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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: A Re-read Review

This is my second time reading this, and the only reason it took so long to finish was that I decided to pick up House of Leaves in the middle for a buddy read. The first time I went to the house in the cerulean sea was more than two years ago when my friends made a birthday gift out of it. This time I reread it in preparation for its sequel that came out a few months ago, a sequel I never…

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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski: Post-Read Thoughts and Review

How does one begin to review the text that is House of Leaves? How does one even summarize it in a paragraph or a few lines, because ‘a horror novel that curves in on itself to create a meta-narrative questioning the act of storytelling and the existence of books itself while being a composite and beautiful study on trauma and how it affects us’ does not do it justice, I fear. It is a book that…

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ASAP by Axie Oh: A Review

I wrote the last review more than two months ago, not expecting that the next time I sit down to write the review for its sequel it would be past the long chasms of festivals and illness. The last review posted was of the most recent book I read, but this is chronologically what I read after XOXO. If it was not obvious, ASAP is the sequel to XOXO following the story of Min Sori and Nathaniel Lee…

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Dance of the Starlit Sea: A Frustrated Review

Thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the ARC! Dance of the Starlit Sea is the debut YA fantasy novel by Kiana Krystle featuring a young ballerina protagonist, a dreamy male love interest who has leapt from the inks of fanart, lots of ethereal dreamlike vibes, and a magical island filled with secrets. It is a coming-of-age story about young girls learning to love themselves despite it all…

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I condensed that post into two shareable panels if you want.

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Cat Among The Pigeons by Agatha Christie: A Review

Cat Among The Pigeons is a 1959 novel by Agatha Christie featuring her famously beloved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, set against the backdrop of a girl’s boarding school in a story where Christie’s natural murder mystery meets a *Malory Towers-*esque **atmosphere and drama. A revolution breaks out in the small Middle-Eastern state of Ramat and its prince dies while fleeing it. A few weeks…

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: A Review

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is a 2019 epic fantasy, initially written as a standalone, following the footsteps of the likes of The Song of Ice and Fire and The Witcher series. Spanning over 800 pages, Shannon’s gorgeous tome offers a feminist and woman-centric perspective into a genre that has been so dominated by male characters and patriarchal world systems. The Priory of…

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Final Girls by Riley Sager: A Review

Final Girls is a 2017 mystery thriller by Todd Ritter writing under the pen name of Riley Sager, which employs the horror genre’s ‘final girl’ trope to weave a compelling story that interrogates the nature of this trope and the women that are given this label in an atmosphere that is chilling yet exhilarating. Quincy Carpenter is the survivor of the Pine Cottage massacre in which all of her…

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Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark: A Review

Brutal Prince is the first of the Brutal Birthright series of interconnected standalone novels by Sophie Lark. Each novel follows a separate pair set in the same universe, but you don’t read prior knowledge to jump in and read a book in the middle of the series. This is a dark mafia romance, and also part of the recommended dark romance books in Larryreads’ Beginner’s Guide to Dark Romance video,…

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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo: A Review

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo breaks away from the confines of the genres of novel and poetry by being neither and at the same time, both. It is a collection of poems written by the main character, telling a cohesive and linear story as one would in a novel. Incidentally, a story that also happens to be about breaking the confines of what it means to be an African-American young woman trying to…

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Hi! I am so excited for ADOFN!! I was wondering whether the exclusive editions with the bonus chapter will still be available after ADOFN's actual release, or if they're pre-order only? I'll be moving soon and don't know my new address yet so I can't pre-order it :(

I would assume they’re available until they run out, whether pre-ordered or not.

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The Resurrectionist by A. RAe. Dunlap: A Review

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for sending me the ARC of this book! The Resurrectionist is a coming-of-age novel by A. Rae Dunlap where historical fiction meets meets queer romance blended with some true crime elements. It’s focused on a side of scientific history often overlooked—its dark underbelly where many questionable choices were made in the nascent stage of scientific…

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Sinner by Sierra Simone: A Review

Sinner by Sierra Simone is part of a novel trilogy of interconnected standalones following three brothers from the Bell family, one brother per book. I read this sometime in the second week of June, and then severely procrastinated on the review (not because of the book, but because of my own weird mental health issues). I found this book thanks to the @LarryReads youtube channel, (shoutout to…

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Snowglobe by Soyoung Park: An Almost DNF Review

Snowglobe is a Korean young adult dystopian thriller written by Soyoung Park and the last book I read for the Asian Readathon this year. This book was simultaneously exactly what I was promised and also not at all what I expected it to be, which made for a confusing reading experience as you can imagine. Let me explain. Snowglobe takes place in a dystopian future where most of the world has…

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The Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta: A Review

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta has been on my TBR for a few months now and I finally read it now as part of the Asian Readathon for its Prompt #2: read an underrated book. I find myself conflicted in trying to write about this book. This was why it took so long to write this review, I just couldn’t write it for so long. Any act of analysis, of attempting to pin down the heart of this book,…

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Death’s End by Cixin Liu: An Unhinged Review

Death’s End by Cixin Liu is the book I chose to read for prompt #2 of the 2024 Asian Readathon—read a book that feels timeless. This is the last book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, I had read the first two books—The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest—earlier this year, but due to the heavy subject matter of the books I had put off reading the third book for a while. Seriously,…

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Komi Can’t Communicate (Vols.1-9) by Tomohito Oda: A Manga Review

Komi Can’t Communicate is the manga I read as part of the Asian Readathon this month, hosted by Cindy (details on her youtube channel) for its first and fifth prompts. The fifth—and also last—prompt of the readathon this year is to read a book with something—character, setting, story—that you would want in your next life. The first prompt is to read a book by an Asian author. While I could have…