As the year comes to an end, people are talking about their goals regarding all things reading. I don’t tend to put a constraint on myself, honestly. My goal for number of books read is going to be the same as it was this year – 100 books. I hit that goal pretty early and am about to finish book #223. Since it as a relatively easy hit, I’m going to keep it there so that I don’t have to stress over it. I’ve found that the more I stress about it, the less fun reading is. And, honestly, I want to keep it fun. I don’t want it to get confused in my brain as a ‘have to,’ which is really easy to do when I’m trying to hit a number rather than allowing myself to just enjoy my time.

There are a few other goals I have. First, I want to have less ARCs to read. I feel like I only want to read books that light me up in excitement instead of books I think will be good or interesting. A lot of the books I read and reviewed this past year were ARCs and I want to focus on books that are genuinely exciting for me that I feel like I would have a lot to say on. Going along with that, I want to improve my reviewing process. I’m really excited because I’ve seen a lot of growth within the last year. I used to be the person who didn’t like a book, but wasn’t able to pinpoint why. Now I can see why and I can explore the why as well.

Naturally, I would like to grow my blog and podcast as well. I don’t think there is a specific number I feel like I have to hit. I just want it to be consistent and fun. I’m learning what works for me and what doesn’t and it’s really important to me that people are able to see how much I love and enjoy doing what I’m doing. So, my biggest goal is that people are able to see and feel the love and joy I have for reading and reviewing.

I think that’s really it for the big goals of 2025. I’d love to see your goals as well!

Currently Reading

I goofed. My last update, I mentioned that I was finishing some books up and I still have almost all of those on my currently reading. I’m reading the Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a Darkness Returns by Raymond E. Feist, A Tide Of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan, and The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle.

Recent Reads

I don’t feel like I had the best reading week. I read Wrestling with Werewolves by Hazel Mack, Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh, and I finished the Lake House Children by Gregg Dunnett (Review on the blog). I loved Hazel Mack’s Cozy Monster romance series so much, but wrestling with werewolves wasn’t it for me. I’m not sure if it was the characters or if I just wasn’t in the mood for a cozy monster romance but it didn’t do what I needed regardless. Slave to sensation was fine, but still not something I’ve found myself thinking about or raving about to be honest. It’s a paranormal romance, which has never really been my thing. I’m not typically fond of how paranormal romances tend to be very episodic and following a different couple every book. I’m a no new friends type of gal and I always have a hard time with that. As for the last house children, I was sorely disappointed. I’d encourage you to check out that post to see the details if you’re curious. I’ll sum it up here as a really big expectations vs. reality issue.

This Week’s Plans

I swear I will finish most of my current reads this week. I have a few reviews scheduled for this week and, after talking to my aunt, have decided on a course of action for my podcast – she’s going to be joining me! We’re going to record a few episodes over the weekend and then we will see how it feels from then on. I love recording the podcast and have so many ideas I’m super excited about, but have found it to be so awkward recording by myself and realized that, for what I want it to be, one person isn’t really the route that I can go with it. So, we’re expecting the first episode to be out on Friday the 13th (9/13/24) and I’m super excited about it.

Thanks for tuning in and I’ll see ya next week.

Hello, all!

I am sick this week. I have the flu, unfortunately. I’m not one of those people who can read a ton while sick. It’s more like I wander through my house aimlessly or lay in bed and stare at the wall. Regardless, this is week three of Battleathon, a super fun readathon hosted by Mel Lenore Reads on YouTube. It’s been a ton of fun, I just wish I was able to actually read right now.

This past week has been interesting. I’ve viewed a building to potentially open a bookstore, finished a few books, and have been looking into the ins and outs of owning my own business. It’s a ton of fun, but also kind of intimidating.

This past week, I’ve finished 5 books. I read an ARC of Dearest by Jacquie Walters (review coming), Vengeful by VE Schwab, People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao, and The Ever King by LJ Andrews.

I’m still currently reading an ARC of Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky and The Claw and The Crowned by Sarah M. Cradit. I have not a single clue what else I’ll pick up this week.

I’d love to know what you’re getting into this week!

Information

• Goodreads: 3.95 out of 40,826 Ratings
• Age Category: Adult
• Genre: Thriller
• Series: None

Summary

An exhausted and drained mother who works the night shift strangles her deadbeat husband after he leaves a huge bruise across her stomach. With nothing left to do but try and get away with it, she goes to her coworkers for help. The audience then gets a peek into the Yakuza, the psychology of committing these crimes to escape their shitty lives, and how the detectives and determined amateurs toy around with one another.

Review

I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I’m going to talk about what I hated first, because it was only the ending of the book. I’m sure it had something to say, but I still feel it could have been done differently. The ending chapters have two-three (depending on how you look at it) rape scenes. One is a man reflecting on a past rape + murder he committed and how he has glamorized it in his head. That part I don’t mind. This is a thriller and he’s sadistic. Checks out. However, there is one other instance of rape. It is actively happening on page from the man’s perspective. It’s gross. But then, the scene happens all over again, but we’re in the woman’s perspective this time. And this was an intriguing portion – she talks about hating her body and the man because her body is responding to him. It’s a completely normal thing that a lot of women have conflicting emotions about because it feels like a betrayal and is an excuse men use – “Clearly she was enjoying it.” What I absolutely hated is how we see her grow to care about the man raping her and even tries to save his life. And then, for a small moment, wants to continue to live for him. No. Fuck that, it’s fucking gross. It is entirely possible that I’m missing something here, but I cannot and will not reread to see what it was.

Everything else was phenomenal. This is a slow burn mystery/thriller. Yayoi has killed her husband and desperately needs her coworkers help. I thought that would be the book, but there’s more. We get to see how this act deeply impacts each person. Yayoi, desperate for intimacy and friendship, becomes overly trusting and naive. She begins to see her part of the crime as less than because she’s consistently comparing her coworkers’ disposal method to her own crime. Kuniko becomes greed itself. She is driven by money and never learns her lesson. She tries to manipulate everyone around her, but is also kind of bad at it with everyone but overly trusting Yayoi and will not hesitate to sell the women out if it benefits her. Yoshi becomes stronger is some places but continues to be weak in others. She’s fragile, but able to take power where and when its available. Then, there is Masiko. Our main character, the heart of the story, the glue that holds everyone together – even if she is unraveling herself. She has a mysterious past that everyone is interested in and she’s stern and tough.

Through our characters, we get to see what it can look like for greed, paranoia, and general disdain to tear a group of women apart from the inside out. That’s really all this book is to me and I loved it. It’s a character study on how such extreme conditions can lead to people committing acts they would have never thought themselves capable of. A mother who works the nightshift taking on an extra job of dismembering corpses because she’s desperate for money? Color me intrigued. However, the slow burn character study could often be difficult to continue to read because this is a longer book and it just took so long. The ending felt like it was just going off the rails, particularly with the showdown/rape scene. It had so much going for it and so many conversations that I was genuinely interested in, but the ending just lost me.

What did you think of the book? Let me know!

Information:

• Goodreads: 4.05 out of 650 Ratings
• Age Category: Adult
• Genre: Horror
• Series: None

Summary:

Misha was told to do the one thing a gay man who just wants to make authentic, queer horror novels never wants to hear: either kills his gay characters off after they admit their love for one another or make them straight. Why? Because queer stories only sell when they are filled with tragedy. Misha, being a half-closeted gay man who shows his feelings and sexuality through his stories, refuses. And suddenly, all of the monsters he’s written as characters begin haunting him. He and his bestie, Tara, are put on a timeline to figure out what is wrong before one of his own creations yanks out their bones, grinds them to dust, and smokes them.

Review + partial spoilers:

We all know that corporate greed and the media’s unwillingness to show queer stories is a real thing. Even one of my favorite shows, Supernatural, allowed one of their characters to finally admit his feelings only when that character sacrificed themselves to save everyone else. Queer tragedy is everywhere in media. While I do think we’ve come a decent way in books (Kind of), there’s still a long way to go in television.

This book hits on how important having more representation than self sacrifice and tragedy can have an impact on audiences everywhere. While those stories do still definitely have a place, it cannot be the only place that people who identify with these characters can find someone like them. Misha, our main character, shows his sexuality and his trauma through his stories. He’s good at what he does because it comes from such an authentic and personal space. Misha makes the initial call of refusing to kill off his characters, resulting in the agency sending twisted versions of Misha’s own trauma, the monster he’s created, to kill him. And when he ultimately decides to go with what they want to save his life – the monsters are still coming for him because that’s what’s bringing the agency money now. It’s a small percentage more profitable to kill him and watch his spiral than it is to keep him alive and allow him to share his stories. It takes Misha convincing an audience to want happy queer stories for the agency to allow him to live – while still erasing A-sexual and A-romantic representation. This is ultimately their complete downfall.

We watch Misha face his monsters throughout this story. We get to see what it can be like for our main character to be able to rely on his queer friends/boyfriend without any of them having to sacrifice themselves to solve this story. His support system helps him cope and process through this. The writing is able to get the guilt of feeling unable to come out phenomenally. There was even a moment that I genuinely teared up – when Misha had an altercation with his friend and his friend’s brother. He has never been accepted for who he is until he met these two people who stand by his side no matter what. Even when what he tells them sounds absolutely bonkers, he has surrounded himself with people who show him care and love in a way he’s never experienced before.

Even when the media is shown that queer stories can be profitable, they then take it overboard. No more queer tragedy and conflicts. Only happy, good stories here. Pride flags every where, false positivity, and calling everyone ‘girl.’ The media takes one aspect they have seen of queer culture and turned the dial to 100 – exactly what we see every single June when companies who do nothing for the community any other month of the year suddenly are a hundred percent pro-queer community, as if we can’t tell most of it is performatory.

This book was fun, with body horror and a main character losing his mind as he’s hunted down by his own creations. It’s engaging and seamlessly weaves in the commentary. I loved it. It didn’t absolutely floor me and there were things that I didn’t find as enjoyable. Zeke, Tara, and pretty much everyone who wasn’t Misha felt one note. They served their purpose and nothing more. There were also moments when it felt as if I could put the book down and not pick it back up, but those moments were few and far in between.

I’d love to know what you thought of the book as well!

Information

• Goodreads: 3.81 out of 125 Ratings
• Age Category: Adult
• Genre: Horror; Thriller
• Series: None

Summary

Cancel culture is back at it in this book, but taken to a bit of an extreme.

Willow has experienced her worst nightmare: being canceled after a tweet, therefore being fired from her job, losing her fiancé, and having her life generally just fall to complete shit. There’s only one thing to do when you’re being canceled and receiving hate mail – and death threats: go to a secluded camp in the middle of the woods that doesn’t allow cell phones, obviously. Unfortunately, there’s someone here who takes cancel culture quite literally and people very quickly begin to lose their heads.

Review

Listen, I love to go camping. It can be so nice and fun. No one can argue that it doesn’t feel good to disconnect from our devices and reconnect with nature. It absolutely makes sense in my noggin that a character going through what Willow is going through would be tempted with an opportunity to just let it all go. But without a phone? You could never catch me doing that. I know, I know. The point of the camp is to disconnect from devices, I get it. I’m all for it. But you aren’t gonna catch me not having my phone so that I can call 911 if I needed to.

Despite this silly move on everyone’s end, I was expecting the atmosphere to be phenomenal. I was expecting it to be creepy. It wasn’t. There were some spooky aspects. I would be fucking terrified if someone was randomly knocking my on door three times at night. Something about it just didn’t click for me, though. Maybe it was the characters. None of them really had much to them to keep me interested.

It felt like Josh was trying to have a conversation about cancel culture, but I didn’t feel as I, personally, got anything from it. We all know that cancel culture can absolutely suck and a lot of people don’t deserve as much of the backlash as they get. I, for one, feel as though we should hold people accountable when it’s necessary. The book seems to take on the message that no cancel culture is good and there’s always something worse that someone is doing – such as murder. And I could get behind that, if we weren’t using the most bland and irritating character to show that. Willow isn’t even her real name. She’s an actor who has lost her job due to tweeting – in character – about the LGBTQ community. She meant the tweet in good faith, being part of the community herself, but it wasn’t taken that way. But maybe she wouldn’t be in this situation if she didn’t talk and tweet as if she were that character. Or maybe I just really didn’t like her, I’m not sure. I don’t feel as if this is something Josh has done wrong, I’ve liked his writing before. This just didn’t hit. It’s marketed as adult but, good god, does it read like cheesy YA. I just didn’t have a good time with this one. Whomp, Whomp.

I’m curious, if you’ve read it, what did you think? Did you have similar critiques as I did or did you find yourself enjoying the characters? Let me know!