writer
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My first time reading this classic. Opulent, stirring, gothic, richly romantic, incredibly dramatic, and tense with emotion, JANE EYRE has captured at least one more heart. Passion over pragmatism reigns here, but also a fierce case for devoted love on equal ground, where both partners are intellectually engaged, free, and can speak openly. (After all the secrets get spilled, that is.)
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The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read THE CRANE HUSBAND by Kelly Barnhill in one long, breathless go. A dark fairytale for the past, present, and future, this novella is earnest in a way that makes it feel immediate. The world she creates has fantastical rules, but feels lived-in and inevitable. A stunner.
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Model Home by Rivers Solomon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Horror is done so incredibly right in MODEL HOME by Rivers Solomon. Uncanny, frighteningly heavy, intimately empathetic, and viscerally terrifying in about fifteen different ways, this novel feels unescapable in a way that only a masterful writer like Solomon could achieve. MODEL HOME is equal parts haunted house hell, seething social commentary, psychological thriller, and warning sign.
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Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Unreliable narrator from hell, will give you the icky creepies, took me to a darker place than I personally wanted to go, but hey–it’s called HORROR MOVIE.
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I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One for the Great Lakes Gothic shelf! I CHEERFULLY REFUSE by Leif Enger spins a tale that imagines how our world might disintegrate or regenerate in the years just beyond our own horizon. The characters in this book are recognizable, for their flaws, their oversights, their confusions and convictions. Culture and circumstances change quickly, but perhaps people don’t, and in that reality lies a balancing act for morality when the chips are down. Enger’s book celebrates the stubborn and trusts Lake Superior as a rarely forgiving (but always honest) setting on which to prove oneself. An entrancing sail through the dark.
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There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Listen, there are only so many books out there that hit the very specific cross-section of devoted NBA fandom, the cravings of a poet, a fierce loyalty to the cities of the American midwest that largely get counted out, a need for sad songs, and an open-armed love for the world. THERE’S ALWAYS THIS YEAR feels like meeting someone for the first time, who you see wearing a jersey from your favorite team and after a short affirming word somehow ends up accompanying you into the night as you whisper stories about your lives and suddenly see the future with fresh eyes. Left me in tears, which is my highest praise.
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Monsters We Have Made by Lindsay Starck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Graceful literary writing pervades Lindsay Starck’s monster story MONSTERS WE HAVE MADE. Part horror, part psychological thriller, this novel layers fact, fiction, and figment together into nuanced character study and a riveting pursuit for the truth.
P.s. Always excited to read a midwest author!
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Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What will we leave the world?
Also: will we leave the world?
–Two central questions at the heart of this boundary-pushing novella that imagines human history’s farthest-reaching future through its oldest written literary form. Unforgettable, weird, and wonderful stuff from Oliver K. Langmead.
We haven’t seen the end of epic heroes. History has more waiting for us. I think, in the end, that’s the idea that made this book so touching to me.
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Eye of a Needle by Jessica Lynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
EYE OF A NEEDLE is a searing short form debut from author Jessica Lynn. It’s addictive to the point that you’ll blaze through it in one sitting. Tension on simmer and sumptuous prose explores religious trauma and the merits of gut instinct. Southern gothic meets supernatural in this tale drenched in dread, blood, and sticky summer heat.
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Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA broke me a little bit, but wow was it good. A tale as insidious as it is inventive, and as much surrealism as it is a life drawing, this story is a slow-burn time bomb. Anxiety, devotion, grief, and ghosts… sink into this one and expect to fall down further than you might be prepared to go. I adore the absurd, especially when it’s taken extremely seriously, and that’s exactly what this is.
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