Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
Takes on way more than it can handle. This book doesn't know tonally whether it wants to be a boring verison of the Goonies, an unearned meditation on grief, or an exhaustingly in-depth tour guide to Boston. It manages to miss all three, and you should miss this book.
The Bloody Chamber
Angela Carter is the master of feminist magical fairy tales. A must-read for anyone.
Peaces
Playful, avant-garde, and just the right length. This book works best when you just go with it and lose yourself in it. People who prefer solving or dissecting books should pass on this one, but if you can allow yourself to indulge in the moment-by-moment whimsical feel of this, you will enjoy the romp immensely.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Feels like a fairy tale. Slow-burn of a novel and yet I wanted it to last forever. Seriously amazing.
Home Before Dark
Definitely picked up as it went along - a solid, twisty book. Great summer spooky thriller/mystery read! The pacing wasn't always amazing and the characters weren't always believable but otherwise solid book.
Allusion
Ooh wow this book was really bad. Cardboard characters, awkward writing, straight up incorrect use of words or phrases. The mystery wasn’t compelling and honestly it was flat-out unbelievable. A pretty mindless read.
This Savage Song
Pretty dang good. A bit predictable and I’m personally tired of stories that take place in a high school, but a really decent, breezy read with interesting worldbuilding. Good if you like urban fantasy.
House of Leaves
Wow. Seriously amazing.
Wheel of the Infinite
Great worldbuilding, satisfying ending, wish it were longer! If you like a different take on high fantasy, give this a try.
Our Dark Duet
I really enjoyed the first book, but unfortunately this book was cliched and full of some rather silly YA tropes. The character development was non-existent and the ending was super rushed. I really wanted to like it, but unfortunately it didn’t deliver.
Annihilation
So incredibly good - haunting, mysterious, and terrifying.
Authority
Very different from Annihilation but that’s not a bad thing at all. The good: excellent length and pace, lots of the same mysterious ambiguity of the first book but with a few more answers and a few more questions, great characters. The bad (?): it is definitely a middle book - lots of things remain unanswered and it feels like very little progress is made. Some people may strongly dislike reading from the perspective of a character who is in a position where he’s set up to fail from every standpoint - his coworkers tolerate him at best, he has very few resources, and he hardly knows why he’s even there. If the thought of a protagonist making little headway, as you yourself make little headway, bothers you, you may not enjoy this book. Personally, I found it the perfect bureaucratic feel for a spy novel, saved by the author’s excellent writing.
Shadow and Bone
I’m biased writing this review because YA isn’t my jam, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I loved the Ninth House by the same author but I found the pace of this too frenzied and the main character too boring. It was a whirlwind of a read, with very little time to contemplate the events of the story or very few points for the story to slow down and reflect. The characters also felt very one dimensional, with surface-level motivations. In terms of growth and development, very little changed about the main character from the beginning until the end outside of her learning to use her powers better. I would have loved to read a version of this story that had a bit more internal reflection, a character with flaws and motivations where she could learn and change and adapt, and where the pacing allowed for more reflection and time to let the characters and events breathe.
Bruiser
Lots of good character development, some really interesting existential questions, fascinating writing style depending on who narrated which chapter, and excellent plot and satisfying ending. A really solid read, great for a long trip.
Frozen Charlotte
This was fun! I picked this up solely based off some reviews I had read and wasn’t expecting it to be middle grade (sometimes it’s so hard to gauge these things from other people’s reviews). It was still a pretty good book, though definitely not very scary. More in line with Goosebumps style horror than adult horror, but still an enjoyable read, especially for October. I had a great and breezy time reading this, but ultimately it was a very simple, surface level book (which makes sense for middle grade).