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.

I didn’t know my life was missing a story where Lady Macbeth (yes, the one from Shakespeare) and Klytemnestra (from Greek mythology - this version seems to be the one from Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon) were plucked from their respective stories and brought together in a sapphic horrormance until I read Vile Lady Villains by Danai Christopoulou.

Accumulation by Aimee Pokwatka is kind of a haunted house domestic horror. Tenn, a documentary filmmaker turned wedding videographer because life be like that sometimes, and her husband Ward, move with their two kids from North Carolina to New York. In a tale as old  as time, or at least as old as The Amityville Horror, the move was meant to strengthen their marriage (though the pre-move details are unclear), and Ward sinks all their money into buying Tenn’s dream home.  They both have new jobs, but Ward’s is the one that will support them with his new six figure salary.

Everything Dead & Dying by Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips is a collection of all five issues of the comic, which I had never read before, and I’m glad I read it as a collection because I don’t know how I would have done it if I’d had to wait between issues.

Two words. Ghost. Cat. The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean starts in 1970's Hong Kong and had two things going for it within the first pages: One - the aforementioned Ghost Cat which can go from a sweet little baby kitten to a powerful beast in a blink and Two: a protagonist who is my age (fully baked adult) - at least in the opening pages before it jumps back to a time I've coincidentally been reading about a lot lately - the WWII occupation of Hong Kong by the Japanese followed by the influx of refugees from the Chinese Civil war. It was a crazy time for Hong Kong.)

When you reunite with friends you haven’t seen in a long time, you’re spending time with the people you knew back then, twenty, ten, even five years ago, and that makes its easy to revert to the person you were back then, too, and the old dynamics resurface, good or bad.

With a spirit called “She Who Creeps Between”, there’s no question that She Waits Where Shadows Gather by Michelle Tang is going to stick with me for a while. She Waits Where Shadows Gather  is a Filipino Gothic horror novel complete with a haunted house, Filipino folklore, and a fractured family.

My cats demand breakfast each morning about 2 hours before my alarm is set, and sometimes I'll play a podcast repeat or music or something when I get back in bed. What does this have to do with This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum?

I made the mistake of playing this audiobook instead of music, and I could not stop listening.

I Know a Place by Nat Cassidy was a real roller-coaster. You never really know what you're in for with a story collection (also, for what it's worth, with Nat Cassidy), and this one really messed with me. I mean, I should have paid more attention to the subtitle, I guess, Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours because...yeah.

Who among us hasn't dreamt of finding a house in the woods hidden from the world where we can rest, recharge, center ourselves, maybe read (or write) a book or two? 

Maybe because I’m right in the middle of Gen X - no need to do that math, and we’re being accused of having a second adolescence (joke’s on them, we never fully escaped the first), I’ve been enjoying some YA horror lately.

How to Survive Camping: The Lady in Chains is the second in this series from Bonnie Quinn, and it was a lot of fun to return to Kate’s campground.

Monika Kim has done it again. Molka has the same "good for her", viscerally satisfying, eat the patriarchy vibe as her first novel (The Eyes Are the Best Part).

House of Rot by Danger Slater was a 125 pages of nightmare fuel, and I had to open a window while reading to relieve the claustrophobia. Any book that can cause a visceral reaction like that is worth reading.