I’m sharing another instalment of my Mini Review Mondays, the most recent of which was last week. In case you haven’t seen any of my previous posts, I do ‘mini’ reviews of books that I’ve previously read and am now ready to share my full thoughts about.
First up, I’d like to talk about Silent Sister by Megan Davidhizar. Thank you to Delacorte Press for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Grace can’t remember how her sister Maddy disappeared, and even the police think she’s lying. But it’s hard to look innocent with a missing girl’s blood on your clothes…
One week earlier, Maddy – rejected for the college scholarship of her dreams, abandoned by her only friend on her birthday – was tired of living in Grace’s shadow. She was ready to be someone new, which was exactly what was promised by an exclusive senior trip at their expensive private school.
But eighteen years’ worth of awkwardness didn’t evaporate just because Maddy was holed up in a mountain lodge with thirty classmates, playing games and learning so-called life lessons.
Now, without her memories of the trip, Grace must piece together notebook entries and classmates’ revelations to discover how her sister disappeared. And unless Grace can find out what happened to Maddy, she’ll never clear her conscience — or her name.
Publication Date: 6th August (US)/15th August (UK)
TW: murder, death, grief, self-harm, suicide, paedophilia, grooming, manipulation
My Thoughts:
Silent Sister was an excellent YA thriller that made good use of its dual narrative, drawing us into the story of Grace and Maddy.
I love an unreliable narrator and Grace is up there with the best of them. She is trying to put together the exact details of that fateful night and how her sister disappeared. Her voice is engaging and full of emotion, clearly fractured by recent events. We piece it together alongside her, meaning the impact of twists and turns are fully felt. It is such an emotive case and this is heightened by the excellent characterisation.
You also get snippets of Maddy’s point of view in the days before that climactic night. This obviously has an air of tragedy as we are aware of some potential fates that await her, but the mystery continues to loom over these pages. Both of them are driven and passionate people, with Grace more seen as the golden girl – popular, athletic and with her life mapped out ahead of her. Maddy is more withdrawn, turning to creative outlets like writing to detail her insecurities and feelings of being overlooked. You cannot help but lose a piece of your heart to each of them, despite knowing how it all may end.
This was a solid YA mystery – it was well paced with good tension and atmosphere. Davidhizar keeps you on your toes with the suspense and the building police investigation. There is a clear time pressure for Grace to claw back her memories to clear her name, even though they might in fact show her horrible truths. As you may expect from a mystery, there are plenty of surprises in store and some truly shocking moments. I also really enjoyed the exploration of true crime and the exploitative typecasting of certain characters within this narrative. There can be a tendency to forget the victims and their families in a rush to create a more sensational story.
Silent Sister is a dynamic dual narrative mystery that I would highly recommend picking up this summer.
Next up, I’d like to talk about The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White. Thank you to Daphne Press for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.
After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness-a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness-and shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. So when the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its rotten guts to the world-as long as the school doesn’t break him first.
Publication Date: 6th August
TW: transphobia, ableism, graphic violence, sexual assault, forced pregnancy, miscarriage, suicidal ideation, medical gore, medical trauma, misogny, sexism, homophobia
My Thoughts:
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth cements Andrew Joseph White as a must read author for me. They are revolutionising the YA horror genre with exquisite characters and blood-curdling scares.
Earlier this year, I enjoyed finally picking up Hell Followed With Us as it was released in the UK. With this, White proves this was no one-hit wonder – again delivering exceptional thrills and chills with a beating heart and a bloody snarl to it all. This historical horror rings alarmingly true to today’s attitudes around ableism, rape culture, sexism, transphobia and the stigmatisation of mental illness. I appreciated the author’s note that acknowledged the wider horrors of mental health treatment during this time period, which was important to consider in the wider scale of this novel. There are scenes in here that will absolutely turn your stomach. As usual, the horror can be found in the evil that humanity is capable of producing, though with a fantastical twist. I really enjoyed the world building touched upon here with a fascinating magical system and abilities that we dip into. Everything is presented through this chilling lens and this Gothic atmosphere that threatens to consume you.
At the centre of the story, we have Silas Bell. He is a brilliant protagonist, just wanting to live as his authentic self and sit within the power he holds within. The world around him sees this as a consummate threat and will do everything to destroy it. He is driven and determined to uncover the truth and gain justice for himself and the other victims of this place. It is a deeply rageful book that delivers carnage and compassion in equal measure. The historical injustices on display are all too real and line up with some attitudes carried through to the present. I love books of unbridled anger, especially when that anger has a real root to it.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth continues to deliver Andrew Joseph White’s signature brand of squirm-inducing horror that brims over with anger.
Finally, I’d like to delve into This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings. Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Saint family has reigned over the city for years, protecting its inhabitants through their thriving reaper-hunting enterprise. But reluctant heir Elise Saint faces a chilling threat: the Harlem reapers want her dead.
When new reaper Layla Quinn was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the saints, and her humanity – and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
Now reapers are inexplicably turning part-human, leaving grisly murders in their wake. And when Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers a deal she can’t refuse: work with Elise to discover how the murders might be linked to rumours of a reaper cure.
Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underbelly, confronting their feelings for one another and uncovering sinister truths that threaten both reapers and humans alike.
Publication Date: 6th August
TW: violence, death, murder, gore, racism, emotional abuse, suicidal idealation, grief, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, blood
My Thoughts:
This Ravenous Fate lives up to its title – it is starving in its pursuit of revenge in this fantasy mystery that I cannot get out of my head.
I was sold immediately when I heard the pitch for This Ravenous Fate. I mean, a thrilling mystery and a sapphic vampire and vampire hunter pairing in a Harlem Renaissance setting? Sign me up! Dennings delivers on that excellent premise in this haunting story about love, family and legacy.
Within this world, the balance of power and marked territories for each side is a deadly tightrope constantly maintained by violence and bloodshed. Some of this is overt and monstrous, whereas some of it is hidden behind a genteel smile. You soon learn that appearances are deceptive and there are long held secrets here. Caught up in it all are Layla and Elise. The former lost everything when she was forcibly turned into a vampire and is just clawing her way back to a community and sense of family. The latter appears to have it all, but the underlying reality of her family dynamic quickly becomes evident. I loved how manipulative the book was, constantly keeping you guessing. Dennings includes some powerhouse twists and turns that have a wide-reaching impact. The mystery is well-executed and builds dynamically.
This is an enemies to lovers dynamic with real stakes (pardon the pun) and consequences. Layla and Elise are very much on opposite sides of a complex power struggle that has been established long before them. There are aspects of class that are very well explored within the fantastical setting. Dennings also interrogates the racism and sexism (and intersection of all three facets) within this mystery – asking whose lives are considered worthy of protecting? It has stark parallels to our modern day society. Dennings does not hold back – the story really delves into the blood and guts of this gory mystery. I loved how fraught the book was, every move truly had a ripple effect of consequences around it. It is like an elaborate game of chess but you can only see half the board at any one time. Everything is a power play and nothing is truly as it seems.
This Ravenous Fate kicks off what is an extremely promising fantasy series with brilliant characterisation and plotting. I’m intrigued to see what Dennings does next.
A Short Book Lover 
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