Book Reviews

Best of All Worlds Review

Book: Best of All Worlds
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Year: 2025
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Xavier Oak doesn’t particularly want to go to the family cottage with his dad and pregnant stepmother. But family obligations are family obligations, so he leaves his mom, his brother, and the rest of his life behind for a weekend at the lake. Except…on the first morning, he wakes up and the cottage isn’t where it was before. It’s like it’s been lifted and placed somewhere else.
When Xavier, his dad, and Mia go explore, they find they are inside a dome, trapped. And there’s no one else around.
Until, three years later, another family arrives.
The Jacksons are a welcome addition at first – especially Mackenzie, a girl Xavier’s exact age. But Mackenzie’s father has very different views on who their captors are, and his actions lead to tension, strife, and sacrifice.
In this masterpiece, award-winning author Kenneth Oppel has created a heart-stopping, can’t-wait-to-talk-about-it-story, showing how our very human choices collectively lead to humanity’s eventual fate.”

Review : Best of All Worlds is a serious mind bending, quasi-scifi, semi-dystopian work of speculative fiction. A family leaves for their lake cabin, something they’ve done for over and over again for so many weekends of their lives, and when they wake in the morning they find they’re somewhere else entirely. What follows is a journey into what a so-called perfect life might look like : no diseases, no bugs, no predators; what a simpler life in a world undisturbed by human activity might entail: hard work, homesteading, eating simply; and what kind of emotional processing that might require. We spend perhaps just shy of one third of the book with the Oaks alone during the first few weeks after they arrive, learning the lay of the habitat, discovering they’re encased within some kind of smart, self-healing dome under which they have electricity and everything they need to survive, but not much else. We find they’re all on their own, their captors seem fairly benevolent, and while they certainly haven’t been transported and isolated with consent, they do their best to make do with the situation at hand. It’s at this point that the book jumps three years into the future – our protagonist Xavier is now 16 years old and has given up all hope of ever seeing another soul again when, out exploring the dome in the middle of the night, looking for a way out, he witnesses a new home being built by tiny nano-bots. The Jackson’s have arrived and suddenly the Oaks are no longer alone.

Oppel has created a visionary work that left me with questions all the way up until the final page. There was no moment where I’d figured everything out, nothing that disappointed me in a predictable sort of way. Best of All Worlds is a truly impressive work that delves into the current climate disaster, the weight of impending future pandemics, climate related deaths, and the paranoia and racism that seem to grip so many people these days. Set sometime in the future, though I would suspect it might be sometime between 10 and 15 years beyond where we find ourselves now, BoAW takes place at a time when the climate crisis has turned into a full-blown climate emergency, with sea walls being built (or not built, depending on the not really mentioned political leanings of each particular state), thousands of people dying due to heat domes over intensely warm states like Florida, climate refugees seeking new land, and, of course, horrific racist conspiracy theories that keep people in the grimy clutches of paranoia. The Jackson’s offer a foil to the Oak’s level-headed mindset – Riley Jackson, our intrepid patriarch, is a deeply paranoid Christian with a belief that the broader governmental system is out to get, well, everyone. Convinced that the dome is nothing more than a big government conspiracy designed to…do something vague…Riley sets out immediately to find a way out and through, to expose the government’s plans, and to live on the fringes of society while he does so. On the other hand, we have Caleb Oak, hard working the land where he now lives, convinced that the reason they’re living within the dome is due to some form of alien activity – a conclusion he only came to after several years living as a captive, seeing technology he’s never witnessed before, and gaining an understanding of what does and doesn’t work in this place. Two equally strange ideal systems, though Caleb Oak seems content to exist in a world where his family is safe and freedom is less about fear and more about a calculated, level-headed decision.

Oppel speaks so clearly to the fear-based conspiracy theories that currently run amok within our world, particularly within the United States, and while we all know this isn’t exclusive to the US by a long shot, we do see this played out in the book with the Oaks being Canadian and the Jackson’s hailing from Tennessee. Much like Xavier will find at the end of the book, I believe anyone on any spectrum of political ideology could read BoAW and come away with something different – we hear what we want to hear, read what we want to read. However, there’s no overlooking the very real inherent through-line of racism that permeates everything the Jackson’s do, the way in which their own need for a life free of fear has actually cast their entire world in a metaphorical bubble of fear and hatred and, ultimately, evil, and the way in which the incessant need to overcome what they perceive as a targeted attack on their rights ultimately leads to just one thing : death. In our present world, this may look like so many things, from the genuine climate disaster, to concentration camps, deportations without due process, and the vulnerability of the weakest members of society when anti-vax conspiracies and rugged individualism run rampant. There’s a lot to be said for compassion, and I believe that’s what Oppel is touching on with this book – a desperate need for compassion, for truth to prevail, and for humanity to release it’s grasp on the idea that we are somehow alone amongst the masses of those who might not be or think just how we do.

This is one of those rare books where I’m going to choose not to spoil anything for you, even with a spoiler warning. You won’t know what hit you until you turn that final page, so buckle up and dive in, you don’t want to miss this one.

Advice : Part science fiction, part coming-of-age, Best of All Worlds is an excellent read. Perfect for those interested in the nuance of the ever widening divide between political parties, for those who believe the humanity deep within each of us is something that makes us inherently more connected than we ever will be different, and for those who are really ready to see the racist get what’s coming to them in the end. That’s all I’ll say for now. Read this one.

Bright Futures Review

Book: Bright Futures
Author: Alex McGlothlin
Publisher: Bituminous
Year: 2025
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “David Hall has graduated college and decided to pursue a non-traditional route. Instead of going to business school he’ll spend the summer at his girlfriend’s lake house in Appalachia with an aim to write the Great American Novel. When the words don’t flow as easily as David had hoped, and his girlfriend inexplicably begins spending increasing time away from David, David’s world goes into a tailspin.”

Review : It’s a funny thing to tell you that this is the first book I’ve ever reviewed that had so few reviews I wasn’t able to find an image of the book cover to use here for you. This book came to me via a publicity service and was billed as being a coming-of-age psychological thriller with a hint of romance and while all of those words are technically true, they’re doing all the work of describing a novel without any further depth beyond what you’ve just read. I could describe the plot to you, as I have in numerous other reviews, but sadly all I would be doing is regurgitating what the synopsis (above) already had to say. There is very little depth to Bright Futures and while the technicalities of the writing were fine, for an advanced copy the actual meat of the book goes no deeper than surface level – all while McGlothlin tells you via his protagonist that this is a coming-of-age psychological thriller with a hint of romance. McGlothlin is going through the motions and, if you’ve read any of my past reviews, you know I find this to be an insult to the reader.

David Hall, our main character, is a not-so-subtle misogynist, former frat-boy, and excessive partier-bordering on alcoholic who’s just graduated from his Southern college with big dreams of writing the next great American novel. Unfortunately for the reader, McGlothlin inserts Hall’s book within his own book, so that by the time the reader is 3/4 of the way through Bright Futures we have an entirely new novel to read – Hall’s so-called great American novel. It is jarring, to say the least. I am actually all for a book within a book, give me something so meta it blows my mind, I’m ready! This, however, is not that. Hall’s novel is contrived and graphic, and McGlothlin throws us into a violent and ablest narrative that I found myself flipping through and skimming over just to get away from. It adds absolutely nothing to the plot of McGlothin’s book, in fact I think it detracts from it, furthering the story so little that it actually does Bright Futures a tremendous disservice.

McGlothlin’s attempt to create a psychological thriller goes off the rails before it even begins – though, perhaps we can call Hall’s book within a book a psychological thriller, but it was more gratuitous violence, ableist slurs, and contrived storytelling than it was psychologically thrilling. It’s true, there’s a small element of suspense in Bright Futures, but it is very small indeed, so spaced out that by the time the ends are ready to be tied up, I’d forgotten the entire suspense-ish plot from chapters before and had to remind myself of what was going on. Hall is unpredictable, but not so much in character development as he is in poor writing – rather than a distant girlfriend whose actions eat at him until it’s all he can think about and he begins to act accordingly, we see a distant girlfriend whose actions seem to leave him only vaguely phased until he decides at the drop of a hat and with no real warning that he’s going to follow her. There’s a lot to be desired when it comes to plot arc, character development, and substance; we encounter a lot of ogling, a lot of “boys will be boys” kind of conversations, and a lot of mindless talk about Hall’s (really very bad) novel. That’s about all there is.

Advice : This book has 10 reviews on GoodReads and 4.8 stars, all of which I can only assume came from friends, family, or those who also received a free advanced copy. I choose to review in a way that’s honest, and so I can only tell you now that this is a book I would avoid – it won’t be hard to do. As always I’m grateful for the advanced copy, but they can’t all be winners.

Automatic Noodle Review

Book: Automatic Noodle
Author: Annalee Newitz
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots comes back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know : making food – the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around – for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war.
But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other – and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.”

Review : Automatic Noodle is a sweet, quick, low-stakes read that I managed to get through in under a day. Weighing in at just 160 pages (in ARC form), when I tell you this is a quick read, I mean it; while Automatic Noodle tells one small story quickly, it isn’t without substance or a deeper meaning. Newitz has done what I have found happening with regularity these days, they’ve disguised within their robot novel a story with a greater meaning, taking a group of othered people and mirroring them to our current world, perhaps not in a perfectly seemless manner, but with dedication that pays off.

In a world where robots have been granted some, albeit small, level of rights (particularly if they’re of a sentient class of robot) following a brutal war between California and the rest of the United States, we enter this novel to find that the sentient robots don’t have much in the way of rights after all. Living either slaved or indentured to corporations or woken to find they’ve been created by a debt that’s strapped not to who created them but to the robot themselves, most sentient robots have little to no choice about the life they must live. They may also find themselves the subjects of hate speech, disgust, cancel culture, and worse due to the nature of their capitalistic society that created a thing to do a job that a human would otherwise have been hired to do. I’ll admit, it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the first layer of this novel, which is, at face value, robotphobia, given the horrific misuse and abuse of generative AI in our current world; destroying the planet, replacing jobs, and demolishing our creative abilities all in one fell trendy swoop. It feels as though Automatic Noodle might be a look through time at ourselves if we don’t get behind human beings pretty immediately. And that’s where our second layer comes in.

Automatic Noodle is a clever mask for a narrative driven by the gross inequities people of all creeds and backgrounds face even in 2025, particularly our queer, trans, neuro-spicy, and non-white friends. Empathy is the thread Newitz binds this story together with, putting the reader into the shoes of sentient robots who just want to live and thrive in a world where others are so able to live and thrive within. In a world where they are outcast and othered simply for being exactly who they are, they find a way to engage with each other, with their community, and to find their own personhood in the midst of everything. Without needing to ask their community for assistance, it’s freely given to them because in Newitz’ world, empathy exists in the majority of people and for those who seem incapable of seeing a person as a person, they appear to be the minority, enraged and bated by targeted online attacks from those with outdated ideas of what might make a country great. Uncanny, huh?

If you want to know how a society is functioning, simply look to the sci-fi and fantasy world to tell you. It’s no coincidence that the last two books I’ve read in this realm have emphasized the concept of empathy. In a world where we forget that people are people and our humanity makes us inherently more alike than different, it’s no surprise to find stories that allude to the hate and vitriol that’s being spewed with more and more vehemence and frequency. Automatic Noodle does an excellent job of relating a futuristic scenario to our present-day troubles, all while cultivating a narrative of joy, peace, friendship, and community despite and because of our differences. Love is a greater force than fear and hate and we see it time and time again in sweet novels such as this. And while I didn’t find the flow of robotic narration my favorite to follow (in fact, I enjoyed Newitz’ writing the best in their letter to the reader), Automatic Noodle is a book I’ll be recommending to friends in the future. It’s a joyous journey into the world of savory noodles, found family, and community support despite raging phobias and hate over a group of people who are simply trying to live their lives in peace. We are all deserving of a peaceful, joy-filled life. Full stop.

Advice : If you’re looking for a quick, cozy read in the vein of A Psalm for the Wild Built, I think you’ll really love Automatic Noodle. If you enjoy a reclamation story, found family, or how food gets made, this is definitely for you!

The Enchanted Greenhouse Review

Book: The Enchanted Greenhouse
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Bramble
Year: 2025
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Terlu Perna was lonely, so she broke the law. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away in an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssum. And that was the end of her story. Until…
Terry wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes – at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to – the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing – causing the death of everything within them – Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.
This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by a gardener and a sentient rose, Trull must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island – and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.”

Review : I’ll be the first to admit that the concept of anything talking that wouldn’t normally talk is one of my least favorite fantasy tropes – I find talking animals to be disconnected from my expectations and there’s rarely a time when I feel differently. So the concept of a book in which most of the characters are talking plants was immediately something I entered into with trepidation. I love a fun new world of fantasy novels, but for some reason, I just cannot generally get on board with talking creatures. I’m happy to report, however, that The Enchanted Greenhouse is the exception. Durst has successfully created a fantasy world with this novel that needs very little extra work – the entirety of the novel takes place in a massive series of enchanted and magical greenhouses, on an island with just one other inhabitant beyond our protagonist (Terlu Perna, purple skin, purple eyes…human). The plants we encounter in the greenhouses, while some seem to be otherworldly, largely reflect what we might find in our own world, and while there is a flying cat and several magical creatures spelled to do some work in the greenhouses, there’s little beyond the inherent magical quality of the book that wouldn’t be found in our own world.

I realized about a chapter into The Enchanted Greenhouse that this is in fact a sequel to a previous book that I haven’t read, but the mark of a great book is that it can stand alone without much explanation needed, and Durst certainly achieved that feat. Had I not read the letter from the author, I would never have known this wasn’t a stand alone novel, the recap at the beginning of the book felt less like a recap and more like the necessary introduction to Terlu Perna and the magical world she resides within. And though the world she lives in is magical, it’s also filled with rules about who can and can’t do magic – for good reason, as magic can be dangerous – only trained sorcerers are allowed to even attempt to perform spells. However, Terlu casts a spell to create sentience in a plant friend of hers, and in doing so finds herself made an example of and is turned to wood. During her years as a statue, though, the Empire falls and the rules of what magic is and isn’t allowed are changed. To save Terlu from the fires of the resistance, Terlu’s old boss ships the statue formerly known as the living Terlu (along with the spell to awaken her from her statue slumber) to a remote island of greenhouses run by a lone gardener named Yarrow. Having sent letters to the government begging for help with his magically failing greenhouses, Yarrow believes Terlu is a sorcerer sent to help him. When Terlu awakens and Yarrow realizes she’s just a girl who cast a spell one time, he becomes sullen and grouchy. But the greenhouses continue to fail, and Terlu is determined to help.

I’ve read several books over the last few years that have billed themselves as being similar to Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, and while some have come close to the cozy fantasy he’s crafted in his series, none have really been what I would compare to his works. While The Enchanted Greenhouse wasn’t labeled as such, had it been, it would have been the first book I’ve read since Legends and Lattes that made me feel the same way Baldree did. Durst has created a cozy, low-stakes fantasy with the most wonderful cast of characters. It did have a slow start, hence the 4.5 stars, but once I got into it, things really picked up in a sweet, cozy, romantic sort of way. And it’s worth saying that even though this book was published by Bramble, it is definitively not a romance novel – it’s a love story. And who would have though I’d have spent an entire novel crying my eyes out over a lovable rag-tag crew of talking plants? Not me, that’s for sure. But cry I did. Durst has created something truly magical with this work, weaving the concept of empathy into her tale in such a way that I can’t imagine anyone who read this book could walk away unchanged. Not only is it a beautiful tale of found family, it’s also a deeply political tale as well, and perfectly timed, at that. I won’t spoil it for you, but know that it doesn’t read as political, it’s just that you cannot come away from this book on the side of the oppressor. You simply can’t.

Advice : If you enjoy quiet, cozy, low-stakes fantasy novels with flying cats and miniature dragons and honey cakes…well, do I have news for you. Add this one to your list, pre-order it now before it’s release in June. Trust me.

Don’t Let Him In Review

Book: Don’t Let Him In
Author: Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2025
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Review : “He’s the perfect man. He says he loves you. You think he might even be made for you. Before long he’s moved into your heart – and into your house. And then he leaves for days at a time. You don’t know where he’s gone or who he’s with. And you realize – if you looked back – you’d say to yourself : Don’t let him in.”

Review : Don’t Let Him In is, in some ways, the quintessential scam story – a man gives just enough details to be believed, but not enough to encourage questions and in doing so he scams women out of their life’s savings, their home, and their dignity. In other ways, Don’t Let Him In suffers from an image crisis, namely, it doesn’t seem to know what it is – or rather, it wants to be too many things. Jewell does an excellent job painting picture for the reader, jumping back and forth between the present and the past, changing point of view from the victim(s) to a man with many names, guiding us from victim to victim, broadening the scope as she simultaneously narrows the field of vision. It’s an enjoyable suspense thriller with multiple female characters, deviating from the excruciating norm of the unreliable female narrator that so many suspense/thriller writers seem to clutch to with all their might. Jewell, instead, weaves a winding narrative of a man who manipulates, targets, and attacks with precision and ease. By the time it’s all said and done, it doesn’t come down to one (or several) unreliable women, rather, they’re logical, grounded, down to earth women who are worn down over a period of years until they don’t even know themselves anymore.

Where I struggle with Don’t Let Him In, is that this story is far from unique. And while that’s a sad portrait of our modern times, it’s more than that. Jewell seemed to have trouble reigning in her plot, it became muddied and she let slip a few holes because of it. ** Spoilers Ahead ** Jewell wanted us to buy that her scam artist main character was manipulating women, conning his way into their lives, and stealing their money on a slow but steady basis – yes, that I can buy. Consider it sold! But wait, that’s not all – next we have to buy that our main character is also a street stalker, potentially even someone who derives in-the-moment sexual gratification from his street stalking, that this gratification may be his sole sexual drive; okay, I guess I can believe both aspects of this guy’s personality, but again, that’s not all. Now we need to believe he’s also insanely jealous, prone to fits of vengeance and extravagent plotting; next, he’s a murderer; next, he’s faked his own death; next, he’s got a god-complex and delusions of grandeur; he’s an escort; he’s running business scams as a life coach; wait, now he’s also a master of escape. No. It’s too much. Don’t Let Him In suffers from a lack of editing, the plot is a disaster, and the story struggles to keep itself afloat beneath the weight of so many incredible personality characteristics. Pick two from the above list and go hard, do them well, I’ll buy that. This? I’m not buying what you’re selling.

As someone who partakes in pop culture, it wasn’t a struggle to see what podcasts and tv shows Jewell might have consumed prior to writing this book – Dirty John (a true crime podcast by Christopher Goffard) and You (a Netflix adaptation of a book series by the same name) come immediately to mind, I’m sure with just a few additional minutes of thought you or I could come up with more than a handful of others. It’s a storyline in the mainstream, it’s not new or unique and Don’t Let Him In doesn’t offer an inventive perspective beyond trying to encompass every perspective. I didn’t find this book to be very interesting or compelling, but I will say the ending was exactly what you’d hope it would be, without giving anything away. It’s satisfying and thank god for that, because if you’ve plowed through this nearly 500 page book, you deserve an ending that makes you happy it’s over. I didn’t find myself thinking about this book when I wasn’t reading it, or chewing on it after it was over, I simply read it. That’s all. The twists are easily spotted, the plot holes are glaring, and the plot itself is a messy, muddled fiasco.

Advice : If you’re looking for a book that showcases every possible scam available in one character – woo! This is it! If you’re looking for some substance, something that doesn’t read like every podcast you’ve listened to in the last 10 years or every tv show you’ve watched on your fav streaming platform, this is not it. Keep looking. And listen, suspense / thrillers only get better if we, the reader, demand more.

Speedy Reviews

In an effort to continue reviewing every single ARC I receive (for the second year in a row) while simultaneously not burning out from the effort, I’ve decided to implement what I’m calling Speedy Reviews. Here I will briefly review more than one advanced copy received recently – largely books that I don’t feel necessitate a long-winded review. Without further ado, I give you : Speedy Reviews.

Book: All the Men I’ve Loved Again
Author: Christine Pride
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2025
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “It’s 1999 and Cora Belle has arrived at college ready to change her life. She’s determined to grow out of the shy, sheltered daddy’s girl who attended an all-white prep school in her all-white suburb. What she’s totally unprepared for is Lincoln, with his dark skin, charming southern drawl, and smile. Because how can you ever prepare yourself for the roller coaster of first love?
Just when Cora thinks she’s got everything figured out, a series of surprises, secrets, and a devastating tragedy sends her into a tailspin. In this wake of this tumult, a new man enters her life. Cora is once again thrown by the strength of her feelings, this time for Aaron, the enigmatic photographer who seems to understand her like no one else. With her whole heart at stake, Cora is pulled between two loves : one that’s comfortable and one that’s true.
Twenty years later, Cora is all grown up and has made it a point to avoid any serious relationships. Being alone can’t break your heart. But then an unexpected reconnection and a chance encounter put her right back where she started. The same two men the same agonizing decision. Finding herself in this position – again – will test everything Cora thought she knew about fate, love, and, most importantly, herself.”

Review : All the Men I’ve Loved Again is a well written read about the ups and downs of first love, particularly first love when one is so, so young and so, so naive about the world, like Cora, a first year college student (when we meet her). And while it was well written, I found it to be an incredibly slow read. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, perhaps because so much of the book is taken up by Cora’s relationship with Lincoln. There was a small attempt made at creating backstory and friendships with Cora’s roommates, but the vast majority of the plot is Cora’s relationship with Lincoln. And while you might think, based on the synopsis, that this story would bounce between Lincoln and Aaron…it really doesn’t. There are whole relationships formed, strange friendships made, hints dropped, and storylines that simply don’t play out, the synopsis tells us more about Cora’s background than the actual book does, and the time we spend between Cora and Aaron is minuscule. All the Men I’ve Loved Again feels disjointed and disconnected from the reader, but beyond that, by the time I’d finished I was left with the glaring question of whether this story needed to be told. And to answer that question, the best I can say is, I don’t think it did. It felt like a story that had nearly nowhere to go and I don’t feel like it ultimately ended up being worth my time. It was well written, I’ll say that. But it wasn’t something that kept me turning the pages.

Finally, if you choose to read All the Men I’ve Loved Again, know that there are mentions of abortion, miscarriage, stroke, hospitalization, loss of a parent, and cheating.

Book: Zom Rom Com
Author: Olivia Dade
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Year: 2025
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her seemingly harmless neighbor from the first major zombie breach in years, she’s stunned to be saved by him – and his ridiculously large sword – instead. As it turns out, Gaston “Max” Boucher is actually a super-old, super-surly vampire, and he’s unexpectedly protective.
The pair soon unravels a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), and despite the awful timing, Edie finds herself falling for the vampire who’s helping her save humanity. As she and Max battle their foes side by side, Edie must decide whether having a love worth living for also meaning having a love you’d die for – and, in a world that grows deadlier by the minute, whether that’s a risk she’s willing to take.”

Review : Zom Rom Com is a surprise of a book, weighing in at just shy of 400 pages, with complex world-building and a cast of characters it’s hard not to love. As someone who isn’t the world’s biggest fan of zombie storylines, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this creative and exciting rom-com from Olivia Dade. In a world where humans, superhuman, and supernaturals coexist together, it’s perhaps not the biggest surprise that there might be zombies existing in this plane of existence, yet I found the concept of zombies to be funny and inventive within the world Dade’s created. Every aspect of this book could have taken a gristly or even bleak turn, but Dade managed to keep things light and fun all the way to the final page. The banter between Edie and her super hot vampire neighbor Max is enough to keep the pages turning, but the complex and well thought out plot behind a zombie outbreak, and even the reasoning behind why zombies exist in the first place, is really what kept me turning pages. There’s a good build up of will-they / won’t-they that lasts for at least the first 100 pages that adds to the building enjoyment, and while this is a romance novel, there’s an incredibly amount of plot creation and fantasy work involved in this novel, from start to finish. I did feel there were a few plot holes and inconsistencies, but nothing that detracted from how much I genuinely enjoyed this book. Without giving any spoilers away, the ending more than leaves room for at least one additional novel, though I suspect there could be more!

Before reading this book, if you choose, this novel discusses the loss of family members, romantic betrayal, and chronic illness. And – yay! – this book included plus-size inclusion!

Paper Doll Review

Book: Paper Doll
Author: Dylan Mulvaney
Publisher: Abrams Image
Year: 2025
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “When Dylan Mulvaney came out as a woman online, she went viral overnight, emerging as a trailblazing voice on social media. Dylan’s personal coming-out story blossomed into a platform for advocacy and empowerment for trans people all over the world. With her “Days of Girlhood” series, she connected with followers by exploring what it means to be a girl, from experimenting with makeup to story times to spilling the tea, while never shying away from discussing the transphobia she faced online. Nevertheless, she was determined to be a beacon of positivity.
But shortly after she celebrated day 365 of being a girl, it all came screeching to a halt when an innocuous post sparked a media firestorm and right-wing backlash she couldn’t have expected. Despite the vitriolic press, Dylan was determined to rediscover the light, even in the darkest of situations.
In Paper Doll, Dylan pulls back the curtain with a witty and intimate reflection on her life pre- and post-transition. She covers everything from her first big break in theater to the first time her dad recognized her as a girl to how she handled scandals, cancelations, and…tucking. It’s both laugh-out-loud funny and powerfully honest, and is a love letter to her younger self, who didn’t experience the queer joy she now lives daily.”

Review : Dylan Mulvaney’s breakout book Paper Doll is an exploration into girlhood, bouncing back and forth between her first 365 days immediately after coming out as a girl, told through journal-ish entries, and her life during what she refers to as “post-beergate”, a reference to the wildly public, months long, right-wing backlash to her Bud Light partnership on TikTok. Dylan prefaces the book with the note that she writes how she talks, and while I appreciate the candor, I think the style in which she’s written this book felt stilted and, at times, a bit inauthentic. I don’t want to be misunderstood here – Dylan does delve into a lot of personal and intimate topics on an authentic level, but the delivery leaves something to be desired. Paper Dolls reads less like how someone’s talking to you as a friend, and more like how someone might be talking in a viral video which became a bit of a challenge. I think it will find it’s perfect audience, but stylistically, it wasn’t my favorite writing.

But that brings me to the first point I’d like to make before we really get into this review : content warnings. Dylan is open and honest about the mental health struggles she’s endured through her life, both before transitioning and while navigating beergate. She discusses body dysmorphia (but also bodily joy!), suicidal ideology, disassociation, depression, people pleasing, and anxiety. If any of the above topics feel difficult for you, please approach this book with gentleness. Dylan has a positive and upbeat way of conveying her experiences, but she also doesn’t shy away from the very real struggles that many queer and trans people experience, she speaks about her own struggles with frankness and it’s important to say so up front. She does include a small content warning, but doesn’t specify what the content might be, so please be kind to yourself if you choose to read this book.

Aside from the challenges this book faces with writing style, I found Dylan’s use of tense to be loose, at best. I think it’s an ambitious move to jump from present to past tense between two different writing styles (as discussed above), and perhaps that was a bit overly ambitious here for a first book? I was left wondering what was happening with the editing process as her journal entries bounced from tense to tense – most glaringly at the start of the book. I did find that her voice and style and tense all smoothed out a bit as the book went on, but the tense jumping was hard to get past as I was reading. While this is still an uncorrected proof, I did feel that there were additional editorial corrections needed and I’m not sure how much of that will happen prior to the initial printing. Either way, tense and tone alone were enough to warrant this book 3 rather than 5 stars, for me.

I appreciated how much Dylan spoke about both the good and the bad, with Paper Dolls traversing intense moments of public outcry – I wonder if anyone in the US was able to navigate the last few years without seeing some highly public right-wing figure shooting cases of Bud Light in protest over a small partnership with a trans girl living her life on social media. It’s important to see how our actions impact the people we see as celebrities, particularly those whose fame has happened seemingly overnight thanks to apps like TikTok. No one is immune from the harmful actions and words of internet trolls and bullies and it’s commendable that Dylan opened her world up to us, not only as a content creator, but as an author, sharing her grief, her disappointment, and her darkest moments from within these spaces. There’s a great strength that arises from this book, and while a lot of what Dylan’s written comes across as pink and poppy and bubblegum-flavored (or maybe Dominos pan pizza flavored), she allows herself to be witnessed as something more.

Finally, my last critique. While Dylan at times makes mention of her absolutely enormous privilege, both as a content creator and as a passing trans girl, they are brief and occasionally feel a bit performative. She mentions her privilege but doesn’t necessarily mention what she’s doing to amplify those around her who have less privilege – she acknowledges, but brushes past. I felt at first as though maybe it’s asking too much for someone who’s been thrust into the spotlight to use their precious resources to be an activist, but ultimately I came to the conclusion that those with platforms as large as Dylan’s have a responsibility to do the work. And I think Dylan might be, or at least is trying to, but I also think it’s addressed in a way, in her book, that feel glib and passive. It comes across as performative, and that rubbed me the wrong way.

I think Paper Dolls offers and important insight into so many people’s favorite content creator, into coming out, and into the perception of girlhood, something each girl in the world gets to define for herself. It might not be the perfect book, but it was fun and enjoyable to witness the queer joy Dylan cultivates in her life. It’s a quick read, it’s compelling, and it felt approachable, most of all.

Advice : If you love Dylan Mulvaney, if you enjoy a queer book, if you like a memoir, or even if you simply followed along as beergate unfolded, I think you’ll enjoy this book. If you don’t enjoy social media jargon, you might not like how this book was written, but it’s a quick read so maybe that’ll make up for it!

I Am Made of Death Review

Book: I Am Made of Death
Author: Kelly Andrew
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Year: 2025
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Following the death of his father, Thomas Walsh had to grow up quickly, taking on odd jobs to help pay his gravely ill mother’s medical bills. When he’s offered a highly paid position as an interpreter for an heiress who exclusively signs, Thomas – the hearing child of a Deaf adult – jumps at the opportunity.
But the job is not without its challenges.
A selective-mute, Vivienne Farrow hasn’t said a word in years – not since going missing in Red Rock Canyon when she was four years old. No one knows quite what happened to her out in the dark. They only know that the sound of her voice is now as deadly as a poison. Anyone who hears her speak suffers a horrible death.
Vivienne is desperate for a way to regain control of bother her voice and her body. Because the face staring out of the mirror isn’t hers. It’s something with teeth.
Thankfully, she’s finally found someone who claims to be able to perform a surgical exorcism. She just needs to find a way to get rid of Thomas first. But Thomas can’t afford to walk away, nor is he willing to abandon the mysterious girl he’s falling for, no matter what dark powers threaten to swallow them both whole.”

Review : I Am Made of Death was the perfect antidote for both the book hole I found myself in after finishing The Devils and the disgust I felt over my last unfortunate one star review copy, Anji Kills a King. I needed something to grip me, and I Am Made of Death (IAMOD) did just that. I started and finished IAMOD in just under 48 hours, and had I just a tiny bit more free time available, I would have cut that time way down. Andrew created an absolute page turning, unputdownable read and I am eternally grateful for that.

As a child, Andrew lost her hearing at just 4 years old and it becomes evident throughout this book that Andrew has woven her own story into this dark fantasy, frankly, the personal connection, both to her own hearing loss and to her marriage with a Hearing individual, makes for a super compelling read. Told from the alternating perspectives of both Thomas, 18 year old interpreter for Vivienne Farrow, paid in unspeakably large sums of money by her step-father, Philip, and Vivienne, Thomas’ peer and wealthy heiress to Philip’s fortune who has remained largely unspeaking for most of her adult life. Following a tragic accident in the desert while a toddler, Vivienne has had the uncanny ability to kill with just the sound of her voice, no words necessary. Because of this unfortunate ability, Vivienne has mostly locked herself away, ashamed, afraid of her own voice, and more than anything, afraid of the monster she sees in the mirror. Both metaphor and reality, Vivienne is not merely the body from which a killer voice emerges, but the host to a parasitic demon; a demon who saved her life as a toddler, who continues to save her life as an adult, but for whom the price of existence is murder.

We enter IAMOD to find Vivienne mid-way into the process of entrapping a medical student into performing a highly risky procedure in which he will attempt to surgically remove the supernatural parasite from her body. Unfortunately, Thomas’ ever present self, and how little he knows or understands about the situation, stands between Vivienne and release from the creature who plagues her body and soul. *Spoilers Ahead!* Through the course of the book, told in three parts, we see an ever-diminishing gap between Vivienne’s hatred of Thomas and Thomas’ confusion over Vivienne’s situation. Andrew has written such a perfect foray into the sweetness of first love, it felt both intense and silly all at the same time, I found their quasi-friendship turned love so palpable and enjoyable. Beyond the slow growing love between Thomas and Vivienne, we also find a whole world of occult and magic intermingled with the world of high-stakes finance, law, and even medicine – it makes the somewhat dizzying world Andrew has created feel like maybe, just maybe, it could be part of our world.

Where things took a stumble, however, is in the telling. I can’t get a grasp on whether IAMOD is going to be the first in a series or whether it’s a planned stand-alone novel and that determines how I feel things were wrapped up and explained. If, as I hope, IAMOD is the first in a series, I think Andrew left plenty of room for questions to eventually be resolved and cleared up in a second, or even third, book. There were messy threads left incomplete by the time it was all said and done and as I closed the book I found I had more questions than answers. If this is to be a stand-alone novel, Andrew could have done a much neater job of tying up loose ends and that’s where I struggle with the final rating – there are too many things that went unsaid and too much that needed to be addressed for this to be the end. It’s possible this will be a one-off, but I think that would do a disservice to the characters Andrew has begun to built and a disservice to the broader aspects of the story that were never fully resolved. While IAMOD doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, it almost might as well with how many loose threads Andrew left behind and that’s why I feel this must be the introduction to a bigger world yet to be revealed through a sequel. I guess it’s yet to be seen! Either way, the loose ends as they were, this book was still so compelling, so well written, and so enjoyable that I had no choice but to give it 4 out of 5 stars. I think you’ll understand why when you read it.

Advice : If you enjoy a nail biter, enemies to lovers, dark fantasy, or a sweet first love story, this will definitely be for you!

Anji Kills a King Review

Book: Anji Kills a King
Author: Evan Leikam
Publisher: Tor Books
Year: 2025
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Anji works as a castle servant, doing laundry for a king she hates. So when a rare opportunity presents itself, she seizes the chance to cut his throat. Then she runs for her life. In her was, the kingdom is thrown into disarray, while a bounty bigger than anyone could imagine lands on her head.
On her heels are the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie, whose animal-shaped masks are magical relics rumored to give them superhuman powers. It’s the Hawk who finds Anji first: a surly, aging swordswoman who has her own reasons for keeping Anji alive and out of the hands of her fellow bounty hunters, if only long enough to collect the reward herself.
With the rest of the Menagerie on their trail, so begins an alliance as tenuous as it is temporary – and a race against death that will decide Anti’s face, and may change the course of a kingdom.”

Review : A couple things to note right off the bat: if you’ve been around for a while you’ll notice that I gave Anji Kills a King the lowest score I’ve ever given – a score I extremely rarely dole out – 1 star. I also want to preface this review by telling you I did not finish (DNF) this book, I made it as far as page 107 (out of 348 in the advanced copy) before I called it quits. I generally try to give a book it’s fair shot by finishing it, and as you’ll note, over the last year I only DNF one other book out of approximately 30 that I received. Anji Kills a King was one of the most upsettingly bad books I’ve attempted to read in quite some time; I chose to DNF and shelve it rather than forcing myself through something I genuinely did not enjoy. Let’s get into it.

After spending years reviewing books online, Anji Kills a King is Evan Leikam’s debut novel and I found it an incredible disappointment to encounter such a poorly written book by a fellow reviewer. Anji Kills a King is being billed as a recommendation for fans of Joe Abercrombie’s work, and as someone who literally just finished a massive tome by Joe Abercrombie, I feel uniquely qualified to say : no. There is simply no universe in which I’d compare Leikam’s writing to that of Abercrombie’s. It is a far, far cry from the dry, witty, enjoyable work of a master talent like Abercrombie, to say the very least. Anji Kills a King begins with, well, Anji killing a king. There’s absolutely nothing to ease us into the story, there’s no lead-up, there’s just Anji, the king, and spurting blood. It’s from the very get-go that we go awry as the pacing absolutely stumbles headfirst through our entry into this fantasy world Leikam has created – and I use the term “created” loosely, as I could hardly tell you what the world was like, I have no idea what it was called, and couldn’t even begin to picture it if I tried. So many aspects of the book feel rushed, almost as though they ended up on the page by mere accident, yet simultaneously we find ourselves trapped in Anji’s inner world for an excruciating amount of time. It makes for a stilted and unenjoyable read from the very first page and doesn’t get better over the next 106 pages, either.

It’s hard to understand why Leikam wrote Anji the way he did, as I found her to be wildly unlikeable. It doesn’t make sense to create a book in which your reader is forced to endure nearly 400 pages with a protagonist who is intolerable to read. Anji is entitled, she’s brash, and she’s incredibly annoying. The annoying aspect is something I’d like to address, because I believe it comes down to poor writing, rather than an intentionally annoying character. Either way, Anji cannot seem to keep her damn mouth shut, and by that I mean Leikam has written dialogue that relentlessly travels the same ground over and over and over, making Anji appear to be dimwitted, though she isn’t written to appear dim outside of dialogue so I have to assume this is the sign of poor dialogue development, and not so much a character trait. The dialogue was so difficult to read I nearly stopped several times prior to page 107, but stubborn me, I wanted to get through it so I could give you a clear idea of the totality of this work – ha!

Sadly, Leikam’s work is not the breakneck fantasy book I was lead to believe it was. Instead, it was intentionally disgusting, not in any way that might have furthered the plot, but in a way that made me feel that Leikam chose to lean on the crutch of foul descriptors and disgusting scenes in order to bring grit to the book he created and instead made this reader feel nausea. Rather than the dark, gritty tone someone like Abercrombie might have achieved through a balance of humor and dry wit, Leikam instead managed to merely create something needlessly gross. With a narrator I couldn’t stand to read, pacing that made no sense, and absolutely no semblance of world building, it’s no wonder that by the time Leikam brutally killed not one, but two animals in his storyline, I closed the book and said “No more.” I couldn’t stomach another page of this truly unenjoyable book. As someone who holds onto the advanced copies they receive, whether good or bad, I hope I can impress upon you exactly how I feel by sharing that this book will go where it belongs : in the recycling.

Advice : If you enjoy Joe Abercrombie’s work, this is not for you. If you like fantasy books that include world building, that paint a picture for you, and that do the work of actually creating systems of magic that actually make sense, this is not for you. Don’t waste your time, it isn’t worth it. Avoid this one at all costs.

The Devils Review

Book: The Devils
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Publisher: Tor Books
Year: 2025
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Holy City, where he is certain a commendation and a divine assignment await him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.
Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before hi, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.”

Review : Weighing in at a whopping total of 547 pages (in the advanced copy), before I’d cracked the spine I assumed The Devils would be slow-going, what I didn’t account for was my own reluctance to finish the book. Joe Abercrombie has crafted one of the single most enjoyable books I’ve had the pleasure to read in longer than I can remember; The Devils was perfection, could I have given it more than 5 stars, I would (being that it’s my own rating system is completely beside the point…I believe Brother Diaz would agree that some things benefit from structure). Abercrombie had me from the word ensorcelment and he didn’t let go until the final word on page 547. There’s a massive book-shaped hole in my life and, full disclosure, I will be filling it with additional Joe Abercrombie works, for surely they are just as excellent as this.

Told through the jumping narration of multiple, though not all, characters, The Devils spans, what I can only assume is, a fairly short amount of time but no shortage of adventure, daring feats, bloody scenes, laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, and is capped off with a dash of romance. Set in a world that feels juuuuuust a little too familiar, Abercrombie has crafted an ingenious fantasy novel that needed so little extra explanation that an entirely new world would beg from a reader, it felt like I was right at home. In a world separated by bickering factions of the church – one lead by a ten-year-old girl as the Pope, the other by a Patriarch, one featuring a wheel, the other a circle – not only was the geography near enough to our world that any differences only served to make me laugh, the morality of the world he’s created feels eerily similar, if not absolutely pointed. We begin The Devils by finding one Brother Diaz, a monk in the service of the Pope, being granted a new post : leader of the Church of Holy Expediency. In a world where the greatest threat to humankind comes in the form of Elf invasion, the church is determined to heal the rift between East and West factions in order to build a solid foundation against humankind’s mortal enemy, who, by the way, is overdue for an invasion that would likely be met with failure rather than success in battle. The Church of Holy Expediency seeks to fight fire with fire – if a war with devils is looming on the horizon, who better to fight devils than the church’s very own band of misfit devils?

The Devils features a cursed knight who cannot die, a jane of all trades, a not-as-decrepit-as-he-seems vampire, a true Scandinavian werewolf, a corpse conducting magician, a semi-invisible elf, and a street rat turned princess. It’s exactly the kind of good time you’d hope from a ragtag list such as this. Tasked, and magically bound, with delivering Princess Alexia (street rat by nature, princess by birth) to the throne of Troy, the crew embarks on a dangerous and bloody adventure, bound only by Papal magic…though, like every good buddy story, friendship and love are not as far off as they may seem. Between Alexia’s many murderous cousins and a leaked copy of the Papal Bull announcing her right to the throne, the crew is met with no shortage of devastatingly gore filled encounters. And YES, this book is incredibly graphic! There are so many fighting, pillaging, and all out scrambling-for-their-very-lives scenes, but…but Abercrombie has deftly wielded the pen, creating humor and humanity with each stroke. I laughed out loud so many times, even in the midst of the Viggo-Wolf ripping limbs and snuffling out the good meat, it was truly a work of art – much unlike the way our beloved Jakob of Thorn, the cursed knight who just cannot die, wields his sword, that is to say, not so deftly.

Intertwined throughout this hilarious, gripping, suspense-filled book we come to find a few profound theological delights. Not only are we told right from the start that these creatures are devils, we’re bombarded with that information throughout every step of the way. Culturally, the world Abercrombie has introduced us to seems to believe that the only people worthy of a soul’s eternal salvation are, well, people. Anyone else is an unrepentant sinner, never mind whether the Viggo-Wolf has been baptized (twice), or whether the cursed knight has spent hundreds of years attempting to earn salvation, or the semi-invisible elf actually yearns for personhood. We find, by the time we reach the final page, that Abercrombie has been tenderly carrying us through to the very heart of his point : that one group of people is not inherently more worthy of salvation than another simply because they were born a certain way. We come to realize that in Abercrombie’s world, the Devils are in fact, no different than the humans. And, while I don’t know this information yet, I suspect humans are really no different than the Elves, either – perhaps even worse.

Bereft. Devastated. Aimless. All words to describe how I feel now that I’ve finished reading The Devils. Absolutely crushed that it’s over. But fear not! Abercrombie has written us a small opening, a thread, if you will. I feel certain that there will be a second book and hopeful that there will be a third after that. While The Devils doesn’t end on a cliffhanger (not so much a spoiler, but hopefully you don’t mind this information), it does end in such a way that makes me want to know more, that has me asking questions that went unanswered, intentionally, I believe, throughout this tome. Like a dark fantasy suicide squad, Abercrombie has a cast of characters who are begging to be put through another gritty adventure and I, for one, cannot wait to read what he comes up with next. I think it’s also worth pointing out that a significant number of the books Abercrombie has written all came in the form of a trilogy, so finger’s crossed!

Advice : The only thing I can really say is that if you really, really, really dislike any mention of blood or guts or gore, you might not enjoy this book. However, if you love witty repartee, a stunning vocabulary, nuanced characters and character arcs, or a buddy comedy, I think you’ll fall as head over heels for The Devils as I did. Put this one on your calendar – May 6, 2025. Preorder it. Trust me.