Erin

Come for the cannibalism, stay for the messy parent-child dynamics, portrayals of grief, and different forms of mainly-toxic love.

I think this one will stick with me for a while.

If you're looking for vibes, you've come to the right place.

A companion novel to the excellent A Dowry of Blood, An Education in Malice doesn't quite live up to its companion, but I also don't think it tries to. It's an entirely different setting than Dowry, entirely different time period and plot, and you don't need to read one to read the other (but you really should read Dowry).

One thing that S.T. Gibson excels at - and she excels at many things - is atmospheric, vivid writing and tone. In the case of this book, that tone is yearning and obsession. I don't know if you could call Laura or Carmilla likeable, but they are enchanting as characters, and real in their flaws, and it's hard not to get a bit sucked into their melodrama.

This is a fever dream romance - with vampires and academia - and it's truly romantic in the most base definition of the word. The story didn't quite wrap itself around me the way that I would have liked, but the writing still dragged me into it and honestly, I just can't get enough of S.T. Gibson's lovely, visceral writing.

Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

If there's a handful of things I can always count on James S.A. Corey for, they are creative science, compelling worldbuilding, and complex characters, even with side characters. And The Faith of Beasts delivers on all three counts.

The Faith of Beasts expands the world of The Mercy of Gods, with the POV characters quite literally across the universe from one another. You get to see more of the Carryx empire through the lens of the human characters we know (and love??? tbd). Some of this only raises more questions about the Carryx and their ultimate goals, but we also get some answers in this book too! While I did think it was very cool to expand beyond having all the characters together in one setting, this did come at the expense of the character relationships with one another. For so much of the book, the characters were working independently and very physically separate from one another; you add in the fact that we lost so many of the people we knew in book one, and well, you do lose a bit of the relationships and human aspect, which is something I personally love as a reader and think the authors are fantastic at showing. I'd be lying if I said I didn't mourn this a bit in this book. But, that said, we get introduced to new secondary characters, including some interesting characters and promising arcs, and it's a bit impressive how complex these characters are written even for briefly appearing. There is no black or white here, only shades of morally grey.Which is a big theme with Dafyd in this book. But I won't get too much into that because his development and his arc are definite highlights. (Another highlight is the focus on Jessyn and her chapters; I adore her.)I truly have no idea where the final book is going to take us, but it looks to be set up for an absolutely wild ride and I can't wait to get on it.Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

I always try to read books I think I'll like, as what is the point otherwise??? but I'm not sure I expected to like this as much as I did.

It kicks off right in the middle of, well, something akin to a zombie apocalypse, and there truly is nothing like throwing you right into the body horror. I loved how the body horror incorporated the nature around it, like a creature having antlers sticking out of it or a fox head, which I realize is a weird thing to say that I loved but it just had such vibrant imagery and worked to tie in some folk horror vibes as well. There was some wonderful descriptive writing and nothing quite like the horror part of it - I could truly picture so many moments of the story, even if those moments were, quite frankly, kind of disgusting.

Beyond the horror part being a standout, I'm a sucker for family dynamics and lots of siblings in stories so that part was always going to work well with me and get me emotionally invested into the story. There perhaps wasn't a ton of character work in this story, but I was still invested.

At the end of the day, a sapphic eldritch horror with family bonds as a motivating factor is never going to not hit on a few levels for me.

Thank you to the publisher, Michael Joseph, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

I thought Monika Kim's debut, The Eyes Are the Best Part, had a great concept but the execution didn't quite work for me, so when I say I was blown away by Molka, I do not say that lightly or with bias.

Molka was instantly disturbing and uncomfortable to read in a very real way, and I appreciate that the author did not shy away from that, as much as I hated so, so much of it. The hidden cameras and the men who feel entitled to women's time and bodies - well, isn't that just all too prevalent? This was a horror in a very visceral and timely way.

You could really feel for Dahye and her emotional trauma and stress, and even though it was uncomfortable to watch her spiral and make bad choices, and yes, there were some moments of secondhand embarrassment, you couldn't help but root for her.

This was a read that played on a lot of emotions, so if you're ready to feel rage and discomfort and grief and did I mention discomfort, then this is for you.

Thank you to the publisher, Erewhon Books, and to NetGalley for the ARC.