Book Review: "Make Sure You Die Screaming" by Zee Carlstrom

Thanks so much to Flatiron Books for the complimentary advance copy of this book! This definitely is a bleak yet well-written book that will stick in your mind.

If you think your life is out of control, it’s nothing compared to that of our unnamed narrator. They’ve recently come out as nonbinary, lost their corporate job in fairly spectacular fashion, and probably suffered a brain injury in a fight with their ex-boyfriend.

“I guess you could call me the World’s First Honest White Man, but I don’t identify as a man anymore, so you’d probably call me other things first…”

To top it off, their mother called to let them know that their father, an ultra-conservative conspiracy theorist, has gone missing. So now they’re headed from Chicago to Arkansas (no culture shock there) in a fancy car they’ve stolen from their ex-boyfriend.

Their partner on this road trip from hell is Yivi, whom they met when they were both crashing at an illegal Airbnb. Yivi has her own issues: she screams in her sleep, she’s constantly high on something, and there’s apparently someone following her.

This book taps into some really raw emotions. The narrator has been avoiding dealing with some real emotional baggage beyond their father’s disavowal of their sexuality. There’s loss, trauma, and addiction, but there’s also real rage at the inequity that exists. This isn’t a lighthearted book but it’s a good one.

It will publish 4/8/2025.

Book Review: "Starter Villain" by John Scalzi

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at this book and thought about reading it. The cover cracks me up every time, so I took the plunge.

This is a creative book that is wacky as hell. Charlie used to be a happily married business journalist. Now he’s a divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in his late father’s house, which his siblings would like to sell from under him. He dreams of taking over the neighborhood pub—if only he can get $3.4 million.

Then he learns that his Uncle Jake, whom he hasn’t seen since he was 5, has died. There are lots of people who are happy he’s dead (once they’re sure he’s not faking it). It turns out that Uncle Jake was a billionaire, but his fortune wasn’t entirely legitimate.

Charlie suddenly finds himself in charge of his uncle’s super-villain empire. Now, he’s the target of all of those who wanted Jake dead. Figuring out what to do isn’t easy, but he can’t just hide out in his uncle’s secret volcano lair, can he? Luckily he has intelligent cats who can type, unionized (and foul mouthed) dolphins, and a few dangerous masterminds on his side.

“A stupid villain threatens, Charlie. A smarter villain offers a service.”

The book started out fairly normal but it gets crazier and crazier as the plot unfolds. I’m always amazed at the creativity of writers who can think of wild stories like this. I enjoyed it—although at times I felt like it was trying too hard—and thought it was a great change of pace from the heavier books I usually read.

Book Review: "The Lodge" by Kayla Olson

“…once you start falling, it’s nearly impossible to stop—you pick up speed, and you might flail a little to course-correct, but at the end of the day you find yourself in over your head.”

Alix is an entertainment journalist who has just landed a huge job, ghostwriting the memoir of Sebastian Green, one of the lead singers of the hugely popular boy band True North. She used to write about True North when the band was together, and in fact, she was the last person to interview the other lead singer, Jett Beckett, before he disappeared without a trace.

To ensure Alix has a quiet place to write the book as quickly as possible, Sebastian arranges for her stay in a penthouse apartment at a cushy ski lodge in Vermont. She spends hours transcribing Sebastian’s voice memos into a narrative, but she has so many questions and can never reach him to get clarification.

To take a break from writing, Alix starts spending time with her neighbor from the penthouse apartment next door. Tyler, the incredibly sexy, romantic ski instructor, awakens feelings in Alix that had remained dormant since she and her ex-boyfriend broke up. She can’t tell Tyler whom she’s writing about, and it appears that Tyler has some secrets he’s not ready to share either.

When a blizzard hits Vermont—a colossal storm called Yeti—it brings with it a storm of paparazzi and gossip. And while Alix is an excellent writer, even she can’t script the revealing of long-held secrets and hurts that follow.

This was a fun story and a sweet, clean romance. I wasn’t surprised with what transpired but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. While I know her character played a role in advancing the plot, Alix’s sister drove me crazy, and I could’ve done without her completely. But overall, this was a book with characters to root for and a story that made me smile.

Book Review: "In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some" by Josh Gad

From the first time I saw him stumble onto the stage in The Book of Mormon, I’ve been a fan of Josh Gad’s. Whether seeing his face or just hearing his voice (as Olaf in Frozen), his presence in a show adds laughter and heart.

I’m always fascinated by funny people and what makes them tick. Where did their sense of humor and desire to make people laugh come from?

For Gad, his “radioactive-spider-bite-inception moment” was in kindergarten, when his mother threw his father out of the house for being unfaithful to her.

“The trauma of going from a full family unit to a broken household in a matter of minutes was fairly earth-shattering to me, but it would also set me on a course to become the entertainer I would one day be.”

What I enjoyed about this “Tell-Some” was the combination of Gad’s humorous asides and times when he addressed things that affected him emotionally. He talks about his parents’ divorce, his struggle with his weight and self-image, and what it felt like to become a father in the midst of his career trajectory starting to rise.

I don’t read a lot of memoirs, particularly celebrity memoirs, but there’s something about Gad that reminds me of myself. (In the fat Jewish kid who desperately wanted to show all of his doubters how talented he was way, not the Tony-nominated actor way.) It definitely revealed his complexity and served as a reminder that you never know what a person is going through just by looking at them!

Now…do you want to build a snowman?

Book Review: "Tell Me What You Did" by Carter Wilson

When you see that two of your friends said that this will be one of their favorite books of the year, you get it as soon as it is released. Now I can see what they mean!!

“See, that’s the thing about trauma. You never get to quit it. You never get to walk away from it and rediscover the innocence and joy you felt just before The Thing happened.”

Poe is the host of a popular true crime podcast, one in which people anonymously confess the crimes they’ve committed. She doesn’t guarantee that these “guests” won’t face arrest or prosecution, but the opportunity to unburden themselves to an unseen audience seems to outweigh any potential downsides.

Her most recent guest seems strangely familiar to her but she cannot seem to place him. Then he makes a shocking claim: he murdered Poe’s mother. Of course, Poe knows that can’t be true, because the man who murdered her mother is already dead. And because Poe killed him.

This man has information that only the real killer would know. Did Poe unknowingly kill an innocent man? And when the alleged murderer demands that Poe record his interview live—and she must confess to her own crime—she starts to wonder what is true and what is a lie.

I’ve said before that I think the whole podcast angle in thrillers has been played out, but it really worked here. This is a story of regret, revenge, fear, guilt, and courage under fire. Carter Wilson had me hooked from the first page and I completely devoured this book. I couldn’t wait to see how everything tied together.

Book Review: "Here Beside the Rising Tide" by Emily Jane

Happy Pub Week to this whimsical, wacky book! Thanks so much to Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley for the advance copy.

“Life was a losing battle, really. Everything else out there in the vast beyond was so lifeless and empty. Mostly, a person had to look away. But there came a moment, or many moments, when a person had to extract their proverbial head from the sand and set aside their screens and remove their headphones and stand witness.”

When she was 10, Jenni and her new best friend Timmy were having an incredible summer on Pearl Island. They spent countless hours on the beach and in the water, setting off fireworks, and simply enjoying the freedom of not having any responsibility. They even helped a strange sea creature make its way back to the ocean. But suddenly, Timmy disappeared one day when they were in the water, and no one knew what happened.

Now, at 40, Jenn is the bestselling author of a smutty romance/action series. She’s also in the midst of a divorce from her self-help-book-addicted husband, with their two children caught in the crossfire. Her next book is overdue and she needs to escape, so she rents a beach house on Pearl Island for the summer, hoping she can keep her soon-to-be-ex at bay.

One night a familiar-looking boy comes out of the water. He says his name is Timmy, and he needs Jenn’s help to save the world. And things get totally crazy: shark attacks, sea monsters, even the return of the adorable sea creatures from their youth. At the same time, Jenn is attracted to a sexy contractor while trying to finish her books.

This is part sci-fi, part coming of age novel. It’s definitely all over the place, but it has such an enormous heart. I felt like it ran a bit longer than it needed to—there were lots of excerpts from Jenni's books and her husband’s self-help books that I could’ve done without. But Emily Jane drew me in with her storytelling for sure.

Book Review: "Eleven Numbers" by Lee Child

When I picked up this story by Lee Child, the last thing I expected was math. At least I didn’t have to solve any equations!

Nathan is a mathematician and a university professor. He’s well known in his field, but mathematicians aren’t quite celebrity material. So needless to say he’s tremendously surprised when he gets a call from the White House, telling him that his help is needed.

“He was a very able mathematician. But there were fifty others in the world just as good. Maybe a hundred. His publication history was competitive. He had contributed to all the important journals. But so had fifty others. Maybe a hundred. His debut had been his PhD thesis. Groundbreaking, really, but in a field no one was interested in. Nothing about him stood out.”

He is flown to a meeting at the National Security Agency—a meeting attended by a famous mathematician and the President of the United States, as well as two intelligence officers. When Nathan is shown a series of 11 equations, he determines that they are part of a computer security algorithm. The correct numerical sequence is a powerful tool: it controls access to Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

The person who created the algorithm is a famed Russian mathematician. The President and his security team want Nathan to meet this man to try and get feel for which of the 11 equations will allow them the access they need. So they get Nathan an invitation to attend a mathematics conference in Russia, and he should be able to meet the man. But nothing goes quite like expected.⁣

This was very different than anything else of Lee Child’s that I’ve read. There were more twists than I was expecting, but it was a little dry. Or maybe it’s my phobia about math…