whatsleahreading

  The year is 1873. Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to work alongside of internationally-renowned spiritualist Vaudeline D'Allaire in the hopes of uncovering the truth of her sister's murder. Soon enough, a mysterious invitation arrives, beckoning Vaudeline to the London Seance Society: an institution teeming with powerful men and secrets they'd do anything to keep hidden. Upon their arrival to London, Lenna and Vaudeline soon realize there's more to the mysterious London Seance Society than meets the eye. Clues are scattered throughout the headquarter buildings; ones that suggest Lenna's sister--a lover of the occult herself--may have had closer ties to the Society than she ever let on, and and that the Society itself harbors a deep and widespread corruption. Before long, Lenna and Vaudeline find themselves enmeshed in a mystery much larger than the one they set out to solve, and to find the truth, they may need the help of those not of this world. I could hardl...

  When Penelope Schleeman learns that her debut novel "American Mermaid" is picked up by twin screenwriters in Los Angeles to be adapted into a movie, she packs up her life in Connecticut and jets out to the West Coast for a taste of the new, author-of-a-bestseller life that awaits her. What she finds in California, however, is not only a startling loss of control over her story's integrity, but something else that suggests her book about a wheelchair-bound scientist-turned mermaid might be coming to life. As the synopsis suggests, "American Mermaid" is a lot of haphazard plot to digest, readers. Personally, I was drawn in by the reviews that hailed this debut as "full of heart" and "laugh out loud funny," but found myself trudging through the story when I had hardly made a dent in it. While the first few chapters about Penelope, high-school-teacher-turned-feminist-author, did have me in near-tears from laughing, once the laughs subsided ...

  For horror author Tyson Parks, the glory days grow farther and farther away each year. As he struggles to keep up with his publisher contracts and pen a novel that will bring him even remotely close to his past notoriety, Tyson finds he would give just about anything for a muse. Then, on Tyson's 59th birthday, his long-time partner Sarah gifts him the desk. Forged with painstaking intentionality and superb craftsmanship, it's evident that this isn't just any writer's desk; it's a grand piece of history likely etched with its own mysterious stories, just waiting to be discovered. Little does Tyson know, his new muse is harboring a darkness that will beckon him to the precipice--but of what? He shouldn't dare to find out. "Gothic" is nothing short of a horror masterpiece. In 400 pages, Philip Fracassi weaves a harrowing story of a struggling writer who succumbs a darkness that becomes nearly indistinguishable from himself. With the same kind of visc...

  A truly astounding debut for Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, "What We Fed to the Manticore" is a collection of short stories told from the perspective of animals. Above all else, it is a beautiful, poignant, imperative lesson in empathy. These stories reflect important conversations that we are running out of time to have: conversations on climate change, on deforestation, on conservation, and simply on what it means to care for the creatures of this earth. Woven with dazzling, emotional prose, Kolluri's seemingly-simple stories will leave an irrevocable impact on, let's face it, any reader with half a heart. I literally wept through some of these stories; this collection is an awakening in the best way and yet also in a painful way. There's a deeply-spiritual element it in the way the animals talk, experience a world they don't fully understand, and view humans in the stories. "What We Fed to the Manticore" is to be read, savored, and remembered. Ratin...

  Nestled in the heart of Mallow Island, off the coast of South Carolina, lies a peculiar, cobblestone building called the Dellawisp. When Zoey arrives to claim her mother's apartment at the Dellawisp, she finds herself unexpectedly swept up in the whimsy and mystery of the island as she tries to piece together the story of a legendary writer and the unfinished stories of her enigmatic neighbors. Sarah Addison Allen's novel "Garden Spells" was pure magic to me, and instantly earned a place in my all-time favorite reads. What I so desperately was hoping to find in "Other Birds," unfortunately, never quite emerged. The large cast of characters feels reminiscent of Allen's earlier work--quirky, imperfect, and many holding onto unfinished business--but also feel underdeveloped and rather one-dimensional. The magical realism in "Other Birds" feels more like a light touch than something that permeates the whole story and infuses it with real magic...

  Five years ago, Nora Wilder vanished into thin air. Her daughters, Zadie and Finn, have tried to go on with their lives in the hopes that someday, their free-spirited mother will return. But year after year, their hope has dwindled. That is, until Finn--whose extraordinary gift is sensing "echoes" of other people's memories--catches wind of an echo of Nora and believes, for the first time in a long time, that Nora is out there. Wherever "there" is. Ruth Emmie Lang has done it again, readers. For those (like me) who read and adored "Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance," know that "The Wilderwomen" is a completely different story, but with all the magical realism, hilarious quirkiness, and heartstring-pulling emotion that Lang has come to be known by. The journey that this story takes you on is endearing, emotionally-charged, and a powerful, powerful story of sisterhood and womanhood. Lang's writing is beautifully-descriptive; in j...

  Adelaide Williams, by all accounts, is quite a lovely person. She's twenty-six and living out her American dream in London surrounded by equally-lovely, salt-of-the-earth friends, a blossoming career, and a lively social life. What more could Adelaide want, really? The resounding answer, so it turns out, is Rory Hughes. At first glance, Rory is Adelaide's English, Disney Prince. In a meeting that couldn't have been orchestrated by anything other than fate itself, Adelaide and Rory enter each other's orbits in London's booming nightlife, and Adelaide becomes convicted that Rory--this perfectly-imperfect, dashing man--is The One. However, as their whirlwind romance continues, Adelaide starts to wonder: is this how true love is supposed to feel? And here we have it, readers, my first contender for a top book of 2023. "Adelaide" is a marvelous, beautifully-honest, poignant novel about a young woman finding her place in the world, and love's place in...

  If one were to do a survey of the larger stressors life can put on a marriage, Jess and Malcolm have had more than their fair share. Infertility, financial strain, the ups and downs of owning a local bar called The Half Moon, and--most recently--swirling rumors of a one-sided infidelity. Set over the course of one week's time against the backdrop of a debilitating snowstorm in the Northeast, "The Half Moon" is a slow burn character examination of an ordinarily-imperfect marriage across its origin, past, and fractured present. Despite being such a straightforward, unembellished story, the amount of sheer concentration it took to read this book was frustrating from the onset; unfortunately, I attribute this both to Keane's dull, heavy-handed narration and the nonlinear timeline jumps that occur throughout the story with nearly-imperceptible context clues. All in all, the premise coupled with Keane's praise for "Ask Again Yes" was enough for me to div...

  Mara's unconventional, off-the-grid childhood taught her all there is to know about survival. As an adult, she spends her days teaching those skills to wealthy clients at Primal Instinct, a survival school aimed at replicating a true overnight survival experience under the guidance of experienced instructors. When a TV production crew arrives at Primal Instinct to scout potential cast members for an upcoming survival reality show called "Civilization," Mara's mundane daily life is suddenly shattered with the glittering possibility of prize money beyond her wildest dreams--a ticket out of her life into a future of endless possibilities. Under both the cameras and near-constant supervision of the crew, Mara and the four strangers chosen with her find "Civilization" an interesting albeit challenging replica of true survival: an undisclosed location, no shelter, one item of their choosing to aid their efforts, and 6 weeks to last for the prize money. Simple...

  Nestled in the savage arms of the Black Sea off the coast of Scotland lies the Isle of Altnaharra. Nestled in the wilderness of the grey isle are the Children, locked away in their castle under the care of Uncle. Nestled even deeper yet, something sinister lurks beneath the surface of Little Eve's seemingly perfect family. Just when I thought that Catriona Ward couldn't possibly get any better--I discover "Little Eve," winner of the Shirley Jackson award for best horror novel after a quiet debut in the UK, about to be published in the US. "Little Eve" is a true, literary gothic masterpiece. Wrought with unsettling, deeply-atmospheric prose, it's both gorgeously-written and undeniably-captivating. Gothic fiction is a genre I long to love but find myself bored with; here, Ward blows the doors of conformity off of their hinges and delivers a literary tale that breeds terror and twists unlike anything I've read in a long time. The beginning of t...

  In the frozen north of Vedira lies an isolated chateau, where the baron's doctor has died. Ordinarily, the doctor's death in such a remote place where the baron requires such close care would pose a problem. Thanks to the Interprovincial Medical Institute, however, the chateau in Vedira has an endless supply of doctors at the ready--doctors who, despite their different bodies, all share one consciousness that is, in fact, the Institute itself... "Leech" is a claustrophobic gothic horror unlike anything I have ever read. Simply put (and that's hard, for a book this complex, layered, & downright perplexing at times), it's the unsettling story of a conscious parasite discovering a new parasite lurking within an unsuspecting human host with the intention of spreading and taking hold over the Institute as the dominant consciousness in humanity. Even simply put, it's not that simple, right? Nonetheless, "Leech" is a masterful feat for anyo...

  On the remote shores of Saoirse Island is an old magic—magic that some, like Emery Blackwood, feel deep in their bones when change is coming. For the last fourteen years, Emery has poured herself into her family’s business at Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe, Herbal Tonics, & Tea Leaf Readings. And for every moment of those fourteen years, she’s longed to forget the mysterious tragedy that struck Saoirse Island and separated her from August Salt, a boy long-gone from the island but far from gone in Emery’s heart. For fans of Sarah Addison Allen’s early work and Shea Ernshaw’s “A History of Wild Places,” “Spells for Forgetting” is a deeply-atmospheric, truly-spellbinding read. From page one, Young paints a beautiful backdrop of the wild Saoirse Island and weaves its large cast of characters together in a story that’s part romance, part mystery, and touched with the perfect amount of magic. What I loved most about “Spells for Forgetting” is that despite it being a quieter story, it ...

  Lucas Goodgame is being hailed a hero in quaint, suburban Majestic, Pennsylvania. With the help of his Jungian analyst Karl and his deceased-but-now-in-angel-form wife Darcy, Lucas is perhaps more untouched by the tragedy that struck Majestic than he should be. As life in Majestic attempts to clunk forward, a most unexpected visitor arrives in Lucas' backyard: eighteen year-old Eli, whom the town has shunned for reasons that make no sense to Lucas. Together, they decide to embark on an artistic venture to make a movie and reunite Majestic in the name of healing. Little does Lucas know, there's healing to be done in every corner of Majestic, especially within himself. There's little I can say, readers, that'll truly do this book justice. Like "Silver Linings Playbook," it's offbeat, quirky, and has an uncanny knack for evoking laughs in the most inappropriate of points. In "We Are the Light" Matthew Light, dare I say, goes quite a bit deeper a...

Climate change has wreaked havoc on the world as we know it. With each impending hurricane season, the state of Florida is slipping away; its land surrendering to the rising tides, and its dwindling but resilient people migrating elsewhere while there’s still time. “The Light Pirate” opens with Kirby and his pregnant wife, Frida, preparing for an incoming hurricane. In the wake of the devastating storm, Kirby, his young sons Flip and Lucas, and Frida find their lives changed in an instant—merciless to the changing world and worsening elements around them. But out of the storm comes a child of the same name: Wanda. From here, this story unfolds gorgeously and tenderly over the span of decades as Wanda grows up against the backdrop of a decimated Florida. Brooks-Dalton’s writing is compelling, affecting, & perhaps most of all, a powerful commentary on change & the temporality of life’s seasons. I was utterly bewitched by “The Light Pirate” & wanted more time with these ...

  The Devil is in Scotland, Grayson Hale knows this all too well. He's known, after all, as the "Devil's Advocate" for murdering his classmate Liam Stewart in cold blood. As a graduate student at Edinburgh University, Grayson has barely settled into his schoolwork and life away from America before he's plagued by the unnerving suspicion that something dark has found him in the streets of Scotland. When a mysterious figure known as D.B. proposes a writing job to Grayson that he'd be a fool to turn down, it soon becomes clear to Grayson that he's become entangled in something far more sinister than he could have ever imagined. Perhaps a bold statement, "A History of Fear" is one of the finest pieces of dark academia I've ever come across. It's ominous, pulsating, and the kind of story that settles deep into your mind and breeds--dare I say it, real fear. It's masterfully-written, engaging from the first page, and left me utterly spee...