strange and random happenstance

The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: September 21st, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Eva Nine has spent her entire life in an underground sanctuary. For twelve years she has been raised by "Muthr," Multi-Utility Task Help Robot 06, and hasn't wondered much about the world outside the sanctuary's eight rooms. Though she finds an image printed on cardboard that makes her question what the outside world contains. The image appears to be of a young girl with another human and a robot with words above them apparently spelling out "WondLa." Could there be others like her out there? Other humans with robot companions? Soon she will be thrust into that world when her sanctuary is attacked by a large creature named Besteel. Muthr gets left behind as Eva Nine flees for her life. She wanders the forest looking for safety and finds another sanctuary identical to her own. Only this one has been abandoned save for a Cærulean, Rovender Kitt, who is taking refuge in the remains. Sadly Besteel catches up to Eva Nine and her and her new companion are captured. Besteel is a Dorcean bounty hunter seeking out specimens for Queen Ojo's Royal Museum in Solas. Eva Nine and Rovender Kitt are brought to his camp, containing countless other specimens. But Eva Nine doesn't plan to be a embalmed and put on display in a museum. She and Rovender Kitt stage a successful escape, gaining Otto, a giant tardigrade, as their new traveling companion. Returning home Eva Nine finds Muthr in the wreckage and they are able to repair her and the unlikely crew decide to head out in search of clues as to what became of the human race. Which means traveling to Solas and the museum that wants Eva Nine as a specimen. It will be a harrowing journey, but in the end Eva Nine will have some answers. She will find her Wondla.

In the before times when I went to conventions and saw people I loved going to WisCon. I mean, who doesn't want to go to a science fiction convention with a feminist agenda? The authors I have met there over the years have filled my bookish heart with glee. But one aspect of the con I loved more than any other was the arcs you were able to get your hands on. They'd be on a large table and they all cost a dollar. Though prized arcs often ended up in the Tiptree Auction, named after famed science fiction author James Tiptree Jr., the pen name of Alice Bradley Sheldon. In my second year attending I had recently devoured the entirety of The Spiderwick Chronicles and I saw this book in the auction that seemed to conflate the titles of children's classics The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland hopefully creating a new classic written AND illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi of Spiderwick fame. I needed The Search for WondLa but was worried I wouldn't win because I had to put in an absentee bid because I couldn't be there for the auction. But someone knew I needed a win and I was surprised to find out that I was the winning bidder when I showed up to the final day of the convention. And the thing is, I was right about the title, to an extent. He was setting out to make a modern classic on par with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, only heavier on Oz. But the real takeaway is that he succeeded magnificently. It's not just the two-tone illustrations reminiscent of W.W. Denslow that are spot on. But the story feels timeless. There's the joy and wonder of what a child experiences the first time they encounter something new. As a kid I loved exploring museums, and when Eva Nine sees history all in one place for the first time, I felt that connection to my childhood. In that moment I was Eva Nine. But by far the best scene is at the very end. In an homage to the original Planet of the Apes when Eva Nine discovers that what she has been holding onto as a talisman is the cover of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz while in the remains of the main branch of The New York Public Library I actually cried. I knew it was coming but somehow it still shocked me. And that's what the best stories do, make us so invested that even if we see what's coming it hits us hard and it becomes a part of us.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, For the Love of Book Clubs, New York Public Library, Planet of the Apes, The Search for Wondla, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Tony DiTerlizzi, WisCon

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: August 21st, 2018
Format: Kindle, 112 Pages
Rating: ★★★★1/2★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It's 1884 and the Civil War has been in detente for years, nothing more than a temporary armistice. Skirmishes still break out and old General Tubman is still waging her guerilla war against the Confederate States of America where slavery has reached new levels of horror with the use of drapeto gas. In the free city of New Orleans street urchin Creeper is about to stumble across valuable information that could reignite the war. She lives atop Les Grand Murs, large walls constructed as airship ports that also saves the city from the tempêtes noires that strike New Orleans once a year. Thirteen years ago Creeper was born during one of these storms, making her one of Oya's children. Oya is an Orisha, the goddess of storms, life, death, and rebirth. One night Creeper is hiding in her alcove and hears soldiers for the Confederate States planning a meeting with a Haitian scientist to acquire The Black God's Drums. Creeper isn't naive and she puts two and two together and realizes her information could get her the life she wants aboard an airship as well as save some lives. She approaches an airship captain at Madame Diouf's establishment. The captain, Ann-Marie St. Augustine, was a client of Creeper's mother and is known to smuggle guns for General Tubman. What Creeper didn't realize is that Ann-Marie is the child of Oshun, Oya's sister-wife. It can't be a coincidence, especially once Creeper learns the history of The Black God's Drums. The Black God's Drums are known by another name, Shango's Thunder. Shango is Oya's husband. The weapon has only been deployed once, when Dessalines unleashed it against the French to free Haiti. They won, but at what cost? The storm didn't just decimate the French, it killed so so many Haitians. And the tempêtes noires are the aftermath of Shango's Thunder almost a hundred years later. If the Confederate States were to get this weapon they would unleash it against the Union. But these soldiers aren't the only ones who know of Shango's Thunder making its way to New Orleans. The Jeannots, comprised of disaffected Confederate States soldiers who are patriots to the Old New Orleans and want to take back the city for themselves or destroy it want it as well. It is up to Creeper and Ann-Marie to ban together as sister-wives and save a city they both love.

Before I reread this book to review it, and yes, sometimes I do have to reread books to review them, I read a rather bloated critical darling that just wasn't for me. Transitioning from that epic tome to this spare tale was an awakening as to how magnificent this story is. Coming in at a quarter the word count this book's worldbuilding leaves that aforementioned critical darling in the dust. The perfection of language, the specificity of events, the richness of the storytelling left me begging for more, not begging for it to be over. P. Djèlí Clark is an author whose words sing like the masked Jeannots. But it's really the worldbuilding that is breaktaking. It will literally take your breath away. Here we have an alternative outcome to the Civil War, as in, there isn't yet an outcome. Haiti and the Caribbean are the Free Isles. What Dessalines started in 1791 had a chain reaction for the whole Caribbean. But that had a negative impact on the American Civil War. The Confederate States were going to hold onto slavery at all costs. And a war that ended in our world in 1865 is still happening twenty years later. And while many people will point to the Steampunk elements of this story, that's just the cherry on top of the cake. That's a nice decorative glace touch. But stripe this story down and it's the alternative history that just works so well and is terrifyingly believable and the characters that drive the narrative. Though what I want to point to as working so effectively is the Orisha. For myself whenever you have Gods brought across the seas I can't but help think of American Gods and Anansi, who while West African, doesn't belong to the Orisha. And the reason I always think of American Gods is because it's a concept that Neil Gaiman got right. But I feel the time has come to pass the torch, to get authentic voices to continue the stories, to write new tales. And I can't help but see how the Orisha have been embraced in literature in recent years. Just look to Tomi Adeyemi's Legacy of Orïsha trilogy that really didn't work for me. It's hard to balance the human with the divine, and P. Djèlí Clark did just that. This book should be looked to as a classic in the vein of American Gods if only so we can somehow convince P. Djèlí Clark to write more stories within this universe. He got the Orisha right folks! And that, right there, should be shouted from the tops of Les Grand Murs!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alternate History, American Gods, Civil War, Confederacy, For the Love of Book Clubs, Haiti, Neil Gaiman, New Orleans, Orisha, Oshun, Oya, P. Djèlí Clark, Shango's Thunder, The Black God's Drums, Tomi Adeyemi

All's Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the first installment of a Regency romp of a series, a governess who believes in cultivating joy in her charges clashes with the children's uncle who hired her, only to find herself falling in love.

When Harry Kincaid's flighty older sister decides to join her husband on an Egyptian expedition, Harry, a former naval captain, is left in the lurch, minding her three unruly children and giant, mad dog. But Harry has a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all his attention, and he has no clue how to manage the little rascals or when his sister is coming back. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice's School for Young Ladies prepared to pay whatever it takes to hire an emergency governess quick sharp to ensure everything in his formerly ordered house is run shipshape again.

Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgie Rowe does not subscribe to the ethos that children should be seen and not heard. She believes childhood should be everything hers wasn't - filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional educational approach. Their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, however, is another matter entirely.

Georgie and Harry continue to butt heads over their differences, but with time it seems that in this case, their attraction is undeniable - and all is indeed fair in love and war."

Here's me making a list of what should be in my next "Regency Romp" and those exact words are used to describe this book... It's fate!

The Missing Diamond by Lynn Morrison and Anne Radcliffe
Published by: Marketing Chair
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 264 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Regency London's glittering ballrooms, a well-made match can mean the difference between power and ruin.

London, 1813: With his reputation and inheritance on the line, Lord Percy is determined to win the heart of the coveted diamond of the season. When that beautiful woman vanishes, his failure seems all but certain.

Unless, that is, he can find her.

Lady Grace is devastated when her best friend disappears. Society may be willing to believe the worst, but Grace knows her friend would never run off without leaving her a clue.

Someone kidnapped her - but who?

With the clock ticking, Lord Percy and Lady Grace find their best hope lies in working together. But strong wills, brash decisions, and pesky sparks aren't the only things standing in their way.

Can they trust each other in a society where people will do anything to rise to the top?"

Oh, did someone kidnap the diamond in order to force an advantageous match? Read to find out!

Waloves and Empires by Daniel McKenzie
Published by: Atmosphere Press
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 444 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Captain Lucien Dumaine is directed to France by the Orthodox Church in an alliance with Cardinal Richelieu on the political chess-board and immediately sails to Europe, receiving a grand welcome. His Red Eminence, Cardinal Richelieu, orders his new privateers to sail to the Spanish Main, pirating in the Caribbean.

The Captain and crew sail to the Caribbean and join with the infamous Brethren of the Coast, where the Wolf plans a heist of Spain's major shipping port at Vera Cruz, Mexico. The ship, the Vengeance, deals with a hurricane leaving the Spanish Main, but escape "the storm in a teacup" and are welcomed back to Paris with praise by Richelieu.

In the Gardens of Chateau-Versailles, attending a gala in his honor, the Wolf meets Lady Seafourthe and her partner, Nanciene Duvalier, owners of the Joyful Widows, the most fashionable and celebrated apparel salon at Paris. She presents the Wolf with a sailing contract to voyage unto the China Seas to garner silk and corner the market in Europe. The Wolf defends the ladies from being assaulted in the gardens, when Lynden and Lucien are struck by the lightning bolt of love."

Musketeer adjacent romance!

A Half Flower by Mirà Kanehl
Published by: Mirà Kanehl
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A revolutionist French surgeon. Victorian Hawai'i. A question of loyalty.

A Half Flower is the first installment the historical fiction and magical realism series Naupaka. If you enjoy exotic locales, cringe-worthy explorations of Victorian medicine, and subtle humor, then you'll love Mirà Kanehl's novel.

Unlock to travel to 1827 Hawai'i."

Because I really need to get the bad taste out of my mouth from the last book I read set in Hawai'i!

A Witch's Guide to Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal
Published by: Drawn and Quarterly
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Dhaliwal creates a land ruled by magic and fire, where the sky is thick with witches.

A witch's work is never done when she works for the people. With the success of her town relying on her magic, demands are high. But what happens when a witch can't keep up with the magical requests? She is burnt, of course - in a cruel ritual that extinguishes her magic and erases all her memories, making her just like everybody else. But when a burning ceremony is interrupted by rain in Chamomile Valley, a witch is left writhing at the stake. It's up to a witch doctor and her toad friend to save the singed witch and nurse her back to health. Can they help her before her magic is lost forever?

Aminder Dhaliwal's A Witch's Guide to Burning is a whimsical and humorous allegory for burnout in a society in desperate need of self-care. With a lavish blend of prose, illustration, and comics, Dhaliwal crafts an enthralling hybrid adventure story like you've never seen before. Follow Singe and her companions Yew-Veda and Bufo Wonder as they journey across dangerous landscapes, battling demons along the way in an extraordinary tale about sacrifice and healing."

Yep, I sure can relate to burning...

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
Published by: Titan Books (UK)
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sharp-witted, debut high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards and a garlic festival - all at once. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, K. J. Parker and Travis Baldree.

It's bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard's workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.

It's a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is...you.

Gav isn't really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.

But as he realizes that nothing - from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess - is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he'll have to answer the hardest question of all - who does he want to be?

A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. All in all, Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks."

Has a strong Nimona vibe... Also it's wrong that the garlic festival is the thing that really grabs my attention right?

Barbarian's Taming by Ruby Dixon
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The next novel in the Ice Planet Barbarians series, an international publishing phenomenon - now in a special print edition with an exclusive bonus epilogue!

There are a million reasons why Hassen and Maddie shouldn't work, but despite it all, they find themselves unable to resist each other...

As a newcomer to the alien tribe, I've struggled to find my place. It might be because I'm a tad headstrong at times. And yes, I might have thrown a few things at people's heads. But I had a good reason to pitch a fit - my shy sister was stolen away right under my nose. Of course, now she's back and mated. Everyone's happy...except me.

I need...affection. Attention.

Okay, I'm lonely. Really lonely.

Strangely enough, the only person that I think understands what I'm going through is the same blue-skinned brute that stole my sister. It's wrong to hook up with him, even as a mindless fling.

Except...I'm not so good with the whole "rules" thing. And he's not so great with the "fling" thing. But maybe there's a chance for us."

Admit it, you're just as besotted as me with the Ice Planet Barbarians!

Evocation by S.T. Gibson
Published by: Angry Robot
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From The Sunday Times bestselling author of Barnes and Noble's best books of 2022 A Dowry of Blood, comes a spellbinding and vibrant new series.

The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father's death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he's curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David's days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he's ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other's care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good..."

A devilish throuple? 

Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi
Published by: Mariner Books
Publication Date: May 28th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the FBI's former assistant director, a shocking journey to the dark side of America's highways, revealing the FBI Highway Serial Killings Initiative's hunt for the long-haul truckers behind an astonishing 850 murders-and counting.

In 2004, the FBI was tipped off to a gruesome pattern of unsolved murders along American roadways. Today at least 850 homicides have been linked to a solitary breed of predators: long-haul truck drivers. They have been given names like the "Truck Stop Killer," who rigged a traveling torture chamber in the rear of his truck and is suspected to have killed fifty women, and "The Interstate Strangler," who once answered a phone call from his mother while killing one of his dozen victims. The crisis was such that the FBI opened a special unit, the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. In many cases, the victims - often at-risk women - are picked up at truck stops in one jurisdiction, sexually assaulted and murdered in another, and dumped along a highway in a third place. The transient nature of the offenders and multiple jurisdictions involved make these cases incredibly difficult to solve.

Based on his own on-the-ground research and drawing on his twenty-five-year career as an FBI special agent, Frank Figliuzzi investigates the most terrifying cases. He also rides in a big-rig with a long-haul trucker for thousands of miles, gaining an intimate understanding of the life and habits of drivers and their roadside culture. And he interviews the courageous trafficked victims of these crimes, and their inspiring efforts to now help others avoid similar fates.

Long Haul is a gripping exploration of a violent, disordered world hiding in plain sight, and the heroes racing to end the horror. It will forever unsettle how you travel on the road."

True Crime written by Frank Figliuzzi!?! Oh yes please, I need more from this zaddy in my life.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aminder Dhaliwal, Anne Radcliffe, Burnout, Caitlin Rozakis, Daniel McKenzie, Frank Figliuzzi, Hawaii, Ice Planet Barbarians, Lynn Morrison, Mirà Kanehl, Regency Romp, Ruby Dixon, S.T. Gibson, Virginia Heath

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: 1944
Format: Paperback, 626 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Hazel is a beautiful busty blonde, always putting on a show for one lover or another. Marriage allows her to finally be herself, which doesn't please her husband one bit. He misses the good-time girl he married. She takes to drinking and hanging out with her neighbor who always seems to have a plethora of men at her place. One particular man takes a shine to her and her husband is out of the picture and she's a kept woman. Until one day she isn't. She moves from one man to another, being the good-time girl, a fate she's destined for as even suicide didn't take. Suicide is a theme returned to again and again, "Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live." All these people living desperate lives, barely scraping by. Yet the Crugers are well off. They have staff to take care of their every whim. Miss Wilmarth is a nurse that works for them. She is neither above nor below stairs. She is in her own world. But her employers let her little by little into their world. Of course to the Crugers she is a joke. They believe she is unattractive and like showing off their "Horsie." Because if one thing is true, those with money will make sport of their lessers. So the truth of "society" is revealed, it is there to be the punching bag, a position they aren't used to. But the truth is, behind the veil even those who are well off, those with jewels and pearls, they too suffer from melancholia. The world makes everyone suffer in the end. Though one lady out on a date might just adopt "Horsie," it's something she's prone to do after "just a little one." But as she gets drunker and drunker, her companion Fred has to hear her slur the reputation of their mutual acquaintance, Edith. Because the alcohol makes her maudlin and apt to say what she shouldn't even be thinking. But it will all be alright if they adopt just a little horse... Alcohol, class, loneliness, depression, this is the world as it is, but also with the cut and thrust of someone who has been there.

Everyone knows Dorothy Parker even if they don't know they know her. She is remembered primarily for her pithy one-liners. If you've ever heard someone say that men "seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses" that's one of hers. As is "what fresh hell can this be?" And "I hate writing, I love having written." Timeless snark that people use to this day, even if it's been slightly bastardized and altered. Despite her dislike of writing her output was prodigious, a poet, a reviewer, and short story writer, she did it all. What's more she even followed the writers inevitable journey west to Hollywood and garnered two Academy Award nominations. One of which might surprise you. She just happened to write the first version of A Star is Born. Though personally I'm more impressed with her doing Saboteur for Hitchcock. Her stories became wildly popular due to her and Alexander Woollcott producing an anthology of her work for servicemen stationed overseas during World War II. It was finally published for the masses in 1944 as The Portable Dorothy Parker. Since then it's been revised twice to add in more material and make it the behemoth that it is today, a paperback clocking in at 626 pages that could clock anyone if wielded properly. One would think that reading this vast conglomeration of work from her scatching review of The House at Pooh Corner to letters about staying with friends in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Europe to poetry and prose might give you a little whiplash. That you might just be overwhelmed by the sheer disparate quality of her work. But for me, this wasn't the case. Instead I felt like I got a glimpse of this fully rounded character, and boy was she a character. Her poetry showed her depth of feeling along with her astounding use of language. Her letters showed her inner life and her social conscience and how she was always fighting for the underdog, even if it did get her on the Hollywood blacklist. Her reviews showed that even if you were her friend she'd come at you both barrels blazing. And her short stories showed her wicked wit. While many people point to "Big Blonde" as her best story, might I counter with "The Game." Written for Cosmopolitan in 1948 it's about a newlywed couple hosting a few of their friends at their apartment. The game they play becomes more and more vicious with secrets revealed, especially about the husband's first wife... With this story alone you can see why she worked with Hitchcock. It's a marital version of Rope. You NEED this story in your life so you might as well buy the book. You wouldn't want her ghost showing up and decimating you with the perfect pithy put-down now would you?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Star is Born, Alcoholism, Big Blonde, Cosmopolitan, Dorothy Parker, For the Love of Book Clubs, Hitchcock, Poetry, Screenplay, Short Stories, Suicide, The House at Pooh Corner, The Portable Dorothy Parker

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
Published by: Hogarth
Publication Date: October 6th, 2014
Format: Kindle, 594 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Peter Leigh was an addict. But he found Bea and then he found God. Coincidentally on the same night. He has a small flock he ministers to but soon an opportunity arises that he can't refuse. USIC, an American corporation, wishes for him to be a missionary to the native population at one of their sites. The site just happens to be the planet Oasis. This is an opportunity to bring the word of God to a new species. An opportunity Peter can't pass up despite how hard his separation from Bea will be. His month long journey to Oasis leaves him disoriented. He wanders away from base camp into the wilderness, risking his very life. Thankfully the base's pharmacist Grainger finds him in time. Once he is healed he finally gets to meet the Oasans. He wasn't sure what to expect, but the ugly creatures before him speak English and are already devoted lovers of Jesus. While he has already made the leap to leave Earth and his wife, at least they could communicate while he stayed at the USIC base. But Peter thinks that to truly be the missionary he is supposed to be he must commit himself further to the Oasans. He decides to move to their settlement, C-2, and help them to build a church. A place in which their love for Jesus can be properly shown. Where he can be one with them and learn why they so responded to The Book of Strange New Things, which is their name for the Bible, and what he can do to help their faith grow. This is his life now. Nothing and no one will take it away from him. Not even Bea will stand in his way. And things aren't going well for Bea. USIC has plans for Oasis to embody its name because Earth is dying. Bea is alone and pregnant and natural disaster after natural disaster keeps compounding the problems. She is scared and her husband has abandoned her to be the mouthpiece of God when his own people, his own family, are dying. When he learns the truth behind the Oasans fate after a bad accident he realizes he has a choice to make; to return to a dying planet or to continue preaching to those who believe in miracles.

Do you want to read a book about a self-centered asshole who literally thinks that everything can be fixed just by his presence? Well then I have the book for you! Peter Leigh is the worst kind of man. Or, if I were as cynical as one member of my book club, just a man. He leaves behind his wife on a dying planet to be a missionary. Yes, you might say he is called, you might even say that being a missionary is a noble calling, but for me, someone who is called wouldn't be such a douchebag. Though there are those who think Trump is the messiah... So maybe we're supposed to identify with this horribly flawed individual? See that we might not be able to fix ourselves but can serve the greater good? Learn that his addiction was able to be overcome and he found a new path. But I just can't. He always puts himself first. Obviously replaced drugs with God. Risks others by doing stupid things. And he objectifies everyone. Women who are bitchy are obviously premenstrual, another woman could be pretty if she'd just watch what she ate and stopped aging, because otherwise he will call her porky. Seriously, porky!?! Just die! And of all the times he could have died and didn't? Well, that just broke my heart. Because he deserves death. He deserves it so much. The way he distances himself from his wife, he claims it's because of the new world he's experiencing, that what he left behind is no longer relevant, well you left behind a pregnant wife, I think that's pretty relevant. And then, when he finally learns that Oasans believe in God because they fervently need resurrection to be a reality due to the fact anything, even a small bump, could lead to death, he leaves them. He leaves them claiming it's because he misled them, but truly, it's because he's an asshole. And maybe, just maybe, it's dawning on him that his very presence isn't the answer to all problems. But let's take the cynical approach and think that he still believes that he is the answer. Technically the Oasans belief is stronger than ever when he leaves and returns to Earth to be with his wife despite the fact that Earth is about to die. The end of the world is imminent. So why would he return to certain death? Because he is so egocentric that he thinks his return to Earth will reverse climate change. That he will restore his wife's belief in God and that all will be well. He is deluded. He is an asshole. He needed to die. Is it wrong that I hope the Earth really is doomed just so he dies?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abandon, Addict, Aliens, Bible, Church, Climate Change, For the Love of Book Clubs, God, Jesus Lover, Michel Faber, Missionary, Oasans, OASIS, Objectification, Peter Leigh, Pregnancy, The Book of Strange New Things

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water comes an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop, and an audacious solution.

Solve the murder to save what's left of the world.

Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island - and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer - and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking."

I am SO excited for this book. I already have my signed copy preordered!

Once Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
Published by: Gallery/Scout Press
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Harkening to Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them - from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who "is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime" (The Washington Post).

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she's pretty sure they won't extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren't going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples - Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana - in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real - and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense."

Yes, it's time for beach read season, and well, I think this is the winner out of the gate.

The Main Character by Jaclyn Goldis
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A bestselling thriller author arranges a luxury train trip that is not what it appears to be in this electrifying modern homage to Agatha Christie from the author of the "tense and twisty" (Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author) The Chateau.

Reclusive, mysterious author Ginevra Ex is famous for her unusual approach to crafting her big bestselling thrillers: she hires real people and conducts intensive interviews, then fictionalizes them. Her latest main character, Rory, is thrilled when Ginevra presents her with an extravagant bonus - a lavish trip along Italy's Mediterranean coast on the famed, newly renovated Orient Express. But when Rory boards the train, she's stunned to discover that her brother, her best friend, and even her ex-fiancé are passengers, as well. All invited by Ginevra, all hiding secrets.

With each stop, from Cinque Terre to Rome to Positano, it becomes increasingly clear that Ginevra has masterminded the ultimate real life twisty plot with Rory as her main character. And as Ginevra's deceptions mount, and the lies and machinations of Rory's travel companions pile up, Rory begins to fear that her trip will culminate like one of Ginevra's books: with a murder or two. In the opulent compartments of the iconic train, Rory must untangle the shocking reasons why Ginevra wanted them all aboard - and to what deadly end.

Another stylish and compulsively readable mystery from Jaclyn Goldis, this is the perfect read for fans of Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Paula Hawkins."

I mean, someone who stages their books in real life? I want to meet this demented (sadly fictional) author!

Still Waters by Matt Goldman
Published by: Forge
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"If you're reading this email, I am dead. I know this will sound strange, but someone has been trying to kill me.

Liv and Gabe Ahlstrom are estranged siblings who haven't seen each other in years, but that's about to change when they receive a rare call from their older brother's wife. "Mack is dead," she says. "He died of a seizure." Five minutes after they hang up, Liv and Gabe each receive a scheduled email from their dead brother, claiming that he was murdered.

The siblings return to their family-run resort in the Northwoods of Minnesota to investigate Mack's claims, but Leech Lake has more in store for them than either could imagine. Drawn into a tangled web of lies and betrayal that spans decades, they put their lives on the line to unravel the truth about their brother, their parents, themselves, and the small town in which they grew up. After all, no one can keep a secret in a small town, but someone in Leech Lake is willing to kill for the truth to stay buried.

New York Times bestselling and Emmy award-winning author Matt Goldman returns with a gripping, emotional thrill ride in this compelling story on grief and uncovering the past before it's too late."

I mean, Leech Lake? If I had a resort there I'd try to do some rebranding...

When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An outsider threatens to expose the secrets at an elite private school in this suspenseful debut novel for readers of My Dark Vanessa and Dare Me.

Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin's most exclusive private school. It seems nearly perfect: the high arched window alcoves and tall granite pillars, the overspill of lilac at the front gate and the immaculate playing fields, the giggling students, the dusty, oak-lined library, and the dark, festering secret she has come to expose.

At first, Lou's working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield's web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet.

Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called "Highfield Affair," when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna's brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify.

Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. Powerful and compelling, When We Were Silent is an unputdownable, thrilling story of exploitation, privilege, and retribution."

Oh yes, don't keep silent any longer, spill the secrets! Tell me all!

Death Behind Every Door by Heather Graham
Published by: Mira Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the shadows of a Scottish castle, something deadly is lurking in every corner...

When FBI special agent Luke Kendrick discovers chilling evidence of dozens of victims at a crime scene in London, he recognizes the calling card of the notorious H. H. Holmes Society. Named for the eighteenth-century monster regarded as America's first serial killer, the society is comprised of a twisted web of killers, working to carry out heinous murders in Holmes's memory. And now the group's been linked to a Scottish castle turned B and B - where guests check in but never check out.

Arriving at the sinister Graystone Castle posed as a tourist, Luke is joined by Special Agent Carly MacDonald, and the pair is immediately confronted by dangers hidden in the castle's depths. With guests disappearing and a network of killers closing in, Luke and Carly have only each other to rely on - and they'll have to race to cut off the head of the snake before the blood trail of the past can culminate in a very real and deadly present."

Oh, H.H. Holmes acolytes! Time for me to check in.

The Village Detectives and the Art of Murder by Fiona Walker
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Welcome to the beautiful English village of Inkbury. Tucked deep in the North Wessex Downs, it's only claim to fame is the picturesque riverside that once appeared in a Richard Curtis movie. That is, until the murder...

Former stand-up comic Juno Mulligan has been suffering a serious sense-of-humour failure. Not only has she lost the love of her life, but she's having to relocate to the (admittedly idyllic) village of Inkbury to watch out for her elderly mother, who she's genuinely worried might be marrying a wife-killer.

She hopes that her old friend, disgraced-journalist-turned-novelist Phoebe Fredericks can help her crack the case of whether her mother's perma-tanned, iceberg-smiled, three-times-a-widower fiancé is hiding a murderous past.

But before they have a chance, the local art dealer washes up distinctly dead in the village's famous river. His lover is in the frame, but Juno and Phoebe suspect that there is a deeper secret…One that relates to Phoebe's own past and Juno's present.

Will the unofficial Village Detective Agency solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? In sleepy Inkbury, as they soon discover, living one's best midlife can be murder.

An utterly gripping cozy crime mystery, from million-copy bestselling Fiona Walker, guaranteed to absolutely delight fans of Richard Osman, Janet Evanovich and the Reverend Richard Coles."

The Richard Curtis reference made me snort laugh.

The Last Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"All will be revealed in this no-holds-barred finale of the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated Maggie Hope series as the intrepid spy teams up with fashion designer - and possible double agent - Coco Chanel to bring down the physicist behind Nazi Germany's nuclear program.

Maggie Hope has come a long way since she was Mr. Churchill's secretary. In the face of tremendous danger, she's learned espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance. But things are different now that she has so much to lose, including the possibility of a family with John Sterling, the man who's long held her heart.

British Intelligence has ordered Maggie to assassinate Werner Heisenberg, the physicist who may deliver a world-ending fission bomb for Germany. She's shaken. An assassination is unlike anything she has ever done. How can the Allies even be sure Nazi Germany has a bomb? Determined to gather more information, Maggie travels to Madrid, where Heisenberg is visiting for a lecture.

At the same time, couturier Coco Chanel, a spy in her own right with ambiguous loyalties, has requested a mysterious meeting with the British ambassador in Madrid - and has requested Maggie join them. As the two play a dangerous game of cat and mouse, Maggie tries to get a better understanding of Heisenberg, but is faced with betrayal and a threat more terrifying than losing her own life.

Maggie desperately wants to find her happily-ever-after, but as the war reaches a fever pitch, the stakes keep rising. Now, more than ever, the choices she makes will reverberate around the globe, touching everyone she loves - with fateful implications for the future of the free world."

You just KNOW Susan Elia MacNeal has been holding on to this perfect title for the last book in her series.

The Lamplighter by Crystal J. Bell
Published by: Flux
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's an honor to bring light to the dark. The nineteenth-century whaling village of Warbler is famous for its lucky ship figureheads - and infamous for people disappearing into the nightly fog. In this murky locale, the lamplighter is synonymous with safety and protection, and it's a position Temperance assumes when her father is found hanging from one of the lampposts. Though Tempe proves competent, the town is still hesitant to let a woman handle this responsibility. When a girl disappears after two lamps go out, Tempe's ability to provide for her mother and younger sister hangs in the balance. She scrambles for answers, hindered at every turn by the village authorities' call for her removal. As more villagers vanish under her watch, Tempe discovers unsettling truths about the famous Warbler figureheads and her own beloved father. But her warnings of a monster are ignored, even by her own family. Now she must follow the light out of her own fog of despair, as she faces the choice to look the other way or risk speaking out and possibly dooming herself and her sister to be among the lost."

I mean, obviously there has to be a monster in the fog right? Even if it's shaped like a man, it's still a monster...

You Like It Darker by Stephen King
Published by: Scribner Book Company
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 3512 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

"You like it darker? Fine, so do I," writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life - both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel "the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind," and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

"Two Talented Bastids" explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream," a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny's most catastrophically. In "Rattlesnakes," a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance - with major strings attached. In "The Dreamers," a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. "The Answer Man" asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King's ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it."

Why does it sound like the sequel to Cujo might be about a haunted puppet? King does like his haunted dolls...

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Love brings down the haunted house in this captivating romance from the acclaimed author of The Romantic Agenda.

Lucky Hart has a special affinity for the supernatural but almost no one takes parapsychology seriously. She's estranged from her family, lost her friends, and has been rejected from graduate school. Twice. But her big break finally arrives when she gets insider info about a troubled production company. Every actor on their new show mysteriously quits after spending three nights inside Hennessee House, an old Victorian with a notorious reputation.

After scheming her way onto the show to investigate, Lucky meets Maverick Phillips and chemistry instantly crackles between them. He tempts her in ways no one ever has, challenging and supporting her, and making her finally feel seen. Their connection is so palpable everyone notices it - including Hennesee House.

Now Lucky and Maverick's relationship has a challenger: the lonely, sentient house desperate for her undivided attention. As love begins to clash with career, Lucky refuses to choose one over the other because everyone deserves a happily ever after, even houses with haunted hearts. But when all her plans begin backfiring one-by-one, she realizes that if she wants to have it all? She'll have to risk everything."

Aw, even the haunted house deserves a happy ending. Aw. 

The Incorrigibles by Meredith Jaeger
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From USA Today bestselling author Meredith Jaeger comes an emotionally resonant novel about two women whose lives intersect as one resists the gentrification of her San Francisco neighborhood, and the other, eighty years earlier, fights for her freedom in nineteenth-century America....

1890, San Francisco. Seduced by her employer's nephew, Annie Gilmurray, an Irish maid, is accused of stealing the ring he promised her. Sentenced to one year in San Quentin, Annie is heartbroken and frightened among the inmates of the women's ward: prostitutes, murderers, and pickpockets. But Annie finds beauty and friendship in a brutal place, where the women look out for one another, dreaming of a better life after release. But their world inside San Quentin's walls is a dangerous one, and when the unthinkable happens, Annie makes a choice that will alter the course of her future forever.

1972, San Francisco. Aspiring photographer Judy Morelli is grappling with the searing betrayal of her husband's infidelity, subletting a San Francisco apartment while she pieces her life back together. When Judy discovers Annie's mugshot, she becomes fascinated and invested not just in Annie's fate but also in the history of her gentrifying South of Market Street neighborhood, joining the fight against redevelopment to maintain its rich community.

Exploring the different ways in which we are imprisoned and how we can break free, The Incorrigibles is a story of women reaching across the barriers of time, the unbreakable bonds of female friendship, and the forgotten histories of those pushed to society's margins."

Yes, female empowerment in San Francisco through the ages!

A Gamble at Sunset by Vanessa Riley
Published by: Zebra
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Award-winning author Vanessa Riley turns all convention on its head for the first in an enchanting, dazzlingly diverse new Regency romance trilogy featuring a duke, three sisters, and a tantalizing bet with a most desirable reward...

When a duke discovers the woman he loves was tricked into marrying another, the master chess player makes the now-widowed Viscountess the highest-stakes wager of his life in a last-ditch effort to win her affection: he will find husbands for her two sisters - or depart forever...

Georgina Wilcox, a wallflower with hidden musical talents, is furious when her reclusive older sister - the recently widowed Viscountess - refuses sorely needed help from the Duke of Torrance, the only gentleman who has shown kindness to the bereft Wilcox sisters. Georgina decides to get back at her sister and shock the Viscountess by kissing the first willing stranger she meets in the enchanting gardens of Anya House. Unfortunately, her sister is not the sole witness. A group of reporters and the ton's leading gossips catch Georgina in a passionate embrace with a reticent composer, Lord Mark Sebastian.

The third son of an influential marquis, the tongue-tied Mark is determined to keep the scandal from ruining Georgina's reputation and his own prospects of winning the celebrated Harlbert's Prize for music. Under the guise of private voice lessons, the two embark on a daring gamble to fool the ton into believing that their feigned courtship is honorable while bolstering Georgina's singing genius to captivate potential suitors. Sexist cartoons, family rivalries, and an upcoming ball test the fake couple's resolve. Will their sudden fiery collaboration - and growing attraction - prove there's nothing false about a first kiss and scandalously irresistible temptation?"

Sigh, Regency romance and Vanessa Riley FINALLY getting a good cover to one of her books!

The Heiress's Daughter by Anne Gracie
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dashing rake must prove he has changed his scandalous ways to win his one true love from the arms of another, in a witty new Regency romance from the national bestselling author of The Rake's Daughter.

Heiress Clarissa Studley yearns to be loved for more than her fortune. Warmhearted, but plain and shy, she wishes to marry, but has two firm rules: no rakes and no fortune-hunters - her father was both, and she'll never forget the misery he caused.

So, when Race, Lord Randall, starts to pay Clarissa attention, she knows she must keep him at a distance. Attractive and charming he might be, Race's reputation precedes him and she's observed first hand his flirtatious ways with London society beauties. But Race sees a beauty in Clarissa that others cannot, and for the first time in his life, he is truly in love. And when a rival for Clarissa's affections appears - a handsome, wounded war hero, heir to his great-aunt's fortune - Race becomes desperate as Clarissa seems tempted to make a safer, tamer choice.

Can Race convince Clarissa that his love is true and that she can trust him with her heart? And can Clarissa put aside her unhappy past, and follow her heart, despite the risk of loving a rake?"

Come on, rakes are the most fun to romance!

The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick
Published by: S and s/Saga Press
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by Beauty and the Beast and the myth of Hades and Persephone, this lush and enchanting enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Scarlett St. Clair.

Wren of Edgewood is no stranger to suffering. With her parents gone, it's Wren's responsibility to ensure she and her sister survive the harsh and endless winter, but if the legends are to be believed, their home may not be safe for much longer.

For three hundred years, the land surrounding Edgewood has been encased in ice as the Shade, a magical barrier that protects the townsfolk from the Deadlands beyond, weakens. Only one thing can stop the Shade's fall: the blood of a mortal woman bound in wedlock to the North Wind, a dangerous immortal whose heart is said to be as frigid as the land he rules. And the time has come to choose his bride.

When the North Wind sets his eyes on Wren's sister, Wren will do anything to save her - even if it means sacrificing herself in the process. But mortal or not, Wren won't go down without a fight...

The North Wind is a stand-alone, enemies-to-lovers slow-burn fantasy romance, the first in a series sprinkled with Greek mythology."

I've always been a sucker for anything Beauty and the Beast related, throw in the gorgeous cover and I'm sold. 

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: May 21st, 2024
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Groundhog Day meets Guardians of the Galaxy in Django Wexler's laugh-out-loud fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.

Davi has done this all before. She's tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she's rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she's killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she's been defeated every time.

This time? She's done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that's who she needs to be. It's Davi's turn to play on the winning side."

Because who says you can't be the Dark Lord of your own story?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anne Gracie, Claire Kann, Crystal J. Bell, Fiona McPhillips, Fiona Walker, Heather Graham, Jaclyn Goldis, Matt Goldman, Meredith Jaeger, Ruth Ware, Stephen King, Stuart Turton, Susan Elia MacNeal, Vanessa Riley

A Breath of Life by Clarice Lispector
Published by: New Directions
Publication Date: 1978
Format: Paperback, 167 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Angela Pralini has been given life by her creator, a God-like auteur with whom she holds a dialogue. Breath, words, life, death. Because once created there is only one outcome for Angela, and that is death. As Angela writes, she grapples with what she is and what her purpose is and whether there is a God and is her God everyone's God or is her creator, much like Victor Frankenstein, her God as he was to his creation. Or is her "God" her master? A philosophical monologue envelopes her. But it is a monologue where she knows who she is talking to. She is talking to her creator. And she needs answers to this life, to this strange feeling of being alive with blood flowing like lava. Why was she created? Why is anyone created? And why create when the only outcome is death? Angela's stream of consciousness washes over you. Yet is the dialogue really between Angela and her creator or is it between Clarice Lispector and her authorial voice as embodied by Angela trying to come to terms with her own impending death? Because as Clarice Lispector wrote this fragmented and existential piece that is almost more poetry than prose she lay dying. She would never see this book published. The heights of joy that Angela reaches are that which Clarice Lispector will miss the most, as the depths of Angela's despair are what she herself is grappling with. This is a transcendental meditation on what it means to be human. The small joys, staircases and music, the fact Angela feels herself nothing more than a mirage. Life is brutal but it is filled with miracles. This is the human experience hitting you full in the face while at the very end of the journey. But in the end, do we know anything? Do we know why we were here, why we experienced joy or sorrow? Did the weight of one make the other worth it? Or was life just in the living? In the emotion? In the feelings like lava through the veins, the absurdities or what it is to be alive. If nothing more can be said of Angela and her author, at least they both lived. Angela lived because Clarice Lispector lived. A fictional person can be real because they help the reader understand what it is, what it was, to be alive when the end comes.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that books should, for the most part, have cogent sentences. That the words and meaning should form to be something legible. There are people who just like the cascade of words flowing over them, and that's fine. It's just not my thing. I don't like word salad. I don't like stream of consciousness. I like to pick up a book and know that it's going somewhere. That wasn't A Breath of Life. But I don't think I can judge Clarice Lispector as an author by this, her final book. Because the truth is this book wasn't just her coming to terms with her end and railing against the God who had created her, it was also unfinished. Olga Borelli, her assistant and friend, took writing fragments and structured them into a book. So who knows if this is what Clarice Lispector would have wanted. Did she desire these half-finished thoughts to be put out in the world? Did she want the final memory of her work to be this weak? That's why there's this part of me that agrees with Terry Pratchett whose unfinished work and hard drives were steamrolled into oblivion at his request. He didn't want anyone else tinkering with his work after he was dead and gone. He didn't want what happened to Truman Capote to happen to him, where Capote's Answered Prayers was just thrown out into the world to harsh criticism due to it's unfinished state. And here's the thing, there's a big difference between assembling unfinished material and hiring someone to finish it. This was an assemblage, which, when you think of the nature of the book, an author bringing life to "his" creation, there's a very Frankensteinian vibe which makes sense. The creature in Mary Shelley's tale was an assemblage. Fragments from different places. So while Frankenstein is a modern prometheus, this is a post-modern prometheus, and with all due respect to The X-Files, this book was written first and that episode is about a rapist. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a book that can be studied and taken apart but as a reading experience it's far from enjoyable. You shouldn't take great pleasure in random asides like Angela declaring "I like staircases." You should enjoy the whole thing. Not plan to sit in a chair and plough through until the end. And maybe that's not the way to read this book, maybe it should be taken slower, like poetry, allowing the words to wash over you. But as I've said before, that's just not me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Breath of Life, Angela Pralini, Clarice Lispector, DEATH, Dying, For the Love of Book Clubs, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Poetry, Post-Modern Prometheus, Stream of Consciousness, Terry Pratchett, The X-Files

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison
Published by: Gollancz
Publication Date: June 25th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 219 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Shaw and Victoria are an unexpected pairing. Coming together on a drunken night with Victoria ranting about people born looking like fish they quickly part. Are they actually star-crossed lovers or just narcissists oblivious to what is right in front of them? A kindred spirit. Another person who views the world as they do. Only time will tell. While their lives diverge they keep in sporadic contact, though mostly on Victoria's side with long rambling emails that go unread for the most part. Because the oddities of their lives need to be spoken to someone who will understand. Yet they seek no deeper meaning in the bizarre turn their lives have taken, they just need someone to hear their story. They need to hear the sound of their own voices. Shaw is trying to piece together his life. Living in a bedsit the only job he can hold down is as a courier for his neighbor Tim, who is awash in conspiracy theories which he promotes on his blog, The Water House, and runs his business out of a boat. Shaw travels around the country delivering boxes to stores that while all diverse have a samness to them. He's also trying to flog Tim's book which is just as disorganized as The Water House. He doesn't question his job, he just gets on with it, repulsed by the world around him while trying to reintegrate into it. In his spare time he visits his mother who is suffering from dementia, but those visits are too stressful to contemplate. Meanwhile Victoria has taken up residence in the Midlands in her mother's house which she has recently inherited. The townsfolk are odd and seem inordinately obsessed with Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. The house feels alien to her. The land is menacing, ghostly voices trail through the air, and the water table is rising. Rumors of people with green skin are becoming more and more common. Entropy has taken hold, but are either Show or Victoria able to comprehend what this means? Or will their ignorance lead them into oblivion?

I have no idea what I just read. Google tells me that The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again is about the psychogeography of post Brexit Britain. And that doesn't help at all. Because I have no idea what that means either. But thanks again to Google I now know that psychogeography is about how a location can affect someone's emotion and behavior. And, yeah, that does make a bit of sense, because we follow Shaw and Victoria and how their environments change them. How their paranoia takes hold and the weird Lynchian situations they find themselves in and the people they encounter are very much people who Trump would love to have on his jury, so hardcore Brexiters. But here's the thing, I'm not sure even David Lynch could make sense of this rambling incoherent mess other than apparently everyone should be reading The Water Babies. Which oddly enough I have a copy of in my set of Children's Classics that my brother and I got one Christmas despite the fact that I'm pretty sure Charles Kingsley didn't want his book categorized as reading for children. But you don't get to choose once you're dead and gone. He should be content with the classic categorization. One this book will never get in a million years. Because the thing about this book is that there's not really anything here. It's situations and feelings and at the end you're left wondering where your time went. It should be a quick read but it's not. All I have are these vague feelings of unease. Which maybe ties into the psychogeography of it all? Can psychogeography relate to places you only encounter in books? Because if so, yeah, I experienced that. The overriding vibe I had though was that M. John Harrison really wanted to write something political while at the same time Lovecraftian and, well, maybe this is success? Because I felt unease about the politics and the environment, and well, I kept thinking of the people who reside in Innsmouth, the Deep Ones. The Deep Ones are part of the Cthulhu Mythos and have to be related to the "people" in this tale. But this is all just projection. Because seriously, I do not know what I just read. This was a screed, a rant, an unfinished thought. This was oddly a call to arms, but a call to arms that has come too late. We're just here watching the spread of deep-seated dread. So, if you want to be confused, paranoid, and develop some unshakable panic, then this is the book for you!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Brexit, Charles Kingsley, Cthulhu, Entropy, For the Love of Book Clubs, H.P. Lovecraft, Innsmouth, M. John Harrison, Psychogeography, The Deep Ones, The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, The Water Babies, Water

The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn't believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.

Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who've tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.

When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn't believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can't resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home - at the risk of losing her magic and her heart."

THE book I see everyone talking about this spring.

The Blue Maiden by Anna Noyes
Published by: Grove Press
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of Indie Next Pick and New York Times Editors' Choice Goodnight, Beautiful Women comes a transportive and chilling debut novel of two sisters growing up on an isolated Northern European island in the shadow of their late mother and the Devil.

It's 1825, four generations after Berggrund Island's women stood accused of witchcraft under the eye of their priest, now long dead. In his place is Pastor Silas, a widower with two wild young daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are outcasts: imaginative, oppositional, increasingly obsessed with the lore and legend of the island's dark past and their absent mother, whom their father refuses to speak of.

As the girls come of age, and the strictures of the community shift but never wane, their rebellions twist and sharpen. Ever capable Ulrika shoulders the burden of keeping house, while Bea, alone with unsettling visions and impulses, hungers for companionship and attention. When an enigmatic outsider arrives at their door, his presence threatens their family bond and unearths - piece by piece - a buried history to shocking ends. All the while Berggrund's neighboring island The Blue Maiden beckons, storied home of the Witches' Sabbath and Satan's realm, its misted shore veiling truths the sisters have spent their lives searching for.

A Nordic Gothic laced with the horrors of life in a patriarchy both hostile to and reliant on its women, The Blue Maiden is a starkly beautiful depiction of lost lineage and resilience."

Nordic Gothic, yes please!

Til Death Do Us Bard by Rose Black
Published by: Hodderscape
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Til Death Do Us Bard is a charming queer fantasy, perfect for fans of Legends and Lattes and Nettle and Bone.

Marriage isn't always sunshine and unicorns...sometimes it's monsters and necromancy.

It's been almost a year since Logan 'The Bear' Theaker hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into a world he thought he'd left behind.

Logan quickly discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan sets out to rescue his husband.

But the further the quest takes him, the more secrets Logan uncovers. He'll need all his strength to rescue his husband - but can he save their marriage?"

I like to think that the surprise hit that is Legends and Lattes didn't spawn all these imitators but that all these books were out there waiting for an audience so that the authors could finally tell their tales that had been brewing in them for years.

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle
Published by: S and s/Saga Press
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Unicorn comes a new novel with equal amounts of power and whimsy in which a loveable cast of characters trapped within their roles of dragon hunter, princess, and more must come together to take their fates into their own hands.

Dragons are common in the backwater kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouse-like vermin all the way up to castle-smashing monsters. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad's job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart in part because he likes dragons, feeling a kinship with them, but mainly because his dream has always been the impossible one of transcending his humble origin to someday become a prince's valet. Needless to say, fate has something rather different in mind..."

I mean, I just want to read the story for Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax, AKA Robert!

The Wolf's Eye by Luanne G. Smith
Published by: 47north
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Under the full moon of World War I, a baleful curse threatens to tear apart a witch's found family in a novel by the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of The Raven Spell.

Petra Kurková - a witch who wields magic worth its weight in gold - is tasked with combating the undead on World War I's eastern front. The battlefield has yielded a newfound closeness for her spellbound team, especially for Josef Svoboda, a recruiter for the Order of the Seven Stars. But Josef was bitten at the start of the war, leaving his blood tainted by a strain of the vlkodlak curse, which makes him a target of the Order's latest mission: slay the werewolves prowling the eastern front under the moonlight.

Petra refuses to give up on one of their own. From the hasty kill order of a clandestine society to the long-lost spells in an old grimoire to the unraveling mysteries of Petra's own past, the urgency to save Josef grows, particularly as his feral impulses become harder to control. The werewolves are closing in. So, too, are the bounty hunters eager to collect. As Petra's team finds itself at a magical crossroads, Josef devises an ambush of his own - one that could wipe out the cursed threat forever or endanger everything and everyone he loves."

Usually I avoid WWI and II, but there's something about adding in the supernatural that makes me drawn to it like a werewolf to a very juicy rabbit.

Puzzleheart by Jenn Reese
Published by: Henry Holt and Company
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Get ready to solve the mystery at the heart of this captivating new middle grade adventure about family - and a house with a mind of its own - from the award-winning author of Game of Fox and Squirrels and Every Bird a Prince, Jenn Reese.

Twelve-year-old Perigee has never met a problem they couldn't solve. So when their Dad's spirits need raising, Perigee formulates the Plan: a road trip to Dad's childhood home to reunite him with his estranged mother.

There's something in it for Perigee, too, as they will finally get to visit "Eklunds' Puzzle House," the mysterious bed and breakfast their grandparents built but never opened.

They arrive ahead of a massive storm and the House immediately puts Perigee's logical, science-loving mind to the test. Corridors shift. Strange paintings lurk in the shadows. Encoded messages abound. Despite Perigee's best efforts, neither the House nor Grandma will give up their secrets. And worse, prickly Grandma has outlawed games and riddles of any kind.

Even the greatest of plans can crumble, and as new arguments fill the air, the House becomes truly dangerous. Deadly puzzles pop up at every turn, knives spin in the hallways, and staircases disappear. The answer lies at the heart of the House, but in order to find it, Perigee and their new friend Lily will need to solve a long-lost, decades-old riddle... if the House itself doesn't stop them first."

I mean, come on! Stuck in a house during a storm and then the house tries to kill you? My dream read!

Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a librarian moves to a quaint Irish village where her favorite novelist lives, the last thing she expects is to fall for the author's prickly son...until their story becomes one for the books, from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading.

Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha's Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan's novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.

Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series - after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer's block - is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn't have to deal with Siobhan's son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan's bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn't want Em around.

Emily persists, and spending her days bantering with the annoyingly handsome mercurial Irishman only makes her fall more deeply in love with the new life she's built - and for the man who seems to soften toward her with every quip she throws at him. But when she discovers the reason for Kieran's initial resistance, Em finds herself torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her now undeniable feelings for Kier. As Siobhan's novel progresses, Emily will have to decide if she's truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter."

There's two ways it can go when helping a famous author, murder or romance. This is definitely romance.

The Stellar Debut of Galactica Macfee by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by: Vintage
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The latest installment in the warm and welcoming 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents of Scotland's most celebrated address navigating their enchanting and eventful lives.

Angus Lordie is approached in the park by a shadowy, Deep Throat-like figure with government secrets to share, who mistakes him for a journalist. Now Angus is privy to some controversial plans of the Scottish Parliament - but just what is he meant to do about it? Elsewhere, Big Lou's husband Bob hires a personal trainer who changes his entire outlook on life, much to Lou's dismay. At the schoolhouse, young Bertie Pollock's class has a new ringleader, Galactica MacFee, who quickly comes between Bertie and Olive. All this proves too much for Bertie to bear, and he flees to Glasgow with best friend Ranald Braveheart MacPherson in tow. And the indomitable Irene again finds herself in Edinburgh...and it looks like there might be romance in the air.

Meanwhile, Matthew, too, is keeping busy. He invests in a brand new Pictish Experience Centre, meant to allow residents to experience what life was like for Scotland's mysterious early people, the Picts. And they may have made a fantastic discovery - the earliest known work of Scottish literature! But what exactly do those mysterious Pictish runes say? As always, McCall Smith draws on his seemingly unlimited stores of goodwill and generosity in describing the goings-on of this beloved cast of characters."

This was my mom's favorite. What does it say that all her favorite series were Scottish?

Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Take a grand English country house, one (heartbroken) American divorcee, three rich wives, two tycoons, a pair of miniature sausage dogs and one (bereaved) butler; put them all into the blender and out comes the impossibly funny Wives Like Us, the new novel from the best-selling author of Bergdorf Blondes and Party Girls Die In Pearls, Plum Sykes.

If you think the English countryside is all green wellies, muddy Land Rovers and grey-haired ladies in tweed, then you've never visited 'The Bottoms.'

Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire, and the tony Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess.

Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to The Old Coach House to teach her husband Bryan a lesson.

But things don't go to plan: Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door, is refusing Tata's overtures at friendship; Tata's best friends, Sophie Thompson and Fernanda Ovington-Williams, are distracted by their own heartache, and the posh Pennybacker-Hoare sisters are plotting to prevent Tata regaining her crown as Queen of the Bottoms. Worst of all, Ian has nowhere to store his collection of vintage Gucci loafers.

Will Tata ever return to the comforts of the Manor? Will Selby find her Prince Charming? Will the Pennybacker-Hoares prevail? With the help of a pig farmer-ess moonlighting as a Personal Assistant, a male model moonlighting as a stable hand and a London barrister moonlighting as a gentleman farmer, can Ian restore harmony to The Bottoms?"

A very Tottering by Gently vibe.

The Thunder of Stones by Andrea Penrose
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 284 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Athens. A city where the ancient past and present tangle in a web of intrigue. As Saybrook and Arianna seek to unravel the truth about her brother's disappearance while on a clandestine mission for the Crown, they find themselves threatened by shadowy enemies - and a mysterious ancient talisman...

The winds of change have brought great joy to Lady Arianna and Saybrook, who have recently welcomed an infant son to their family. They are still adjusting to their new life when a letter arrives from Arianna's dearest friend and former comrade-in-chicanery inviting them to a gala 50th birthday celebration in Switzerland. With the blessing of their surgeon friend, they decide to make the trip, only to find themselves once again drawn into a dangerous web of political intrigue that may ignite war throughout Europe.

However, once in Geneva, Arianna and Saybrook learn that her half-brother is missing and feared dead while on a clandestine government mission to Greece, where revolutionary fervor - stirred by outcries from the infamous poet Lord Byron over Lord Elgin's "Marbles" and whether he is guilty of cultural looting - is rising against the rule of the Ottoman Empire. What to do? They are saved from having to make an agonizing choice when their friends offer to care for their son while they undertake the perilous journey to learn the truth...

But Truth proves dauntingly difficult to unravel. Unknown forces appear intent on sparking mayhem and the list of possible villains keeps growing - a traitor within the British consulate or local Turkish government; a woman claiming to be a reincarnation of the Oracle of Delphi; thieves who may be illegally selling antiquities...Nothing is as it seems, leaving Arianna and Saybrook uncertain of whom to trust as they seek to help the British government prevent war from breaking out in the region. And when explosives go missing from the armory atop the Acropolis, they are in a race against time, with their lives hanging in the balance..."

Sigh. I've been waiting for this book for eons! OK, two years, but it felt like eons! In fact typing this is the first time I've read the blurb, I preordered without reading it!

Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A deliciously haunting debut for fans of Sarah Waters and Sarah Penner set in 19th-century Paris, blending Gothic mystery with a captivating sapphic romance as two estranged sisters - celebrated (and fraudulent) spirit mediums - come back together for one last con.

Paris, 1866. When Baroness Sylvie Devereux receives a house call from Charlotte Mothe, the sister she disowned, she fears her shady past as a spirit medium has caught up with her. But with their father ill and Charlotte unable to pay his bills, Sylvie is persuaded into one last con.

Their marks are the de Jacquinots: dysfunctional aristocrats who believe they are haunted by their great aunt, brutally murdered during the French Revolution.

The scheme underway, the sisters deploy every trick to terrify the family out of their gold. But when inexplicable horrors start to happen to them too, the duo question whether they really are at the mercy of a vengeful spirit. And what other deep, dark secrets may come to light?"

Fake mediums dealing with a real haunting? Oh, my, yes.

Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The fourth instalment in Ashley Weaver's delightful series, Locked in Pursuit follows safecracker Electra McDonnell fighting Nazis at every turn as World War II looms over London.

Safecracker Ellie McDonnell hasn't seen Major Ramsey - her handsome but aloof handler in the British government - since their tumultuous mission together three months before, but when she hears about a suspicious robbery in London she feels compelled to contact him. Together they discover that a rash of burglaries leads back to a hotbed of spies in the neutral city Lisbon, Portugal, and an unknown object brought to London by a mysterious courier.

As the thieves become more desperate and their crimes escalate, it becomes imperative that Ellie and Ramsey must beat them at their own game. Fighting shadowy assailants, enemy agents, and the mutual attraction they've agreed not to acknowledge, Ellie and Ramsey work together to learn if it truly takes a thief to catch a thief."

Yes, because it always works when you agree to not acknowledge chemistry...

She Left by Stacie Grey
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Twenty years ago, she survived. This time she may not be so lucky.

On the night that changed everything, Amy Brewer walked out of a house party, trudging angrily away from the friends who made her feel like she didn't belong. Within the next hour, all five of those friends would be dead.

The Memorial Day Massacre, as it came to be called, rocked their small California community and Amy - the girl who had walked away just in time - couldn't escape the media circus...or the guilt.

Twenty years later, ten people with connections to the crime have been invited to a remote cliffside house by a journalist looking to do a story on the murders. But the group quickly learns the event is not what it seems. As a storm closes in and guests begin to die, Amy realizes there is someone in the house who knows more than they admit about what happened that night long ago... and they will stop at nothing to protect their secrets."

Murder reunion! The only kind of reunion I'm all for!

Man's Best Friend by Alana B. Lytle
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A failed actress must decide how much she will give up - and what lies she will overlook - in order to live a life of luxury, in this irresistibly suspenseful and slightly surreal debut that is The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Nightbitch.

Ever since her year as a scholarship student among the ultra-wealthy at a Manhattan private school, El knows what it is like to feel rich - to feel chosen. And being not chosen is her current living nightmare: at age thirty, she has given up her dream of becoming a famous actress, she has no passions, no great love, nothing to look forward to.

Then El meets a mysterious trust-fund Cambridge grad who holds the keys to the world she has long dreamed of. Bryce may not be particularly good-looking, charming, or interesting, but he has chosen her. El allows herself to be lulled by the ease and safety that his wealth provides, becoming Bryce's little pet, and giving up her job, friends, and apartment in short order. But when a series of disturbing and slightly surreal events reveal that Bryce is not quite what he seems, but something entirely more sinister, El must face the consequences when his darkness - and her own - are unleashed."

Always question those who you give up everything for...

The Hunter's Daughter by Nicola Solvinic
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A hypnotic, sinister debut mystery about a seemingly good cop who is secretly the daughter of a notorious serial killer.

Anna Koray escaped her father's darkness long ago. When she was a girl, her childhood memories were sealed away from her conscious mind by a controversial hypnosis treatment. She's now a decorated sheriff's lieutenant serving a rural county, conducting an ordinary life far from her father's shadow.

When Anna kills a man in the line of duty, her suppressed memories return. She dreams of her beloved father, his hands red with blood, surrounded by flower-decked corpses he had sacrificed to the god of the forest.

To Anna's horror, a serial killer emerges who is copying her father - and who knows who she really is. Is her father still alive, or is this the work of another? Will the killer expose her, destroying everything she has built for herself? Does she want him to?

But as she haunts the forest, using her father's tricks to the hunt the killer, will she find what she needs most...or lose herself in the gathering darkness?"

I love the Hannibal vibe of this. To be clear I mean the television show not the book.

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Spirits are drawn to salt, be it blood or tears.

Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth - strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries - is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.

Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.

Then, someone is murdered.

Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who - or what - is at fault or lose everything she holds dear."

Rule number one that I adhere to, never go to an estate with a family chapel. Nothing good can come of it.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A single mother working in the Gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets in the captivating new novel from the national bestselling author of Good Girls Don't Die and Horseman.

Harry Adams has always loved horror movies, so it's not a total coincidence that she took the job cleaning house for movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding graystone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes, as well as glittering awards from his career making films that thrilled audiences - until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.

Javier values discretion, and Harry has always tried to clean the house immaculately, keep her head down, and keep her job safe - she needs the money to support her son. But then she starts hearing noises from behind a locked door. Noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help, even though Javier lives alone and never has visitors. Harry knows that not asking questions is a vital part of working for Javier, but she soon finds that the sinister house may be home to secrets she can't ignore."

And what about that scandal!?!

Cloaked Deception by Timothy Zahn
Published by: Aethon Books, LLC
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 546 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award winner and # New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, comes this pulse-pounding political thriller.

A tactical nuclear weapon is stolen from an Indian research facility, setting off a chain of events that spans the globe.

Those behind the heist plan to use it to take out thousands of innocent people-all to assure death of a single man who they believe is too dangerous to be left alive.

What are the lives of thousands compared to the safety of the world?

At the same time, scientists have invented the world's first cloaking device, able to render its user almost completely invisible. It's the epitome of hidden-in-plain-sight-a game changer for any military. At least until three of the lead scientists are murdered and their work is stolen the night before their first demonstration.

Authorities have no idea the two crimes are connected.

There are ten days before the bomb is set to go off.

Can they unravel the trail of red herrings in time?

The clock is ticking..."

FYI this is a reprint of Cloak. But admit it, you actually don't care. You want the pretty new copy.

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: May 14th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When Among Crows is swift and striking, drawing from the deep well of Slavic folklore and asking if redemption and atonement can be found in embracing what we most fear.

We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword.

Pain is Dymitr's calling. His family is one in a long line of hunters who sacrifice their souls to slay monsters. Now he's tasked with a deadly mission: find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. To reach her, Dymitr must ally with the ones he's sworn to kill.

Pain is Ala's inheritance. A fear-eating zmora with little left to lose, Ala awaits death from the curse she carries. When Dymitr offers her a cure in exchange for her help, she has no choice but to agree.

Together they must fight against time and the wrath of the Chicago underworld. But Dymitr's secrets - and his true motives - may be the thing that actually destroys them."

Look. At. That. Cover. Seriously. Look. At. It. It's divine.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alana B. Lytle, Alexander McCall Smith, Andrea Penrose, Ashley Weaver, Christina Henry, Johanna Van Veen, Nicola Solvinic, Peter S. Beagle, Plum Sykes, Stacie Grey, Sydney J. Shields, Timothy Zahn, Veronica Roth