Julia ☕️

I love stories about hauntings - houses, people, nature - if it's haunted, I will read it. She Is A Haunting is a beautifully written story about colonialism, self-discovery, and trauma and how it manifests in a physical structure, but also in the people that occupy it. The author does a great job of meshing past and present together to create a vivid and moving novel. I really, really enjoyed this and found the supernatural elements to be just right. After reading Piñata and being disappointed, I needed something good and I'm so glad that I picked up She Is A Haunting! If you like haunted place stories, this is for you.

I'm not even sure if I can accurately summarize this novel without regurgitating what the jacket said. If you're looking for a “whodunnit” story, this isn't it. If you're looking for a story about the ripple effect of tragedy and trauma, this is what you're looking for.  The writing was beautiful and flowed smoothly. The translator did an incredible job of bringing the gorgeous prose the author wrote to life in English. I appreciated the footnotes when there wasn't a direct translation; it added a lot of color and life to the language on the page.  The story itself was just okay - totally middle of the road for me. I found it a bit difficult to figure out what character we were following in each chapter until the very end. The novel also felt a little too short and I wanted to know a little bit more about certain characters. Overall, it was a quick, heavy, and beautifully translated read so if you're in the mood for that, Lemon is for you!

Another day, another Eric Larocca book I'm not sure if I enjoyed ✨
*Edit to add star reviews to each story. The average of the 3 ratings equals the overall star rating!

The first story I found extremely unnerving and by the end, I felt like I needed to take at least 3 showers to wash off the feeling of reading that story.  4/5 ⭐️

The second story had so much potential to really disturb me, but I was so let down by the direction the story took and the way it ended. 1/5 ⭐️

The final story I found too short to really make a huge impact on me like the title story. I get the direction where they were going, but I wanted a little more of a slow burn. 2/5 ⭐️

The Round House is an unflinching look at trauma and it's effect on family and community. I loved the way Erdrich used a first-person adult narrator recounting events that happened in his youth. I found that it brought another level of reflection to an already mature character. Most of this novel was a gut punch, but it's had moments of hilarity and joy that you could truly feel. I loved the way that memory and storytelling from elders was woven into the narrative - if you know me, I'm a SUCKER for when that device is used and used extremely well, much like in this story.
I really enjoyed this novel and I can't wait to read her other works!
Please read the CW before starting this novel. There isn't too much graphic content, but it could be triggering for some. Also, there aren't any quotation marks denoting conversations or lines of dialogue, so that may took a few pages to get used to. 

I enjoyed this listen! It was only a little over 8 hours so it felt really digestible and quick to get through. For me, none of the information presented in the book was really new to me and it felt like surface level analysis of a topic with a lot of depth. I was expecting and wanted more of a deep dive into cultish language and culture. If you want to dip your toes into nonfiction, this is a good gateway, but if you want more in-depth analysis, I'd recommend looking for something a little different.