Partner

Creation Lake Review

Book: Creation Lake
Author: Rachel Kushner
Publisher: Scribner
Year: 2024
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics and clean beauty who is sent to do dirty work in France. “Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and her lover, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian she has met by “cold bump” – making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone she targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts” – shadowy figures in business and government – instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more.
In this region of old farms and prehistoric caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who believes that the path to emancipate is not revolt but a return to the ancient past. Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.
Written in short, vaulting sections, Rachel Kushner’s rendition of “noir” is taut and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner’s finest achievement yet – a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure.”

Review : I was absolutely mesmerized by Creation Lake, it pulled me in and wrapped me up and by the time I was done I had no idea what I’d just read. It was perfect. Kushner has woven a tale that on the surface may be simply read as an engaging spy novel and nothing more, and maybe it’s okay to read it that way and never delve any deeper. But, like an onion, this novel has layers. For most of the book, Kushner bounces between two perspectives, the first being “Sadie” our narrator whose real name we never learn, the second being the hacked email messages of an environmental activist named Bruno Lacombe. Sadie has been tasked with infiltrating and determining the motives behind a small, rural commune in France, a commune who believes in renewing and sustaining cultural farming practices, sometimes by any means necessary. She hacks the email communications between the commune and, who she affectionately refers to as, Bruno (Lacombe to the members of the commune) and spends about one third of the book reading his missives on truly ancient communities, species, and what he perceives to be the evolution of mankind as we know it.

Tucked in tightly within the narration, we find little cracks in Sadie’s story, the one she’s been telling us. I hesitate to call Sadie an unreliable narrator, but we do only get her side of the story and the side of the story she tells is just as carefully crafted for our eyes (by Kushner) as it is for the eyes of the French subversives she’s infiltrating. Sadie projects herself as confident, at times conniving, and self-assured. She knows who she is, she knows what she’s good at, nothing matters beyond that. And yet. And yet. As the story unravels, we begin to catch glimpses into Sadie’s past, into the assignments that have gone wrong, the time spent entrapping innocent people, the subsequent loss of her government job. We begin to see the threads that hold this story so closely and delicately woven, catching light, fraying just a little, tugging at the seams.

Sadie begins to form a connection with Bruno, a connection that will forever remain one-sided, but a connection nonetheless. She relates to what he has to say about the nature of humankind, the nature of our evolutionary process from Homo Erectus to modern humanity, she eagerly opens new emails from Bruno to the commune, turning the philosophies over in her mind, ruminating on them beneath dappled sunlight, allowing herself to get involved with a subject of her assignment – even if no one knows she’s done it. Even if she doesn’t even realize it herself. As Bruno’s philosophy begins to shift and change and ebb and flow, so too does Sadie’s experience as an agent. She begins to get sloppy, she reminisces more, fear creeps in, and she begins to morph from an analytical, strategic agent to a messy, guilt-ridden employee. All the while, continuing to keep up the pretense both with the reader and with the commune that she is who she says she is. It’s safe to say, neither are fooled.

I found this book to be deeply compelling. Kushner wrote Bruno is such a way that I found myself equally as compelled as Sadie by his words, waiting for the next time his emails would turn up in the book’s pages, diving deeper and deeper into his version of history, thinking of it even without the book in my lap. It was riveting, it continues to live in my mind. I thought about this book for a long time after I finished it, chewing it over, turning back through events in my mind, trying to parse where things went wrong, what the greater meaning might be. There’s an inherent sense of oneness that comes from Bruno’s writings, an idea that we aren’t any different than anyone else, despite what our philosophical systems might be, an idea that stems from early humanity; that for all our differences, there might be more similarities than we expect; that this could change our entire worldview if we let it; that maybe it should. At the same time, there’s a thread of guilt that weaves its way through the story, unraveling Sadie’s persona and permeating her entire being, pulling at the mask she wears, both as Sadie Smith and as the narrator. We never fully see her for who she is, but by the time the novel is over, we’ve touched something real.

At the end of the day, this book contains the multitudes that exist within every person. The mask we wear around each other, the atrocities we commit in the name of ego, the way we differentiate ourselves from each other, all the while knowing somewhere deep within ourselves that if you boil each of us down, we’re really the same. There’s a lot of accurate history telling that happens throughout this book, too. Some of it is overwhelmed by Bruno’s own ideas about life and history and evolution, but much of it comes from the real world outside this book and I think that is what makes Bruno’s emails so compelling. We connect with them because we see ourselves in them, just like Sadie did. It made her more human in the end. Maybe it can make us more human, too.

Advice : Creation Lake is a must read. It’s riveting, it’s just high stakes enough without being an overwhelming anxiety trip, and it’s beautifully written.

Summoned by the Earth Review

Book: Summoned by the Earth : Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our World
Author: Cynthia Jury
Publisher: Prospecta Press
Year: 2024
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “The most pressing question in these uncertain times may well be, How can we bring healing and protection to the Earth? It was this very question that Cynthia Jurs carried with her in 1990 as she climbed a path high in the Himalayas to meet an “old wise man in a cave” – a venerated lama from Nepal. In response to her question, the old lama gave her a formidable assignment based on an ancient practice from Tibet : she must procure earth treasure vases made of clay and potent medicines, fill them with prayers and symbolic offerings, and bury them around the world where healing is called for.
Thus begins the journey of a lifetime – sometimes harrowing, but always shining with beauty at the threshold between urgency and the timelessness of the sacred. In Summed by the Earth we accompany this passionate and creative Buddhist teacher, as she attempts to fulfill the daunting task. Ultimately, the path from the wise man’s mountain cave winds around the world, bringing Cynthia into relationship with elders, activists and diverse communities. One by one, as the humble clay pots are planted in the earth, the power of an ancient technology of the sacred comes alive and global community grows to protect the Earth and learn how to become vessels of healing.
As many of us wonder what we can do in this eleventh hour, Summoned by the Earth offers a riveting account of one woman’s response to the challenges we face, and is an irresistible invitation to become “sacred activists” heeding the call of the Earth.”

Review : Oh boy. You know, sometimes I read a book that moves me in such a profound way that I end up not even reviewing it – how do you put words to the thing that has changed and transformed you from the inside out? Anything you might say after that would pale by comparison. As I sit down to write this review, I fear the struggle to fully encapsulate the enormity of Summoned by the Earth may keep me from conveying to you just how life altering this book has been for me. I’m going to do my best!

This book, unlike what I generally review, did not come to me as an advanced reader copy, instead, it was sent to me by a PR agent post-release. I’m grateful this is how I was able to read this work: in its totality, with maps and endnotes and glossary and photos, with a foreword and an understanding of just how this journey has unfolded for the people involved as well as the planet. My copy is now filled to the brim with notations, underlined passages, dog eared pages, and little colorful tabs to remind me of all the many ways in which Cynthia Jurs has spoken directly to my soul. I suspect this will be a reread many times over and a gift I will be passing along to my friends.

In the 1990s, Cynthia was already considering the harmful effects of mankind’s destruction of the Earth when she took her pilgrimage to meet a reclusive Buddhist Lama, Charok Rinpoche. Living across the Rio Grande Valley from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) where nuclear weapons are created, tested, and stored, Jurs had already been contemplating the harmful effects of radioactive poisoning on the land. She explained her concerns to the Lama and asked him how she might be of service to the Earth, how she might heal the planet, and how she might do the work in a world devoid of hope in light of the atrocities being faced across the globe. Charok Rinpoche then gave her a directive : plant Earth Treasure Vases in the ground, allow them to do the work. In Charok Rinpoche’s Buddhist tradition, Earth Treasure Vases are clay pots filled with sacred medicine, containing what are referred to as “precious pills”, or those remaining aspects of a realized practitioner’s body that do not burn when their earthly vessels are burned after they’ve passed. The Earth Treasure Vessels, 30 in total, were created for Jurs after her departure from the mountain and sent along to her later, however ETVs are traditionally filled, closed, and sealed, never to be opened again. Because they were being shipped to Jurs, they could not be filled and sealed without fear of being reopened when passing through customs on their way to the United States, and so they were created using both clay and the sacred ingredients, empty vessels ready for Jurs’ filling.

Jurs, a Buddhist teacher who studied directly under Thich That Hanh, spent a great deal of time following the directive to heal the Earth by burying sacred vessels within her soil deepening her own spiritual practice, forming a Sangha (or community of practitioners), and meditating on the most useful places around the globe for these precious vessels to do their work. Beginning in the United States, Jurs, along with Tewa elders Marian Naranjo and Vickie Downey, chose to plant the first ETV within an area referred to as Area G, in a cave overlooking LANL. The Los Alamos National Laboratory resides on stolen indigenous land, belonging to the Tewa people, but taken by eminent domain during World War II. Indigenous tribes have not had access to their sacred sites located within LANL since their land was stolen.

Throughout this amazing, eye opening, deeply moving work, Jurs does more than simply plant vessels, hoping they’ll perform miracles. No. She engages her Sangha, meditating on each vessel with specific intentions for each chosen location, doing decades worth of research into communities that might benefit most from this practice, and connecting with elders from across the world. Several of the vessels were stewarded by those within her community, taken and placed by someone other than Cynthia herself, often by people with personal connections to the spaces where the vessels would be buried. There even remain a few left to be buried today, a work that continues on in the world even as we speak, despite already having put nearly thirty years into the ETVs.

Something that I appreciate so greatly about Cynthia’s work here is how transparent and honest she is with the reader – at times she describes mistakes she’s made when interacting with elders and indigenous communities, though never once making excuses or acting as though the mistakes are trivial matters. She outlines the work she’s done to make things right, to make reparations, and the communications she’s had to ensure it doesn’t happen again, she also acknowledges her own privilege and speaks to how that informs her work. Throughout this practice, in traveling to nearly every continent on this planet, she relies solely on the advice and acceptance of indigenous elders, never taking over or forging ahead if the vessels are not accepted. It is a welcome change from so many who leave the United States and travel to other countries with the idea that they might be a “savior” to those they encounter. Jurs remains humble, prostrating herself at the feet of those who hold sacred connection to their land, taking in whatever knowledge she can gain from them, and simply facilitating the space for the vessels to be filled with the prayers and intentions of those who live on the land where they’ll be buried. There are so many instances of indigenous elders waiting to receive signs or divining prior to accepting the vases, Jurs always defers to the elders.

There are so many moments throughout Summoned by the Earth where Nature herself seemed to be responding directly to the prayers and meditations being poured directly into the vessels, from the roars of white lions living within a refuge in the South African bush, to endangered eastern lowland gorillas in the DRC coming close enough to witness, to a humpback whale breeching and splashing the vase along the coast of Oaxaca, even to incredibly synchronous and intricately detailed crop circles appearing while in England. I found myself shedding tears over each moment as Jurs explained the connection she felt to the planet with each incredible inhuman encounter. It’s almost as if the planet understands our intent.

While the idea of Earth Treasure Vases healing the Earth may sound far-fetched or overly spiritual, at the end of the day there have been noticeable changes within regions where the ETVs have been planted – and this speaks directly to the impact of community healing that happens when people come together for a common cause. Within Liberia, where multiple vessels are buried, four Peace Huts have been erected to specifically address the prayers for peace within the region that came about during the prayer ritual and burial of the original Liberian ETV; multiple non-profits have been formed due largely in part to the work of the Sangha community, Jurs own work, and the work of those across the globe who have heeded the call for restoration and peace; and since the burial of the initial vase across from the sacred Tewa site where LANL resides, Tewa elders have been granted access to small portions of the land in order to leave offerings and begin to tend their holy spaces. When communities engage and gather together for a common cause of peace, tremendous work and healing can occur, of that we can be sure. Whatever you believe when it comes to the Earth Treasure Vases, it is clear that our global community is hurting, not just from climate change and radioactive waste, but from horrific humanitarian crises that are impossible to untangle from each other. Bringing communities together for prayer and intention and peace is a symbol of profound hope that this world so desperately needs.

It was an absolute honor to read this book, to delve into Cynthia’s life’s work, and to feel that in reading this book I have shared the emotions that have risen within me with an entire global mandala of people’s prayers and wishes and hopes for a better world. I read this book slowly, purposefully, and with intention and I come out of it feeling as though I’ve been unzipped in a way, as if the healing work of the ETVs has been at play in my own life, as though the energy they create has reached a small tendril out into my life and has drawn me into the matrix of global hope that permeates outward from the center.

Advice : Pick this book up. That’s all I have to say! My review is a measly thing in comparison. Pick this one up. You won’t regret it.

The Time Travel Twins Review

Book: The Time Travel Twins
Author: James Patterson and Tad Safran
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Year: 2024
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Twins Pew and Basket Church dream of escaping the miserable misfortune of their isolated orphanage. Or, even better, the return of their unknown parents. But even in their wildest dreams, they never imagined the truth : The twins can travel through time.
Armed only with perplexing clues to their past and a time travel talisman that is key to their future, Pew and Basket embark on an epic quest It takes them into George Washington’s war tent and on a hunt for the Liberty Bell, from the battlefields of the American Revolution to a pirate republic in the Caribbean and beyond, all in a race to uncover the secrets of their family – and outsmart time’s greatest villain.
History, mystery, humor, and adventure collide in this delightfully clever romp that heralds the arrival of James Patterson’s newest blockbuster series.”

Review : If you’ve been here for a while, you might know that while I don’t often read and review young adult books, when I do, I tend to find myself disappointed. In general, the young adult advanced copies I’ve read over the years have left me wondering if I’m simply holding young readers to a high standard they may not be able to truly live up to. I wonder often if I’m so far removed from being a young reader that I simply cannot remember what it was like to read books as a pre-teen; my expectations have been dashed so many times. The Time Travel Twins, however, has fully restored my hope and faith in a high quality, enjoyable young adult read. As someone who works fairly hard to avoid a James Patterson adult read, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this advanced copy, but it was genuinely such a fun and enjoyable read, I’m excited for the kids who pick this book up and find themselves sucked into a world full of time travel, mystery, and witty adventures.

Prior to heading to the front of the book for a bit more information about the authors, I’d already decided The Time Travel Twins reminded me a great deal of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The authors have created 12-year-old characters who talk and think like adults, not in a necessarily unbelievable way, but in a funny, charming, disarming sort of way – Basket and Pew, named for the literal church where they were found as abandoned babies, have grown up in an orphanage that’s educated them not as children might be, but as PHD candidates might be. They have amassed a wealth of information from higher education learning in a grueling atmosphere where they’re fed rock hard bread and worms, taught mathematical principals most adults wouldn’t understand, trade wind patterns, ancient ship types, and all manner of seemingly nonsensical information no child would ever need to know. Wink. The authors don’t speak down to the readers, taking several instances throughout the book to break the fourth wall and address the reader with little tidbits to explain complicated or new phrases in a way that feels like the reader is part of the adventure, rather than someone who hasn’t been educated to the tremendously high degree that Basket and Pew have been. It reads like Lemony Snicket wrote the book, and when I read a bit more about the authors, I discovered Tad Safran had, in fact, served as a writer for the Series of Unfortunate Events TV series.

This book is truly what would happen if Lemony Snicket got a little too engrossed in history and began writing historical time travel fiction for kids. It’s great. Where the books deviate from this particular style of storytelling, though, is in the detail and commitment to teaching the reader. Rather than an all out rampage of fun and whimsy and adventure, TTTT is smartly wrapped up in a sneaky campaign to teach the reader the ins and outs of the revolutionary war and, based on the ending, I’m guessing will continue to teach future readers about additional historical events as the series unfolds. It reminds me of the computer games you might, if you were my age, have grown up playing that were thrilling adventures serving as a sneaky vehicle to learn math and English particulars. Every so often the authors break off and give us an illustration of a scene, complete with a small blurb to further explain details either of a specific battle or the details of 1700’s attire that might not be familiar to the reader. It works so, so well. Everything about this book was amusing and charming and informative, giving the reader something to grasp onto and chew on while they found themselves whisked away to the pirate’s republic, or sucked into a time vortex to narrowly avoid escaping certain death.

It should be noted that this book is about as far from low stakes as a younger reader’s book could be. There’s action, adventure, and like I previously mentioned, the threat of certain death. There’s suspense building and nail biting, and to my displeasure, a lot of “but we just had that thing and didn’t know we needed it and now we need to backtrack to get it!” which, ultimately, earned this book one less than a perfect score. It did feel as though we spent far too much time zig-zagging between having the thing we needed and throwing it away, and going back for the thing only to be thwarted in the process. I’m not a side quest kind of person, if you can’t tell! All in all, the book felt like it was about 50 pages too long, all thanks to the back tracking and side questing – I think it could have easily wrapped up so much sooner and without any to-do, I doubt you’d have missed out if we didn’t have just one fewer instance of the above scenario.

It’s also worth mentioning that while Basket and Pew are twins, Pew is a Black boy and Basket is a white girl. And they come find themselves in the midst of the revolutionary war. Perhaps you can draw some conclusions on your own here? There’s some talk about racism, slavery, and what it might mean to find yourself in an era where the color of your skin alone could mean your demise. There’s also discussion about what it might mean to change time, to tell general Washington to abolish slavery before the war was concluded, what that might mean for the future of the United States, and why the North had the resources available to win in a battle against the south (the future civil war). The issues are addressed frankly and don’t gloss over them terribly, but are also pretty clearly written from the perspective of two white authors, so there’s certainly something the be desired here when it comes to navigating a character’s existence in a body that’s viewed as less than or other in the midst of war. I know, too, that this is a children’s book and doesn’t need to go into the horrific specificities of what that reality might look like, but there was something about making witty banter over why one simply cannot change time that rubbed me the wrong way and I think that’s worth being said.

Ultimately, this book was an enjoyable read that didn’t sacrifice education or writing quality for fun. It ended on a cliff hanger, leaving the door wide open to future books, and it makes you want to continue reading (for most of the book, anyway. Like I said, it does feel about 50 pages too long). I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this one and suspect many kids will feel similarly.

Advice : This is the kind of book you give to your advanced reader without feeling like it isn’t going to push them to learn something. It’s going to teach not only history but ethics, confirmation bias, and the importance of kindness to those around you, regardless of who they might be (like a pirate). I highly recommend it!

Sword Crossed Review

Book: Sword Crossed
Author: Freya Marske
Publisher: Bramble
Year: 2024
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. A sword-challenge at the ceremony would destroy his desperate bid to restore his family’s wealth.
What he can afford, unfortunately, is a part-time con artist and full0time charming menace, Luca Piere.
Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his hometown. He didn’t plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible – and inconveniently handsome – wool merchant like Matti.
However, neither Matti’s business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what they seem. As the days count down to Matti’s wedding, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti’s house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca’s secrets threatened to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer one question : How many lies are you prepared to strip away, when the truth could mean losing everything you want?”

Review : The ARC messaging for this book compares it to Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes – my second ARC this year that’s been compared to my favorite cozy, low stakes fantasy world. While I wouldn’t necessarily pick this book up and immediately think “This reminds me of Legends and Lattes“, Marske did deliver on low-stakes and I appreciate that. Marske has created a fantasy world with all the world-building one might hope for and absolutely none of the fantasy, which made the book a bit hard to get through at first – though, the close proximity and suspense of it all made things flow a lot easier as we got into the relationship between Matti and Luca. This is ultimately what led me to give this book four instead of five stars, as there wasn’t a perfect balance between mind-numbingly slow and send-shivers-up-your-spine anticipation. I think the balance could have been struck a bit more seamlessly, but ultimately the writing was great, particularly for an ARC, the storytelling felt solid, and the world-building was pretty good.

I think it’s an interesting concept to create a fantasy book but to include absolutely no fantasy whatsoever. True, there’s some talk of the gods – actually, this ended up being my favorite aspect of the novel, each swear lending itself to more and more ridiculous descriptions of the god’s particular anatomy (someone’s pube being my personal favorite) – but there’s not a single mention of any kind of fantastical creature, anyone who might be anything other than human, or forces that might be beyond anyone’s control. What Marske has created, instead, is a book filled with the day-to-day politics of guild houses and merchant families, what their lives look like as everyday folk who trade and run factories and forge alliances with each other. And ultimately, this is where the book finds Mattinesh Jay – the heir to a guild house that manufactures wool, a guild house that’s fallen on more than it’s fair share of hard times, that’s struggling to survive, and so two families must marry in order to keep the house name from utterly failing. It isn’t a nail biter, there isn’t threat of life or limb (for the most part), and there aren’t any interactions with creatures. From that perspective, I’m not sure if cozy is the right word, so much as slow might be, but low-stakes it most certainly is. There’s absolutely no anxiety-causing battle sequences or war-time scenes, rather we see the politics of daily life and from there our story grows.

I found the pacing to be a bit frustrating, jumping back and forth between incredibly dull and incredibly interesting, it actually took me about half the book before I started to really enjoy the storytelling. I found it dull and hard to follow, though not because it was poorly written, simply because I wasn’t interested in the politics of guild houses. Once things began to get rolling, though, I came to find myself turning pages with gusto, returning to the book to see how the story would play out, and hoping for a bright future for the main characters. In fact, I finally began to enjoy the book so much that the end made me cry a little – so how’s that for making a turn around!

Advice : If you love a slow-burn, low-stakes fantasy or sword fighting, this might just be for you! If you aren’t into queer romance novels, lots of talk about guild houses, or the politics of a fantasy world, you might struggle with this one.

Can’t Spell Treason without Tea Review

Book: Can’t Spell Treason without Tea
Author: Rebecca Thorne
Publisher: Bramble / Tor Books
Year: 2024
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea while firelight drifts between the rafters. However, Reyna works as one of the queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.
But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility – all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town nestled in the icy tundra near dragon country, and open the shop of their dreams.
What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum, where these two women will discover just what they mean to each other…and the world.”

Review : This is another first for me, notably from the same publishing house as the last book I reviewed, a book that was originally independently published in 2022 and has now been picked up by a major publisher, scheduled to be re-released in 2024. I thought it looked familiar! Turns out I’ve been seeing people post about Can’t Spell Treason without Tea for a little while after it’s independent publishing. With the popularity of Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes, it’s little wonder a book that credits Baldree’s debut novel with it’s inception, has done so well! I have also found myself swept up in Baldree’s world, searching for additional cozy fantasy novels since finishing both his books, so this was a welcome surprise.

Thorne has successfully created a cozy, relatively low-stakes, fantasy novel that seems to check all the boxes for me. There’s rich world-building without the confusing word salad that sometimes accompanies fantasy novels, I never once struggled to visualize the queendom or any of it’s surrounding countries; there’s just enough mention of tea blends, baked goods, and rolling fires without going so far down the rabbit hole that the entire story becomes a cook book; and there’s mystery and adventure, peppered with betrayal, gryphon flights, and just a dash of magic. It’s the perfect blend of everything I’m looking for in a cozy, no-anxiety, fantasy novel. Thorne sets us up well for additional books, something I’m greatly anticipating (I know there’s a second book coming! It, like the first book, was also originally independently published, but will be re-released later this year). I even tried to buy book two in it’s independent form, but it’s already been marked up to roughly $150 so, like the rest of you, I will be waiting until the fall for the second installment. And that’s about as high of praise as I can give – I never attempt to buy a sequel of a copy I’ve been gifted as an ARC, I try my hand at getting the review copy for the next book in the lineup, and if I don’t get it, I move on.

There were a couple instances where I felt this book could have benefitted from some additional editing, but I suspect that may come with a bit of time, experience, and additional books. None of it felt so grievous that I wouldn’t read more in the future or wouldn’t recommend the series to friends (which I have already done!), but it’s worth mentioning. First, I realize the series is literally called Tomes & Tea, but the overuse of the word “tome” grated on my nerves throughout the book. I think this book, and subsequent books, would benefit from occasionally referring to books as something other than tomes, but that’s a personal preference on my end and perhaps it doesn’t bother anyone else. And second, there were several instance of dialogue that felt so stilted, it was clear this is a debut novel – and I do thin that’s okay! Like I said, I think some of these small errors will be adjusted with time and experience and I expect that book two, and any further books Thorne decides to write, will likely improve. There’s a lot of overuse of the word “girlfriend” in conversation that doesn’t read true to spoken dialogue, or overly formal wording that doesn’t quite strike me as realistic to a verbal conversation. I’m aware that this is a fantasy and not meant to be realistic, but I do expect dialogue to be at least convincing.

Advice : I highly suggest you mark this one on your calendar! If you love cozy, low stakes, but highly enjoyable, smut-free fantasy, this will be right up your alley. If you enjoyed Travis Baldree’s books, this one is definitely for you.

The Coven Review

Book: The Coven
Author: Harper L Woods
Publisher: Bramble / Tor Books
Year: 2023 & 2024
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “I was raised to be my father’s weapon against the Coven, who had taken everything from him. I would do anything to keep my younger brother from suffering the same fate. My path lead me to the prestigious halls of Hollow’s Grove University, where witches learn to practice their magic free from human judgement.
There I come face-to-face with the beautiful and infuriating Headmaster, Alaric Grayson Thorne. He despises me just as much as I loathe him – in spite of the fire that burns between us…”

Review : This is a first for me, a book that has been previously published being sent out as an advanced reader copy. I admit, it took me a little bit of digging to figure out why I received an uncorrected advanced reading copy of a book that was published in 2023; it seems this marketing campaign is running ahead of a special edition publication of The Coven debuting in August of 2024, a month before the sequel releases. Whatever the case, this book has been circulating and doing surprisingly well over the last few months, so by the time I received an ARC, opinions had already filtered their way to me. I received this book and immediately heard from a friend how much they enjoyed it, I know the author has amassed a monstrous following on social media, falling into the category of fantasy romance which means the loyal fans are deeply loyal. I had expectations, to say the least.

Unfortunately, The Coven lived up to the low, low bar of my expectations. Now, before we dive in, please don’t get me wrong! I’m not here to shame anyone for reading smutty fantasy novels, I don’t look down my nose at the books or the readers of the genre. At all. However, it has been my experience that many of these fantasy romance authors, in an effort to churn out as many books as possible for their droves of die-hard fans, often sacrifice quality for quantity. Or even quality for smut. It’s fair to say that I went into this book with a bit of trepidation, knowing Woods’ second book is set to debut just a year after her first – a timeline which is pretty drawn-out as far as fantasy books are concerned lately. I expected this book would sacrifice plot for smut, but what I didn’t expect was the shoddy writing (though, perhaps I should have given the passive voice used in the synopsis).

*Spoilers Ahead*

The Coven is a hard to follow fantasy that very clearly draws on so many fantasy and witchy tv shows. Unfortunately for Woods, I too have watched so many fantasy and witchy tv shows, meaning my mind immediately jumped to all the storylines she’s at times all but outright copied. First of all, the vampire-witch romance trope is unbelievably overplayed, but if you’re going to go that route, at least stray away from names used in tv shows like Vampire Diaries (*cough* Alaric *cough*). I find it hard to believe that any reader interested in a book like The Coven hasn’t also watched Sabrina, Legacies, or A Discovery of Witches. Like I said, the vampire-witch struggle and eventual romance is played out. There’s something deeply aggravating about a controlling, toxic male vampire who for some unknown reason just cannot resist the temptation of an “impossible” and frustrating female witch. We’ve seen it played out hundreds of times through so many fantasy books, movies, and tv series…it’s not compelling. Pun not intended. There’s nothing about an over-done trope that makes me want to continue turning pages. It makes me want to throw the book in the trash.

My second issue with The Coven is that while I can appreciate that Woods chose to include content warnings at the beginning of the book, clueing the reader in that the central male character is nothing but toxic, at the end of the day the portrayal of a controlling, manipulative, and coercive relationship is at best disquieting and at worst misogynistic and traumatic. I have yet to decide where Woods falls on the spectrum with her male main character (MMC) – a content warning isn’t enough, simply choosing not to write toxic men into stories where the reader is meant to find their humanity and fall in love with them is more of what I’m looking for. And this leads me to my third grievance with The Coven, which is the, frankly, hard to believe convolution of the storyline that means we readers cannot actually find humanity with Woods’ MMC because he is, in fact, the literal devil. Woods has created a universe where magic is readily available to those who have magical family lines they’ve been fortunate to be born into. Magic, then, is available through whatever means your family line is able to work with : air, earth, water, life, crystals, and the cosmos. However! In Woods’ universe, this ever-present magic is only available through these forms thanks to a blood pact that was made with the literal christian devil, Lucifer Morningstar. I told you, convoluted.

It’s this blood pact that brings me to my fourth grievance with The Coven : setting. While this book is modern, the witches and their family lines all stem from Salem, MA, as if that trope weren’t played out enough already, though as you can see, Woods is not one to run from an overdone trope. Though we’re to believe that Salem is the pinnacle of witchy activity (and not, I don’t know, any of the sites where thousands of people were burned overseas thanks to an unrelenting witch-trial that barely made it’s way to the States), Woods chooses to use the name of someone who didn’t exist in real life as the witch-mother herself, she who made a pact with the devil. It’s like there are all these puzzle pieces and they’re all close enough to fitting, so you shove and shove at them, hoping they will eventually fit, only to realize they’re pieces from two different puzzles.

Finally, my last, and possibly my biggest frustration with The Coven is the slipshod writing Woods employs. We can see it first in the synopsis, an ever-present passive voice. All I could think as I read this book was how much my high school english teacher would have despised it (content aside). He drilled into my head on a regular basis how insufferable a passive voice is, and to this day it lives in my brain : thou shalt not use a passive voice. The Coven is a lot of “what had happened” – again, as you can see from the synopsis. The writing doesn’t improve as the book continues and given that this is an ARC of a book that’s already been published, I don’t suspect additional editing will truly occur here. This book is how it is, passive voice and all. Woods could have benefitted from removing about 50% of the occurrences of the word “that” as well, something that I would think any editor would notice in a first or second draft. Again, this is an ARC for an already published book. It is what it is.

Advice : If fantasy smut is your thing, this book is pretty dang boring. If quality writing is your thing, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Don’t. Bother. It’s a waste of money and time. Trust me.

Devil is Fine Review

Book: Devil is Fine
Author: John Vercher
Publisher: Celadon Books
Year: 2024
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “From acclaimed novelist John Vercher, a poignant story of what it means to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile the past.
Reeling from the sudden death of his teenage son, our narrator receives a letter from an attorney : he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged grandfather. He travels to a beach town several hours south of his home with the intention of immediately selling the land. But upon inspection, what lies beneath the dirt is much more than he can process in the throes of grief. As a biracial Black man struggling with the many facets of his identity, he’s now the owner of a former plantation passed down by the men on his white mother’s side of the family.
Vercher deftly blurs the lines between real and imagined, past and present, tragedy and humor, and fathers and sons in this story of discovery – and a fight for reclamation – of a painful past. With the wit of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and the nuance of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, Devil is Fine is a darkly funny and brilliantly crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind and those we inherit.”

Review : I had absolutely no idea what kind of wild ride I was getting myself into when I opened this book – full disclosure, the synopsis gives approximately 10% of the book away (okay, maybe I exaggerate…45%?). I started it a couple evenings ago and (spoilers), much like our protagonist, found myself losing time. I looked up two hours later, half the book read, and breathed out for the first time in who knows how long. Woah.

*Due to the little information provided by the synopsis, the majority of this review will contain spoilers, you have been warned.*

I absolutely demolished this book. I can’t even explain to you how quickly I devoured it. So much so that it wasn’t until this very moment I sat down to write this review that I realized we never get the narrator’s name. The novel begins with the narrator sitting in traffic on his way to his teenage son’s funeral, stopped somehow by construction, watching a construction worker do a dance while our narrator has a panic attack. A writer and tenure-track professor, our narrator is a biracial Black man working through what it means to exist in a post-2020 world where his audience and colleagues have largely appeared to have moved on from the protests and interests that were front and center just a few years ago. Finding the book he’s been working on tossed aside by one publishing house after the next, he finds his tenure tracked job suddenly on the rails. Unless he can get his new book picked up immediately, he risks losing his secure job. In the midst of the turmoil and trauma of not only losing his son but the prospect of losing his job, he receives a letter from his attorney : a large piece of property on the coast of Pennsylvania that was willed to his son has now passed to him. Our narrator decides to take a few extra days of bereavement leave to have a look, put the property on the market, and take a trip to a place he has hated since childhood – the beach.

It’s hard to fully explain the depth of surrealism that Vercher’s able to achieve in this work. Devil is Fine presents itself as a pretty realistic book grounded in a pretty realistic character, someone we might see teaching classes and publishing books, someone we might see on social media, someone we can relate to immediately as grounded in reality. It’s when our narrator makes his way to the sea, though, that the thread holding reality and dreams begin to unravel. On a cocktail of anti-anxiety medications, our narrator (who has been sober for 17 years) finds himself saying yes to a drink at the bar attached to his small rental at the beach. As it turns out, the property he’s inherited has not come with any kind of structure so he rents from a bartender / realtor / bike shop owner who serves as his off-the-wagon enabler, serving drink after drink after damned drink to a man who very clearly should not be served in the first place. There are so many moments of frustration and grief that swirl throughout this story, and this relationship between alcohol, medications, and those who egg him on while simultaneously providing a form of magical-comedic-grounding relief is one of them.

As our narrator dives deeper into the all too familiar taste of alcoholism, he begins to find himself plagued by sleep paralysis – or so it seems. Waking to find emails sent, book proposals drafted, and responses given in the middle of the night, what should ultimately be a fairly benign experience begins to take on supernatural undertones. When our narrator, in a fairly drunken haze, steps barefoot onto his beachfront property one night, he unexpectedly, and painfully steps on a dead jellyfish, stung even in it’s death. Now he’s not only battling alcohol and medication induced sleep demons, he’s also battling physical pain. The boundaries around the natural world begin to swim and blur and fracture, creating ghostly appearances, pulling mementos from his past into his present, and allowing him to have, what had until now been a one-sided conversation with his son, a two-sided conversation with the dead.

It is during this unraveling of reality that our narrator comes to find that the sprawling beachfront property he’s inherited is actually a former plantation, owned and passed down by the members of the white side of his family. Through this dream-like experiences, our narrator begins to confront the very real demons of his past, the generational curses that follow family members, and perhaps even emerge from beyond the grave, and the father-son relationships that not only created his relationship with his son but mirror his relationship with his own father. It’s through this reality bending that our narrator begins to find the space to heal the wounds that have lead to the at times fractured relationship he and his son shared. We begin to see reality for what it is, not something that exists in one time and place, but something that bends and moves, shaping and folding itself over generations, creating and dissolving into each family member until they’re ready and capable of finding the healing necessary to move forward.

Advice : I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This is hands down one of my top books of the year. It’s expertly crafted, full of intricate detail, and that ending! My god! The ending! I won’t spoil it for you, but trust me when I say this is a must read.

The Manicurist’s Daughter

Book: The Manicurist’s Daughter
Author: Susan Lieu
Publisher: Celadon Books
Year: 2024
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Susan Lieu has long been searching or answers. About her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success – until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.
For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone – why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operations after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.
The Manicurist’s Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world.”

Review : I was really excited to dive into this advanced copy memoir after reading the letter to the reader Lieu included with the book – but I’m realizing now that much of what was covered in the letter isn’t touched on in the back cover synopsis, so I’m not sure you’re seeing the wild ride that her letter was, so I’ll share a bit of it here with you : “For the last two decades, no one in my family has ever spoken of her or how she died. I would ask questions, but they said I was being too emotional or stuck in the past. Desperate for answers, I joined a cult, tracked down the family of my mother’s surgeon, and sought justice through the help of spirit channelers.” This is all within the first few sentences in her letter to the reader! What a wild ride, I thought, I couldn’t wait to get into the meat of this memoir.

A comedian by trade, Lieu writes in a way that showcases her humor, leading us through her life as the youngest daughter of Vietnamese immigrant parents with off the cuff remarks that leave you laughing out loud, winding deftly through the trauma and emotional turmoil of losing a parent so young, guiding us through struggling to find answers while upholding a nearly impossible personal and familial standard; from feeling lost while navigating ivy league schooling to searching for answers from beyond the veil, Lieu takes us on, what ends up being, a winding and at times rather bumpy road. From the beginning, Lieu makes it clear that body image, food, and self worth are deeply connected within her family – something we can see clearly played out in the tummy tuck operation that ultimately takes her mother’s life at a mere 38 years old. Not only is Lieu constantly criticized for any weight she might put on, she’s also forced to consume every single piece of food that’s put before her, at least once to the point of vomiting. Lieu struggles so desperately for answers as to why her mother might have felt the need to have a cosmetic procedure for so much of her life, all the while laying it out methodically for the reader to understand, like a neon sign flashing in front of our eyes.

It’s for this exact reason that this book should be read with caution – tread lightly my friends, if you have struggled with disordered eating this book may present complications for you. The majority of the book revolves around food, so much so that part of the advanced reader copy package included a few postcards with pictures of traditional Vietnamese foods on them. While I think the point that Lieu is trying to make is an important one, there are a lot of complex emotions and ties to food in this book that may bring up some difficult emotions in the reader. Lieu refers so fondly to the dishes her family members made while she was growing up, speaking kindly of the foods her relatives make when she comes home to visit as an adult, while simultaneously speaking poorly of her body, her body image, and the way her body is objectified by those around her. It’s complex and confusing at times, but only in the sense that those who have not navigated this ground themselves may struggle to understand the difficulty one faces when they’re told over and over to shrink themselves. This book requires a content warning.

There are some pacing issues I struggled with in this memoir, places where Lieu spent so much time, chapters even, and places where she jumped around almost frantically. You probably know how much I hate being told what’s going on, and while Lieu doesn’t do this, there are connections she asks her reader to make that at times aren’t given enough context to make on our own. I’m a little perplexed as to why the pacing is so frenetic an uneven, with certain aspects of her personal story garnering so much attention while others warrant no more than a sentence or two. The time frame is a bit scattered, at times being not quite chronological, jumping from the past to the present of Lieu’s own life, and I feel she might have benefitted from gently tweaking the format.

These few issues aside, I found Lieu’s work to be an important embrace of family history, of breaking down the barriers that exist between family members, and of honest inspection of how generational curses impact our lives. In writing this memoir, Lieu is doing the work to heal not only her own self, but the individual members of her family, and past generations of her family as well. It’s an important read, but it does come with some necessary warning.

Advice : If you enjoy a memoir I really think this is going to be right up your alley. If you’ve struggled with disordered eating, I might avoid this one for your own sake.

Rise of a Killah Review

Book: Rise of a Killah : My Life in the Wu-Tang
Author: Ghostface Killah
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Year: 2024
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Dennis Coles – aka Ghostface Killah – is a co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, a legendary hip hop group who established themselves by breaking all the rules, taking their music to the streets during hip hop’s golden era on a decade-long wave of releasing anthem after classic anthem, and serving as the foundation of modern hip hop. An all-star cast who formed like Voltron to establish the pillars that serve as the foundation of modern hip hop and released seminal albums that have stood the test of time
Rise of a Killah is Ghost’s autobiography, focusing on the people, places, and events that mean the most to him as he enters his fourth decade writing and performing. It’s a beautiful and intense book, going back the the creative ferment that led to Ghost’s first handwritten rhymes. Dive into Ghost’s defining personal moments, his battles with his personal demons, his journey to Africa, his religious viewpoints, his childhood in Staten Island, and his commitment to his family (including his two brothers with muscular dystrophy), from the Clan’s early successes to the pinnacle of Ghost’s career touring and spreading his wings as a solo artist, fashion icon, and trendsetter.
Exclusive photos and memorabilia, as well as graphic art commissioned for this book, make Rise of a Killah both a memoir and a unique visual record, a “real feel” narrative of Ghost’s life as he sees it, a one of a kind holy grail for Wu-Tang and Ghost fans alike.”

Review : Chronicling his life, from formative childhood years growing up in the West Brighton projects, to being introduced to kung-fu movies in his early teens, to forming the Wu-Tang Clan, crafting his Toney Stark persona, and everything in between, Ghostface Killah takes the reader on journey into stardom and the drive to simply make it in Rise of a Killah. It would be difficult to listen to music or engage with pop culture without encountering Wu-Tang clan, either having listened to their music or running into one of their cult-like followers. However, for someone like me, who has listened to their music over the years and enjoyed their work, though isn’t a die-hard fan, this book felt a little lacking. This book is very clearly geared toward the ride or die fans, the fans who’ve followed Ghostface and Wu-Tang Clan, who know the ins and outs, the ups and downs of the Clan and are familiar with the intricacies already – prior to reading the book – but I’ll get into that.

Rise of a Killah reads like a conversation, and that’s because it is a conversation. This book has been transcribed, and while I’ve enjoyed that style of reading in the past, there were very few moments during the course of this book that I didn’t feel this would be better suited as a docu-series. I enjoyed reading Ghostface’s story, he is, and has been, open and vulnerable about things that were, and continue to be, hard topics for people to talk about. I found it invaluable to read about his experiences with his mental health struggles, with how he wishes friends would reach out when they see those they’re close to having a hard time, and the way he found peace through speaking openly with RZA about what he was experiencing. During a time when it wasn’t nearly as acceptable to speak about your mental health or wellness, Ghostface leaned into being open with those around him – much the same way his lyrics spoke to things people weren’t rapping about at the time, like growing up in the projects and buying welfare cheese. He talks about the pressure he felt from a young age, living with a single parent and two wheelchair bound brothers, both of whom had muscular dystrophy, and how that helped shape his experience and push him into spaces with people he might otherwise not have come into contact with.

However, there were so many instances in the book that felt like partial stories, partial retellings, so many aspects left out, that the book felt lacking, at times even incomplete. And don’t get me wrong, I understand not everything can or should be included in an autobiography, I’m not naive – I just wish there had been more meat on the bone here. For example, toward the end of the book, Ghostface’s manager, Mike Caruso, speaks with the transcriber, going back in time and sharing his side of how things were happening mostly with the Def Jam label. Ghostface had already covered the years that Caruso was covering, yet we got infinitely more detail and more interesting stories from him than we did from Ghostface. I don’t think this is a poorly told story, but I do think the format choice is wrong for the impact the stories could be making. I found myself thinking over and over again that this would be the perfect documentary or docu-series, I would thoroughly enjoy watching this, having moments where the narrative could cut away and more details could be provided; at the end of the day, if I wanted to full understand this book, I’d have to spend as much time googling things as I did reading it. Had this been less of a transcribed conversation and more of a video interview, I think the impact would have been monumental. Instead, it falls a bit flat and leaves me with more gaping holes than I had before I read it.

I think the final release of the book will be a huge deal for fans of Ghostface and Wu-Tang Clan, it’s filled with photos, illustrations, and lyrics that will have fans drooling. The book talks a lot about Ghostface’s iconic wardrobe choices, from the diamond studded robes to his gold armbands, and details how colors impact his mental state in a way that profoundly influences his work. This is a great book for those fans who have been with Wu-Tang Clan since the inception, who collect every piece of merch, attend every show they can, and know all the infinite details.

Advice : If you’re a die-hard Wu-Tang Clan or Ghostface Killah fan, this is it. You’re going to want to mark your calendar for May 14th 2024 and be sure to grab a copy. If, however, you aren’t a day one fan, this might end up feeling confusing and hard to read. It definitely has its audience, but I think the broader appeal might be lost.

Middletide Review

Book: Middletide
Author: Sarah Crouch
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2024
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “One peaceful morning, in the small Puget Sound town of Point Orchards, the lifeless body of Dr. Erin Landry is found hanging from a tree on the property of prodigal son and failed writer Elijah Leith. Sheriff Jim Godbout’s initial investigation points to an obvious suicide, but upon closer inspection, there seem to be clues of foul play when he discovers that the circumstances of the beautiful doctor’s death were ripped straight from the pages of Elijah’s own novel.
Out of money and motivation, thirty-three-year-old Elijah returns to his empty childhood home to lick the wounds of his fertile writing career. Hungry for purpose, he throws himself into restoring the ramshackle cabin his father left behind and rekindling his relationship with Nakita, the extraordinary girl from the nearby reservation whom he betrayed but was never able to forget.
As the town of Point Orchards turns against him, Elijah must fight for his innocence against an unexpected foe who is close and cunning enough to flawlessly frame him for murder. For fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, this scintillating literary suspense seeks to uncover a case of love, loss, and revenge.”

Review : Okay, Middletide is my first DNF (did not finish) of the year. And while I would normally not review a book I didn’t finish, I’m trying to be better about reviewing every advanced reader copy I get this year; while this may be a shorter review than most, I’m going to let you know why I chose not to finish this one. I had immediate red flags right from the start with the author’s note to the reader explaining that while Sarah Crouch took inspiration from the Lummi and Navajo Nations, the indigenous group she writes about is fictional. There was something about fictionalizing a group of people that didn’t sit quite right with me, something that continued to itch at the back of my mind as Crouch introduced us to Nakita and her father, to members of the fictional Indigenous group who also happen to be Christians (her father being the Christian pastor on the fictional reservation). The more I think about it, the more it rubs me the wrong way. Not only was the narrative not served by a white woman writing in a fictionalized Indigenous narrative, but the insistence that they be Christian rather than connected to their Indigenous beliefs felt off balance, at best. I think it’s also worth mentioning that Crouch wrote Nakita as living in a three story home on the reservation, take that how you will.

Crouch puts a great deal of emphasis on her main character, Elijah, being a homesteader; surely through her long-winded descriptions of the food he makes for himself and the plant-life that surround his small off-the-grid-esque cabin she earned the “for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing” title from the synopsis. However, if you’ve been here for a while you might remember that I gave WTCS a 2.5 stars for it’s lyrical writing and I still chose to give Middletide half a star less. Where WTCS crafted an effortlessly beautiful story full of natural elements and wonder, Middletide felt like effort. Crouch included so many drawn out descriptions of Elijah’s food that it became repetitive and frustrating early on, but when Elijah began killing his own food with equally long winded discussions about his bow and arrow, well, this vegan was out.

**Spoilers Ahead**

I was willing to overlook and plow through some of the frustrations I’d come across, hoping to find a quality murder mystery at the heart of this debut novel, but when the narrative took a swift turn into the unbelievable, I flipped to the end, discovered the twist I predicted immediately was true, and shut the book. Crouch asks the reader not to suspend belief, but to be so carried away by cozy conversations about food that we forget the nature of the characters she’s crafted for the reader. When the narrative changes on a dime, it becomes hard to reconcile who we’ve come to see with what she’s asking us to believe – and the real kicker is, if you’ve been reading thrillers for some time, it’s especially hard to reconcile because the plot eerily mirrors another’s work. Jumping from Elijah’s third person narrative to the diaries of a woman he’s been seeing, Crouch asks us to believe that Elijah has been an unreliable narrator and instead believe the diary entries we’re reading, which do not correspond with the third-person telling we’ve been getting until this point. I have a hard time with this, as Crouch is asking us to believe that she is the unreliable narrator as the author of a third-person narrative. Had Elijah’s perspective been first person, I would have had an easier time believing his account might not be entirely truthful, and the twist would have taken hold. Instead, the diary entries we read are so out of sync with what we’ve come to know over one hundred-some pages that it’s impossible to believe them, which is unfortunate because the plot twist reminded me immediately of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. And sure enough, when I flipped to the back of the book…the diary entries were faked in order to frame Elijah for murder.

Advice : This book certainly has an audience that I think might enjoy it, and if you fall into the homesteading, living off the land, the main characters date but don’t even kiss for months, kind of camp, well this might be for you. If you aren’t, or you’ve read Gone Girl, don’t bother. You already know how it ends.