Abandoned by her family, Kya has spent most of her life alone in the marshes of North Carolina. When a body is found in the marsh, Kya becomes the top suspect and must fight to be seen and understood by the town that rejected her.

Hey, have y’all heard about this book? 😂 I know I’m the last person to read it and no one needs another rave review, but I’m doing it anyway! I read this whole book in one evening. I was immediately drawn to Kya and into her life and could not stop.

I’ve spent a lot of time on the Carolina coast and this book so wonderfully captures its weird beauty. I really felt like I was there. And the courtroom drama! Truly gripping, and I was genuinely shocked by the ending.

Thanks to Scribner for the free advance copy of this book.

TURBULENCE is a set of interconnected short stories linked by flights between cities. Each story features a person from the previous story as they travel to a new city, influencing each other on their travels, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.

At less than 200 pages, this book seemed more like a thought experiment rather than an in-depth story. It was intriguing to see who made up the links between the stories, and to see that it wasn't a stretch to travel around the world through just 12 people.

In the end, though, I found myself wanting more depth. The brief, almost voyeuristic glimpses into these lives were interesting, but there were several characters I would have liked to see more from or revisit. I think as a book it was a little flat, but if it got reworked into a TV show? I'd be sold.

Three siblings reunite on the day of the eldest daughter’s wedding after a long estrangement from youngest brother Amar. The family tries to come to terms with their secrets while navigating the complicated intersections of respectability, tradition, and family.

I had a really hard time with this book. Not due to the subject matter, but the pace. I felt like it was moving so slowly and that it took forever to flesh out the characters with the way it moved back and forth in time. It also took me awhile to get a good handle on the timeline, since the flashback portions did not advance through time linearly.

I did love that this was a story about a Muslim family that was more about fitting in with your own family and community rather than about integrating into white American culture. While that aspect of their lives was shown, it wasn’t the driving force of the story, and I think that’s a pretty rare narrative.

I think my biggest struggle with the book was the last section. It’s been weeks since I read this book and I still can’t properly explain why. I think it’s ultimately a failure of empathy on my part for the father. I do understand how he felt bound by tradition and masculinity and other restrictive forces, but I couldn’t help being frustrated with him. I think it is a testament to the complex story the author created, though, to have so many thoughts to sort through upon closing this book.

A modern-day retelling of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE featuring Indian families, this book updates the classic story with a little bit of gender bending - brain surgeon Trisha Raje is descended from Indian royalty who finds her life suddenly entangled with that of fine dining chef DJ Caine. DJ and Trisha both think the other is too snooty to bother with, until they realize they've been misreading each other the whole time.

I really like the setting of this retelling. I thought Trisha and DJ's respective family histories were ingenious updates, maintaining the power dynamics of Austen's story without feeling like a beat-for-beat remake.

The downside is that it is so long. The way the family estrangements and broken friendships are set up means there is lots and lots of rehashing the same past events and feelings with minimal forward movement until the last quarter or so of the book, when everything falls into place. And falls into place quickly - there's no gradual realization is misunderstanding here. Trisha and DJ almost fully dislike each other until the last 50ish pages. This book could have lost 200 pages and it would have been fine. Also, I realize that an Austen retelling almost necessarily means they won't get together until the end, but Dev is SO GOOD at romantic scenes and we only barely got a few pages worth here.

Rick Deckard's job is to kill androids masquerading as humans. Problem is, a new type of android has arrived that is nearly indistinguishable from humans and can nearly pass the empathy test Rick administers to suss them out. Rick begins to wonder if he is really the one without empathy as he "retires" these androids who are just trying to make a life for themselves.

Thanks to Riverhead Books for the advance copy of this book.

Cindy lives a near poverty-level existence with her family in rural Pennsylvania. When wealthier local teenager Jude disappears while on a camping trip, Cindy helps her brother take care of Jude's mother, Bernadette. When it becomes clear that Bernadette's memory is shot, Cindy moves in and assumes Jude's life.

MARILOU IS EVERYWHERE is a stunning novel. This one's for fans of Lauren Groff, for people who wanted MY ABSOLUTE DARLING to be better (Me. That's me.), for people who want to see the world through someone else's eyes.

Cindy is an incredible character. She somehow makes observations only a child or teenager could make, but that are also phrased in ways you've never heard before. So many sentences in this book are total nonsense when taken out of context, but within the frame of the story are some of the most beautiful, unique sentences I've ever read.

I'll be clear, this is the kind of book whose writing announces I Have An MFA. I think a lot of people will be turned off by that, and maybe also by the hazy, heavy way the plot proceeds. If you're up for that, though, I think you're in for a treat.