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Hester

Title: Hester

Author: Laurie Lico Albanese

Genre: historical fiction

Thank you NetGalley for this book.

I love Nathaniel Hawthorne so much that I named my first kid after him. No lie. “Rappacini’s Daughter” is my favorite short story, and I love The Scarlet Letter. Anytime I see a book adjacent to Hawthorne in any way, I read it. When I saw this one up on NetGalley, I knew it was one to request, and I’m so glad I was given the copy.

From Goodreads: Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts has forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they’ve arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.

When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward’s safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller, the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?

In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country’s complicated past and learns that America’s ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel’s story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a “real” American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of “unusual” women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down. 

Just to put any speculation to rest, there is no evidence that Hester Prynne was based on a real person. But it is certainly fun to speculate. Isobel is a great character, and you cheer for her success. The secondary story of the Underground Railroad was excellent and enhanced the depiction of the era well. The secondary characters were rich and believable. I was captivated for the entire book. I really enjoyed this one, even though historical fiction isn’t my genre of choice. But because this was so well-written, I was hooked.

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Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional

Title: Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional

Author: Isaac Fitzgerald

Genre: memoir

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book!

I have known Isaac Fitzgerald for over a decade. I was a founding member of The Rumpus Book Club for several years. Isaac was the co-owner, managing editor, and moderator of our club’s message boards. He was like the fun uncle who had to get on to us every now and then to remind us to move our very off-topic conversations to our community threads rather than the book discussion threads. Through that book club, I made some excellent friends (hi, guys) who have kept in touch, and we read some books every now and then that are meaningful to our group: works by Adam Levin, Camille Bordas, and some upcoming ones by Elissa Bassist and Yuri Zalkow.

Although I got this book from NetGalley ages ago, I waited to read it until my friends could read, also. But, my mistake, I thought it was coming out this week, so I’m a week ahead. No matter. We will all get caught up soon enough. To read something by someone I’ve known for quite some time, although don’t really know at all, was a really interesting experience. I’ve heard Isaac’s voice a dozen times from his Today Show book suggestion segments. Side note: he always recommends excellent books. So, I could hear him coming through my kindle.

There are two types of memoirs. First: My life is so hard (it’s not) and I really need people to understand me (feel sorry for me) and my life of privilege really doesn’t matter (it does). Second: My life was hard (it was), but I take responsibility for my actions and admit, in the grand scheme of things, that I still had it pretty good compared to a lot of other people (because I am white). This book falls into the second category.

Isaac is an excellent writer, but he’s also very honest. This book pulls back the curtain on a lot of dark events of his life. Between having a trauma-filled childhood, never feeling comfortable in his skin, constantly searching for meaning and purpose, and wanting to do well in the world, Isaac lets the reader see what troubles him most. I loved this book. That’s odd to say because Isaac’s life was difficult, so I don’t want it to seem like I’m glad of that because it made for a good story. But I found Issac’s honesty and subsequent healing from all his trauma hopeful for his future. He seems to be in a much better place, which is what we all want for ourselves, no matter what our pasts reveal.

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Alias Emma

Title: Alias Emma

Author: Ava Glass

Genre: spy thriller

Thank you NetGalley for this book.

I loved Alias when it was on tv. Sydney Bristow was just such a great character. And although I don’t read a ton of spy novels, when I saw this book’s description, I knew it would be a lot of fun to read. I was right. I flew through this thriller and enjoyed every minute of it.

From Goodreads: Nothing about Emma Makepeace is real. Not even her name.

A newly minted secret agent, Emma’s barely graduated from basic training when she gets the call for her first major assignment. Eager to serve her country and prove her worth, she dives in headfirst.

Emma must covertly travel across one of the world’s most watched cities to bring the reluctant–and handsome–son of Russian dissidents into protective custody, so long as the assassins from the Motherland don’t find him first. With London’s famous Ring of Steel hacked by the Russian government, the two must cross the city without being seen by the hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras that document every inch of the city’s streets, alleys, and gutters.

Buses, subways, cars, and trains are out of the question. Traveling on foot, and operating without phones or bank cards that could reveal their location or identity, they have twelve hours to make it to safety. This will take all of Emma’s skills of disguise and subterfuge. But when Emma’s handler goes dark, there’s no one left to trust. And just one wrong move will get them both killed. 

What I loved most about this book were the twists and turns that any good spy story should have. Good guys, bad guys, double agents, rescues, deaths, evasion, and a good heroic lead. Emma is a great main character who takes her job seriously, but the story was really the shining star of the book. I was always guessing how Emma would get out of the predicament she was in and who was really trustworthy. I’m hoping this book is the first in a series because I’d love to read more of Emma’s adventures.

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Elsewhere

Title: Elsewhere

Author: Alexis Schaitkin

Genre: fantasy, dystopia

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I read Saint X a while ago and was really impressed by it. The story was excellent, and the language was just gorgeous. So, when I saw this one on NetGalley, I requested it in eager hopes that it was just as good. And it’s not. It’s BETTER! I absolutely loved every minute of reading this book. And it’s one I will think about for a long time.

From Goodreads: Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal, and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning.

Vera, a young girl when her own mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in motherhood, waiting for signs: this one devotes herself to her child too much, this one not enough—that must surely draw the affliction’s gaze. When motherhood comes for Vera, she is faced with the question: will she be able to stay and mother her beloved child, or will she disappear?

Provocative and hypnotic, Alexis Schaitkin’s Elsewhere is at once a spellbinding revelation and a rumination on the mysterious task of motherhood and all the ways in which a woman can lose herself to it; the self-monitoring and judgment, the doubts and unknowns, and the legacy she leaves behind.

The story is told in first-person from Vera’s perspective, so you know you’re going to be with her for the duration of the book. That said, this book had me guessing a lot. I had no idea what to make of the disappearances, and when a stranger comes to town (not a spoiler, happens very early on in the book) the reaction to her of the townspeople is really interesting. The story comes full circle, and, by the end, I was really happy to see how Vera’s story turned out. I absolutely loved this and will be recommending it.

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The Vanishing Triangle

Title: The Vanishing Triangle

Author: Claire McGowan

Genre: True Crime

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I’ve been meaning to read Claire McGowan for a while. I’ve heard good things about several of her books. When I saw this one available on NetGalley, and knowing it was true crime, I knew I had to check it out. Sadly, this one did not work at all for me.

From Goodreads:

From the bestselling author of What You Did comes a true-crime investigation that cast a dark shadow over the Ireland of her childhood.

Ireland in the 1990s seemed a safe place for women. With the news dominated by the Troubles, it was easy to ignore non-political murders and sexual violence, to trust that you weren’t going to be dragged into the shadows and killed. But beneath the surface, a far darker reality had taken hold.

In this candid investigation into the society and circumstances that allowed eight young women to vanish without a trace—no conclusion or conviction, no resolution for their loved ones—bestselling crime novelist Claire McGowan delivers a righteous polemic against the culture of secrecy, victim-blaming and shame that left these women’s bodies unfound, their fates unknown, their assailants unpunished.

McGowan reveals an Ireland not of leprechauns and craic but of outdated social and sexual mores, where women and their bodies were of secondary importance to perceived propriety and misguided politics—a place of well-buttoned lips and stony silence, inadequate police and paramilitary threat.

Was an unknown serial killer at large or was there something even more insidious at work? In this insightful, sensitively drawn account, McGowan exposes a system that failed these eight women—and continues to fail women to this day.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was so repetitive and disjointed. The murders are discussed in every chapter, but some are within the triangle, and some are adjacent to in some way, but there were SO MANY NAMES that it was almost hard to care about any of them. I lost track of how many times McGowan self-indulgently said “if I were writing a novel about this, here’s where I would write this xyz thing,” or “because of privacy laws, I can’t say who the suspect is, but he’s well known on the internet.” I love true crime, but McGowan didn’t hit the mark at all with this one.

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At the End of Everything

Title: At the End of Everything

Author: Marieke Nijkamp

Genre: YA dystopia

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I read This Is Where It Ends a while ago and was just floored at how excellent it was. After all this time, the story has really stuck with me. So, when I saw a new book by Nijkamp, I knew I would be reading it. I’m so happy I got this one from NetGalley because it was another great one that I won’t forget anytime soon.

From Goodreads: The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist.

Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day…they don’t show up. But when the teens band together to make a break from the facility, they encounter soldiers outside the gates. There’s a rapidly spreading infectious disease outside, and no one can leave their houses or travel without a permit. Which means that they’re stuck at Hope. And this time, no one is watching out for them at all.

As supplies quickly dwindle and a deadly plague tears through their ranks, the group has to decide whom among them they can trust and figure out how they can survive in a world that has never wanted them in the first place. 

The story is told from various teens within the Hope center. You see their survival story from multiple sides, namely those who are trying to help and make their situation as livable as possible. Even though the teens are there because they were in some kind of trouble, thankfully this isn’t some kind of Lord of the Flies re-creation. Sure, they disagree at times, but it isn’t a battle for king of the hill, and they *mostly* work together. Clearly, this was written post-Covid because plenty of the “news” the kids hear is directly from what we have been going through. Overall, I really liked this book, and I’ll keep my eye on other books from Nijkamp.

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Horseman

Title: Horseman

Author: Christina Henry

Genre: horror

Thank you, NetGalley for this book.

I’ve only recently become aware of Christian Henry’s work, specifically her Alice series. I’ve heard great things about it and have added it to my TBR. I had completely forgotten that I had this book from NetGalley, so when it turned up as my next read, I was really excited to see if all the hype was real. And, wow, it was. This book was so creative and fun.

From Goodreads: Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt’s grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that’s just legend, the village gossips talking.

Twenty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play Sleepy Hollow boys, reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the sinister discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow have ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?

I love that this story was told from a kid’s perspective. Ben is a strong character with specific ideas and goals. You really root for Ben throughout the book. I’ve only read Sleepy Hollow once or twice and don’t remember much but that didn’t cause me any issues. As long as you have the general gist that a headless horseman terrorizes the town of Sleepy Hollow, running off the schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, you’re set. I really enjoyed this book. It’s categorized as horror, but it’s not super scary or graphic. It really could be a YA book, even. Ben is a great character that you just love and respect. I will definitely be checking out more of Henry’s books.

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Cloud Cuckoo Land

Title: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Author: Anthony Doerr

Genre: science/historical fiction

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I was really nervous to pick this one up. I’ve just heard so much about it but was intimidated by its breadth. The length wasn’t an issue. I’ve read several that are over 1000 pages. But just the span of time, the characters, the interweaving plots made me nervous. I took my time with it and am so glad I did. What a spectacular book.

From Goodreads: Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.

Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet. 

I can’t even begin to explain just how expansive this book is. The story is told with a fable woven throughout, and all the storylines draw back to this fable, but in ways you don’t expect. Even though this one took me a while to get through, it was worth it to be able to savor this one. It’s just such a beautiful book.

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Under the Whispering Door

Title: Under the Whispering Door

Author: TJ Klune

Genre: Fantasy

Thank you NetGalley for this book.

Oh wow does TJ Klune knock it out of the park again! I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea and wasn’t sure what to expect this time around. Granted, this book isn’t in any way related to Cerulean, but a second effort might not be as rewarding. But this book is just wonderful. Full of heart and love and kindness and all that is good in the world.

From Goodreads: When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.

Instead of leading him directly to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a small village. On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop, run by a man named Hugo. Hugo is the tea shop’s owner to locals and the ferryman to souls who need to cross over.

But Wallace isn’t ready to abandon the life he barely lived. With Hugo’s help he finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life.

At first, you really hate Wallace. He’s a terrible person, but to really appreciate how he evolves, he has to start out rough. You love Hugo and the others in the tea shop (no spoilers), and watching certain people move in and out of their lives is interesting. But the kindness that Hugo shows from day one is so wonderful. Klune, in my book, has written another lovely book. I will gladly recommend him to anyone and look forward to his next publication.

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When Things Get Dark

Title: When Things Get Dark

Editor: Ellen Datlow

Genre: horror short story

Thank you NetGalley for this book.

I’m not a short story collection person. I try again and again, but I just can’t get into them. Well, that all changed with this book. Maybe it’s just horror collections that I need to read. I love Stephen King’s. And I’ve been trying to read more thanks to the encouragement of the Books in the Freezer podcast, who has mentioned Ellen Datlow several times. So, when I saw this on NetGalley, I figured it was worth a try. And I’m so glad because there wasn’t a single miss in this entire collection.

From Goodreads: Legendary editor, Ellen Datlow, collects today’s best horror writers in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson. Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, and more.

A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by, and in tribute to, Shirley Jackson.

Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant, and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and readers.

This anthology, edited by legendary horror editor Ellen Datlow, will bring together today’s leading horror writers to offer their own personal tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson.

Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, and Genevieve Valentine.

I’m not well-versed in Shirley Jackson. I love The Lottery (click on the link to read. First published in 1948) and was fortunate enough to teach it, as well. My students LOVED it. And I’ve read The Haunting of Hill House, but that’s about it. I definitely need to branch out. That said, anything inspired by her must be amazing. Every time I started a new story, I thought there was no way this one was going to be as good as the rest. I was wrong. They were all outstanding. Josh Malerman’s was my favorite (not a shock. I love his work). But really, each and every one of them was sufficiently creepy. This collection is a must-read for horror fans.