This series hit me much harder than I expected it to, and now I’m just lolling around, sad and unsure of what to do with myself now that I read it all in about 8 days and it’s over.

It was great seeing all of the characters from the previous books come together for the finale. They truly are a fucked up little family, and I love them all.

If you like lyrical writing, flawed but lovable characters, magic, creepiness, queer romance with a dash of spice, and plots that deal with religious trauma, grief, and redemption, why aren’t you reading The Gideon Testaments right this very moment?

Firestarter was such a weird reading experience for me. It's far from my favorite Stephen King book, but "not great for a Stephen King book" is still better than a lot of disappointing books I've read by other authors. It just didn't feel as Stephen King to me: the characterization wasn't as rich, and the dialogue and narrative voice weren't as dictinctive. I also thought that the plot faltered from the time they reach Granther's cabin pretty much until... well, that's a spoiler:

Spoiler

the ruined plot that leads to Charlie escaping from the Shop alone.

I switched to audio to finish the last quarter or so.

I originally gave this book 4 stars, but then I realized that I've spent the whole weekend just marinating in it, feeling kind of gobsmacked and unsure what to say, so I'm upgrading my rating. It's a strong 4.5-5 stars.

Very Caitlin R. Kiernan, very Lovecraftian, great character-driven horror about loss and letting go and fucked up things happening to you/someone you love. Your enjoyment will vary based on your tolerance for lack of answers.

I still want to read a whole book about the astronaut wives roleplayers.

This isn’t just a sapphic vampire story; it also has some of the realest writing about death and grief that I’ve read. What an accomplishment of a novel. I’m glad that I stuck with it, even though I had trouble with the narrative voice and temporal ambiguity at first.

2.5 stars rounded up. I'm not even sure what to say about this one. It's okay, but not enthralling? This installment of the series diverges from the usual library setting, and for awhile I thought that it was going to be a train mystery a la Murder on the Orient Express. Honestly, I think that would have been better than coming up with a reason for the train and all the suspects it contains having to stop in Briar Creek and get stranded in a blizzard. There were also a distracting number of callbacks to previous books.

Read for the Trans Rights Readathon and for my personal goal to read at least 12 banned/challenged books this year. A really sweet—and sometimes heartbreaking—middle grade novel about a young trans girl striving to make herself known for who she really is. I respect Gino a lot for writing a book on this topic that’s informative without being overly didactic or losing sight of telling an engaging and affirming story, especially given that this came out almost 10 years ago. While it certainly only represents one type of trans experience, I think it’s a representation that’s valuable and should be accessible to kids.

DNF a little more than halfway. I realized that I hadn't listened to the audiobook in days, and I hadn't even thought about it. At all. I wasn't thinking, "Oh no, I missed out on my audiobook today." I wasn't wondering what was going to happen. And I think that's reason enough to abandon ship.

Gorgeous writing, big feelings, themes of religious trauma, and eroticism that I have to say is top-notch even if it's not my exact brand of smut. I had to give this a try after falling in love with The Gideon Testaments, and it didn't disappoint.

This was not quite what I was expecting, given everything I've heard about S. T. Gibson's work, but it was still pretty fun! I felt like the plot petered out in the second half--in some ways, it seemed like we were just on the journey to get to the sexy vampire party--and certain elements felt underdeveloped to me. But I have to admit that it is quite a hot book, and the tension between the characters is irresistible in the first half.

I read Whip Smart because Girlhood absolutely blew me away, and I wanted to get the full context on Febos's time as a pro domme before going on to read the rest of her oeuvre. And, well, I got the full context, I guess? Idk, there's just a grandiosity and stunning lack of compassion that makes sense for her situation at the time but also doesn't feel adequately examined to not leave a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, and it made this a depressing reading experience.