Recent Reads #134

As ever, today I will be briefly reviewing all the books I’ve read since my last post in approximately fifty words.

I want to share my full thoughts on some of these books in the future, so I’ll share a brief idea today with the full review to come.

I’m Gonna Get You Back by Eva Des Lauriers

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: depression, anxiety, eating disorder, injury

I enjoyed this second-chance crossover romance and the way it explored what legacy means. The relationship built in an interesting way and the dynamic felt believable.

The Devoted by Catherine Cho

⭐️🧠

CW: murder, death, violence, kidnapping, execution, death of a child, abandonment, infidelity, sexism

This is everything I love about literary fiction. It is a brilliant debut that delivers a complex, detailed and wonderful character study and exploration of motherhood, family and love.

Full review here.

The Summer We Lied by Rebecca Hardy

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, rape, sexual assault, grooming, domestic abuse, abusive relationship, blood, homophobia, sexism

The Summer We Lied is not a book you want to miss. This is at once an introspective, detailed character study and a complex case that makes your stomach churn. It is dark, unrelenting and full of the messiness of humanity.

Full review here.

A Healthy Appetite by Katie Huttlestone

🧠💙

CW: death, terminal illness, cancer, medical treatment, body horror, fertility issues

This is an exciting new voice and one I hope we get to hear plenty more from. It is weird girl fiction with the dial cranked up to eleven and a fascinating way of exploring chronic illness, particuarly the societal reaction and endless cycles of treatments.

Full review to come.

The Last Place You Look by Nikki Smith

🧠

CW: murder, blood, violence, gore, death, injury, sexual harassment

This is the destination thriller of the summer. If you are looking for the perfect getaway, this transports you into South Africa complete with blazing heat and a brilliantly fiendish plot.

Full review here.

Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: murder, death, violence, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, grooming, gore, injury, blood

This is the type of thriller that gets under your skin and stays there. It is incendiary and incredible in its characterisation, plotting and pacing.

Full review here.

Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: murder, death, graphic violence, gore, body horror, blood, injury

I really wanted to love this book and for flashes, I did. There is a wonderful sense of dark humour and it is up to its elbows in blood. However something was missing in the characterisation for me and the ending was underwhelming.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

🧠

CW: murder, death, violence, manipulation, gaslighting, infidelity, cheating, blood, injury

Catherine Ryan Howard is a staple thriller writer for me. This is such a tricksy book built on a brilliant premise and devolves into a nightmare made flesh. It has some fantastic surprises in store and keeps a relentless pace throughout.

Full review to come.

It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce

🧠

CW: murder, suicide, death, violence, terminal illness, infidelity, rape, substance abuse

This had a brilliant opening and I tore through the pages to find out what had happened and why. The payoff for this was underwhelming unfortunately. It felt too tidy and a little too predictable for me.

Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist

🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, violence, murder, blood, gore, injury abuse, neglect, car accident

I adored the Scottish folklore elements of this book and the way it grapples with certain themes in the story. However the characterisation did not land for me and the pacing sagged mid-way through without fully recovering.

The Carrier by Ruth Newton

🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, gore, addiction

It has a hook that will ingrain itself on your brain and the journey within these pages is nothing short of a rollercoaster. This makes the most of its inspired concept to deliver a chilling story unlike any other.

Full review here.

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

🧠

CW: war, body horror, death, murder, violence, gore, blood, injury, grief, suicide

This is brilliantly imaginative and genuinely unsettling. I loved the writing style, the concepts at play and the fractured narrative style. For me, it lost steam a little in the middle but then delivered a fantastic ending.

Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls by Cynthia Murphy

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: murder, death, violence, blood, gore

Cynthia Murphy is an incredible talent in the YA thriller/horror space. This brings another brilliant idea to realisation in a story that will stay in your mind long after the final page. Brilliant mesh of history and present, art and terror.

Full review to come.

Venus, Vanishing by Rebecca Birrell

🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: anti-Semitism, Holocaust, war, discrimination, murder, suicide, homophobia

This had some fascinating things to say at times and I liked the way it explored the concept of the muse, particuarly in terms of power dynamics. The pacing and ending let it down for me, taking some of the sting out and falling a little flat.

The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager

🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: murder, death, violence, body horror, gore, war, addiction, grooming, narcissistic abuse

God I wanted to love this book so badly. At times, it really shone with this creeping sense of inevitability, atmosphere and outright horror. Others though it floundered for me and I was not a fan of the ending.

The Psychopath Next Door by Mark Edwards

🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, manipulation, suicide, grooming

This had such a bold and captivating voice. I was utterly drawn in by this tale of revenge in a twisted tale that has plenty of surprises up its sleeve. From this and One of the Family, Edwards is fast becoming an author I need to pick up.

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang

⭐️🏳️‍🌈

CW: death, murder, abuse, animal death, violence, gore, miscarriage

Great idea and somewhat plausible build-up, but the final execution was not quite for me. It felt slightly underwhelming, particuarly around the reveal and the ending.

Splasher by Billie Host

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, gore, violence, body horror, PTSD, grief, blood, injury, bullying

This was another case of fantastic concept but I am not sure the final execution quite lived up to it. The story was bizarre and bloody but the final twist did not land for me and the ending felt rushed.

A Lesson in Cruelty by Harriet Tyce

🧠

CW: murder, death, violence, PTSD, stalking, manipulation, grooming

This came into itself much more when the storylines started to converge and secrets were revealed. The build-up before that was passable but not quite gripping enough for me.

We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower

🏳️‍🌈

I enjoyed the characterisation and the quest narrative but the world-building did not quite work for me. The ending felt rushed, anticlimactic and dissipated the tension created by the opening.

A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll

⭐️🧠💙

CW: ableism, burning, persecution, sexism, witch trials

This was everything to me. The autistic representation struck a chord with me and I can see why it kickstarted a glittering career and why so many readers connected with it.

Molka by Monika Kim

⭐️🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, voyeurism, misogyny, body horror, stalking, sexual harassment, sexual assault, suicide

Kim’s work is deeply unsettling and uncomfortable. This is a book that gets under your skin and feels worryingly prescient. An important but unnerving read.

Texts We Never Sent by G. Forsyth-Read

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠💙

CW: cancer, chronic illness, hospitalisation, isolation

This reminded me of the nostalgic YA contemporaries I read when I was younger and I enjoyed the characterisation. It’s grappling with some huge topics but with sensitivity.

The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards

🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, obsession, child death, grief, blood, injury, shooting

The concept of this was wonderful and the execution stellar. It is twisty, compelling reading with a brilliant use of multiple timelines and these complicated, often unlikeable people at the centre of it all.

Death on a Lively Sea by Katy Watson

🧠

CW: death, violence, murder, infidelity, cheating

This continues a triumphant series that deserves so much love. It is a clever puzzle box of a book with great characterisation and plenty of deceit, lies and secrets.

Full review here.

Killer Twist by Jo Furniss

⭐️

CW: death, murder, violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault

Great concept, lukewarm execution for me. I didn’t enjoy the heavy focus on the romance but the mystery was enjoyable. I just really did not like the final few twists and the ending at all.

Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold

CW: death, murder, violence, gore, infidelity, cheating, manipulation, gaslighting, cult

I loved Arnold’s debut but this didn’t quite hit the same heights for me. It was tense with an interesting play between reality and something else. The narrative format was creative but something just was missing for me.

This Divine Revelry by Bea Fitzgerald

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: rape, sexual assault, misogyny, violence, injury, drugging, manipulation, gaslighting, mental illness, hallucinations

This is a magnificent ending to Fitzgerald’s YA retellings for now. It is bold and brave in its story, treats difficult topics with nuance and care and above all, the characterisation soars.

Full review to come.

Dreamland by Olivie Blake

⭐️🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, gore, manipulation, possession, racism, sexism, sexual assault

While I have previously adored some of Blake’s work, this one wasn’t for me. I unfortunately was not a fan of the narrative style, some of the key focuses and the ending didn’t land for me.

To All The Men I’ve Killed Before by Katy Brent

🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, rape, sexual assault, harassment, stalking, misogyny, sexism, PTSD

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Kitty Collins series so far for its razor-sharp balance of wit and wickedness. This is a pitch-black dark comedy thriller that comes to a brazen and brilliant conclusion here.

Full review to come.

Below the Deck by Nikki Allen

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, blood, injury, sexual assault, harassment, domestic violence, cheating

Nikki Allen is an exciting talent in the destination thriller space, transforming these luxurious experiences into pure nightmares. This is a brilliantly tense and twisty story that cuts into some of our darkest fears.

Full review to come.

The Art of Getting Hammered by Joanna Wallace

🧠

CW: death, violence, murder, gore, injury, grief

You’d Look Better As a Ghost introduced me to the complex protagonist Claire and her unique moral code for navigating the world. This brings us back to her web of lies, secrets and death with a healthy dose of dark humour.

Full review to come.

The Lies You Told by Harriet Tyce

🧠

CW: death, murder, violence, child death, kidnapping, abusive relationship

This was my favourite Harriet Tyce book – great concept, wonderful voice and a gripping story that brings darkness to life. It is a familiar story taken to extreme places and that final chapter was brilliant.

Heartstopper Volume Six by Alice Oseman

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: bullying, eating disorder, anxiety, depression

This was a beautiful and bittersweet to a ground-breaking series that has shaped a generation to live proudly. What Oseman has created is nothing short of a gift.

Our Vicious Oaths by Hayley Dennings

⭐️🏳️‍🌈🧠

CW: death, murder, graphic violence, gore, injury, grief, blood

I really, really wanted to love this as I enjoyed This Ravenous Fate but unfortunately it was quite a letdown for me. It felt repetitive, the pace meandered and somewhat like it needed further editing. I did enjoy the ending though, even as I did question some aspects.