Angel & Hannah
I have nothing but so much praise for Angel & Hannah. From the first page, I was hooked, and by the last, my heart had left my body.
Author: Ishle Yi Park
Publisher: One World
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Cover Description
This sweeping, unforgettable reimagining of Romeo and Juliet tells the story of an interracial couple in 1990s New York City who are determined to protect their love against all odds
Hannah, a Korean American girl from Queens, New York, and Angel, a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn, fall in love in the spring of 1993. Hannah, who comes from a strict Korean home, meets Angel, a free and beautiful boy, at a quinceañera.
Told in seasons, Angel & Hannah holds all of the tension and cadence of blank verse while adding dynamic and expressive language, creating new kinds of engrossing and magnetic forms. The hip-hop sonnets and poems are dynamic, arresting, observant, and magical, conveying the intimacies and sacrifices of love and addiction and the devastating realities of struggle and loss.
Committed to cultural details and the vernacular of Queens and Brooklyn, this is a hip-hop love story, not of the Capulets and the Montagues, but two New York City kids trying to survive and grow within their families and communities, driven by an all-consuming love.
TL;DR Review
I have nothing but so much praise for Angel & Hannah. From the first page, I was hooked, and by the last, my heart had left my body.
For you if: You like emotional books and/or want to reading more (or try reading) novels in verse.
Full Review
Thank you to One World for granting me a review copy via NetGalley. I was blown away.
Beyond flushed, sweating bodies pushed,
pushing like cattle below black & buzzing speakers, under a torn pink streamer
loose as a tendril of hair—lush—
his eyes. Darkluminous. Warm. A blush floods her.
Hannah sucks in her breath, but can't pull back.
Music fades. A hush
he's a young buck in the underbrush,
still in a disco ball dance of shadow & light
Their forbidden love instantly and wildly blooms along the Jackie Robinson Expressway.
Angel & Hannah, a novel in verse, is a Romeo and Juliet retelling about a Korean-American girl from Queens and a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn in the 1990s. Yes, it sounds incredible. And yes, it is incredible.
First, let’s talk about the story — emotional, beautiful, heartbreaking. Hannah comes from a lonely, strict home with a secret ugliness, and Angel lives the reality of NYC in the 90s, where drug trade and violence are part of everyday life. Then the two meet at a quinceañera, and their whole worlds are turned upside down. The story is broken into four sections for the four seasons, but it moves fluidly through time across the span of several years as we watch the rise and fall of their great love. There is a lot of pain in this book — addiction and loneliness and loss and heartbreak. But there is also so much beauty, and not a little bit of hope. And I so loved the fire inside Hannah and the softness inside Angel.
Now let’s talk about this novel being in verse. Ishle Yi Park breathes life into language, with poetry that’s both gritty and gorgeous. This isn’t the kind of poetry that leaves you scratching your head, feeling like you missed something — it’s the kind with rhythm and subtle rhyme that feels inevitable, that carries you forward while demanding you slow down, that breaks your heart wide open, that wants you to read it again and this time out loud. It’s the kind of poetry that will appeal to those who read a lot of poetry just as much as it will appeal to those who barely ever read poetry.
By the end, my heart had completely left my body. I wanted to flip back to page one and start all over. And I wanted to tell everyone that they should read it immediately.
Content Warnings
Pregnancy and abortion
AIDS/terminal illness
Drug and alcohol use/abuse
Domestic abuse (from the perspective of a child)
Violence
Racism and racial slurs
Sexual assault (mentioned)
The City in the Middle of the Night
Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Publisher: Tor Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Would you give up everything to change the world?
Humanity clings to life on January — a colonized planet divided between permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other.
Two cities, built long ago in the meager temperate zone, serve as the last bastions of civilization--but life inside them is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.
Sophie, a young student from the wrong side of Xiosphant city, is exiled into the dark after being part of a failed revolution. But she survives — with the help of a mysterious savior from beneath the ice.
Burdened with a dangerous, painful secret, Sophie and her ragtag group of exiles face the ultimate challenge — and they are running out of time.
Welcome to the City in the Middle of the Night.
TL;DR Review
While The City in the Middle of the Night didn’t grab me as much as I’d hoped it would, I definitely thought it was really creative and well written.
For you if: You like soft sci-fi tinged with environmentalism and political upheaval.
Full Review
“You might mistake understanding for forgiveness, but if you did, then the unforgiven wrong would catch you off guard, like a cramp, just as you reached for generosity.”
The City in the Middle of the Night was my last read of the 2020 Hugo Award list of nominees. And while I definitely thought it was creative and well written, I’m sad to say that it was a little bit of a letdown for me — it just didn’t grab me the way I’d hoped or expected it to. BUT that could definitely be a me thing and my jittery headspace the last few weeks and not the book — so don’t let me be the reason you don’t read this! (I also absolutely love Charline Jane Anders and her other work that I’ve read, and I’m definitely going to keep reading her going forward.)
The book alternates between two women: Sophie and Mouth (yes, she’s called Mouth — there are a lot of strangely named things in this book). They live in one of two main cities on a planet called January, in the sliver of habitable space between scorching sunlight and unforgiving, freezing night. Early in the book, Sophie takes the fall for something dumb her roommate, Bianca (with whom she is falling in love) did, and the police make an example of her, which brings her into contact with the night and its inhabitants. Mouth, on the other hand, is uncouth and scrappy, and she’s also the only surviving member of a society of traveling nomads, and she grapples with her identity, her memories, and where she fits.
All in all, this book has a lot going for it. The relationship between Sophie and Bianca is compelling and hard to look away from, and Mouth’s character arc was a lot more of a journey than I’d expected. There are themes of environmentalism and totalitarianism and more. It just didn’t necessarily keep me hooked, and it took me nine days to finish (whereas I usually average more like three or four).
Anyway, TL;DR: I liked this okay but didn’t love it, but that could be a me thing, and there is plenty here to love.
Content Warnings
Police brutality (non-racial)
Homophobia
Violence
Toxic relationship/friendship
The Bone Maker
The Bone Maker was a fun, creative standalone fantasy novel. I loved the characters, and I thought it did well with the “heroes: where are they now” premise.
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor—a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived.
Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice—for each day he lives, she will live one less.
She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. The dead are burned—as are any bone workers who violate the law. Yet Kreya knows where she can find the bones she needs: the battlefield where her husband and countless others lost their lives.
But defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility. Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all.
Five warriors—one broken, one gone soft, one pursuing a simple life, one stuck in the past, and one who should be dead. Their story should have been finished. But evil doesn’t stop just because someone once said, “the end.”
TL;DR Review
The Bone Maker was a fun, creative standalone fantasy novel. I loved the characters, and I thought it did well with the “heroes: where are they now” premise.
For you if: You are looking for a quick, in-and-out foray into a new fantasy universe in between longer series.
Full Review
When I read the premise for The Bone Maker — a team of heroes, 25 years after they defeated the bad guy — and saw it was by Sarah Beth Durst, who has a zillion fantasy novels, I was on board. I’d read (and enjoyed) Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth, which is also a “heroes: where are they now” story, and I was happy to read another book with that kind of timeline.
I thought this was very well done. It’s a standalone, which is so rare in fantasy as to be refreshing. You get in, fall in love with some characters, go on an adventure, and get out. In this case, the main character is Kreya, who can animate constructs using animal bones. But in the 25 years since her husband was killed in the battle that made them heroes, she’s sequestered herself and learned the forbidden kind of bone magic that brings him back. That goal brings her back into contact with her friends — and they discover that evil may not be as vanquished as they thought.
I think the thing I loved most about this book was that even though it obviously deals with death and grief and trauma, it also managed to have lots and lots of moments that felt lighthearted and funny. The characters are lovable and entertaining, and the dialogue was often just plain fun. The worldbuilding also felt nice and satisfying despite this being a standalone (which is impressive), with just enough backstory to get us through this adventure without weighing us down too much.
If you are looking for a quick dip into fantasy between heavier reads or big series, this could be a really great choice!
Content Warnings
Death of a spouse
Violence/blood
The Performance
The Performance is excellent. It’s deeply layered; impressive from a craft perspective but also approachable, emotional, and resonant.
Author: Claire Thomas
Publisher: Riverhead
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
A novel about three women at turning points in their lives, and the one night that changes everything.
One night, three women go to the theater to see a play. Wildfires are burning in the hills outside, but inside the theater it is time for the performance to take over.
Margot is a successful, flinty professor on the cusp of retirement, distracted by her fraught relationship with her adult son and her ailing husband. After a traumatic past, Ivy is is now a philanthropist with a seemingly perfect life. Summer is a young drama student, an usher at the theater, and frantically worried for her girlfriend whose parents live in the fire zone.
While the performance unfolds on stage, so does the compelling trajectory that will bring these three women together, changing them all. Deliciously intimate and yet emotionally wide-ranging, The Performance is a novel that both explores the inner lives of women as it underscores the power of art and memory to transform us.
TL;DR Review
The Performance is excellent. It’s deeply layered; impressive from a craft perspective but also approachable, emotional, and resonant.
For you if: You read literary fiction and like character-driven novels, and especially if you love the theatre.
Full Review
As soon as I heard the premise of The Performance — a novel from the perspectives of three women watching the same play as wildfires rage nearby — I was all in. And my friends, I was not disappointed. This book is excellent, from the perspective of both craft and enjoyment. It’s got so many delicious layers, not to mention deeply resonant characters. All in less than 250 pages.
The three women are Margot, an English professor nearing retirement age with private struggles at home; Summer, an usher and theatre student whose girlfriend’s family is in the path of the wildfires; and Ivy, who has a young child and also a large inheritance she’s hoping to use for good. They’re watching Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, which is about a woman who is literally stuck in the ground, from the waist down, in a hill, as she prattles to her husband (who walks free), aching for his love and attention. The chapters alternate between the three women and the book takes place from the beginning of the play through the end.
What’s really cool about the book is that you absolutely do not have to know anything about the play (I didn’t) to feel engaged and understand what’s happening — the premise and dialogue are simple enough — and holy moly, metaphoric enough — to give you everything you need. And it’s incredible how Thomas has taken it and filtered it through these three women’s lived experiences and life stories to show what it meant to each of them while giving us plenty of backstory, perspective, and reasons to love them.
There is so much more I could talk about. The layers of the title — the play itself, the face we put on for others, the pieces of ourselves we hide from, and much more. The characters themselves, who are big and real and show us readers new things about the world and being human. But in the interest of not rambling, I’ll just say this: Read it.
Content Warnings
Domestic abuse
Dementia
SIDS/child death
Panic attacks
Miscarriage/infertility (briefly mentioned)
The Unbroken (Magic of the Lost, #1)
The Unbroken manages to flip tropes on their heads and make big statements while giving fantasy lovers all the things they love: an underdog, a mystery, magic, and a world worth fighting for.
Author: C.L. Clark
Publisher: Orbit
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.
Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.
Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale.
TL;DR Review
The Unbroken manages to flip tropes on their heads and make big statements while giving fantasy lovers all the things they love: an underdog, a mystery, magic, and a world worth fighting for.
For you if: You’re looking for sapphic, BIPOC epic fantasy.
Full Review
Here are the things you need to know to get excited for The Unbroken: It’s a sapphic epic fantasy novel set in a place based on Northern Africa about the brutality of colonialism. With disability rep. You in yet??
There are two main characters: Touraine, who is a conscript (read: slave) in the empire’s army, and Luca, the empire’s princess whose throne is threatened by her uncle. Touraine’s company and the princess arrive in Qazāl, the empire’s colony where Touraine was born before she was taken by the empire, to try to settle the local rebellion. Soon, Touraine finds herself in Luca’s employ as a negotiator, caught between two worlds (one she doesn’t know, and one who will never accept her), trying to find a way to protect her friends who are sure to be caught in any crossfire.
Let me tell you, this plot is a roller coaster. Soooo much happens. I actually did think that the book felt a little too long, but at the same time, I’m not sure what I would have cut. It’s filled with big, full characters faced with no good choices doing the best they can to achieve their own goals. It was full of action and twists and shocking moments and had a big, exciting ending.
The depiction of colonialism here is one place where it really shines — because it shows clearly that ultimately, there are no winners, just bloodshed. No good choices, only bloody ones. The impossible dichotomy between greater good and personal safety; the prospect of dying for a cause versus preserving a life that will be, but never quite how you want.
I also always love the power of fantasy to create worlds in which society’s view of gender and sexuality need not be bound by the norms and biases we face in real life. And this book does it very, very well.
A winner, for sure. I can’t wait to read the next one.
Content Warnings
Ableism
Slavery and racism
Torture and confinement
Rape threats
Panic attacks
Executions
Violence
Song of Solomon
What can I say about Song of Solomon that hasn’t been said before, and a hundred ways? Toni Morrison continues to blow me away in a way that I never could have been prepared for.
Author: Toni Morrison
Publisher: Vintage (this paperback edition)
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.
Full Review
What can I possibly say about Song of Solomon that hasn’t been said before, and a hundred ways? This was Toni Morrison’s third book and so third in my journey to read through all her novels, and she continues to blow me away in a way that I never could have been prepared for.
Song of Solomon is about a character named Milkman Dead (the first is a nickname, the second is real), and it follows him from childhood through adulthood, examining the way he internalizes and begins to acknowledge his gender and class privilege in a world that affords him no racial privilege, with so many complex relationships and morals. The second part of the book, in particular, blew my mind — she is just so good.
Toni Morrison’s ability to see into the human condition — hearts and minds and trauma and ego — is literally unparalleled. She writes characters that breathe with life and imperfection and yet feel like all of us. She writes words like birds use their wings: naturally and in a way the rest of us can only hope to imitate. The other people up for the Nobel Prize never stood a chance.
Content Warnings
Racism and racial slurs
Suicide
Sexism
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a short but super impactful collection of stories. They’re sharp, incredibly crafted, and deeply resonant.
Author: Deesha Philyaw
Publisher: West Virginia University Press
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.
TL;DR Review
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a short but super impactful collection of stories. They’re sharp, incredibly crafted, and deeply resonant.
For you if: You like short stories (or you want to, but haven’t found any that work well for you yet).
Full Review
The past six months or so have been excellent for the publicity of incredible short story collections by incredible black women writers — The Office of Historical Corrections, Milk Blood Heat, and this one, to name a few — and I am HERE for it. Add this one to your TBR, friends, if it’s not already, because it’s really, really good. (Don’t take my word for it, though: It was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Story Prize.)
Anyway, Deesha Philyaw knocked my socks off. This clocks in at only 179 pages, but it packs a real punch, with stories that feel like they were crafted with an X-Acto knife. They’re each about a Black woman, from young adults to old women, caught between desire, self, and church, and how those things play into identity.
I listened to this collection on audiobook, and it worked really well in that format (and the narration was excellent). Sharp, moving, carefully observed, and deeply resonant, there isn’t a single story that won’t be bopping around my brain for a long time. I think my favorite was “How to Make Love to a Physicist” (because let’s be real, I’m a sap), but really they were all just so good. Pick this one up, even if short stories aren’t usually your thing.
Content Warnings
Sexual content
Homophobia/disownment
Adult/minor relationship
Dementia
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
Author: Arkady Martine
Publisher: Tor
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident — or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion — all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret--one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life — or rescue it from annihilation.
A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.
TL;DR Review
A Memory Called Empire is an impressively built space opera, with complex politics, great characters, and lots to say about colonization and culture.
For you if: You like books with intricate world-building.
Full Review
“In Teixcalaan, these things are ceaseless: star-charts and disembarkments.”
It didn’t take long for me to understand why A Memory Called Empire won the Hugo Award. This book is a dazzling, towering display of how worldbuilding can meet cultural commentary. In it, a young woman named Mehit is sent from her home station, which is currently independent from the universe’s massive empire (colonizer) Teixcalaan, as ambassador. She loves her home and culture, but she loves Teixcalaan as well — its dedication to poetry and story and more. To help her in her new role, she’s inherited a form of her predecessor’s consciousness. But when she gets there, her connection is severed, and she finds herself alone and smack dab in the center of several masterfully woven plots.
This book is “soft” sci-fi, which basically means that there’s more emphasis on the fi than the sci — the science doesn't have to be totally plausible, and the emphasis is more on worldbuilding and story. (Think Hitchhiker’s Guide, or The Left Hand of Darkness.) This subgenre is often really great for fantasy readers. This one is a “space opera,” which in the fantasy world would be called epic fantasy.
This was not the fastest-paced book I’ve ever read — there was a lot of time spent on the characters puzzling through information — but it absolutely sucked me in. It’s one of the most impressive political worlds I have ever read; it was basically an action-packed political mystery in outer space, which … yeah. I also LOVED the characters (despite the fact that it’s a little hard to keep track of them at first, with Teixcalaanli names like “Three Seagrass” and “Twelve Azalea”).
I also really appreciated the moral complexity Martine is building here. The dedication says, “This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own.” Mehit loves Teixcalaan and finds friendship in the Capital. But she also notices and feels hurt by the ways they see her as “other,” no matter how close they become. And she has a fierce love for her home and her own people’s unique culture that she doesn’t want to see swallowed. In the second book/conclusion (which was just published!), I have a feeling we’re going to see her grapple with this even more, as Teixcalaan will fight to save itself from a new threat — but should her beloved Teixcalaan be saved? (I purchased it immediately.)
Bottom line: This book won’t be for everyone, but it’s absolutely a masterpiece.
Content Warnings
Suicide (sacrifice, not depression)
Xenophobia
Blood
Burnt Sugar
Burnt Sugar is not going to be for everyone, but I found it to be a beautifully, carefully written novel about memory and childhood trauma with an A+ ending.
Author: Avni Doshi
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, a searing literary debut novel set in India about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal
“I would be lying if I say my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure,” says Antara, Tara’s now-adult daughter.
In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her marriage to join an ashram, and while Tara is busy as a partner to the ashram’s spiritual leader, Baba, little Antara is cared for by an older devotee, Kali Mata, an American who came to the ashram after a devastating loss. Tara also embarks on a stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents) and spends years chasing a disheveled, homeless artist, all with young Antara in tow. But now Tara is forgetting things, and Antara is an adult — an artist and married — and must search for a way to make peace with a past that haunts her as she confronts the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her.
Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar unpicks the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds mother and daughter. Is Tara’s memory loss real? Are Antara’s memories fair? In vivid and visceral prose, Tibor Jones South Asia Prize–winning writer Avni Doshi tells a story, at once shocking and empathetic, about love and betrayal between a mother and a daughter. A journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth, Burnt Sugar is a stunning and unforgettable debut.
TL;DR Review
Burnt Sugar is not going to be for everyone, but I found it to be a beautifully, carefully written novel about memory and childhood trauma with an A+ ending.
For you if: You like books about complex mother-daughter relationships, and/or want to add more South Asian authors to your list.
Full Review
“I suffered at her hands as a child, and any pain she subsequently endured appeared to me to be a kind of redemption — a rebalancing of the universe, where the rational order of cause and effect aligned. But now, I can't even the tally between us. The reason is simple — my mother is forgetting and there is nothing I can do about it. There is no way to make her remember the things she has done in the past, no way to baste her in guilt.”
Burnt Sugar, originally published under the title Girl in White Cotton and now listed for both the Booker and Women’s Prize, is one of those novels that will leave you thinking about it for a long time, whether you loved it or not. It took me a little bit to fall into its rhythm, but once I did, I was very much drawn in — and the ending really brought everything together in an impressive, explosive way.
The book is about a woman named Antara, whose mother, Tara, is currently experiencing early signs of memory loss, possibly dementia or Alzheimer’s. Tara was (to put it lightly) not a great mother to Antara growing up, and today Antara must pick apart that trauma as her mother seems to forget it. But memory is personal to each of us, and Antara is not the most reliable of narrators. We flash back between past and present, and by the time we get to the end, who are we to say what is real?
From a craft perspective, this novel is exquisite. Avni Doshi’s sentences are *chefs kiss* and the way she builds and weaves themes and character — the way they crash into each other at the end — is incredibly impressive. It feels quite literary. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who’ve said, like me, it took them some time to fall into the story’s groove. (This is definitely not one to be forced if you aren’t feeling in the mood.) Some ultimately enjoyed it more than others. But everyone agreed that the ending was excellent, and all said that they’ll be thinking about this one for a long time.
Content Warnings
Toxic parental relationship
Child abuse
Dementia
Pedophilia / rape
Pregnancy / childbirth
The Girls Are All So Nice Here
The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a brutal, twisted thriller with a wild ending, told from the perspective of the mean girl herself.
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before—and will stop at nothing to get it—in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire.
A lot has changed in the years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she’s worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads “We need to talk about what we did that night.”
It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything.
At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl who paid the price.
Alternating between the reunion and Amb’s freshman year, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a shocking novel about the brutal lengths girls can go to get what they think they’re owed, and what happens when the games we play in college become matters of life and death.
TL;DR Review
The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a brutal, twisted thriller with a wild ending, told from the perspective of the mean girl herself.
For you if: You like thrillers and narrators that people love to hate.
Full Review
First, big thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me an advance copy of this one. I veryyy rarely read thrillers; they just aren’t my thing. But every once in a while it’s nice to mix things up and read something different from the heavier literary fiction and complex fantasy I gravitate to.
The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a mean girls story flipped inside out: The narrator is the bully. That, in itself, is a really interesting choice that makes this book do something that others in the genre don’t. Ambrosia “Amb” Wellington is a pretty terrible person, all of it stemming from an overwhelming hunger to feel accepted and validated. The timeline flips back and forth between her freshman year of college and what happened with her roommate, and the present day at her 10-year college reunion as she desperately tries to hide her secrets (and past self) from her husband.
There’s no doubt that Laurie Elizabeth Flynn can write a story that keeps you reading. The ending of this one wasn’t so much a twist — the devastating details are revealed gradually throughout — as a shock. I just never would have expected her to do that. And the epilogue is the WTF icing on the cake.
This is an uncomfortable, brutal, gripping story about the devastating effects of the toxic gender expectations that lead women to hurt and compete with one another. If you like to read thrillers and are looking for something that sets itself apart with interesting choices (not to mention an author who’s sure to be a new talent to follow), pick this one up.
Content Warnings
Rape
Suicide and explicit suicidal statements
Bullying
Excessive alcohol and drug use
All the Tides of Fate (All the Stars and Teeth, #2)
All the Tides of Fate is a good conclusion to the All the Stars and Teeth duology. These books are fast-paced, easy to read, creative, and fun escapism.
Author: Adalyn Grace
Publisher: Imprint
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
***Description is spoiler for All the Stars and Teeth***
Through blood and sacrifice, Amora Montara has conquered a rebellion and taken her rightful place as queen of Visidia. Now, with the islands in turmoil and the people questioning her authority, Amora cannot allow anyone to see her weaknesses.
No one can know about the curse in her bloodline. No one can know that she’s lost her magic. No one can know the truth about the boy who holds the missing half of her soul.
To save herself and Visidia, Amora embarks on a desperate quest for a mythical artifact that could fix everything ― but it comes at a terrible cost. As she tries to balance her loyalty to her people, her crew, and the desires of her heart, Amora will soon discover that the power to rule might destroy her.
TL;DR Review
All the Tides of Fate is a good conclusion to the All the Stars and Teeth duology. These books are fast-paced, easy to read, creative, and fun escapism.
For you if: You need a good-guy-pirate love interest in your next read.
Full Review
“I know you well enough to know that you’re hiding something,” he says. “There’s more to this than you’re telling me. But I’ll play your game, and I hope you give it your best shot with those boys. Because you’re going to be sorely disappointed when you discover that not one of them is me.”
I read All the Stars and Teeth early last year, when it first came out, because Tomi Adeyemi blurbed it. I enjoyed it (hello, good guy pirate love interest), and so when All the Tides of Fate was released this year, I joined the library waitlist. I thought it was a good conclusion to a fun, fast-paced, creative, escapist story overall. (And again: hot pirates.)
The duology is about a girl named Amora, who is the princess of Visidia and heir to her father’s throne. While each of the islands in the kingdom practices a special kind of magic, her family is the only one allowed to practice soul magic — or so everyone thinks. In the first book, Amora’s journey led her to claiming her rightful place. In the second book, she has to pick up the pieces of everything that got broken along the way — breaking curses, healing from grief, ruling with confidence and selflessness. She’s no longer saving the world; she’s working to guarantee its future.
These books feel like they’re on the lower end of the YA reading level — they deal with heavy themes but without too many trigger warnings, they read really fast, and the romantic scenes are handled delicately. But I really liked them for what they are. The world-building is creative, the characters are so lovable, the (again) pirate love interest is a HEART THROB imo, and it’s filled with adventure and morals and magic.
I also appreciated how this book, specifically, handled grief — how it hurts for a long time, how you can’t let it consume you even when it feels easier, how you are allowed to have selfish moments as you heal, and how you aren’t alone, no matter how alone you feel.
If you’re looking for a fast-paced read to escape from real life for a little bit, this feels like a good choice!
Content Warnings
Panic attacks
Grief
Death of a parent
How We Disappeared
How We Disappeared is a moving, well-written novel that brings to life the experiences of “comfort women” in Singapore during WWII.
Author: Jing-Jing Lee
Publisher: Hanover Square Press (US edition)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child.
In a neighboring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is strapped into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced into sexual slavery as a "comfort woman." After sixty years of silence, what she saw and experienced still haunts her.
In the year 2000, twelve-year-old Kevin is sitting beside his ailing grandmother when he overhears a mumbled confession. He sets out to discover the truth, wherever it might lead, setting in motion a chain of events he never could have foreseen.
Weaving together two timelines and two very big secrets, this stunning debut opens a window on a little-known period of history, revealing the strength and bravery shown by numerous women in the face of terrible cruelty. Drawing in part on her family's experiences, Jing-Jing Lee has crafted a profoundly moving, unforgettable novel about human resilience, the bonds of family and the courage it takes to confront the past.
TL;DR Review
How We Disappeared is a moving, well-written novel that brings to life the experiences of “comfort women” in Singapore during WWII.
For you if: You are a fan of literary historical fiction.
Full Review
I picked up How We Disappeared because it was longlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize. I don’t think I would have read it otherwise — historical fiction (even literary historical fiction) isn’t one of my go-to genres — but I enjoyed it, and it definitely made a nice addition to my list.
The novel is a portrayal of the imagined experiences of “comfort women” (sex slaves) during the Japanese occupation of Singapore during WWII, centering on a young girl named Wang Di. It alternates between the past and today, as she grapples with the loneliness of new widowhood and a secret past that sits heavily on her shoulders. Meanwhile, a young boy named Kevin seeks to solve a mystery left behind by his recently deceased grandmother.
The characters in this book are what makes it shine — I rooted so hard for Kevin, and my heart broke for Wang Di. As you might expect from a book about sexual enslavement, there are parts that are difficult to read. But the novel stands as a beautiful ode to and remembrance of the women who suffered. I recommend this one if you like historical fiction, and especially if you’re looking for a time period and location that isn’t often featured in novels.
Content Warnings
Rape / sexual slavery
Confinement
Pregnancy
Death of a child
War violence
Ableism / bullying
Nightingale Point
Nightingale Point is a novel packed with great characters in situations that highlight the complexity of emotions and trauma. I liked it.
Author: Luan Goldie
Publisher: HarperCollins (US edition)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
One ordinary day. One extraordinary event. Their lives changed forever.
On an ordinary Saturday morning in 1996, the residents of Nightingale Point wake up to their normal lives and worries.
Mary has a secret life that no one knows about, not even Malachi and Tristan, the brothers she vowed to look after.
Malachi had to grow up too quickly. Between looking after Tristan and nursing a broken heart, he feels older than his twenty-one years.
Tristan wishes Malachi would stop pining for Pamela. No wonder he's falling in with the wrong crowd, without Malachi to keep him straight.
Elvis is trying hard to remember to the instructions his care worker gave him, but sometimes he gets confused and forgets things.
Pamela wants to run back to Malachi but her overprotective father has locked her in and there's no way out.
It's a day like any other, until something extraordinary happens. When the sun sets, Nightingale Point is irrevocably changed and somehow, through the darkness, the residents must find a way back to lightness, and back to each other.
TL;DR Review
Nightingale Point is a novel packed with great characters in situations that highlight the complexity of emotions and trauma. I liked it.
For you if: You like emotional, multi-POV novels.
Full Review
Nightingale Point was longlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize, and I’m glad it was, because I’m not sure I would have heard about it or picked it up otherwise. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I’m actually coming to appreciate it even more the longer it sits with me.
Inspired by true events, the story features a set of characters who all live in an apartment complex called Nightingale Point. Then one day, there’s a terrible tragedy, and it destroys pretty much everything they know. The rest of the novel is dedicated to the examination of all their different manifestations of trauma and steps toward healing.
What I think I liked best about this book was the really complex emotional situations she put her characters in. It’s not just the trauma from the event itself — it’s the twisty, layered, and sharply realistic way their very selves respond to that trauma, internalize it, and seek to heal. I also ended up listening to this one’s audiobook (which was great, btw), and the multiple-narrator cast really brought all these characters to life.
If you are one for multiple POVs and a close look at what makes us human, you might like this one too.
Content Warnings
Ableism / slurs for people with disabilities
Overt racism
PTSD and mental illness
Confinement / child abuse
The Prophets
Author: Robert Jones Jr.
Publisher: G.P. Putnam
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
A novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.
Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man — a fellow slave — seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.
With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and the enslaved alike to tell the story of these two men; from Amos the preacher to the calculating slave-master himself to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries — of ancestors and future generations to come — culminate in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.
TL;DR Review
The Prophets is gorgeous, emotional, ambitious, incredible debut. One to be read slowly and savored. It deserves all the attention it’s gotten.
For you if: You like emotional literary fiction with poetic prose.
Full Review
“Samuel had told Isaiah earlier in the morning to let himself lie, let himself rest, remember the moments. It would be considered theft here, he knew, but to him, it was impossible to steal what was already yours — or should have been.”
As soon as you start reading The Prophets, you know that you’re in for something reverent. The references to Toni Morrison and James Baldwin hold up. Equally hopeful and devastating, rich with meaning and tradition, and written with prose that leaps off the page and sings, this is one I could easily see being nominated for the Booker Prize.
The Prophets takes place on a Southern plantation, passing narration among a sweeping set of characters and centering on two enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah. They fit together, are just plain right together. But eventually, the knowledge of who they are to one another begins to make its way to the family who owns the plantation. Infused into the story are the voices of ancestors, the story of a people torn apart by the slave trade, and so much more.
The longer I let this story sit, the more impressed I become by its scope and ambition. I barely even feel fit to review it. There were a few moments where I felt lost or had trouble with the pacing, but it’s important to keep in mind that this book — and especially the parts I stumbled on — was not written for me. Overall, The Prophets is a masterpiece, and critics know it.
Content Warnings
Rape
Slavery and racial slurs used during that time
Religious homophobia
Infanticide
Milk Fed
Milk Fed is a visceral, bodily, sharply written novel about disordered eating, sexual hunger, spirituality, and the balance between freedom and control.
Author: Melissa Broder
Publisher: Scribner
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Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
A scathingly funny, wildly erotic, and fiercely imaginative story about food, sex, and god from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today.
Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting — until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.
Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam — by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family — and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.
Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche — both sacred and profane.
TL;DR Review
Milk Fed is a visceral, bodily, sharply written novel about disordered eating, sexual hunger, spirituality, and the balance between freedom and control.
For you if: You’re interested in stories that explore different types of desire (and can handle intense descriptions of disordered eating and sexual content).
Full Review
Milk Fed has been making the rounds in the weeks since it was published, and I can see why. This book is ~a lot~, but Melissa Broder is one of those talented writers who seems to have x-ray vision into the deepest parts of people, and a unique skill in bringing those things out with words.
Rachel’s life is defined by her eating disorder and body dysmorphia. But she’s hungry in more ways than one — she’s also got an intense and free sexual appetite, and her perspectives on food, freedom, and desire twist and turn around each other. Then she meets Miriam, a closeted Orthodox Jewish woman whose family and affection centers food — essentially, the reverse of Rachel’s cage and freedom. And Rachel’s sense of self begins to slowly, but not comfortably, change.
A word of warning: If you have food-related triggers or sensitivity to these topics, tread carefully or skip this one — Rachel talks about her disordered eating habits in detail and with reverence. The sexual content is also explicit and very descriptive. But as you can imagine, for those who are prepared for that kind of content, the two entwine to create the kind of writing that really, really does something beyond words.
I have not read Broder’s first novel, and I hear that one is even more intense. I’m not sure that one will be for me, but can see, here, exactly why and how she makes an impact.
Content Warnings
Severely disordered eating
Body dysmorphia
Graphic sexual content
Religious homophobia
Lore
Lore was an imperfect book, but it was definitely a fun read with an exciting story. And I’m always here for fantasy based on Greek mythology!
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Darkest Minds comes a sweepingly ambitious, high-octane tale of power, destiny, love and redemption.
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family's sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man--now a god--responsible for their deaths.
Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.
The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore's decision to bind her fate to Athena's and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost--and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.
TL;DR Review
Lore was an imperfect book, but it was definitely a fun read with an exciting story.
For you if: You like fantasy based on Greek mythology.
Full Review
“A person alone could be controlled, but a person loved by others would always be under their protection.”
As soon as I heard about Lore — new modern-day Greek mythology fantasy set in NYC, yes PLEASE — I was in. Now, having read it, my feelings about it are sort of a paradox. Because while I did think the execution was a bit clumsy, I definitely did enjoy it, and I thought the story was fun and exciting and creative.
Hundreds of years ago, Zeus punished his children by condemning them to the Agon — seven days that happen every seven years in which they become mortal and anyone who kills them inherits their power. Lore is the last surviving member of one of the great families descended from the Greek gods, and the last thing she wants is to get swept up in this cycle’s hunt. But as you can imagine, fate has different ideas.
What didn’t work for me: I thought that the world-building in the beginning could have been cleaner. Having read a lot of fantasy books, even I spotted opportunities where they could have reminded us who a person was or what a thing meant in order to help us follow along. Similarly, I found myself sort of lost during the final confrontation of the book, struggling to follow the logic of the revelations and discoveries that brought all the pieces of the puzzle together. There were also just some clumsy moments with word choices now and then, but enough to be noticeable.
What I did like: The story itself; the unique and creative world she built; the characters we can’t help but root for; and the dueling themes of freedom and destiny, history and perception; heritage and individuality; feminism and tradition.
Bottom line: If you’ve got experience following along with world-building and fantasy plots, and especially if you love fantasy based on Greek mythology, this will be fun to pick up.
Content Warnings
Sexual assault
Child abuse
Violence, blood, gore
Suicide
Terminal illness
Death/grief
Middlegame
Middlegame is an incredibly creative novel with great plot and character. I really liked it a lot and I’ll definitely be reading more of Seanan McGuire’s work.
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: Tor.com Publishing
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
New York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in this standalone fantasy.
Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.
Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.
Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.
Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.
Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.
TL;DR Review
Middlegame is an incredibly creative novel with great plot and character. I really liked it a lot and I’ll definitely be reading more of Seanan McGuire’s work.
For you if: You like fantasy novels that have sci-fi-like elements and a super creative premise.
Full Review
“For a man on a mission, a hundred years can pass in the blinking of an eye. Oh, it helps to have access to the philosopher’s stone, to have the fruits of a thousand years of alchemical progress at one’s fingertips, but really, it was always the mission that mattered. James Reed was born knowing his purpose, left his master in a shallow grave knowing his purpose, and fully intends to ascend to the heights of human knowledge with the fruits of his labors clutched firmly in hand. Damn anyone who dares to get in his way.”
Chances are if you’ve been in a bookstore over the last couple years, you’ve seen the cover of Middlegame. It’s hard to miss that hand of glory! (And yet, my brain kept mixing it up with Middlemarch, which is just…so not the same, lol.) So I’d been intrigued for a while, and when it was nominated for the Hugo Award, I knew it was only a matter of time before I picked it up. And I was NOT disappointed.
Middlegame is about a set of twins, Roger and Dodger, who were born to embody the Doctrine of Ethos, an alchemical principle that would allow the one controlling it to alter time … and the universe overall. Roger has the language part, and Dodger has math. Two halves of one whole, separated at birth, under the watch of one who would seek to use their abilities — we see the two of them grow up, learn who they are, and strive to save the world.
This book is just so incredibly creative. You can tell from the first few chapters that you’re in for something that feels really different from pretty much anything else. It’s also just really well written, with dynamic and vivid characters and a really exciting plot.
I will say that this is probably not a novel for SFF beginners. The structure and storytelling will feel accessible to those who are used to world-building and wrapping their minds around alternate rules of the universe, but it could be a little hard to follow if you aren’t used to books like that.
If you are a fan of fantasy with a feeling of sci-fi mixed in, pick this up!
Content Warnings
Suicide (explicit)
Gore/blood
Sula
I’m making my way through all of Toni Morrison’s fiction for the first time — and oh, how I loved this one. Her ability to use words to cut like a knife is absolutely unparalleled.
Author: Toni Morrison
Publisher: Vintage Anchor
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
This rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their close-knit childhood in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation.
Nel Wright has chosen to stay in the place where she was born, to marry, raise a family, and become a pillar of the black community. Sula Peace has rejected the life Nel has embraced, escaping to college, and submerging herself in city life. When she returns to her roots, it is as a rebel and a wanton seductress. Eventually, both women must face the consequences of their choices. Together, they create an unforgettable portrait of what it means and costs to be a black woman in America.
Review
“She had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and could never be - for a woman. And that no one would ever be that version of herself which she sought to reach out to and touch with an ungloved hand. There was only her own mood and whim, and if that was all there was, she decided to turn the naked hand toward it, discover it and let others become as intimate with their own selves as she was.”
I’m making my way through all of Toni Morrison’s fiction for the first time — and oh, how I loved this one. Her ability to use words to cut like a knife is absolutely unparalleled.
Sula is a story about Black women in the 1920s and 30s — it’s about the relationships that exist between Black women (motherhood, daughterhood, friendship, rivalry) and how different facets of society view Black women who live outside the bounds of what’s expected. It’s about fierceness, and love, and pain, and freedom. It’s thought-provoking, heartbreaking, frustrating, and beautiful all at the same time.
I also discovered (I’m late to the party, I know) that Toni narrated her novels’ audiobooks. I listened to her voice as I read along in a print copy, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much that enriched my experience. To hear her incredible words spoken just as she imagined them, while seeing them and appreciating them on the page in front of me — just wow. I’ll absolutely be reading all the rest of the books this way.
Content Warnings
Suicide
PTSD
Death and grief
Drug addiction (brief mention)
Redhead by the Side of the Road
Redhead by the Side of the Road is a relatively straightforward, feel-good story about opening the tradeoff between control and loneliness.
Author: Anne Tyler
Publisher: Knopf
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Cover Description
Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend tells him she’s facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah’s door claiming to be his son.
These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah’s meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever.
TL;DR Review
Redhead by the Side of the Road is a relatively straightforward, feel-good story about opening the tradeoff between control and loneliness.
For you if: You need something short and light, but also meaningful.
Full Review
“He slowed to a walk on the last stretch approaching York Road. He momentarily mistook the hydrant for a redhead and gave his usual shake of the shoulders at how repetitious this thought was, how repetitious all his thoughts were, how they ran in a deep rut and how his entire life ran in a rut, really.”
This was my first Anne Tyler novel, and I picked it up as part of my journey to read through the 2020 Booker Prize longlist. While I do feel like it doesn’t quite fit with the weight and impact of the other Booker nominees, I did quite enjoy it, and I’m glad I read it.
Micah Mortimer’s life is finely tuned — he runs the same route at the same time each morning, has a day of the week to clean each part of his home, and so on. Then his “woman friend” starts to drop some hints, and the son of the first girl to ever break Micah’s heart shows up at his door. These two disruptions are enough to crack open his eyes so he can see that his life may not be as satisfying as he always let himself think.
This book is short, sweet, and feel-good. There’s no doubt Anne Tyler can write pleasant, flowing sentences that get to the heart of the matter and bring her characters to life on the page. And while this type of story has been told before, you still root for Micah. You’re pretty sure you know where his story is headed, but it’s a joy to watch him get there.
Anne Tyler asks us to consider our own lives — whether the walls you’ve put up serve you; whether you are satisfied; whether you are lonely. Are you are the kind of person who rolls with the punches or the kind who seeks perfection? Perhaps the “right” answer is to aim for somewhere in the middle.
If you’re looking for a lighter read that still feels meaningful, check this one out.
Content Warnings
None
The Most Fun We Ever Had
The Most Fun We Ever Had is a sweeping, beautiful, crack-your-heart-open novel. It’s long, but the characters are incredible.
Author: Claire Lombardo
Publisher: Doubleday
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple — still madly in love after forty years — recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built.
When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that's to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Above it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents'.
As the novel moves through the tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt — given up by one of the daughters in a closed adoption fifteen years before — we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons' past: years marred by adolescence, infidelity, and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.
TL;DR Review
The Most Fun We Ever Had is a sweeping, beautiful, crack-your-heart-open novel. It’s long, but the characters are incredible.
For you if: You like to read family sagas.
Full Review
“She and David could talk about Wendy to only a certain degree of honesty; their firstborn was emblematic of too much for them both — too much heartbreak, too much tension, too much earth-shattering love.”
Whew. Wow. When’s the last time a book made you cry? I mean really cry, like streams of tears running down your face and you need a tissue and whole minutes — or longer — to recover? This book did it for me. It grabbed me in some specific spot right inside my heart and wrung me out in the best way.
At nearly 600 pages, I can see how someone might feel like this book is too long. But I found that I was glad for all those pages, because how else are you supposed to follow an entire family of six over the course of decades, get to know them deep in their corners, fall in love with them? It’s about a couple, Marilyn and David, and their four daughters, plus one newcomer.
The thing that makes the story magic is how deeply each of these characters love, and how precisely we, as readers, internalize and feel that love. So when they smile, you smile. When they stumble, you gasp. When they triumph, you cheer. When they cry, you cry (hard, in my case).
If you need a strong plot to carry you through a book or don’t like character-driven novels, this one isn’t for you. But if you want characters who will stick with you for a long, long time, give this one a shot.
Content Warnings
Miscarriage
Eating disorder
Cancer / death / grief
Foster care
Severe depression