ambershelf's Reviews (1.3k)

Thank you to partner Bibliolifestyle and Harper Via for the gifted copy

Switzerland, 1816. 18-year-old Mary Shelley and her lover arrive in Geneva to visit their friends. Reeling from an unimaginable loss, Mary spends her days in sorrow until a challenge to write the best ghost story reminds Mary of another summer four years ago...

Scotland, 1812. Mary arrives as a guest of the Baxter family and befriends young Isabella. The girls soon form a close bond until a charismatic yet mysterious man enters the picture.

FRANKENSTEIN is a sapphic reimagining of Mary Shelley's life and the roots of her literary masterpiece. The novel navigates two distinct timelines, weaving the past from Mary's 1st person POV and the present from a 3rd person view. The narrative dance between these timelines left me grappling with the elusive connections that sometimes remained out of reach.

I appreciate the Sapphic undertones and the dream-like quality, adding an intriguing layer to Mary's character. While her voice veers on the distant and passive, it adds to the sinister and atmospheric world Eekhhout constructed in FRANKENSTEIN.

I wasn't aware of Mary Shelley's bisexuality/queerness until this book and had a field trip going down the Google rabbit hole. FRANKENSTEIN excels in creating a hauntingly atmospheric setting, making it a perfect read for the Halloween season.

Read THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE instead

After the tragic death of the love of his life in LA, Cam returns home to Huston and crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and his family bakery. As Cam navigates his grief through self-destruction, can the two rebuild their friendship and find their way back to each other?

When a book opens with a quote from Utada Hikaru's song & has a cat named Mochi, I know it will be good. And boy, did it exceed my expectations ❤️‍

1851. In a remote village in the Arctic Circle, Sámi reindeer herders face the dilemma of holding on to their traditions or committing to the Lutheran minister's Christian teachings. DRUM is an expansive story that explores the complex geopolitics of nineteenth-century Scandinavia and the struggles between a local population and settlers. The writing reminds me of OLD GOD'S TIME (Sebastian Barry), atmospheric, but my mind somehow wanders, and I had difficulty focusing on the story

1874. In the wake of the Civil War, a 12-yo girl arrives at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum with her mom, who hasn't spoken in more than a year. As pasts converge, haunted civilians and veterans try to reclaim their lives in the asylum. NIGHT jumps around in time and features lost memories and changed names—making it a bit confusing on audio. I loved the polished & dream-like writing, while some reviewers find it contrived. The chapters on how the doctor envisions humane treatments for patients with mental illness stood out to me, and I wished the focus was on that instead. Please check TW, as I skipped one particular paragraph due to its extremely graphic nature.

18th century. The Sultan tasks a young man to carve a giant tiger automaton to celebrate their return from British captivity. The young man learns that British forces have looted the tiger as he travels to Europe and vows to retrieve his work from an English countryside estate. I loved how LOOT explores stolen art with humanity and humor. The story has the perfect balance of plot and character development, which kept me engaged the whole time. James' writing reminds me of Anthony Doerr & Amor Towles, and I actually thought LOOT was going to make it to the NBA's shortlist because of that

I didn’t understand every poem. But the ones I understood made me sob