July Reading Recap
I read 9 books in July, let's discuss!
To Be Devoured by Sara Tantlinger
This was the first book I finished in July. It’s a sapphic horror novella where we follow our FMC on her descent into madness. This was pretty gruesome, lots of bird imagery and animal gore with a really intriguing story running through it. I really enjoyed it, I got the rec from Rachel mentioning it on one of her panels at Booknet Fest and when I told her I was going to read it she was sure I’d love it and I did.
4 stars.
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
I got to enjoy this on audiobook thanks to Libro.fm and their ALC program and I initially reached for it to find some reprieve from the darkness I am currently consuming :AHEM Hunting Adeline: It was a bad move and a mistake I keep making. I just don’t think I like Ali Hazelwood books. This was the same formula as all her other books. A “not like other girls” woman in STEM who is said to be smart (but I’ve never seen evidence of such a thing) falls for a nerdy man in a similar field/position but they make things harder than they need to be and give us NOTHING where spice is concerned.
2 stars.
Willing Victim by Cara McKenna
This isn’t my first Cara McKenna romance, nor is it the first one to make me recoil in uncomfortable confusion. It follows a waitress and a manual labor/boxer as they start traversing the world of BDSM together. The book is short and everything progressed really quickly and while I think it did some things right (consent, communication, explanations of terms, safe word, etc.) it also got a lot of things wrong or just weird.
2 stars.
The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim
This was one of the July reads for Weirdo Book Club and it was… something. A young Korean-American girl traverses a broken home, college, a social life and her mom’s new boyfriend while slowly unraveling as her dreams about eyeballs get more and more lucid. It was weird and not always in a good way, the plot was a convenience hodgepodge and not one of the characters (or their struggles) were endearing or likable in any way. It was gory, well written and a debut novel so I’d definitely give her another shot but this one was meh for me.
3 stars.
Lady Killers by Tori Telfer
Our second book selection for Weirdo Book Club was the clear favorite of the two. This is a non fiction, true crime book featuring 15 stories detailing the life and crimes of female serial killers throughout history. This was excellently executed (no pun intended) and told these stories without sensationalizing the crimes or exploiting the victims. It was also really interesting to get a slice of history through the settings, very immersive and helped bring the scenes to life. The author’s unique voice was present throughout too so it wasn’t just info dumping the whole time. It was a great morbid non fiction book.
5 stars.
Amelia by A.W. Rene
This was a random read that I found while perusing Amazon. It is an epistolary horror novella featuring letters from a mother to a child that grow more and more unsettling the more you read. Lots of bug imagery and gore here too. It felt familiar to To Be Devoured in that way and I thought it was pretty good!
3.5 stars.
Stories I Told My Dead Lover by Jo Paquette
Another ALC from Libro.fm and I didn’t love this one either! I just think short story collections aren’t my thing, I haven’t read a good one in such a long time. In the summary of this, the phrase “psychological horror” was used and I did not get that at all from these stories. There was 1, maybe 2, that were ok but none of them really spoke to me.
2 stars.
Queen Takes Knights by Joely Sue Burkhart
Ok so this one came from the wheel aka the system I have in place for my Dark Romance Diaries series. This was a why choose, vampire dark romance and it was a pretty good time. I liked the FMC and both of the MMCs which is so rare. There’s lots of blood, lots of sex but there was also ::hold my hand:: a plot! I KNOW, what?! It wasn’t perfect, there were some typos and strange wording every now and then but overall, I had a good time and I think I am interested enough to continue the series one day.
4 stars.
Truth or Kill by A.C. Kramer
This came from the wheel as well and it is a dark romance novel with a sinister game at the center. A game surrounded by sex, lies, secrets and betrayal. A group of rich kids (and one not rich kid aka our FMC) finds themselves players in a deadly game but the FMC is passing the time by banging the man working the desk. It gets pretty spicy, it was interesting enough for me to moderately enjoy myself but still meh. The MMC’s name is Kage so… that tells you more than my words ever could.
2.5 stars.
If you prefer to consume this via video, I did that too!