Five Decembers by James Kestrel
Detective Joe McGrady is the low-man on the totem pole in the Honolulu PD, so he's the one who gets the call when a thankless case comes up on the night before Thanksgiving, 1941. Two bodies have been brutally mutilated in a decrepit shack, one a white American male and the other a Japanese female. … [Read more]
The Dead Girls' Class Trip: Selected Stories by Anna Seghers
Jans i Seghers was a German/East German author, writing from 1925 to 1965. The stories in this collection are of two varieties - realistic and very somber, and magical realism or mythic tales. Some of the first sort weren’t bad, but I really enjoyed those of the second sort. The title … [Read more]
The Family by Naomi Krupitsky
This book has received a lot of comparisons to Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend and the other works in that series. Let me clarify: I've tried to read Ferrante multiple times and just can't land with her writing. I don't know what it is. It's got nothing to do with my months-long slump; I can't … [Read more]
By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
3.5 stars Isabelle (her friends call her Izzy) was so elated when she got a job as an assistant editor for a big publishing company. It was like a dream come true. Several years later, when she's overworked, underappreciated and still living with her parents at twenty-five, without even getting a … [Read more]
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
#CBR15 Passport Challenge: Different genres (paranormal fantasy) Being a queer teen can be difficult enough, even if you don't come from a long line of magic users with very traditional gender roles. In Yadriel's family, the brujos can summon the spirits of the dead and help them find peace in … [Read more]
Harper and the Single Dad by Amy Andrews
After an abrupt breakup with Yarran, Harper fled to London and immersed herself in her career as a surgeon. When she returns to Sydney twelve years later, it almost feels like things between her and Yarran haven't changed at all - except that Yarran has been married, widowed, and had a young son in … [Read more]
