The Guest List is my favorite kind of mystery/thriller. I love an assorted cast of characters all “stuck” in one place together for one reason or another, and then suddenly…*gasp* a death! And this book took my favorite kind of plot and did it exceptionally well.

The cast of The Guest List is vast, which normally would make you worry that some of the POVs would be more dull than the others. I can happily say that this is not the case for this book. Each character, even the more grating ones, all have some aspect of their personality or a piece of their backstory that makes them compelling. My favorite to listen to was Johnno, the jovial but childish best man. At first introduction, he seems pretty one dimensional, but as the story progressed, you realized there was more to him than it seems. But of course, in a thriller novel, everyone has something to keep secret. It was a joy finding out everyone’s mysteries bit by bit.

I also loved Olivia, the bride’s little sister who is trying to navigate adulthood and come into her own when she is full of insecurity and anxiety. I think all of us have a little bit of Olivia inside of us. I wanted to give her a big hug and protect her.

I think the fact that I listened to this on audiobook only made my experience better. It features a full cast, and all of them had such pleasant voices and accents. The acting was also fantastic. If you have a choice of how you read this, I swear by the audiobook.

This book was not a perfect 5 out of 5 for me, just because I had to suspend my disbelief about some convenient plot points. That didn’t impact my enjoyment too heavily, however, and this is still a well crafted mystery overall.

I would recommend this book to fans of Ruth Ware, particularly One by One. Many things reminded me of it, but I do think The Guest List is better.

My friend recommended this book to me based on the fact that I would fall in love with Silas. She was absolutely right. I love him to death. But there is a whole lot more to love about this book than I expected.

The introduction of this book quickly and efficiently familiarized you with the setting and the tone of what you were getting into. The whole time I had a thought that the vibes were a mashup of The Magicians and Black Butler. Luckily for me, these are two shows that I love, and this was an aesthetic I didn’t know I needed.

While I loved the plot of the book, which was really solid and fun, the shining beacon was absolutely the characters and their relationships. On paper, the dynamics sound basic. Quirky, kind of nerdy girl meets a snarky and broody love interest and his stoic butler. But the way Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas were written made them so damn likable and special. Their building friendship felt so genuine. The banter they had was funny without being over the top and cringey. I wanted to squeeze all their little cheeks with how adorable they were with each other. Even the romance, which I’m normally not a huge fan of in books, was just so earnest and cute that I couldn’t get enough of it. I am normally someone who prefers a standalone story, but I loved the relationships so much that I finished the book wishing there was a whole series devoted to them.

That’s not to say that the ending wasn’t satisfying. It truly was, in the best way.

I love this book. Everyone else should love this book as much as I do, and yet I haven’t seen it mentioned enough compared to some other YA fantasy out there. I’ve seen a lot about An Enchantment of Ravens by the same author, which I absolutely plan on picking up now.

Overall, I would recommend this to someone looking for the best friendship group of the ages.

 

Black Sun is my favorite book of all time. So of course, I had so much excitement for Fevered Star. I’ve had the release date on my calendar since I read Black Sun, and preordered it, which I rarely ever do.⁠
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My conclusion after finally reading it after all this time? It is a solid addition to the series, but not as gripping as Black Sun was.⁠
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I was pleased to find that the dark, gritty nature of Black Sun made a return in Fevered Star, as that was one of my favorite aspects. Roanhorse does an amazing job worldbuilding and making you intrigued in the magic of it all. Naranpa’s arc in particular was the most interesting this time around, which I appreciated since she did not get as much time to shine as the other characters previously. Serapio continues to be one of my favorite characters in fiction ever, my little goth king.⁠
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However, Fevered Star does suffer a lot from second book syndrome. Every chapter that went by felt like it was building and building up to some great climax that never truly came. It almost felt like a filler arc in an anime or tv show. Lots of cool stuff happened, and a lot of important info about the world was shared with us, but it felt more like set up for the next book than anything else. It didn’t help that we were still being introduced (or reintroduced) to characters in the second half of the book, leaving very little time to do anything with them.⁠
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I admittedly may have been expecting too much of the sequel. I was not mad at the book at all, I was still entertained the entire way through, I just didn’t feel as wholly invested as I did in Black Sun. Despite the downfalls, I will OF COURSE be finishing the trilogy. With all the build up in this book, I can only imagine the final story will be fantastic.⁠ 

I felt like I’ve gone through sort of a reading rut recently, and Little Creepers was an excellent palate cleanser. It’s an easy to read, quick, and delightful horror short story collection.⁠
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The stories are all what I would consider “quiet horror,” focusing most on things that make you feel unsettled. This is my favorite kind of horror, the uncertain kind that gets under your skin. Even the stories that are more explicit in their creepiness, such as one of my favorites named “Toothache,” left you with unanswerable questions. But before you can ponder more about it, you’re thrown into another story that will leave you thinking, too.⁠
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The story that sticks out in my mind the most when thinking about it is also the longest in the collection, named “My Life.” It follows a young man moving out on his own for the first time, and when he notices a name written under the peeling wallpaper, he slowly begins to realize he’s not alone in the house. The building mystery of “who is Nicholas?” was intriguing.⁠
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The rep in this book is also nice to see, having multiple stories involving both LGBTQ+ characters and POC. I’ve read a couple books by Jessica Walsh now, and she does a good job of featuring marginalized people in a respectful way. She is an indie author I like to read for when I want to escape the stress of the real world for a moment. Even with the horror of Little Creepers, her stories feel like a breath of fresh air. It’s just good, clean fun to read.⁠
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I would recommend this to anyone who just needs to reset their mind and have a little fun for an hour or two. This is an excellent book to read in one sitting.⁠
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If this sounds like something you may be interested in, youtuber Mr. Creepypasta has done a reading of one of the stories. Search "Lurking Status" on Youtube to check it out!⁠

This book was suggested to me when I was a teenager by a customer at my first job out of high school. She saw a peek of a tattoo on my chest and asked about it. When I told her it was Arthur’s chest armor from the BBC show Merlin, she told me that I absolutely must read this series. I kept it in mind all these years, and I was ecstatic when I finally got it as a Christmas gift this year. It was absolutely a good recommendation, and I’m glad I finally got around to it.

When I first started reading The Crystal Cave, I was a little bit worried. It has sluggish start. And by start, I mean the first half or more was slow going. This could be due the when it was published; this series was started in the 70s when slower, expositional stories were more accepted. And expositional it was. Mary Stewart has a beautiful writing style, though, and it was also clear she had put a lot of research and time into getting the setting right, so I wanted to push through it because I saw promise.

Once we were introduced properly to the world and we began to see adult Merlin make decisions and understand how his magic worked, it picked up a lot. I loved how he was characterized as a bit strange to those around him. He was a touch egotistical as well, confident that if his powers would not be able to help him, he would find a crafty way to weasel out of things. He wasn’t the powerful and benevolent Merlin that you hear about stereotypically. He was pseudo-goth Merlin, and I loved that.

I was surprised by how the female characters were written. Being that the book was written from a female author, I was expecting them to have more substance. It was definitely a sign of the time it was written.

The ending was the perfect blend of tying up the loose ends and leaving you wanting to read the next book. I will be continuing in this series.

I would recommend this to those who enjoy classic fantasy. This is a solid series to get your hands on, if you haven’t yet.

Love in the Big City has one of the most unique writing styles I’ve ever read, and I think it will be a complete hit or a miserable miss depending on who is reading it. For me, it was 100% a hit.⁠
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Despite the romantic name, this book just felt completely and miserably human in a way that’s hard to describe. I think that because Park was very clearly drawing from his own real life experiences, it had such a brutally honest energy. Young is a FLAWED character, and he knows it. He is constantly berating himself and everyone around him, while at the same time recognizing that it was wrong to do so. The book felt like one long, pessimistic, self-destructive cycle with no clear ending, happy or otherwise. His thought processes are pretentious, but in a way that I could relate to, even if I didn’t agree with him or his choices. He is so messed up, that I think even some people who think they like flawed characters might hate him. But I believe that was the point. You aren’t supposed to like him, you are supposed to see the dark and dirty parts of yourself in him.⁠
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I also loved the inside look into the gay scene in Korea, as that’s not a perspective you hear from often. As someone who is gay, and also interested in Korean culture (I hope to visit one day), I appreciate the peek into a life that is considered “hidden.”⁠
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As much as I love this book, it is hard to recommend to anyone. If you want to be beat over the head with a story that is honest and mean, this is the one for you.⁠

So right off the bat, I do want to mention to please look into trigger warnings for this book if you are interested in reading it. This is a heavy topic told from a very insider perspective, and does not pull punches.
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To say I “enjoyed” this memoir is not the correct word for it. However, it was very informative, and Faith was an interesting narrator. We follow her cult indoctrination from a very young age, and the way she tells the story in a present tense was an intriguing and haunting choice. While I’ve seen some people put off by that, but for me, it made her story all the more immersive. It may have made a difference for me since I listened to it in audiobook. Her writing style is very blunt and simple. She would mention her abuse as if she was describing what she ate for breakfast. It well portrayed the mindset she was in at the time, her belief that her experience was the “true” path and to be expected. It set alarm bells off in my head and made me wish I could rescue young Faith myself.⁠
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I also liked how she chose to write her parents’ experiences in the novel as well. In particular, her mother’s struggle with following their beliefs, and how Faith had to become a parental figure for her siblings because of it, was heartbreaking. Her parents were not perfect people, but Faith was able to write them with humanity and understanding, despite their mistakes and misgivings.⁠
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I would recommend this to anyone interested in personal accounts from ex-cult members, or if you’ve ever wondered “how does one even get wrapped up in a cult the first place?” Be wary of reading it if you are sensitive to certain material. Viewer discretion is advised.⁠

I will be honest, I was worried about this book at first. I had gone into reading it with so much excitement, having heard all the hype about it since release. The premise was something that definitely intrigued me.⁠
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The beginning chapters had me relating to Nora immediately. But as the chapters went on, I had the horrifying feeling that the book was going to end up as inspiration porn. I wasn't wrong about this, in the end, but it wasn't as "sunshine and puppy dogs" as I feared it to be.⁠
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The last third of the book intrigued me the most, as it felt the least repetitive. Most of the book is Nora experiencing different ways her life could have gone, but there were so many so frequently (and many of them uninteresting) that it felt like a drag to get through. Even though it doesn't sound like it makes sense, I think Haig could have made some of her lives longer and it would have felt less slow or dry.⁠
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I did end the book with a more positive feeling about it than I expected to when I was halfway through. It helps that it was a short read, so even the parts that dragged for me didn't feel like such a big waste of time.⁠
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I would recommend this to my mom. This is exactly her taste. 😂 I wouldn't personally recommend it to anyone else, but if the premise is interesting to you, I wouldn't dissuade you from picking it up. It was a nice, cozy, quick read.⁠

This was a really great introduction to Arthurian legend. It hits a lot of the iconic stories, while still going through lesser known ones as well. I was entertained by the whimsical way it was written.

However, this book is being marketed as appealing to 10-13 year olds. While I think the content of the stories would definitely entertain that age range, I have a hard time imagining most preteens having the patience to make it through the difficult Middle English language. If I had picked this up at that range, I would have lost interest quickly. I can imagine reading this to a kid, however. The length of the individual stories would be very conducive to a good bedtime story for many nights in a row.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in Arthurian legend, but isn't sure about where to start.