The Need
Rating: 5/5 | OK y'all. I'm going to need you to get a copy of this book, buckle your seatbelt, read it as fast as you can, and then immediately message me so that we can talk about it. Because holy moly, this was WILD. (Click the post to read more.)
When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows.
But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement.
Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.
In The Need, Helen Phillips has created a subversive, speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing, arresting prose and gorgeous, haunting imagery. Anointed as one of the most exciting fiction writers working today, The Need is a glorious celebration of the bizarre and beautiful nature of our everyday lives.
Author: Helen Phillips | Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Rating: 5/5
Thanks, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the review copy of this book! It will be published on July 9th.
OK y'all. I'm going to need you to get a copy of this book, buckle your seatbelt, read it as fast as you can, and then immediately message me so that we can talk about it. Because holy moly, this was WILD.
Molly is, in a word, a working mom: She loves her two kids fiercely and to the depth of her soul, but she's also exhausted by the day-to-day slog of raising young kids. She genuinely loves her husband, loves her job, loves her life. But that doesn't mean she isn't tired. Then one night she's home alone with her kids and hears an intruder in the other room. After a highly relatable I-don't-like-what-my-gut-is-telling-me-so-I'm-going-to-convince-myself-that-I'm-overthinking-this internal monologue, it turns out that there is an intruder.
Throughout this tense, terrifying scene, we get chapter flashbacks to the earlier part of her workday. She's an archaeologist (of the plant fossil variety), but she recently found some really Twilight-Zone-esque artifacts that have caused their little dig site to turn into a sensation. They get admirers and death threats alike.
That's really only the first few chapters of the book, but I can't really tell you more than that without spoilers. All I can say is that when you find out who the intruder is, you are going to be like whaaaaaaaaat. And then the rest of the book will blow your mind. I'm still reeling. And how about that ending?!?!?
Molly's character (in all its facets) is so excellently done. And her thoughts, struggles, and fierce love are the stuff that the human experience is made of. To bring that to light so effectively while also blowing the reader's mind and keeping us on the edge of our seats is the stuff of masterful writing.
I'm not usually big on thrillers. But this book was so much more than a thriller. It was a puzzle, a statement, a question, and a WILD trip.
The Burning Chambers (The Burning Chambers, #1)
Rating: 3/5 | The Burning Chambers was an entertaining read that managed to keep all ~600 pages engaging, no small feat. Overall, I found the writing a tiny bit less mature (some telling, not showing etc), but still a completely worthwhile read. The author had the bravery to touch on some very heavy, important topics from a character-development perspective as well, which is always appreciated. (Click the post to read more.)
France, 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE.
But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever. For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, and he will need Minou’s help if he is to stay alive.
As the religious divide deepens, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as tensions ignite across the city.
All the while, the shadowy mistress of Puivert Château—obsessed with uncovering the secrets of a long-hidden document—strengthens her power and waits for the perfect time to strike...
Author: Kate Mosse | Publisher: Minotaur Books
Rating: 3/5
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It will be published in the US June 18th!
The Burning Chambers was an entertaining read that managed to keep all ~600 pages engaging, no small feat. Overall, I found the writing a tiny bit less mature (some telling, not showing etc), but still a completely worthwhile read. The author had the bravery to touch on some very heavy, important topics from a character-development perspective as well, which is always appreciated.
19-year-old Minou Joubert lives in a divided region of France in the late 1500s; Catholics firmly on one side of the conflict, and Huguenots firmly on the other. And then there are people like her family, who technically belong to one side but still remain open-minded about the other. War and violence ebb and flow.
Her father has been mysteriously depressed ever since he returned home from his most recent travels, refusing to leave the house or do much of anything. So it falls to Minou to run their family bookshop and keep them afloat. One day, a mysterious note shows up addressed specifically to her ("She knows that you live") and shortly after, a man comes calling for her father. But then her father sends her and her younger brother to stay with relatives in the larger city of Toulouse so that her brother can learn from their uncle. Just before they leave, the man who'd called for her father is dead and she encounters Piet, a young Huguenot from Toulouse, in the street. Everything changes.
While she is living in Toulouse, war comes. Blood is shed. And meanwhile, an ancient Catholic relic is missing and a mentally unstable woman miles away wants Minou dead. The ending is suspenseful and satisfyingly complex.
I don't read a lot of historical fiction because I don't really like the genre for the genre's sake; I never loved history in school. I usually only read historical fiction if it also does something else very well, like broaden my understanding of oppressed communities' historical trauma, or tell an exceptional story. You can tell that this book was written for people who love historical fiction because they love history itself and being pulled backward in time. Kate Mosse obviously knows her stuff about this period of history and this region of France! If that also interested me, I think that I would have loved this book more.
Still, I'm not sorry that I took the time to read this one; the story was engaging, the characters were lovable, and the details were delicious. This is a story of family, ambition, tolerance, and love.
The Philosopher's Flight
Rating: 4/5 | The Philosopher's Flight was a really fun read. It was light without being frivolous, fantastical without being ridiculous, and thought-provoking without being too much. I'm definitely looking forward to reading book #2. (Click the post to read more.)
Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy — an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service — a team of flying medics — Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.
When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women.
Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers — and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it.
Author: Tom Miller | Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Rating: 4/5
The Philosopher's Flight was a really fun read. It was light without being frivolous, fantastical without being ridiculous, and thought-provoking without being too much. I'm definitely looking forward to reading book #2.
The main character and narrator, Robert, has always dreamed of flying with the Rescue & Evacuation unit of the US armed forces, which is composed of a team of empirical philosophers dedicated to saving people. Empirical philosophers combine symbols (sigils) and substances to — essentially — do scientific magic. Or is it magical science? Anyway, women are the ones who have the natural ability to do empirical philosophy, so no man has ever served on R&E before.
But Robert has a lot of philosophical strength and talent for a man, so he wins a scholarship to Radcliffe College to study. He quickly showes himself to be a strong flier (yes, some philosophers can fly) and sets off determined to prove himself to his classmates and the R&E leaders. Meanwhile, those who are religiously opposed to the use of philosophy — led by an old, dangerous, bible-wielding fanatic — are ramping up their opposition (politically and physically).
At first, I was really unsure about the whole men-as-victims-of-sexism positioning of the story. Do we really need a book about men struggling for their rights? (Answer: Not really, no.) But what makes this book not feel weird or distasteful is that in the universe of this book, the entire world outside of empirical philosophy still views women the same way — the anti-philosophers want actual philosophers to go back to their homes, kitchens, husbands, rightful place, etc. They use sexual violence to intimidate women. That part of the world is the same. So seeing both of those power struggles play out simultaneously was really, really interesting and kind of just threw into light the fact that whenever one group has more power than another, there are going to be injustices.
Ultimately, this is a hero's journey story about overcoming biases and examining power. It's also about family and friendship and love and dreaming big dreams. I really did come to care for a lot of these characters, and I can't wait to see them again in book 2.
King of Scars
Rating: 4/5 | It's hard to write a review about this book without spoilers, because all I want to do is talk about my ~feelings.~ For those unfamiliar, King of Scars is book 1 of a new duology set in the Grishaverse, following the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. I love these characters so much, and getting so many of them back into my life was a true delight. (Click the post to read more.)
***Description is spoiler for the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology***
Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war — and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army
Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried — and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.
Author: Leigh Bardugo | Publisher: Imprint
Rating: 4/5
“Stop punishing yourself for being someone with a heart. You cannot protect yourself from suffering. To live is to grieve. You are not protecting yourself by shutting yourself off from the world. You are limiting yourself.”
It's hard to write a review about this book without spoilers, because all I want to do is talk about my ~feelings.~ For those unfamiliar, King of Scars is book 1 of a new duology set in the Grishaverse, following the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. I love these characters so much, and getting so many of them back into my life was a true delight.
I actually had the extreme pleasure (and luck?) of meeting Leigh Bardugo last week at BookCon as she signed my copies of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. (Still squealing internally, btw.) The conversation went like this:
Leigh: Hi! How are you?
Me: Great, how are you?
Leigh: Great!
Me: So I finished King of Scars, literally last week. So ... ouch.
Leigh: [laughs, looks devious] I mean I'm sorry ... but also, I'm not.
Then we took a pic and it was over. Amazing.
ANYWHOOO, quick spoiler-free synopsis (assuming you've read SaB and SoC): We're about one year out from the events of Crooked Kingdom, and Nikolai Lantsov is king of Ravka. The good news is that Zoya, Tolya and Tamar, and Genya and David are his close advisors and we get lots of these lovely characters. The bad news is that the dark creature he used to be is somehow back, coming out at night. They have to figure out how to get rid of the beast once and for all — oh, and keep the rest of Ravka from knowing that any of this is going on.
Meanwhile, Nina is in Fjerda on a secret mission to help Grisha escape persecution. She's also very lost in her grief. She and her two fellow soldiers find themselves in a small town with a mystery — poisoned water, missing girls, and an old ammunitions factory. I think you see where this is going.
All in all, this book was a fun one to read. Old characters are just as lovable ... and new characters are too. Nikolai's story moved faster than Nina's story, but it feels like Nina's story is going to be really important in book 2. It's a big-looking book, but it read quite quickly.
We got a much, much deeper look into Nikolai and Zoya's characters in this book, because both of them have POV chapters. Nikolai is wrestling with himself — his actual self, not the person he used to be or wishes he was — and Zoya is grappling with the fact that she was used, abused, and discarded by the Darkling, whom she completely revered. She's so angry with herself and him. I never knew I needed Zoya's backstory in my life, but now that I'm getting it, I can't believe I never had it before. And Nina — ugh, Nina. How my heart breaks for you, and how awestruck I am by your strength. And hopeful for your future.
These characters are round, and devastating, and hilarious, and crafted so lovingly. I can't help but root for them with my whole heart.
And the ending — OOF. Prepare yourself. Oh wait, you definitely can't. Well, mentally prepare yourself to be unprepared for your emotions at the end.
The Flatshare
Rating: 4/5 | The Flatshare surprised me, in a good way. I don't usually read books in the contemporary romance genre, because while they're fun and light and enjoyable, they don't usually say much. But that was not the case here! (Click the post to read more.)
Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.
After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.
Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.
Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes — first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.
But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you've never met.
Author: Beth O'Leary | Publisher: Flatiron Books
Rating: 4/5
Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the review copy! It will be published this coming Tuesday, May 28.
Content warning: Emotional abuse
The Flatshare surprised me, in a good way. I don't usually read books in the contemporary romance genre, because while they're fun and light and enjoyable, they don't usually say much. But that was not the case here!
It took a little while for the story to really get started, but around halfway it picked up and I couldn't put it down. What starts as a light-hearted promise of flirtation and courtship becomes a close, inside look at the journey of recognizing, processing, and beginning to recover from emotional abuse in romantic relationships. It was impactful and insightful and really powerful. I didn't expect much of a statement from this book, so when I found one, I was pleasantly surprised.
But that brings me to this description from the cover synopsis: "What if your roommate is your soul mate? A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of ways." This book was very good, but it is absolutely not going to be feel-good for everyone. So, if you're reading this review and have experienced gaslighting or other forms of emotional abuse, I just wanted to give you that head's up.
Tiffy and her ex-boyfriend, Jason, have been off and on for years. Every time he leaves her, he eventually comes back. At the start of the novel, she'd still been living in his apartment while he dated someone else, waiting for this inevitability. But then he tells her to move out and that she has to pay him back rent for all the months she's been living there. So she answers an ad for a flatshare with a person who works the night shift; they'll share the flat, but never be there at the same time. This will allow her to save enough money to pay Justin back.
Leon is very different from Tiffy, who uses lots of words and loves bright colors and quirky decorations. Leon doesn't talk much; in fact, his narration chapters hardly even use pronouns, and he describes dialogue more like a script with the person's name and a colon before their statement rather than using quotation marks. I thought that was a really creative storytelling choice. Anyway, he's quiet and comfortable with the familiar but has a gigantic heart. It's pretty clear from the beginning that he and his current girlfriend are just not a good match for each other. Also, his brother is currently in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and this takes up a lot of Leon's emotional space.
What ensues is a story of Tiffy slowly realizing the extent of Jason's abuse and beginning to recover, and Leon finding that a few steps outside his comfort zone is exactly what he needed all along. By 75% of the way through the book I was reading furiously, heart breaking and throbbing for these two characters.
There There
Rating: 5/5 | With some books, all you can say is, "Wow." There There absolutely blew me away, which for some reason surprised me. I knew it had gotten a lot of acclaim, and I myself waited patiently for my library copy for months. So of course it was going to be really good. But it wasn't — it was great. (Click the post to read more.)
Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame in Oakland. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Black has come to find his true father. Thomas Frank has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the Big Oakland Powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions — intentions that will destroy the lives of everyone in his path.
Fierce, angry, funny, groundbreaking — Tommy Orange's first novel is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. There There is a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. A glorious, unforgettable debut.
Author: Tommy Orange | Publisher: Knopf
Rating: 5/5
"We all came to the powwow for different reasons. The messy, dangling threads of our lives got pulled into a braid--tied to the back of everything we'd been doing all along to get us here. There will be death and playing dead, there will be screams and unbearable silences, forever-silences, and a kind of time-travel, at the moment the gunshots start, when we look around and see ourselves as we are, in our regalia, and something in our blood will recoil then boil hot enough to burn through time and place and memory. We'll go back to where we came from, when we were people running from bullets at the end of that old world. The tragedy of it all will be unspeakable, that we've been fighting for decades to be recognized as a present-tense people, modern and relevant, only to die in the grass wearing feathers."
With some books, all you can say is, "Wow." There There absolutely blew me away, which for some reason surprised me. I knew it had gotten a lot of acclaim, and I myself waited patiently for my library copy for months. So of course it was going to be really good. But it wasn't — it was great.
There's a big powwow coming up in Oakland, CA, and each character we meet is connected to it somehow. There are people there to perform, to watch, to connect with long-lost parents — and there's a group of young men who are there to rob it. One by one, we get to know these people and their backstories, and we root for all of them. They barrel toward an ending that you know is coming and desperately want to stop, and the conclusion will leave you shaking.
This novel features such a wide cast of characters that there's a list of them with short descriptions at the beginning of the book. That was actually really helpful as readers met new people and returned to those we'd already met. With so many characters, we don't get to spend very much time in the POV of each of them — still, I felt like I got to know them pretty well, including each of their rich and personal histories.
I need to read more books by Native American voices — that's a fact. If you do, too, then this is a great place to start. There is so much here about what it's like to live in today's world as a part of that heritage — fully or tangentially — and so much experience that I just never consider as I go about my daily life. Books like this are so valuable to us all, as human beings.
And bonus: Tommy Orange does it with prose that will take your breath away.
Floyd Harbor: Stories
Rating: 4/5 | Floyd Harbor was a subtly moving look into the human experience of those who live in the depressed small towns of America. The writing seemed to zoom in on the most telling details without sacrificing pace or perspective, which really sucks the reader in and makes it all feel so true to life. (Click the post to read more.)
The twelve linked stories in Joel Mowdy's first book take place in and around Mastic Beach, a community on New York's Long Island that's close to the wealthy Hamptons but long afflicted by widespread poverty. Mostly in their teens and early twenties, the characters struggle to become independent in various ways, ranging from taking typical low-paying jobs — hotel laundry, janitorial, restaurant, and landscaping work — to highly ingenious schemes, to exchanging sexual favors for a place to stay. A few make it to local community colleges; others end up in rehab or juvenile detention centers. However loving, their parents can offer little help. Those who are Vietnam veterans may suffer from PTSD; others from the addictions that often come with stressful lives.
Neighborhoods of small bungalows — formerly vacation homes — with dilapidated boats in the driveways hint at the waterways that open up close by. The beauty of the ocean beach offers further consolation, as does the often high-spirited temperament of youth. Joel Mowdy brings to his affecting collection both personal experience and a gift for discerning and lingering on the essential moments in his characters' stories. He intimately and vividly illuminates American lives that too seldom see the light.
Author: Joel Mowdy | Publisher: Catapult
Rating: 4/5
Thank you to Catapult for the advanced reader's copy of this book! It will be published on May 14th.
Floyd Harbor was a subtly moving look into the human experience of those who live in the depressed small towns of America. The writing seemed to zoom in on the most telling details without sacrificing pace or perspective, which really sucks the reader in and makes it all feel so true to life.
Each short story in this collection is a different person who lives in Floyd Harbor, but many of the same places, events, and details find their way into all of them — as you would expect in a small town! That was one of my favorite parts of the book.
I grew up in a small, working-class town in the heart of upstate New York, which made for a really interesting reading experience with this one. The small-town poverty causes a lot of the characters in Floyd Harbor to fall into drugs, into jail or the risk of it. My upbringing was privileged enough to keep me from that lifestyle, but I went to high school with plenty of people who were not in the same position. And of course, the vast majority of them are truly good people who just didn't have the same opportunities as others. So the "inside" look at these characters' dreams and love and experiences hit close to my heart, making me feel simultaneously more separate from and closer to those I'd grown up alongside. I didn't even realize that I had needed that.
This collection isn't long — it drops you into this world, says the damn thing, and then spits you back out subtly changed.
Naamah
Rating: 5/5 | It's common for me to hear about books I want to read. I add them to my list. I see if the library has them. If not, maybe I'll pick them up in a bookstore next time I'm there. But very rarely do I hear about a book and then immediately open Amazon and order that book. Very rarely to I set aside the shortlist of books I'd planned to read next so that I can read that one right away. I did those things for Naamah ... and I was not disappointed. (Click the post to read more.)
With the coming of the Great Flood — the mother of all disasters — only one family was spared, drifting on an endless sea, waiting for the waters to subside. We know the story of Noah, moved by divine vision to launch their escape. Now, in a work of astounding invention, acclaimed writer Sarah Blake reclaims the story of his wife, Naamah, the matriarch who kept them alive. Here is the woman torn between faith and fury, lending her strength to her sons and their wives, caring for an unruly menagerie of restless creatures, silently mourning the lover she left behind. Here is the woman escaping into the unreceded waters, where a seductive angel tempts her to join a strange and haunted world. Here is the woman tormented by dreams and questions of her own — questions of service and self-determination, of history and memory, of the kindness or cruelty of fate.
In fresh and modern language, Blake revisits the story of the Ark that rescued life on earth, and rediscovers the agonizing burdens endured by the woman at the heart of the story. Naamah is a parable for our time: a provocative fable of body, spirit, and resilience.
Author: Sarah Blake | Publisher: Riverhead
Rating: 5/5
“Are you here to judge me?” Naamah asks [the angel].
“No.”
“Do you regret me as He does?”
“He does not regret you.”
“He does not regret Noah. I am just loved by the man He does not regret.”
“Is that not enough?”
“No,” Naamah says, “that is not enough.”
It's common for me to hear about books I want to read. I add them to my list. I see if the library has them. If not, maybe I'll pick them up in a bookstore next time I'm there. But very rarely do I hear about a book and then immediately open Amazon and order that book. Very rarely to I set aside the shortlist of books I'd planned to read next so that I can read that one right away. I did those things for Naamah ... and I was not disappointed.
This book is glorious. It's absolutely unlike anything I've ever read before. Holy words walloping me in the stomach, Batman. Did the universe need a book about the matriarch of humanity walking around, thinking radical thoughts, knowing exactly who the hell she is, resenting God's intrusion in her life, and having sex with women, and herself, and her husband? Hell yes, it did. Hell. Yes. It. Did.
(Also: If those things happening within a story from the bible are not for you, then this book is not for you. Which is totally okay! But you've been warned.)
The book is also pretty abstract at certain moments. Sometimes I felt kind of like I did the first time I read Waiting for Godot ("wait — what the heck did I just read? that means something, right? I know it does, but ... what does it mean?"). But it's so worth the squinty eyes deep in thought.
Do as I did — stop what you're doing and read this right now.
Ask Again, Yes
Rating: 5/5 | There are stories, and then there are stories. This is a rich, delicious novel that makes you forget there's an outside world. There's only this handful of characters and the love and heartbreak between them. (Click the post to read more.)
Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are two NYPD rookies assigned to the same Bronx precinct in 1973. They aren’t close friends on the job, but end up living next door to each other outside the city. What goes on behind closed doors in both houses — the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the stunning events to come.
Ask Again, Yes by award-winning author Mary Beth Keane, is a beautifully moving exploration of the friendship and love that blossoms between Francis’s youngest daughter, Kate, and Brian’s son, Peter, who are born six months apart. In the spring of Kate and Peter’s eighth grade year a violent event divides the neighbors, the Stanhopes are forced to move away, and the children are forbidden to have any further contact.
But Kate and Peter find a way back to each other, and their relationship is tested by the echoes from their past. Ask Again, Yes reveals how the events of childhood look different when reexamined from the distance of adulthood — villains lose their menace, and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter’s love story is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.
Author: Mary Beth Keane | Publisher: Scribner
Rating: 5/5
Thank you so very much to NetGalley and Scribner for giving me an advanced reading copy of this book for review! It will be published May 28th.
There are stories, and then there are stories. This is a rich, delicious novel that makes you forget there's an outside world. There's only this handful of characters and the love and heartbreak between them.
The two main characters are Kate — the youngest of three daughters to Francis and Lena — and Peter, the only son of Brian and Anne. But the narrative starts with Francis' perspective as a young police officer in the Bronx. He yearns for the suburbs, an escape from the stress and violence of his job and a return to a world sort of like his childhood in Ireland. Lena never wanted to leave NYC, but she can see it's important to him. Still, she's lonely. Then Brian — Francis' partner but not quite friend — and Anne move in next door. Lena tries to make friends with Anne, but Anne will strangely have none of it.
So Kate and Peter grow up next to each other, and from the very beginning, they know intuitively that their souls are entwined. And yet their parents' chilly animosity to one another won't let them just be. When they're about 14, they're torn apart by a terrifying, violent night that will impact every day of the rest of their lives. But years later, they reconnect, and then their own relationship becomes the forefront of the story. But it's not simple, and it's not easy — the scars our childhoods leave behind never are.
Rather than switching POVs between chapters, the narrative weaves between the characters' points of view seamlessly from one sentence to the next. When they're young, most is from Peter; when they're adults, most is from Kate. And a bit is from each of their parents, too.
The story has really strong themes of love, childhood trauma, mental health, the danger of pretending to the world that everything is fine at home when it's not. Also addiction, the repetition of parents' mistakes, and acceptance. So much to pack into a relatively short novel, but wow, was it beautiful and heartbreaking and just meant to exist.
The Silent Patient
Rating: 4.5/5 | I don't usually choose to read thrillers. I like them okay once I'm in the middle of them, but it takes a lot of my emotional energy to commit to a roller coaster like that. (It's why I had to stop watching Scandal, and why I don't like it when sports go into overtime, lol.) But I picked up The Silent Patient because it had great reviews that claimed it really did something different and surprising. And I did really like it! (Click the post to read more.)
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations — a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....
Author: Alex Michaelides | Publisher: Celadon Books
Rating: 4.5/5
“We are made up of different parts, some good, some bad, and a healthy mind can tolerate this ambivalence and juggle both good and bad at the same time. Mental illness is precisely about a lack of this kind of integration — we end up losing contact with the unacceptable parts of ourselves.”
I don't usually choose to read thrillers. I like them okay once I'm in the middle of them, but it takes a lot of my emotional energy to commit to a roller coaster like that. (It's why I had to stop watching Scandal, and why I don't like it when sports go into overtime, lol.) But I picked up The Silent Patient because it had great reviews that claimed it really did something different and surprising. And I did really like it!
The main character — the one who is most often in the first-person perspective — is Theo, a psychotherapist. He feels called to help a woman named Alicia, who randomly killed her husband, apparently without motive, and then never spoke another word. So he lands a job at the facility where she is cared for. Thus begins his hunt (detective style) into clues about her childhood so he can try to understand her psychological state before the murder. This investigation takes him on quite a trip, and it's not all by the books. Theo himself had a tough childhood, and he is quite compelled by the power of psychotherapy, which helped him.
We also have passages from Alicia's diary, which she kept in the months leading up to the murder. We begin to get hints that not all is as it seemed, and we also begin to question pretty much everything that the narrators and other characters have said. It spins and spins to a conclusion that seems obvious in hindsight but was truly exciting to build toward.
There were a lot of references to Greek tragedy in this novel, which I really appreciated. Of course, the author is Greek, so that makes sense, but as a theatre kid who read Alcestis in college, I loved it. Although I will say that didn't actually help me crack the mystery.
This book is ~325 pages, and I read it in one day. Honestly, that's the best way to read a thriller I think. Definitely recommend to all those who like these psychological mysteries!
Turbulence
Rating: 4.5/5 | This book was creative, and gripping, and just plain great writing. It's not long; I read it in one evening. I hadn't planned to, and it kept me up about two hours past my bedtime to do it. But I couldn't resist. I felt like I got pulled into something that would break if I stopped in the middle. (Click the post to read more.)
A woman strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next to her on a plane after some turbulence. He returns home to tragic news that has also impacted another stranger, a shaken pilot on his way to another continent who seeks comfort from a journalist he meets that night. Her life shifts subtly as well, before she heads to the airport on an assignment that will shift more lives in turn.
In this wondrous, profoundly moving novel, Szalay's diverse protagonists circumnavigate the planet in twelve flights, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers or estranged siblings, aging parents, baby grandchildren, or nobody at all. Along the way, they experience the full range of human emotions from loneliness to love and, knowingly or otherwise, change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.
Written with magic and economy and beautifully exploring the delicate, crisscrossed nature of relationships today, Turbulence is a dazzling portrait of the interconnectedness of the modern world.
Author: David Szalay | Publisher: Scribner
Rating: 4.5/5
Thank you, NetGalley and Scribner, for the advanced review copy of this book. It will be published on July 16th, 2019.
This book was creative, and gripping, and just plain great writing. It's not long; I read it in one evening. I hadn't planned to, and it kept me up about two hours past my bedtime to do it. But I couldn't resist. I felt like I got pulled into something that would break if I stopped in the middle.
Turbulence is made up of 12 chapters — you might even see them as individual short stories — about 12 different characters and their ordinary, emotional lives. We start with a woman on a plane who is afraid to fly. She speaks to a man who heads home to some bad news. That bad news implicated the next man, a troubled pilot. And so on and so forth.
Until we come — unbelievably, and yet how could it be any different — full circle. All the way around the world (literally) in 12 stories. In 12 people.
The effect is this: We are all enduring something. You are never as far as you think from another person in this world, whether in connections, or in space, or in experience. We are all doing our best to live a life we love, alone and together.
This one needs to rumble around in my brain a little more, I think. But it is welcome to do so.
Stay and Fight
Rating: 4/5 | I requested and read this book on the recommendation of a good friend who really knows books, and she did not let me down. I'm still mulling this one over. It was an introspective, deep novel about family, independence, identity, and love. (Click the post to read more.)
Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and eager to carry out her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, her boyfriend calls it quits. Helped by Rudy, her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss, and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. But Karen and Lily are expecting their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust is over. So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her—they’ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. Soon, the outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family.
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Madeline Ffitch’s Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges the viability of strategic action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the possibilities of love. And it is a debut that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it.
Author: Madeline Ffitch | Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Rating: 4/5
Thank you, NetGalley and FSG, for the advanced review copy of this book! It will be published on July 9th, 2019.
I requested and read this book on the recommendation of a good friend who really knows books, and she did not let me down. I'm still mulling this one over. It was an introspective, deep novel about family, independence, identity, and love.
There are four main characters: Helen, who moved to Appalachia with her boyfriend (he left; she stayed); Lily and Karen, domestic partners who live simply, Lily a mother type and Karen a provider type; and Perley, Lily and Karen's son. There's also Rudy, their crude but loyal friend and Helen's employer, but he doesn't ever narrate as the others do.
After Helen's boyfriend decides to leave, she continues to live on the land they paid for together in Helen's name. After her first winter in complete isolation, learning to live off the land (literally), she invites Lily and Karen to join her on her land and build a home together. Over the years, they become a (very dysfunctional) family. Then a lonely Perley decides he wants to go to school, and it brings the outside world in — and not really in a good way.
One of the best parts of this novel was Perley's point of view. His chapters were fascinating and beautiful. They're written the way children seem to think, in run-on sentences that flip-flop between both childish and adult-like thoughts and emotions. He is so innocent, so heartbreaking, so wise. I could have read the entire novel through his eyes and been perfectly happy to do so.
Alas, Perley probably has the fewest chapters of all of them. But the way we meander through POV lenses, we get to really understand that the way these characters perceive themselves is rarely, or never exactly, how the other characters perceive them. Which is pretty profound in its effect.
There's something deeply American in this book, and something that gets to the heart of agency and independence. Something that resonates really deeply, although I'm still trying to pinpoint what, exactly, that something is.
If you read it and figure it out, let me know.
A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
Rating: 4/5 | This was pretty much exactly the epic conclusion to the ACOTAR trilogy that I had come to expect. It was emotional, roller-coaster-esque, sexy, and magical. It tied up all the major loose ends while leaving a few undone (and introducing a few others) to make way for future installments. (Click the post to read more.)
***Description and review are spoilers for books 1 and 2, A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury***
Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit – and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.
As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords – and hunt for allies in unexpected places.
In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.
Author: Sarah J. Maas | Publisher: Bloomsbury
Rating: 4/5
“It's a rare person to face who they are and not run from it - not be broken by it.”
This was pretty much exactly the epic conclusion to the ACOTAR trilogy that I had come to expect. It was emotional, roller-coaster-esque, sexy, and magical. It tied up all the major loose ends while leaving a few undone (and introducing a few others) to make way for future installments. Once again, I'm really glad that I stuck it out with these books past book 1 (which I didn't love).
I started out hating Feyre in ACOTAR. She was super dumb, destructively willful, and dangerously selfish. She stayed willful, but she grew up. She learned how to see her nose in front of her face. So that was lovely, because once she did that, I came to really like her.
Also, can we talk about Rhys for one second because he is 100% the most fictional part of this entire fantasy series. He's like what masculinity could be without society's toxicity — strong, sensitive, loyal, emotional, powerful, and protective. I would marry him in half a heartbeat (and I am already married, mind you).
As I've mentioned before, I think SJM did some really brave things in this trilogy. But what was most impressive to me was how she made us root for something with our entire hearts, and then convinced us to change our mind. And peeled away the layers of why wanting that was problematic in the first place. Which is exactly what happened to Feyre. And that unfolding, that self-awareness in the protagonist and the reader, was wicked cool to experience.
Trust Exercise
Rating: 5/5 | Trust Exercise is going to be a hard book to review without spoilers (but I shall attempt). So much of what makes it great is in the surprises you get along the way as a reader. So you're just going to have to trust me when I tell you that this book was really, really good. (Click the post to read more.)
In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving “Brotherhood of the Arts,” two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed — or untoyed with — by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley.
The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls — until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down. What the reader believes to have happened to David and Sarah and their friends is not entirely true — though it’s not false, either. It takes until the book’s stunning coda for the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place — revealing truths that will resonate long after the final sentence.
As captivating and tender as it is surprising, Trust Exercise will incite heated conversations about fiction and truth, friendships and loyalties, and will leave readers with wiser understandings of the true capacities of adolescents and of the powers and responsibilities of adults.
Author: Susan Choi | Publisher: Henry Holt
Rating: 5/5
Thank you so much, NetGalley and Henry Holt, for the advanced reading copy of this book. I so enjoyed it. FYI to all: It's going to be published this coming Tuesday, April 9th. And you gotta read it.
Trust Exercise is going to be a hard book to review without spoilers (but I shall attempt). So much of what makes it great is in the surprises you get along the way as a reader. So you're just going to have to trust me when I tell you that this book was really, really good.
One thing to know: The prose in this book is like poetry. It's like music. It's breathtaking and poignant and takes you on an emotional trip. If you love to read prose like that, then this book is absolutely for you. But if that kind of musical, somewhat flowery prose isn't your style, no big; this one might not be for you.
The book opens from the almost-constant perspective of Sarah, a 15-year-old girl who attends a local high school for performing arts students. She and David have passionate summer love affair. But when they get back to school in the fall, their own inherent differences and the constant teenage-mixed-with-competitive-acting-class drama ... splinters things. Sarah doesn't quite know what happened and yet also knows full well what happened, and that's pretty much how she lives her life.
I wish I could tell you more, but it really would spoil it, so I'm going to stop there. But the dust jacket does a good job with this description: "A shocking spiral of events catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down."
I will say this: The book doesn't read as though a teenager is narrating it. I have read some reviews that say the characters are just not believable as teenagers, but I kind of think that's the point. Who among us hasn't looked back at our teenage selves and thought, "Wow, if I had only known then what I know now." or "Yeah at the time, I thought X, or I thought that I knew everything about Y, but wow, I was so wrong." That's what this narrative does. It gives us a bird's-eye, more adult view of what these characters are thinking, feeling, and doing. Which is a whole thing in and of itself.
Here are some words from the book's description that might seem overused, but could not be more true about this book: "Narrative-upending." "Truths that will resonate long after the final sentence." "Captivating." "Tender." "Surprising."
Read it.
A Woman Is No Man
Rating: 5/5 | This book blew me away. I usually like (but don't love) generational family stories, but this was really something special. I was so drawn into the stories and lives of these characters, and my review is not going to do it justice. (Click the post to read more.)
In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past. As the narrative alternates between the lives of Deya and Isra, she begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind her fragile community.
Author: Etaf Rum | Publisher: Harper
Rating: 5/5
“A real choice doesn't have conditions. A real choice is free.”
This book blew me away. I usually like (but don't love) generational family stories, but this was really something special. I was so drawn into the stories and lives of these characters, and my review is not going to do it justice.
There are three main characters: Isra, who is married off at 17 and swept from her home in Palestine to the home of her husband's family in Brooklyn; Deya, her eldest daughter now living with her grandparents and three younger sisters; and Fareeda, Isra's mother in law and Deya's grandmother. Isra's chapters take place beginning in 1990, from her marriage through the time when Deya is young. Deya's chapters take place in 2008, when she is a senior in high school. And Fareeda has chapters in both timeframes, although we get less of her perspective.
There is so much wrapped up in these three women's stories: culture, duty, gender discrimination, womanhood, manhood, domestic abuse, family, shame, immigration, racism, fear, bravery, choice, action, inaction. And probably even more.
Honestly, my eyes flew over these pages. I would read 50 pages and look up, blinking, not realizing that I'd been so absorbed. And my heart broke again and again for these women even as their strength and the complexity of their lives and decisions put me in their shoes, again and again.
I had no idea how Isra's story was going to end; how Etaf Rum was going to close the loop. But she did it, and I didn't even realize what she was doing until the very last page. And then it hit me, and then it ended, and wow.
Hats off, Etaf Rum. Please give us more novels.
Queenie
Rating: 4/5 | Alright, y'all. I have complicated feelings about this book. It was well written, and super important, and said a lot of things very much worth hearing about race and mental health. But I — a type-A who compulsively tries to fix problems everywhere I see them — was not built to enjoy reading it. (Click the post to read more.)
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
Author: Candice Carty-Williams | Publisher: Orion Publishing
Rating: 4/5
Alright, y'all. I have complicated feelings about this book. It was well written, and super important, and said a lot of things very much worth hearing about race and mental health. But I — a type-A who compulsively tries to fix problems everywhere I see them — was not built to enjoy reading it.
Queenie is a millennial in her first job, an entry-level magazine editor in London. When the story starts, she's just started a break with her long-term boyfriend. We get the sense that she is a lot to handle and very unwilling to let others in. She's outwardly unapologetic about this, which pushes people away even more, but inwardly she feels halfway regret. This became too much for Tom, and he asked her to move out.
Now she has to figure out who she is and hope that he will come back. But she can't quite find herself between all the destructive decisions she knows she shouldn't make, but somehow does anyway. She's got a small group of girls who love and support her, and they're trying their best to help steer her in a healthy direction while allowing her to make her own choices.
Her depression and anxiety bloom out of control, which is when we get more insight into the racial and family dynamics that are also shaping her journey. She has to find the strength and resolve to pick herself back up and become the person she knows she can be.
As I read the book — which, by the way, is told very creatively with texts, emails, etc. thrown in there — I just felt more and more anxious. Queenie was spiraling, but there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Everything she was working toward was not going to be good for her. I finished the book with great relief.
Still, I admire the author and the story, because it's brave and important. Somehow the writing was simultaneously light and funny while also being heavy and heart-wrenching.
Worthy of your time, for sure. But be prepared for discomfort.
A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
Rating: 4.5/5 | OK, so A Court of Thorns and Roses was meh. It was fine. Feyre drove me nuts, but I dealt with it for the world-building. Well, I am SO glad that I stuck with this trilogy, because A Court of Mist and Fury was A GAZILLION TIMES BETTER. Such a good read. Engrossing, heart-wrenching, surprising, and exciting. (Click the post to read more.)
*** Plot synapsis and review are spoilers for book 1, A Court of Thorns and Roses ***
Feyre is immortal.
After rescuing her lover Tamlin from a wicked Faerie Queen, she returns to the Spring Court possessing the powers of the High Fae. But Feyre cannot forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people - nor the bargain she made with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court.
As Feyre is drawn ever deeper into Rhysand's dark web of politics and passion, war is looming and an evil far greater than any queen threatens to destroy everything Feyre has fought for. She must confront her past, embrace her gifts and decide her fate.
She must surrender her heart to heal a world torn in two.
Author: Sarah J. Maas | Publisher: Bloomsbury
Rating: 4.5/5
“To the people who look at the stars and wish, Rhys."
Rhys clinked his glass against mine. “To the stars who listen — and the dreams that are answered.”
OK, so A Court of Thorns and Roses was meh. It was fine. Feyre drove me nuts, but I dealt with it for the world-building. Well, I am SO glad that I stuck with this trilogy, because A Court of Mist and Fury was A GAZILLION TIMES BETTER. Such a good read. Engrossing, heart-wrenching, surprising, and exciting.
I continue to be impressed by the brave choices Sarah J. Maas has made in this trilogy so far. To make Feyre such a sexual character in a YA novel, to make statements about sex and sexual abuse in the way she does, to break with the typical plot of a YA fantasy romance. To make us think we want one thing, and then to convince us to change our minds completely — and for very good reason. It's super impressive.
I'm going to keep this review short, as I usually do with the second book of a trilogy, but I loved this one and can't want to find out how it will all end.
Miracle Creek
Rating: 4/5 | Miracle Creek was a great read. An intriguing whodunnit with so many layers to the crime and to the entire cast of characters, it kept me guessing — suspecting, but not knowing — all the way up until the end. And it also broke my heart and showed real humanity throughout. (Click the post to read more.)
In the small town of Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine — a pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives” with the hopes of curing issues like autism or infertility. But when the Miracle Submarine mysteriously explodes, killing two people, a dramatic murder trial upends the Yoos’ small community.
Who or what caused the explosion? Was it the mother of one of the patients, who claimed to be sick that day but was smoking down by the creek? Or was it Young and Pak themselves, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? The ensuing trial uncovers unimaginable secrets from that night — trysts in the woods, mysterious notes, child-abuse charges — as well as tense rivalries and alliances among a group of people driven to extraordinary degrees of desperation and sacrifice.Angie Kim’s Miracle Creek is a thoroughly contemporary take on the courtroom drama, drawing on the author’s own life as a Korean immigrant, former trial lawyer, and mother of a real-life “submarine” patient. An addictive debut novel for fans of Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng, Miracle Creek is both a twisty page-turner and a deeply moving story about the way inconsequential lies and secrets can add up — with tragic consequences.
Author: Angie Kim | Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Rating: 4/5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book! It's out April 16, 2019 (but FYI, it's also an April Book of the Month selection!).
Miracle Creek was a great read. An intriguing whodunnit with so many layers to the crime and to the entire cast of characters, it kept me guessing — suspecting, but not knowing — all the way up until the end. And it also broke my heart and showed real humanity throughout.
The story begins on the day of the explosion. Young Yoo is helping her husband, Pak, at the Miracle Submarine — a pressurized oxygen tank that delivers pure oxygen to those inside for a "dive." This is supposed to help the cells heal more quickly than they would on their own, and the Yoos' patients include those with autism, cerebral palsy, infertility, etc. But that day, everything spirals out of control, and the barn housing the Miracle Submarine explodes.
Fast forward to a year later, and the mother of one of the children who'd been inside at the time of the explosion is on trial. He and another child's mother had been killed, and the police believe his mother was tired of caring for a special-needs child, wanted her life back, and strategically placed a lit cigarette on top of a pile of kindling under the oxygen tube so that her child would die.
But as the trial begins, we see that it's probably not that simple. So many others — the doctor who'd been in the dive to cure his infertility and who'd had a secret friendship (half a wink wink here) with the Yoos' daughter Mary, the doctor's wife, another mother who'd been inside the tank, Young, Mary, Pak — all weave their narrative together until nobody (whether inside the story or just reading it) is sure of anything anymore. Who lit the fire? And why?
What emerges from this tangled web of information are a few themes:
Motherhood, in all its forms. Whether it's Young and Mary's complicated relationship, or the demand, competition, stress, guilt, and joy that comes with parenting a special-needs child, it's all in there.
Immigration. Mary and Young immigrated to the US from Korea when Mary was young, and Pak stayed behind. This splintered their family in more ways than one.
Racism. Everyone who either is or is related/married to someone from Korea is touched by racism in their experiences.
Honesty. With each other and ourselves.
The fact that every action has consequences, and every word you say affects the people around you in ways that you will never know. That everyone has an untold story, untold experiences. And that if any teeny, tiny thing happened in a different way, everything could be different.
This was really well done, a fantastic debut. Read it — and then let me know so we can talk through it.
Florida
Rating: 5/5 | This. Collection. Is. Masterful. I cannot overstate. Lauren Groff is unbelievable, and she does so much with so little in each of these stories. (Click the post to read more.)
The New York Times-bestselling author of Fates and Furies returns, bringing the reader into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild — a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther, or by a sexual secret. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple, a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character — a steely and conflicted wife and mother.
The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind — becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. Groff transports the reader, then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury — the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement.
Author: Lauren Groff | Publisher: Riverhead
Rating: 5/5
“Now a hunger that cannot quite be located in the body comes over her, a sense of yearning, for what? Maybe for kindness, for a moral sense that is clear and loud and greater that she is, something that can blanket her, no, no, something in which she can hide for a minute and be safe.”
This. Collection. Is. Masterful. I cannot overstate. Lauren Groff is unbelievable, and she does so much with so little in each of these stories.
Some are eerie, some are emotional, some are abstract, and all cut right to the core. I'm sure that many of the stories reflected Groff's actual experiences, because there were several common themes, especially the simultaneous joy and guilt of motherhood.
I think my favorite story was the one that featured a woman who stayed in her home while a hurricane approached and then hit. During that time, she hallucinated (or imagined?) several key people from her past who still haunted her. It was incredible.
Drop what you're doing and read this.
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
Rating: 4.25/5 | The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls was a beautiful novel about women, family, and the burdens we all carry. The characters were vivid, their experiences were important, and the story was transfixing. (Click the post to read more.)
The Butler family has had their share of trials — as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest — but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives.
Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband Proctor are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.
As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important.
Author: Anissa Gray | Publisher: Berkley
Rating: 4.25/5
“Our scripture was about Jacob wresting with the angel, right? So I'm thinking, but ain't we all wrestling with something? And for some of us, it sure as shit ain't angels. Am I right?”
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls was a beautiful novel about women, family, and the burdens we all carry. The characters were vivid, their experiences were important, and the story was transfixing.
The story centers on three sisters: Althea, the eldest and a prison inmate; Viola, her best friend growing up who now lives in Chicago with her wife; and Lilian, the youngest who grew up without them and now cares for Althea's twin teenage daughters. Each of them has some serious ghosts of years past haunting them, much of that stemming from their mother's death, their father's distance, and their brother's character.
We start with Althea's sentencing, see the characters come together in its aftermath, and then follow along as one of the teenagers carries them on a trying and heart-wrenching adventure (to put it simply, without spoilers).
Throughout, the story emphasizes how all the characters' stories are both intertwined and separate, with each of them having lived with significant struggles that the others never understood — or even knew about.
I thought it was interesting that the first chapter is told from Althea's perspective, which makes us start out thinking that she's a "good guy," the protagonist. But then, while she's certainly not a "bad guy," her flaws become absolutely undeniable and there is not much allegiance to her in the end.
I'm not always drawn to family dramas, but I really liked this one. In fact, I found myself settling into the story so comfortably that at one point, I forgot that I had even finished the book — part of me was still with the characters and the way they fit together.