Tag: 10 Rating

Kate’s Review: “Yesteryear”

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Book: “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke

Publishing Info: Knopf, 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: A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening,  Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

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

I remember when the announcement for the book “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke hit the publishing news, and the very concept completely had me hook line and sinker. A tradwife homesteader influencer being possibly transported to the early 1800s (aka a time where women had no power or choices in their lives) that she has always claimed to want to experience? And tries to sell it as something that all women SHOULD want to experience? Only to find it to be ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE?

Oh the sweet sweet irony (source)

So yes, I had pretty high hopes for “Yesteryear”. And “Yesteryear” blew them out of the water.

“Yesteryear” keeps a lot of its secrets hidden away, slowly unveiling them through a couple of unfolding narratives. We start on a typical day on Yesteryear Ranch, with tradwife influencer Natalie Heller Mills going through the motions of content creation for her millions of followers. She presents a front of traditional Christian values, rustic and ‘natural’ living, and a perfect family of multiple children, a perfect husband, and a ranch she runs herself (no one has to see the multiple nannies, the fact husband Caleb is an aimless dolt, or the fact they have MULTIPLE hired hands). You get the sense that something on this day is off, with tension building between Natalie, Caleb, and one of her producers. Then, Natalie awakens to find herself in a dank ranchhouse that looks like Yesteryear but is far more dilapidated, with children that aren’t the children she knows, and a husband who seems like Caleb but is violent and controlling. Not to mention it seems like she has really been transported back in time to the early 1800s, a time she claims to long for where women were submissive to their husbands and eager to fulfill their gendered duties, but is in actuality a nightmare. So the narratives become going to the past to see Natalie’s journey from devout Christian gal to the mogul of an empire that seems to be on the brink, and then the new reality that has her feeling trapped and desperate to escape. I loved the framing of this as they slowly start to converge, and the building tension and questions about what the HELL has happened to Natalie to get from Ballerina Farms-esque wealth and status to actual tradwife hell. It kept me guessing the whole time, presenting not only nightmare scenarios of Natalie’s new normal and her seeking out of answers, but also a clear villain story of how she got to her dream and the people she stepped on to get there. All will be revealed, and done so nearly perfectly, but the slow burn of it all crackles and kept me so hooked I read this in two days.

But the heart of this story (even if it’s a bit of a rancid one, and I mean that in a good way) is Natalie and her trad wife influencer ambitions and how far she will go to achieve them. In other trad wife books I’ve read in the past year, we have protagonists who are definitely complex and are seeking out fame and status with this highly damaging platform and influence, but ultimately they have learning moments and kind of see the error of their ways, or came to their positions through means that are ultimately empathetic and give them some grace. This isn’t a bad thing, really, and I did enjoy the ability to give them grace with the context that we get as the tale goes on. But Natalie? Natalie is also a well rounded character who doesn’t feel like a moustache twirling villain, but she is smug, she is a hypocrite, she is judgmental and cruel, and she is a sly and subtle monster who knows how to hide behind a veneer of piety in order to achieve her goals. Sure there is a Ballerina Farms vibe to her, but there is also a very clear undercurrent of Ruby Franke in her cruelty and her thirst for power at any cost. I was thrilled to see Burke take her places that others haven’t, like the fact that she is more than willing to cozy up with white supremacists and spew bigoted talking points (but in a gentle way) if she can feel superior to everyone else, especially the ‘angry women’ who she feels incredibly victimized by even though she’s hardly a victim. She’s just venomous, and it felt like it was epitomizing the darkest realities of the trad wife movement and its ties to Christo-fascism and white supremacy, and how it gets enmeshed with far right political movements. It’s the harshest critique of the movement I’ve seen and it is spectacular, even if it is deeply, DEEPLY uncomfortable.

“Yesteryear” is phenomenal. It kept me guessing, kept me engaged, and is sure to be a favorite read of the year for me. I’m blown away.

Rating 10: Mind blowing. A fantastic critique of the performance of conservative (to far right) femininity that trad wife content bolsters that is rife with suspense and building dread.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Yesteryear” is included on the Goodreads list “Tradwife Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “The Curse of Hester Gardens”

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Book: “The Curse of Hester Gardens” by Tamika Thompson

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, March 2026

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

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

Book Description: We Need to Talk about Kevin as if written by Jason Reynolds and Tananarive Due meets Model Home by Rivers Solomon in an innovative twist on the haunted house about a mother desperate to protect her sons from the twin specters of gun violence and otherworldly menace in their public housing project.

Nona McKinley raised three boys in the Hester Gardens section of Medford, Michigan, an impoverished community divided by those who follow their faith in God and those who turn to crime to survive. With her drug dealer husband behind bars and her eldest son shot to death at eighteen, Nona has devoted herself to ensuring her other children escape their brother’s fate.

Her second son Marcus is on the right path. He’s a valedictorian heading to an Ivy League school. He can get out.

But then, strange things start happening to Nona and other mysterious footsteps are heard when she’s alone, people have phantom encounters in the streets, unattended appliances go off at all hours. Even more concerning is the state of Nona’s living sons. Her youngest, Lance, is hanging around with a bad crowd, and Marcus becomes moody and secretive. Sometimes he even seems to act like a different person entirely.

Nona has her secrets too. Her affair with the married church pastor has been weighing on her conscience, but that’s not the only guilt haunting her. She fears that someone—or something— is seeking revenge for an act she made in a moment of weakness to protect her family. And now everyone in Hester Gardens must pay the price…

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

I read Tamika Thompson’s short story collection “Unshod, Cackling, and Naked” a few years ago and really enjoyed it. There were so many horror tales that she had in it that were so well done and so compelling, and when I was asked to read her debut novel “The Curse of Hester Gardens” I was really eager to take a look. After all, she had some really strong short stories, and I wanted to see what she could do with a full length novel. And once I started reading, it became quite clear quite quickly how special of a book it was I was reading. I was hooked immediately, knowing that it was going to destroy me.

Given that this is a horror story, I will talk about the supernatural and slow burn dread first. In a similar vein to the film “Candyman” (it’s not a one to one comparison but I was thinking about its themes as I read), we have a housing project that is not only dealing with violence and poverty and being left to the wayside, but is also dealing with hauntings and ghosts of those who once lived there, and an escalating presence. It starts with a bang right from the start, with our protagonist Nona getting ready for her son Marcus’s graduation from high school, and believes that someone, or something, has entered her home, only to be alone. I was hooked from the start, and the creep factor slowly builds and builds with occurences that seem ghostly, but could also be explainable by the realities of living at Hester Gardens. But Thompson does a great job with the kind of weird to the all out terrifying, with resident ghosts making their presences known, and a potential possession of Marcus as he starts acting strange and out of character. There were so many beats with ghosts that could either just be straight forward realities (like a little boy ghost who just pops in and out and the residents are used to it), or something that seems to be growing in malevolence, and Thompson was able to pull different vibes from the various kinds of hauntings and they all worked. There is also some really quiet beats of creepiness, like a stove that keeps turning on, or a voice that could be a family member in the hallway but may NOT be, or straight up nightmare fuel, like a ghost climbing out of a wall to try an grab someone. I loved EVERY level, and the tension builds and builds until it’s unbearable and in need or release.

But the most impactful aspect of this book is the way that Thompson has taken a haunted house and ghost story theme and made it more explicitly about the spectre of American Racism, bringing in aspects of poverty, housing projects that fall to the wayside and become run down and left behind, gun violence and gang violence and the desperation of the residents who feel there is no other way to survive, and the infighting between people who have similar experiences but can’t get past their trauma that just keeps on cycling. Nona has experienced so much loss, whether it’s her husband who has been incarcerated (and whom she has a great anger towards), or her son Kendall who was murdered in a senseless drive by shooting. She is desperate to hold onto Marcus and Lance, and tries to do everything right by pushing Marcus to pursue his education, leaning into the Church (and getting too close to the married pastor), and looking down at Lance’s choices with who he’s hanging out with (which alienates him all the more), as if she has control in a situation where all of the odds are stacked against her and her sons because of their race. So much of my anxiety in this book was directly related to the seemingly insurmountable circumstances that Nona and her boys had to deal with, and as Marcus seems to be come possessed by a rageful spirit, there is also just the stark reality that systemic racism has built these traps for the Black community that directly lead to tragedy and more cycles of violence and loss and trauma, ghost involvement or not. It’s a devastating aspect of this book and I thought that Thompson captures the complicated natures of these things. I loved how complex so many of these characters were, even those who would so easily just be moustache twirly evil in the hands of other authors (such as a local gang leader who is violent and scary, but also adores his baby son and cares for his kind and well loved grandmother). Thompson really shows the pain and also the sense of community of the people at Hester Gardens, and decries the racist systems that keep these traumatic cycles going. It’s stunning work. I was weeping openly by the end.

“The Curse of Hester Gardens” is an incredible debut novel from Tamika Thompson. It’s scary and sad and kind of hopeful and just so, so well done. Horror fans, get your hands on this book.

Rating 10: Haunting, evocative, devastating, and powerful, “The Curse of Hester Gardens” is a haunted house story, but is also the story of racism, gun violence, cyclical trauma, and a woman desperate to keep her sons safe in a world in which they are constantly in danger, ghosts or not.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Curse of Hester Gardens” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Fordward to in 2026”.

Serena’s Review: “Daughter of Crows”

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Book: “Daughter of Crows” by Mark Lawrence

Publishing Info: Ace, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: The Academy of Kindness exists to create agents of retribution, cast in the image of the Furies—known as the kindly ones—against whom even the gods hesitate to stand. Each year a hundred girls are sold to the Academy. Ten years later only three will emerge.

The Academy’s halls run with blood. The few that survive its decade-long nightmare have been forged on the sands of the Wound Garden. They have learned ancient secrets amid the necrotic fumes of the Bone Garden. They leave its gates as avatars of vengeance, bound to uphold the oldest of laws.

Only the most desperate would sell their child to the Kindnesses. But Rue … she sold herself. And now, a lifetime later, a long and bloody lifetime later, just as she has discovered peace, war has been brought to an old woman’s doorstep.

That was a mistake.

Review: Somehow I’ve never gotten around to reading a book by Mark Lawrence up to this point. He’s put out several duologies/trilogies that have sparked my interest (I think I even had a few loaded on my Kindle), but for whatever reason, I just never managed to pick one up. Well, THAT will be changing now!

Because I loved this book. Pretty much everything about it, from the fantastic characters, to the brutal world, to the dry wit, to the rising stakes as the book progressed. I’ll also note that it was a bit refreshing to read a fantasy book that didn’t feature a romance. My favorite genre, honestly by far, is probably fantasy romance. But lately I’ve felt so burned by what feels like the cannibalization of the genre by romantasy slop that I’ve gotten to the point that I see a romance introduced, and I’m immediately put on high alert. No one is sadder about this fact than me. But Lawrence was here to remind me of the absolute gems that can be found back in the good ole “basic” epic fantasy genre.

One of the notable features of this book is the format in which it is told. The book description kind of mildly hints at this, but throughout the book, the story alternates between two timelines: Rue’s current life, when she’s well beyond her prime but facing a rising challenge, and the past, where students fight for their lives in the brutal Academy of Kindnesses. This seems like a simple enough set up, one that is familiar in many ways. But Lawrence took all of my expectations for how this formula would play out and tossed them straight out the window.

It was one major twist after another, to the point that by the halfway mark, I was careful not to take anything for granted. It was destabilizing in the best of ways. The problem with a format like this is that the future section could spoil events from the past. That is in no way the case here! This book is only the first entry, and sure, I can see where Rue has ended up, but I probably have even more questions than I started out with in regard to her life up to this point.

The characters were also fantastic. Of course, Rue is the main character, and her current POV chapters were sharp, poignant, and heartbreaking at various points. No punches are pulled about the realities of age and its effects on the body, but this juxtaposition between Rue’s physical state and her unkillable spirit only served to heighten the tension playing out in this timeline. Her story ends on a definite cliffhanger, and, like I said, by the time we reached this final page, I was left with only burning questions about not only what happened in her past but where the story was going to go from here. There were a few late-game reveals that truly ratcheted this up; the next book can’t come fast enough.

As for the other timeline, it’s harder to go into many details without spoiling some truly epic and surprising moments. It’s been a long time since I was truly as shocked as I was by a few of these twists and turns. Even by the time I had a better idea of the type of book I was reading, there were still swerves in the road that I wasn’t expecting.

I will say, I think the Academy was a brilliant interpretation of a very tired trope: the deadly school/trials plotline. We can all name a half dozen books like this off the top of our head at this point, and one of the biggest challenges for this trope is the premise. The author has to come up with a believable world/system in which a school with a death rate like this would be in any way believable or viable. Well, Lawrence knocked it out of the park. At every turn, there he was with an explanation behind the philosophy of the school, the greater role it plays in society, and the how/why of the people who participate within it.

Further, once we begin to follow students through the day-to-day life of the Academy, he doesn’t overplay his hand with the brutality. Instead, it lingers in the background, building a simmering sort of tension that then explodes at the most unexpected times. Instead of non-stop violence and death, the story focuses on the lives of the girls going through this grueling life. It was immersive in the best way, where I easily became invested in even some of the side characters involved. And, of course, this building of emotional stakes only highlights the horror and terror of the school when it hones in on the more brutal moments.

Beyond this, the story’s greater geopolitical world, its religions, its society, were all incredibly well done. While the true heroes of the story are its characters, the world-building effectively set the stage for the more grand conflicts that we can see simmering in the future.

So, yes. I loved this book. If you enjoy epic fantasy, this is a must-read for sure. You also better believe that Lawrence’s back catalog has taken a massive leap up my TBR list!

Rating 10: Brutal and heartbreaking; a must-read for all epic and grimdark fantasy readers!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Daughter of Crows” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2026 Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction and Most Anticipated Adult Fantasy & Sci-fi of 2026 (Standalones & New Series)

Kate’s Review: “Trad Wife”

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Book: “Trad Wife” by Saratoga Schaefer

Publishing Info: Crooked Lane Books, February 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: Every #tradwife needs a baby. She’ll get one at any cost.

When Camille Deming isn’t cooking, cleaning, or homesteading in her picture-perfect country farmhouse, she’s posting about her tradwife lifestyle for her online followers. She takes inspiration from other tradwives on social media, aspiring to be like them, but Camille’s missing a key component: a baby. And contrary to what she posts online, things with her husband Graham have been strained. Pressured by her eager followers, Camille fears that without a baby, her relationship will suffer and her social media will never grow out of its infancy.

When Camille discovers a mysterious, decrepit well in the wheatfield behind her house, she makes a wish for a baby. Afterwards, she has unsettling experiences that she convinces herself are angelic in nature, and when she’s visited one night by a strange creature, her wish comes true. 

Camille’s pregnancy announcement gets more engagement than anything she’s ever posted—so what if Graham’s reaction is lukewarm? Camille’s life is finally falling into place. Never mind that her pregnancy is developing freakishly rapidly and she’s suddenly craving raw meat. Being a traditional wife is worth it.

Rosemary’s Baby for the digital age, this disturbing horror novel is one you’ll want to devour in just one bite.

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

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile you have no doubt seen that I have this weird hyper-fixation on the creepy rise of trad wife influencers online and how it is traditionalist and alt-right propaganda dressed up in wholesome family values. And you have probably seen that I’ve been seeking out various books about it because it’s all just so interesting and upsetting. When I saw “Trad Wife” by Saratoga Schaefer, with it’s neon cover of a pregnant woman being held by some demonic hands, my initial thought was ‘OBVIOUS’. With pregnancy and babies and fertility being such a driver of trad wife ethos it just seemed like a predictable direction to take the theme. But since I am still super into it, especially as satire, I figured I’d pick up a story about a woman so desperate for engagement on her trad wife social media page she’d literally sell her soul for a baby and fame, even if that baby is a devil spawn. It would at least be entertaining, I reasoned. And it was. BUT IT WAS ALSO SO MUCH MORE. I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. But I LOVED it.

First to talk about the horror elements, as that is the crux of the novel. Pregnancy horror is still pretty prevalent right now (I’ve talked about why many times), and here it is combined with the more recent ‘trad wife’ thriller sub-genre that has also risen in popularity in recent years due to the trad wife to alt-right/white supremacist pipeline online and high profile trad wife influencers making headlines (why just last week Ballerina Farm made the news because of bacteria ridden raw milk sold from their compound being taken off shelves! YUM!). These two themes mix well due to so much of trad wife content having children and pregnancy as a central tenant of the ideology/content. Saratoga Schaefer knows how to pull out the satire of these two sub genres and makes a fun and wicked horror tale. There are some unsettling imagery moments where Camille is seeing or hearing things, there are obviously some gnarly body horror beats (pregnancy itself is body horror, after all), and there is a growing tension as she grows something inside of her body that is not fully human. Schaefer also tweaks and twists very real pregnancy symptoms and ailments and ups the ante a bit to make them more horrifying, whether it’s hair falling out, bone pain, or severe fatigue. There are also the uncomfortable gaslighting of Camille’s husband Graham, who loves the idea of a submissive wife but wants her to stay a certain way, which adds to her desperation to have a child but also makes her feel more insecure, which drives her actions more desperately, which makes the tension all the higher. For awhile, anyway…

Camille could have been a maddening and stereotypical Ballerina Farms-esque personality that barely moves outside of the tropes that are expected or associated with trad wife influencers. And at first it seems like perhaps that is where we are heading as she obsesses about being a perfect help meet for her milquetoast husband Graham and boosting her social media engagement for validation about her perfection as a trad wife. But Schaefer instead decides to go on a different route with her protagonist, and while Camille is certainly flawed and at times grating, there are so many layers that are carefully and slowly pulled back that I found her to be completely understandable in the path she has chosen and the things that brought her to this point. We have a woman who had so many aspirations that were waylaid, and instead of persevering she has pivoted to a path that she has been told is a better fit ONLY because it would be better for those around her for her to be this way. And when she does start her pregnancy and motherhood journey and does have a baby, priorities shift, and she discovers what she CAN be on her own terms. Even if that involves a ‘demon’ spawn and insatiable urge for human flesh. And I say GOOD FOR HER. I was completely rooting for her and her feral-ness by the time the book was over.

But the thing that surprised me the most about this book were the completely unexpected romantic undercurrents flowing through it (SPOILERS AHEAD). So in the description of this book there is a reference to “Rosemary’s Baby”, which I suppose is an obvious story to reference when talking about a ‘demonic’ pregnancy horror tale. But it’s not a proper comparison at all, because, unlike in “Rosemary’s Baby”, Camille’s pregnancy by the demon/’creature’ (as she calls it)/whatever from the well in the woods is not only fully consensual (which I LOVED), it slowly evolves into something so incredibly sweet that I was floored by the story choice. But I loved it. I loved the idea of an aspirational trad wife so obsessed with the ‘culture’ of purity, perfection, and Godliness not only turning to a ‘demon’ to fulfill a pregnancy for online engagement, but also finding a connection to it that goes so much deeper and intimate than her picture perfect ‘Godly’ husband. Oh, and not only that, it was actually STEAMY. I’m not one who really reads monster romances, not because I dislike them, just because I haven’t really picked them up. But I’m a believer now. IT WAS SO GOOD.

Me repeatedly putting down and picking my Kindle back up during THE SCENE out of SHEER GIDDINESS (source)

“Trad Wife” hit every single high note I was hoping for and exceeded them. It wasn’t what I was expecting and it thought outside of the box of what we have been seeing with this newer reading trend, and I adored every bit of it.

Rating 10: A home run in every way. Great satire, great horror, and, interstingly enough, great monster romance.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Trad Wife” is included on the Goodreads lists “Tradwife Thrillers”, and “2026 Women in Horror”.

Serena’s Review: “The Shattered King”

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Book: “The Shattered King” by Charlie N. Holmberg

Publishing Info: 47North, September 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: bought it!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: The kingdom of Cansere is on the brink of war. Young men are conscripted from their homes, and a royal decree from the queen has made healing the only legal form of craftlock. Nym, a healer and beekeeper, is the sole provider for her family of seven now that her younger brother has been sent to the warfront. But when a letter comes from the queen, summoning Nym to the palace to heal Prince Renn, the kingdom’s ailing shut-in, Nym finds herself making the tumultuous journey from her family’s apiary to the capital city. Nym is determined to fail the queen’s mission and return to her younger siblings as soon as she can.

But escaping the castle’s hold isn’t as easy as failing a simple test. Prince Renn is cold and distant, and his illness is nothing like Nym has ever seen before, nothing she could ever imagine treating. In a moment of connection with Prince Renn, Nym manages to remedy the faintest symptom of his ailment―only to discover that no healer before has made such progress. Forced to become the prince’s official healer and a ward of the castle, and with her only hope of returning to her family hinging on the prince’s recovery, Nym must navigate the castle’s cruel and twisted court and uncover the haunting truth behind Prince Renn’s illness―even as she finds herself irrevocably drawn to him.

Review: I read and reviewed a book by this author back in 2017, The Paper Magician, but I’ll be honest, as much as I enjoyed that read at the time, I fell off on tracking the author further. This book only ended up on my radar because it was mentioned by a fellow reviewer who has similar taste as I do with regards to fantasy romance.

I absolutely adored this book! It’s rare that I turn the last page on a book and want to then turn around and re-read it immediately, but that was the case here. There were simply so many great things about it! But I think, looking back, one of the things I appreciated the most was the fact that books like this are proof positive that you can write a compelling romance without compromising on other important elements, notably world-building, magic systems, and complicated supporting characters. So, while the romance was one of my favorites as well, it was the strength of these three foundational elements that really raised it above the rest!

The world-building and magic in this book were fantastic. The basic concepts were familiar: magic users who fall into three categories (healing, mind-reading, compelling), who are feared and persecuted to some extent by the nations that house them. But the ways in which this magic was explored, particularly the healing abilities of our main character, were so interesting. Indeed, the author commits a fairly significant amount of page time to exploring how exactly this magic system works, with numerous scenes going into the strengths and limitations of Nym’s abilities. This devotion to detail is then paid off by incredible twists and turns that only come into play late in the book and wouldn’t have worked had the reader not been given a good understanding beforehand.

Further, I really enjoyed the political elements. Much of this was built up in this book and looks to be coming to the forefront in the sequel. But even here, what made much of these political scenes work was the fact that the author took the time to develop these secondary characters in a way that readers were given plenty of time to form opinions and theories about them and their motivations. So then when added layers are revealed or complicating factors introduced, the reader is invested enough to care what happens to them, even if they are not the main characters. Even characters that I thoroughly despised had me on the edge of my seat towards the end!

But, of course, the story really lives and dies on the strength of the romance and the two characters involved. The story is told fully from Nym’s perspective, something that I prefer! Too often I feel like the inclusion of both POVs is used as a crutch by authors to simply tell readers how both parties are feeling, rather than taking the time to show us, as is necessary when the reader only has access to one character’s inner thoughts. Beyond that, the book takes its time revealing Nym’s full history. There are many references to major events in her past, but this information is carefully doled out throughout the book. I love this approach! The author trusts that readers will be invested enough to want to get to know this character further, rather than being spoon-fed her entire history and character motivation right from the get-go.

And Renn was everything I love in a romantic lead! The story is a true slow-burn, with Renn only gradually coming to understand his own shortcomings and the reality of Nym’s experiences. But once he does, boy, is he great! This is solidly a “he falls first” romance, and the author takes full advantage of all the tension and longing that this setup allows. It’s so refreshing to read a romantic lead who is not brooding or overly secretive, but instead is direct about what he wants. And the limitations holding the relationship back are solidly grounded in the realities of the characters and the world, not clearly orchestrated angst that could be solved with a quick conversation.

I will say, the book does end on a fairly major cliffhanger! But never fear, the second book is coming out in a few short months, and I already have my e-ARC in hand! We’ll see how long I can hold out, but if things continue in this direction, I think this duology will easily earn a spot on my Top 10 for next year! If you enjoy fantasy romance with solid character work that doesn’t skimp on the actual fantasy elements, then this is definitely one to check out!

Rating 10: Absolutely brilliant! A perfect melding of the best of both worlds in the fantasy and romance genres!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Shattered King” can be found on these Goodreads lists: My favorite Medieval Fantasy novels and All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in September 2025.

Kate’s Review: “King Sorrow”

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Book: “King Sorrow” by Joe Hill

Publishing Info: William Morrow, October 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC25

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

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!

He’s beauty and he’s grace…. (source)

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.

Reader’s Advisory:

“King Sorrow” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror Books 2025”.

Serena’s Review: “The Everlasting”

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Book: “The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow

Publishing Info: Tor Books, October 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publihser!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

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!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Everlasting” can be found on these Goodreads lists: My favorite Medieval Fantasy novels and All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in October 2025.

Kate’s Review: “The Mean Ones”

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Book: “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

Publishing Info: Creature Publishing, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered.

But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name was Sabrina. Now, she’s Sadie: a perfectly normal 29-year-old. She works as a physical therapist assistant and lifts weights with her boyfriend, Lucas, who’s the sweetest, most considerate man—as long as he’s not angry. But when Lucas spontaneously agrees to join a couples trip to a cabin in the woods, the visions get worse, a strange figure stalks her during the night, and that male voice in Sadie’s head keeps calling, asking her to do things she’s never fathomed.

Sadie’s not sure if it’s her paranoia or something else entirely . . . But she is sure of one thing—this time, she’s not going to sit idly by as everything starts to unravel.

Review: Thank you to Creature Publishing for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

Back in June when Serena and I were in Philadelphia for the ALA Annual Conference I found myself circling and flagrantly stalking the Creature Publishing table, as they only had the table for a limited time, and I was DETERMINED to seek them out. Specifically for the book “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, as not only had it been getting some pretty solid hype, it also promised to have “Midsommar” and “Yellowjackets” vibes. True, I didn’t really like “Midsommar”, and I haven’t watched “Yellowjackets”, but the vibes of both? I’m INTO THOSE VIBES! It took a few awkward circles (as well as a few polite ‘no, I’m looking for this specific publisher, thanks’ to a few well meaning reps at tables surrounding the area) but I finally got my hands on a copy, and had high, HIGH hopes that it would be as awesome as I was hoping it would be. And whaddaya know? It was even MORE awesome!

Oh I just loved this. I’m appreciating folk horror more and more as time goes by, and weird entities in the woods and cult horror really tick off so many boxes for me. “The Mean Ones” definitely has both at hand, and I thought that Schlote-Bonne was great at building up a slow suspense both in the present with Sadie (though when she was a child her name was Sabrina) as an adult on a camping trip with her dodgy boyfriend Lucas and his friends, and also in the past with Sadie/Sabrina as a tween at camp with her best girl friends who are also not terribly kind to her. But both in the past and present she has been hearing things and seeing things, and while she tries to ignore it and just be normal it just keeps building up until something horrifying happens. Like friends Allie and Blakely being brutally murdered in front of Sadie/Sabrina by something sinister. The mysteriousness of what is going on in the woods, what Sadie/Sabrina is seeing and hearing, and what really happened to her friends and herself at camp is so well done and so well paced, and some of the moments of horror really unnerved me. There’s just something about a oh so wrong looking deer in the distant brush that just FREAKS me out in the best way. I’m trying to be vague because this is so good and it’s best to go in with as little info as possible, but at the end of the day if you like folk horror, this will surely be up your alley.

But it’s also the very real, relatable human aspects of Sadie/Sabrina and the way that she is pushed and mistreated by the people who are supposed to care about her that will probably resonate with readers. I really liked her as a protagonist, finding her to be relatable in a lot of ways as lord knows I’d been the odd girl out or picked on in my adolescent female friendships, and Sadie/Sabrina was REALLY familiar in her choices, anger, and pain. She has suffered from so much trauma that she has tried to mold herself into someone normal, but in doing so has become a people pleaser not unlike her time as a third wheel in her friendship with only friends Allie and Blakely, who treated her pretty poorly in ways that tween and teenage girls can sadly fall into when it comes to clique behavior. It makes for a protagonist you want to root for, and as we learn more about her and how she has been coping and twisting herself up, we also see a woman that could be so much more… though perhaps in a ‘good for her’ kind of way that we have seen in films like “The Witch” and “Midsommar”. Feminine rage has its moment along with the folk and cult horror aspects, and Schlote-Bonne pulls it off handily. I loved every bit of Sadie/Sabrina’s character arc.

“The Mean Ones” is one of the best horror novels I’ve read this year. I am so glad I stalked the publisher’s table at ALAAC, and I will absolutely be checking out Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s other books.

Rating 10: Spectacular folk and cult horror with shades of feminine rage, “The Mean Ones” is a knock out.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Mean Ones” is included on the Goodreads list “God Forbid Women Do Anything”.

Serena’s Review: “Wild Reverence”

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Book: “Wild Reverence” by Rebecca Ross

Publishing Info: Saturday Books, September 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Born ​in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters . . . there is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world.

Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.

Review: When I started reading this one and immediately fell in love with it (as I always do with Ross’s books it seems), I realized something: In many ways, Ross has taken up the reigns from Juliet Marillier in regards to these sorts of whimsical, lyrical, heartbreakingly romantic fantasy tales. Of course, Marillier is still writing, but her books are terribly difficult to get nowadays (her most recent one only released in Australia), so this makes Ross’s much more accessible titles all the more appealing. This little aside probably doesn’t mean much if you’re not familiar with Juliet Marillier’s works. But if that’s the case, and you enjoy Rebecca Ross and are looking for more, definitely give Marillier’s extensive back catalog a look!

It’s always a bit worrying when an author returns to a world/story that feels complete (I feel like Ava Reid’s “A Theory of Dreaming” is a good example of how it can go wrong). So when I heard that this was a prequel to “Divine Rivals,” I had concerns. But Ross proves here that there is a correct formula for making this work! For one thing, this book would be perfectly approachable to readers who have no knowledge of “Divine Rivals” and the world that was set up in that duology. Indeed, this book takes place so far in the past from those events that almost nothing is recognizable between one and the other. There are only the barest references to characters and places that show up in those books, and even these are of the sort that feel earned to this book alone, and not simply as empty “easter eggs” for fans of the other series.

The other factor that makes this successful as a prequel is the fact that the focus is on characters, places, and conflicts wholly unreferenced in the other duology. From my memory, there are only two gods mentioned in this book that showed up in the other books. And, indeed, the two gods at the heart of the conflict in “Divine Rivals” were some of the more obscure parts of that series, for better or worse. So getting a clearer look into what these pantheons looked like centuries in the past felt like being introduced to a fully unique world and lore.

And boy does Ross make up for that obscurity here! Not only does she create one pantheon, but two! Each with their own cultures, stories, and hierarchies. And then on top of those, she builds up the complicated dynamics that exist between them. Matilda’s story is told slowly and carefully, with the first third of the book devoted to her childhood and early adolescence. But what could have felt as slow pacing as we await the main action of the plot, instead felt like crucial world building and the introduction of a whole host of side characters, all of whom I wished to spend more time with, ultimately.

Matilda was fantastic, to put it simply. She’s a child between worlds and we see both the strengths and insecurities this brings to her. Because of how disconnected the two pantheons are, much of her existence has been shrouded in secrets and unknowns. There were a number of interesting twist and turns throughout the story that explored the tricky ways that her unique place between these worlds allowed her to manipulate events in surprising ways, even to her! I also enjoyed her internal journey, one that begins in fear, moves into a place where she has been taught how gods “should” behave, and then slowly comes into her own power, embracing that which her peers have deemed weaknesses.

Vincent is also a great romantic lead. He gets less page time than Matilda, but what we do see from him is so, so good. I was never quite as enraptured with the love story from “Divine Rivals” as other readers were, instead preferring the quieter, more adult romance found in other titles by Ross. So I was thrilled to see a return to that sort of love story play out here. Matilda and Vincent’s relationship hit on all of the right notes, mutual wariness that lead to deep feelings based on more than simple passion.

The conflict was also incredibly well done, with antagonists ranging from the mortal to the immortal. Once the plot starts up, it never really stops, with Matilda literally running from one action scene to another. And yet, at the same time, the story always felt keenly focused, precisely tuned to Matilda and Vincent and there journeys through these troubled times.

So, yes, I loved this book. In many ways, it was a return to the sort of love stories that I look for from Rebecca Ross. But it was also an incredibly well-drawn, detailed fantasy world with a twisting and intricate plot that will keep you on your toes throughout. If you’re a fan of Ross, than this is a must read! And I also strongly recommend it to romantasy fans and readers looking for a fairytale-like fantasy standalone!

Rating 10: Where romantasy meets epic fantasy, Ross is the reigning queen of the genre!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Wild Reverence” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Best Books of 2025 and “Matilda”.

Kate’s Review: “The Long Walk”

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Book: “The Long Walk” by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)

Publishing Info: Signet Books, July 1979

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as The Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping… with the winner being awarded “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—permanently…

Review: I first read “The Long Walk”, one of Stephen King’s ‘Bachman Books’, in 2015, just a couple of months before we started the blog. So about ten years ago! It had be recommended to me by one of my very closest coworkers at the library I was working at at the time, and I was absolutely enthralled with it. It instantly skyrocketed up to my top 3 Stephen King books (with “The Stand” and “Carrie” along with it). When I saw that they were going to make a movie based on this book I was excited, but nervous. Then I saw the trailer, and was like “I NEEEEEED TO SEEEEEE IT!!!” Serena and I are actually planning on going at some point, and I have plans to see it with other people too. And the time is almost upon us, as the movie comes out this Friday. So I thought that it would be the perfect time for a reread and to finally review it on this blog, since it JUST missed out. And wow. It hit even harder this time around.

Actual footage of me reeling on the couch while reading as the kittens come to see what’s happening…. (source)

I’ve always said that when King was writing as Bachman he felt no need to be hopeful or optimistic. Most of King’s books have some kind of hints at hope even in all the darkness (there ARE exceptions; “Pet Sematary”, “Cujo”, “Carrie” all come to mind), but when he wrote as Bachman he was just fine being a huge bummer. “The Long Walk” basically keeps up with that pattern, as a group of teenage boys participate in an unending walk in hopes of being the last man standing to receive a prize to make their lives better. After all, in “The Long Walk” America has been taken over by cruel authoritarian fascists who value control and violence to maintain it (ughhhhh), and the televised Long Walk competition is entertainment built from children being killed if they stop walking at the speeds they are supposed to be at. Our protagonist is Ray Garraty, who joined like all others thinking that walking at 5 miles per hour is easy and that the money will be his, but as the walk keeps going he and his companions start to break down as they are all picked off one by one (and let me tell you, when I was originally reading this I tried to walk as long as I could at 5mph while on a treadmill at the gym. It was NOT EASY). Garraty and other contestants, like the steadfast and snarky McVries, the antagonistic and crude Barkovitch, and the mysterious Stebbins, enter in and out of each other’s orbits as their companions are killed, they become physically exhausted, and their mental faculties start to break down. It’s tense, it’s awful, and it is relentless. I know that King has said he originally wrote this book when he was in college, when boys he knew were being drafted and sent to Vietnam, and the hopelessness and bleakness definitely harkens to the idea of young men and boys being sent into a meat grinder for a country’s own devices. But as someone who now has a kid of her own this book hit THAT MUCH HARDER, with these children sobbing, screaming, or in some cases dying slowly and painfully before actually being shot for losing (one character contracts pneumonia while walking, and my God it was harrowing as he slips further and further into illness with no ways to rest and heal). There was one moment with a character screaming about his feet for prolonged moments where I couldn’t go any further for a bit. I just had to put it down. It’s an effective and dark dystopian nightmare.

BUT. There are also moments of intimacy and camaraderie between some of the characters, specifically Garraty and McVries, that show that even in the darkest and most terrible times and experiences, if you can find someone, or a community, to hold onto, there will always be bits of hope. The relationship between Garraty and McVries was so, so lovely, as while it has its ups and downs as the contest goes on and their stress, exhaustion, and fear kick in, you can tell that they both have a connection that keeps each other going. There has long been queer subtext speculated about these characters, which is definitely a fair way to interpret it, but what I loved about their friendship is that it’s another example of one of my favorite relationship portrayals: when two people connect to each other and get each other on a level that transcends platonic and romantic and is a whole other thing that isn’t quite definable. It makes them that much more touching and intimate, and that much more tragic as the story goes on. This book isn’t optimistic or hopeful as a whole, but these bits as these boys keep each other going DO have small bright spots in a sea of despair. And it’s a reminder of how important that can be.

“The Long Walk” is still one of my favorite Stephen King novels. It’ll wreck you if you let it. But it’s so, so good.

Rating 10: This is still one of my favorite Stephen King books. Devastating, tense, and bleak, but so incredibly emotional with glimmers of intimacy and camaraderie.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Long Walk” is included on the Goodreads lists “Dystopia!”, and “Games of Death”.