The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh
Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: holiday. I was gifted this book for Christmas a few years ago and used this Bingo as an excuse to finally read it. Again, all love to book bingos for helping me find gems that are lingering on my very own shelves. I used the holiday square as an excuse to get to this one. I had considered donating it a few times, seeing as how the reviews were good but not exactly rapturous. I have a lot of […]
Suburban Hell by Maureen Kilmer
Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: Monster. One of the women in a group of suburban mom friends turns into a literal monster and it’s up to the other women to save her. For almost thirty years (maybe going on forty), the suburbs have been used as a setting to explore the murky themes beyond the American idyll of house/car/2.5 kids. From mystery to horror to…well whatever John Waters does, we’ve often seen the lily white burbs are not all they seem. The Tom Hanks-esque […]
Verity by Colleen Hoover
Read this as part of CBR14 Bingo: hot. Colleen Hoover is the hottest writer out there right now. (Zoolander movie voice) That Colleen Hoover is so hot right now. Seriously, I keep hearing her name in book circles (is that the same Colleen who writes historical fiction? No that’s McCullough), seeing her books literally EVERYWHERE (this one I kept getting confused with the popular and similarly titled YA historical thriller “Code Name Verity”) and getting recs from my friends to a random sex worker whose […]
If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier
Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: Shadow. The main character shadows around her favorite podcaster who may-or-may-not be dead, looking to see if she can figure out the cause of her sudden disappearance. With the release of Adnan Syed from prison, I’ve been wondering if the podcast Serial did more harm than good. While it brought Adnan’s case to the forefront of the nation’s psyche, it was really Rabia Chaudry who did the legal heavy lifting to free him. And since season one of Serial ended, it’s spawned an infinite amount […]
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: snakes. This book has several references to snakes, and also I think one of the characters turned into a snake? It was a wild scene, regardless. It took me two tries to get into this one but ultimately, I’m glad I did. It didn’t match the hype but it’s a good read on its own. Essentially, there are two books here: the first 20% that’s a compelling novel and the rest which is the magical mystery tour through the throes of […]
The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay
Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: cozy. The main character is a narcoleptic and his body frequently drags him off into a deep, cozy sleep. It’s clear that I need to read more of Paul Tremblay’s work. While I didn’t love The Pallbearer’s Club, I enjoyed Tremblay’s writing style. He came across as accessible and fun, someone I could easily digest while providing enough pathos for his protagonists to feel like they are more than literary ciphers. I grabbed this on a lark in a bookstore, […]
