For once, I turned to a rom-com book not because of anxiety or the absolute lack of other reading material but because my sisters would not stop raving about this book, and it happened to be in my sister’s Audible account. So I plugged into it one day and started listening. It's cliche at this … Continue reading It Happened One Summer, by Tessa Bailey →

The Haunting of Hill House is often touted as the greatest ghost story of the 20th century and has seen several incarnations, including the play adaptation, which I was fortunate enough to see at a community theater I once did costumes for. Thus, I knew the story going into this book and was ready for … Continue reading The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson →

If you are into old-school crime thriller novels, maybe you’ve heard of Anne Perry's bestselling works. Even fewer may know her origins as Juliet Hulme, whose adolescent friendship with Pauline Parker in early 1950s New Zealand would prove fatal. Not for her, mind you, but for Pauline’s mother Honora. Juliet and Pauline’s story has been … Continue reading Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century, by Peter Graham →

I feel like I'm taking a risk reviewing this book. I honestly felt the same way when I reviewed The Hate U Give, the book that paved the way for the story of Concrete Rose. After all, some might say, how can a middle-class white woman review experiences that she has never gone through or … Continue reading Concrete Rose, by Angie Thomas →

Ah, freshman year of high school. I remember it too: picking out the perfect first-day outfit, thinking you'll rock the fall play auditions, experiencing a rude awakening with the classwork amount, navigating the ruthless jungle of the cafeteria, etc. Although, I didn't quite have plans to make it grand, like Kelsey Finkelstein in Freshman Year … Continue reading Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters, by Meredith Zeitlin →

It has been a wonky time for posting book reviews over the last month or so. That is mainly thanks to me moving and keeping up with work on top of that. Needless to say, many things piled on at once and I lost a lot of time for reading and a lot of time … Continue reading A Constellation of Roses, by Miranda Asebedo →

Surprisingly, there are very few Phantom of the Opera retellings that I can name. Well, very few good ones. The one I have reviewed, RoseBlood, was a disaster of Parisian proportions and it still stands as one of the worst books in recent history. Of course, that might be because that book staked its entire … Continue reading Sing Me Forgotten, by Jessica S. Olson →

American History has long been a favorite school subject of mine, but it is heartbreaking sometimes to remember a history laced with such violent upheaval as ours. I do not remember learning about the Civil Rights Movement, for example, until I was in fourth or fifth grade, whether because we never got to it, or … Continue reading Angel of Greenwood, by Randi Pink →

For once, I seem to be on brand (and on time) with the books I review in a given month. And this one is no different, since it concerns ghosts: a whole city of them, if we may judge by the title. The tag line promises “an adventure unlike any other,” which I knew was … Continue reading City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab →

I really like psychological thrillers, though more as a reader than a writer. I can’t imagine how much meticulous planning it takes to get the tension and the suspense just right. In any case, I felt both those things when it came to Before I Let Go, but I feel torn on whether or not … Continue reading Before I Let Go, by Marieke Nijkamp →