#The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: The Book of Living Secrets

Author: Madeleine Roux

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2022

Genres: fiction, fantasy, horror, gothic, LGBT+, paranormal

Blurb: No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they've always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. When the girls are tempted by a mysterious stranger to enter the world of the book, they hardly suspect it will work...but suddenly, they are in the world of Moira, living among characters they've obsessed about for years. Except all is not how they remembered it. The world has been turned upside down; the lavish balls and star-crossed love affairs are now interlaced with unspeakable horrors. The girls realise that something dark is lurking behind their foray into fiction...and they will have to rewrite their own arcs if they hope to escape this nightmare with their lives.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Recent books, fiction (non-rereads) -

Rebecca Kim Wells, Briar Girls - YA fantasy, very faintly a Sleeping Beauty retelling. A girl cursed to harm anyone she touches takes a journey into a magical forest. This was decidedly mediocre, enlivened only by having a bisexual protagonist, which is no longer enough for me to be excited by a book. Not recommend.

James Hannaham, Don't Nobody Give a Shit About What Happened to Carlotta - A Black trans woman returns home to Brooklyn after ~20 years of incarceration. I feel a little biased about this one because for various reasons I am very much poised as an ideal reader for it, but I loved it. Hannaham's prose moves skillfully between first person and third, and the lurching pace, which deeply immerses us in Carlotta's experience of the world, is both an audacious authorial move and also very effective. I particularly appreciated the middle section of the novel, which slowed way down for an extremely extended two-handed trauma disclosure scene. There was some stuff about the way secondary characters were represented which I would have preferred be different, but overall I was deeply impressed by this.

Madeleine Roux, The Book of Living Secrets - Two teenage girls end up transported into the world of their favorite novel and find it is not what it seems. I convinced myself to stop reading this book, despite my completionist instincts, because I found prose and tone totally insufferable. I really need to stop reading so much YA.

Grady Hendrix, We Sold Our Souls - A middle-aged woman who in her youth was the guitarist for a successful metal band, learns that her former bandmate has sold her and her colleagues' souls for success and sets off on a journey to stop him. I am positive I would have appreciated this book more if I knew more (or anything) about metal (there are a lot of things I could tell were probably-clever references), but as it was it was fun. I've been reading through all of Hendrix' work, and with that context a number of the plot beats were very predictable (to me this felt especially similar to The Final Girl Support Group), but the process of identifying his favorite tropes is itself sort of entertaining.

Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose - two girls living in the countryside in postwar France develop an enmeshed and unhealthy friendship and then unexpectedly end up literary celebrities. I didn't like this. I found the prose flat and grating, the historical setting implausible and ill-researched, and the plot lacking meaningful emotional stakes. It felt like there was a shadow of an interesting novel somewhere in there, but it wasn't the one I was reading.

Tania James, Loot - a boy in eighteenth-century Mysore ends up apprenticed to a French clockmaker and the rest of his life is changed. This I enjoyed very much, despite some things about its pacing and narrative structure that I wished were different. It had interesting and nuanced things to say about history and memory and colonialism, and several very compelling characters. I would be interested to read more by James.

[witherydithery]

Many thanks to @little-mouse-adventures​ for tagging me!

Last Song: Dreaming Daisy’s fan lyrics to “Melancholic Ending”  from the Hello Charlotte OST. 

Last Show: Probably FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood? 

Currently Watching: I’m watching Black Clover with my dad and brother. Also, the weekly Spy X Family updates. 

Currently Reading: 

Don’t Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli. It was on my ‘to read and get rid of shelf’

1984 by George Orwell (in French!) because I own it and need to read French. 

The Two Towers by J. R. R Tolkien

I think I'll start reading The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux soon since I just took it out of the library, so I might as well add it here. 

Current Obsession: The Magnus Archives! I’ve been listening to it a lot. I should probably take a break before it starts freaking me out… but it’s so good.

I should have a wheel to spin so I know who to tag...

@ner0scum @kai-atlantis and @applandpan  if you like :)

[thelittlestspider]

14 23 25 and 30 for the bookworm asks!

14. what books have made you uncomfortable? why?

tender is the flesh made me so uncomfortable i felt sick at the end of it, because a lot of the stuff in it was like stuff that felt really plausible that it could happen in real life (maybe not the worldwide cannibalism per se, but the exploitation/dehumanization of other people and the violence that comes with that that makes people look the other way and become like accomplices in upholding this violent system. sorry idk if i'm making sense.)

23. genres you rarely read?

idk i guess like contemporary romance? or like mystery/noir? i've been trying to read more scifi but i'm so picky about it.

25. do you read reviews on a book before you read it?

not really? i probably should because sometimes i'll go in blind on a book and end up not finishing because it's really boring and i'm like nooo 🙃.

30. favourite book this year?

oh god this is so hard because there are so many i've found this year that i really enjoyed. i'm just gonna list some of them:

- The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson: if you like Carrie you're gonna love this book. it's about a girl whose racist father forces her to pass as white (she's Black) and she gets outted one day when her gets wet, and it sets off a chain of events that ends with her burning the town. cws: racism, child abuse, violence, police brutality.

- Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge: this is a really fun read for halloween. it's about this town that hunts a guy with a jack-o-lantern for a head and they have to like eat the candy that's hidden in his vines, without knowing that winning comes with a very high price.

- The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux: the book is about these girls who are tricked by a shady bookdealer into transporting themselves into their favorite romance book, which puts them in an alternate universe where the people are tormented by this eldritch being that's trying to escape and take over the multiverse.

- The Bright Lands by John Fram: this book was wild. it's about a guy whose brother is murdered and he goes back to his hometown to try to solve his murder, and gets caught up in this like town conspiracy and a monster trying to rise up and eat the town. cws: homophobia, homophobia, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, past rape, past child pornography, child abuse, statutory rape. So proceed at your own risk.

[chaosacademia]

October hopefuls 2023

- Ganandrya, by A. R. Ruano

- Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 1, by Kamome Shirahama

- The Sprite and the Gardener, by Joe Whitt and Rii Abrego

- The Book of Living Secrets, by Madeleine Roux

- Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire

- Fledgling, by Octavia E. Butler

- Juniper & Thorn, by Ava Reid

- Hex, by Jenni Fagan

- Uncommon Charm, by Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver

- A Dead Djinn in Cairo, by P. Djèlí Clark

- Prosper's Demon, by K. J. Parker

- Snapdragon, by Kat Leyh

[tragically-jane-doe]

Or I've done the stupid thing of going on Libby and borrowing a stupid amount of books and my indecisiveness is hurting me...

They're pretty much all thriller/horror/suspense tis the season and all

[thecozyspookyreader]

Welcome to The Cozy Spooky Reader!

Hi there! If you're reading this, you must have it to my page which is wild because its very new and I have no friends lol

BUT the hope is that this page will be a place where I can make friends, talk about books, process my own reading, and hear about yours too!

So, here is my version of the #bookblr intro tag!

Page Name: The CozySpookyReader

Profile: Black, Queer, ENFJ, Aquarius, Witchy, Studied English Literature, Creative Writing & Africana Studies in college. My personality in a picture below...

What can you expect on my blog? Book recs, of course, usually of the queer, cozy, and/or spooky variety. Meditations on reading, bookstores, book minimalism, annotating books, upcoming books I'm excited for, etc. Occasional Content: Thoughts on movies, magic, travel, and scrapbooking/journaling

What do I like to read? Cozy and spooky reads lol no, but seriously: I fluctuate between needing fast paced academic thrillers that I can't put down to needing something that feels like a warm cup of tea. In a given week, I can start by reading a racial psychological thriller by Tiffany D Jackson and end by reading a cozy witchy mystery like In the Company of Witches by Aurora Lee

Favorite recent books? Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers, The Baker's Man by Jennifer Moorman and Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (more info on these books will be in an upcoming #midyearfreakoutbooktag post)

Physical Books or E-books? E-books... HEAR ME OUT. I prefer physical books but I have a goal to mostly read Kindle books for a year in order to limit addictive book consumption. I am committed to only buying books that I've read and loved and NEED to own. I'm attempting to become a #kindlegirlie. Upcoming posts on that process later!

Currently Reading: The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

Interests outside of reading: Travel, Language Study- I am currently learning Korean & Japanese, KPop, Personal Development, Scrapbooking, Witchy things- crystals, tarot, etc.

Favorite Fandoms: Kpop- NCT, P1Harmony, Ateez; KDramas- Hometown ChaChaCha, Semantic Error; Over the Garden Wall, Coraline, Studio Ghibli, Cottagecore, Dark/Light Academia

That's about it! Looking forward to this new space and joining #bookblr. Can't wait <3

[ckell55]

Book Review: Asylum #2.5 - The Bone Artists by Madeleine Roux

8/10 In Catacomb, Olivet is a mysterious antiques dealer with secrets in his past. But how did he end up tangled in the web of secrets and lies? In this novella, we follow Oliver and Micah as they begin to work for the mysterious Bone Artists. But when Oliver and Micah want to leave their employment, things begin to happen that makes their lives spiral out of control. What is the price they must…

[ladysolwind]

I’m finally out of my reading slump, which is such a relief because I have a couple books staring at me from the TBR shelf space. Also multiple audiobooks and a few library holds that are almost over. Oh, and a long list of books I want to read that I will not let myself order until I finish my current TBR stack.

Last read: Klara and the Sun by Kazuro Ishiguro. This is what finally pulled me out of my slump. The creativity that went into writing Klara’s narration was so fascinating and wonderful. Lovely storytelling. Definitely recommend.

Current read: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. A look at the Trojan war through the lens of the women who lived through it. I’ve been on a huge Greek Mythology kick so I’m enjoying it.

Next up: Circe by Madeline Miller. It’s a reread, but it’s been a few years and I want to read it from the lens of where I’m currently at. Also I read Song of Achilles last year and it made me want to read Circe again.

Following that: Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. This book seems right up my alley and I’m very excited to read this, but I do want to read Circe first.

And then there’s the rest of the stuff.

Library Holds:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Babel by RF Kuang

Audiobook Backlog:

The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bisseli

The Sandman by Niel Gaiman

What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Terraform by Propaganda

Critical Role: Vox Machina- Kith & Kin by Marieke Nijkamp

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein- The Nine Eyes of Lucien by Madeleine Roux

And I have so many books I want to buy, like Aubrey Gordon’s new book. Surprisingly, Prince Harry’s book seems really compelling to me. I have a few more Greek Mythology books on my wishlist. I have Heavenly Tyrant and He Who Drowned the World preordered already and I’m HYPED for those.

Books, man. I love me some books.

[due4amiracle]

Day 349

Listo:

Laundry/cleaning, Reading, Dailies, Vamp shiz, Watching.

Laundry/cleaning - Picked up a few things here and there~! ✔

Reading things - - A hold came in! ...😩 i’m on hold for FIVE FUCKING BOOKS now. Technically, anyways. One of the books... well, it doesn’t come out until June. So. There’s that. xD BUT STILL! GOSH! - The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith 84%! Doot doot, on we go! - The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux 35% ...Sigh i’m kinda strugglin’ with this one. i wanna love it but... oof. It’s... oof. Because the two characters are completely split, it feels like two whole different books mushed together - and it’s weird. But. We’ll see how it goes. - Crowbones by Anne Bishop 3%! SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS AHHHHHH this was the book i thought i was going to get as a new hold?! BUT?! It just appeared and POOF IT WAS THERE AND READY TO GO AHHHH. Fuck yes i’m so ready READY READY! - Manhwa: Survive as the Hero’s Wife 2 chapters of this read Nope🚫! UwU♡ ✔✔✔🚫

Dailies - - Waifu Did mah dailies! Also, level 39/50 BP now~! AND! Tree lvl 25/50! New MONTH! new weeklies! ♡ω♡. ✔ - FFXIV did mah dailies~ MSQ +0 -> 74, BTN +0 -> 80, CUL +0 -> 80, WVR +0 -> 80, GSM +0 -> 77, FSH +0 -> 65, MIN +0 -> 74, ALC +0 -> 69, LTW +0 -> 65, ARM +0 -> 65, CRP +0 -> 64, BSM +0 -> 65. Vath 0/0 Rank 8/9 Bloodsworn, Vanu 1650/1730 Rank 7/9 Sworn, Moggles 300/1730 Rank 7/9 Sworn. 5 MSQ quests. Just started Securing the Saltery. Did not play today. Not sure when i will again. Something something Squeenix president supporting NFT’s and that’s trash something. 🚫 - Cozy Grove - Doot doot continuing to scout along! Scout rank 15/17! (38/47 spirit logs left until rank 16) ♡ω♡ ✔ - Pokémon Legends: Arceus - Star 7/10 get! 105 caught, 62 max level research pages~ Not much today, but still a lil somethin’ somethin~ ✔

UwU♡ ✔🚫✔✔

Vamp shiz - 0 words written! Up to 9511. 1687 words for pt6. Always the grind for the next part - but none today. Nope🚫

Watching things - - Konohana Kitan episode 1&2! Nope🚫 - Unsleeping City 2 episode 9 done! Nope 🚫

Other things - Whew i slept like absolute dogshit last night. i can not wait to get this sleep study done. Ugh. Hopefully that alone will get me some answers as to why i’m so absolutely dead tired constantly and sleep like utter shit. Constantly. Ugh. Like i get it, having sleep apnea - or potentially, anyways, but i mean, Therapist is convinced, i’ve had some concerns... ehhh. Soon enough. Going to try tomorrow to reschedule because i haven’t started my period and try to get at least my Dr appointment moved up so i can go see her quicker to get the referral, in order to get in to see the sleep doc in order to get the testing and the everything. Argh! So much to do, so little time to do it. 😩 Regardless. Everything aches, i’m exhausted, and this is how i die~

Food: A Liquid: A Pain: B Brain: C

Tomorrow: Laundry/cleaning, Reading, Dailies, Vamp shiz, Watching.

Ever Onwards and Upwards!

[book-before-you-leap]

I could fix him (Severin Sylvain)

[literary-lion]

The Book of Living Secrets | Can't-Wait Wednesday

The Book of Living Secrets | Can’t-Wait Wednesday

Why am I waiting on this title? I feel as though I’ve been waiting for this book to drop for a long time…perhaps it was originally listed as a 2021 release because I seem to recall having it on my shelves sometime around then and maybe even prepping a post for it before it was pushed back. I’m so glad that it now not only has a proper release date but it also now has this absolutely gorgeous…

[authorunpublished]

Book Review: The Book of Living Secrets

Book Review: The Book of Living Secrets

Title: The Book of Living Secrets Author: Madeleine Roux Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror Rating: 4 Stars Description/Synopsis: No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they’ve always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. So when the girls are tempted by a mysterious stranger to enter the world of the book, they hardly…

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (March 1st, 2022)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi

Gallant by V.E. Schwab & Manuel Sumberac (Illustrator) 

The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta 

The One True Me & You by Remi K. England

This Might Get Awkward by Kara McDowell

The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra

Turning by Joy L. Smith

The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

Every Variable of Us by Charles A. Bush

A Night to Die For by Lisa Schroeder

Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli

This Golden State by Marit Weisenberg

The Fear by Natasha Preston

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

The Deep Blue Between by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Reprint)

Girl On Fire by Alicia Keys, Andrew Weiner, & Brittney Williams

Every Line of You by Naomi Gibson

Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough (Reprint with a new title.)

A Thousand Steps Into Night by Traci Chee

Growing Up in Flames by Zach Jones

Children of the Wild by Michael Grey (Only on Australian Amazon)

New Sequels: 

Crimson Reign (Blood Heir Trilogy #3) by Amélie Wen Zhao

A Hunt of Shadows (A Trial of Sorcerers #2) by Elise Kova 

The Demon Tide (The Black Witch Chronicles #4) by Laurie Forest

___

Happy reading!

[thelittlestspider]

Writing Wrapped! 🖊🎉

It was the best of times and the worst of times.

wip list 🤘 for the unfamiliar lol.

Your Top Genres (Writing, Reading, etc)

writing: horror, followed by scifi and fantasy.

reading: horror, gothic, fantasy, and scifi.

Your Top WIP/s (The WIPs You Worked on the Most)

Original: Definitely Carry Me. I worked my ass off writing that fic during the summer. I kind of got away from it for a little while because I was working on other fics, but she's definitely #1 this year.

Fanfic: I think I worked on Landslide the most, followed by Soul Alone. The thing about Landslide is I keep doing little rewatches of That 70s Show to get inspiration, and every time I pick it up I always think about something new I could put in it, whereas with Soul Alone there's not as much to pull from because it's a rare pair in a limited series, so sometimes I get burned out faster.

Your Top OC/s (The OCs You Couldn’t Shake Off Your Head)

Definitely Ray and Scott from Carry Me, and Peter, Carter, and Javier from By the Skin of My Teeth. I'm like obsessed with them. I think of them constantly.

Works in Progress Count

Oh God. Uhhhh. Too many lol.

Drafting/Editing Progress

Carry Me: So far in the actual word doc it's at like 4,706. Which isn't a lot but that's not including the random stuff scribbled in my notebook. Plus I have a lot of stuff I want to do with this fic re: experimenting. Originally BtSoMT was the experiment fic where I just threw stuff on the paper and hoped it was interesting (it still kind of is), but Carry Me is my favorite. It's my weird baby.

By the Skin of My Teeth: I think I'm slowly figuring out what I want to do with this fic. I think before I got caught up in like making it pretty and interesting to other people, and I forgot to make it fun for me lol. So I'm trying to make myself write for me more and worry less about posting excerpts or whatever.

Writing Reflections

I think in terms of progress, this wasn't a bad year. Last year I quit my job because it was really toxic and it was affecting my health, and then I got my old job back, which lets me write a lot more than I could before. Hopefully I'll make more progress before I have to change jobs again lol.

Reading and Book Recommendations

I have so many. I'm just gonna list them here:

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (tw: violence, suicide.)

The Bright Lands by John Fram (tw: sexual assault, violence, revenge porn, gore, mentioned prostitution, child pornography, homophobia.)

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson (tw: racism, violence, gore.)

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (tw: cannibalism, violence, gore, sexual assault, murder, disturbing imagery.)

The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton

A Lesson In Vengeance by Victoria Lee

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Vol. I (tw: abuse, attempted murder.)

(I want to add a note that some of these I haven't finished, but they were compelling enough I felt like I had to put them here.)

[chthonic-eldritch-terror]

I just started a new book and I can tell I'll love this already. It reminds me of my best bro!

It's called the book of living secrets by Madeleine Roux if you wanna check it out