Hello! Welcome to my book log page. My goal with this page is to reflect on books quickly and casually after I read them. The star ratings are more vibes at the time of completion than serious and finite declarations of quality. I tend to like darker, atmospheric fiction, but I occasionally get distracted. I'm always down to talk books, so feel free to contact me about anything I've read, you've read, or you think I should read!
Normal Rules Don't Apply
Author: Kate Atkinson
Finished: January 9, 2026
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: Short story compilations are usually a sort of book I veer away from. It’s a strange impulse—I love short stories, so it’s the compilation part that gets me. It’s hard to keep the quality consistent between them. However, Atkinson did a solid job of this. These short stories are interconnected, which really worked for me. I liked that we got to continuously see these same characters and motifs appear in just under a dozen different stories. It made the world feel a bit developed without ever having to spend too much time with a given story. Even the consistent return to Franklin’s story was grounding, and added a nice bit of regularity to a fairly wide breadth of stories. I think my favorite was “Spellbound.”
A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart, Book 3)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Finished: January 7, 2026
Rating: ★★⯪☆☆
Thoughts: I’m massively impressed with myself for finishing this whole series. It’s so outside my genre but I really gave it my all! There was definitely some level of needing to know what happens next that… just sort of never pans out? I spoke about this in my review for the second book in the series, but in that novel, it really pivots away from the fairy tale feeling of the first book. This was not a change I was a fan of, but that’s all personal taste. It continues in this book, but the shift to fantasy is much more pronounced. In particular the characters standing around and cheerily discussing torture towards the end of the book got a bit irksome for me.
This book boasts new perspective shifts not in the previous books. These were fine, but I did not think they were strictly necessary. There were only a few reveals that happened in them, and I felt they could’ve been placed elsewhere and we still hear just from Evangeline. The change makes sense to some extent, as Evangeline was dealing with memory loss that occurred in the previous book. I worried this would be dull, and it was a bit, but Garber raced right through it so I didn’t have too long to complain about it.
I actually feel pretty neutral about most of the things I’ve mentioned before. Garber writes with a fast pace and interesting enough to keep me engaged in a genre that combines two other genres I usually dislike, and not just that but for three books and considering more. But what I feel less neutral about is the unexplored worldbuilding. It’s a bummer that the lore of the Fates is not more explored, and that when it finally is, it’s underwhelming. But the lack of any kind of political intrigue—or indeed political storyline cohesion—is what gets me. I knew from the start this is an underutilized aspect of the world, but the nature of the conflict of this book and the people involved means the lacking development of that really shows. Also, I just like that sort of high-stakes, everybody-is-ambitious, drawing on an ancient narrative thing. That’s just not what this book is. That’s totally manageable, until you get to the plot of this book, which really falls apart under scrutiny.
This also bleeds into the lack of complex motivation beyond love for these characters. It’s fine, I know what sort of book I’m reading and I don’t mean genre when I say that. But wow does it feel bleak. Perhaps this was present in the previous two books and I didn’t notice, but I was shocked at the prominence of characters just standing around talking about how they don’t like so-and-so’s ex or the main character’s romantic rival (who isn’t really a romantic rival at all, let’s be real). It’s not a sort of drama I’m interested in, at least not unless it’s done superbly well, and it was so apparent in this book.
As you can likely guess, it was my least favorite book of the series, but it was also pretty close to the second one. I also raced right through it, so my favoritism has nothing to do with the entertainment value of it. I’m sort of at an impasse here: I am unfortunately still curious about this world, but I feel a bit underwhelmed by all we’ve learned about it by this point (and still haven’t yet). I don’t know enough about Garber’s other works to know if it would be worth it to continue when there are so many elements I don’t love.
The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart, Book 2)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Finished: January 5, 2026
Rating: ★★⯪☆☆
Thoughts: This book takes on a much more focused, fantasy plot than the first, both to its benefit and detriment. It's beneficial in that, if you can make it beyond the unfortunately repetitive first fifteen chapters, the story is more focused and cohesive in its framing element (opening the gate) than that of the first book's (three kisses). It's detrimental in terms of my personal opinion of it, as I am not a fan of fantasy generally speaking. As I said, the first fifteen chapters were really difficult to get through; while the situation changed, the actual chapters were mainly very similar in their content, so it felt repetitive rather than developing the status quo. This was resolved after the main character changed her mind, thus launching the more focused story. The stronger plot writing in this part of the book and indeed the series really emphasized just how much I was not a fan of the characters. There were changes that occurred at the end of the previous book that were just so much more apparent here, namely with the characterization of the main character and her primary love interest. The latter was more egregious; initially I was fine with Evangeline for her flaws, but grew tired of them, whereas the more time spend with Jacks, the more I grew annoyed. He essentially has always been the archetype he embodies, but the more time Evangeline spends with him, the more it overtakes every scene. Both of the other two love interests from the first book are also present, and I felt a similar way about them, although I did end up liking Luc more than I did previously. Her relationship with Apollo, however, was increasingly ridiculous to me; that is one element that just doesn't work for me at all. Yet another thing that I noticed in the first book but that became really apparent in this one is the small cast of characters. It simultaneously feels like there are so many to remember, but also that they make up the extent of the world. It's predictable, but as they now explicitly make up a higher portion of the fairy tale history than we've seen previously, this book just feels more and more claustrophobic. I mentioned in an edit to my review of the previous book that the UK cover fits better than the US one pictured, but the huge tonal and content shift means I think they're about even now. Furthermore, I don't know the name of this book. The entire series is like this for me, but no matter how many times I read it, I cannot remember it for my life and I have to look it up every time. I've already started the next book for reasons I cannot truly explain; it's whatever, but it is gripping.
Strange Pictures
Author: Uketsu
Finished: January 2, 2026
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: This book is essentially a more formal Creepypasta—and I say that as a compliment. These are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, and seeing something so similar in voice and content but with added structure and polish was a refreshing change of pace. I read Uketsu's other book, Strange Houses late last year, but this is a much improved version of it. The series of short stories that all end up being interconnected made it feel much more intentional in its storytelling. They all include moments of "investigation," though include a bit more narrative context surrounding these moments. The quick-switching perspectives were not my favorite, but do mimic the form Uketsu is emulating appropriately. The most notable characteristic is the strange leaps of logic, but this trait is true to the sort of internet horror that Uketsu is clearly drawing from. This is a quick read in terms of style, structure, and pacing.
Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart, Book 1)
Author: Stephanie Garber
Finished: January 1, 2026
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Thoughts: This is a book for my book club and I've been lowkey dreading it for months... Although there was really no reason for that, as it was fine. Don't get me wrong, I think the book is objectively pretty rough, but it had a myriad of positives that kept me engaged. For example, the scenes and conflicts transitioned so quickly that the stakes felt small at times, but the pace was quick and kept my attention. The prose was simple and at times, so casual and modern it took me out, but the choice of diction was absolutely spot-on for creating a distinctive world. The plot jumped all over and the amount of everything could've used some unforgiving editing, but the world building was genuinely fun and interesting. The characters were downright ridiculous at times (see Evangeline being shocked at there being consequences for, however inadvertently, profiting off marrying a love-cursed prince and thus gaining implicit political notoriety), but I can't deny they charmed me. The absolute biggest shock was the vampires, which I think speaks to my main two issues with the book: the use of lore (and other plot aspects) as introduced as it was immediately relevant, and the refusal to cut out any aspects that didn't necessarily serve the narrative, making the world feel cluttered. That's my bias against multiple types of magic being in one thing, the most offensive version of which is in this novel and is dragons and vampires (at least to me!). That said, I couldn't stop reading this. Sometimes you just need something a bit ridiculous and a bit bad to have fun. As a final note, added later: the UK version of this book has a more fitting cover.
Strange Houses
Author: Uketsu
Finished: December 3, 2025
Rating: ★★★⯪☆
Thoughts: It was a real struggle to get my hands on this book. I read the first chapter in a bookstore and decided it was too quick of a read for me to pay that price for it and it was at my library back home (I was not at home at the time) so I'd get it there. It took a bit of wait time, and when I finally got the copy, I learned it was an audiobook with the accompanying PDF missing. Suffice to say, this is a very strange book to have an audiobook for, though not entirely inappropriate. Because I'd read that first chapter, I had a pretty good idea of the format going in, and I didn't miss too much by not seeing the pictures. The format of this book is pretty different from what I typically read; there are images of floorplans, but the real difference is the massive amounts of dialogue, which makes up most of the text. It is essentially comprised of conversations between characters. This did not bother me at all and I sort of theoretically found it cool, in that the logical leaps of the characters seemed absolutely wild but the premise of them talking about a mystery is a solid one. With this, the style was really straightforward and barebones, not typically my preference but the audiobook format makes me a bit more lenient with that usually. The story, however, was so detailed and convoluted that it took up most of the novel's length, which made some of the characters' mystery-solving feel implausible to say the least. Despite that, it was a juicy mystery, as plentiful as it was, and it had me on the edge of my seat. Essentially I had fun with this book; it reminded me of internet horror, which is apt coming from the author as far as I'm aware.
Silver Nitrate
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Finished: November 14, 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: This book was a challenge to rate for a really specific reason. I definitely enjoyed it; I ejoyed most of the plot (although thought it dragged at parts), loved the characters, and I always enjoy Moreno-Garcia's blending of historical periods with horror or fantasy elements. That said, it's been a while since I've read one of her books, and I don't remember this being an issue I had with her writing, but this book was really repetitive and expository. It was the exposition that became clear to me first as it overwhelms the beginning of the book, but I gave it a pass because I liked the characters and it did make sense for it to be there. But then you get these constantly repeating stories and even phrases. A podcast I like covered the book and they chalked it up to an editing problem, though I really am curious how something so notable can be missed in even one revision cycle. I'm being dramatic, but it did cause me to tune out at parts, especially towards the end. That said, it was a fun read, and I really liked Montserrat and Tristán throughout the novel.
Annihilation (Southern Reach, Book 1)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Finished: November 10, 2025
Rating: ★★★★⯪
Thoughts: This is the sort of book where I think the rating may go up with time; that is to say, I really enjoyed it. I loved the prose, the plot, the way everything wrapped up in a very satisfying way. I think it did so because you get this very strong sense of distance from the narrator for much of the novel, and even the moments of personal revelation are discussed with that same distance, so when the ending comes about it makes sense without messing with the tone of the rest of the novel. I'm admittedly a fan of what ecohorror I've read, and tend to like the subject matter it involves, but I find it can be difficult to connect with the characters. That was very well played off of here, with that distance of the narrator and the lack of names of the characters. I also found the writing style really engaging; it had a straightforward tone but just beautiful and clear descriptions that brought the world to life. Also, this is just a personal thing, but I'm not usually a fan of first person, but VanderMeer did a great job of giving the narrator such a distinct voice and making that voice flow very nicely. I'm really excited to see what else VanderMeer has to offer from this world in the rest of the series.
How to Kill Men and Get Away with It (Kitty Collins, Book 1)
Author: Katy Brent
Finished: October 18, 2025
Rating: ★⯪☆☆☆
Thoughts: So this was a book club book, and not only that but my first book club book ever. You can probably guess from the rating, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. The good: this book was quickly paced and despite absolutely nothing of significance really ever happening, I was never super bored by it. It was by no means a quick read, and I'd argue it was far too long, but it wasn't egregiously bad, hence the slightly-above-one-star rating. That said, just about everything else was not great. The characters felt bland, there was so few stakes that there were times I didn't realize things were meant to be significant, and pretty much every interesting element introduced was never explored. I kept wanting just a little more from this book, but it never came. It wasn't exactly good at creating tension or stakes, but it did succeed at red herrings--mainly because the actual moments of intrigue were very deemphasized. At first I couldn't tell if some of this--Kitty's hypocrisy and inconsistencies, the sort of unexamined revenge-plot, the lack of specificity in any character--was intentional in service of a greater point, but I think it was actually meant to be played straight. This was definitely the sort of book that's enjoyable to poke fun at, but didn't make me feel like it was a real waste of my time.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Finished: September 25, 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: So excited I finally got to read this book. I put a lot of weight on book covers and sizes and formats and editing, and while I found this book very pretty, it is gigantic and I cannot fit it anywhere. Since it's a new release, I couldn't get it at any library I tried until I finally found a secret copy and snatched it up. I'll admit I had a pretty good idea going in that I would like it due to the subject and my previous opinions on jones' writing. Fortunately, it did not disappoint--I really enjoyed this book. I found the way it used vampires genuinely really interesting and fun; it had classic vampire lore mixed with stuff you see less and portrayed it in a way that immediately got me so into it. I like vampires, but more conceptually than in books or movies, where I tend to find them a bit bland. However, I loved Good Stab. His sections were easily my favorite part, and I felt that his feelings about being a vampire felt legitimate and earned. For example, his perspective on the people he killed manifested as remembering every single one and talking about them, which seemed so much more realized than the typical broodiness we might see over the same topic. Furthermore, I loved the way identity worked in the novel; I'm using that term generously because obviously it involves the animal transformations as well, but it meant the novel explored both the actual concept of vampirism in a narrative/lore way as well as an allegorical way. This duality made its use of vampires thoughtful but also entertaining. As is true of the other Jones I've read, the writing style can be difficult at times, although I find it rewarding once you get into it. This novel rotated between three really distinct voices and I had to relearn each one each time we came back to it. As that may imply, I struggled with some of the perspectives more than others. This novel makes prolific use of frame narrative and while I understood and appreciated why, I admit there were times I was bored by certain aspects of it. Specifically I could deal with Arthur's chapters because they tended to be pretty short, but I struggled through the Etsy chapters. Ultimately the frame narrative helped the novel--as much as I would've liked to spend the whole time with Good Stab, there was admittedly little conflict that spanned beyond each of his chapters. The frame gave it more structure that also helped certain aspects develop.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Author: Ocean Vuong
Finished: September 7, 2025
Rating: ★★★⯪☆
Thoughts: This month has been difficult for me to read anything, mainly because I was finishing my dissertation but also because I had quite a few DNFs/books I postponed finishing for various reasons. I was so, so excited when this was finally available at my library, and I devoured it quite quickly. Despite my excitement, I ended up with mixed feelings about this book. The good: it is beautifully written, to such an extent that I'm excited to read Vuong's other work. His style is light and airy, and neither too fast nor very slow; it mixes poetry influences with more standard prose, but the artistic style remains throughout. The format was great, both in terms of the overall part divisions and the individual scene lengths. We return to these segmented scenes between others, which makes it feel flowing and graceful. However, around the second part it lost me. There's a huge pivot in subject and what honestly feels like a bit more narrative structure, and that was not as interesting to me as the vaguely timed-out moments from the main character's childhood. It sort of picks up again in the third part, although I never returned to what I felt reading that first part. I hesitate with how some of the lines of logic stood up to the scrutiny inherent in longer breaks between callbacks, and for whatever reason those brief discursions into historical or popular or scientific fact or figures, didn't hit the same as the book went on. It is a beautifully written book, which is why I'm willing to try Vuong's other stuff, although I might opt for the poetry over his sophomore novel--we'll have to see what I end up doing.
The Appeal (The Appeal, Book 1)
Author: Janice Hallett
Finished: August 23, 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: This book really got me back into the sort of mysteries I've been looking for. It takes on a really different format as it's comprised of emails and other documents related to the case you're meant to be solving. I was worried this would come off as a bit clinical, but I quickly learned the characters and their personalities, which made it easy to follow despite the format. I definitely want to continue the series (i.e. more books in the same style, although I don't think they actually relate to each other) although I think I'll have to wait until I finish moving because they are pretty big. I'm not sure all of the length is necessary, which was my only real gripe with it. It went on in some moments longer than I thought were necessary, not so much with the story itself, but with the frame of the law students figuring out the crime.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong, Book 1)
Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
Finished: August 11, 2025
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Thoughts: I feel like the rating says pretty much all I need to say about this book, but I'll ramble on about it anyway. I am kind of shocked at all the praise I've seen for this book--pretty much no aspect of it worked for me. I'm on the hunt for witty murder mystery books, and this is like top of all the lists, but it is just not at all funny; that was actually pretty surprising to me because a recommendation from a comedian I like on a podcast is what bumped this to the top of my list. There are a number of other issues--bland mystery, unsympathetic character/relationship development, simplistic style and thus simplistic emotional/internal lives. The mystery was so easy to solve, because the cast was so small and no one ever felt particularly suspicious; mainly this was because we were in their heads with too many perspective changes as they were going, "I wonder who killed him." The characters were very similar, all with very low self esteem and negative self talk; we got their backstories on the first page we met them for some characters, which just seemed to lack all ideas of good pacing and finesse. The book was pretty dedicated to two boring romances--one moreso than the other, which at least had drama. Like four lines of dialogue are shared between characters before one goes, "I think we're really connecting." Would've loved to see it. The style comment pretty much speaks for itself, but I will say characters said what they were thinking and feeling explicitly and simply in both the narration and dialogue, which made the writing feel juvenile. With all that said, it was a quick read, enough to keep my attention over a few days and hopefully get me out of this mini-reading slump.
The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, Book 2)
Author: Richard Osman
Finished: August 3, 2025
Rating: ★★⯪☆☆
Thoughts: This book took me all of July and a third of June to get through. It took me so long, consistently reading, that my Libby loan (21 days) ended before I could finish it (for reference, most of the books prior to this took me less than two days to read). I want to blame this on my dissertation, but honestly I think the cozy mystery genre may just not be for me, though I like the humor in them. I felt like this book dragged on and just had so much… the words I'm choosing are fluff and angst, and the implications are not accidental. I definitely felt it dragged on at some moments, and I understand that to be the genre, so I'll have to think about whether I want to continue the series or not.
Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret (Ernest Cunningham, Book 3)
Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Finished: June 2025
Rating: ★★★⯪☆
Thoughts: I wasn't as big of a fan of this book as the other two, but that's pretty easily explained away by taste. Ern's family is relevant to this book, which I really like, but it was deemphasized as the book is much shorter than its companions and spends more time on the mystery. If I'm honest, I didn't love this mystery as much but possibly just because I'm a newbie to the genre and didn't get the satisfaction of guessing the killer. Or, well, in a way I suppose I technically did.
The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, Book 1)
Author: Richard Osman
Finished: June 14, 2025
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Thoughts: While I had a couple gripes with this book (the chapter length and switches in perspective), I did end up really liking it. The characters were compelling and I have to say I was so happy about the ending of the mystery. For all I like the genre, I am sometimes disappointed when that part comes around and I appreciated how this novel wrapped it up.
The Only Good Indians
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Finished: May 20, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★
Thoughts: This might be my favorite book of the year, or at least it's up there. I was looking for another book by this author, but could only find this one on Libby so I gave it a shot. I loved this book. I loved the prose style, the plot, the format--just everything about it. I don't want to say too much because if you like horror or literary horror, you should absolutely give it a shot.
A Head Full of Ghosts
Author: Paul Tremblay
Finished: May 18, 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: This has been on my list forever, but I just have not been able to find it in stores! There's always a shelf of Tremblay's books at my local bookstore but this one is only there about half the time (and looking unfortunately dissatisfying when it is present). It would've seriously deterred me had I not heard great things about it from a podcast I listen to. This book is really good and really sad. I think Tremblay did an excellent job portraying childhood and a fear in that very specific way. I very much did cry at this book, although I had sort of mixed feelings about the ending. The jumping around in time, especially with the blog entries, was something I had very mixed feelings on, mainly due to how sparse those scenes felt.
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect (Ernest Cunningham, Book 2)
Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Finished: May 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Thoughts: I loved how this book built on the last one and getting to see Ern and some of the crew again. You really can't go wrong with a mystery on a train, and this book was just as witty as the first. It was still planned out with the format, but the way the first book used the part titles just can't be beat. I enjoyed getting to meet the new characters, who I liked but did not stick in my memory quite as intensely as Ern's family. However, I thought the ending was cute.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, Book 1)
Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Finished: April 2025
Rating: ★★★★★
Thoughts: This is my first murder mystery book and I have to say I really loved it. The humor, metatextual jokes, format, characters, and story all really drew me in. I mentioned in one of my reviews I might go into a mystery novel phase and writing this a bit later, I definitely did (and I'm still in one!). As I've gone to read through the rest of the series that's been released so far, I find myself wanting to see more of Ern's family; truly, Stevenson made these characters so fun and engaging.