Tag: Thriller

Kate’s Review: “Beth Is Dead”

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Book: “Beth Is Dead” by Katie Bernet

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, January 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: Beth March’s sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer—until they begin to suspect each other—in this debut thriller that’s also a bold, contemporary reimagining of the beloved classic Little Women.

When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer. Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.

Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.

Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.

Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.

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

As an elder Millennial I have a very special place in my heart for the 1994 “Little Women” film. I just love the story of the March Sisters growing up and experiencing love, loss, and growth. But I’ve always found the character of Beth to be a little twee, so good and so angelic, only to die a tragic death that is so unfair because she was just SO good. Beth has had some great performers behind her, don’t get me wrong (Claire Danes is perfection), but as a character, to me, she’s there to be a tragedy. Suffice to say, when I saw the book “Beth Is Dead” by Katie Bernet on my various social media and book feeds, it caught my eye. At first I was thinking ‘well that’s a LITTLE grotesque’, as turning a death from a weakened heart due to illness into a violent murder seemed perhaps a little crude. But, as you all know, I’m really big into thrillers and mysteries, especially if the mystery involves murder, and the idea of making “Little Women” into a modern murder mystery was just too fun. I jumped in with no expectations, but ended up really enjoying this re-imagining. And it may surprise some of you to learn that a book that makes Beth March a murder victim actually humanized her more than I’ve encountered in other adaptations and reimaginings!

They mystery at hand is what I will talk about first, just to get it all out there, because to me that was one of the weaker aspects of this novel, if ONLY because if you are familiar with the source material you will probably be able to discern what is going on for basically all of the characters. But that isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy this book, because I found it hard to put down, mostly because I wanted to see how Bernet was going to fit the themes from the original text into a 21st Century murder mystery. And overall she did it very successfully. We have the March Sisters of Jo, Meg, Amy, and yes, Beth (more on Beth in a bit) jumping from their Victorian personalities into a whole new world, but Bernet managed to fit all of them into new boxes in believable ways. For Jo we have an aspiring author who has found her voice in becoming an influencer, creating stories of her day to day life for a hungry audience. For Meg we have an Oldest Daughter Syndrome people pleaser who wants to live up to the lofty expectations of her family and herself, though she can easily be taken advantage of by those around her because of it. For Amy it’s a rebel child who stirs up trouble, dreaming of getting to Europe to pursue and artist’s life at any cost. And for Beth it’s a painfully shy girl who feels like others don’t know her so well, but aches to come out of her shell. I also really liked how in this the father isn’t a soldier who is off at war, but is an author who has taken the lives of his daughters and written a literary novel that is based on their lives, which has set off a firestorm of controversy that causes him to leave in hopes he will stop hurting his children (or perhaps in hopes it will all blow over). It’s things like this that feel like they echo the source material while feeling relevant to our modern world.

But it’s the way that Bernet tackles Beth that worked the best for me in this novel. While the crux of the story is Jo, Meg, and Amy trying to solve their sister’s murder (while also hiding their own secrets from each other), we also get flashbacks to Beth’s final months, and the road that led her to her unfortunate end. I’ve seen this kind of thing in other “Little Women” reimaginings, getting Beth’s perspective at least a little bit, but even in those that I’ve read it feels like Beth is still otherworldly and angelic in those interpretations. In this story where she is murdered, ironically enough, I felt like we actually got the most humanized version of Beth that I’ve seen put to page. She still feels true to her original characterization, preferring her piano and being introverted to being more out there, but it isn’t the only thing we learn about her. We also see her own hopes and dreams, which don’t keep her limited to being the kindest and most loved March Sister due to her inherent goodness. She doesn’t want to just be good, and I really, really liked that.

“Beth Is Dead” was entertaining and suspenseful, and it was a successful twist on a classic that has been so well loved for so many generations.

Rating 8: A fun and suspenseful modern re-imagining of a beloved classic, where sisters keep secrets and a long martyred and beloved March Sister gets a voice.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Beth Is Dead” is included in the Goodreads article “204 Retellings with New Spins on Old Stories”.

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

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

Publishing Info: Image Comics, December 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Kate’s Review: “The Dead Husband Cookbook”

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Book: “The Dead Husband Cookbook” by Danielle Valentine

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Kate’s Review: “Carried Away”

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

Publishing Info: Dead Icon Collective, November 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Kate’s Review: “Oxford Soju Club”

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Book: “Oxford Soju Club” by Jinwoo Park

Publishing Info: Dundum Press, September 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Kate’s Review: “Watch Us Fall”

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

Book: “Watch Us Fall” by Christina Kovac

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster, December 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Kate’s Review: “The Telling”

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

Book: “The Telling” by Alexandra Sirowy

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, August 2016

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC of the re-release from the publicst

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

Book Description: Lana used to know what was real. That was before, when her life was small and quiet. Her golden stepbrother, Ben was alive. She could only dream about bonfiring with the populars. Their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell truth from lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.

Then came after.

After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten: love, blood, and murder.

Review: Thank you to Wunderkind PR for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I’m back with another re-release of an Alexandra Sirowy YA thriller/mystery! I reviewed “The Creeping” a couple weeks ago, and found it to be a gritty and interesting read (one that I had actually already read, but the re-read wasn’t hindered by that!). So I couldn’t wait to see what “The Telling” would be like. I knew that it wasn’t a sequel and took place somewhere else that wasn’t Minnesota (this time in Gant, a small island community in Washington State), and was interested to see where the story would take us this time.

As a mystery, it has a solid hook: Lana is still mourning the death of her stepbrother Ben, whose murder was very likely in part due to his ex-girlfriend Maggie. But one summer day while swimming, Lana and her friends discover Maggie’s body at the bottom of a pond, and suddenly everyone, especially Lana, are seen as suspects. This is the kind of thriller trope that I greatly enjoy, and it was fun seeing Lana try to figure out who was behind the murder not only to clear her own name, but also because it could lead her to more answers about Ben’s death, with twists, turns, red herrings, and some reveals that were pretty well done. I will say that one of the biggest reveals I kind of caught onto quickly, but I enjoyed Lana’s journey getting there enough that it wasn’t disappointing or frustrating. I will also say that sometimes this book felt like it could have been parsed down at least a little bit, as at times I did feel like it was dragging and meandering a little. It just could have been tightened a bit.

I mostly liked Lana as a narrator, as she had a pretty good amount of unreliability to her that I always enjoy in a thriller that is trying to keep some things close to the vest. Her despair of losing Ben was believable, though I will admit that sometimes I was wondering what exactly the nature of her despair was, but as more of her past, motivations, and attachments came through it made that much more sense. Slowly learning about her and Ben and the evolution of their connection was a bit of a slow burn, but it definitely kept me interested even when I felt like things could have been sped up a bit. It was actually this aspect of the book that had the most surprises for me, and kept me the most invested.

“The Telling” wasn’t as strong as “The Creeping”, but it’s another pretty solid YA thriller. I’m hoping that with these new editions of both these books we’ll be seeing more from Sirowy, as she tends to delve into darker themes that I have enjoyed.

Rating 7: It was an entertaining mystery and another well plotted thriller from Alexandra Sirowy, though this time I kind of figured out the bit twist prematurely.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Telling” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Teen Screams”.

Kate’s Review: “The Bone Thief”

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

Book: “The Bone Thief” by Vanessa Lillie

Publishing Info: Berkley, October 2025

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

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

Book Description: When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate…from bestselling author Vanessa Lillie.

In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family’s fears.

As Syd investigates both crimes, she’s drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents—most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community. And it’s not the first time something—or someone—has gone missing from the camp.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she realizes these aren’t isolated incidents. A pattern of disappearances stretches back generations, all leading to the Founders Society’s doorstep. But exposing the truth means confronting not just the town’s most powerful families, but also a legacy of violence that refuses to stay buried.

From the national bestselling author of Blood Sisters (a Washington Post Best Mystery of the Year and Target Book Club pick) comes a new Syd Walker novel that proves the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.

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

I really enjoyed Vanessa Lillie’s first Syd Walker Mystery “Blood Sisters” when I read it awhile back, having stumbled upon it and taking a chance on it only to be really happy with it. Because of this it’s definitely not shocking that when I saw that Lillie had a new Syd Walker mystery coming out, “The Bone Thief”, I had to request it post haste. I am always hoping to find a new mystery series to follow, and sometimes one good read can be a fluke. I hoped it wasn’t the case for Lillie’s Syd, and boy was I happy to see that Syd is still going strong and bringing compelling and searingly relevant mysteries!

We have two mysteries at work here. The first is the case of some remains of an Indigenous woman and her baby that Syd is involved with as a BIA archaeologist, and how the local historical group The Founders Society wants to have them for clout while the local tribes want to bring them back to the community… only for the remains to disappear. Along with that, a Native teenager named Naomi has gone missing, harkening back to Syd’s previous mystery where she went searching for her missing sister, and also found her childhood friend Luna and Luna’s daughter Gracie on her search (Luna and Gracie have since moved in with Syd and her very pregnant wife Mal, which is causing some friction). I enjoyed both of the mysteries, as I felt that Lillie did a good job of keeping the focus even upon both while also slowly intertwining them, with connections between missing teen Naomi and the Founder’s Society, as well as other mysteries connected to the group over the years. Syd is still a very enjoyable detective, trying to remain true and honest to her own Indigenous heritage while also working for the BIA in a way that she feels can be positive. I felt like there were solid reveals, well done misdirections, and a well placed smattering of clues that all came together for some satisfying conclusions.

But, like so many other books that have such themes, it was the social commentary about the way that Indigenous people in this country are being erased, ignored, oppressed, and victimized, whether it’s during this time period in a pre-Obama United States, or in the many years since the invasion of this country by European colonizers. In this book Syd has found herself not only investigating another missing Indigenous woman case, she is also dealing with the theft and exploitation of Indigenous remains, when the skeletons of an Indigenous woman and her baby are found and the local historical organization The Founders Society wants claim to the bones. Syd has to walk a tenuous line as a BIA archaeologist, as she believes in the education of the masses to the history of Indigenous peoples and how history should, indeed, be accessible to anyone… But she also is fully aware that a predominantly white historical society mainly made up of descendants of colonizers keeping not only artifacts but also remains of Indigenous people is deeply, DEEPLY problematic and unethical. Lillie raises a lot of good questions about not only the way that living Indigenous people are still being wronged in the modern world, but how the long dead continue to be victimized through their remains being disrespected and withheld from tribes in the name of white history. It’s important to keep talking about it, and I appreciated the way that Lillie blended it all together along with the mystery.

“The Bone Thief” is another enjoyable Syd Walker mystery from Vanessa Lillie! I really hope this series continues, it really clicks with me.

Rating 8: Another solid mystery with all too relevant social commentary about the Indigenous experience, “The Bone Thief” is a gripping thriller with a very likable protagonist.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Bone Thief” is included on the Goodreads list “Indigenous Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Creeping”

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

Book: “The Creeping” by Alexandra Sirowy

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, August 2015

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC of the re-release from the publicist

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

Book Description: Eleven years ago, Stella and Jeanie disappeared. Only Stella came back.

Now all she wants is a summer full of cove days, friends, and her gorgeous crush – until a fresh corpse leads Stella down a path of ancient evil and secrets.

Stella believes remembering what happened to Jeanie will save her. It won’t.

She used to know better than to believe in what slinks through the shadows. Not anymore.

Review: Thank you to Wunderkind PR for sending me an ARC of this novel!

So I ran into an interesting situation when I started reading “The Creeping” by Alexandra Sirowy. As started reading, I started feeling like it was a bit familiar. Something in my mind was niggling at me. Savage, Minnesota? A girl who experienced something traumatizing and has no memory of that day? A mean best friend and a longing boy who used to be a friend?

Something feels familiar… (source)

I hadn’t gone to my Goodreads to update my reading status at this point, and so I went to my account and looked up “The Creeping”…. and realized that I read it when it originally came out ten years ago!! I had known it was a re-release, but clearly ten years meant that the title hadn’t rang any bells at first. I didn’t go back and read my thoughts as I wanted to go in without any influence on my thoughts. And I enjoyed it again, and found it to be fascinating to see how my views shifted in ten years.

As a small town with secrets and folklore perhaps treading towards a supernatural horror, “The Creeping” checks off a lot of boxes that I generally enjoy in the tropes that come with such tales. Savage, Minnesota (not too far from where we live, albeit a fictional version of this town!) has been haunted by the disappearance of a little girl named Jeanie, who disappeared in the woods with her best friend Stella when she was six and never came back, though Stella did, with no memory of what happened. Stella has tried to move on, leaning hard into her friend Zoey and becoming popular and generally revered in her school… Until a body of a little girl who looks a LOT like Jeanie is found in the woods around the anniversary, and stirs up memories and fears in Stella. I love a teenager trying to find out the dark secrets of her hometown, and in “The Creeping” it’s a bit unclear as to whether this is a human monster, or something a bit more supernatural. I found the clues to be well placed, the tension to be pretty well paced, and the folk lore and history of the town to be compelling and mysterious. There are also touches upon the way that a community can get thrown into a frenzy when unexplainable things happen, so desperate for answers they find targets to focus on. These feelings didn’t really change too much from my initial read to this one.

But this time around I had some shifting feelings about the teenage relationships in a way that kind of surprised me! When I initially read this ten years ago my review was especially scathing towards Zoey, Stella’s opinionated and sometimes manipulative best friend who tries to push Stella to be as carefree and popular as she strives to be. And reading it now ten years later was an interesting comparison, as I still found Zoey to be a pretty mean girl, but I was more willing to give her a little bite of grace this time around. I appreciated the way that Sirowy depicts a complicated friendship between two friends who genuinely adore each other, but one is incredibly insecure in herself and lashes out instead of unpacking that insecurity (and hey, as someone who was once a teenage girl I found this VERY realistic). It was also a well done examination of how trauma can still linger and haunt a person, and how people around them can say that they are supportive and understanding, but then get burned out on it and can say and do some cruel things out of not really getting the weight of it all. Heck, I enjoyed all of the teenage relationships at the forefront of this book, whether it’s the messy one between Stella and Zoey, or the renewed and intimate dynamic between Stella and Sam, the friend she left behind at Zoey’s behest. I really loved seeing Stella and Sam come back together and found their romance not overpowering to the narrative, while also being very sweet and tender.

It was a enjoyable time revisiting “The Creeping”! I liked seeing how my thoughts shifted while still staying pretty aligned, and in two weeks I will be following up with another of Sirowy’s re-releases, “The Tellilng”!

Rating 8: A surprise re-read that I enjoyed in another way ten years after my first read, “The Creeping” is small town secrets, folklore thrills, and complicated teenage relationships all rolled into a quick and interesting thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Creeping” is included on the Goodreads lists “YA Books Set in Minnesota”, and “YA Murder Mysteries”.

Kate’s Review: “The Butcher and the Liar”

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

Book: “The Butcher and the Liar” by S.L. Woeppel

Publishing Info: Books Fluent, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from the publicist

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Daisy Bellon thinks she may have buried her skeletons forever. At thirty-five, she runs a butcher shop in a forgotten corner of Chicago, keeping her past locked away. But when an anonymous letter arrives, she’s thrust back to the day her life split in two.

At nine years old, Daisy meets Caleb Garcia, a boy who makes her believe in the possibility of friendship and happiness. But that same night, she stumbles upon her father dismembering a woman in their basement and becomes his unwilling apprentice, sworn to keep his monstrous secrets. When the victim’s ghost appears in Daisy’s room, she’s bound to a haunting legacy. To endure, Daisy weaves a web of lies, clinging to the light of Caleb’s friendship while slipping deeper into the darkness of her father’s shadow.

More than two decades later, following the arrival of the mysterious letter, someone close to Daisy is brutally murdered in an all-too-familiar fashion. Forced to confront the truth about her family and herself, Daisy must decide whether to let the darkness consume her—or to fight for love and redemption, even if it means revealing everything she’s tried to bury.

A haunting psychological thriller perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, The Butcher and the Liar has mystery lovers and literary fiction readers on the edge of their seats.

Review: Thank you to Books Forward for sending me a copy of this novel!

I know that she is a darling of the modern thriller genre these days (and I do feel like it’s a well earned reputation), I have to admit that I have had mixed feelings about Gillian Flynn’s books. Loved “Dark Places”. Hated “Gone Girl”. Was middle of the road on “Sharp Objects”. I do kind of wish she’d come back and write another book like so many others do, but I also respect her for doing her own thing. Ultimately, if a book is compared to Gillian Flynn I’m a bit hesitant, both because I have mixed feelings about her works, but also because her works are so influential and hard to replicate. I wanted to check out “The Butcher and the Liar” by S.L. Woeppel when it ended up in our inbox because the premise sounded interesting (a woman made into an accomplice to her serial killer father’s crimes when she was a child trying to piece her life back together, oh my GOSH yes), but the Gillian Flynn angle made me say ‘okay sure, whatever you say’ because we’ve heard it so much. But as I was reading it I realized that it’s actually not a bad comparison.

I enjoyed the way that Woeppel combines a few different genres here to create something gritty yet dreamy, with thriller, historical fiction, family saga, and coming of age mixing up with a dash of the supernatural. We follow Daisy Bellon, the daughter of a notorious serial killer who murdered women over many years, and made Daisy an unwilling accomplice after she found him trying to dispose of a body of one of his victims. As a child she has only one friend, the boy next door named Caleb, whose friendship she always holds at arm’s length even as she grows to adore him… Until a ghost named Marina, who she believes is a victim of her father, latches on, and they too form a bond. In the present Daisy is an anonymous butcher in Chicago, who only opens up to her dear friend Miles. But when a neighbor is murdered in a similar fashion to her now imprisoned father’s M.O. she starts to wonder if she can ever really escape her past. It’s a lot of different vibes, but Woeppel is pretty good and finding the highlights of all the genres at their best to create a mystery, a ghost story, and a coming of age tale that mixes well and never feels too overstuffed. Whenever I would find myself questioning if it was too much going on, there would be things that made it clear that no, Woeppel knows what she’s doing with the different genres and it almost always came together in a satisfying manner.

I also really liked the two timeline narratives, flipping between Daisy in 2015 as she is dealing with potentially coming into the spotlight again with an art installation a new love interest is throwing and the murder of her neighbor, and the late 1980s into the early to mid 1990s as her father is murdering women and making her a witness. Daisy is such a complicated and damaged person who is both figuratively AND literally haunted (as the ghost of Marina is always by her side), and I found the way that she pushes others away and turns inwards upon herself in the past timeline to be very realistic and hard to read. And I really liked that she never falls into an all too common trope of ‘messy woman main character is bogged down by her messiness’, as I found Daisy to be very complicated but rarely frustrating in her journey. She’s traumatized, and there is lots of grace and nuance given to her. As we find out the connecting threads between the past and the present and what her motivation to be better has been, it comes together in the most satisfying way that left me both filled with heartache for her as well as satisfaction for how her story turn out, perhaps still a little messy, but not without hope for those who have done things that they regret and perhaps can’t fully understand. It’s such a bittersweet coming of age tale that went in ways I didn’t expect and it was really enjoyable.

“The Butcher and the Liar” should be on peoples radars if they like thrillers, coming of age tales, and complicated main characters. Maybe bring tissues too.

Rating 8: A haunting coming of age novel about a girl grappling with her dark family history and the part she played, “The Butcher and the Liar” is an emotional story about trauma and redemption.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Butcher and the Liar” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Best Coming of Age Thriller”.