whatsleahreading

  In the wake of his wife Pippa's death, Alfie is doing everything he can to make life carry on as normal for their twin girls Sylvie and Cassia. Tucked away in their family home of Hart House in London, there isn't much to break the monotony of grief or to fill the Pippa-shaped void now left in their lives. Before long, Sylvie and Cassia struggle to sleep. "Daddy, there's a man in our room," they say. What Alfie dismisses initially as the girls harmlessly processing their loss through the form of an imaginary friend soon becomes something more unsettling. "Daddy, he said he's going to take us away," the girls report pleasantly. Black Mamba, he's called. He wants a seat at the dinner table, he protects the girls at night. He whispers things to them. Things that grow darker in the night. As the days pass, it's clear that something sinister walks the halls of Hart House. Cassia and Sylvie become silhouettes of their former, vibrant selves

  Annis is a slave girl born into a world of unthinkable injustice. Mama is her only shield from "her sire," a white man who owns a Carolina rice field that serves as the only home Annis has ever known. When in a blink, Annis' entire world is upended and she's moved further south to be sold, her grief takes the form of a visceral being as she makes the incomprehensible journey on foot alongside of other sold slaves to New Orleans where her future hangs in the balance. Through undeniably masterful storytelling, Ward tells the story of Annis' journey as she makes her way through deplorable conditions to the New Orleans slave markets and eventually onto a Louisiana sugar plantation. As the story marches further into dread-filled darkness, spirit guides and otherworldly beings emerge from the swamp, the dark wood, and the waters to guide Annis along the way. And despite the remarkable storytelling in "Let Us Descend," I found that I never fully connected

  In the wake of her mother Noelle's unexpected death, Belle leaves her solitary life in Montreal for the overbearing glamour of Southern California and hopes to quickly settle Noelle's estate as to not face the thorn-sharp, painful memories that linger there. Before long, clues of Noelle's mysterious death begin to surface. A cracked mirror in her mother's bedroom. A glamorous stranger at the funeral. An imposing mansion on the coastal cliffside. And a tantalizing invitation from La Maison de Méduse that entitles Belle to a free treatment at their spa. As Belle descends further and further into the depths of a dark society of beautiful strangers, she finds herself entangled in a world of glamour, yes, but also obsession, that she may not be able to escape before it's too late. Perhaps one of the most promising titles of the year, "Rogue" is an ambitious, gothic, and painfully-slow burn of a story. Brimming with all the weirdness of "Bunny" (a