2025 book 55

 Anna-Marie McLemore's The Influencers

I was so into this book! I was mad when I had to put it down to go to bed last night! It’s that perfect blend of fun soapy story and mystery and cultural commentary—a smart beach read maybe? And timely, as it’s about a family whose mother is a famous influencer, and the five daughters whose lives she used for content, now adults, and they’re all suspects when the mother's new husband is killed. But it’s not a thriller type book—it bounces between the POVs of the mother, the sisters, the collective we of their audience (I loved this device), and others, including a mysterious dude dubbed “Luke Sweatshirt” by the internet. It also gets into issues like racism (the girls are biracial with a white mom). Really solid and entertaining read, I know McLemore is mainly a YA author but I hope she writes more for adults because this hit the spot. Definitely making my book club read this. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2025 book 54

 Bob The Drag Queen's Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert

I love Bob the Drag Queen and would have been interested in any novel he wrote, but this is unexpected: it’s set in a world where historical figures have come back to life (this is never really discussed or explained in any way, which I liked), and the narrator is a washed-up record producer who’s called up to make an album with Harriet Tubman and her band of freed slaves to tell her story to a new generation. Apparently the audiobook has some actual songs and a stage show is in the works, and it’s an awesome concept and I bet it will be really cool to see. As a novel, maybe less so—the writing is a little clunky for sure, though there were parts I laughed out loud at—it’s unsurprisingly funny, considering the author. A-/B+.

2025 book 53

 Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones

So here’s the thing, I chose this for book club this month without knowing much about it, besides that it won a million awards. But here’s the other thing, I have read way less in the literary type genre since 2020 bc I’m already depressed about the world, and I don’t want to read depressing books. I was kind of dreading actually starting this once fellow book clubbers said it was “stressful” and “like homework” and “has a lot of dog fighting, like the whole book is dog fighting.” That’s not entirely true, but this book was definitely rough on my delicate vegetarian sensibilities. There’s also a whole thing where the protagonist (a pregnant 15 year old) is doing mythology for her summer reading and she talks about Medea a LOT, and I think this could have been used a little more sparingly. Not to bitch too much about this book, which deserves all the awards it won! The descriptions of Hurricane Katrina are especially visceral and the last section kind of made me love the story. But I will be looking for something fluffy to read next. A-.

2025 book 52

 Grace Curtis' Idolfire

OK, this is the third book by Curtis I've read, and WHY do I not hear more people talking about her? She is GREAT! This was great!!! It's about two young women, each on a quest to a legendary city--one to reclaim a stolen god and save her dying town, the other to claim her place as an heir to her throne--who end up journeying together. And normally I HATE books where people are journeying the whole time, but this unfolds so well that I was into it. This is all interspersed with sections addressed to the leader of the legendary city, gradually explaining what happened in the past. Just a really cool book with awesome characters, I really enjoyed this and am giving it an A.

2025 book 51

 KJ Charles' Death in the Spires

Excellent mystery involving a group of Oxford students in the late 1800s—ten years after the leader of their gang was murdered, one receives a blackmail letter at his office, and is determined to finally solve the mystery and confront his old friends (and lover). Really great characters and pacing, solid conclusion, I did want a little more from the end but was generally very satisfied. A/A-.

2025 book 50

 C.S.E. Cooney's Saint Death's Herald

The sequel to Saint Death's Daughter is more of the delightful same, if your definition of delight involves a sweet lil necromancer. (Mine does!) I will say this bogged down in the middle a bit for me (it’s frustrating to be like, ugh, just KILL that guy already) but by the second half I was all in. Really great and interesting characters, particularly the undead tiger rug. And very cool magic and gods. Two thumbs up. Can’t wait for more. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in April.

2025 book 49

 CSE Cooney's Saint Death's Daughter

This was one of my favorite books of 2022, so I'm happy to reread it, especially since a sequel is out soon! I honestly didn't remember anything about it besides loving it, so it was a joy to revisit the story of a girl from a family of necromancers/assassins who work for the royal family. Very cool characters and concepts, I like books that have well-thought-out religion stuff going on. Also here for an undead puppy, haha!

2025 book 48

 Jeanne Thornton's A/S/L

I really liked Thornton's Summer Fun, so was psyched for this, which is described as being about three teens in the 90s who are trying to create a video game together, but it falls apart, and now it’s eighteen years later… I kept waiting for something to HAPPEN? Not that messy, mentally ill queer ladies living their lives is NOTHING, but this book drags. I did really like Sash's sections, but Abraxa stressed me out. I actually put this down at like 35 percent bc I was so frustrated with it. ALSO the adult sections are set in 2016 and reading about the 2016 election ALSO stressed me out (if I had a nickel for every 2025 novel I’d read by a trans woman set in 2016, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice). Thornton does nail the ethos of chat rooms and internet friendships, though, lol. I loved all of that. This was interesting for sure, but didn’t totally work for me. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 1.

2025 book 47

 Emma Knight's The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

Christina recommended this to me and I was in the mood for something pleasant and engaging, which this was. It mostly centers on a young Canadian woman who's at college in Edinburgh, trying to figure out why her parents' marriage fell apart, befriending the family of his former best friend, etc. Her actress best friend is also prominent and various other characters have little POV sections as well. I enjoyed the characters and their relationships, this was an enjoyable read but somewhat inconsequential. A-/B+.

2025 book 46

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Paladin of Souls

After rereading Curse of Chalion, of course I had to reread this one, which takes place a few years later, and finds the dowager decided to go on a pilgrimage basically to get out of the house. But soon she’s tapped by the gods to unravel a complicated supernatural situation—and maybe find a little romance. Really satisfying and I always love Bujold's World of the Five Gods—I’ll probably reread the Penric books soon too. 

2025 book 45

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion

I saw two mentions of this in one day which of course made me want to reread it! It’s everything I love in one book, magic and gods and court politics and great characters trying to fix the world. Plus it’s beautifully written. One of my faves.

2024 book 44

 Sharon Shinn's Alibi

This felt like a departure for Shinn—it has romance and a little mystery, but it’s set in a future world with teleportation (and there are some other mentions of differences/shit that has gone down). I loved the chatty narrative voice—the narrator is an English professor who takes a side gig tutoring the ill son of a wealthy and prominent man, and the scenes of her with her students were some of my faves. Not everything worked for me—the villain is absolutely ridiculously villainous, and some of the descriptions the narrator uses are weird (one friend is described more than once as “exotic” looking with his “rum and coffee” skin, and I thought everyone had agreed SEVERAL years ago that we didn’t compare skin tones to food). I did really enjoy the main character and all her friendships though, just really grabbed me. A-/B+.

2024 book 43

 Rachel Aaron's Hell of a Witch

I wasn’t really vibing with the second book in this series. The plot was kind of inconsequential and the one main character was doing that thing where she’s like “I can’t be with him, he’s a DISTRACTION” for the whole book, even though it’s obvious they’ll get together. I do find the worldbuilding interesting, though, especially since we get some POV sections from the bad guys. I’ll give the third book a try. B.

2024 book 42

 Rachel Aaron's Hell for Hire

I’ve read and enjoyed Aaron's previous series, but somehow missed that she had a new one! Good timing here because the third was released on Friday. Anyway, this is an urban fantasy sort of deal, involving a (dude) witch with a talking cat familiar who hires a team of bodyguards who turn out to be all demons (there’s a whole thing here where ancient king Gilgamesh killed the gods and rules up in heavens and most demons are enslaved), and the head (lady) demon in charge has a Mysterious Past. I look forward to their slow building romance, lol. Anyway, great characters here, a fun read, cool magic, a talking cat, I’m ready for book two. A-.

2025 book 41

 Sara Gran’s Little Mysteries

Normally I’m not into books of short stories, but I really enjoy Sara Gran and think her Claire DeWitt is one of the most interesting fictional detectives around. And this was SO GOOD, every story is satisfying in a different way, and beautifully written, and so smart. Just an absolute stunner of a book. A.

2025 book 40

 Seanan McGuire's Installment Immortality

Now that I’m all caught up on McGuire's main three fantasy series, I’m trying to stay that way—this is the latest volume of her Incryptid series. There is a handy recap at the beginning, which is great, because there are a lot of characters who are all related and it hard to remember who’s who. Anyway, the protagonist here is their ghost babysitter, on a mission to stop the usual bad guys from trapping and torturing ghosts. It’s fine. Sometimes the dialogue is too exposition-heavy (like I don’t need to know all these details about ghosts, ok), but I do enjoy the characters and am invested in what’s going on with Arthur especially. There’s a novella at the end featuring pregnant Verity dealing with a houseguest and a blob monster that I enjoyed a lot. B+?

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in March.

2025 book 39

 Holly Gramazio's The Husbands

Rereading this for book club and I liked it just as much the second time! I really wasn’t sure how the concept would hold up, but I just find the narrative voice really readable (am interested to see what book club thinks—one person didn’t finish because she thought the protagonist was too passive—should be an interesting discussion).