What I read last month:
- None of This is True by Lisa Jewell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5) I will gobble up anything Lisa Jewell writes, period. Stepping into podcast territory, her newest release blew me away beginning with a lonely housewife who fell victim to a much older, charming man when she was only 14. Her husband is now spent and decrepit, a master manipulator and bully. Or is he? This intricate and twisted storyline was expertly executed in the audiobook edition, which includes a full production team and gives you an eerily real feel to each and every chapter. Jewell does it again. 🤍
- Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5) I have thought of this book nearly every day since reading the last page. Catriona Ward’s writing has that effect on you and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Looking Glass Sound begins with a teenage search for love, one which ends in horror. Teenage Wilder Harlow is now grown and trying to recapture that fateful summer as his own but… can his memory be trusted? This one is a true jaw-dropper for all thriller and horror lovers alike.
- In a Quiet Town by Amber Garza ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5) Reading my first Amber Garza novel was a pleasant surprise, I hadn’t heard of her before picking this up. This quiet, quaint town was reminiscent of my own hometown, religion and tradition ruling most. The story carries you away quickly into a mother’s worried search for her adult, rebellious daughter. Their relationship rocky as is, the search for her seemingly apparent disappearance becomes rockier by the day. In a Quiet Town is a great late summer thriller.
- Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories by Agustina Bazterrica ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5) I absolutely love this collection of short horror stories by Bazterrica, the author of Tender is the Flesh. Not all gory, these stories made me laugh at the cleverness of her writing often. It is the perfect book to pick up and read a story or two each night before bed or lay by the pool soaking in the oddities with the sun.
- Searching for Savanna: The Murder of One Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many by Mona Gable ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5) In the summer of 2017, just days before my own wedding, the body of a young Native American woman was found, bound in duct tape and trash bags, on the banks of Red River in North Dakota. Her eight month old infant had been savagely taken from her abdomen. Searching for Savanna was undoubtedly one of the hardest books for me to read. Not only is the crime horrific, it illuminates the ugly truth of racism and discrimination against Indigenous tribes across America. Specifically those injustices to women and children. I highly recommend reading this account by Mona Gable and others on the unending violence generations of Native American women have endured.
- Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda DNF (did not finish) I made it halfway through and could not have cared less how it ended. Life’s too short to read books you don’t love. 🤷🏼♀️
My favorite?
stephreeds 