Hanna Alkaf: "The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's"

Title: The Hysterical Girls Of St. Bernadette's [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Hanna Alkaf [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fleshed-out, believable (and diverse) protagonists (Muslim, Malaysian). Strong social commentary. Atmospheric writing. 
Cons: The ending feels rushed and doesn't provide enough closure, especially for some characters.
WARNING! Sexual assault/molestation (not graphic, mentioned), trauma, psychosis, victim dismissal, toxic parent, corporal punishment (mentioned).
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy stories about female empowerment and solidarity - better if in a supernatural context.

Blurb: For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected - along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her. Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams. Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim... (Amazon)

Review: Why don't more people talk about this book? It's one of those hidden gems that keep getting overlooked in favour of more hyped novels, and I'm going to do my part to rectify this wrong...

SISTERS IN ARMS

In the vein of Flawless Girls, but with more flesh to its plot and characters, THGOSB is an unapologetically Malaysian, yet in a way universal tale with many facets: an enthralling supernatural mystery woven with a strong contemporary/coming-of-age thread; the story of a haunting, yet not a conventional ghost story; but more than anything, a call to togetherness in the face of women's vilification and dismissal. Despite the publisher's notes, however, it definitely doesn't fall under the dark-academia umbrella, unless you think that a single character being strong-armed by her mother into excellence qualifies - I'm telling you this just so you don't build up expectations that won't be met (I mean...everything's labeled "dark academia" these days, but a "school with secrets" setting isn't enough for a book to earn it). Mainly told in a dual narrative, but with the interpolation of a third point of view, THGOSB explores themes of trauma, agency (or lack thereof) and the silencing of female voices, along with sisterhood (real or forged) and the most abhorrent crime: women themselves perpetuating the cycle of abuse because they think it's inescapable, and that the only way girls can protect themselves is by becoming higher-priced commodities. [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #67 Courtney Gould, Seanan McGuire, Eric J. Guignard et al.

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm STILL writing long reviews too - but for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis, and I took to writing them also for novels that I can do justice to in a less wordy fashion, in order to ease my reviewing burden. In addition to that, I sometimes write minis for books I don't want/don't have the time to review in full at the moment, but plan on rereading and writing "proper" reviews for later. Lastly, just be warned - this feature is VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #65 Christine Ferko, Carly Racklin, Darya Bobyleva

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #64 Matthew Edwards, Ren Hutchins, B.C. Johnson

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #63 Karen A. Wyle, Kate Alice Marshall, KC Jones

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #62 Kat Ellis, Joelle Wellington, Elizabeth Anne Martins

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Melissa Caruso: "The Last Soul Among Wolves" (ARC Review)

Title: The Last Soul Among Wolves [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: The Echo Archives (2nd of 3 books)
Author: Melissa Caruso [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse, Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 16+ (the characters are all adults, and the book is indeed marketed to adults, but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fresh take on the multiverse trope with strong world-building. Engaging characters. Lots of intriguing action and a few well-placed twists  The story leaves plenty of room for a new installment, but doesn't end on a cliffhanger.
Cons: The murder mystery isn't near as exciting as the magical quest. The main character comes across as more vulnerable and less resourceful than she did in Book 1.
WARNING! Blood, body horror, torture.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy modern fantasy, vintage detective stories, (deadly) alternate realities, former-enemies romances that don't swallow the plot, and new moms being badass.

Blurb: All Kembral Thorne wants is to finish her maternity leave in peace. But when her best friend asks for help, she can’t say no, even if it means a visit to a run-down mansion on an isolated island for a will reading. She arrives to find an unexpected reunion of her childhood friends - plus her once-rival, now-girlfriend Rika Nonesuch, there on a mysterious job. Then the will is read, and everything goes sideways. Eight potential heirs, half of them Kem’s oldest friends. Three cursed relics. The rules: one by one, the heirs will die. The prize for the lone survivor: A wish. And wishes are always bad business. To save their friends, Kem and Rika must race against the clock and descend into other realities once more. But the mansion is full of old secrets and new schemes, and soon the game becomes far more dangerous - and more personal - than they could have imagined. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

KEEPING MOMENTUM

I read the first installment in The Echo Archives series last year - drawn by its alternate-realities premise - and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed a story that ended up involving a few aspects I'm usually less keen on. For those who are new to this universe, a brief introduction (I'm quoting from my review for Book 1):

[...] the setting is a world similar to our own - albeit steeped in magic and giving off an early-20th-century vibe - except in this world twelve layers of reality exist: the root universe, or Prime, and its eleven Echoes, getting more and more grotesque and dangerous the farther you stray from their paradigm.

Our protagonist Kembral belongs to a guild tasked with retrieving people (or things) that get abducted/swallowed by the Echoes. She and her old nemesis (now girlfriend) Rika have barely recovered after saving their hometown from a cursed Echo relic, when they get dragged into a new mess involving not one, but three artifacts this time, in which the lives of eight people (half of them old friends of Kembral's) are at stake. I'm happy to report that TLSAW doesn't suffer from second-book syndrome - not at all. Weaving multiverse madness with a cozy (so to speak) old-style whodunnit and a still tentative, at times rocky romance, plus drawing on a huge twist from the first installment, Caruso produces an effortlessly entertaining sequel with action, character development and surprises to spare. There are scenes that will have you hold your breath (Kem's power is incredibly fascinating, but comes with very real consequences), and the Echo world and its creatures are vividly depicted. Also, did I say surprises? Because, while some were a tad too easy to see coming in the first installment, the author covered her tracks well this time, and there's a twist in particular - involving one of the new characters - that will elicit horror and compassion at the same time... [...]

Ian Chorão: "When We Talk to the Dead" (ARC Review)

Title: When We Talk to the Dead [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Ian Chorão [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Supernatural (more like Paranormal, but I'm using genre labels that match my Reading Rooms, where Paranormal is under the Supernatural umbrella)
Year: 2025
Age: 16+ (please have a look at the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Haunting, tense, almost lyrical at times (horror notwithstanding), with diverse, fleshed out characters and intriguing dynamics.
Cons: A couple of major plot points (not of the supernatural/paranormal kind) require a strong dose of suspension of disbelief. The open ending may not sit well with certain readers.
WARNING! Violence/assault (not of the sexual kind), horror/blood and gore (I can't be too specific in order to avoid spoiler, but TW for drowning). Anxiety, intrusive thoughts, trauma, loss of a sibling, loss of a parent, mentally ill parent. Use of a derogatory term.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a blend of very real and psychological horror with a twist. Those who are fond of damaged, yet brave characters and complicated relationships.

Blurb: Though nineteen-year-old Sally remembers nothing about the accident that took place on Captain’s Island and destroyed her family when she was a little girl, she suffers from intense anxiety, pervasive bouts of dissociation, and gruesome nightmares. All Sally knows is that her mother hasn’t spoken since the accident that took the life of Sally’s twin sister. Following the tragedy, her family fled and never looked back. When her mother suddenly dies, Sally and three college friends travel to the island - for her friends it’s an adventure to a strange, abandoned place. For Sally, it’s a desperate bid to recover some of her memories and understand what really happened to her family. But when memories begin to return, Sally is overcome by grief and rage that threaten to plunge her into madness – a madness that is fed by a malevolent presence stalking them on the island. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

GHOST IMAGE

When We Talk to the Dead turned out to be a different novel than I'd envisioned - mind you that's not a bad thing at all, but I want you to have a better idea of what you're getting into if you decide to give it a chance (which you totally should 😉), so I thought I'd give you a heads-up. With very little help from the cryptic cover (though, after reading the book, I realised it was a good fit), and nothing else to go by than the blurb and the title, I thought I was in for a ghost story...which I suppose can be deemed true in a sense, but not the one you would imagine. OK, now it's me who's being cryptic, but I don't want to spoil the book for you either...Suffice to say, there aren't any ghosts in this story...not in the classic sense. But if you think of memories and trauma and lost loved ones and the child you used to be as ghosts, I suppose there are plenty... [...]

Jihyun Yun: "And the River Drags Her Down" (ARC Review)

Title: And the River Drags Her Down [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Jihyun Yun [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Afterlife, Contemporary
Year: 2025
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Honest, raw (yet at times poetical) representation of grief. Fleshed out characters who elicit sympathy even when they make bad choices. Atmospheric writing.
Cons: Gloomy and emotionally though. Delivers a predictable (though powerfully executed) resolution.
WARNING! Parent death, sibling death, animal death/sacrifice, body horror/decay, car crash, drowning/near drowning, strangulation, burns, underage drinking. Parentification, grief, racism.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy revenant narratives, lyrical horror, Korean folklore and coming-of-age themes. Those who like damaged characters, complicated sibling relationships, and estranged friends' reconnections leading to tentative romance.

Blurb: When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the world. Driven by an insatiable desire to unravel the truth that crushed her family so many years ago, she is out for revenge. When their town is engulfed by increasingly destructive rain and a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Oneworld Publications/Rock the Boat for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A STUDY IN SORROW

Yun takes a pretty common trope in YA literature - a teen with powers bringing back a dead loved one, namely a sister - and uses it to its best advantage in order to tell a much larger story, incorporating themes like parentification, selfishness, loneliness, guilt, by way of ancestral magic and Korean myths/culture. Mainly told from the perspective of 17 y.o. Soojin, but including other POVs, mostly resurrected sister Mirae's (one of the touches that make the book stand out in a sea of "came back wrong" narratives), And the River Drags Her Down pulls no punches in exploring the grief that engulfs a broken family (six years prior to Mirae's drowning, when the girls were 10 and 11, their mother died in a car crash) and its consequences - maybe a tad, you know, enhanced by magic, but not less relatable for this reason...if anything, even more. While the power that the women in her family possess was originally born out of very primal needs during a prolonged food shortage (and only meant to resurrect small animals), Soojin has twisted it into a tool to avoid facing loss, even before she employs it to resurrect her sister. Mired in grief and loneliness, she ultimately turns to her gift in order to get her only emotional anchor back, but there will be hell to pay - for her and Mirae both, not to mention, a bunch of other people - and ultimately, a though decision to make. [...]

B.C. Johnson: "Djinn & Tonic" (ARC Review)

Title: Djinn & Tonic [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: B.C. Johnson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller or Mystery, Supernatural
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Original, funny, twisty, cinematic.
Cons: A tad chaotic and a bit heavy on the snarkiness. The sex scenes (see below) may not sit well with everyone.
WARNING! Blood and gore, violence (not of the sexual kind), torture, guns, burns, drowning. Contains two graphic sex scenes (F/M and F/F).
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a mixture of thriller and urban fantasy with plenty of action. Those who can get behind a kickass but dysfunctional heroine.

Blurb: Welcome to Remmy's life: crap work for ungrateful wishers. Her only reward? More wishes, more work. She and her djinn friends have been stuck in 20-something human bodies since Biblical times and - other than a few neat parlor tricks - they can't snap their fingers and make your wish come true. What they do have is a few thousand years of experience making the impossible possible. When Remmy's newest lamp-rubber turns out to be the loathsome owner of a Fortune 500 company with dirty dealings, Remmy finds herself unwillingly descending into a murder mystery that crosses borders, oceans, and every line of human decency. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. I've been a fan of Mr. Johnson since I started his Deadgirl series in 2013, and I've proof/beta-read some of his books. I swear, though, that I'm going to be as honest about this book as I usually strive to be in my reviews. I wouldn't be of any service neither to the author nor to you potential readers if I didn't. Here goes....

DJINN-IUS IDEA

After bringing the wonderful and epic Deadgirl series to completion, B.C. Johnson swings towards adult lit, but doesn't betray his signature penchant for supernatural mayhem and snarkiness. First thing first - Djinn & Tonic is one of the most original stories I've ever read. Think hard-boiled detective novel without the actual detective and with a band of used-up genies instead. They only retain a small fraction of their original power (that they have to conserve as best as they can, because in human form, they don't have access to its source anymore), but are bound to make their summoners' wishes happen, so they have to resort to unconventional methods (well, unconventional for a bunch of genies, that is...though, now that I think of it...unconventional at any rate). There's also a backstory - albeit small - of how they found themselves in this predicament, and it left me wanting more. D&T is a treasure trove of comic moments and funny banter/inner monologue, plus it has an eldritch, unhinged heroine full of very human flaws and with a more tender core than you might expect, all things considered (but shh, don't tell her 😉). "What would you do if you were an ancient being shoved into a human body since before Christian era and your powers were dwindling, but you were forced to act as if you still had them, or pay a steep price" wasn't on my bingo card for sure, but that's B.C. Johnson for you - and as usual, the result is a rich, engaging story you haven't read the like before. [...]

Olivia Neal: "Blue Ridge Calling" (ARC Review)

Title: Blue Ridge Calling [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Olivia Neal [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary, Supernatural, Afterlife
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Entrancing, quietly magical. Features relatable characters with authentic teen voice.
Cons: A bit of a slow burn. Leaves some questions unanswered. The open ending may not sit well with some readers.
WARNING! Death in the family, grief, depression, depiction of a broken body. Drinking and smoking (on page).
Will appeal to: Those who like heartfelt stories that combine magic, ghosts, found families, hurting and healing, and a coming-of-age arc.

Blurb: Two years ago, a car accident on a perilous mountain road sent a family into freefall, and none of them have been the same since. Sage used to have everything under control: perfect grades, record times on the swim team, and carefully medicated ADHD. But ever since her mom died, she’s just been going through the motions. Kora has known Sage’s family her whole life, so losing Sage’s mom was like losing her own. At the end of the summer, she’s supposed to abandon her beloved Blue Ridge mountains for a prestigious art school in New York, but leaving now feels wrong. And an unexpected romance with a new girl in town might complicate things. Then there’s Sam, Sage’s older brother. He’s spent the last two years traipsing through the mountains, trying to find evidence of local ghost stories. He said he would be back by now, but no one has heard from him. To find him, Kora and Sage will have to dig deeper into the myths and legends of the mountains they call home - before it’s too late. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Running Wild Publishing/RIZE Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

CURVE BALL

Reading this book was a strange experience. I requested it thinking it would be heavy on female friendship and ghost lore, and while it did, indeed, put the former on the forefront right from the start, at first it seemed more interested in introducing instant romance and what appeared to be a budding love triangle - involving a bisexual girl, her (male) ex and her new (female) flame - than in delivering on the ghost promise (as a matter of fact, ghosts didn't even make an appearance until past the halfway mark). Except what I feared would be a typical (if atmospheric and charmingly written) YA book ultimately evolved into something much more meaningful and emotive than I could imagine - among other things, a celebration of siblinghood and found family, identity and connection, and the strength it takes to leave the familiar path and steer into the unknown. The conflict I was bracing for fizzled out, the romance was fast but surprisingly healthy, and the apparently mismatched group at the center of the narrative - lifelong friends (and narrators) Sage and Kora, new girl Hunter, Kora's ex Connor, and Sam's secret friend Noah - ended up both striking a bond and winning my heart. By the time the ghosts were properly introduced (and what an introduction it was) and the supernatural aspect as a whole started threading into the story, I was hooked. [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #61 Peyton June, Kelly Murashige, Anna-Marie McLemore

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Chuck Wendig: "The Staircase in the Woods" (ARC Review)

Title: The Staircase in the Woods [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Chuck Wendig [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Brilliant, exciting twist on a popular urban legend and a beloved horror trope.
Cons: The characters aren't easy to like, for different reasons (though it's kind of the point). The political tirades feel random and out of place. The somehow-open ending may not sit well with some readers.
WARNING! Violence, hate speech, suicidal ideation, self-harm, sexual abuse (off-page), emotional abuse, parental abuse, parental neglect, drug and alcohol addiction, bullying, animal abuse. Lots of blood, gore and disturbing imagery, bug horror, vomiting.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy mind-blowing (and hard-hitting) portal fantasies with a psychological angle. Those who like double-timeline narratives.

Blurb: Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend walks up - and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy - and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods...(Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Random House Worlds/Del Rey for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

STAIR STRUCK

Apparently, staircases to nowhere in the middle of the woods aren't a rare sight, and in time have become an object of fascination spawning whole threads on sites like Reddit or Quora. Wendig drew on the urban legend according to which these staircases would be portals to other dimensions, wove it with a beloved horror trope (estranged childhood friends reunite to get closure and defeat an old evil), and produced a deliciously disturbing, nightmarishly captivating and completely addictive haunted-house maze, where friendships are tested and individuals must rise above their fears and flaws if they want to get out. (Mind you...don't expect actual ghosts - there are other ways for a house to be haunted...). Told in a now-and-then narrative across a twenty-something-years divide (the author references Covid, so I'd say, more like twenty-five than the twenty accounted for in the synopsis), the story introduces us to five friends who, as teens, swore an oath to always have each other's back, and after a drugged and drunken night in the woods when a member of the group vanished at the top of a supernatural staircase, slowly drifted apart, only to band together as adults in order to solve the mystery when a similar structure reappears.

Now, if you're into (hellish) supernatural mazes, literal twists and turns, videogame-style challenges and psychological horror, it doesn't get much better than this. Granted, this book is disturbing and gross at times (well, MOST times), but it's also creative and addictive and sort of exhilarating. The ending, while not coming with a pretty bow, gives you closure about the things that matter most. If it were only for these aspects, TSITW would be a 5-star read for me. [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #59 Arkady Martine, Josh Winning, Alex Brown et al.

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #57 Emily Yu-Xuan Qin, Dawn Kurtagich, Courtney Gould

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Philip Fracassi: "The Third Rule of Time Travel" (ARC Review)

Title: The Third Rule of Time Travel [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Philip Fracassi [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi, Thriller/Mystery, SPOILER - click on the Spoiler button below if you want to know, since revealing the other genre would ruin your reading experience...If you want to go into the book without knowing anything vital about it, I recommend not reading the Labels at the end of my review either. No need to worry though - the review itself will be spoiler-free...
Year: 2025
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Engaging variation on the time-travel trope, with a strong human angle and a transcendental core.
Cons: The side characters are slightly underdeveloped. The metaphysical interlude can feel disorienting.
WARNING! Plane crash, car crash, guns, blood and gore, loss of parents and a sibling, loss of a spouse, stillbirth, trauma, grief, implied misogyny.
Will appeal to: Those who prefer their time travel to be emotion-driven and not necessarily physical (or literal). Those who enjoy a philosophical twist to it.

Blurb: Scientist Beth Darlow has built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time - to any point in the traveler's lifetime - and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. After Beth's husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella - their only daughter - and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology. Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp. As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK/Orbit for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

EMOTIONAL VOYAGE

Time-travel stories are always entertaining and thought-provoking no matter what, but I was pleasantly surprised by the spin Fracassi put on the trope. As it turns out, you can produce an exciting specimen of time-travel narrative even by having your characters remain fixed in place and only be able to revisit moments of their past...at least if you up the ante by throwing a couple more ingredients into the mix (one of which shall remain unnamed, to avoid spoiling your fun), and ultimately allowing said characters a different kind of agency than the reader would expect. As much as the adventures of a person displaced in a different era or physically reliving the same day can be fun, there's something to be said for a more psychological - and in this case, even philosophical - approach to being untethered from your present. I know, I know...I'm being cryptic, but spoilers are just around the corner. Suffice to say, while Beth is a stationary character, the trips her consciousness makes (and the ones her late husband made before her) spin a twisty (and emotional) web while apparently warping her present - first in subtle ways, then with catastrophic consequences - and won't make you miss the thrill of "real" time travel. [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #56 Mira Grant: "Newsflesh" Series (Part 2)

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #55 Mira Grant: "Newsflesh" Series (Part 1)

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Kyrie McCauley: "Bad Graces"

Title: Bad Graces [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Kyrie McCauley [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Atmospheric, adventurous, harsh yet tender, with characters who manage to avoid stereotypes and a fresh take on magic.
Cons: Not all characters are equally developed. You need to suspend disbelief for some of the mundane parts.
WARNING! (TW list provided by the author): body horror (reviewer's note: also involving bugs), drowning, suicide, bodily injury, bodily trauma, blood, child neglect, history of abuse; referenced but not on page: homophobia, statutory rape, eating disorders. This book may be uncomfortable for those with emetophobia. (More): alcohol abuse, arson, burns, suffocation, drowning, attempted suicide, animal death.
Will appeal to: Those who are in for an all-female survival (in more than one sense) narrative, with themes of found family, queer love, overcoming trauma and having each other's back.

Blurb: Using her sister’s grades and clean record, Liv starts to rewrite her story, winning a prestigious internship on a movie set filming in Alaska. Instead of a commercial flight, Liv finds herself on a luxury yacht alongside pop star Paris Grace, actress sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic gymnast Rosalind Torres, and social media influencer Celia Jones. Just as the group starts to bond, a violent storm wrecks their vessel, stranding them on a slip of an island in the North Pacific Ocean. Among the threats of starvation and exposure, they learn there is a predator lurking in the forest, unlike anything they’ve seen before - until they begin to see it in themselves. Every injury they suffer on the island causes inexplicable changes in their bodies, transforming them bit by inhuman bit. With little hope for rescue and only each other as their final tether to humanity, can the girls endure the ominous forces at work on the island? Or will they lose themselves to their darker natures? (Amazon excerpt)

Review: In the vein of Wilder Girls (that I haven't read, but has a similar premise - though, based on the reviews I've read, a different backdrop and outcome), McCauley penned a Shakespeare-imbued, Tempest-inspired story - or more like, a nod to the play - that grows on you at every turn.

GIRLS UNITED

Upon starting this novel, I was just a tiny bit worried that I wouldn't click with the main cast (except for the protagonist), because the girls had the potential to present as vapid, entitled or catty at first, what with them being all high-profile (again, except for aspiring writer Liv). I decided to take the risk on account of the premise sounding so exciting, and I'm happy to report McCauley went for a different, refreshing angle right from the start. Turns out, none of the high-profile girls is vapid, entitled or catty, even if they're flawed somehow (then again, so is ordinary Liv). Female solidarity in the face of a male predator extends its tiny tendrils ever since they meet, and ultimately forges a strong web, not only because the girls end up stranded on an off-the-map island and have to look out for each other (speaking of which, Paris, Celia, Rosalind, Effie and Miri not only are rich and famous, but all go back a long way...and yet, they bond with Liv - one of them a bit more effectively than the others 😉). Last but not least. they all seem to value their craft over the popularity and money it entails (which is maybe a tad unbelievable, coming from a bunch of teens, but as I said, so refreshing that I was happy to buy into it). [...]

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #54 Joshua David Bellin et al., Codie Crowley, Dawn Kurtagich

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.