Maeve Murray is waiting for her GCSE scores to determine where she will go to college. She's grown up in a small town in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and she's got her sights set on London. Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen follows Maeve and her two best friends in their potentially final summer in their hometown in that run up to receiving their scores. The three gals all get jobs at the local shirt factory and their eyes are opened to a big dose of reality. 

Despite growing up near Protestants, casually called Prods, Maeve hasn't really ever been around any until she starts work at the factory. Nor has she ever had to work a ten hour day with her salary dependent on how quickly she can iron freshly made shirts. But Maeve is also grieving the death of her older sister and wondering what will become of herself when she goes off to college- if her grades are good enough. Her two friends also get plenty of page time and development, and I loved each character very much- flaws and all. 

I think what I loved about this book is that it takes a terrible time in Irish history (and let's be clear- there are a lot of bad times in their history) and tells a gentle story about three girls trying to finagle between their desire to leave and their love for their town and families. The story is gentle and funny, but it doesn't down play the very real trauma of the time and the unpredictable danger they are surrounded by at all times. Another part that I loved is how it's a coming of age novel that stops before the resolution, ending with questions and just another beginning. And isn't that more realistic to life? Seasons of our lives don't always feel so cut and dry when they are happening and growth and personal realization is usually nonlinear and not on a novel's timeline. 

So while I think this one is a real banger, keep it mind it's low on plot until the final quarter and there's lots of dialect which may be challenging for some readers. I can't capture everything that made this one special in a review, but it has a special place in my heart and that'll have tae do. 

A history of gender nonconformity, Before We Were Trans is an imperfect but important and sensitive look at how people have found and made space for themselves outside of the gender binary in various cultures and time periods. 

Kit Heyam is a trans author and makes it clear that they feel dissatisfied with the level of evidence required to say that people of the past were trans, so it is clear throughout that some conjecture is involved. Heyam does an excellent job of presenting factual information in a respectful way, even when people of the past were not treated with respect by their societies. One important lesson from the past is that perhaps we don't need to always separate gender from sexuality, many past societies saw them as connected and for many people, queer, trans, or cis, they are connected parts of identity. 

This book will let you consider all the ways our society is creating space and positive change but also ways we could view all people holistically, instead of piecemeal. 

Surprisingly good. 

-British Bake Off setting
-Full cast narration and multi POV
-Commentary on classism, patriarchy, and media/tv culture 
-Cozy with a little darkness 

Something in the Water is a thriller about a newly married couple. We start with Erin digging a grave and then the timeline shifts back, moving through the events that led up to murder. 

Erin and Mark have a wonderful life and they are eager to get married and start a family. I went into this book blind and I recommend you do the same. I really loved where it went and was pleasantly surprised by a fresh to me plot. 

I really liked the ambiguity of Erin’s character, she’s morally gray but relatable. I think this is a good thriller for someone who wants tension without too much violence or someone ready to read something a little bit different in the genre of domestic thriller. 

A strange fever dream novella, The Reservoir was easy to read but layered in complexity and meaning. 

Ridley is a retired, divorced father living alone in NYC during lockdown. He has undertaken a project to document the sunrise and sunset over the reservoir in Central Park through his window for an entire year. One night he notices an apartment across the way flashing it’s lights and he decides he must meet this woman. 

What follows is a poignant but vague look into loneliness, family divides, and conspiracy theories. It is a story that is based on Covid, but it feels like it offers so much more than that as well. I was really impressed by Duchovny’s writing and wisdom. Highly recommend. 

Blind Spots is a future dystopian detective thriller with engaging world building. This novel by Thomas Mullen hinges on a future in which everyone has become blind- but nobody is exactly sure why or how.

After an initial period of chaos and danger, a capitalistic company came on the scene with a potential solution. Vidders are devices that allow people to have their sight restored, but at a very high price. In this story, we follow a few perspectives including a detective named Owens who has lost his wife to mental illness. When a scientist dies and it is ruled suicide, Owen is very suspicious. 

Launching into a murky world of suspect technology and blurred visions, this story kept me engaged from start to finish. There are some powerful flashbacks that enhance the world building and ample time is spent establishing the present day as well. I would say that the author prioritized world building over character development, so if you are okay with that I think you might like this speculative crime story. I found it fun and unique, outside my comfort zone just enough. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Minotaur books for an ALC in exchange for my honest review. 

I read this after accidentally picking up the third book in the series at the library. Discovering that it was a series, I gave A Solitutde of Wolverines a go and I'm so glad. Alex Carter is a biologist adrift at the beginning of this story. She is working in Boston because of her boyfriend's job at a big law firm, feeling unmotivated by her work. When there is a shooting at a speech she is giving, Alex decides to leave the big city and take a position in a remote part of Montana to look for elusive wolverines. 

What she finds at the abandoned lodge where she must stay is suspicious to say the least and downright unwelcoming. The town seems hellbent against outsiders, but why? Alex faces challenges throughout that keep the pace and Henderson does an excellent job of weaving in biological information that is interesting and helps build our understanding of the story. 

I think a bit of the ending jumped the shark for me, but I really couldn't put this one down so I'll definitely be reading book two soon. If you like thrillers in an isolated setting and also enjoy information about rare animals and conservation, this is one to give a read! 

Super cute, told in little vignettes- The Cardboard Kingdom is about a neighborhood of kids pretending to be various creatures and characters at the end of summer. I loved the destruction of gender norms in their imaginative play. 

River Woman, River Demon was a recommended book from the North Carolina Digital Library so I gave it a listen, and I'm so glad I did. Despite mixed reviews here, this book really worked for me.  Jennifer Givhan is a Mexican-American poet and novelist with Indigenous ancestry. All of these backgrounds are reflected beautifully in River Woman, River Demon. 

In this book, Eva is an Indigenous woman who has spent the last ten years engrossed in the work of motherhood. Now her two kids are in school and she is suddenly feeling a little lost without so much responsibility. She is trying to rediscover her identity as an artist and find her magick. As she wraps her mind around all of this transition, she faces the unexpected arrest of her husband for the murder of a woman on their property. 

As Eva grapples with the idea that her husband may be a murderer, there are also unanswered questions about a death in her presence many years ago. Even as the reader questions Eva's reliability, I found her a relatable, messy character. Even with almost nothing in common, Eva is written so well that I found compassion and empathy for her. 

As she struggles through so much doubt, including self doubt, this story takes twists and turns that kept me guessing and surprised me in the end. The magical aspects will appeal to fans of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. I highly recommend this unique, diverse psychological mystery. 

Dear Medusa is a hard hitting YA novel in verse with an audiobook read by the author (always a treat!). Alicia Rivers is sixteen and has a reputation for being loose. She works at a fast food restaurant, in part to escape her home life and also to avoid school activities after a very bad experience that no one knows about. 

Alicia's trauma keeps following her despite her attempts to escape. As the story progresses we learn more about the traumatic event and slowly there is progress towards healing and accountability. 

There is so much beauty and pain in this book and I really want to say nothing else and leave you to go experience it. There is excellent exploration of how people process trauma differently, what it means to be in community and support others, and nuanced exploration of sexuality and the ways teenage girls are often perceived. Top notch.