Melissa Albert: "The Bad Ones"

Title: The Bad Ones [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Melissa Albert [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Engrossing, twisty mystery. Unexpected resolution. Fleshed-out leads whose relationship is equally well-developed.
Cons: A certain player's involvement becomes clear a bit too early. The supporting characters are little more than tools to advance the plot. The romance feels unnecessary.  
WARNING! Sexual assault/abuse (off-page), self-injury, car accident, parental death (off-page), murder by suffocation, near-drowning. Homophobia, bigotry, bullying.
Will appeal to: Those who like urban legends/supernatural mysteries/witchcraft gone wrong. Those who enjoy fierce, yet messy/toxic friendships.

Blurb: In the course of a single winter’s night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town. Nora’s estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca’s disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her town’s past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local lore: a legendary goddess of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca’s own childhood games... (Amazon)

Review: I'm late to the Melissa Albert party, but after loving her adult debut, I've made it my mission to read everything she writes. I have some small quibbles about The Bad Ones, but regardless, I found it to be trippy, entertaining and emotional, and I loved its curveball ending.
Just a heads-up before I start...the cover doesn't match the content. There's a weeping angel statue at some point in the story, but don't expect it to mean anything...and if the cover is supposed to represent the goddess (which of course it is), BIG FAIL.

DAZED AND AMAZED

The Bad Ones blends all-consuming (you might very well say toxic) friendship with a supernatural mystery that leaves you enough breadcrumbs to figure out its direction, yet throws you for a loop multiple times before you decipher it, and hits you with a last couple of twists you couldn't have seen coming. Told in three different voices and timelines (Nora's 1st person POV in the present, Becca's 3rd person POV in the past, another character's 3rd person POV recounting even older events), it's an addictive puzzle with minimal gore or violence, but a dark core - though it ultimately ends up in a much healthier place than one might expect. The beginning is atmospheric, intriguing, creepy - unexpected, too. Albert doesn't waste time setting up the mystery, but she doesn't start, as one would anticipate, by introducing her main characters - yet the hook is impossible to resist: three people, apparently unrelated, are accosted by a mysterious female being and vanish into thin air. From there, the wheels in the reader's head keep turning and the theories about what happened to those three (and to Becca herself, later reported missing as well) multiply. I buddy-read this one with my friend Carrie, and we traded a few wild hypotheses along the way, but most of them turned out to be wrong...though at least one of the answers had stared us in the face the whole time 😅. And, considering we're both seasoned supernatural-thriller readers, that's saying something. The final twist had me in awe, especially since it took one of my core assumptions about the plot and flipped it on its head, giving the story a far more original - and tragic - angle (Carrie was a bit less enthused by that turn of events, but I'll let her review speak for itself). [...]

Melissa Albert: "The Children" (ARC Review)

Title: The Children [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Melissa Albert [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: SPOILER - revealing the genre(s) 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: 2026
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Visceral, immersive, haunting, with a denouement you won't see coming. Makes you care deeply for the characters (especially the protagonist's younger self).
Cons: The writing gets too purple at times.
WARNING! Death, murder, suicide, self-mutilation, fire, bugs. Child neglect/exploitation, pedophilia, infidelity, alcohol abuse.
Will appeal to: Those who like a familial saga with a twist. Those who muse about the relationship between life, art and fame.

Blurb: Guinevere's late mother, Edith Sharpe, needs little introduction. Bestselling author of the unendingly successful Ninth City series, her books brought so much joy and inspired the imagination of countless children the world over. Guin's childhood with her mother, brother Ennis and her actor father was a blissful, bohemian affair, filled with continuous laughter and surrounded by artistic types in their Vermont barnhouse. At least, this is the story Guin presents as she prepares for the press tour for her upcoming memoir about life in the Sharpe family. Now estranged from her brother and her parents long dead after a devastating fire, strange events threaten the veneer of serenity and familial harmony Guin is keen to project. Ennis, now a notorious artist with a troubled past, announces a new installation – his first since a disastrous last show one year prior – simply entitled Mother. And Guin can't help but worry that the truth behind their idyllic childhood is about to blow her world apart. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

GRIM(M) AND GORGEOUS

I have a confession to make: The Children was my first Albert book. I took a chance on it based by the synopsis alone, not really knowing what to expect (except for dark-fairy-tale vibes, according to the reviews of her backlist) - but upon parting with the last page, I immediately proceeded to add all her previous novels to my TBR list, top priority. Yes, it's THAT good. But you want to know what, precisely, is so good about it, and it's not easy to explain without entering spoiler territory. Anyhow, I'll try...

So: I won't tell you if The Children is a contemporary book with an unreliable narrator, or an exquisite (if dark) exercise in magical realism, or a straight-up supernatural tale, or all these things combined. But I will tell you this: The Children is an ode to the power of art - the power to save, or the power to damn, depending on certain circumstances. It's a dark fairy tale (yeah, indeed - in the vein of Albert's past books) unleashed in the real world. It's the story of a dysfunctional family and a predatory house. It's horrifying and spellbinding, bitter and beautiful, very meta yet unmistakably human (with all that entails). If you're like me, these things alone will probably seal your deal with this novel. But in case you need more practical details, feel free to read on... [...]

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... [...]

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. [...]

Dan Hanks: "The Way Up Is Death" (ARC Review)

Title: The Way Up Is Death [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Dan Hanks [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Multiverse, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Inventive and cinematic; hard-hitting yet moving and ultimately hopeful.
Cons: Given the large cast of characters (and the very nature of the story), not all of them get to be sufficiently developed.
WARNING! Blood and gore, dismemberment, torture, near-drowning, human combustion/explosion, body horror, eye horror, rat horror, death of a loved one.
Will appeal to: Those who are in for a wild, brutal yet poetical adventure/mystery that doubles as a reflection on humanity, life and the future.

Blurb: When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND. As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone…is up. And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Angry Robot for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

MORE TO IT

This book's premise is impossible to resist if you're the kind of reader whose mantra is "the weirder the better", but I'm here to confirm that, if you take a chance on TWUID, you won't regret being lured in, and you'll end up getting more than you bargained for. The short-and-sweet version of such premise: thirteen everymen and women from the UK (or just passing through) are pulled from their lives and forced to ascend an impossible tower in the skies, all while trying to fathom the how and (especially) the why in the process. From videogame settings to spaceships, from haunted houses to tropical beaches, a series of equally impossible locations (but ones that are somehow tailored to the travellers' past experiences) have the characters play a deadly game of escape rooms, of which they have to figure out the rules as they go. Exciting, isn't it? But if you tend to need a little more meat on your stories' bones, or if the cosmic horror premise and the content warning list left you on the fence about giving TWUID a chance, there are a couple more things you need to know. One: for a book that sheds so much blood and put its characters through the wringer, Hank's latest is surprisingly comforting and life-affirming. Two: for a book that relies so much on nightmarish experiences and frantic escapes, and even comes close to jumping the shark a couple of times (one of which quite literally 😂), TWUID is (also) surprisingly deep, so that you end up forgiving it for not making you care more for its characters (more of that below) or not giving you all the answers (if you're the type of reader who needs them, because to be honest, they're NOT the point here). [...]

Mallory Pearson: "Voice Like a Hyacinth" (ARC Review)

Title: Voice Like a Hyacinth [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Mallory Pearson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Contemporary
Year: 2025
Age: 14+ (technically a NA book, but it can be read by mature teens. See the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Immersive, visceral, gorgeously written.
Cons: Quite dark, if ultimately hopeful.
WARNING! Blood and gore, sexual harassment, self-cutting (during a ritual), alcohol and drug abuse, vomiting, near-drowning, fire, death/animal death. On a psychological level: codependency, high-stakes competition, familial pressure.
Will appeal to: Those who feel a pull towards visual arts (especially painting). Those who love a story that crosses the space between all-consuming friendship and queer love.

Blurb: Art student Jo Kozak and her fellow classmates and best friends, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz, are one another’s muses - so close they have their own language and so devoted to the craft that they’ll do anything to keep their inspiration alive. Even if it means naively resorting to the occult to unlock their creativity and to curse their esteemed, if notoriously creepy, professor. They soon learn the horrible price to be paid for such a transgressive ritual. In its violent aftermath, things are changing. Jo is feeling unnervingly haunted by something inexplicable. Their paintings, once prodigious and full of life, are growing dark and unhealthy. And their journey together - as women, students, and artists - is starting to crumble. To right the wrong they’ve done, these five desperate friends will take their obsession a step too far. When that happens, there may be no turning back. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to 47North for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

LEVEL UP

Eight months ago, I reviewed Pearson's debut novel We Ate the Dark. Despite the abundance of purple prose, I liked it quite a bit, noting that there was "a robust dose of lyrical writing peeking from under the sometimes intimidating similes" and that "Pearson has the makings of a good writer, if only she can rein those similes in a bit. Then again, this is a debut book, so maybe she still has to hone her craft" (the second quote comes from my reply to a fellow blogger's comment). It turns out I was right on both counts - and the Goodreads average rating agrees with me this time. On a content level, Pearson's sophomore novel draws on the same main theme of her debut ("female friendship and queer love and the liminal space between the two"), but ups the ante by setting her story in a small, yet competitive art college, and steeping it in codependency and obsession, both with the art and the friendship. In the same guise, though somehow in reverse - by way of subtracting instead of adding - the author sticks to the poetical, luscious writing she employed for her first novel, but prunes it of all the (often overdone) metaphors and craft her prose into a thing of beauty. The result is a terrific book (in more than one sense) that only goes to show how much Pearson has grown as a writer, while staying true to her signature style. [...]

Ryan La Sala: "Beholder"

Title: Beholder [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Ryan La Sala [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2023
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Imaginative, ambitious, pull-no-punches. The writing flows effortlessly and draws you in.
Cons: Relies on two distinct supernatural threads that never really come together. The rom-com moments don't always fit the rest of the narrative.
WARNING! Death/parent death, murder/massacre, fire/fire injury, body horror/eye horror, impalement, strangulation, self harm/intrusive thoughts/suicidal ideation. And of course, giant spider-like creatures...
Will appeal to: Those who like creative eldritch horror with a healthy dose of gore. Those who don't mind a (queer) romance subplot in it.

Blurb: Athanasios “Athan” Bakirtzis has a secret: a hereditary power that allows him to rewind the reflection in any mirror, peering into its recent past. Superstitious Yiayia calls the family ability a curse, and has long warned him never to use it. After being invited to a penthouse soiree for New York’s art elite, Athan breaks his grandmother’s rule during a trip to the bathroom, turning back his reflection for just a moment. Then he hears a slam against the bathroom door, followed by a scream. Athan peers outside, only to be pushed back in by a boy his age. The boy gravely tells him not to open the door, then closes Athan in. Before Athan can process what’s happening, more screams follow, and the party descends into chaos. When he finally emerges, he discovers a massacre - and Athan's mysterious savior is nowhere to be found. Something evil is compelling people to destructive acts, a presence that’s been hiding behind Athan’s reflection his whole life, watching and biding its time. Soon, he’s swept up in a supernatural conspiracy that spans New York, of occult high societies and deadly eldritch designs. If beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, what can it do to us once it’s inside? (Goodreads excerpt)

Review: As of today, I've read all La Sala's books except Be Dazzled, because contemporary romance is not my thing. I really enjoyed his debut novel Reverie, and I flat-out loved The Honeys, so I was very excited to immerse myself in the world of Beholder, and I didn't expect anything short of brilliance from it. Which, on a level, I got...but I didn't love this book as much as the author's previous offerings. With that out of the way, let's get to the review proper...

QUITE A SIGHT

There's no denying it: Ryan La Sala knows how to write - and has quite the imagination, not to mention, a real flair for horror. He endows the protagonist of Beholder with a unique power (rewinding reflections in mirrors) that, while making for an exciting premise and a series of chilling scenes, at the same time ties in with themes of appearance vs. true self and perception vs. perspective. He amps up the nightmare by adding a second supernatural threat that you won't see coming - and a brilliant one at that - plus he draws on the Greek Evil Eye myth, though it's largely reimagined for the occasion. The story moves at a good pace, despite the romantic/comedic interludes - it even manages to incorporate a coming-of-age arc to no detriment of the horror, mystery, magic, conspiracy and action mix that makes up the bulk of the narrative. Oh, and of course, as always with La Sala, it's unapologetically queer, with a protagonist that identifies as pansexual and a gay (I suppose) love interest. Last but not least, the author employs an intriguing writing device: he alternates Athan's 1st-person-POV chapters with a series of mysterious 2nd-person-POV ones (though to be honest, they don't stay mysterious for long...it's easy to fathom whose perspective they're from, once a certain "incident" occurs). [...]

Quinn Connor: "The Pecan Children" (ARC Review)

Title: The Pecan Children [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Quinn Connor [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024

Age: 16+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age, and it's indeed marketed to that demographic, but it can be read by mature teens. There are far more graphic YA books out there)

Stars: 5/5
Pros: Atmospheric, engrossing, spellbinding, inventive, ultimately hopeful.
Cons: Slow first half (if you prefer stories with more than a modicum of action). While the scope of the main twist (and its implications) will take readers completely by surprise, the authors dropped enough clues to have them figure out the basic truth early on. Some questions remain unanswered. The ending may be too open for certain readers.
WARNING! Fires/burns, wounds, near-drownings, some gore. Death of a parent (off-page). A couple of (tame) sex scenes.
Will appeal to: Those who like sibling narratives. Those who enjoy a mixture of cozy and unsettling, beauty and horror. Those who are in for a unique kind of haunting.

Blurb: In a small southern pecan town, the annual harvest is a time of both celebration and heartbreak. Even as families are forced to sell their orchards and move away, Lil Clearwater, keeper of a secret covenant with her land, swears she never will. When her twin Sasha returns to the dwindling town in hopes of reconnecting with the girl her heart never forgot, the sisters struggle to bridge their differences and share the immense burden of protecting their home from hungry forces intent on uprooting everything they love. But there is rot hiding deep beneath the surface. Ghostly fires light up the night, and troubling local folklore is revealed to be all too true. Confronted with the phantoms of their pasts and the devastating threat to their future, the sisters come to the stark realization that in the kudzu-choked South, nothing is ever as it appears. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

SURPRISE MOVE

The Pecan Children ended up going in a different direction than I had anticipated, and I mean it in the best possible sense. Based on the synopsis (which has all the reasons to be vague, since with books like this one, spoilers are just around the corner), I expected a contemporary story with a strong supernatural core - a troubled sibling relationship on the backdrop of a dilapidated town rife with secrets and malevolent forces. Now that I know what I know, I realise that the synopsis isn't meant to be misleading, and truth be told, it encapsulates the book fairly well...on a level. The fact is, The Pecan Children is SO. MUCH. MORE than its blurb lets on, and even if the authors start dropping a certain set of clues early in the story, I wasn't prepared for the scope and manner of the big reveal - and its implications. In hindsight, the twist is not only jaw-dropping and exciting, but it perfectly fits the claustrophobic, lethargic setting, and it's an equally perfect vehicle for the "allegory of decay in small-town America" the editorial notes promise. Also, in lieu of a supernatural mystery, this book turned out to be a strong specimen of the magical realism genre, though with elements that straddle the line between the two. Another pleasant surprise, since through the magical realism lens, the social commentary and sibling dynamic get to shine in a way that a mere supernatural context wouldn't have allowed. [...]

Sara Flannery Murphy: "The Wonder State" (ARC Review)

Title: The Wonder State [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Sara Flannery Murphy [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2023
Age: 14+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age in the present, but it can be read by teens; also, the protagonists are teens in the flashbacks)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Engrossing, unique twist on the "estranged-friends-with-a-dark-secret-are-back-in-town-to-face-their-past" trope. Mostly fleshed-out characters with complex relationships.
Cons: Not much diversity. The one Black (and gay) character feels less developed than the others.
WARNING! Blood, gore, violence and some disturbing imagery. Adult abuse on kids (not of the sexual kind).
Will appeal to: Those who love a dark, yet poetical story steeped in magic. Those who enjoy adult-vs.-teen timelines.

Blurb: Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, the small town they all fled after high-school graduation. Each of them is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter: You promised. It has been fifteen years since that life-changing summer, and they're anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return. But Brandi is missing. She'd been acting erratically for months, in and out of rehab, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can't see. And strange houses that appear only when you need them... (Amazon)

Review:  First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

WONDERFUL RAINBOW

When I first read the synopsis of this book, it called to me...but after I placed my NG request, I realised that it was unclear if Brandi's mental health was damaged and she was hallucinating the houses, so by the time my acceptance email came, I was praying that TWS wasn't one of THOSE novels - you know, the ones where mental health issues are treated like plot devices. I'm pleased to say this wasn't the case, and actually, this book delivered even more than I expected it to. Also, if you've read Stephen King's It or Dan Hanks' Swashbucklers (which I enjoyed and reviewed last year), and you're wondering how much novelty a story about a group of estranged friends reuniting in the wake of a tragedy can hold, the answer is: a great deal. TWS is part mystery, part adult drama, part coming-of-age story (thanks to the dual timeline), flirting with portal fantasy by way of magical realism and a touch of horror. I know it sounds a bit too much, but the way Murphy weaves it all together, it works like a charm.

Adrienne Celt: "End of the World House" (ARC Review)

Title: End of the World House [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Adrienne Celt [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: SPOILER - click on the Spoiler button below if you want to know, since revealing the genre(s) 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: 2022
Age: 14+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age, and it's definitely got more of an adult appeal, but it can be read by teens)
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Unique, surprising, gorgeously written.
Cons: A few occurrences remain unexplained. Mainly, for a story about female friendship, it ultimately plays into men's hands too much...
Will appeal to: Those who like a Groundhog-Day-meets-Sliding-Doors scenario with a soft-apocalypse background.

Blurb: Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school. Kate has recently decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles. When Bertie’s attempts to make Kate stay fail, she suggests the next-best thing: a trip to Paris that will hopefully distract the duo from their upcoming separation. One night in Paris, they meet a strange man in a bar who offers them a private tour of the Louvre. The women find themselves alone in the museum, where nothing is quite as it seems. Caught up in a day that keeps repeating itself, Bertie and Kate are eventually separated, and Bertie is faced with a mystery that threatens to derail everything. In order to make her way back to Kate, Bertie has to figure out how much control she has over her future - and her past - and how to survive an apocalypse when the world keeps refusing to end. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

THE ART OF MYSTERY

End of the World House is a very difficult book to review without giving away too much (you might think that "Groundhog Day meets Sliding Doors" is a huge enough clue, except it doesn't even begin to cover what happens in the story, and how/why for that matter). For that reason, this is going to be a less structured review than my usual ones. The best thing I can do with a book like this is make a bullet list of what I loved about it (or loved less) and why:

• It's a unique concept (or a unique blend of different concepts with a twist).
• It's a fascinating mystery, or the first section is (then again, you don't get all the answers until the end, especially the ones about Bertie's friend Kate, so it never really stops being fascinating). You keep trying to crack it, and at the same time you find yourself being swept away and enjoying the ride.
• It's a story about a messy female friendship - mind you, not your usual catty one - where at least one of the parts involved is a bit too dependent on the other for her own good (which hit close to home for me). Then again, at one point Celt implies that Bertie's feelings for Kate may be a little more complicated than (partly unrequited) friendship...and I got that vibe myself.
• It's a story steeped in art, where on the one hand the Louvre is not only a (magical and atmospheric) setting, but almost a character in itself, while on the other Bertie's graphic-novel-in-the-making is given the same amount of attention (and respect) than the famous paintings in the most iconic museum in the world are. Her drawings sort of come alive on the page, too.
• There's a completely believable "soft apocalypse" in the background, one where the elite keeps maintaining a degree of privilege, but which still creates an undercurrent of uneasiness and melancholy. You find yourself buying into the idea that the world is more likely to end with a whimper than with a bang.
• The writing is gorgeous and very quotable. [...]

Josh Winning: "The Shadow Glass" (ARC Review)

Title: The Shadow Glass  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Josh Winning [Site | Goodreads | Other Goodreads (as Joshua Winning)]
Genres: Fantasy, Multiverse
Year: 2022
Age: 16+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age, but it can be read by mature teens - see "WARNING!" below)
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Fresh spin on the portal fantasy trope/puppet fantasy genre with grown-up protagonists. Stuffed (pun intended) with action and heart. Reads like an impassioned love letter to '80s cinema (and fandom of any kind), but will resonate with anyone regardless of age.
Cons: Some of the side characters could have used more development/agency.
WARNING! Blood and gore. A handful of scenes are particularly gruesome.
Will appeal to: Lovers of '80 cinema (especially if it involves puppets). People who have never seen an '80 movie, but can get behind the idea of love moving mountains - or better, conjuring up worlds.

Blurb: Jack Corman is failing at life. Jobless, jaded and on the “wrong” side of thirty, he’s facing the threat of eviction from his London flat while reeling from the sudden death of his father, one-time film director Bob Corman. Back in the eighties, Bob poured his heart and soul into the creation of his 1986 puppet fantasy The Shadow Glass, a film Jack loved as a child, idolising its fox-like hero Dune. But The Shadow Glass flopped on release, and Bob became a laughing stock, losing himself to booze and self-pity. Now, the film represents everything Jack hated about his father. In the wake of Bob’s death, Jack returns to his decaying home, [where,] during a freak thunderstorm, the puppets in the attic start talking. Tipped into a desperate real-world quest to save London from the more nefarious of his father’s creations, Jack teams up with excitable fanboy Toby and spiky studio executive Amelia to navigate the labyrinth of his father’s legacy while conjuring the hero within - and igniting a Shadow Glass resurgence that could, finally, do his father proud. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I beta-read this book. Also, Titan Books provided me with an evaluation ecopy via both NetGalley and Edelweiss (thank you!). Neither facts influenced my review in any way.

NEVER TOO LATE

The Shadow Glass reads like a love letter to movies like Labyrinth and The NeverEnding Story (not to mention The Dark Crystal, to which its title pays homage - like that movie, the book centers around a quest for the pieces of the titular object), with a notable difference: its main character isn't a teen adventurer, but an embittered loser in his late thirties with (legitimate) daddy issues, who's grown to hate the fantasy world his father Bob created, the same world he idolised and whose magic he used to strongly believe in as a child. Fear not, though, because this story isn't a self-pity party - it is, for all purposes, a sometimes epic, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny coming-of-age tale with an adult at its center (which is the freshest thing about it), one who has to rediscover the power of magic and the hero within, while learning to process his anger and grief and, ultimately, to understand and forgive (plus to forge unexpected relationships, both with humans and puppets become alive 😂). [...]

Karen Foxlee: "The Midnight Dress"

Title: The Midnight Dress [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Karen Foxlee [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary
Year: 2013
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Atmospheric read, with characters who get under your skin. Evocative writing.
Cons: Quiet (if gloomy) story, where not much happens - at least on the surface.
WARNING! Description of a dead body (not graphic). Suicide by hanging. Alcohol addiction. An inappropriate relationship. The prelude to a would-be sex scene. A couple of male anatomy references.
Will appeal to: Those who can appreciate a subtly woven, darkly magical tale.

Blurb: Quiet misfit Rose doesn't expect to fall in love with the sleepy beach town of Leonora. Nor does she expect to become fast friends with beautiful, vivacious Pearl Kelly. It's better not to get too attached when Rose and her father live on the road, driving their caravan from one place to the next whenever her dad gets itchy feet. But Rose can't resist the mysterious charms of the town or the popular girl, try as she might. Pearl convinces Rose to visit Edie Baker, once a renowned dressmaker, now a rumored witch. Together Rose and Edie hand-stitch an unforgettable dress of midnight blue for Rose to wear at the Harvest Festival - a dress that will have long-lasting consequences on life in Leonora, a dress that will seal the fate of one of the girls. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: This is not only a reread book (which is usually the case when I write a full review), but a re-reread one. And I ended up giving it the full 5-star treatment (I originally rated it 4.5 in my 2018 mini-review), because even if not much happens, the story, the characters and the overall magic never get old for me. Also, just so you get your bearings: the story is set in 1986, in a small Australian beach town.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

This is one of those quiet books where - despite a murder (and a murder mystery at that) being at its center, and a suicide occurring later in the story - it feels like nothing happens...except there's a lot boiling down the surface. I wouldn't even go as far as to say that it's character-driven, though some of the characters do stand out. The best way I can describe it is, it's magic-driven...and no, I don't mean magical realism. It's just that the atmosphere, the protagonist, the dressmaker's family tale, the (spellbinding) writing, all together create a thing of beauty, sad and melancholic, and yet warm and cozy like an old blanket. The mystery itself isn't hard to figure out, even if until the end there's an ambiguity about the perpetrator...but not about the victim, not anymore - if there ever was, because to me, it was clear early on which of the girls was killed...and then again I don't think that her identity was the point: it was more about how she ended up there. What I mean is, for a murder-mystery-centered book, TMD reads awfully (or, well, beautifully) like a mesmerising story about family and friendship, memories and choices, and about how love won't necessarily save you but can damn you instead. [...]

Lauren Karcz: "The Gallery of Unfinished Girls"

Title: The Gallery of Unfinished Girls [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Lauren Karcz [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist
Year: 2017
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Atmospheric, surprising, with a strong art commentary and a poignant coming-of-age message.
Cons: The side characters might use more depth. If you like spelled-out endings, you won't find one here.
Will appeal to: People who make art. People who don't, but want to peek into an artist's mind. People who like to read about a teen's family dynamics and personal growth. Most of all, people who crave for spellbinding books with a huge twist.

Blurb: Mercedes Moreno is an artist. At least, she thinks she could be, even though she hasn’t been able to paint anything worthwhile in the past year. Her lack of inspiration might be because her abuela is in a coma. Or the fact that Mercedes is in love with her best friend, Victoria, but is too afraid to admit her true feelings. Despite Mercedes’s creative block, art starts to show up in unexpected ways. A piano appears on her front lawn one morning, and a mysterious new neighbor invites Mercedes to paint with her at the Red Mangrove Estate. At the Estate, Mercedes can create in ways she hasn’t ever before. But Mercedes can’t take anything out of the Estate, including her new-found clarity. Mercedes can’t live both lives forever, and ultimately she must choose between this perfect world of art and truth and a much messier reality. (Amazon)

Review: This is a debut book, but you would never be able to tell. Also, this is a book with less than a thousand ratings on Goodreads, and that, my friends, is a crime. I hope that some of you will get inspired to pick it up and right a wrong after reading my review 😉.

MAGICAL LYRISM

Back when I started blogging, I didn't even know "what" magical realism was (which explains my "contemporary with a twist" label for certain books). Fast forward eight years, and it's become one of my favourite genres, second only to afterlife. What I'm trying to say is, though I wouldn't call myself a MR expert (whereas I claim the title for afterlife 😊), I've read a decent number of books in the category, and TGOUG is one of the most lyrical and exquisite I've ever encountered - plus one that pulled a huge twist on me (yep, this is a "contemporary with a twist" book after all, for more than one reason). I came for the magical mystery (which didn't disappoint - on the contrary, it was more exciting than I expected) and stayed for the art commentary and the teen experience with regard to family, love and life in general. [...]

Ilsa J. Bick: "Draw the Dark"

Title: Draw the Dark  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Ilsa J. Bick [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Contemporary with a Twist, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2010
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Original, well-crafted mix of paranormal/supernatural, mystery and modern history. Believable main character. Incorporates painting in a fascinating manner.
Cons: Requires more suspension of disbelief for a couple of mundane events than for the supernatural ones. The open ending may not sit well with everyone.
WARNING! Death and violence/gore.
Will appeal to: Fans of books off the beaten path. Art and history lovers. Everyone who enjoys a dark but ultimately hopeful story.

Blurb: There are things the people of Winter, Wisconsin, would rather forget. The year the Nazis came to town, for one. That fire, for another. But what they'd really like to forget is Christian Cage. Seventeen-year-old Christian's parents disappeared when he was a little boy. Ever since, he's drawn obsessively: his mother's face...her eyes...and what he calls "the sideways place", where he says his parents are trapped. Christian figures if he can just see through his mother's eyes, maybe he can get there somehow and save them. But Christian also draws other things. Ugly things. Evil things. Dark things. Things like other people's fears and nightmares. Their pasts. Their destiny. There's one more thing the people of Winter would like to forget: murder. But Winter won’t be able to forget the truth, no matter how hard it tries. Not as long as Christian draws the dark... (Amazon)

Review: As I said above, this is a book that will appeal (among other people) to art and history lovers. Then again, I know very little about art, and I'm not a fan of stories set in the past (like part of this one is)...and I was hooked. I guess there's no better testament to the power of this particular narrative and its author's skills 😉.

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE

Let's get it out of the way: this is NOT the story of a boy who pines for his parents (or better, his mother, since his father disappeared when he was too young to remember him) and embarks on a supernatural journey in order to find them/get them back. Though the "sideways place" where Christian's parents allegedly vanished is indeed a recurring theme, and the protagonist's obsession with finding his mother will play a surprising part in the narrative, this is NOT the story that Bick wants to tell. So, while on a level I can sympathise with those readers who felt robbed of a thrilling reading experience, I'd say that there's enough to love in this book for what it is - not to mention, for once the blurb didn't lie 😉. DTD is, at its core, the story of a boy and his demons, his uncanny ability to tune in to other people (under special circumstances, that is, and at a price for both him and them), and his loneliness despite having someone in his life who loves him (if not necessarily understands him); at the same time, it's the story of a small town with a penchant for burying its secrets, especially those rooted in a shameful and painful past. Its unique blend of supernatural/paranormal, mystery and the "ordinary" life of a damaged teen, along with strong characterisation, provides enough entertainment (if dark) and generates enough emotion without the need for it to add a metaphysical quest to the list. [...]

Neal Shusterman: "Challenger Deep"

Title: Challenger Deep  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Neal Shusterman [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist
Year: 2015 (originally from HarperTeen, but it's been reissued on Aug. 6th 2020 by Walker Books)
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Perfect blend of raw and poetical, honest and hopeful. Comprises two smartly connected narratives.
Cons: Not so much a "plot" story as a "situation" one (though at least one of the narratives is punctuated by some colourful events).
WARNING! Lots of talk about mental illnesses of course. An attempted suicide (off-screen).
Will appeal to: Those who can appreciate a quiet, yet powerful novel from the double perspective of a single character.

Blurb: Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.
Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.
Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images.
Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.
Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.
Caden Bosch is torn. (Amazon)

Review: I can't vouch for the accuracy of the schizophrenic rep in this book, but I guess the next best thing to having a person diagnosed with a mental disorder narrate his own story is reading his author father's take on it (and mind you, he got his son's input). Then again, art is about creating order out of chaos, and maybe making us understand it better...

DOUBLE FANTASY

Caden is a high-schooler with friends, hobbies, talents, and a family who loves him (including a younger sister he sounds very fond of). We meet him when he starts to spiral into a condition that isn't explicitly labeled (though it's obviously some form of schizophrenia - but then again, the book makes a point about labels not being necessarily accurate or helpful, because it's different for everyone, as the medical cocktails given to each patient are), and follow him all through his hospitalisation in a mental health facility; but at the same time Caden tells his story as a member of a mysterious crew on a ship sailing to the infamous Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the oceans - and that's where we get some action, if of the weird kind. Personally, I was captivated by the second narrative even before the connections with Caden's "ordinary" reality started to become apparent, but when they did (often in unexpected, but always smart and significant ways), I was in awe. This literary technique made me really understand Caden's plights and witness his struggle, and yet the story managed to stay entertaining (for all the right reasons). [...]

A.S. King: "Still Life with Tornado"

Title: Still Life with Tornado  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: A.S. King [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist
Year: 2016
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Original, bold premise. Honest, profound exploration of pain and trauma (albeit initially blocked/disregarded by the characters). Validation of teens' feelings and issues.
Cons: The main character's dry, sometimes self-deprecating quips may not sit well with everyone.
WARNING! Domestic abuse. An inappropriate relationship (barely on page).
Will appeal to: Those who want to look at all-too-real teen problems through a surreal, but exactly because of this, sharper-than-average lens.

Blurb: Sixteen-year-old Sarah can't draw. This is a problem, because as long as she can remember, she has "done the art." She thinks she's having an existential crisis. And she might be right; she does keep running into past and future versions of herself as she wanders the urban ruins of Philadelphia. Or maybe she's finally waking up to the tornado that is her family, the tornado that six years ago sent her once-beloved older brother flying across the country for a reason she can't quite recall. After decades of staying together "for the kids" and building a family on a foundation of lies and domestic violence, Sarah's parents have reached the end. Now Sarah must come to grips with years spent sleepwalking in the ruins of their toxic marriage. As Sarah herself often observes, nothing about her pain is remotely original - and yet it still hurts. (Amazon)

Review: If you're familiar with A.S. King's books, you know what you're getting into 😉. If not, but the blurb didn't scare you all the same, you're probably well-equipped to enjoy this one, especially since it's definitely more accessible than I Crawl Through It - if you can suspend disbelief.

ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Honest confession: I usually don't fare well with straight-up contemporaries, even when they don't involve romance. I need a unique premise, or better, a unique angle, when I read a story that deals with everyday's problems, or coming-of-age, or family, or all the things you can find in a contemporary book beside romance. That's why I love A.S. King's YA novels - she's able to keep me engrossed in what, without her peculiar brand of magical realism/surrealism, would be "average" stories about "average" issues (of course they're not average, but common enough that you feel like you don't need one more specimen sometimes). She's able to add a fourth dimension to teen (and sometimes adult) pain, and to filter it through a lens that, instead of making it look blurry, actually sharpens every little detail and ensures that it matters. How many books about self-questioning teens with a toxic family and an equally toxic school environment are there? And yet, Sarah - despite coming in a few different versions from different times, or because of that - is unique. Maybe even more than in her other books (though I have only read three of them so far, but still), King makes sure that she is...and that she matters. That, even when Sarah reflects on her problem at school that started it all, and tries to see it in perspective on the backdrop of her family's implosion, the same problem matters. The author makes an excellent point about teens (and especially teen girls) being dismissed as "whiny" when something eats at them that adults deem as not important enough - or at all. That's why we need a King in our life - and all her Sarahs. [...]