Review: SEEN by James Yates

 

Seen by James Yates
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Caroline takes in her sister’s baby after a sudden tragedy, she thinks the hardest part will be learning how to care for a child while navigating her own grief. But soon people around her begin to die under strange and unexplainable circumstances.

As the body count grows, Caroline is forced to confront a chilling possibility: that protecting her family may mean facing an unthinkable choice.

Seen is a haunting story of family, loss, and the choices we never imagine we’ll face.

— 


I’m currently studying for a PhD in Pregnancy Horror Literature, so when I saw this book available on NetGalley, I was so excited to read it.

The body horror is great in this story. The birth scene at the start with its monstrous energy drew me right in! I also love horror that brings in those weird, dark, demonic cults, and this book does this perfectly.

The biggest issue for me, however, was the pacing. There’s enough plot here for a story at least two or three times longer, and at the moment, everything is so rushed. We don’t get enough time between plot points for us to process anything, and it feels like we’re constantly on a rollercoaster. There are no ‘quiet’ moments. Every scene practically has a jump scare. Things happen too quickly, and Caroline gets the ‘clues’ too easily (it’s too convenient that Caroline has left her notes so easily available about the cult) and I feel like, because of this, there’s not enough time to adequately develop the escalating tension or give the ‘big’ things the time they deserve to be fully explored.

However, despite this, I did keep reading. In fact, I read it in one sitting, and this was a sign to me that this story has something. There’s an urgency to the story that gripped me, and while I’d have preferred the pacing to be different, it didn’t exhaust me to the point I stopped reading. I was curious about what was going to happen at every point and the author writes with a compelling voice that’s casual, chatty, and relatable.

And it also has ocean gothic! So, I love horror stories that bring in ragged coasts and sea spirits, and basically anything to do with the water. When I found out what was possessing the baby, I couldn’t help but grin (I promise I’m not weird!). And this was a really great decision on the part of the author, given that pregnancy horror often uses ocean gothic language, building connections between water and the womb.

The ocean gothic writing here is beautiful. So vivid and dark and gothic. I loved the female personification of the sea.

But I did also want to know a lot more about the characters. I wanted to know more about who Caroline is without the baby. What were her goals before she ended up being a mother, due to the death of her sister? What was she like as a child? We’re told she had foster parents and was in and out of the system, but how has this affected her psychologically? What trauma does this bring her? How has this affected her sense of identity? I wanted more characterisation for her, and her husband too. All we get for him really is that he’s the perfect man. He seemed to be there to aid the plot.

By the end of the story, Caroline says she does love the baby after all—but where does this come from? I would’ve liked to have seen a slower build up of this, so that it becomes more believable.

Looking at Jules, I think it would’ve helped to have some lengthier flashbacks earlier on that showed the kind of relationship the two had, before Jules died in childbirth. I just felt that I didn’t really know her. Was it unusual for her to have been lured into a cult? Or had similar things happened before? Did Caroline feel protective of her sister? And how does this manifest in her grief for Jules?

Similarly, Caroline also tells us that she’s met Heath, the baby’s dad a few times, but we aren’t then told much more about him. We don’t know him at all, and this brings distance into the narrative as we are aware that Caroline knows more than we do. For me, this just doesn’t really work in a first-person narrative. I wonder if the story would’ve worked better if the prologue was a flashback to when Caroline met up with Jules and Heath at one point, and then Chapter 1 was that birth scene where Jules dies.

I can see similarities with The Vile Thing We Created (Robert P. Ottone) where the wife thinks something demonic is wrong with the baby, but the husband is skeptical, and I do think this could’ve been developed a little more too. Does Caroline ever question herself and her own sanity?

On a technical side, there are quite a few dialogue problems in terms of tags being incorrectly used, along with punctuation. The formatting also made it tricky to read, as everything was in italics and right-justified, but the story was compelling enough that after a while I was able to look past this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

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Review: Young Gothic by M.A. Bennett

Young Gothic by M.A. Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Filled with deadly secrets and the monsters you thought only existed in your mind ...

You've heard of Frankenstein's monster, you've heard of Dracula, but have you heard of the Villa Diodati? Eve, Griffin, Hal and Ren embark on a summer they'll never forget at the birthplace of all things Gothic.

The summer is beset by mysterious happenings, as the monsters they create begin to clamber out of their minds. Events rise to a horrible climax when, on a dark and stormy night, one of the villa's guests is found dead and each of our foursome becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder.

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. But when the stuff of nightmares becomes their reality, will they make it out alive?

--
Okay, so it's been a while since I've written a book review because I've been so busy with PhD work, but I just had to write about this one! This book has everything I like: creepy castles, creepy owners of castles, creepy doppelgangers, and twists I just did not see coming!

I'm always a bit wary about books with multiple first-person narrators, and this one has four, but it was done so well. Each of the narrators--Eve, Griffin, Hal, and Ren--was so distinguishable, and I really, really enjoyed seeing their personalities shine through their writing styles.

The intertextuality of this book was amazing. Seriously good. Spoilers ahead! Bennett cleverly and subtly (and not so subtly in places!) wove in references to so many 19th century gothic novels. Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and The Vampyre. Eve, one of the narrators, is a gothic novel enthusiast, and so she made so many links within her narratives and references that I (as a fellow gothic novel enthusiast) got. Hal is a film enthusiast, and there was so much intertextuality for films too, but I wasn't familiar with most of those and so it didn't have quite the same 'aha moment' effect on me... but it's definitely signposted me to a lot of films to watch.

The pacing in this novel was excellent, but the only bit that threw me was the ending where Griffin's ex/stalker came into the story. Suddenly, it almost seemed like a different novel--though it was now leaning toward An Inspector Calls. But I really did like the pregnancy/baby storyline. In fact, there were two pregnancies (though Eve's was historic and she had an abortion). My PhD research is primarily about pregnancy horror and so this book definitely fits that for me--though this one is more centred around a pregnant character (or two) in a horror story, rather than the pregnancy being the source of the horror.

The characters in this novel were (I think) 18 to 20. It read a little older than most YA, but it still felt YA overall to me. And I loved this.

Other things I also loved:

- the creepy reveal about the servants' tongues having been cut off

- the architecture of the castle and there was a lake

- how the four main characters were re-creating the iconic visit of the Dead Poets 200 years ago.

I will definitely be reading the sequel!

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Review: MOTHERTHING by Ainslie Hogarth

 

Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law.

When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone. With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura's hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken à la king…

--

There's one word that I'd use to describe the narrator of this book and that is Vicious.

Abi is terrifying. And the writing is terrifyingly good. I could not read this book quickly enough. We've got this mixture of domestic suspense and outright horror. A character who's desperate to be loved and a character who's scarred by her past. There's so much inner conflict in Abi, and this was one of those books that really had me thinking deeply about the psychology of the mind--and exactly how stable Abi is. Because there's one scene in this toward the end that I did not see coming. It's gruesome, and yet kind of... inevitable. I don't even know if that's the right word, because it is so, so shocking. Abi is pretty much a psychopath. Or a sociopath. But she's endearing too. And I love traditionally unlikeable characters like this.

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Review: DEAD ELEVEN by Jimmy Juliano

 

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son's death--but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules...

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son's bedroom, she's perplexed. She's never heard of it before, but soon learns it's a tiny island off of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow's home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island's twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She's been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders' beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow's brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth--that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined--he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

If he can get out alive...

--

Oh wow, I really wish I'd written this review earlier, after I'd finished the book--and not, like, six months later. But these things happen--and I feel that I really must write something about this book. Because this is one spectacular horror novel.

The interweaving narratives and storytelling modes that work together to tell the 'bigger picture' story is simply amazing. Sometimes, combining so many narratives can cause pacing or tension problems, but not with this novel. Without all the narrators, I feel it would make a far less terrifying story.

I particularly adored the setting. I mean, I love stories set on islands. I love missing-person stories. I love horrifying monsters. I love weird groups and cults.  And this book has everything.

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Review: THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS by Jessamine Chan

 

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough.

Until Frida has a horrible day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.

This propulsive, witty page-turner explores the perils of “perfect” upper-middle-class parenting, the violence enacted upon women by the state and each other, and the boundless love a mother has for her daughter.

--

This book is just... AMAZING. I have no other word for it.

It took me a while to read it all, because it's quite dense--yet I don't mean that in a negative way. A lot happens in this book--a lot of really shocking things--and it really makes you think. I found that I needed a lot of 'breathing space' around my reading sessions for this book to really digest it and fully comprehend the terrifying world that Jessamine Chan has come up with for this one--and it's especially terrifying given how close it feels to real life.

There's a lot of important discourse in this book surrounding motherhood, the role of women, and parental responsibility. While we can definitely argue the case that Frida is flawed and could be seen as a 'bad mother' after leaving her baby alone for an afternoon, we get to see the nuances of her character. Does one moment of 'bad mothering' make her a totally awful mother? Where exactly is the line? Because as the novel progresses, we are rooting for her, yet feeling like a happy ending isn't on the cards because of the truly horrific worldbuilding Chan cleverly incorporates into this story.

Characterisation for all the characters is strong and impressive. I just cannot stop thinking about this book.

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Review: DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney

 

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

--

I finished this book maybe six weeks ago, and I cannot stop thinking about it. It's not often that a book stays with me this much, to this extent, but Daisy Darker really is a gem.

I've started other books by Alice Feeney before but not finished them--I'm not really sure why--but I found this book to be very different and I was so compelled to read it, and I think it all comes down to the character. As a narrator, Daisy is compelling. And I'm going to try and write this review without spoilers, because that ending absolutely blew me away. And you know, up until that ending my one critiquing point really was that I felt like Daisy was a bit passive in the 'present' timeline, but that ending totally explains that and it just blew me away.

This is a phenomenal story.

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Review: RIVER WOMAN, RIVER DEMON by Jennifer Givhan

 

River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Eva's husband is arrested for the murder of a friend, she must confront her murky past and embrace her magick to find out what really happened that night on the river.

Eva Santos Moon is a burgeoning Chicana artist who practices the ancient, spiritual ways of brujería and curanderisma, but she's at one of her lowest points--suffering from disorienting blackouts, creative stagnation, and a feeling of disconnect from her magickal roots. When her husband, a beloved university professor and the glue that holds their family together, is taken into custody for the shocking murder of their friend, Eva doesn't know whom to trust--least of all, herself. She soon falls under suspicion as a potential suspect, and her past rises to the surface, dredging up the truth about an eerily similar death from her childhood.

Struggling with fragmented memories and self-doubt, an increasingly terrified Eva fears that she might have been involved in both murders. But why doesn't she remember? Only the dead women know for sure, and they're coming for her with a haunting vengeance. As she fights to keep her family out of danger, Eva realizes she must use her magick as a bruja to protect herself and her loved ones, while confronting her own dark history.

A psychological thriller that weaves together the threads of folk magick with personal and cultural empowerment, River Woman, River Demon is a mysterious incantation of reckoning with the past and claiming one's unique power and voice.

--

This is a stunning book. Highly lyrical language, beautiful imagery, believable and authentic characters, and a murder mystery that had me guessing right to the very end.

I loved the genre-blend of crime/detective story with Chicana brujería and curanderismo practices--Jennifer Givhan really pulled this off and I can't wait to read more of her work. There's a lot of very important discourse in this book about race and brutality, and I really admire the way that Givhan tackled these points. Eva is also one of the best characters I've ever read. She's flawed--deeply flawed--and there were so many times where I was begging her not to do something because I could see it was a mistake--but we get to see her learn from her mistakes, and that's what I really appreciated. Eva also stays true to her core values, and I really liked that.

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Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a surprisingly quick read; while the writing style was somewhat 'wordy' and a little heavy, I found it very compelling and read the whole thing in a couple of days as part of my PhD research on the Victorians' fear of primitiveness and devolution.

Going into the story, I already knew the rough plot, given it's a book that's talked about a lot. But I was still engrossed, and it's actually made me want to seek out some of the film and TV adaptations.

The language that Stevenson uses in this book was of particular interest to me. I was fascinated by the way that Hyde's personality and criminality is inscribed on his body, via his 'inherently malign and villainous' appearance due to his 'impression of deformity without any nameable malformation' and 'his displeasing smile'. He's described as unfeeling, 'a man of stone' whose 'every act and thought centred on self', in great contrast to Dr. Jekyl's caring nature. We get two very different personalities here, as Stevenson is one of the first--if not the first--author to look at the idea of split personalities, but does so in the context of nineteenth century anxieties around primitiveness, evilness, appearance, and monstrosity.

Physiognomy is at play largely in this text, as we are told that Hyde's 'black secrets, by the look of him' are visible to everyone as his 'particularly wicked-looking' countenance represents the evil inside him. There is never any doubt presented to characters or readers that Hyde is the bad guy, the killer, because this is a cruel man 'at once so callous and violent' that it has physically distorted his appearance. He is also described with primitive language and is likened to 'a monkey', tying into contextual anxieties surrounding repression and return of primitive nature. Hyde represents the uncontrollable, the evil, and the monstrous, and while Dr. Jekyll does initially manage to control him to some degree, Jekyll's death can be seen to represent a death of civilisation and goodness. Instead, all that's left is evil and reversion to what Victorians considered primitive and murderous states of being.

Yet, looking at Hyde's death--when Dr. Jekyll is trapped in Hyde's form--and he takes his own life, we can see an attempt at being the saviour, at keeping the evil at bay. While Dr Jekyll has solved the problem of the killer being at large--a problem which only came about due to his own obsession with making a drug that separates the two sides of one's personality--we also lose the 'goodness' that is Dr. Jekyll. Stevenson therefore somewhat suggests that evil runs amok when there is no goodness there to ground it.



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Review: BECOMING LIZ TAYLOR by Elizabeth Delo

 

Becoming Liz Taylor by Elizabeth Delo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'An accomplished and memorable debut full of heart and heartbreak - an absolute corker for reading groups!' Ruth Hogan, bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things Val, a widow living in Weston-super-Mare, spends lonely evenings dressing up as the movie star Elizabeth Taylor. It seems to be a way of coping with the loss and sadness she has experienced in her life. One day, when Val sees a pram left unattended on the seafront, on a whim she kicks off the brake and walks away with it... Set in the present and the 1970s, BECOMING LIZ TAYLOR is a vivid and touching depiction of love, loss and bereavement - thought-provoking, moving fiction for fans of Rachel Joyce, Emma Healey and Ruth Hogan.****Shortlisted for the debut novel prize at the 'Festival du Premier Roman' in Chambéry.***

--

I picked this book up on a bit of a whim really. I was in Waterstones and saw that a new romance display had just been created on one of the tables, and this was one of the covers that really stood out to me. I've been trying to read a bit more contemporary fiction and romance recently, and as soon as I read the back of the cover, I was hooked!

I started the book a couple hours after buying it, and by the end of the day, I'd read half. The next day, I finished it. I simply couldn't read it quick enough.

There's something so compelling and enticing about Elizabeth Delo's writing. I think this is the first time I've read a novel that's got a narrator in their 70s, and it was very refreshing and I really appreciated the POV (normally, I read YA or narrators in their 20s or 30s).

Val is such a complex character. She's so flawed, but we can see why she's like this, and it's heartbreaking watching some of her decisions. So many times I was screaming at her! She felt so real, and I think that's what made this story so stunning and a compulsive read. Because, yes, Val is the villain. She kidnaps a baby. Only she thinks she's doing the right thing. She doesn't see it as kidnap. And while I wanted the baby to be reunited with his mother, I also desperately didn't want Val to be caught and punished.

In this stunning debut, Delo offers us a mixture of complex characters, heart, and insight into families.

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Review: THE PATIENT by Teri Terry

 

The Patient by Teri Terry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I feel the steady thump of my new heart beating inside me. The surgeon said everything went well. But I can’t stop thinking about my the girl who was killed. Her death saved my life. But now whoever took hers is coming for mine…
I can’t believe it when I learn my donor’s identity. The attack on Flora was all over the news. From my hospital bed I read every article, obsess over every word and soon I feel like I know the beautiful girl with flame-coloured hair, adored by everyone around her. Why would anyone hurt someone so perfect?
When Flora’s family reach out to me, I’m unsure. My hands are shaking as I arrive at their grand mansion with its golden stone and sprawling gardens, but they’re warm and welcoming, tears shining in her mother’s eyes as she smiles at me.
She even tells me to take anything I want from Flora’s things, as she can’t bear to go through them herself. I run my fingers over the racks of beautiful designer items, carefully choosing outfits in Flora’s signature yellow, the bright colour complementing the new flush in my cheeks. I think of the years I’ve wasted being ill, and the crushing loneliness I thought would never end. I deserve this.
But then there’s a violent attack on another patient who received one of Flora’s organs. My heart – Flora’s heart – races dangerously fast. Is it a coincidence?
Maybe I’ve made a mistake by stepping into Flora’s life. Has this second chance really saved me? Or has it cost me everything?

--

This was a heart-stopping read (excuse the pun!) about a woman who receives a heart transplant, only to find that her donor was murdered. And, what's more, soon all the other recipients of the donors' organs are being hunted down too...

I first became aware of this book when watching the author on a panel at CrimeFest last year, and I was very excited to read it. I knew nothing of the book's premise at that point (I'm a massive fan of her YA books) and then I learned what The Patient was about, I was gripped and just could not wait until release day was here. And what a read that was!

One thing I really loved was how fast-paced this narrative was, and how we have multiple narrators. Sometimes, this can be a bit hit-and-miss for me as I often find it hard to distinguish the different characters' narrations in my head, but I didn't have that problem here. The opening in particular really drew me in, enticing me to read as fast as I could from the very first page.

And let me just say this: Teri Terry is the queen of twists! Those twists at the end--I did not see them coming! Every time I thought I'd worked out who the villain was, another twist just blew me away.

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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

-- 

This book is a masterpiece. And it exposes soooooo much--not just in terms of biases within the publishing industry and how the industry works, but the racism and erasure of non-white voices in the industry and elsewhere.

I'm a traditionally published author, and there were so many eye-opening moments in this. Not just in those that really exposed how the book business works (making it a great read for those who aren't writers, as it teaches so much) but in making me think deeper about everything. A lot of complex themes are explored. There is so much important discourse. And all of this is done within the most compelling narrative voice ever. Because June's narration is just FANTASTIC. She felt so, so believable. So realistic. I mean, at times I felt like I was reading a memoir. That's how much I believed the writing.

And June's characterisation was truly phenomenal. She is blood-thirsty. She turns everything to her advantage. Even when her crimes were catching up with her and there seemed to be no way out, I was struck by how she always managed to use it for her own advantage again and again. She is the epitome of an unlikeable character--and I was struck by just how unlikeable she is while the narrative itself is hugely likeable. I mean, this is one of my fave reads of 2023. And even though June is pretty much an awful person you can totally argue that she's a good person who just made one bad mistake (a terrible mistake!!!) and then didn't want to be found out. Like, everything snowballed. There were times when I wanted her to get away with it, because the first-person narration is just that good at justifying it, and then I was horrified at myself.

This was a compulsive read that I just couldn't put down.

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Review: COUNTERFEIT by Kirstin Chen

 

Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, the story of two Asian American women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise--an incisive and glittering blend of fashion, crime, and friendship from the author of Bury What We Cannot Take and Soy Sauce for Beginners.

Money can't buy happiness... but it can buy a decent fake.

Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home--she's built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava's world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn't been used in years, and her toddler's tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.

Enter Winnie Fang, Ava's enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business--someone who'd never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.

Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.

--

This book has been on my radar forever. I'd borrowed it from the library a couple of times but then my loan was always due before I had a chance to start it, and when this was about to happen for the third time in a row I decided to knuckle down and get started. And I read this book soooooo quickly!

I love stories about con men and women. I love stories where the narrators lie. I love stories that are multiple POV and you never know who is the most reliable. I love stories with huge plot twists. So, essentially, this book was PERFECT for me!!!!

Counterfeit follows Ava Wong, a pretty 'ordinary' law-abiding woman, as she reunites with former best friend Winnie Fang--and becomes embroiled in Winnie's illegal, fraudulent business where she produces counterfeit designer handbags. So, like, I didn't realise that I would be so interested in the world of handbag production and counterfeits. This book has soooo much detail on this, and I found it fascinating. Like, we have pages and pages about it, and it's so eye-opening.

But the characterisation is what really makes this book amazing. And the plot twist. Okay, spoilers ahead! So, for the first half of the book, I was feeling sorry for Ava. She's married to a pretty awful guy who cuts off her money and controls her and throws strops. She's having to single-parent their child because he decides to move somewhere else for work, leaving his family for pretty much the whole week, every week. And when Ava dares go and visit her family, he throws a temper tantrum about that, and removes her from their joint bank account. Cue Winnie stepping in and giving her an easy way to make a lot of money. We see Ava struggling with the ethics of this and we see how once she gets started she can't get out. There are a lot of mind games, and she just seems so vulnerable. The narrative at this point also consists entirely of Ava recounting all these events to a police detective, as part of her interview, so it's first person. (I loved this as a narrative mode, plus we have no speechmarks for dialogue within this as the whole thing is pretty much the prose transcript of Ava's speech.)

I totally believed her--and then part two gives us Winnie's third-person narration where we begin to piece together that Ava has been lying to the police the whole time (and lying to us!). She's not innocent, being swept along by Winnie. She too is a con woman (she conned us all!). And that reveal is just FANTASTIC. So, so, so good!!!! We then alternate between the rest of Ava's dialogue to the detective and Winnie's narration, which give quite different versions of the same events. And I loved this, because who are we supposed to believe? Winnie's narration seems more objective as it's third person, but it's still close third person, so can she be trusted either?

I am a sucker for unreliable narrators and this book was great!

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Review: BABY TEETH by Meg Grehan

 

Baby Teeth by Meg Grehan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A unique verse novel of queer love, lust, and vampires. From the award-winning author of The Deepest Breath and The Space Between.

The blood
Feeds the hunger
That threatens everything

It starts when Claudia offers her a yellow rose.
Immy has been in love before – many times, across many lifetimes. But never as deeply, as intensely as this.
Claudia has never been in love this before either. But then, this is her first time with a vampire.
The forbidden thirst for blood runs deep in Immy. And within her mind clamour the voices, of all the others she has been, their desires, and their wrongs.


“A fresh, dark take on the vampire myth and desire, Baby Teeth shows vampires haunted by their pasts and memories, where immortality is not one long life but a broken patchwork of different experiences. It will twine around your heart and bite, ever so gently. I adored it.” – Helen Corcoran

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I picked up BABY TEETH at Waterstones just before my husband and I went on honeymoon. I then read almost all the book in one day but took it with me to finish on the train, only to them not be able to find the book. And then today, about four months later, I found it! No idea where it had been hiding all that time because weirdly it was just on my bookcase now, but I finally finished it. And that ending was perfect.

BABY TEETH is this beautiful sapphic story of vampires and lust and desire. It’s about memories and identity and found family, and I actually loved every single character. I also loved the take on vampires that Meg Grehan gives us: vampires living multiple lives, becoming different people, rather than living one life forever. It was so refreshing and a great way to explore the characters and their relationships.

And this is a novel in verse too! The writing is gorgeous, with some truly beautiful lines and imagery.

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Review: HER MAJESTY'S ROYAL COVEN by Juno Dawson

 

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

A Discovery of Witches meets The Craft in this the first installment of this epic fantasy trilogy about a group of childhood friends who are also witches.

If you look hard enough at old photographs, we're there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.

At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.

Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.

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At the moment, this is a DNF for me. I really wanted to love this book, and don't get me wrong, for the right reader, this would be a great book. I adore all of Juno's other books, but this is more of a personal issue taste for me, because I've found I just don't really like adult stories about witches covens and the politics among them. I couldn't get through A Discovery of Witches for the same reason, but I read more of this one than that. And yes, I knew going into this book that this was going to be about covens. I felt compelled to try it because of loving the author's other books, but I just couldn't get on with it. Having said that, this book is very well written and I was impressed with how modern it felt, blending traditional coven life with modern life/technology. This worldbuilding was phenomenal, and when I next update my class reading list when I'm teaching worldbuilding, I will be including this.

The characterisation was also fantastic and I loved that it was multiple POV third-person. Normally, if I get a book where I'm not sure I'll like it because it's about covens, I only manage to read a chapter or so, but I read about six of this one, which is testament to how strong it is.

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Review: I'M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy

 

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.

Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died , Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

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So, I was kind of reluctant to read this memoir when I first heard about it (though knowing nothing about the book) as I didn't like the title. It felt clickbait-y to me, and I just didn't like that at all. But then I got it from the library, and wow. Jennette McCurdy had such a difficult childhood as a child actress. She was forced into this work by her mum and abused for years by her. Reading this was difficult. McCurdy's story is traumatic and complicated. I really do applaud her for writing this.

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Review: BUNNY by Mona Awad

 

Bunny by Mona Awad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Vegetarian meets Heathers in this darkly funny, seductively strange novel about a lonely graduate student drawn into a clique of rich girls who seem to move and speak as one

"We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?"

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight they become one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, a caustic art school dropout, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the sinister yet saccharine world of the Bunny cult and starts to take part in their ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they magically conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision.

A spellbinding, down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, creativity and agency, and friendship and desire, Bunny is a dazzlingly original second book.

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Oh, wow. This book. THIS BOOK!

Joining a cult while studying your MFA in creative writing? A cult where you summon monsters? This was the perfect book for me to read while finishing my MFA in creative writing.

The writing is just so trippy, so psychedelic, and it's the exact kind of horror I love. And I don't even want to say any more than that, because I think going into this book with no idea or expectations about it meant I had the best reading experience possible.

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Review: CLARA POOLE AND THE LONG WAY ROUND by Taylor Tyng

 

Clara Poole and the Long Way Round by Taylor Tyng
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mr. Lemoncello meets the Amazing Race in this quirky high-octane balloon-racing middle grade around-the-world adventure.

When an unintended flight over Michigan in her class science project—a lawn chair held aloft by balloons—brings her instant celebrity, Clara Poole is invited to be the spokesperson for a round-the-world hot air balloon race. But when her overprotective father, still mourning the death of his wife, refuses, in a moment of brash defiance, Clara forges his signature and runs away to Paris to take her place in the skies. If only she’d read the fine print first.
 
Partnered with a veteran aeronaut who wants nothing to do with her, Clara faces down ten treacherous stages in a race around the world—capturing flags in the perilous mountains of Nepal; being a guest of honor at a maybe-wedding in the Saharan desert; flying through rings of fire in Hong Kong—all while learning the ropes alongside a colorful cast of international competitors.
 
But there are more dangers than those planned as part of the contest. Someone is trying to sabotage the competition. And surviving this race means Clara must come to terms with the tragedy that set her rashly escaping to the skies in the first place, and accepting that forgiving herself isn’t a process she has to undertake alone.
 
Gorgeous prose and winning characters combine in this quirky, often-hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking, and thoroughly captivating middle grade adventure series starter from an incredible new talent.

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I've been looking forward to reading this book for, like, forever, and it did not disappoint at all! CLARA POOLE AND THE LONG WAY ROUND is a zany balloon adventure following an impulsive and fun (but traumatised) twelve-year-old as she sets off on the adventure of a lifetime around the world. And not only that, but this book is filled with a dynamic cast and beautiful prose.

Seriously, the writing in this is sooooo good. Not only is the imagery beautiful, but the writing itself is rhythmic and I found myself marvelling over the sounds of many of the sentences as I was reading--and I can immediately see why this book would be a great choice to read aloud to kids.

The characterisation is so stunning too. Every character was authentic and believable, and motivations and backgrounds were shown perfectly. I also loved how there were so many characters of different ages here--and Gildersleeve and Clara's father were two of my favourite characters. But of course I loved Clara best of all. She was imperfect and reckless at times, but we could see exactly why she was like that. Her emotions guided her and often led her into danger, and I loved how we could also see how quickly her emotions and reactions changed. This felt very authentic for a child.

One of my favourite things about this book though was the setting, and simply the way the world is described. It's fantastical and vibrant and exuberant and out-there and I LOVED it. This is the perfect middle grade novel, and I cannot wait for the sequel.

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Review: LULLABY by Leïla Slimani

 

Lullaby by Leïla Slimani and translated by Sam Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect caretaker for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite and devoted woman who sings to their children, cleans the family's chic apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint and is able to host enviable birthday parties.

The couple and nanny become more dependent on each other. But as jealousy, resentment and suspicions increase, Myriam and Paul's idyllic tableau is shattered...

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I really enjoyed this novel. It was recommended to me by thriller and crime-writer Sophie McKenzie as an example of a novel that begins with an omniscient narrator, and I just fell in love with the style.

We zoom in and out of characters' heads as we learn the story of an unreliable and murderous nanny. Ultimately, it's the plot of quite a lot of nanny thrillers--I can think of several others that follow this rough plot where the nanny is a danger to the kids--but the execution of this is phenomenal. The depth of characterisation is impressive.

And what really got me was how this novel is based on a specific real-life case too.

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