is setting out for a long-ish run!
Silla is the main character, however, and I really enjoyed her. There were a few secrets presented early in the story that are, perhaps, a bit predictable if you’re familiar with the conventions of the genre. But as the story doesn’t lean too heavily on these mysteries (or, indeed, even recognize them much as mysteries at all!), I was OK with a few easily anticipated twists. Beyond that, I enjoyed the fact that Silla was a rather unique leading lady, or at least unique to the sort we often see nowadays. She’s not a badass fighter. She’s not overly snarky. Instead, her strength lies in her persistence in the face of terrible odds and her courage when thrown into situations far above her pay grade.
There were also hints that Silla is being set up as the “sunshine” side of a potential “grumpy x sunshine” romance. And that being the case, I appreciated that the “sunniness” wasn’t overdone. She can be optimistic and have moments of pep, but she wasn’t foolish or silly, traits that all too often are mistaken for a “sunny” disposition.
I also enjoyed the other POVs we had. Both men were interesting, though I didn’t love even the bare strokes of a love triangle that was set up. Luckily, that wasn’t overly emphasized, and it ended up going in the direction I expected, which made it much more tolerable in the meantime. I also always love getting to see inside the head of the “villain” of the story and really appreciated that aspect of this book. Beyond adding greater complexity to the stakes, this character’s POV gave us even greater insights into some of the larger political dynamics going on.
For all of that, this is a long book. There was a lot of action in the first third of the book, but things did start to drag a bit toward the middle. This also coincided with some of my least favorite bits with the relationship dynamics between Silla and the two male leads. However, there was still enough going on (and I haven’t even touched on the other crew members of this little gang) that I didn’t get overly bogged down in the slower pacing.
In the end, I really enjoyed this one. All of the “reveals” at the end set up even greater stakes for the books to come, and I’m excited to see where all of our characters go from here!
Rating 8: A great start to a new fantasy series with an excellent cast of characters at its heart!
Book Description: Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library.
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.
But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.
Review: Thank you to William Morrow for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25 and to Joe Hill for signing it!
Ever since I was a kid I have loved dragons. I think it was the dragon in “Sleeping Beauty” that really solidified my hyperfixation at 2 years old, I used to collect dragon figurines, and well into my adulthood I have just loved these creatures. Hell, my absolute devotion to Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones” even after she did the whole ‘burn King’s Landing to the ground’ thing probably had to do with the fact Targaryens have dragons. And of course “The Hobbit”‘s Smaug has always been a favorite. When I heard that Joe Hill’s newest novel (his first in nearly ten years!) “King Sorrow” had a dragon in it, I was already sold. I mean, it’s one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite magical creatures. And we had waited so long. Let me tell you right now: it was well, WELL worth the wait. And WHAT A DRAGON!
Hill takes the reader on an epic dark fantasy/horror journey in “King Sorrow”, following a group of friends who, in hopes of helping group member Arthur in an hour of desperate need (i.e. he is forced to steal books from his employer by a couple of low life drug dealers, or else his imprisoned mother will be hurt or even killed), summon a dragon named King Sorrow from a mystical book (part of the library collection Arthur has been caring for/stealing from) to dispose of his tormentors. The only issue is that King Sorrow will require a human sacrifice every year. The set up is classic fantasy, but the way that Hill approaches it combines coming of age, shifting friendship themes, trauma, connection, changing technology, and a broad scope of decades to create a masterpiece of dark fantasy/horror. We mostly focus on Arthur at first, but we also get the perspectives of the other friends in the group, whether it’s steadfast and empathetic Gwen, the rage filled and snide Donna, her twin Van who is far more lackadaisical but also addiction prone, the sweet but secretive Alison, or the confident and ambitious Colin. Hill takes his time exploring all of the characters, fleshing them out and giving them time to grow, changing motivations, and evolving connections as the power of King Sorrow either overwhelms or corrupts each of them as they all have to pick a sacrifice every year.
I loved the ethical explorations of this book as well, as many of them try to pick their sacrifices based on the potential for reducing harm and death, though more often than not things never quite work out they way they want them to. I loved seeing all of these characters go through their various journeys, especially Gwen and Arthur, and loved seeing some of them shift from well meaning to downright villainous due to the way that this kind of power will corrupt a person. They are such a well rounded group of characters with nuances, intricacies, and flaws, and I enjoyed all of them (even Donna, who basically represents everything I stand against in terms of her values).
And as for the horror and dark fantasy aspects of this book, it’s no shock that Hill nails every single theme and every single plot point. Not only do I love King Sorrow as a snarky and imposing villain (with a dark sense of humor to book), I also loved the other fantastical beats of this book, whether it’s magic books, literal trolls who then turn into Internet trolls, or magical objects like dragon tears. Hill puts a unique spin on the fantasy beats, and I found myself grinning from ear to ear one moment, then feeling my heart race as we jumped to an extended action or horror sequence. There is an entire extended sequence on a plane where a character is hoping to prevent disaster while other passengers are seeing King Sorrow bolting through the air outside their windows, and the intensity of this section was basically hovering around a 10 the entire time. I also just loved King Sorrow himself. At one point he is described to sound like Quint from “Jaws” and my GOD if that isn’t wholly inspired. He’s scary and menacing but also, at times, incredibly hilarious, and it just captures the essence of a smug and cruel dragon in the perfect way. Hill is truly at his best in this book when it comes to how he can meld horror, thriller, and fantasy together, and this truly feels like an opus. I was amazed that a book that is almost one thousand pages doesn’t feel like it has a wasted moment or page. It’s so well conceived and it kept me fully hooked until I turned the last page.
“King Sorrow” is phenomenal. A masterwork from Joe Hill, who already has so many masterworks to his name. I was completely blown away. This will surely be a top three read of the year for me.
And with that, Horrorpalooza 2025 comes to an end on the highest note possible. Thank you all so much for coming along on this horror based journey, and I hope that you all have a happy, safe, and spooky Halloween!!!
Rating 10: Simply brilliant. A masterwork. I absolutely loved every bit of it.
Book Description: Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters―but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.
Centuries later, Owen Mallory―failed soldier, struggling scholar―falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives―and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.
But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend―if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.
Review:I got to meet Alix Harrow at ALA, which was incredibly fun all on its own. But as anyone knows who’s been to a convention, much of your time is spent standing in line. That being the case, I got to overhear her conversations with many other readers in the same line as me, and they all went along a similar line: the reader would come up and wax poetic about their love for Starling House and how excited they were for her new books; Alix Harrow would begin to look more and more nervous and then say something like this at the very end, “…well, the next one is a VERY different book, but I hope you like it..!!” I wasn’t too concerned, as I’ve loved everything I’ve read by her so far. But after picking this one up, I can understand why she was concerned. For, readers, this book is written in a combination of first- and second-person perspective! And I loved it!
The really funny thing about this is that right before I started reading this one, I was talking to my husband about how I thought that first person was one of the most difficult perspectives to write from and that I’d only read one book/series EVER that had pulled off second person (N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy). And then I picked up this one and had to eat my words! The biggest concern with this sort of thing is that it could come across as a gimmick. But, wisely, Harrow created the perfect story for this format, with the plot and themes of the story directly tied to the reason the story is told the way it is. I don’t want to go into too many spoilers, but not only did these perspectives not distract from the reading experience, they greatly enhanced the emotional impact of what was going on in the story.
Time travel is another tricky concept to pull off, and I think Harrow does an excellent job exploring different ways to use this device without getting too bogged down in technicalities. Whenever I felt myself getting too caught up on details, I was hit with another massive twist or emotional gut punch, of the sort that I quickly forgot any questions I may have had. By the end, I feel like everything was neatly tied together in a way that left all of my most pressing questions answered.
As for characters, there are three main characters in the book: Owen, the scholar; Una, the knight; and the primary villain. Each of these three was fantastic. We probably spend the most time in Owen’s head, and his story explored themes of courage, heritage, and history. Una, however, was probably my favorite, with her complicated, tragic story that only becomes more so as the book progresses. Her life is tightly bound by duty, loyalty, and sacrifice, and the discovery of a love that doesn’t ask anything of her shakes her world. I don’t want to discuss the villain too much, but there were so many fascinating layers here as well. By the end, I both despised and sympathized with this character, as misled and terrible as they ultimately turned out to be.
This book is a work of art; there’s no other way to say it. It’s like a perfectly tuned machine, with every aspect working together perfectly: theme, format, voice, and characters. While Harrow is correct that this book is very different from Starling House, I think she failed to account for a simple fact: readers will follow a talented author through any narrative device in pursuit of an excellent story. And such was the case here.
Rating 10: Nothing less than a work of art, and The Everlasting is a masterpiece!
Book Description: A fascinating blend of horror and magical realism, this spine-tingling thriller explores the complex relationship between women, their bodies, and the natural world.
Cutthroat NYC lawyer Mary Whelton just buried her problematic old mentor. But as she leaves the mourners and protesters behind, the press stays hot on her heels. Desperate to escape, she unwittingly barrels deep into a remote forest in upstate New York. Until a collision—with a buzzing, oozing throng of cicadas—stops her dead in her tracks.
She awakens in a crude cabin, held captive by Girl, a simple, hulking woman who mistakes Mary for her derelict mother and obsesses over a mysterious Brood. While tortured echoes from Mary’s past feed her growing sense of fear, it becomes clear that she’s destined to bear an unthinkable role in the cicadas’ cyclical reemergence. But when Girl’s grisly past comes back to haunt them both, Mary is thrust into a violent battle of wills.
Confoundingly creepy and atmospheric, The Brood peels back the hurt and pain of the female experience, laying bare the messy necessity for transformation and growth.
Review: Thank you to Rebecca Baum for sending me an ARC of this novel!
We are starting to wind down our Horrorpalooza celebration, as Halloween is on Friday and October is almost at its end. I’m always sad when it comes time to wrap up this fun review theme, but don’t worry. We still have two more horror focused reviews for the celebration (and obviously there will be more horror reviews from me because that’s my jam all year round). And I am coming in hot with the second to last entry for Horrorpalooza 2025! Rebecca Baum asked me if I’d be interested in reading her body horror novel “The Brood”, and I was admittedly a bit squeamish at the premise. Body horror freaks me out, and parasitic body horror REALLY freaks me out. But the premise caught my attention, and I wanted to take a chance on it because it sounded quite promising. And I’m glad that I did, because I found “The Brood” to be a well done body horror tale. And VERY disgusting.
This was basically my reaction to so much of this book. (source)
The atmosphere and building dread in this book is top notch. Mary is a high powered attorney who has become a bit of a ruthless ‘fixer’, and after a car crash while leaving a funeral in the remote backwoods she is taken captive by a hulking, strange woman who is only known as ‘Girl’. Girl is convinced that Mary is her long lost mother, and keeps her hostage so a cicada swarm she calls ‘The Brood’ can lay eggs and gestate in Mary’s body. SO, first I want to talk about the backwoods horror, as that is a sub-genre I really like. The isolation, the inability to escape, the lurking cave that may or may not have some kind of greater horror that won’t let Mary leave, it’s all creepy and strange and suffocating. Girl is both foreboding but also sympathetic for a litany of reasons, and as she and Mary (more on her in a bit) interact they spar, butt heads, but also kind of learn to understand each other. She’s more than the stereotypes of your typical ‘backwoods malevolent hillbilly’ trope, and I found her to be a scary AND sympathetic foil for Mary.
Okay. The body horror. With parasitic themes. I will come out and say first and foremost that I have a REALLY hard time with this kind of horror sub-genre, and always have. I full we knew going into this book that this was the kind of thing I was signing up for, and I knew that I was going to have a hard time with it. And I did. SO MUCH PUSS!! But I want to talk about why I still enjoyed(?) it, or at least appreciated it, as a person who has such a huge case of the willies with this kind of thing, and that is that this kind of horror story is always going to be reminiscent of losing bodily autonomy, which especially these days is a real life horror that many face (even if it isn’t cicadas taking over the body) and is terribly relevant. The way that Girl prioritizes the cicada clutch growing in Mary’s body and how that in turn leads to some pretty horrifying moments even beyond the body horror bits (case in point with few spoilers, a hunger strike Mary implements that Girl is QUICK to snuff out. I had to pause my reading for a little bit because man, force feeding is SO brutal and Baum really captures it). It’s scary enough thinking about insects growing under your skin. It’s even worse when it mirrors the way that pregnant people who don’t want to be pregnant are sometimes forced to carry a pregnancy no matter the cost to their bodies and minds. Be warned: this book goes hard. It did for me anyway.
But there was also a surprising undercurrent of ache and sorrow when it comes to Mary’s backstory that slowly bubbles up, and concludes in a way that had me crying for the last couple chapters of the book. Mary is a very cold and damaged woman when we meet her, and she doesn’t REALLY soften at all, at least not in expected ways, as the story goes on and she has to endure her kidnapping, torture, and being a reluctant vessel for an insect clutch in her body. She’s done some terrible things in her frenzy to become successful. But at the same time, we learn that she has a deep, deep trauma due to being abandoned to an orphanage as a five year old, and being abused for a lot of her life, and shows how these things affect her path. Baum is sure not to make excuses for the terrible harm she caused at one point. But she does help the reader understand why she did what she did, and it makes it a nuanced take that has a very emotional resolution.
“The Brood” is probably not for the squeamish, but for those who love some disgusting body horror that doesn’t hold back (and does lean way into the metaphors in an effective way), it will be a gross and enjoyable read.
Rating 8: Disgusting and visceral body horror combined with feminist themes of bodily autonomy make for a nasty but relevant read. It also made me cry unexpectedly!
While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!
I typically gravitate toward RPG video games, but, as I discovered with My Time at Sandrock, if the game is good, I’m up to explore outside that primary genre. I’d heard about this one for a while, but I’ve never really vibed with the rogue-like format. Dying over and over again just clearing the same levels? No thanks! But I saw that Hades II was coming out this fall featuring a female main character, so I thought now was probably the time to check out the first one before just jumping straight to a sequel. And boy, am I glad I did! The voice acting and writing are so good on this one! For a game that seems like it would just be repetitive, there was so much story to explore, especially if you’re a fan of the Greek pantheon. Beyond that, there is a “god mode” that allows you to focus more on the story, which is good for those of us who spent probably 50 runs dying pointlessly. But now that I’m done, on to the sequel!
I’ve seen this one on Apple+ for a while but never checked it out. I’ll admit, I feel like I’m extra wary of science fiction shows, having seen way too many C-level series in this genre in the past. But this one has really impressed me! The story is super interesting, and they’ve done an excellent job with the production value; everything looks great! I’m into the second season now, and I feel they are managing to strike a nice balance of adding questions and mysteries while also resolving some things as we go. Of course, I’m always worried whether shows like this will stick the landing, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
More proof that I will play almost any game if the concept is interesting! This is pretty much just a story game, but the main concept was right up my alley! The story follows a “Cinderella”-like character who then must unravel various fairytale curses. As these are all fairytales, the stories all revolve around the different romances one can choose. Each “story” probably takes about an hour to play through, so they’re all very short. But I thought they were all well done and interesting, so this is a fun one to check out if you’re looking to sit back and just read through a story game—especially if you love fairytales like I do!
Kate’s Picks
TV Show: “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”
When I was in high school and college and beyond I really enjoyed “Law and Order: SVU” and the original “Law and Order”, but I never really got into the third series “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”. It may have been the time of the week it was on, or a disinterest in the premise, but I just kind of missed it. But as a lady who has realized she enjoys ‘quirky savant’ investigator stories (looking at you “Monk” and “Psych”), I decided to go back and give it a shot, as I heard that the main detective is very much that. Oh, and also because I am now of the belief that Vincent D’Onofrio as that detective is a goddamn SMOKE SHOW. He plays Bobby Goren, an unconventional NYPD detective who goes head to head with the criminal of the week with his brilliant observational skills and outside the box thinking, all with the help of his partner Eames, and the cases are presented partially through the eyes of the perpetrators as well (I’m mainly sticking to the Goren and Eames years/episodes, but apparently Jeff Goldblum shows up eventually?!). It feels a bit like a Sherlock Holmes kind of vibe with Goren being so odd and brilliant. Is it at times problematic copaganda as only the aughts could provide, oh sure. But man. D’Onofrio. Smoke Show.
Having a kid who is now in Kindergarten means that she hears a lot of pop culture stuff from her classmates. No surprise that she came home one day asking if she could watch “K-Pop Demon Hunters”, as it has become something of a cultural phenomenon. I said we could watch it together, so that if it did seem inappropriate I could just turn it off. But not only did I find it perfectly appropriate for her, I actually really liked it too! I enjoyed all the gals in Huntr/x (Mira is my absolute favorite, while Zoey holds the keys to my kid’s heart), I liked the demon lore, it’s hilarious and heartfelt, and the songs are catchy as hell. It’s also fun singing the songs with my kid in the car while we wait in the drop off line at school. I will be very curious to see if they decide to do a sequel, and what it will look like if they do (okay, more like WHEN they do). I just hope that Derpy Tiger and Sussie the Magpie show up again if/when it happens.
I really loved what AMC did with “Interview With the Vampire”, and am sitting on pins and needles to see what they do with Lestat’s story in the upcoming season (being renamed “The Vampire Lestat” after the book it takes inspiration from, SO EXCITED). But while the fandom waits to see Lestat as a preening and dramatic rock star, we have “Talamasca: The Secret Order” to tide us over/being a whole new obsession. The Talamasca has been hinted at in IWTV, and seeing as it’s such an important presence in the Vampire Chronicles and beyond it just makes sense to give this secretive group its own TV series. Guy Anatole is a successful law school graduate who has the world at his feet (as well as some strange other talents), but soon meets a woman who recruits him into the Talamasca, a secretive organization that keeps an eye on all things supernatural. Guy’s mission is to try and uncover a rogue agent who is trying to destroy the Talamasca in its entirety. It’s a little bit “X-Files”, a little bit espionage, and it has serious potential.
