woah. this book was ... an experience. at some point towards the 3/4 mark, i just had to pull back and let myself experience without questioning or trying to comprehend was was *actually * happening. if you read this, know that you will be confused. 

lakewood asks some interesting questions and the concept is SO good. the execution was a little back-and-forth for me (i almost wondered if the format should have been entirely letters?).

CW: medical trauma/content, racism, body horror, cancer, chronic illness, gore, death, torture, emotional abuse, gaslighting, grief

blood scion was chilling to the bone (in the best of ways). what a PHENOMENAL debut. 

i appreciated the pacing and the worldbuilding. the action never lags, and we get bits and pieces of the world & culture as things escalate. i am still pretty curious about the history of this world, but i anticipate we'll get more information in book 2.

sloane is a very well written MC. she's passionate and strong and only frustrated me a few times. :) 

while, this is a young adult book, but the themes feel very adult (& the characters age up quickly - of course this has a lot to do with their experiences due to the subject matter). 

i can't believe we were left with such an intense cliffhanger .. (i've got to wait until 2023?!?) 

CW: murder, violence, blood, sexual assault, rape, self harm, death of a parent, death of a child

this short, powerful book packs an emotional punch. we follow the thread of vivek's life, jumping back and forth through time as we see him grow up and also witness the devastation of his death. akwaeke emezi explores identity, and love, and family, and grief. how well do parents truly know their children?

the writing is so profound & beautiful & enchanting.

i loved the huge variety of characters and POVs. we got the chance to see events not just from the perspectives of our main characters .. we also got to witness them as "cameos"/in the background of other characters' eyes.

the cover is beautiful - not that it impacts my review, but just wanted to note it. :) 

CW: incest, transphobia, death, homophobia, sexual content, infidelity, grief, religious bigotry, animal cruelty/death

i am not usually a historical fiction reader .. so i was pleasantly surprised by hamnet. this is an imaginative story - based on a few known events - but mostly the author's creative retelling. the writing is poetic, telling a story of love and loss and deep grief.  hamnet is about shakespeare’s family - we witness his relationship with his wife, agnes, spark (it's a little instalove) and then develop over the years. his three children are born (susanna, and then the twins hamnet & judith). we see the impact of hamnet’s young death … and the premiere of the play hamlet four years later.

other reviewers have tackled this, but i found the weakest point to be agnes' otherworldliness/the power of always knowing. 

it was kind of .. peculiar .. that the character of shakespeare is very purposefully never referred to by name.

i believe the intention was so he wouldn’t draw focus away from the other characters, and also to perhaps better humanize him. but i do still think someone could have occasionally addressed him as "will" instead of the husband, the father, the latin tutor, etc. the effort to not name him was sometimes more distracting than ACTUALLY naming him would have been. 

i found most of the writing to be lyrical and engaging. there were some incredibly poetic descriptions of grief and love that spoke to me. but .. there were also moments of slowness that just made me wish i could skip ahead. i was often ready to get on with the action!

the author does PILE ON  the adjectives which sometimes i found charming .. and other times i just had to roll my eyes at how ridiculously ornate it was. but then again, maggie o’farrell got me to pretty deeply care about a flea!

this is definitely a book i would return to again - though i’d probably breeze by certain parts that lagged .

 

CW: child death, grief, death, abuse, terminal illness, animal death, infidelity 

sweet, cozy, & charming. a super fast and easy read that gave me a lot of joy. i loved the art style and was surprised at how emotionally invested i was during such a short story! 

 this thriller was a villainous delight. i found the plot incredibly compelling and feel like i got to know most of the characters - and i don’t often praise character development in fast-paced thrillers. fair warning: be prepared to dislike most of the characters, including our main POV (jessica). i found the toxicity fun, but totally understand if it is off-putting to some readers. i was able to reasonably suspect each member of the friend group over the course of the novel, which fueled me to devour it in just a few hours. the pacing was PERFECT; nothing felt dragging or rushed to me. i also appreciate a book with short chapters. while there were some surprising plot twists, they were all well executed & breadcrumbs were laid for each major reveal. one thing that may irk you is the heightened/immature dialogue: it’s like one of those “teen” cw shows. the vicious, witty snark is a little too unbelievable at times. i am looking forward to ashley winstead’s next thriller! 

 

CW: murder, drug use / addiction, sexual assault, homophobia, toxic friendship/bullying, death of a parent, suicidal thoughts 

i launched into white smoke ready to LOVE it. and i did have fun! there were things that jackson did really, really well (i’d love to explore her other books). but there were a lot of loose threads and big misses for me.

the good:
- atmospheric horror and good building of tension; plus the haunted house elements and general “eerie” feelings
- the commentary on gentrification and criminalization of weed (and the general war on drugs) and manipulation by those in power were well-integrated and definitely digestible for young readers (sometimes a little too hard hitting for adult readers). 
- great characterization of our lead, marigold. i felt like we really got to know her.
- exploration of a blended family & the sweetest sibling relationship between marigold and sammy

the not-as-good:
- i was physically pained at the way marigold was treated by her family. it was so heartbreaking to watch them villainize her instead of HELP her. this girl had severe, severe anxiety and paranoia. at not one point does her mother try to bring her to a therapist or get her professional help, and no one explores any further way of supporting her. she’s so desperate to heal her trauma that she is hyper fixating on weed .. and her family (who should be her support system) are just calling her a junkie / drug addict every chance they get. why on earth wouldn’t her parents support her (maybe look into medical marijuana so she could access it safely)?! 
- the opening was very, very slow and WAY too much of mari’s internal dialogue was focused on weed and bed bugs. the repetition was hard to get through. there were scary things happening around her .. but she didn’t really decide to get involved until the second half of the book. why was the first 30% SO slow and only for us to get one of the most abrupt thriller endings i’ve ever read?
- while the commentary i mentioned above was great, jackson falls a bit into the trap of wanting to say SO many things (gentrification, war on drugs, mental health, mass incarceration, televangelism, etc. etc.) at once that several threads started getting lost. it ended up getting a little messy. 
- i guessed the ending pretty much immediately, which made me frown at some of the bigger plot holes during the buildup. predictability isn’t a negative for me, but the issues with the “twist” were. i also think jackson could have had a bit more fun here; the buildup of horror was so great that i wanted to be a little more shocked and delighted at the ending.
- finally, i felt that the character of piper was a little too “adult-cartoon-villain” level cruel at the start. it was unbelievable .. i wished she’d been given a little more depth at the start. and mari’s treatment of her & the way she spoke about her was so sad, too. like .. definitely call out alec for his bad behavior. don’t be so hateful to the 10 yr old kid who suffered a major loss and has been hopping around from place to place! i wished mari came around to her sooner. i would have loved some sister moments.

CW: racism, panic attacks/disorders, drug use, addiction, fire/injuries from fire, death, phobias

i REALLY enjoyed the night swim! it’s a small town psychological thriller with some mystery elements. themes include guilt, money & influence, assault (physical & emotional), small town reputations, and much more. it’s emotional and thought provoking and often upsetting. the story tore a hole in my heart. a fair amount of suspension of disbelief is required for rachel’s investigative skills and the workings of a courtroom - but the night swim isn’t a worse offender than many other thrillers in this aspect. :) i particularly liked the way in which the two stories (past and present) were woven together. some plot points i guessed and some i did not, but i devoured this book in one sitting. 

first things first - this book was recommended to me because it featured a main character with a chronic illness. as someone who has chronic pain & fatigue, it was incredible & emotional to read a book with this representation (I'm jewish as well, so that was a bonus).

now to get into this review - the highs were HIGH and the lows were LOW. 

the pros:
• there's a great sense of humor in this book, and a whole lot of charm.
• excellent representation of chronic illness where it was featured in the story without being THE plot point or a big tragedy
• excellent representation of jewish culture and how different folks interact with judaism
• sweet, slow building romance that i found authentic and also ridiculous in the best of ways
• i had so much fun reading!

the cons:
• a very insensitive "joke" regarding the IDF
• a .. strange .. comparison between coming out as gay and rachel revealing that she likes christmas
• often, jewish elements were over explained in a way that made me feel like this book was written for goyim. i would have preferred that terminology was woven throughout the plot so that those who didn't understand it would figure it out through context clues - every little thing didn't require a sentence of definition
• there was a scene where rachel goes to "meet santa" and sits on his lap / uses him as a therapist and the whole thing was so deeply cringey and uncomfortable that i had to put the book down
• there's a character who uses a wheelchair (Paul) that is seemingly used as a plot device to tell us how sweet and understanding and oh-so-wonderful the love interest is because he ... respects Paul? speaks to him like a human with basic decency? i saw in the afterward that Paul is based on a real person but this scene really rubbed me the wrong way.