2023: Review in Books

I read quite a bit this year, mostly on audiobook.

Favorite Thriller/Mystery

Louise Penny’s Glass Houses

Louise Penny’s Three Pines series and her character Armand Gamache are familiar friends to me by now. I love how Penny approaches the nature of artifice. She builds a world, not unlike our own, but full of a gentle magic. Gamache and the community of Three Pines can be overcome by the dark things of the world and not be overwhelmed by them, at least not permanently overwhelmed. The answer to these dark, terrible acts is always the rise of something good - joining in community, forgiveness, and grappling with trauma through art and poetry.

Favorite Horror

Felix Blackwell’s Stolen Tongues

This is a scary one. There is a haunting and a monster, and it reads really well on audiobook. I highly suggest the audiobook version since the horror is so related to what can be heard.

Favorite Fantasy

Steven King’s Fairytale

This is a portal fantasy that theorizes about the nature of…stories? The hero’s journey? It’s quite a fun, easy listen (audiobook) for those who like to be a little disturbed. I’ll also say that King knows how to pull at a person’s heartstrings, but I think almost crying at certain parts is probably a requirement of most good books.

Favorite Odd One

Erin Sterling’s The Ex Hex

I don’t usually read romance or urban fantasy. That’s just not where I gravitate toward. However, this book is both. I was reading (audiobook) a lot of intense thrillers with world-ending consequences and suddenly felt I needed to read something with lower stakes. This fit the bill and was a truly enjoyable read/listen. It’s an enemies to lovers romance, and both parties grow to become better versions of themselves and deal with old sore spots and past personal issues.

PS. I also self-published another notebook. Check it out :)

2022: Review in Books

I read so many fun books this year :)


YA Fantasy

I loved most of the YA I read in 2022. Most of it was quite dark and of the thriller or adventure genre in some way. Several were inspired by folktale or fairy tale, so if that’s your jam read the following immediately. My top three picks include:

  • The House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig. Inspired by the fairy tale of the twelve dancing princesses, but with a very dark twist, It stuck with me. I listened to this on audiobook.

  • The Akata Series by Nnedi Okorafor is some fantasy you may have never seen before. The audiobook is so wonderful! Some have called it the Nigerian Harry Potter. Read it. Now.

  • Rise of the Empress series by Julie C. Dao is an East Asian fantasy inspired by Snow White with an archetypal quest motif in the later half. The first book is wicked, but so worth it.

Thrillers Intended for Adults

  • The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas is about a family’s buried secrets. It was worth it. A fun and easy read.

  • If memory serves, A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham and We Sang in the Dark by Joe Hart are both psychological thrillers about (somewhat) mentally unstable, high achieving, highly educated women trying to solve murders related to their complicated past. A Flicker in the Dark is about a woman who’s father was found guilty as a serial killer when she was a teen. We Sang in the Dark is about a woman who escaped from a religious cult as a teen and what happens when her long-thought-dead sister reappears.

If you know of any other thrillers like that - with highly educated or complicated protagonists, conspiracy or cult themes, and maybe a supernatural element if done right, please PLEASE let me know. I love a good mystery, especially when it’s a little on the weird side.

Nonfiction

You should read Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, a book by Emily Nagoski, Ph.D. and Amelia Nagoski, D.M.A. The audiobook is fabulous.

What did you read last year?

2021 In Review: Books

I read so many great books this year!

The Most Fantastical and Fun

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Best Reads in Nonfiction

I’ll be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn (Introduction), and Patton Oswalt (Afterword)

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

Author spotlight: I’m published in Warrior Queen: Answering the Call of the Morrigan! :)