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 Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
2025
Lee can’t remember exactly where he hid the body, but he can remember the blood. Hiding out at his father’s centuries-old home in Japan, Lee knows something is wrong with him, and he knows it has something to do with his mother’s disappearance almost a decade ago.
1877
A female samurai, Sen, stalks the borders of her home to protect her family from slaughter after the abolition of the samurai class. She’s not sure how they’ll ever survive, not without her father, who has returned from war with a different soul behind his eyes.
When Lee and Sen find one another through a door between their worlds, they’re both looking for answers. But what they find in the creaking old house they share is beyond what either of them could imagine…
Publication Date: 30th April
CW: gore, violence, death, animal death, murder, child abuse, trafficking
My Thoughts:
Japanese Gothic proved that Kylie Lee Baker is a name to be reckoned with in horror.
Bat Eater had this combination of sharp social commentary and horror that lingered in your mind. It had this wonderful atmosphere that unnerved you and this continued in Japanese Gothic. The central concept here is inspired and takes familiar aspects and twists them in completely new ways. It is a story of cyclical violence and trauma reverberating through the ages. The way this theme is explored is brilliant and with the two narratives you get a glimpse into true monstrosity. Both are different takes on it, with one being a slightly subtler but ultimately just as horrifying. Lee and Sen are both deeply messed-up people and the way their stories mirror one another is a stark reminder of how violence endures. They face similar horrors in some ways and very different ones in others. Both of them have blood on their hands and inhabit this murky moral territory for much of the book.
Lee’s narration is fragmented and you are questioning the validity of what he is telling you at times. I love an unreliable narrator and he is still so enmeshed in the mystery of his mother’s disappearance that he has never really left that fateful day. His introduction is startling to say the least but there’s no way you can look away. Sen is driven to bring honour to her family and in particular her father with acts of bravery and following the true way of the samurai. The historical moment she inhabits will not be kind to her and that parallel with the reader and Lee having a clear idea of how this will end neatly wrongfoots you. This is not a story that plays by the rules and you would do well to remember that as you navigate this perilous path.
Japanese Gothic is a book that wields creeping dread like a weapon. It is a thorny story full of surprises and an ending sequence that has been seared in my mind since the final page.
Next up, I’d like to talk about Five by Ilona Bannister. Thank you to Juniper for having ARCs available at Harrogate Crime Festival last year.
Five passengers. Five minutes until the next train … five minutes until someone dies.
It’s 7:01. Someone will die here this morning, at this suburban train station. It will happen in the next five minutes when the 7:06 to London Victoria arrives.
On a train platform, five strangers unknowingly face a chilling countdown: one of them will die in five minutes.
Publication Date: 5th May
CW: death, murder, violence, grief, manipulation, arson
My Thoughts:
Five built on a fantastic premise to deliver a pulse-pounding story that you cannot tear yourself away from.
The concept for this is ingenious and the type of hook that means you keep thinking about this story before even picking it up. It turns the most mundane moment into a game of life and death, reminding how quickly everything can change in an instant. However what really made this story sing for me was the depth and way in which Bannister decides to tell this story. It is full of nuance and you keep revisiting moments from a new angle that flip them on their head. It is all about perspective and layers with complicated, messy, flawed people. I loved the depth of characterisation we got as everything comes together in this fatal countdown. Each of these people is more than their first appearance and getting to unpick those layers in this tangled web was excellent. There’s also one character archetype that is always fun for a writer to explore and Bannister does well here.
The ticking clock here is used wonderfully. You can scarcely draw breath as you fly through the pages, all the while knowing that time is running out for one of these characters. It gives such a palpable sense of tension to the pages and means that the pace feels relentless. You move between this devastating countdown, the events leading up to it and the ripple effects and ramifications it has. This means you get a complete picture of what happens and how that reverberates out afterwards too, reminding you of how violence begets violence and that whole cyclical nature.
Five is definitely one you need to pick up. It is a very strong debut that makes me excited to see Bannister’s career take flight.
Finally, I’d like to delve into Honey by Imani Thompson. Thank you to The Borough Press for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The first time, Yrsa doesn’t intend to kill.
But the Cambridge professor sitting opposite has manipulated her friend, stolen her research. When she flicks the bee into his Sanpellegrino, she thinks he’ll get a nasty sting.
Then he’s dead. And Yrsa, who – let’s face it – has been bored for a while, is alive.
It’s a sweet feeling, finally having some control.
Publication Date: 7th May
CW: death, murder, violence, sexism, rape, sexual assault, manipulation, racism
My Thoughts:
Honey is phenomenal. If this book isn’t already on your radar, you need to rectify that as soon as possible.
Yrsa is an unforgettable protagonist. She is smart, passionate and ferociously determined to get exactly what she wants by any means necessary. There is this coldness within her, a practicality to remove emotions and kill, that is terrifying. As a reader, you have the sense of a predator playing with her food, able to leap off the page into your life at any given moment. She holds all the power and she is completely aware of this. This is a story all about control and how far we would go in order to retain it. At the same time, she is deeply loving and making the decisions she views as right in that moment. Her character epitomises the feminine rage against a society constantly trying to diminish, silence and eradicate you. She is a ticking time bomb and you cannot look away from the self-destructive spiral she’s caught up in.
The intersection of this with her class, race and the abuse and fetishisation she has experienced is profound and Thompson explores this. Yrsa has had a complicated life and you slowly unpeel some of those layers that she keeps buried deep down instead. This is reflected in the increasingly fractured narrative style as things get into darker and darker territory. I really enjoyed the way Thompson explores institutional racism within academia, justice and inequality. It is unnerving and horrifying and yet there is a catharsis to some of the story. Yrsa takes it beyond the extreme but you cannot pull youself away from her all-consuming voice.
Honey is a smart, unsettling and surprising story that utterly captivates you. This is an incendiary debut and Thompson is a talent to keep your eyes on.
A Short Book Lover 
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