The World We Make (Great Cities, #2)
The World We Make is not as strong as The City We Became, IMO, but it was still fun and smart and definitely worth reading.
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Publisher: Orbit
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
***Description is a spoiler for The City We Became***
Three-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts "a glorious fantasy" (Neil Gaiman) — a story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City, in the final book of the Great Cities Duology.
Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city's heart and wields its magic. New York? She's got six.
But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading--and destroying the entire universe in the process--the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.
TL;DR Review
The World We Make is not as strong as The City We Became, IMO, but it was still fun and smart and definitely worth reading.
For you if: You have ever lived in NYC.
Full Review
The World We Make is the much-anticipated follow-up to N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became, which tells the story of New York City’s essence coming to life in human avatars as they battle an opposing force intent on preventing the city’s birth. I really loved TCWB — especially as someone living in Jersey City (IYKYK) — and liked TWWM, although not as much as the first one.
The good stuff: A lot! Jemisin is clever and funny and so smart. I loved spending more time with these hilarious, big-hearted characters. And she just really knows how to write an exciting, engaging story.
The neutral: TWWM goes much deeper into the sci-fi part of the story, whereas the first book concentrated more on personifying NYC and each of its boroughs — this duology is an homage and critique of Lovecraftian sci-fi in a super smart way. I am afraid it might lose steam for some of TCWB’s readers who don’t do as much sci-fi, but it’s absolutely worth a shot.
The less-than-stellar part was that the ending did feel rushed and not as surprising as I would have expected from Jemisin. The reason is pretty clearly laid out in her acknowledgments: She started this series, originally planned as a trilogy, before COVID and Trump. Those things changed us, and changed NYC, while she was in the middle of the project. It took all of her emotional labor just to give the story an ending — and as a reader, you can feel it.
Still, I really enjoyed this duology and I think it’s 100% worth reading, especially if you’re from or have ever lived in NYC!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Xenophobia and racism
Police brutality (minor)
Transphobia (single incident)
Chain of Iron (The Last Hours, #2)
Chain of Iron was a fine sequel to Chain of Gold, but I mostly just want the third book. I love the trilogy’s characters and premise, but this book’s reading experience was pretty slow and frustrating.
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
***Description is a spoiler for Chain of Gold***
Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming companions, the Merry Thieves. She is about to be reunited with her beloved father. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade.
But the truth is far grimmer. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it, while her father has grown bitter and angry. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.
Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the knife-wielding killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she plans to raise Jesse from the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself may be the killer they seek.
TL;DR Review
Chain of Iron was a fine sequel to Chain of Gold, but I mostly just want the third book. I love the trilogy’s characters and premise, but this book’s reading experience was pretty slow and frustrating.
For you if: You have read Cassandra Clare’s other Shadowhunter books!
Full Review
Chain of Iron is the second book in Cassandra Clare’s The Last Hours trilogy, which began with Chain of Gold. It’s the 14th book she’s written in the (core) Shadowhunters universe, which started with City of Bones. Timeline-wise, this trilogy takes place after The Dark Artifices, featuring Tessa and Will’s children. Our main character, Cordelia Carstairs, is a wielder of Cortana and Emma’s ancestor.
I thought CoG was pretty good, and I was excited for the premise (and trope) it set up for CoI. But I’m glad I waited until the month before the last book in this trilogy is coming out, because unfortunately I think that’s the book I was really waiting for. CoI was fine, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a pretty frustrating reading experience. All the tension and conflict in this book relies on the fact that every character is keeping secrets from everyone else, and so we as the audience know everything and are just waiting, waiting, waiting for the characters to FIGURE IT OUT already. And then she loves to give you what you want only to introduce some conflict that delays the payoff. So there was a lot of melodrama and nearly nothing was resolved, lol. Plus, I thought this book was way too long — all her books are massive, and I think she’s just gotten used to it, but this one could have used an editor. Nothing moved the plot forward in the first like 100 pages, lol.
Anyway, it sounds like I hated this book, which I didn’t. Once it finally picked up, the pace was pretty good. She writes great battle scenes and (of course) romantic scenes. But I’m going to need to wait and see whether the third book gives us enough of what we want before I decide how I feel about the trilogy overall.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Alcoholism (main character’s parent)
Death of a parent
Violence/death
Miscarriage (minor)
My Name Is Lucy Barton
My Name Is Lucy Barton is everything you hope for in an Elizabeth Strout novel: warm and simple on the surface, but layered with emotion and nuance underneath.
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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 new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all the one between mother and daughter.
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.
TL;DR Review
My Name Is Lucy Barton is everything you hope for in an Elizabeth Strout novel: warm and simple on the surface, but layered with emotion and nuance underneath.
For you if: You like character-driven books with quietly impactful prose.
Full Review
Elizabeth Strout is one of those authors on my list — I read and loved Olive Kitteridge, and I know I’ll love more of her backlist, but I just haven’t gotten there. Well, having the third book in this Amgash series (Oh William!) on this year’s Booker Prize shortlist was the kick in the pants I needed to get started! And, of course, I loved this one too.
My Name Is Lucy Barton is a slim, fun-structured novel narrated by (as you might guess) the main character, Lucy Barton. She’s looking back to the period of time when she was in the hospital recovering from surgery and her mother came to sit by her bedside. It was essentially the only interaction she had with her mother in her adult life, ever since she left her family’s cycle of extreme poverty and abuse to go to college on a scholarship and then moved to New York to become a writer.
I don’t know how Elizabeth Strout manages to write characters that feel 100% fully formed from the first sentence they speak, but it’s really amazing. And her writing is always warm and simple on the surface, but layered with emotion and nuance underneath. She’s cozy and moving at the same time. This book is no different; the depth of Lucy’s relationships not only with her mother but also her ex-husband, her children, her brother and father, and even her West Village neighbors are rich with joy, pain, and humanity. She also deftly tackles the complexities and conflicting emotions of changing class, breaking free from a familial cycle of poverty.
This is a super fast read — less than 4 hours on audio at 1x, but it’s worth it. If you loved Olive Kitteridge, you’ll love this. But it’s also different enough that I think you might love it even if Olive wasn’t your jam. I’m very much looking forward to reading more from Amgash!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Medical content
Child abuse
Death of a parent
Bullying
Classism
Divorce
Small Things Like These
Small Things Like These is a deceptively simple, deeply resonate little book about a dark part of Ireland’s (not so distant) past and the danger of community complacency. I really, really liked it.
Author: Claire Keegan
Publisher: Grove Press
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
TL;DR Review
Small Things Like These is a deceptively simple, deeply resonate little book about a dark part of Ireland’s (not so distant) past and the danger of community complacency. I really, really liked it.
For you if: You like short books that pack a punch.
Full Review
Small Things Like These is a very short but impactful novel that probably never would have made it onto my radar if it hadn’t been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. But I’m so glad it did! I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.
The novel itself is set around Christmastime in a small Irish town. Bill Furlong, who runs the local coal plant, is wrestling with some mid-life what-ifs, but otherwise has a lovely life with his wife and daughters — especially considering his parentage, which includes an unknown father and unmarried mother. Luckily, his mother’s employer gave Bill a secure childhood and saved them from landing in a bad situation. In the present day, Bill finds himself face-to-face with the town’s terrible open secret, and he must decide whether to keep his head down for the sake of his family or act and risk the consequences.
This book is soooo short (only a little over 100 pages), but it packs a big punch. Claire Keegan’s prose is straightforward but also cinematic, and she does a lot with seemingly so little. She really makes you think about individual responsibility in the face of group complacency, what it means to be true to your values (in Furlong’s case, Christianity), and the complexities of morality. I closed the book and thought, “Wow, that was really excellent.”
I also really enjoyed meditating on her decision to set this at Christmastime — can any of the characters be likened to figures from the Bible? How does this story interact with the nativity? I’d say more, but I don’t want to give spoilers — but come to this month’s #BookerOfTheMonth book club chat and let’s discuss it!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Confinement / forced institutionalization (Magdalene laundries)
Religious bigotry
Suicidal thoughts (minor, non-POV character)
Bloodmarked (The Legendborn Cycle, #2)
Bloodmarked is a solid, fast-paced sequel to Legendborn. It’s fast paced and expands the central conflict in smart, exciting ways. I need the third book like yesterday!
Author: Tracy Deonn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Young Readers
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
***Description is a spoiler for Legendborn***
The shadows have risen, and the line is law.
All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new:
A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion.
But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.
Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected.
When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death.
If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.
TL;DR Review
Bloodmarked is a solid, fast-paced sequel to Legendborn. It’s fast paced and expands the central conflict in smart, exciting ways. I need the third book like yesterday!
For you if: You want the kind of YA fantasy that you can’t read fast enough (and you read Legendborn!)
Full Review
Bloodmarked is the highly anticipated sequel to Legendborn, which I absolutely loved. And while I thought Legendborn was a sliver stronger than this one (the second book of a trilogy is always a bit of a bridge), I really enjoyed it and absolutely can’t wait to get my hands on book three (someday 🥲).
I don’t want to give any spoilers for Legendborn, so I’ll just say this about the synopsis: Bloodmarked picks up pretty much right where the first book left off, and Bree has to try to absorb what she unexpectedly learned about herself while navigating a world she’s still very new to (and tends to be unwelcome in). Our favorite characters are present throughout, and we get to meet a ton of new, exciting characters too. In fact, I thought this book expanded the scope of the world and underlying conflict really, really well.
What I love about this trilogy so far is how smart it is, how Tracy Deonn has built such a sprawling world and magic system and premise that takes aim at colonialism, systemic racism, and white privilege. These books are super fast-paced, too — the kind of book that your eyes can’t read fast enough. It also takes a GREAT author to make me enjoy a story with a love triangle (I normally hate them), but wowza is Deonn pulling that off.
This was the breath of fresh air I needed after reading a lot of (good but heavier and denser) literary fiction; it reminded me just how much I love YA fantasy romance and how great it is for my mental health.
Book three, WHERE ARE YOU?
Content and Trigger Warnings
Racism
Violence and blood
Grief
Slavery
Rape (minor, mentioned not described)
Glory
Glory is a challenging but rewarding read. I liked it, but I respected and admired it even more. It won’t be for everyone, but there’s no denying that Bulawayo is masterful.
Author: NoViolet Bulawayo
Publisher: Viking
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names, a blockbuster of a novel that chronicles the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaotic, kinetic potential for real liberation that rises in its wake.
Glory centers around the unexpected fall of Old Horse, a long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup, in November 2017, of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of nearly four decades, Bulawayo's bold, vividly imagined novel shows a country imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices who unveil the ruthlessness and cold strategy required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, and the imagination and bullet-proof optimism to overthrow it completely.
As with her debut novel We Need New Names, Bulawayo's fierce voice and lucid imagery immerses us in the daily life of a traumatized nation, revealing the dazzling life force and irrepressible wit that lies barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances. At the center of this tumult is Destiny, who has returned to Jidada from exile to bear witness to revolution—and focus on the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the women who have quietly pulled the strings in this country.
The animal kingdom—its connection to our primal responses and resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairytales that define cultures the world over—unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulwayo plucks us right out of it. Glory is a blockbuster, an exhilarating ride, and crystalizes a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest of fiction can.
TL;DR Review
Glory is a challenging but rewarding read. I liked it, but I respected and admired it even more. It won’t be for everyone, but there’s no denying that Bulawayo is masterful.
For you if: You like satire, enjoy a challenge, and don’t mind anthropomorphized animals.
Full Review
Glory is NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and it’s easy to see why. This book is smart, inventive, and effective at what it sets out to do.
Glory closely follows the events during and after the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2017 — except that in this world, the country is called Jidada (with a -da and another -da!) and all the people are talking (clothes-wearing, cell-phone-using, otherwise extremely human) animals. It swoops between a lot of characters’ perspectives and mixes in alternative storytelling formats like Tweets. But it’s also all tied together with a fictional character named Destiny, who’d self-exiled from Jidada after experiencing war violence and has now returned.
This book is challenging, but I (and many others) found it rewarding. Others found it impossible to connect with or get through. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I think it’s worth the attempt! Bulawayo’s approach here with the animals works so well in highlighting the farcical nature of its subject matter and society overall, and it enables her to add extra absurdism to underscore her point that would just come across dumb if the characters were human (for example, at one point the President starts hitting on Siri).
I also really liked the more traditional verbal storytelling style of the writing, filled with lots of repetition and punctuation. It translated really well to audiobook. Be aware that parts of this book are hard to read, as they deal with genocide and war violence (including sexual violence).
All in all, there were definitely parts that I struggled to stay engaged with, and I wasn’t sorry to finish this book and mark it complete. But I do put it in the “liked overall” column, and I have a ton of respect and admiration for what Bulawayo has done here.
Content and Trigger Warnings
War violence
Sexual violence and rape
Genocide
Police brutality
Misogyny
Autumn (Seasonal Quartet, #1)
The first book in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet is a stunner, even if it makes you work a little bit for the payoff. Her prose is just so good and this book is beautiful.
Author: Ali Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Two old friends--Daniel, a centenarian, and Elisabeth, born in 1984--look to both the future and the past as the United Kingdom stands divided by a historic, once-in-a-generation summer. Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand-in-hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever.
A luminous meditation on the meaning of richness and harvest and worth, Autumn is the first installment of Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet, and it casts an eye over our own time: Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearean jeu d'esprit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s pop art. Wide-ranging in time-scale and light-footed through histories, Autumn is an unforgettable story about aging and time and love--and stories themselves.
TL;DR Review
The first book in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet is a stunner, even if it makes you work a little bit for the payoff. Her prose is just so good and this book is beautiful.
For you if: You like the challenge of a novel that doesn’t have a straightforward plot.
Full Review
I’m long overdue for my journey with Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet, so when my dear IRL friend and fellow bookstagrammer @caseys_chapters announced a year-long buddy read, I jumped at the chance. We read Autumn in November, and (as expected) I loved it.
The book is about a woman named Elisabeth who has been friends with an old man named Daniel, who lived next door to her mother, since she was a kid. They have a strong bond that was built on candor and curiosity and a love of art. We flash back between past conversations and the present, when Daniel is unconscious in a nursing home and Elisabeth visits regularly. The “present day” takes place amidst the Brexit vote, and the feeling prevalent in England at the time pervades the story.
As you might expect from the title, this book deals with themes of change, endings, and nostalgia. What Ali Smith does so well here (besides just like, everything about her prose) is mix the temperature of the nation in with British cultural references and banality and humor (see: the post office scene). This book evokes so much FEELING, even if sometimes you aren’t even sure why you’re feeling so much. You’ll also fall deeply in love with Elisabeth and Daniel’s relationship, as I did.
I will say that this isn’t a very super straightforward book, and it might not be for everyone. It’s almost poetic, but on a novel level vs a sentence level. I may have even read it too quickly myself to have gotten everything it has to offer, and I expect a reread would be super fulfilling.
Can’t wait to read the rest of the quartet!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Terminal illness
Death
Xenophobia
When We Were Sisters
When We Were Sisters is a gorgeously written novel about three Pakistani-American sisters who grow up neglected. I sunk into it and was sad to finish; just beautiful.
Author: Fatimah Asghar
Publisher: One World
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
An orphan grapples with gender, siblinghood, family, and coming-of-age as a Muslim in America in this lyrical debut novel from the acclaimed author of If They Come For Us
In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, Fatimah Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest, Kausar, grapples with the incomprehensible loss of her parents as she also charts out her own understanding of gender; Aisha, the middle sister, spars with her crybaby younger sibling as she desperately tries to hold on to her sense of family in an impossible situation; and Noreen, the eldest, does her best in the role of sister-mother while also trying to create a life for herself, on her own terms.
As Kausar grows up, she must contend with the collision of her private and public worlds, and choose whether to remain in the life of love, sorrow, and codependency she's known or carve out a new path for herself. When We Were Sisters tenderly examines the bonds and fractures of sisterhood, names the perils of being three Muslim American girls alone against the world, and ultimately illustrates how those who've lost everything might still make homes in each other.
TL;DR Review
When We Were Sisters is a gorgeously written novel about three Pakistani-American sisters who grow up neglected. I sunk into it and was sad to finish; just beautiful.
For you if: You like novels told in vignettes.
Full Review
I picked up When We Were Sisters because it was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award, but I should have known it would be a stunner — we love novels written by poets, do we not? Plus, pretty much anything published by One World is excellent.
Although it’s so beautifully written, this book deals with tough subject matter. It’s told from the POV of the youngest of three Pakistani-American sisters, orphans recently taken in by an uncle who only does it for the government money and to make himself look good. Neglected and left to fend for themselves, all the sisters have is one another. We follow them from childhood through adulthood and see how their bond changes and endures.
I liked the story a lot, even though the ending felt a little abrupt to me. But where this book really stands out is the gorgeous, heartbreaking prose. It’s told in vignettes, which I loved. In true poet-writing-prose fashion, it used the text layout in beautiful, interesting ways. I actually listened to part on audio and read the rest in print, and while I was pleasantly surprised at how well it translated to audio, I still recommend reading or reading along because of the unique, purposeful formatting.
At the end of the day, I was sad when this was over (quickly, as it’s short) and was loathe to pull myself out of Fatimah Asghar’s prose.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Death of a parent
Child abuse/neglect
Emotional abuse
Sexual assault
Racism/Islamophobia
The Town of Babylon
The Town of Babylon is a fresh, fascinating novel about suburbia, racism, homophobia, class, and the child-of-immigrants experience. I didn’t fully love it, but I think it has a ton of merits.
Author: Alejandro Varela
Publisher: Astra House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
In this contemporary debut novel—an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity —Andrés, a gay Latinx professor, returns to his suburban hometown in the wake of his husband’s infidelity. There he finds himself with no excuse not to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, and hesitantly begins to reconnect with people he used to call friends.
Over the next few weeks, while caring for his aging parents and navigating the neighborhood where he grew up, Andrés falls into old habits with friends he thought he’d left behind. Before long, he unexpectedly becomes entangled with his first love and is forced to tend to past wounds.
Captivating and poignant; a modern coming-of-age story about the essential nature of community, The Town of Babylon is a page-turning novel about young love and a close examination of our social systems and the toll they take when they fail us.
TL;DR Review
The Town of Babylon is a fresh, fascinating novel about suburbia, racism, homophobia, class, and the child-of-immigrants experience. I didn’t fully love it, but I think it has a ton of merits.
For you if: You don’t mind unlikeable main characters in character-driven novels.
Full Review
The Town of Babylon is a finalist for this year’s National Book Award (which will be announced tomorrow!). I hadn’t heard about it before its nomination, and although it didn’t fully work for me, I think it has a lot of merits and I’m glad I read it.
The main character is a gay Latino-American man named Andrés who travels home from NYC to his small Long Island town to help his mother care for his father post-surgery. His marriage is also going through a rough patch. Despite the fact that he cut off all contact with everyone from his hometown 20 years ago, he decides last-minute to attend his high school reunion. With a special focus on his interaction with three peripheral characters — his former best friend, his first boyfriend, and a person who committed a violent homophobic crime — we watch as his week at home changes the way he thinks about his coming of age as the child of immigrants, his present, and who he wants to be going forward.
This novel absolutely has a ton going for it. It examines the suburban experience with xenophobia, racism, class, and queerness in a sharp, smart way. The prose is excellent, and parts feel very engaging. I have no doubt that this book will resonate deeply with anyone who shares similar experiences with Andrés. And while I liked it, there were a few things that led me to not love it.
First, the structure just didn’t quite work for me. It alternates between present-day first-person chapters and flashback third-person chapters, many of which (especially toward the end) are from the POV of peripheral characters. The problem was that it never really felt fully polyphonic to me, just like a more convenient way to give backstory. I would have preferred to stay in Andrés’ POV more often and have our understanding of the town develop that way. The first half was also a bit slow. Finally, Andrés is sympathetic but not fully likable — he’s self-centered and (although politically liberal) close-minded, and it’s hard to watch his conversations implode, despite the growth we do sort of get to see at the very end.
That said, these criticisms are personal to me, and I know the book works very well for other readers, so don’t let my quibbles stop you if you are considering picking it up!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Homophobia and racism
Hate crime/murder
Infidelity
Mental illness (Schizophrenia), institutionalization
Addiction recovery
Sexual content
Infertility/miscarriages (minor)
Abortion (minor)
Sexual assault (alluded to in the past, minor)
The Rabbit Hutch
The Rabbit Hutch is a visceral, engaging novel with especially good prose. I definitely liked it and thought it was an impressive debut.
Author: Tess Gunty
Publisher: Knopf
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
The Rabbit Hutch is a stunning debut novel about four teenagers—recently aged out of the state foster-care system—living together in an apartment building in the post-industrial Midwest, exploring the quest for transcendence and the desire for love.
The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving the residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, a number of people now reside quietly, looking for ways to live in a dying city. Apartment C2 is lonely and detached. C6 is aging and stuck. C8 harbors an extraordinary fear. But C4 is of particular interest.
Here live four teenagers who have recently aged out of the state foster-care system: three boys and one girl, Blandine, who The Rabbit Hutch centers around. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine is plagued by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her. Now all Blandine wants is an escape, a true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads.
Set across one week and culminating in a shocking act of violence, The Rabbit Hutch chronicles a town on the brink, desperate for rebirth. How far will its residents—especially Blandine—go to achieve it? Does one person’s gain always come at another’s expense? Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch is a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and community, entrapment and freedom. It announces a major new voice in American fiction, one bristling with intelligence and vulnerability.
TL;DR Review
The Rabbit Hutch is a visceral, engaging novel with especially good prose. I definitely liked it and thought it was an impressive debut.
For you if: You like literary fiction with a dark tone.
Full Review
The Rabbit Hutch is an impressive debut novel that was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction. (It may win; as of the time of this writing, the award hasn’t been announced yet.) It was one of the few books on this year’s longlist that had previously been on my radar, so I was glad for a (good) reason to pick it up. It’s dark, visceral, and at times disturbing, but I thought quite good.
The main character in this book is a former foster child named Blandine who lives with three boys (also former foster children) and idolizes Hildegard of Bingen. However, we also meet (briefly) several of the other tenants who live in The Rabbit Hutch (a low-income housing complex), as well as the son of a recently deceased famous actress. The book opens mid-act of violence and flashes back to the few days leading up to the pivotal moment, plus Blandine’s time in high school.
Some reviewers disliked the use of periphery characters in this book, wanting either more from them or wishing they’d been removed, but I actually really liked it and thought it worked. In many ways they felt atmospheric to me, and I liked the way Gunty used them in the first and last sections to emphasize Blandine’s state at the time. I know some also thought the ending was too tidy, and although it didn’t surprise me, I actually also liked that and thought it was satisfying. Overall I was impressed with how deep we got into Blandine’s mind and character, with just enough touches of how the outside world is complicit in the systems and circumstances that led to not only the violence, but also the ways she responded and coped and changed.
Where Gunty stands out most is in her prose; the sentences are excellent and I found the book overall to be super engaging (I read the whole thing in just a couple of days). It does work quite well on audiobook, but FYI, there are some in-book illustrations you’ll miss if you only experience it in that format.
If you like literary fiction with a dark tone, this could be a good one for you.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Murder
Rape (alluded to in the past)
Teacher/student sexual relationship
Bad experience in the foster care system
Animal killing for no reason
Drug and alcohol use
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
Author: Jamil Jan Kochai
Publisher:
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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 luminous meditation on sons and fathers, ghosts of war, and living history that moves between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora.
Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, exploring heritage and memory from the homeland to the diaspora in the United States, in the spiritual and physical lands these unforgettable characters inhabit.
In playing Metal Gear Solid V, a young man's video game experience turns into a surreal exploration on his own father's memories of war and occupation. A college student in Hungry Ricky Daddy starves himself in protest of Israeli violence against Palestine. Set in Kabul, Return to Sender follows a doctor couple who must deal with the harsh realities of their decision to stay as the violence grows and their son disappears. And in the title story, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak, we learn the story of a man codenamed Hajji, from the perspective of a government surveillance worker, who becomes entrenched in the immigrant family's life.
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving, exploration and narrative of heritage, the ghosts of war, and home--and one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today.
TL;DR Review
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is a fantastic collection featuring characters either from or in Afghanistan. I found it both wrenching and full of heart.
For you if: You like great short stories and/or want to read more Afghan-American literature.
Full Review
The Haunting of Haaji Hotak is a finalist for this year’s National Book Award, and after reading it, I’m not surprised. It’s a masterful collection, equally wrenching and full of heart. I liked it a lot and am glad I read it.
Each of the stories in this collection focuses on characters who are either living in Afghanistan (usually the province of Logar), or else Afghan / Afghan Americans living in California. Some of them are loosely connected, orbiting around a man who built a life in California before an injury led to a workers’ compensation battle and financial hardship. Many of the stories also have different formats, which gave the collection overall more texture and helped each story stand out.
As he explores the ideas of survival, family, home, and the generational trauma of war, Kochai engages with the war on terror but purposefully calls attention to stereotypes by refusing to either refute or acknowledge them at all — his characters simply be, their stories simply are.
Kochai’s writing pulses with life, and there were a lot of stories here that really impressed me. The first one and the last one are especially noteworthy, as other reviewers have said, but I also really loved “Enough.” I actually listened to that one on audio while out for a run, and as soon as I finished it, I rewound and started it over from the beginning. Gutting.
If you’re a short stories person, this one is worth picking up.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Islamophobia
Death of a child
War
The Marriage Portrait
Hamnet is an immersive, engrossing novel that fictionalizes the life of an Italian Duchess in the 1550s. To put it simply, Maggie O’Farrell has done it again.
Author: Maggie O’Farrell
Publisher: Knopf
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
From the author of the breakout New York Times best seller Hamnet—winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award—an electrifying new novel set in Renaissance Italy, and centering on the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de Medici.
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Moderna and Regio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?
As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.
Full of the drama and verve with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life, and offers an unforgettable portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.
TL;DR Review
The Marriage Portrait is an immersive, engrossing novel that fictionalizes the life of an Italian Duchess in the 1550s. To put it simply, Maggie O’Farrell has done it again.
For you if: You like literary historical fiction.
Full Review
Thank you, Knopf, for the gifted copy of this book! I loved loved loved Hamnet and couldn’t wait to read Maggie O’Farrell’s latest. While Hamnet still has the #1 place in my heart, I also loved The Marriage Portrait and absolutely recommend it.
The story is a fictionalization of the life of Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici d’Este, Duchess of Ferrara. At the age of 15, she was married to Duke Alfonso d’Este, who was 27. As we learn on the first page, she died within the year. But the book traces all the way back from her childhood (daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany) and then into her marriage, which is very quickly revealed to have a very ugly side.
While The Marriage Portrait isn’t as witchy as Hamnet was, it’s just as immersive and cinematic and engrossing. O’Farrell will pick you up and place you right inside any scene she writes. The sense of doom and tension mixed with beauty was super impressive.
Come for the prose, though, and stay for the story: It had a very exciting ending, and even though I more or less guessed what was going to happen from some early hints, it didn’t lessen my enjoyment at all. But most importantly, the way O’Farrell writes Lucrezia’s descent into the darkest parts of abuse and gaslighting — the confusion, the justification, the awakening, the despair, the resolve — was excellent. Lucrezia’s emotional whiplash and her determination to adapt and continue to retain her own internal power, all while having very little external power, was very well done.
If you loved Hamnet (or even if you didn’t), read this one too!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Adult/minor relationship
Marital rape
Murder
Violence
Animal death
Trouble conceiving a child
Witches
Witches is an absolutely beautifully written (and translated!) novel told in alternating POVs. I was more engaged with the first half than the second, but still enjoyed it overall.
Author: Brenda Lozano, translated by Heather Cleary
Publisher: Catapult
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
The beguiling story of a young journalist whose investigation of a murder leads her to the most legendary healer in all of Mexico, from one of the most prominent voices of a new generation of Latin American writers
Paloma is dead. But before she was murdered, before she was even Paloma, she was a traditional healer named Gaspar. Before she was murdered, she taught her cousin Feliciana the secrets of the ceremonies known as veladas, and about the Language and the Book that unlock their secrets.
Sent to report on Paloma's murder, Zoe meets Feliciana in the mountain village of San Felipe. There, the two women's lives twist around each other in a danse macabre. Feliciana tells Zoe the story of her struggle to become an accepted healer in her community, and Zoe begins to understand the hidden history of her own experience as a woman, finding her way in a hostile environment shaped by and for men.
Weaving together two parallel narratives that mirror and refract one another, this extraordinary novel envisions the healer as storyteller and the writer as healer, and offers a generous and nuanced understanding of a world that can be at turns violent and exultant, cruel and full of hope.
TL;DR Review
Witches is an absolutely beautifully written (and translated!) novel told in alternating POVs. I was more engaged with the first half than the second, but still enjoyed it overall.
For you if: You like translated novels, and those that examine gender and Indigenous issues.
Full Review
Thank you, Catapult, for sending me a copy of Witches! I’m slowly making my way into more translated literature, and I was drawn in by the synopsis right away. Verdict: This book is absolutely beautifully written (and translated!). I was a bit more engaged with the first half than the second (although I got very busy so that was almost certainly a ME thing), but I think it was a great literary fiction choice for October.
The novel is told in alternating POVs — one of Feliciana, an Indigenous Oaxacan healer (curandera); and one of Zoe, a reporter who lives in Mexico City. Feliciana’s cousin, Paloma, who is a third gender recognized by her people called Muxe and taught Feliciana everything she knows of being a curandera, has been killed. Zoe travels to interview her about it — but ends up much more changed than she ever expected.
The most noteworthy part of this novel is the language, which speaks to Brenda Lozano’s original as well as Heather Cleary’s translation. I loved Feliciana’s voice, and how Cleary seems to have preserved her looping, lyrical cadence. The whole book is very immersive and culturally rich, even in translation.
I also loved the alternating POV structure. This is one of those books where it really does the work a favor, from a craft perspective. Each narrative needs the other, plays off the other, builds off the other, until we have something greater than the sum of the parts. The story deals with sisterhood, gender and gender roles, tradition vs modernity, Indigenous vs western approaches to life and thought, and above all, the power of the stories inherent to us and how they shape our bodies and lives.
If you’re looking to read more novels translated from Spanish, or if you just love books that feel the tiniest bit witchy, give this one a shot.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Homophobia
Transphobia
Sexual assault
Murder/hate crime
Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom Duology, #1)
Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a fun and exciting story that really just checks all the boxes: magic, action, romance, mythology, a plot twist! Can’t wait for book two.
Author: Sue Lynn Tan
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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 captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang'e, the Chinese moon goddess, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.
Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor's son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.
To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting, romantic duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.
TL;DR Review
Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a fun and exciting story that really just checks all the boxes: magic, action, romance, mythology, a plot twist! Can’t wait for book two.
For you if: You like or want to read more Chinese fantasy drama (epic fantasy rooted in Chinese mythology)
Full Review
The first half of a duology, Daughter of the Moon Goddess has been on my radar since it was published. Book two (Heart of the Sun Warrior) is coming in November, so I figured it was probably about time I finally picked this up! So glad I did; it was a great read.
This book is a Chinese fantasy drama, which is essentially epic fantasy rooted in Chinese mythology. The main character, Xingyin, has a peaceful life as (you guessed it) the daughter of the moon goddess, Chang'e. Except Xingyin is not supposed to exist, and Chang’e cannot leave. When the Celestial Empire starts poking around, she knows she has to go into hiding to protect her mother, but she vows to return and find a way to free her mother from her prison on the moon. Before long, she achieves a place as the Empire’s prince’s companion, learning and training alongside him, and eventually seeks glory in the army. But she never forgets about her ultimate goal of freeing Chang’e.
On the surface, this book has a pretty straightforward magic system and hero’s journey plotline, but Sue Lynn Tan brings them to sparkling life in a way that makes it feel exciting and special. You’ll feel transported to the Celestial Empire of cloud travel, jewels, and palaces. The book is well paced — even though it’s long, I was never bored, and it didn’t take long to read. There’s a great twist that I didn’t see coming at all, but once it was revealed, it felt so natural to the story, which was impressive.
A lot of other reviewers have noted this, but one thing I loved was how romance (note: note steamy) plays an very integral part in the story, and yet never feels like the center of it. There’s a love triangle (one that eventually dissolves itself, for those of us who do not like them lol), but Xingyin’s character development and journey is always the point.
Can’t wait to read the second book!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Violence and war
Threat of sexual assault
Abduction
Confinement
Pregnancy complications
The Trees
The Trees is a super-smart, darkly satirical novel about racial lynching in the US. Very few writers could have pulled this off — I liked it a lot and respected it even more.
Author: Percival Everett
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
Percival Everett’s The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.
The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, and does so in fast-paced style that ensures the reader can’t look away. The Trees is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance from an author with his finger on America’s pulse.
TL;DR Review
The Trees is a super-smart, darkly satirical novel about racial lynching in the US. Very few writers could have pulled this off — I liked it a lot and respected it even more.
For you if: You liked Hell of a Book.
Full Review
Before The Trees was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize (will it win? we will know by the end of the day today!), it wasn’t even on my radar. I’m glad the prize put it there, because wow, what a book.
This is a super-smart, darkly satire novel about racial lynching in the US, both historical and present-day. At the beginning, we meet the (now old) woman who accused Emmett Till and her family living in Money, Mississippi. One, then two, then three people turn up brutally murdered alongside a corpse that looks a lot like Emmett Till — and then it quickly spreads across the country. Two Black men police officers from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and one Black woman from the FBI are sent in to help solve the case.
When I say it like that, you’d think “of course this is a heavy book.” But this is satire, and Everett’s dark humor, levity, and wit make the heaviness feel a bit sneaky, like it comes at you sideways. For example, the lack of tone shift when he depicts white nationalists discussing a race war means it doesn’t really hit you right away (until it DOES). I don’t think just anyone could have pulled this off — because yes, it WORKS. Everett’s talent is next level.
One thing I just want to mention quickly is the US cover. At first glance, it seems pretty boring. One might not even notice the wall of text in the background behind the giant yellow letters of the title. But now having read it, I can’t imagine a different cover — this is absolutely the right one.
Last thing I’ll say: This book is extremely readable, with ~100 or so short (sometimes super-short) chapters and an excellent audiobook narrator. I think you should read it. (Especially, perhaps, if you liked Hell of a Book by Jason Mott — they’re admittedly quite different but feel sort of linked in my mind in tone and impact.)
Content and Trigger Warnings
Racism, racial slurs
Lynching
Murder, gore
Fatphobia
Liberation Day: Stories
Liberation Day is just plain short story writing at its best. George has given us a deeply human collection of unforgettable characters and plenty to think about.
Author: George Saunders
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
MacArthur genius and Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with a collection of short stories that make sense of our increasingly troubled world, his first since the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of December
The "best short story writer in English" (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.
"Love Letter" is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. "Ghoul" is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his "reality." In "Mother's Day," two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in "Elliott Spencer," our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed--his memory "scraped"--a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.
Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
TL;DR Review
Liberation Day is just plain short story writing at its best. George has given us a deeply human collection of unforgettable characters and plenty to think about.
For you if: You like slightly weird short stories.
Full Review
TY, Random House, for the gifted copy of this book! George Saunders is undoubtedly one of the best short story writers of our day, and so when I saw that he had a new collection coming out, I couldn’t let it pass me by. Thank goodness I didn’t! It’s just as good as we expected it to be (and maybe more).
All nine stories here are deeply human and fun to read, even when the topics are heavy. They’re also imaginative, sometimes dipping a pinky toe into sci-fi in the best way (the title story is about a man, pinned up on a wall and fed lines as entertainment for guests, who falls in love with his “owner’s” wife). They ask us: what is our reality? What is our responsibility inside that reality? What is the true self? Is control over others ever ethical? What does it mean to have hope in defiance of the world around us?
One other thing I loved was that a few of these stories played with multiple narrators, which you so rarely see in short fiction. But George and his incredible character and voice work pulls it off and then some, spinning us to greater depth and unfolding the plot like a puzzle.
Finally, let me implore you to please listen to the audiobook WHILE you read along with the print copy! Like with Lincoln in the Bardo, the cast of narrators is too good to miss (I especially loved Tina Fey’s performance of the second story), but there are some (especially the first and eighth stories) that will be hard to follow on audio alone. BOTH is the way to go, just trust me!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Gun violence
Physical violence
Infidelity
Fatphobia (minor)
Alcoholism (minor)
Police brutality (minor)
Seven Empty Houses
Seven Empty Houses is a powerful, slim set of translated stories that take a common motif (the house) and use it to pack a fresh-feeling punch. I liked it very much.
Author: Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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 blazing new story collection that will make you feel like the house is collapsing in on you, from the 3 time International Booker Prize finalist, "lead[ing] a vanguard of Latin American writers forging their own 21st-century canon." —O, the Oprah magazine
The seven houses in these seven stories are empty. Some are devoid of love or life or furniture, of people or the truth or of memories. But in Samanta Schweblin's tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back in: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, a child's first encounter with a dark choice or the fallibility of parents.
This was the collection that established Samanta Schweblin at the forefront of a new generation of Latin American writers. And now in English it will push her cult status to new heights. Seven Empty Houses is an entrypoint into a fiercely original mind, and a slingshot into Schweblin's destablizing, exhilarating literary world.
In each story, the twists and turns will unnerve and surprise: Schweblin never takes the expected path and instead digs under the skin and reveals uncomfortable truths about our sense of home, of belonging, and of the fragility of our connections with others. This is a masterwork from one of our most brilliant writers.
TL;DR Review
Seven Empty Houses is a powerful, slim set of translated stories that take a common motif (the house) and use it to pack a fresh-feeling punch. I liked it very much.
For you if: You like short stories with an acutely unsettling vibe.
Full Review
Thank you, Riverhead, for the advanced copy! This book is out in the US on 11/18.
I've always meant to read Samanta Schweblin, and now I’m very glad to say that I have (and really enjoyed the experience). Seven Empty Houses is a set of short stories originally published in Spanish in 2015 and now translated into English by Megan McDowell. As of this writing, it’s also a finalist for the National Book Award for translated literature.
While “seven empty houses” isn’t a literal description of these stories, as you might expect, there are seven of them. Each one also calls to mind an absence of some sort and a sense (or lack) of home. They explore loss and grief, the definition of home (especially as a traditionally feminine place). And while they aren’t linked, they felt like they easily could have been, especially given some recurring motifs (a love of washing dishes, a lost child, etc).
The stories are written quietly and economically; they also feel like empty houses themselves, with a consistent unsettled, foreboding tone. They were impressive from both a writing and a translation perspective. I really enjoyed so many of them. There is one story that’s much longer than the others that I struggled with in the middle, but ultimately the wait paid off emotionally at the end and I loved that one too.
If you’re a fan of translated literature, short stories, or writing with a disquieting vibe, pick this one up.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Dementia (first-person perspective depicted)
Death of a spouse
Death of a child
Grief
Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories
Nobody Gets Out Alive is my absolute jam of a short story collection. It’s atmospheric, character-driven, and deliciously layered. I was hooked from the first one.
Author: Leigh Newman
Publisher: Scribner
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
From a prizewinning author comes an “electric...stunning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut story collection about women navigating the wilds of male-dominated Alaskan society.
Set in Newman’s home state of Alaska, Nobody Gets Out Alive is an exhilarating collection about women struggling to survive not just grizzly bears and charging moose, but the raw legacy of their marriages and families.
Alongside stories set in today’s Last Frontier—rife with suburban sprawl, global warming, and opioid addiction—Newman delves into remote wilderness of the 1970s and 80s, bringing to life young girls and single moms in search of a wilder, freer, more adventurous America. The final story takes place in a railroad camp in 1915, where an outspoken heiress stages an elaborate theatrical production in order to seduce the wife of her husband’s employer.
“Rich with wit and wisdom, showing us that love, marriage, and family are always a bigger and more perilous adventures than backcountry trips” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), these keenly observed stories prove there are some questions—about love, heartbreak, and the meaning of home—that can’t be outrun, no matter how hard we try. Nobody Gets Out Alive is a dazzling foil to the adventure narratives of old.
TL;DR Review
Nobody Gets Out Alive is my absolute jam of a short story collection. It’s atmospheric, character-driven, and deliciously layered. I was hooked from the first one.
For you if: You like stories that transport you to a different place.
Full Review
I am endlessly grateful for the National Book Award longlist for putting this short story collection in my hands, because I’m not sure the synopsis would have alone, and I really loved it! I’m a big fan of a story that wears its heart on its sleeve and makes its metaphors just obvious enough for me to feel clever when I spot them — and this definitely fits the bill.
These eight stories are loosely dotted rather than connected, with a few recurring characters but every story easily standing on its own. They all take place either in Alaska or on the way to Alaska, and almost all of them center women. But don’t get it twisted — these stories are character first, Alaska (close) second. Newman merges the idea of survival, not just in the darkness of wild lands but when our lives feel dark and difficult and rough terrain; the title, when you discover it in the text, ties this idea of life as wilderness together too.
I was hooked by the first story — Newman says so much without saying it, leaves the spaces in between information rife with meaning. She evokes humor and grief and joy and loneliness in a way that just really captured my heart.
I’m sad this one isn’t shortlisted, because it’s going to be one of my favorites from the list!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Death of a spouse
Grief
Suicide (minor)
Abandonment
Alcoholism (minor)
All This Could Be Different
All This Could Be Different is a very millennial novel (in a good way) that takes a lot of what works in many successful books today, mashes it, and adds to it to creates something that feels wholly fresh and original.
Author: Sarah Thankam Mathews
Publisher: Viking
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She's moved to Milwaukee for an entry-level corporate job that, gruelling as it may be, is the key that unlocks every door: she can pick up the tab at dinner with her new friend Tig, get her college buddy Thom hired alongside her, and send money to her parents back in India. She begins dating women--soon developing a burning crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful dancer who always seems just out of reach.
But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It's then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.
TL;DR Review
All This Could Be Different is a very millennial novel (in a good way) that takes a lot of what works in many successful books today, mashes it, and adds to it to creates something that feels wholly fresh and original.
For you if: You like sad girl novels but want a protagonist who isn’t just another white woman.
Full Review
All This Could Be Different is a smart, impressive debut, and I’m very glad that the National Book Award put it in my hands. Think sad girl literature, but but make it a queer, first-gen immigrant, South Asian protagonist. Mathews takes a lot of the things that modernly successful books do well and builds on them in a way that feels fresh and novel.
The story is about Sneha, a young woman who graduated college into the midst of the 2008 recession. Her parents have moved back to India and she’s found a contract job as a corporate consultant in Milwaukee. When she’s not working, she’s on dating apps or finding girls to take home in bars, but also looking for new friends to forge connections with. Eventually she meets a dancer named Marina and they hit it off. Things are good — until they’re not.
This is — and I mean this in the best way — a very millennial book. It’s a bildungsroman (early adulthood novel) that nails the entry-level corporate hustle, the way it asks you to tie your identity to your job while you try to figure out who you are outside it; trying to climb a ladder while exploring friendship and love and holding onto yourself even if you don’t always know who you are. I think all young women understand this struggle. But of course, Mathews brings so much more here with Sneha being a first-gen, non-citizen immigrant. I don’t have those experiences personally, but I’ve seen a lot of reviewers say they felt deeply seen.
I also loved that Mathews allows Sneha to be young and imperfect and immature and a little ugly — she has some sexist thoughts and transphobic moments that wouldn’t have been uncommon in 2008. We get to see her grow and change in a way that feels true to her age and experiences, and that feels sort of rare nowadays.
This was a good one. Give it a go!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Racism
Xenophobia
Transphobia
Addiction
Shutter
Shutter is a fast-paced, character-driven paranormal thriller that doesn’t quite knock it out of the park, but does some interesting things and definitely holds your attention.
Author: Ramona Emerson
Publisher: Soho Crime
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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
This blood-chilling debut set in New Mexico’s Navajo Nation is equal parts gripping crime thriller, supernatural horror, and poignant portrayal of coming of age on the reservation.
Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook.
As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her taboo and psychologically harrowing ability was what drove her away from the Navajo reservation, where she was raised by her grandmother. It has isolated her from friends and gotten her in trouble with the law.
And now it might be what gets her killed.
When Rita is sent to photograph the scene of a supposed suicide on a highway overpass, the furious, discombobulated ghost of the victim—who insists she was murdered—latches onto Rita, forcing her on a quest for revenge against her killers, and Rita finds herself in the crosshairs of one of Albuquerque’s most dangerous cartels. Written in sparkling, gruesome prose, Shutter is an explosive debut from one of crime fiction's most powerful new voices.
TL;DR Review
Shutter is a fast-paced, character-driven paranormal thriller that doesn’t quite knock it out of the park, but does some interesting things and definitely holds your attention.
For you if: You don’t mind gore and want to read more genre fiction by Indigenous authors.
Full Review
Shutter is a fast-paced, Indigenous, paranormal thriller that was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction this year. While a lot of people are ranking it last on the list (including, probably, me) and scratching their heads about its nomination, I do think it does some interesting things that are worth talking about.
The story is about a Navajo woman named Rita who takes forensic photos for the Albuquerque police department for a living. She can also see and talk to ghosts — has for her whole life. We jump back and forth between the present day, where one woman’s ghost pushes Rita into the thick of some dangerous corruption in order to solve her murder, and the past, as Rita was raised by her grandmother on a reservation, fell in love with cameras, and struggled with a gift that was feared (and often, understandably, disbelieved) by her community.
The thing about this book is that it doesn’t quite feel like literary fiction but also doesn’t quite feel like a thriller, which is why I think it’s leaving readers on both sides a little underwhelmed. It wasn’t really a mystery, at least not to us as readers; there’s no big twist to the present-day storyline, just a steady build to an explosive ending. Still, it does have momentum (I read it in one afternoon, aided by the audiobook).
I think the chapters set in the past are the ones that earned this book its NBA nomination; Emerson really explores a lot in these sections about home and community, childhood trauma, an absent mother, and how we can escape our ghosts (literally and metaphorically) while still carrying our loved ones with us — especially using photography as a way to do both.
One last thing to note: Be aware that the opening chapter of this book has some pretty lengthy, graphic descriptions of pieces of a dead body scattered all over the ground. It was a notable opening, but kind of a lot.
Anyway, if you’re curious about this one, I think it’s worth picking up just to challenge your notion of genre and look for the things the NBA judges found. It’s a quick read regardless!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Murder, including a child and baby
Gore
Violence
Racism against Native Americans
Drug and alcohol use