Book Review: "Almost Life" by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

I will admit that this book started slowly for me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep reading. But I persevered a little longer and was richly rewarded by this beautiful, emotional love story.

Erica and Laure met in 1978, on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris. Laure is French, a graduate student at the Sorbonne. She’s very cerebral and lives her life the way she wants, no matter what. Erica is enjoying the summer before returning to England to start university.

Both women feel a spark the moment they met. While Laure has had relationships with women before, the awakening of this desire surprises Erica. They fall quickly, knowing they only have the summer. Yet once they part, the longing, the emotions, the hurt all continue.

“It is the condition of the heartbroken to believe no one has felt as they have, ever in the history of the world.”

The book spans more than 30 years. It sees Laure and Erica together and apart, trying to wring everything from each encounter. It traces the strength of their love despite other lovers, marriages, and changes both personal and political. In addition to being a love story, this is a reflection on the changing culture and politics toward equality.

This book was a very emotional one for me. I was surprised at just how much it took hold of my heart. I love books that take place in Paris, as I could see the city in my mind’s eye. Don’t be put off by the slow start, as the story is so worth it.

Book Review: "Fabulous Bodies" by Chuck Tingle

For someone who almost never reads horror novels, Chuck Tingle’s books have been a fun yet gruesome gateway into the genre. There’s always a lot of blood and gore, but he infuses his books with queerness and humor.

Poppy is a fashion influencer. She has more than 215,000 followers on social media, people who want inspiration from her posts, not to mention the occasional thirst trap. She has a five-year-old daughter, Marlo, and she’s determined to give her a better childhood than she had. The influencer gig certainly helps, but her second job makes the difference.

Poppy works nights as a grave robber. Well, it’s not quite what it sounds like—she actually gets paid to transport recently dead bodies to her customers. She doesn’t necessarily know what they do with the bodies, and she’s fine with that.

One night, she is contacted by a mysterious customer offering 5 million dollars if she delivers a body to them. And not just any body: Eddie Michaels, America’s version of Elton John. Eddie is Poppy’s musical hero. He has a fantastic voice, he’s flamboyant and openly gay, and his music has been a huge part of her life.

The job sounds much easier than her usual body retrieval gigs go. Although that seems too good to be true, $5 million would allow her to spend more time with Marlo. Things are going exactly according to plan. And then Eddie wakes up.

This was a fun romp. Eddie is unhinged and utterly hysterical, and Poppy can’t believe what she’s gotten herself into. Plus she’s with her undead musical idol. There are definitely gory parts of the book but they don’t linger too long. Can’t wait to see what Tingle comes up with next!

Book Review: "Long Island Girls" by Gabrielle Korn

I love picking up a book you don’t know that much about and being wowed by it. It’s full of music and friendship and finding yourself and realizing your dreams, but that’s description simplifies what makes it special.

“And I started thinking about how when we’re young and don’t know any better, we love these things that are bad, and eventually we grow up and we realize how bad they are, but we don’t start liking newer, better things. We continue to love that same awful old music, not because of what the music is but because it reminds us of how we used to feel when we listened to it.”

The book begins in 2005. Susan and her best friend Katie are just about to start their senior year of high school. They’re music snobs but beyond that, they’re fairly typical teenagers, filled with angst and insecurity. One night Susan meets Eliza on the way to an indie concert, and she feels a connection that makes pieces of her mind fall into place. Yet as quickly as the spark ignites, it is extinguished.

As the years move forward, Susan graduates college and moves to Brooklyn, where she handles social media for an indie record label. She feels at home in a world she has always loved, but Eliza is never far from her mind. Yet as each encounter grows more intense, they can never outrun the old secrets and hurts.

The book follows Susan at five-year intervals, from 2005 to 2025. It takes her a long time to truly recognize her worth and her own identity, and come to terms with her romantic history. It’s a wonder what kind of clarity comes from truly knowing yourself for the first time.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book and the relationships they had. I kept waiting for things to get melodramatic and was so glad they didn’t. This is a coming-of-age novel that demonstrates coming of age doesn’t only happen as a teenager.

Book Review: "Play It Again" by Georgia Clark

As teenagers they were inseparable. Four friends—Annie, Lola, Vicky, and Dylan—took their hometown by storm when they starred in a gender-swapped adaptation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It was an incredible summer, but the night the show closed the four were torn apart, and went their separate ways.

Twenty years later, they all have very different lives from what they dreamed of. But when their hometown of Rhodes, NY, gets a less-than-impressive write up in a tourism magazine, the town gets closer to dying out completely. Given that Annie owns a pet grooming place in town, she’s definitely concerned.

All four of them get summoned back to the now-closed playhouse where their fondest memories reside. Jazz, their director, wants to revive their production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to hopefully bring some life (and money) back into the town and the theater. Of course, it will only work if all four agree.

The pleasantries of their reunion quickly fade as the memories of the show’s end 20 years ago are revisited. There’s no doubt that the feelings both couples had for one another still linger, but so do secrets, misunderstandings, and emotional wounds. Can they put the past aside to not only save Rhodes and put on a show, but also to see if a second chance is possible?

This was a mostly fun and lighthearted story, full of nostalgia and emotion. I was a theater kid so I definitely enjoyed those aspects of the book. I felt like the pacing got very slow in the middle and I also thought at times the characters’ actions were a little more petty and childish than they should have been.

Book Review: "The House of Now and Then" by Edward Underhill

I thought this was a really special book. Give me magical realism, emotional growth, and a beach cottage and I’m more than happy, but this just really hit me in all the feels.

“You ever feel like when you look back at something you know happened to you, it feels sort of like it happened to someone else? Or like you’re watching a movie? Like you can’t recognize that version of you anymore?”

Harlowe needs to get away. He and his boyfriend, Jackson, have broken up and Jackson is keeping the apartment. His academic career is going nowhere as well, just like his thesis advisor told him it would. So he rents a cottage on Cape Cod for the summer in the hopes he can reset everything.

But the cottage has some surprises. The first day Harlowe is there, he realizes he has some unwanted roommates. His father is in the kitchen, his thesis advisor is at the dining room table, and Jackson is in the bathroom. No one else can see them, they won’t go away, and Harlowe has no idea how to make them leave.

As the summer moves on and Harlowe settles into the community, he starts spending time with Nathan, the cottage owner’s nephew. A younger version of Nathan appears in the cottage as well from time to time. What do the ghosts want from him, and how can he help Nathan with his own issues.

This really moved me, and I really wasn’t sure how the story would tie up. I’ve enjoyed Edward Underhill’s YA books and I definitely hope to see more adult books from him!!

Book Review: "Leave and Come Back" by Lavanya Lakshmi

If you love Bollywood musicals or at least Bollywood dancing, you’ll understand why I say that this book would be so fantastic to see onscreen. The imagery that Lavanya Lakshmi used, to describe the outfits, the food, the dancing, were so vivid but I know they’d be incredible to actually see.

Simran loves her life in Toronto. She works for a university but teaches an afterschool dance class. She lives with Liv, her college roommate. She has also just started dating Liv’s brother Leo after the two of them have been flirting for years. But as happy as she is, there’s a hole in her heart. She’s been estranged from her aunt, uncle, and cousins—who adopted her when her parents died—for seven years.

Her younger cousin is about to get married, and Simran is torn about whether to return to New Jersey. Her older cousin and (former) best friend Kavitha convinces her to come—for the full two weeks of wedding festivities. When Leo accidentally crashes the engagement party—and makes an enemy of Veena parima, Simran’s judgmental aunt and the family matriarch, disaster is about to strike.

But the cousins come up with a scheme, modeled after their favorite Bollywood movie, DDLJ. They’re going to pretend Leo is a stranger to Simran and give him the time to ingratiate himself with the family, the community, and Veena. Sounds easy, right?

I thought this was such a fun debut novel. Sure, it’s predictable, and miscommunication isn’t my favorite thing, but there are a lot of themes here that brought emotion and insight to the plot. It was a great example of how a community comes together to honor its own, and how everyone is in everyone’s business.

Book Review: "Waist Deep" by Linea Maja Ernst

“It is an acknowledged truth that they don’t see one another more often because of work and kids. But it’s also an excuse—work, the kids—to finally be as boring as they’ve been all along. To let go of that need to be interesting. Falling into a calm has-been existence, ruled by the joy and dread of routine.”

The six of them—Quince, Sylvia, Charlie, Karen, Gry, and Esben—have been friends since their university days. But it’s been years since they’ve all been able to spend some real time together. So this weeklong stay at a Danish lake house is something they’re both looking forward to and dreading.

No matter how much time has passed, many of them haven’t really changed. But when Karen and Esben, who’ve been together since university, announce their engagement, it throws a ripple into the group, primarily for Sylvia. She has always had a crush on Esben but never said anything, but given the fact that she’s in a monogamous relationship with her girlfriend, Charlie, she wonders if there’s a way to have it all.

Quince transitioned in the years since university. He is beautiful, an almost Pan-like figure, living his truth for the first time. But while he plays peacemaker among his friends, there’s also lines he shouldn’t cross—but can he stop himself?

I tend to enjoy books that bring a group of old friends together again after some time. This is an interesting exploration of relationships (straight and queer), as well as ambition, fidelity, and figuring out what you want from your future. It’s not as dramatic as I expected, but perhaps some of that is the Danish way. A very interesting and satisfying Pride Read!

Book Review: "The Disaster Gay Detective Agency" by Lev AC Rosen

I had such fun with this book!

Brandon is in love with love. If a guy smiles at him, his mind moves quickly to dreaming of their happily ever after. His heart gets broken every time (even if 99 percent of the guys weren’t interested in the first place), but his heart-eyed outlook never changes.

One night a handsome man, Jon, checks into the hotel where Brandon works. They definitely share a moment at the front desk, and it’s not long before Jon calls to see if Brandon can deliver extra towels to his room. (Yes, this was a pickup line, and sleeping with the guests is against the rules.)

The next morning, Jon doesn’t text Brandon back as promised. They soon find out he checked out early but left a bag and his cell phone. Brandon is determined that this is his chance at true love, so he and a friend set out to give the phone back. But when they arrive, they witness a murder—and Jon fleeing the scene. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as dangerous things happening.

Brandon, along with his three best friends—workaholic law associate Nicole, dreamy stoner Ollie, and revenge-minded drag queen Ian—are not expecting to get embroiled in any criminal hijinks. But with crime-podcast-loving Ollie leading the way, this ragtag band of detectives sets out to figure out the murder and Jon’s role in it before it’s too late.

I’m a huge fan of the Evander Mills mystery series that Lev AC Rosen wrote (still hoping that will continue), but this book gave him the chance for some quirky fun. The characters all have their own issues but their friendship matters most of all.

Book Review: "Waiting on a Friend" by Natalie Adler

It’s 1984 in New York City’s East Village. AIDS has started ravaging communities all over the country, but NYC has been hit particularly hard. Renata has been seeing ghosts of people who have died, some she was friends or acquaintances with, some she never knew. She isn’t quite sure how to help them, but for the most part, they don’t cause trouble.

When Mark, Renata’s best friend and roommate, dies from complications of the disease, she is devastated. She wasn’t at the hospital when he died, which was how she imagined it would be. So she’s eagerly awaiting Mark’s ghost to visit her. But for some reason, he’s not showing up.

“I thought about the ghosts I had known. Were any of them suffering? How would I know? Who can really tell what goes on in someone else’s life, or death? Some of them remained, outwardly, at least, concerned with the petty issues of their lives, and others were above everything, as if they had one foot in our world and another in a place we couldn’t imagine.”

As Renata mourns Mark and takes tentative steps toward a relationship with a nurse she met, Claude, she tries to move on. But at the same time, a company has popped up in the city promising to rid people’s apartments of ghosts or other disturbances. Renata is convinced this shady company is not doing the good deeds it purports to do, and it’s up to her and her friends to try and uncover their true motives.

“How was I supposed to mourn anyone—Mark, François, my mother, whoever was next—when it would take the rest of my life to accept that they were gone when they should have been here still? How do I mourn someone when I can’t get over that one fact, that they were supposed to be alive but they were not and there were people responsible for that?”

This is another terrific 2026 debut. It definitely packs an emotional punch, and some scenes remind me of the movie Longtime Companion, which I love. How much would we love a glimpse of loved ones we’ve lost, just one more time?

Book Review: "The Pink" by Marshall Thornton

I think May is going to be remembered for how many terrific books I found randomly and loved. As a mood reader, sometimes I stare at the books I haven’t read yet and feel unmotivated, so that’s when I start looking for something new. And The Pink is another unexpectedly terrific book I found.

In 1913, 22-year-old Lewis lives with his mother in Chicago. He is studying physiognomy, and dreams of an academic life, in the company of his friend and mentor, Josiah. But his mother unexpectedly turns the tables on his dreams. Claiming sudden financial woes, she tells Lewis it’s time to get a job.

But knowing her son all too well, she gets him an interview at the famed (and infamous) Pinkerton Detective Agency. It’s where his father once worked. And while the last place Lewis wants to work is the company known for busting unions, he’s drawn to detective work. He proves to be quite good at it, as well.

Lewis’ mother is also determined to find him a wife. As a supporter of the Temperance movement, she lands upon a woman she finds suitable for Lewis—Edna, an intelligent, outspoken heiress. While getting married is not among Lewis’ desires, Edna intrigues him, and offers him a chance for something he had never thought of for himself.

Meanwhile, his star is on the rise at Pinkerton. When he unwittingly thwarts a burglary by inadvertently shooting the culprit, he surprises his colleagues—and himself. But an insurance investigation proves to be more complex—and more dangerous—than he expects.

I devoured this book in one sitting. I thought Lewis was a great character—naive in the ways of love but set on what he wanted—and he was a natural detective. I loved the setting and his constant battles with his mother. Might there be another book or two with Lewis at the helm?

Book Review: "We Are Gathered Here Today" by Bobby Finger

Families have their dysfunction, but nothing brings them out quite as much as a wedding. And the literary world is so much richer for that fact. Thanks to Putnam and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book!

Fin’s beloved cousin Elaine is getting married and she has asked him to officiate. The wedding is in June in the sweltering heat and humidity of Texas—and it’s being held at a kitschy Wild West-themed resort, which is something he’d never imagine Elaine choosing.

He and his best friend Jacque are reunited when he arrives in Texas from his home in Brooklyn. Both of them have been to their share of disastrous weddings and neither has come close to taking the plunge themselves. Although Fin has a secret: he and his boyfriend Mark recently got engaged, but Fin is so sure the relationship will fall apart before a wedding ever happens.

Fin and Jacque connect with friends of Elaine’s husband-to-be: Todd and his overbearing alcoholic husband, David, and their best friend, Marina. The five of them comprise the wedding’s “queer table,” and do all they can to enjoy the activity-filled days leading up to the wedding. But the fun comes with some awkward moments for each of them, with secrets being revealed and arguments catching fire, as everyone tries to keep the peace for Elaine and Rupert’s sake.

Often the best part of a wedding is getting the opportunity to criticize it afterwards. When their college friends started getting married, Fin, Jacque, and Elaine instituted The Hour of Disrespect, a period of 60 minutes after the wedding where criticisms can be discussed, and then never be spoken of again. Will there be a wedding to disrespect? And will they all be there to see it happen?

I had really high hopes for this book, as I absolutely loved Bobby Finger’s two previous books. I enjoyed this but it all seemed to drag on for too long, and the miscommunication among some of the characters frustrated me. But in the end, this was a sharply insightful and emotional read.

The book will publish 6/16.

Book Review: "Annie Knows Everything" by Rachel Wood

Rom-coms are all too often the cure for what ails me emotionally. Even when the main characters are in turmoil, I’m right there supporting them and tearing up when they realize they’re meant to be together.

Rachel Wood’s debut is sweet, fun, steamy, and so enjoyable. Annie is shocked when she gets laid off from her job in the middle of the week. (People usually get let go on Mondays or Fridays.) Luckily, her best friend works in HR, so Annie gets reassigned to the Data Strategy Team.

Annie’s reassignment is a surprise to the interim team lead, Connor, seeing as he never interviewed or signed off on her joining the team. Oh, and there’s also the issue that Annie really has no idea what data strategy is, and can’t write code to save her life. But somehow, she wins Connor over with her take-no-prisoners attitude and quickly becomes a valuable member of the team.

As she’s winning over Connor and her coworkers, she’s also dealing with some family tension. Her sister is engaged to the worst man in the world (or at least Canada) after they broke up once before. Can Annie keep her feelings about her soon-to-be brother-in-law to herself this time?

Amidst lots of adorable banter and some real wins, Annie and Connor fall for each other. Of course, boss/subordinate relationships aren’t the best idea, but just looking at the two of them, you know how they feel about each other. But Annie’s tendency to go for the nuclear option first proves hazardous both to her job and her relationship. Can she salvage either?

I honestly don’t care that rom-coms are predictable. The chemistry and the banter between Connor and Annie was absolutely wonderful, and I enjoyed the other guys on the Data Strategy team, too. This was just one of those books that put a smile on my face.

Book Review: "Evil Genius" by Claire Oshetsky

What an odd yet compelling book this was! I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, but I’m glad I read it.

“That’s the way it is sometimes. We can take forever to arrive at the most obvious truths about ourselves, because the will to conform is mighty in us, and the fear of somebody finding out we’re not normal is a mighty fear.”

Celia is 19 years old in 1974. She works at the phone company in San Francisco, where she deals with people who haven’t paid their phone bills. She tries to be empathetic but sometimes her customers anger her and she disconnects their service.

She is strangely fascinated when one of her colleagues gets caught in a love triangle. He was apparently sleeping with an executive for the phone company and they were discovered by the woman’s jealous husband, who killed her. Celia is energized by the thought of a crime of passion.

Celia is in an abusive marriage with a man she calls “her Drew.” Little by little, she starts dreaming of killing him, stabbing him with a little knife she bought. One night, Celia disobeys her Drew and stays out late. Her actions set her and Drew on a deadly path, one that ultimately will lead to self-discovery, among other things.

The tone of the book was quite satirical at times but also pretty troubling. Celia is a meek character with streaks of feistiness, and a lot of the story is written as her telling her life story when she was an old woman. Ultimately, I guess the message was one of finding your true self, but it meandered quite a bit.

Book Review: "This Is Not About Us" by Allegra Goodman

I’ve said it lots of times before, but I love family dysfunction in books. And Jewish family dysfunction? Yes, please. (Not that my family was dysfunctional…)

Helen and Sylvia are devastated by the impending death of their youngest sister, Jeanne. Even though they’re in their late 70s and early 80s, this loss will hurt. But both women have very definite opinions on everything, particularly Jeanne’s final wishes regarding burial versus cremation.

When Jeanne finally dies, Helen and Sylvia argue and say horrible things to each other. But the crushing blow involves their mother’s apple cake. This causes a rift that neither sister wants to repair.

“Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubinstein family, it could go either way.”

This is more a collection of linked stories than a cohesive novel, although each story follows another member of the family—the children of the three sisters, an ex-wife, even a grandchild or two. The stories all happen within a set timeframe.

Honestly, much of this book struck a real chord for me. I’ve been a fan of Allegra Goodman’s since the mid- to late 1990s, and she’s so good at creating the quiet and the loud moments. I would’ve liked a little more about Helen and Sylvia, but they were a part of many of the stories in one way or another.

Book Review: "The Safekeep" by Yael Van der Wouden

“She belonged to the house in the sense that she had nothing else, no other life than the house, but the house, by itself, did not belong to her.”

I’ve wanted to read this book since it was published in 2024. I could’ve sworn I bought it but never could seem to find it. Until I discovered the book on the floor of my car’s backseat—I guess it must’ve fallen out of a bookstore bag!

In the summer of 1961, in the sleepy Dutch province of Overijssel, people have finally moved beyond WWII. Isabel lives alone in her late mother’s country house, and serves as its caretaker, but it will eventually go to her older brother Louis when he decides he wants it.

Isabel is a woman who strictly adheres to routine and discipline. Appearances matter to her, and although she rarely sees anyone other than her timid young maid, she believes she is doing exactly what she is supposed to. But when Louis introduces his new girlfriend, Eva, to the family, Isabel takes an immediate and visceral dislike to the woman.

These feelings are exacerbated when Louis has to travel for business and he asks if Eva can stay with Isabel for a month. Eva tries to befriend Isabel, strikes up conversations, tries to help, but Isabel cannot spend an extra moment in her presence. Until one night, when Eva cuts through Isabel’s icy reserve and they begin a passionate relationship.

This is a gorgeously written book. None of the characters—especially Isabel—is particularly appealing but I couldn’t help but be drawn into this story. It’s beautiful, frustrating, emotional, and memorable, and you need to let it unfold for you. One of the most remarkable debut novels I’ve read in some time.

Book Review: "Is This A Cry for Help?" by Emily Austin

This was a very moving and thought-provoking book. It felt tremendously current given the issues being dealt with across the country.

Darcy is a librarian at a local library. She loves her job, even if not every patron is kind or appreciative. She and her wife Lou have a relatively idyllic life, complete with two loving cats. Darcy has just returned to work following a medical leave, the result of a mental breakdown after she heard that her ex-boyfriend Ben has died.

She hasn’t seen or spoken to Ben for years, since their breakup. But Darcy feels tremendous guilt and sadness about Ben’s death, the way their relationship ended, and the fact that she was never completely honest with him about her sexuality.

Now that she has returned to work, she and her colleagues start dealing with protestors who believe the library is harmful to children. The leader is a particularly vociferous critic who believes the library shouldn’t carry any materials dealing with sex or race or any of the issues these conservatives believe to be “dangerous.” While Darcy is still a bit mentally unstable, she’s also outraged about this attack on the library.

“I find it grating when attention is focused on seedy, unconstructive things, while so little focus is put on all that’s good.”

Emily Austin skillfully combined grief, love, guilt, and the periodic insecurity we feel in relationships. I definitely cared about Darcy and hoped her life wouldn’t go off the rails as she returned to work. I really loved the way her wife and her colleagues made her feel protected.

Book Review: "Alice Rue Evades the Truth" by Emily Zipps

I bought this at Thunder Road Books last week. I mean, when a book is described as a sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping, it needs to be picked up immediately.

Alice works nights as a lobby receptionist for an office building. One night, Nolan, the handsome man on whom she has had a crush, collapses in front of her. She frantically calls 911 and gives Nolan CPR, which she doesn’t think she’s doing right anyway.

The good news is that Alice saved his life. The bad news is that Nolan’s family is mistakenly told that she’s his girlfriend. (Somehow the EMT told the hospital and…) Nolan is in a coma, but his family wants to know everything about Alice—how long they’ve been dating, etc. Seeing how happy his family is keeps Alice from telling the truth.

There’s one other complication: Alice feels immediately drawn to Van, Nolan’s gorgeous butch sister. But giving into her feelings for Van would be essentially cheating on a comatose man. And what happens when the truth comes out? It all seems like too much of a risk.

“What exactly is the protocol for when your fake-boyfriend’s hot sister and her dog walk you to your door after you leave his hospital room?”

If you’ve seen While You Were Sleeping, you pretty much know the path the story will take. There are some serious emotions afoot here, as well as dealing with unresolved trauma and fear. But the banter, the steam, the crazy family, and Frank the dog make the book so worthwhile.

Book Review: "The Irish Goodbye" by Heather Aimee O'Neill

Here’s another terrific debut novel to add to the list of the ones I’ve enjoyed this year. You know I’m a fan of family dysfunction and drama (fictional, of course)!

The Ryan sisters—Cait, Alice, and Maggie—haven’t all been together in their family home in years. But this Thanksgiving, they’ll all be spending the holiday together, despite the misgivings and unspoken resentments each feels.

Twenty years ago, their brother Topher was involved in a boating accident that killed the younger brother of his best friend. The resulting lawsuit and the requirement that Topher admit guilt destroyed their family, and ultimately sent him into a downward spiral. But all those years later, Cait still feels immense guilt about her role in the accident.

Maggie, the youngest, is bringing her new girlfriend Isabel home with her. It’s the first time she’s brought anyone home, since her devoutly Catholic mother has never really accepted that she’s gay. But amidst the nervousness about the situation, Maggie is worried her job might be in jeopardy for a mistake she made.

Alice lives very near to their parents and has taken responsibility for their care, something she resents her sisters for. She, too, has a secret that has the potential to destroy her marriage and her future ambitions. All of these issues will be brought out in the open, as is often the case with the holidays.

Heather Aimee O’Neill is a terrific storyteller. While there’s a lot happening in this book, she deftly steered the plot away from too much melodrama or shocking pronouncements. I wanted to shake some sense into the characters at times, but I want to do that to people IRL sometimes, too. This reminded me a bit of Tracey Lange’s books. Can’t wait to see what O’Neill does next!

Book Review: "Spectacular Things" by Beck Dorey-Stein

I loved this! It was my last book of August and one of my favorites of the month. I love stories about family dynamics, but this was more than that.

“She is coming to understand that love and loss live on the same coin. It’s never heads or tails but joy and agony, grief and delight, spinning in the air, waiting on time and luck to determine not when this chapter ends but how the next one begins.”

Mia and Cricket are sisters, raised by a single mother whose dreams of greatness on the soccer field were derailed just as they were getting started. Mia played soccer until it became clear that Cricket was destined for greatness. So Mia became the responsible one, making sure Cricket got to and from practices and games, and that all the bills were paid.

When tragedy strikes, it becomes clear that if Cricket is to realize her true potential and one day play for the U.S. Women’s National Team, Mia will have to make sacrifices. But at what point does sacrifice and support breed resentment?

As Cricket pursues her dreams, she deals with the pros and cons of her single-mindedness, and the loneliness that often occurs when seeking greatness. Can she live up to her potential without ruining her relationships with Mia and others?

I’ve been a fan of Beck Dorey-Stein since her debut memoir, From the Corner of the Oval. I honestly knew very little about women’s soccer (save the superstars), so I found the story very interesting. But where the book sparkled the most was in its depiction of the complicated relationships of the sisters and their mother’s legacy.

Book Review: "Lucky Day" by Chuck Tingle

What an utterly creative, chaotic, gruesome, and thought-provoking book this was! Horror is definitely not my preferred genre but Chuck Tingle writes books that are so complex, even as they gross me out at times.

“There are billions and billions of paths for us on any given day, and we certainly remember the ones that lead to something like a brutal car crash. We think to ourselves, Why me? How did I get so unlucky? The problem is, we have absolutely no idea how many times we’ve missed one of the infinite tragic routes, ducking and dodging butterflies left and right. Every day, we never know the billions and billions and billions of car crashes we’re not in.”

Four years ago, Vera, a statistics and probability professor, was celebrating the publication of her first book. It was a fun occasion which was marred by Vera’s coming out to her mother during the brunch. They fought and her mother ran out of the diner. And then disaster struck.

In what would become known as the Low-Probability Event (LPE), eight million people across the world all were killed on the same day, each death more random and bizarre than the next. People shepherding a giant balloon were strangled by its ropes. Someone was killed when a costumed chimpanzee threw a typewriter at them. While Vera escaped death, everyone she cared about was killed.

Vera retreats into her grief for four years, because nothing matters to her anymore. Then she is visited by Special Agent Layne, part of a government agency investigating the LPE. She reluctantly agrees to help Layne once he reveals they’ll be investigating a mega-casino in Las Vegas, where the odds seem strangely in the gamblers’ favor. What they discover, however, is truly eye-opening, and Vera must decide if she cares enough about the world to save it.

There’s a lot of graphic descriptions of death in here, so if that is triggering, this is probably not the book for you. At the same time, this book was shockingly emotional at times, which really made it so much more than a horror story.