This one didn't quite do it for me unfortunately. Personally, I love an unreliable narrator - I love a story when you can't quite trust what anyone is saying or doing. However, by the time the twist came around I felt like I had been waiting an age for the story to pick up the pace and was becoming disinterested with the convoluted plot.
Michaelides introduced a whole range of shifty, unlikeable characters, and then proceeded to end the story, but I felt my opinions on them hadn't been changed and I was unsure on their relevance to the plot other than to flesh out a mystery plotline.
I also spent some time considering whether I was less invested in this book because it was written by a man - I found our male protagonist unsavoury from the first few pages and this continued through the novel. However, it's possible that this was an intentional stylistic choice that I'm remarking on and in which case, the author was successful in manipulating my feelings right from the beginning - take my negative-ish review with a pinch of salt perhaps!
As a quick holiday read, it was interesting enough and I can see why it was so popular recently!

Only just noticed that this was a nominee for Goodreads Choice awards and I can definitely see why.
However, what utterly destroyed me while reading this book was Moreno's descriptions of grief. Our protagonist addresses the novel to his deceased wife, telling her about the supernatural events happening to him and how they revolve around her passing.
“An owl flew over the cabin and swept into the tree line. I stepped aside for you to see and then remembered you were dead.”
“The world was pressed against my nose, too close to see. I had no story to follow. My favorite character was gone.”
As a reader, that last sentence there hurt so much I had to put the book down for a minute, the pure emotion in parts made it a heavy read at times.
The horror aspects of the novel were definitely out there: a mix of AI tech weirdness, and traditional Mexican folklore, and a secret terrifying third thing that I couldn't identify but sure was freaky.
Overall, the book was not exactly to my tastes but I enjoyed it enough that I would read more of Moreno's work!

novel (n.), a small tale, generally of love.

Not to be dramatic but I was brought to tears by how much this book shared my love of words and language. I was won over by the gentle, dual-interwoven timeline; a whole host of loveable characters; and a friendly, amusing narrator. This book contained some of the most moving passages on love, companionship, and solitude that I have ever read.
it also delved into some ideas that, as a linguistics student, I was bound to love from the beginning, which discussed whether language can ever truly be pinned down and wrangled into submission between the pages of a dictionary.
To those who particularly enjoyed the parts of Babel by RF Kuang on the ethics of translation and the philosophy behind language, I would recommend this short and sweet story.
And, for your enjoyment, here is a list of the words in this novel I had never heard of before: Psithurism, Corbicula, Corymbs, Umbels, Panicles, Anemotropism, Leucocholy, Smeuse, Sillage, Silage, Metabombast, Chicane, Glume, Forb, Crypsis, Clepsammia, Scutcheon, Squinch, Systyle, Filip, Astrognosy, Grawlax, Kelemenopy, Baritsu, Alembic, Zarf, Precariat, Chessel, Clowder, Tussie-Mussie, Amanuensis, Zugzwang

“Write me a tragedy, Lev Fedorov,” she whispered to him. “Write me a litany of sins. Write me a plague of devastation. Write me lonely, write me wanting, write me shattered and fearful and lost. Then write me finding myself in your arms, if only for a night, and then write it again. Write it over and over, Lev, until we both know the pages by heart. Isn’t that a story, too?” she asked him softly.”
For everyone who saw me complaining about not being able to get into this one, I extend my apologies because I'm about to tell you all to go and read it. As I work my way through Olivie Blake's works, I am becoming more and more familiar with her exquisite use of language. This, for me, did not top Alone With You In The Ether, but it certainly came close in parts.
Since this falls under a Romeo and Juliet retelling, I was convinced I knew how it was going to play out, but at every deft turn Blake managed to completely surprise me until I was so scared for the lives of all the characters that I couldn't stop reading.
I will admit I was intimidated by the sheer number of characters in the front, reminiscent (to me, at least) to the mammoth list in the opening pages of War and Peace, but in the end each character was so unique that there was no issue with remembering who was who.
There is one particular character in this book, known as The Bridge, who particularly amused me - he felt comedically out of place at points with his dry wit and hidden depths. I didn't even realise he was going to be such a key player until about half-way through where he just did not stop showing up.
I don't actually own any copies of Blake's books yet, they've all been library editions, so perhaps this is my sign to finally start looking for some of my own.

A rapid fire read that ticked many of my boxes!
I know this is a slightly polemic debate amongst book readers - but personally if I see on the first page that a book (one that's less than 200 pages particularly) uses no speech marks, then my interest is quickly piqued.
On the surface, this is the story of the mass poisoning of a village. But underneath is a complex layering of desire, envy, and mistrust. Not much takes place here plot wise, we follow our narrator through her village life day after day, but each character (even those who remain unnamed) shines in their own right.
In such a short novel, I was impressed that Mackintosh managed to get across the intensity of her characters' feelings. The husband's apathy formed a stark contrast to Violet's sharp interest and I enjoyed truly not knowing what was going to happen next even as things spiralled downwards.
A few dramatic events that took place scattered throughout the story didn't quite make sense to me, I felt that they weren't full explained in light of the whole poisoning saga but I appreciate sometimes you've got to take creative license for the vibes.
I have another of Mackintosh's books on my TBR so fingers crossed for another good one!

Arguably my favourite Ali Hazelwood so far. Since it's part of her STEMinist series, it did feel very similar to the previous books - with the Love Hypothesis being the original template. However, that doesn't mean I won't eat it up every time.
A lot of the drama in this story was based around the difficulties of working in academia and the rivalries and disagreements that can build up within academic communities. As a university student, I felt I could recognise aspects of these struggles which made the story far easier to empathise with. I will also say with pride that reading this book before going to the cinema helped me understand the plot of Oppenheimer.

This was a two hour quick binge of a book. Reading about Kate and Mark becoming friends and supporting each other was really sweet and I was rooting for their friendship far more than for either of their romantic entanglements. As i expected, the writing felt a little too cheesy YA for me, but I knew what I was getting into - I simply continue to read YA contemporary when I know it's not my cup of tea any longer.
Overall, a fun read brimming with queer joy

“The black and white of truth blurred into grey under the relentless assault of an infinity of context, interpretation, perspectives, and opinion.”

I am on a roll with books about books recently, but seriously - if you love reading, read this book. Lawrence paints a vast fantasy world, complete with history, culture, friends, and enemies, and then introduces it to us through the two loveliest characters: Livira and Evar.

Livira is such a fun protagonist - she is full of character and truly cannot abstain from asking questions, even in dangerous situations. Evar is gentle and earnest and I loved him to bits. Their story spanned time and space and it was a joy to follow behind them.

A huge part of this story is the never ending library, and as soon as it was introduced I knew I was going to fall in love with this book. Sentient/atmospheric libraries have to be my favourite fantasy trope, and this one proved the perfect setting for Livira's exploration and her academic training montage, which has to be my second favourite trope so gold stars all round.

Obviously no spoilers, but let me tell you when I reached the twist in this story I had to shut the book and try and think back to how I'd missed it before, it literally felt like the dramatic reveal in Fight Club (again no spoilers haha) I'm not joking.

One aspect of the story contains portals to other places, and I wondered if Lawrence had taken his inspiration from The Magician's Nephew by C.S Lewis or whether it was a coincidence that the idea was so similar, but I loved it either way.

My only issue with this book is not that it was over 500 pages long, but that Book 2 isn't out until April!

“Love is a strange thing to us. We do not revel in it. We only know hunger.”

A vampire story unlike any I've read before! I was first introduced to Moreno-Garcia's work with [b:Mexican Gothic|53152636|Mexican Gothic|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1607462569l/53152636._SY75_.jpg|73647361], a book with a cloying, rotten atmosphere - this is nothing like that. As she is clear to point out online, you can count on each of her books to bring you something completely different, and while this book for me read similarly to [b:Signal To Noise|60321142|Signal To Noise|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1644781281l/60321142._SY75_.jpg|26580567], I completely agree that this was set in an entirely different world.

We follow Atl (vampire) and Domingo (not) through an alternate Mexico City, from where vampires have been banished or eradicated, as they try to evade the murderous vampire gang hunting them down. I felt that Moreno-Garcia captured the needs, wants, and desperations of each character perfectly which resulted in a high energy finale to close the vampiric neo-noir.

In summary, it wasn't 100% my cup of tea, but I thought the playful mix between traditional folklore and cult classic vampire fiction was genius and a lot of fun to read.

“To have and to hold, where even death cannot part us,’ Juliette whispered.
‘In this life and the next,’ Roma returned, ‘for however long our souls remain, mine will always find yours.” - are you kidding me??? they have my whole heart by now.
I think in the last 24 hours my heart has been pulled in every single direction and then torn into teeny tiny pieces.
My expectations going into this were not the highest, the first book for me was a little slow and I didn't feel immersed in the world. Within twenty pages of this one, I was reading as fast as I could to see what happened next, so a huge improvement.
Juliette and Roma's enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers arc (no seriously) is everything and their hating each other/fake marriage dialogue had my jaw on the floor it was so good.
Plot wise, I didn't feel like we gained much that we didn't already have in the first book except a look at some wider Chinese politics as the war moved closer to Shanghai. However, I was moved to feel so deeply for each character that the plot didn't matter to me as much as following through each of their stories.
And now that Gong has so perfectly set the stage for her Foul Lady Fortune series which I believe picks up where this duology has left off, I have no excuse but to put in another order at my library.