Michelle
I accepted an ARC of Our Share of the Night from Netgalley. This is my honest review.
It's still December, and I'm calling it now: It's highly unlikely I'll read a better horror novel in 2023. Our Share of the Night is an epic novel filled with body horror, trauma, friendship, familial love and hate.
We meet Juan, a recent widower, traveling with his young son, Gaspar. Juan is filled with love for his son, but also anger, and the ability to hurt his son and anyone who gets in his way. Juan is a “medium” for an international cult that worships a dark, cruel god – perhaps Darkness itself. He has been given no choice in this, having been purchased from his parents as a child.
Juan has a heart defect that he knows will kill him sooner than later, and he knows this cult wants his son – either as the new medium, or a new vessel for Juan. He's determined that neither will happen.
The book encompasses a significant period of time, and a number of POV characters. Eventually we meet up with a slightly older Gaspar, who lives in an empty mansion with his father. He remembers little of the past. His father is often distant, and angry, and cruel. And sometimes perhaps insane.
The reader is privy to much more than Gaspar is at this stage, seeing connections he can't, and the workings of the occult. He is unaware he's setting up a friend to be sacrificed.
This portion of the book was extremely moving to me as Gaspar is abused by his father for reasons he can't understand. Juan commits a vicious act of cruelty and betrayal. I can only say that anyone who survived an abusive household will understand there are different types of horrors. One of those horrors is feeling unloved by a parent, and the shock when you realize you're not safe with them.
Gaspar had a friend group that helps him through this time, and we follow their journeys almost as much as Gaspar's, as they learn to live with loss, and the pieces of the aforementioned other world that clings to them.
The reader knows that Gaspar will eventually have to face the cult. Did I mention the cult is also family?
Things you should know:
This is a long book. Because I accepted a digital copy, I don't have page numbers, but depending on the source, it's between 600 and 730ish pages. It feels like the latter. You'll be spending lots of time here. If you just want the horror, and don't want to become involved, there are quicker books.
The book has a lot of body horror, and general supernatural stuff, including doors leading to another very vicious world, but there are long stretches between these moments where it's more about a feeling of dread and various characters working through trauma. A number of times I would be jolted anew at how dark, and gross, the story could be.
Our Share of the Night is a translated work from an Argentine author and is set in Argentina, and you will feel very immersed in this setting. The translation seemed smooth enough that I was rarely confused, but there were moments where I wondered if something was lost in translation.
Poets and poetry are mentioned A LOT!
The almost constant backdrop is political unrest. I think a lot of what you need to know can be picked up from context, but politics do play a heavy role. The cult is run by rich people who exploit poor, often Indigenous, people.
We spend time in London in the sixties, and Argentina the rest of the time, particularly in the 80s and 90s, and this portion has a focus on the AIDS crisis. The London portion might very well scratch a little bit of any serial killer itch you might have.
There's LGBTQ+ rep, but slurs and outdated terms abound. There are a two people who are called a couple, but also twins, who want to swap sexes, but there seems to be more of a supernatural/spiritual incentive than really being trans. At least 3 of the protagonists are gay or bi.
An outdated term for people with Down Syndrome is used between friends.
Not every question of plot point is wrapped up, and there's clearly room for another book. Which I would read!
Our Share of the Night took me a couple weeks to read – I read other books as well – because I was so involved that I needed breaks from a very dark story. While most of the characters are varying degrees of evil, I did care about a few, and I imagine you will too. Others I wanted to suffer – and suffer they did!
I feel that I could read the book several times over and find additional layers and nuances I missed.
I received an ARC of this book through Booksirens in exchange for an honest review.
The Broken Darkness is a horror anthology. The author does a nice job with characters and concepts, but ultimately almost every story fell a bit short for me, specifically when it came to the endings. Several of the stories felt more like a first chapter than a complete story.
Short stories CAN end with some loose ends, and often the reader can surmise or speculate in a way where the story is satisfying. I think a couple of these stories meet that mark, but when alongside other stories that fall short, every unanswered question looms larger.
I can't stress enough that every story had merit, some solid moments, or a cool twist. A few were thought-provoking. We meet Vlad Tepes in a nicely atmospheric story that almost felt complete. If you like vampire stories, this story alone might be worth your time. The final story has layers I'm sure I haven't fully unpacked, and is impressive. The first story is also quite nice; it has loose ends, but I feel they work. There's another story that will really make you think twice or ten times about driving while distracted on your phone.
But too many stories ended for me in disappointment as I felt it needed more, and that more might only be a line or two.
To put this into perspective, I have time and time again bought Riley Sager books because I love, love, love the concepts, and I always end up disappointed. Obviously Sager is an accomplished author who is an autobuy for a lot of people, but there's something missing in his stories for me. And, in this case, the endings in this anthology fall short for me.
Interesting memoir. I forgot or didn't know that Selma Blair grew up in Southfield, MI, which is close to where I grew up. The author focuses more on her personal life than her career, with center stage featuring her relationship with her mother.
The author adores her mother, but she seems to have been quite terrifying and soul crushing. It's an interesting – understandable – tone. Wanting to please someone you probably will never please, and knowing this person also shaped you in some ways you absolutely wouldn't change.
Selma talks at length about her struggles with alcohol, her relationships, her pets, her son, and her friends. There's always the specter of MS. The acknowledgements include some epic name drops, and the acknowledgements go on for a while.
Other people have mentioned that Selma during emotional moments sounds like she's crying, and it's hard to tell if she's being vulnerable and letting her emotions flow, or performing to move the reader. That question, more than than habit, is distracting.
My first book of 2023! There are authors I know I can count on, and Beverly Jenkins is one of them. I love her characters and her stories and how each is written with the compassion – that you help people when you can.
Our couple is Sable and Raimond. They meet at a Union camp in the waning days of the war – she's fleeing slavery, and he runs the camp. Eventually there's a misunderstanding where he thinks she's a Rebel spy. The story then moves to New Orleans, and Raimond's family.
Her characters go through adversity, or have gone through it. After all, her heroines and heroes are Black, living often in the South during or after the Civil War. But Beverly Jenkins also shows her characters persevering, finding joy, finding power, and triumphing against those who wish them harm.
The author never goes to ridiculous lengths to come up with a misunderstanding to keep our couple apart, or takes a desire for revenge for a broken heart too far. The books have these things, but the main conflict is usually the couple against the world, not the couple against each other.
I've read another book in the Le Veq family series, Rebel, as well as other books that also tie into this world, like Forbidden. I'm not sure there's a bad place to start with this author. You can even do a contemporary, like Rare Danger!
What a great cover, too.
Rebekah Weatherspoon is a feel good author for me, and this series was my happy place. Set on a ranch filled with friends, family, dogs, and horses, it features relatable heroes and heroines. These characters are not without struggles, or representations seem rarely in romance, or novels in general.
Jesse is demi, and largely sexually inexperienced. Lily-Grace has vitiligo, and is coming off a bad relationship. At first they're adversarial, and she kidnaps his dog for a few minutes. As one does, but they're a great match.
Ellie has a perfect Christmas eve day/night with a woman who smells like bread, and then something goes awry which we have to wait to discover. A year later, she's lost her job as an animator and works at a coffee shop, and memories of this woman – Jack – linger. A rich guy asks her to marry him so he can inherit some money, and there's 200,000 in it for her. Cool, cool. When she meets his family, she finds out his sister Jacqueline is her ... well, you get it. She is trapped there for the next 8 days, including Christmas.
Ellie has horrible parents, and so she really falls for the whole family, other than the mostly absentee father, and so this all factors into what's at stake. Oh, and Andrew – her fiance – is planning on giving Jack half the money. No pressure.
Ellie and Jack had really nice chemistry and banter. The banter, across the board, was great. Alison Cochrun gives good banter. The grandmothers were the wacky old ladies you love to see. Ellie's friend Ari was everything! Could have used more Paul Hollywood – a dog, not the vaguely creepy handshake guy who really humiliated himself during Mexican Week.
The book is interspersed with out of sequence snippets of Ellie and Jack's magical Christmas, and those were very sweet. They also spend a night in a cabin together, and I loved that.
What didn't work for me is ... Okay, let me start by specifying Ellie made mistakes, but so did at least 3 other people ... what didn't work for me is how poorly Ellie was treated when the monetary aspect of the engagement came to light. Everyone was throwing stones in that glass house. Jack decides to be mad not just at not knowing this, but that hitting on/being attracted to her brother's fiance had made her feel bad. Okay? Why were you at peace with this minutes earlier? When Ellie told you she couldn't marry Andrew? But everyone is treating her as mercenary when she was in the process of walking away from the cash and when it was Andrew's idea. Jack kept a huge secret from Ellie the year before, which she never really apologized for, but has no patience for hearing Ellie out.
I get that we needed things to become a little dire just from a pacing standpoint, so it couldn't be easily sorted out, but the pile on didn't feel organic or make sense. Also, Ellie seems to be set up to be humbled, but since she wasn't exactly a font of ego to begin with, that was harsh. And then at the end there's a moment where she is humiliated, and the person who humiliates her – while the reaction that created the humiliation was valid – seems to find it a bit funny.
What the last portion of the book made clear is this was a story about fear holding Ellie back. I can't say this wasn't present, but when it's presented as THE thing, that didn't feel earned. I liked how she learned to take more chances, but I don't see a person who makes several of the choices she does as being as stuck as I'd have to believe her to be to really embrace this message.
Overall, this was a nice holiday read, with great banter, and a couple I rooted for. And I hope Ari gets a book!
Rebekah Weatherspoon is a feel good author for me, and this series was my happy place. Set on a ranch filled with friends, family, dogs, and horses, it features relatable heroes and heroines. These characters are not without struggles, or representations seem rarely in romance, or novels in general.
Jesse is demi, and largely sexually inexperienced. Lily-Grace has vitiligo, and is coming off a bad relationship. At first they're adversarial, and she kidnaps his dog for a few minutes. As one does, but they're a great match.
I accepted the ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed this book a lot, although it started stronger for me than it ended. The genre is mystery, but there's a slow-burn romance simmering under the surface that I imagine will have a payoff in a future installment.
The Duchess of Fournier's husband is accused of killing an opera singer believed to be his lover. The duchess is sure he neither had an arrangement with the singer nor killed her. The Bow Street Runner who was alerted to the death, and was first on the scene, is convinced the duke is guilty. He was found covered in blood and catatonic.
The duchess, Audrey, has the ability to perform psychometry – touch items and read their histories – and decides to use this skill to prove her husband's innocent. The Bow Street Runner keeps discovering her in the process of her investigation, and almost seamlessly, they begin working together.
I really liked the opening of the book, which felt gritty and dark, but that tone for long periods gave way to what felt a little more of a romance novel vibe. I also like, love, romance novels, but the beginning kinda sold me on the idea of something grittier. I mean, there's a lot at stake, more death, guns, and I'm in no way saying it's tame. The autopsy scene was plenty gross!
The mystery kept my interest steady. This book reminded me a little of the Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas, and those mysteries work a little better for me in terms of surprises and misdirects, but the mystery here worked well.
The dialogue and use of Regency vernacular really worked for me. I went down a lot of historical rabbit holes as a result, which is a thing I like, and those details set the mood for me. I think it's the quality that made me know I'd enjoy the book.
I liked Audrey, and Marsden, and their chemistry. And I know I'm interested in what happens in future books. I'd like to see Audrey come into her own. This could be a really good series.
Terrific history of Duluth, MN and neighboring areas, and a history of the author's family and the stories close to her heart. I'll never look at the Point of Rocks the same way again.
I bought the book at Zenith Books in Duluth and on the way there I found myself wondering about the various neighborhoods. I had no idea that the book that was recommended to me when I asked for a book by an Indigenous author would answer those questions.
I live in Northern MN and had no idea there was a residential school in a neighboring town. I'll be searching put more info.
I think I'd love a novel by the author.
Hi, I received an Arc of Death of a Dancing Queen from Netgalley. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.
Billie Levine is juggling the care of a mother, Shari, with early-onset Alzheimer and being a PI under the supervision of her grandfather. Her brother struggles with mental-health issues, but is in a good place at the moment. While the family is buckling under the strain of caring for Shari, they're also struggling financially.
Billie is hired to find a client's missing girlfriend, Jasmine Flores, and this becomes – shocker – a murder investigation. We're also introduced to a second mystery involving a case Jasmine, a true crime fan and podcaster, was obsessed with.
While investigating, Billie interacts with wealth, privilege, organized and unorganized crime, racism, bigotry, and an ex included in the organized crime category. Some trusted people turn out to be unworthy of the trust.
While I loved certain aspects of this story, and definitely want to check in with Billie Levine going forward, this didn't rise to the level of great or classic for me. If you're looking for a mystery with a strong sense of family and community that very well could to be a gateway to a series that promises to be amazing, I recommend this book.
I'm 16 books into another series where I had very similar feelings about the first book, and now I'm obsessed and it's my favorite series of all time, and I feel we're in similar territory here – where the series needs time to expand of the world, characters, and themes.
Billie is a terrific character, and so relatable. Her mother's decline constantly preys on her in not just the slow losing of a beloved parent, but what it might mean for her own future. She's a clever, independent woman who feels those qualities might come with a not-t00-distant expiration date. There's a constant low hum of her making decisions based on what she thinks might help her avoid this fate. Billie and Meredith Grey would have a lot to say to each other.
I know there are other Jewish heroines in modern fiction, but I love this portion of her character, how it grounds her, and the dimension it adds to how she navigates the world. And how these characters respond to her. Needless to say, expect moments of overt antisemitism and microaggressions.
Dancing Queen also contains multiple examples of LGBTQIA+ representation, as well as POC rep. I support all of this, but want to mention that in the former category, there was a variation of a line repeated twice that wasn't ideal for me. HOWEVER, this was an advanced reader/reviewer copy, which means nothing was set in stone and it was still in the editing process. The line that bugged me, which wasn't intentionally harmful to begin with, very well might no longer exist. If it does, and if it's not me being nitpicky, is for future readers/reviewers to mention.
With all that I loved, I have to ask myself why I didn't love the entirety more. I think it was the actual mystery/mysteries, where I struggled to keep the characters straight. Billie would recall something that had happened earlier in the book, and I'd have to go back and verify the event had happened. A character would be mentioned by name once early on, and then again late in the story, and I'd have to do a Kindle search to tweak my memory. In a print version, I might have been lost. There was also a thing, that very well might be corrected in the final, where a character had only been known my initials, but then their name was used and everyone acted like they already knew it.
Both mysteries – Jasmine, and Starla, whose case interested Jasmine – improved for me toward the end. I particularly liked the revelations in the Starla case. There's a part of me that wishes the story had been more about Starla.
Billie goes through a lot in this book, both at home and one the case. She witnesses an act of self-harm involving a gun that's very tough to contemplate. While it's not graphic, the author definitely paints a picture for your mind to fill in some blanks. Please be careful if this is a tough area for you.
My goal in doing reviews is to (hopefully thoughtfully) discuss books. Reviewing is subjective, and my like of this book, might be love for the book when you read it, and if my review helps you find that beloved book, I'm thrilled. I'm definitely planning to follow this series, which I hope has a good, long run!
I had such a wonderful time with this story! I alternated between the ebook and audiobook, both borrowed from the library. Other than some swearing, the story is suitable for all ages.
The two POV characters are Nina and Oli. Nina lives in our world. Oli lives in a connected world of animal people. Nina is a girl. Oli is a cottonmouth snake person. Nina is on a quest to translate a story her great-great grandmother told her on her deathbed. Oli, when we meet him, is looking for a place to call home.
Oli finds a near perfect place, and lots of good friends, as well. His best friend is a toad named Ami. When a species goes extinct in our world, they second and die in this other world. One day Ami becomes sick, and Oli decides to travel to our world in order to discover why and save his friend.
The book contains a villain, and there's some violence, and a lot of discussions of natural disasters. But at the center of the book is friendship, and kindness, and sacrificing for someone you love, and that's what I enjoyed the most. What opened the most doors for Oli, what brought him the most help, was simply saying he wanted to help his friend.
There are lots of great characters, with possibly the stars being coyote sisters, Reign and Risk. Or is it the hawk, Brightest?
I think the author intends there to be more books in the series, and I'll for sure read them!
I received an ARC of this title from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.
This is my first Darcy Coates and I missed it was the third book in a series. Fortunately, the author did a great job imparting the needed information. I never felt there was a missing puzzle piece.
For those who've read the first 2 books – imagine that – Keira can see ghosts, but can't remember her past. She has a cat that seems to have more going on than meets the eye. She's a caretaker at a cemetery – Keira, not the cat. Although, I don't know. The cat is clearly up to something.
I wanted the book to be more what the synopsis set it up to be – an invitation to dinner by the town recluse, him begging our main character Keira for help, a dilapidated mansion. Ghosts. As that portion was unspooled I settled in for a great read. It was spooky, and filled with pathos, and I love an old mansion.
And it turned out to be a very small portion of the story.
Most of the book involved a road trip, a furthering of the greater central mystery of Keira's identity – she has amnesia – and the sinister people and/or organization that wants to find her. A portion of the story also concerned her friend. Mason, and a tragic incident in his past.
The events of the road trip are interesting and well-written. I enjoyed all of this, and really do want to know how the storyline continues going forward. Still, I can't lie and say I wasn't a bit disappointed that the thing that made me request an arc book-ended the story more than it was the story. The events, however, did help Keira resolve that story as well. And there was a very horrifying scene at a cemetery other than, you know, the one Keira lives at.
The author is both funny and brings the pathos, and I'm into that. Maybe that's why I missed the story I thought I was getting as much as I did. She gave the man needing help, Dane Crispin, a truly horrifying and tragic predicament, and I kept imagining him waiting for help.
Keira spends most of the story with Mason and Zoe. Mason has dropped out of medical school, and in this installment we get his backstory. He's kind and a little unintentionally funny. I like him.
Zoe can be hysterically funny. Also really grating. The author definitely likes over-the-top characters. In the case of this emo kid, as much as I rolled my eyes at the cliches, it wasn't so bad. We spend a lot of time with Zoe though.
A lot of time with Zoe.
I thought we could maybe feed her to a shade – a malevolent spirit.
I laughed out loud on occasion. There's something about someone saying wildly inappropriate things in serious situations that can be funny. When I tell you that she never stopped, though. The soundtrack to the road trip was really bad music she wouldn't turn off, and yet she wasn't left at the side of the road.
“Zo?” Mason raised one of the books she'd passed to him. “This one's on werewolves.”“Yeah. I got a bit carried away. But, hey, ghosts are real. Which means, statistically. we have a really good chance of encountering a werewolf in our lifetime.”“That's very much not how statistics work.”“Agree to disagree.”
She also has a great riff about only one bed, and enemies to lovers.
The funniest quote is “Crimson,” Keira said. “Uh, ka-kaw?” But you had to be there.
As a minor aside, there's a plot point about wanting to burn white sage for protection. That's considered a closed practice from Indigenous cultures, one they were forbidden to practice.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the story and think I'll continue on to see the payoff for the storylines that are being set up. I wish I could find more good ghost stories that are written as if that were good enough.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review. On that note, I was honestly engrossed, unnerved, and moved.
“She'd liked listening to podcasts like this because, though the stories were awful, they felt like preparation. The more she listened, the more she learned. The more she learned, the better she could protect herself. Now she knew that was ridiculous. There was nothing that could protect you from the world. Nothing that could protect you for the ways the world, and your own body, would betray you.”
Olivia just had a baby with her wife, Kris. She'd been raised by her grandparents after her mother attempted to murder her as an infant.er grandmother wasn't particularly maternal. Olivia soon has reason to fear that whatever, or whoever, plagued her mother is coming for her. We're told this story from Olivia's POV, but also through journal entries from her mother, Shannon. For various reasons, neither is a reliable narrator.
I chose not to have children, but you can't be perceived as being a woman without fully understanding what's expected of mothers. In fact, the choice to not have children instantly gives you a failing grade. But if you do have them, then the real pressure begins.
Stephen King writes in Danse Macabre that the real horror in Amityville Horror is economic unease. The house is a money pit, destroying the family financially. “Here is a movie for every woman who ever wept over a plugged-up toilet or a spreading water stain on the ceiling from the upstairs shower; for every man who ever ever did a slow burn when the weight of the snow cause this gutters to give way; for every child who every jammed his fingers and felt that the door or window that did the jamming was out to get him.” ... “Think of the bills,” a woman sitting behind me in the theater moaned at one point ... but I suspect it was her bills she was thinking about.”
The real horror in Graveyard is maternal/parental unease more than the supernatural angle. Giving birth starts the ultimate gamble – of mind, body, and spirit, and the fun is just beginning. Will the child be healthy? Happy? Not set fire to the neighborhood pets? What is the instinct to love the child that we're supposed to all have just doesn't show up? What does it mean if you can't nurse? Nothing and perhaps everything. And almost always one parent is the primary caregiver for a variety of factors, societal and practical.
Olivia has questions and fears, nursing is agony, and everyone is wondering if she might be prone to do what HER mother did. As she struggles, she wonders that too, and feels safe telling no one. A black-haired woman is stalking her that no one else sees? Who would you tell if you suspect your baby is an imposter? And who would you tell if you were her if your mother were institutionalized for the same beliefs?
The book is about fear, pressure, pain, doubt, postpartum depression and psychosis. Child or not, if you suffer from depression, anxiety, and/or intrusive thoughts, the black-haired woman comes with her own soundtrack, and that soundtrack is “Hello, darkness, my old friend.”
This is a heavy read, and I had to balance it with a romance novel. I didn't think anything could top They Drown Our Daughters in terms of angst, but Katrina Monroe actually succeeded in this book upping the ante. Please be advised in case the topics Graveyard concerns are detrimental to your well-being.
Like They Drown Our Daughters, for all the fear and pain, it's also a story about mothers and daughters, and the choices we make in the name of those bonds.
4.5 stars. The resolution, if I'm going to nitpick, seemed a bit rushed.
Disclosure: I received a free arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
“There's no way there could have been a murder in this idyllic little town. Right?”
Wrong.
After a bit of a rocky start, I enjoyed Death Checked Out. It sure hit a lot of the cozy mystery marks – murder, a small town, a job involving books, and a cat. Oh, a main character who likes to snoop in ways I don't have the courage to emulate.
I have to say the start of the Death Checked out concerned me. The writing seemed stilted, and everything was told and over-explained. I wasn't really enthused with the first chapter, but it felt like the author really got her feet underneath her, and everything flowed better.
I could nitpick word usage now and again. The quote I began with is not something I see anyone saying non–ironically, but it turned out to be a small issue as I got into the story.
Greta was a quite likeable main character, and I found her to be really sympathetic, especially when encountering friends in peril. Being a mystery, this happened a fair amount. I felt sadness about the murder victim, as well as a potential romance that was nipped in the bud as a result.
The small town midwest setting on a lake is pretty spot on. My credentials are I live in a small town where you can't throw a rock without hearing a splash a state over from the setting off this book. Greta explains quite convincingly and accurately how nothing is a secret, although she has a more benevolent outlook on her neighbors, at least for a while, than I do mine. Well, some of them.
Greta does tend to tell everyone everything anyhow. Everyone. Everything.
The detective investigating the case is set up to be a love interest, and I'm sorta here for it. They have nice chemistry, and I'd like to know more of his back story in future books, which I'm planning to read.
I figured out who done it instantly, as well as who else not to trust. I might be a genius. No, seriously, I think I've just read enough books that it popped out for me.
The book definitely ticks off the “sweet” or “clean” box. I don't like those terms, and it's not something I particularly seek out, but if that's what you like, here is a book for you. What I mean is that I think there's 0 swearing, and the potential romance isn't spicy not even in thought, let alone deed.
This is probably a 3.5 read for me that I'm rounding up to 4 because I can't deny I'm looking forward to the next installment. I can't give it higher because of that rocky beginning and a few small issues with the prose. And the title doesn't thrill me. Cover's cute!
If you are looking to spend time with the start of a very nice cozy series with a likeable heroine, a peaceful setting – when the bodies aren't racking up – a cat named Biff, and a stoic detective/cutie, I can recommend this.
If “All Lives Matter” has ever come out of our mouth as if you thought you were saying something, this is not your book. If you are that person, you'll just write a review about how the main character is an angry black woman, the author is racist against white people, how it wasn't a thriller until the end, and the resolution came out of nowhere.
In reality, the main character has a lot of reasons to be angry and depressed, the author is just holding up a mirror, tension started mounting on page 1, and everything was clearly foreshadowed. A lot of the end was ... inevitable. Everything you thought was over the top has happened in some form. The book actually mentions those forms.
Sydney's close-knit community is changing fast. Everything and everyone who meant safety to her is disappearing. She's a Black woman, and her life is one viral video of Karens* making her life miserable after another, only without the viral video. Nothing feels safe. She doesn't know who she can trust. So many things are just a little off, but not so off that if she told someone she wouldn't be in danger of being committed, or at least laughed off.
Like a lot of thrillers, this operates on the old saying that you're not paranoid if people are really out to get you. The last several years would make anyone paranoid who is confused over why people they thought were good and decent are anything but, what with racism and misogyny running rampant. It makes you wonder what's going on, and if things are still worse than we even know.
This is a book about if all those fears are built on a foundation of fact.
I would love to see an intelligent group of students be assigned this.
The romance was only okay for me. Theo, the love interest, wasn't my favorite, or nearly good enough for Sydney. But he did pass the friendship test in terms of “shovel duty.” The style of the sex scene felt out of place, and more in line with her romance novels.
This is such a tiny issue in a book I adored.
(Library borrow through Libby.)
*Karen is a lovely name. I think it means pure. If you're a nice she, he, or they named Karen, it's not about you. Used for shorthand.
