​I’ve been so very selective with thrillers. Barely even reading them anymore. But this one grabbed my attention…and, apparently, even NYT’s attention, so I figured I’d check it out. After all, I do enjoy a good thriller, they are just difficult to find since their ubiquity took over quality control.
Well, this was a good one. A very good one, even. The author, making her adult fiction debut, has really done well. The premise is familiar: secrets from the past coming back to haunt, female friendship tried and tested, a tough female protagonist, bisexual, scarred, and edgy, just as the market requires.  It’s the quality here that’s beyond the usual fodder.
The writing that draws you in and doesn’t let go. The single perspective focus instead of the uberpopular shifting ones. But mostly, it’s the plot twists.
In a genre that literally lives and dies by those, the plot twists are crucial, and once Marshall gets going, the plot twists and turns like a serpentine road to madness. Just when you think you know what’s going on, it’ll surprise you, again and again. I did figure out one of them pretty early on, but the rest surprised me, time and again. Which was awesome. Slightly over the top, maybe, but still awesome. Which was thrillers main appeal for me.
So yeah, I enjoyed this book. A lot. Very nicely done. Come find for yourself what lies in the woods. Recommended.

​I love mythology. I can geek out about mythology on and on. This book enables one to do so AND arms them with a slew of material, from famous to lesser-known women of historical fact and fiction who were all kinds of awesome in their own ways. You got 50 of them, 50 stories in three sections, separating fact from fiction to an extent.
Written in a fun, pop-ey, lightly humorous, and very woke style, these tales are sure to delight the readers and stimulate imaginations. And your imagination box is on the fritz, here’s art (black and white on my kindle but ideally color on paper) for a lot of the characters featured here.
So GurrlllPower, antiquity style, here it is. A charming, educational, and entertaining read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

​This sounded great. The description alone drew me in completely. I don’t actually care for true crime, but serial killers are undeniably interesting from psychological perspective. Especially, the unusual ones. Especially, female ones.
I’ve never heard of Belle Gunness, not the woman, not the mystery. A Norwegian immigrant who became America’s first serial killer and by all accounts racked up a terrifyingly impressive body count.
The story is fascinating, the book should have been riveting. And yet, it chose a different path. Specifically, a purely narrative, all-in-the-mind, almost stream of consciousness like style that never varies until the last page. A style that often works with short stories but stretched over 200 pages becomes rather…dense, monotonous, difficult to enjoy. Unless you really want to spend that much time in Belle’s lovelorn, affection-hungry, careening straight into madness mind.
Yes, there is a hypnotic quality to this style of writing, it’s elegant and literary, and it’s easy to see what the author was going for, but the overall result just didn’t work for me. Seems like a historical figure as singular and enigmatic (Belle was never found) deserves a more exciting, engaging story. But at least it had the decency to be short and go by quickly. Thanks Netgalley.

​I’ve stated time and again that describing new works using existing ones is lazy and reductive. But this book is impossible not to compare. So here we go. A western Shape of Water tale.
And if you’re thinking what? how? The west is dusty and arid and aquatic creatures need…well, aqua, then you’re absolutely right. It’s an undeniable fact and one the author inexplicably chooses not to address. At all. At no point during the 190 or so pages of this volume is it mentioned that the eponymous Charlie Fish, fished out and forced to live on land, needs or requires or might die without water. Go figure.
But then again, the author kind of gets away with that logistical snafu because the book is so good. I don’t even particularly like westerns and I can recognize the beauty within these pages, the easy-flowing, organic narrative style, the profoundly engaging characters, the almost-musicality of writing.
The story itself is very simple and straight-forward. In 1900 Galveston, Texas, a freshly cobbled-by-circumstance-together family (a widow, a lone man, two young orphan siblings–a seer and a gunslinger, and a sea creature) fights to survive a pair of scoundrels AND the most devastating natural disaster to hit US.
Their abode might not be high enough for the rising waters, but their moral ground is as elevated as K2, which in many ways doubles their work and the danger.
All in all, this book was an absolutely pleasure to read, one that went by quickly, delighting and entertaining throughout. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

​Ah, awesome. Book two in the Department of Truth series is just as good, just as clever, and just as dark as its predecessor.  Sure, this time around, you might know what to expect, but it’ll still do its best to surprise you.
The man storyline here is about a very unique brand of an all-American patriot. The man who gets the job done at any cost, with putty-flexible morals and boulder-solid ideas. A very alarming man to arm, but there you have it.
And then there’s the power of imagination of the darkest most nightmarish variety, bringing to life the ugliest things people can and (sadly) do believe. Is one department enough to stand against it? Just going to have to read and see.
The book ends on a crazy revelation. Can’t wait for volume three. Recommended.

​I didn’t get into Adrian Tchaikovsky’s writing immediately. It was nothing like love at first read. It took several false starts. But then it got rolling, and now I absolutely adore it.
This book is just the latest shiny example of the whimsical charm, originality and sheer fun that the author is skilled at producing all in a very neat, very readable 200 or so page package.
While he usually veers on the science fiction side of things, this is more of a…fairy tale for adults. Still firmly a work of speculative fiction but a different one. This time, it’s a book about books. Or more like the book about the power of books, cleverly blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
And so, when a D list actor and children show presenter goes on one of those genealogy TV shows to boost his popularity, he gets a wildly unexpected reaction to his reveal of being a scion and inheritor of a beloved kids’ books series estate. The books are a typical post-war Narnia-style fare, but the inspiration behind them is anything but.
Soon, there’s all sorts of shenanigans and intrigue. The stories may have been fictionalized but the dangers are very real. And thus, you, the readers, get to have a fun and exciting adventure, through the wardrobe and back.
Okay, to be fair, the wardrobe (and Narnia business in general) is a heavy borrow, and, frankly, too dominant here, including the cover, which might have been more attractive. I mean, the wardrobe in the book is way more attractive than the black slab gracing the cover and chapter separations. But other than that, this was a great, greatly entertaining read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.