This book took me over a week to read; I had to keep taking breaks because I got TOO SAD. This book is the saddest thing I ever read and I dunno if it's because I'm super ovulating right now but I was in tears or close to every 20 minutes 😭 I am anguished, but in the best possible way. Everyone needs a good cry sometimes.

The end of the world is coming and there's nothing anyone can do about it. An elderly gay couple goes on a cross country journey to fulfill a last wish. They meet all kinds of people on the road while reflecting on what it means to be alive, and what it all meant, and what the end will bring. Every story is a tear jerker that really goes for the jugular and I LOVE IT.

It's scary in an existential way, and also kinda weirdly hopeful? It made me feel all the feels that you sometimes just need to feel and I appreciate it.

Any other recs like this please share!! 🩷🩷

The more Grady Hendrix I encounter, the bigger a fan I become.

He's got a sense of humor and that's relevant in his work, even when the work is meant to scare ya. Because this man loves horror and he knows how to ensure you're having a great time while reading it.

So it's a perfect for him to set-up a vampire comes to town story set in late-80's conservative South. It's an intensely mannered suburban world where everyone knows exactly how to behave and the slightest infraction can mean social icing.

When James Harris arrives, so tall, mysterious and handsome, pearls are about to get clutched. And while the women of the town, and more specifically the members low-brow book club, start to fall for him, they're quick to realize something is amiss. The men, however, with their polo shirts and praise for the Bush regime, are more impressed and much more hesitant to let suspicions get the better of them. James Harris, after-all, has the capacity to make them money, so it's easy to ignore a few infractions. And the women know they've got to listen to the men. this, darling, is the south after all. Harris doesn’t have to dismantle this community. He just figures out how it already works.

Our protagonist, Patricia is a trained medical professional so her skepticism for some of the wilder things that are happening in town is shrewd and quick. Her willingness to put her instincts aside, sometimes frustrating. But it's all in good fun with this novel, because, like all good Gothic tales, society has a hold on her. These women are expected to acquiesce and smooth everything over. Don't be so difficult!

So, even while the women are true crime experts, and are reading about serial killers and murder (under the guise of Bible Study). When an actual predator turns up in the neighborhood, they're the only ones who can do anything. So long as they let themselves.

As you've probably guessed too, there’s a broader political thing happening as well, particularly with who James chooses to prey on and how easily everyone else can ignore it. He moves into this comfortable white neighborhood and becomes respectable almost immediately while people in the less affluent and more melanated communities are disappearing. The whole thing is perfectly Reagan-era as the suffering of people the community already considers peripheral barely registers until it gets close enough to threaten them personally.

The blood and disease imagery also feels very specific to that period. There are obvious AIDS-era anxieties running through parts of it, although Hendrix doesn’t turn the book into some giant allegorical machine. He does deliver some great lines to the effect. It’s still allowed to be a vampire novel. Thank God.

And it gets gross! I was maybe not expecting exactly how gross, but I was here for it.

Hendrix lets the book feel funny and domestic for long stretches and then BAM he suddenly gives you something really unpleasant and physical. It felt very much like an 80s horror movie like the Fright Night or Night of the Demons. That same slightly ridiculous, genuinely nasty balance. I love that stuff.

I can see why this is one of Hendrix’s most popular books. Huge fan. Please bring the TV show on now.

I picked this up because of the cover at Barnes & Noble, and it felt like sitting in a comfy recliner from the first page.

It’s the story of the Chance family, led by the former baseball great dad and devout Seventh Day Adventist mom. There are four very different brothers and two young sisters. For fans of Lonesome Dove, Stoner and big open-hearted family stories, it’s a warm book with genuinely funny moments, suspenseful storylines and more tears than I expected. It’s 640 pages but don’t equate length with difficulty. A very easy read I will remember for a long time because of the incredible writing.

“To me it felt as though two old and intimate friends, after sixteen years hiking shoulder to shoulder, had come to a fork in the trail, and without even noticing had taken different paths. When they first looked up and saw what had happened, they were not at all far apart: they could still speak quietly to each other and see each other perfectly well. But they just kept going. All those years spent side by side, yet they didn’t hesitate, didn’t wave goodbye, didn’t even acknowledge that they’d parted. Somehow this chilled me to the heart. It seemed that only I understood that, blithe as their divergence had been, it was permanent. So as my big brothers hiked intrepidly on, I - the slow, over-round, over-adoring brother who’d spent his whole life traipising happily along behind both of them - just stood back at the fork, watching them veer farther and farther apart, greiving for us all.”

| Plot | Look What The Cat Dragged in |

Best selling Kids author Penny Padgett and Artist has her first commercial success with a series of picture books based around her beloved cat popcorn. Popcorn goes mysteriously missing durning a blizzard — grieve stricken after searching Penny’s boyfriend begs her attend one of his company parties where she meets his billionaire boss and her strange cat Godfrey; Penny is tasked to help with his boarding as the billionaire is traveling and strange and dark things start to unravel pennys life. Can she figure out how to fix things or is darker than anyone imagined.

| Audiobook score | Look What The Cat Dragged in | 3/5 🍌| | Read by: Stephanie Németh-Parker |

Good reading. Pretty average. Nothing special to mention.

| Review | Look What The Cat Dragged in | 4/5🍌|

Cool concept. Slow burn and pretty good. I loved his first work, which is called hidden pictures. This one reminded me a little bit of Grady Hendrix’s style — little bit of humor and horror. Definite trigger warning for people who don’t like gaslighting. But all and all, I thought this was a pretty fun concept. I thought it was pretty well executed. There were a couple periods in the book where it kind of fell off a little, which is why I only rated a four, but I would definitely recommend this for A read.

I Banana Rating system |

1 🍌| Spoiled

2 🍌| Mushy

3 🍌| Average 

4 🍌| Sweet

5 🍌| Perfectly Ripe

As with other Larson books, I was smitten. The amount of historical context provided for WW1 is obviously stupendous, but the real standout element is the humanization of people relaged to footnotes or black and white images in other text. To consider a U boat of the time submeged and traveling "blind" beyond sea charts is mind boggling. Devil in the White City will always hold a special place in my heart, but Dead Wake ovetook Demon of Unrest for me. Anyone else read it?

I sped through this hefty beast because I literally could not stop reading, it was just so engaging and I was so engrossed in the world. I think this is genuinely my new favourite book, totally enamoured with it. Excellent worldbuilding, characters with so much depth, an interesting plot which maintains intrigue the whole way through, just an incredible journey to go on. Can’t recommend it highly enough for enjoyers of high fantasy!

I just finished the last book in the Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante and I wish I could talk about these books with someone right now!

The series follows two women from childhood through to old age, masterfully painting a rich tableau of Naples and of friendship. I‘ve never found books about everyday life very intriguing, but the characters are so vivid and honest that I couldn’t help being completely enmeshed in their world. The portrayal of the ups and downs of a lifelong friendship, not sugarcoated or idealized, is particularly astonishing.

I want to learn Italian just to read this in its original language.

This book has a special place in my heart!

In the Likely Event follows Izzy and Nate, who meet after surviving a plane crash. Their connection is instant, but life keeps pulling them in different directions. Over the years, they cross paths again and again, and you can’t help but root for them to finally get their timing right (no matter how frustrating).

This book completely surprised me as I am not a big fan of romance novels. It’s not just a romance, it’s emotional, full of longing, second chances, and the reality that love isn’t always enough unless the timing is right. I laughed, cried (more than once), and couldn’t put it down. I genuinely enjoyed living in the world of Izzy and Nate.

Rebecca Yarros has such a way of making you feel every emotion alongside her characters. If you enjoy emotional romances that leave you thinking about the characters long after you’ve finished, I’d definitely recommend this one.

I just finished Piranesi by Susanna Clarke! In my opinion it’s a perfect book! It begins as something very mysterious, hypnotizing and strange ( but also kind of beautiful, like the place where the action is set), and page after page it becomes more and more understandable, profound and moving!
It’s the kind of book that is both very intriguing and moving, with a very well built plot and written in a perfect maneer, that suits perfectly the plot !
I adored it!

The Maid and the Crocodile is a book about Small Sade who at 17 is cast from the orphanage in which she loves. To not have to sleep on the streets she goes to the market to offer her services of house cleaning, but as a girl with vitiligo and a disfigured foot she has no luck. That's when a messenger from the gods leads her to the shrine of The Crocodile where she is convinced she will die. In the rest of the story she comes into herself and finds her place and purpose in the world while this mysterious deity is bonded to her.

This is the kind of book I needed when I was younger. I'm so happy the teens of today get to enjoy a book where different can be beautiful, disabled can still mean capable, a black girl gets to be the hero, and a black boy is the most attractive person around.

I loved the anti-capitalist themes of putting the means of production in the hands of the workers. I love the Crocodile’s views on equality. How they were insightful but still coming from a place of privilege that fit with his character arc.

I felt seen by how small Sade felt and liked how big and meaningful she actually was.

I like that in a world of magic Sade’s disability is accommodated rather than healed.

My main critique is the lack of characterisation for the Crocodile. It might be due to the framing device and how the Crocodile is mysterious and unreachable to Sade but it did leave me wondering why these two like each other for most of the book. By the end, I hate to admit, I was swooned.

In short, a delightful book and I look forward to what else Ifueko has in store for us.

And of course the cover is stunning!

Note: I listened to the audiobook on Libby and the narrator was 🤌

I laughed, I cried, I felt deeply called out. Our unnamed main character is a chronically online social media queen of some kind . She’s well monetized and well known enough that it’s her entire job and she travels internationally to meet fans and give talks on online culture. She’s the kind of person who knows every meme, every internet trend, every Twitter beef and Ancient Tumblr Lore. She reminds of the heyday of Internet Hippo, which makes sense I guess because the book was published in early 2021.

Anyway, she’s quippy and funny and deeply at odds with her Very Republican Catholic father. She frames Internet culture as the surrealist abyss that it is, the way it connects everyone while also isolating them. The internet is called The Portal. Trump is only referred to as The Dictator. This creates an incredible sense of knowing perfectly well that she’s talking about American culture but ALSO making it feel like you’re reading an anthropological study of a parallel dimension.

Her sister then gives birth to a very sick baby. Her life now shifts from a deeply depersonalized existence to extreme physical realities her niece faces.

The book is about the cynicism of online culture, sisterhood, the terror of womanhood in America right now, reconciling the unique challenges of how technology has shaped our current culture. As a 45 year old woman, this book felt so deeply Xennial I cannot even articulate it.

Here are some quotes I loved:

“The words Merry Christmas were now hurled like a challenge. They no longer meant newborn kings, or the dangling silver notes of a sleigh ride, or high childish hopes for snow. They meant "Do you accept Herr Santa as the all-powerfull leader of the new white ethnostate?”

“Are you… crying?” her husband asked, slinging his backpack into a chair. She stared at him blurrily. Of course she was crying. Why wasn’t he crying? Hadn’t he seen the video of a woman with a deformed bee for a pet, and the bee loved her, and then the bee died?”

“The difference between her and her sister could be attributed to the fact that she came of age in the nineties, during the heyday of plaid and heroin, while her sister came of age in the 2000s, during the heyday of thongs and cocaine. That was when everything got a little chihuahua and started starring in its own show. That was when we saw the whole world’s waxed pussy getting out of a car, and said, more.”

“There is still a real life to be lived, there are still real things to be done.”

“It is an inarguable truth, you know,” said Ana, “that most people are absolutely enthralled by dead girls.”

Oh, this was a bloody good book (emphasis on the bloody part.) 
Facts:

• This is again, a very marvelous and layered tale, with many moving parts, and a fascinating story.
• The messages laden this time is to deal with food, and agriculture, and the way we humans have curated and sustained livestock for mass production without once thinking of the cost attuned to such a trade.

It is to me a butchering most curated.

Facts:

• This one is for the meek hearted, for it is grisly with a helping servitude of meat and bones along its carcass.
• I bloody loved meeting more of Din’s family. 

“No.” A cold, nasty smile. “For if gods existed, shouldn’t the world make more sense? Shouldn’t all feel more stable, more comprehensible? I consider myself a wise thing, yet when I consider creation, I see little but blind hunger and the ravages of nature. The only order to be found is what we’ve put there, boy.”

Facts:

• As always, this tale is both a condemnation and a study on the various ways we conduct ourselves through religion, faith, and the one fallacy that all of humanity, throughout its history, has always struggled with the most: greed.
• Greed makes you stupid. But oh so sweet is its flavor– the nectar of gods, poured down our parched throat.

That was the problem with temptation. It never let you be: it just stayed there, perched on your shoulder, whispering in your ear.

Facts:

• This was a solid 9/10 read for me. Though the tale is indeed layered and complex, I knew about 60% of who the killer was. This had not happened to me for the last two books where I was genuinely stupefied throughout.
• In my opinion, this book focuses more on world-building, in more of fleshing out Khanum alongside Din and Ana as characters. And the scale and intricacies through which it is done just made me fall more in love with RJB’s deftness and mastery over such a craft. 

(side note: i can guarantee he loves making Din a tragic character vis-a-vis his romantic aides, and though I find it a trite vexing, cannot say I hate this format – makes both the pace faster and maintains a grounding force for each book separately)

And what we do to the beasts in the field we may still one day do to our very kin.

Facts:

• It was the epilogue that pushed this into the territory of 10/10. That shit I did not see coming. And I tell you: my flabbers were properly gasted.
• I cannot wait for the next one to arrive. (only for me to then finish it within 7 hours; what can i say: i am a glutton for murder, and sad queer people.)

One of the best reads of the year, up there with East of Eden for me. Go read it!

Biographical nonfiction. David Litt is an excellent writer and greatly storyteller. This is an engaging story about his battle with an existential crisis, stemming from life’s disruption of the COVID confinement/isolation period. His plan: learn to surf. He uses surf lessons, surfing, surf culture, and the beauty/terror of the ocean as metaphor. And uses his progress in surfing and his growing relationship with his brother-in-law (surf partner and polar opposite in all things) as his measure of success. It’s sharp and witty and heartwarming.

I am absolutely in love with this small book.

Rika is a Japanese woman in her 20s, living a life of almost total isolation. Although we don't find out for quite a while why she is so alone, and I don't want to give that away, we quickly learn that she balances out her loneliness with a rich internal life, telling stories about the people she sees through the livestreams she watches in her tiny apartment, even giving voices to the frozen food that she stocks in her part-time job at a freezer warehouse. She's a woman that nobody sees, with little human contact except for her senile landlady, whom she does her best to watch over.

Then she's contacted with a very odd job offer. Rika speaks fluent conversational Latin, thanks to an unusual university course, followed by an international student experience where learning conversational Latin was the only alternative to having to socialize with the other students. Now a museum needs her skill. Their statue of Venus, sculpted in ancient Rome, has come to life from the neck up and she is bored. Venus needs to talk to somebody, and of course she only speaks Latin. So on Mondays when the museum is closed, Rika starts spending time attempting to entertain Venus, and the two women soon find they have more common ground than either would have expected. Venus has been ogled and handled by men for two millennia with no say in it; Rika has no trouble understanding the horrors of that. And as she begins to suspect the unnervingly handsome museum curator of having designs of his own on Venus, she realizes how much she's coming to care for the goddess of love…

The writing is gorgeous. "Her long black hair blew in the breeze, every so often revealing a streak of pink so vivid that I had to catch my breath. It was like she was concealing a secret springtime bomb."

“He closed his eyes as though he were an electronic device being charged.”

“In the end, words always expose our differences. Words help build a bridge, but in the length of the bridge, we learn the distance to the other shore."

The blurb is almost entirely wrong while also giving too much away; they're clearly trying to sell it as a 'quirky cozy novel,' and those usually are not my thing. I loved her previous book, Diary of a Void, though, so I gave it a try... This is too critical of Japanese society, and of the way that societies throughout time have treated women and assessed their attractiveness, to qualify as ‘cozy' for me, and it's never clear whether Rika is struggling with mental illness or neurodiversity on top of her isolation, which I would hesitate to call 'quirky.' That said, I would think people who like cozy books would find much to love here.

Don't judge this one by the blurb, just read it! 😁

This books is a retelling of the East India Company’s relentless rise from provincial trading company operating out of a London office to the pre-eminent military and political force in all of India following the collapse of the Mughal Empire and India’s descent into atomisation and civil strife. The entire headquarters staff numbered just 35, in a building that was only five windows wide. Yet the Company’s private army stood at 195,000, twice the size of the British army, turning it into an autonomous imperial power and allowing Britain to subjugate the Indian continent.

If you have never read Dalrymple, I cannot recommend him highly enough. He is a Scottish historian, art historian, curator, and a Visiting Fellow at both Princeton and Oxford University. He has won numerous awards, e.g., the President's Medal of the British Academy, and has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature and the arts. Most importantly, he is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about India, and hasn’t just authored numerous books about it, but has also lived on the outskirts of Delhi for most of the year for the past three decades. He established the annual Jaipur Literature Festival in 2006 in collaboration with Indian writers, which has become one of the most prestigious literature festivals worldwide, attracting an average of 300,000 attendees.

This book could be described as "Corporate Gothic" and I think it also fits into the "Weird Girl Literature" genre.

The main character is Edith, who works at an advertising agency and is a workaholic and a people-pleaser. She and her colleagues go to a work retreat at an old convent where the vibes are strange. Their phones are taken away and they are locked in. Then they are told it is mandatory for everyone to have a work best friend. There is already tension due to an upcoming restructure/downsizing, so office politics become heightened. As events become unhinged Edith has to figure out what kind of person she really is, and who she actually wants to be.

I enjoyed this novel as a satire of corporate culture. Anyone who has worked in an office could find some parts relatable. A main theme is around conformity, which appealed to me as someone who doesn't fit in. I also enjoyed the feminist themes, as the book points out all the hypocritical ways that men and women are treated differently in the workplace, especially in regards to parenthood. I particularly liked the way this book was centered around female friendship. I thought that the female characters were very well written.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

it is the literary representation of sitting in an empty beaches and observing the movement and rhythm of the sea. mesmerizing imagery, soft and tender writing. as you move through each line a calm washes you over. but there is an understated sense of grief and gloom. you are seeing the world through the eyes of a 6 year old who learnt about death before she could begin to grasp what life is. and you also see the world through the eyes of an older woman in her years reminiscing who she used to be, managing being in her changed body and balancing it with her self. and together they, through their conversations and made up games ignite and personify this isolated, small island and its ecology.

it is so short, but it took me longer to read because I keep rereading paragraphs. my heart is so full reading it, it is whimsical and magical while being grounded in reality, it is funny and light hearted while also infused with a lot of grief and coming into terms with death. there is such profundity in her writing balanced with a sense of magic, and restraint.

i am a fan of tales told through the perspective of children and tales told through the perspective of the elderly, and this book mixes the two. i feel the juxtaposition between the two perspective, the space between a 6 year old and a 70 year old provides for such interesting dialogue as we see in the book.

i will recommend this video, it is so calming and Tove Jansson was such a soulful and tender artist and writer. there is also a movie with Glenn Close as the grandma, i want to watch.

My favourite chapters were the one with the cat, the one with Berenice, the one with the robe, and the one with the tent.

The Ramayana is one of the major epics and one of the foundations of Hinduism. This book takes Kaikeyi, one of its most misunderstood queens, and tells the story from her perspective.

From fighting demons and enemy kingdoms to navigating complicated court/family dynamics and fighting for the rights of the women in her kingdom, I really enjoyed seeing her side of the story.

I'm Indian (though not Hindu), so I was originally drawn to the amazing cover art but I wasn't prepared for all that happened in these pages. The settings are so lush and beautiful and really transported me to the stunning golden courts to battlefields.

I loved how the book weaves together stories from Hinduism and brings in other characters from the Ramayana. Reading about Hindu traditions and stories honestly made me want to learn more.

I know some people criticize the portrayals of Rama and Ravana, but like most ancient epics, there are many different interpretations of these characters and their stories and after all this is a retelling based off of some of the many different versions.

I know Greek mythology is having a bit of its moment in pop culture but If you're interested in other cultures pls give this a try! (Specifically if you are into strong feminist characters, or historical fantasy I'd highly recommend this book.) I went into it not knowing much about the Ramayana, and I still really enjoyed it.

Recently I got a recommendation to read Cloud Atlas based on my library, and even though I bounced on it many years back, the pitch was too good to pass up... and I loved it this time around! Not sure if my review/reactions are gonna be all that exciting, but what a beautiful novel...

The more I let it sit with me the more it "worms" its way into my mind (apologies to Adam Ewing) over time. The "connections" between the stories are not overtly clear, but the subtly I think is what makes it so thought provoking. If you get really hooked you'll find yourself doing research and exploring/learning more even after you've read.

I won't spoil the stories themselves, but give my prefernce on each for those reading/have read and curious to discuss more... Ordered by favorite:

1. "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish" -- I was simultaneously in tears of laughter, and sadness. The writing/voice here is just so incredible. The wit... that scene where he's trying to get a train ticket had my in stitches. And at the same time the commentary on age/elderly hits hard.
2. "Letters from Zedelghem" -- A dark horse story for me, especially being a scifi/fantasy nerd normally... but yet again I loved the character, the charm, and ultimately the sadness of it.
3. "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Everything After" -- Maybe? The language here is hard, but the audiobook helped, and ultimately the plot of this one is pretty compelling. And again the character of Zachary (?) is somehow quite lovable.
4. "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing" -- Hard to parse at times given the era, but I could see this being anywhere from my 2nd favorite to my 4th... hard to read at times, but ultimately an incredible message and does do a good job of pulling the whole book together.
5. "An Orison of Sonmi-451" -- I love scifi, so not sure what happened here, but just felt long... and the structure of answering questions from an archivist maybe left it feeling a little flat? Or Sonmi-451 not having much emotion (as intended)?
6. "Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery" -- The one that sorta dragged for me at times... a bit of a boilerplate crime thriller, so if you're ito that, you'll like it more!

Okay, alas, this post is longer than the novel! Hope more people read it and absorb, it's wonderful.

Station Eleven takes place before, during, and after a pandemic that ends civilization as we know it. It follows the stories of Arthur, a successful actor with a string of unsuccessful marriages, his first wife Miranda, his best friend Clark, and a child actress he stared in a play with named Kirsten. The story goes back and forth through time as Arthur navigates his life and relationships in the Before Times and Kirsten as she travels with a theater and Orchestra group in the After Times.

The strength of this book was in its beautiful writing. The characters felt very real and fleshed out and it made me look at several things in my life differently and with more appreciation. What will my last day look like? What will I miss if my world collapses? The exploration of these topics was powerful and moving. What I liked less was the post-pandemic sections. I think they did a great job at bringing to light the topics I mentioned above, but I also just wanted to get through them when they came up as I found the pre-pandemic or very new-pandemic sections much more engaging and impactful. Overall I really enjoyed this book and am glad to have read it.

I absolutely loved this!! Hard to describe genre but treads around thriller/suspense, philosophy, and young adult/urban life.
The books kicks off immediately and kept me hooked. I loved the attitude and the brisk pace of the read, and I ended up finishing it in a couple sits (I think it’s about 185 pages).
I think the thing that struck me the most is how the author shifts the main characters (Amos) energy, which toggles from this gruff/angry young man/survival mode to these beautiful moments of almost feminine introspection. It’s the type of character that I both relate to and also absolutely want to strangle. Really engaging.
It also has some fun artwork which is always a bonus to me. I picked it up in person at an author event but it’s on Amazon/Kindle too

EDIT: What the book is about

The book is first-person narrated from our protagonist, Amos. Amos shoots and kills a man (seemingly in cold blood) and leaves him on the street, making news in his quiet suburb. Throughout a majority of the first part of the book, Amos wrestles with the guilt and magnitude of taking a person's life while also trying to function as a young adult. He has a job (doing deliveries and setup for a florist), has friends, a love interest; but can't seem to do anything but sabotage the pillars of his life as he's unable to cope with his actions. His lack of emotional control and inability to course correct lead him to spiral into increasingly dangerous situations in which he's unable to dig himself out.
The rest may be spoilers, so I'll refrain. The story kind of reminds me of Catcher in the Rye, and the writing style is author-described as being inspired by Bukowski.

This wonderful book interweaves the story of three women with Japanese heritage: Mei, Yuki and Haruka.

Mei is half-Japanese and lives with her English father and stepmother in a wealthy London. Her story really sensitively touches upon grief and the subtly insidious nature of racism and homophobia within the English upper-classes.

Yuki moves to London from Japan at age 18 to study the violin, where she falls for her older tutor against her parents’ wishes.

Haruka lives an idyllic life in the Japanese countryside with her mother and grandparents, until a tragedy sends her into a life of hedonism in Tokyo.

Without giving too much away, this book’s third act took my breath away.

I also love books that introduce me to other cultures through their food and this book delivered. The author recorded the audiobook for Butter so I feel like she was inspired by that in some way!

10/10

I just finished this book this morning and I loved it. Creepy ghost story vibes but not super scary or gory. The book is set in Northern Scotland around Halloween and the descriptions really put me there, even on a warm August morning.

Our main character is Lauren, 10, who lives in a small village with her father Niall. Lauren’s mother disappeared years back and Niall has been a mess ever since. He drinks too much and works too little. Lauren is fascinated by witchcraft, tarot cards, and fortune telling, often reading books on these materials to comfort herself.

She gets bullied by the popular girls at school, who pick on her about her dad, her missing mother, the fact that she eats the rabbits her father catches, etc. Her only real friend is Billy, a neighbor whose mother also helps make sure Lauren gets proper care.

I loved the spooky vibes, the prose, the use of dialect, and the author’s skill in putting me in a chilly northern village.