I haven't been on a rollercoaster since I was diagnosed with sciatica in my early 20s when stabbing pains hit me on The Big Bad Wolf in Busch Gardens Williamsburg, but reading Chuck Tingle's Fabulous Bodies was an equally (well, almost...RIP BBW) thrilling ride.

This Wretched Beauty was beautifully written but it was so full of angst and heartache as Dorian endures all the pains of not fully embracing who they are but feeling outcast from their family and society even while not knowing why or how they’re different that it wasn’t always an easy read, but I am glad I read it.

The synopsis - and even the title font choice - indicate that Obstetrix is near future science fiction, but it did not feel like that. Near future (all too near), maybe, but science fiction - only in that medicine is a science, but there's not much speculation going on here.

Marion is a modern reimagining of Psycho - at least the first part up to the point that Norman attacks Marion and the concept of his relationship with his mother - but this time, Marion fights back and keeps fighting back. And it is awesome.

The Children bounces between Guinevere's adult self and her child self - really her two child selves - the self from the "real" world and the one from the pages of the Ninth City books, a series of bestselling children's books her mother wrote in which she and her brother Ennis were the stars.

I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't know it was going to be this good. Is it weird to say CJ Leede has written my favorite Stephen King novel? I know, every horror writer and their cat gets compared to Stephen King in one way or another, but here's why I say it: besides the obvious reasons SK would come to mind within the first pages, the best thing about King and the thing that Leede took and infused with her particular flavor of WTF-ery, is the everyday, run of the mill, regular person suddenly dealing with very irregular, extraordinary circumstances, both within and without themselves.

House of Margins is an eerie Gothic tale with a true crime podcast setup, a haunted house, a writing retreat, and a chance to learn something about a culture that’s not my own - basically everything I could ask for.

Thanks to NetGalley and their Victory Editing Co-op, I had a chance to read a fun dark comedy/thriller instead of my usual horror.

Johanna van Veen has become an auto-read author for me, and Bone of My Bone is another example of the reason why. It's a sapphic folk horror set in Bavaria against the backdrop of the Thirty Years' War with witchcraft and necromancy and characters wrestling with their faith (and vampires).

Tim McGregor wastes no time introducing us to the realities of daily life in and around the 1821 Rhode Island village of Wickstead where Hearts Strange and Dreadful is set, and in the same strokes that prepare the lamb for the Stokely family meals, we know what's what in the Stokely household, especially when it comes to the 17-year-old narrator Hester Stokely, cousin and adopted sister to the children of the family since her parents died in the same housefire which scarred her face when she was 12.

People who don't think reading graphic novels "counts" need to read something like Mama Came Callin' by Ezra Claytan Daniels and illustrated by Camilla Sucre.

This was a fun, escapist read involving mysterious beautiful French people, secret societies, and a metaphorical fountain of youth as Courtney, traveling to celebrate her 31st birthday with her old roommate and frenemy in Paris, is invited to the country by a woman called Salomé, and for reasons, decides to go.

It's about a dance club and an immersive reality game and art and artists, and the novels read a lot like art journals themselves. I had a lot of fun reading the related ephemera, newspaper pages, certificates, etc., which paid off from the first page when a magazine article served as an introduction to main character Ari Regon with a recap of some of the first two novels.

Part of the fun of Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir is that Unner feels like a real person. She is a likeable narrator overall even though she doesn't like cats and is sleeping with a married man - though that almost makes her more sympathetic as she seems to sincerely believe "their marriage is over" and that "it's complicated" because of the kids.

Where the Soul Goes is sad, funny, depressing, and hopeful at turns, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to be immersed in a world — in this case, the culinary arts world of an alternate 1980’s U.S. — and who love strong character building and beautifully constructed sentences.

Hunger by Choi Jin-young is one of the most beautiful and depressing horror novels I’ve read in a while, and “worrying” was a constant emotion, as it is when your existence is all about figuring out how to afford to keep living. 

So, the themes, some of the humor, the relatability of the characters were appealing to me, but I wish I'd known these two things before I chose to read it.

1. A major plot point revolves around specific details of multiple cat and small pets' deaths

2. As she writes in her author's note, Beckbessinger chose to use Chat GPT to write portions of the novel which involved AI generated text

Jewelle Gomez' Caramelle, on the other hand, is set in approximately the same time period, the 1860s, but the life of a slave or former slave in America was a very different one from the middle/upper class of Victorian-era Austria, and the 21st century lens from which it is written is also very different. It's also telling that Gomez chose to have Elisabeth tell us her story directly, not filtered through a prologue written by a man who has placed himself between the writer and the reader.

Whether it's virus erotica like Spread Me or cult/folk horror like Make Me Better, Sarah Gailey has an ability to write characters who behave in odd, sometimes off-putting, ways that seem reasonable in the character's voice which is only multiplied by Xe Sands melodic narration.

I’ve had several of Victor Lavalle’s novels on my TBR for a long time, but I wanted when I heard the third season of The Terror was going to be based on The Devil in Silver, I knew it was time to move it to the top of the queue so I could read it before watching the show.