Foster care can be a challenging journey for both children and caregivers. The need for loving homes and stability is greater than ever. But no one should go through it alone. Supportive communities play a big part in making foster … Continue reading

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Book Title:
Where Darkness Blooms
Book Author:
Andrea Hannah
Page Count:
320
Publishing Date:
Febraruy 21st, 2023
Publisher:
Wednesday Books
Date Read:
August 1st, 2024
Format:
Hardcover
Source:
Purchased

Synopsis

Andrea Hannah's Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.

The town of Bishop is known for exactly two recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women―missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.

With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood―and now it craves theirs.

My Review

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog, or even posted a review anywhere. I wish I could say why, exactly, I’ve been absent, but it’s more or less a mix of things and I haven’t had the will … Continue reading

3.5 stars
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As cryptocurrency adoption continues to rise globally, businesses are exploring innovative financial tools to streamline operations and expand their reach. Among these tools, mass crypto payments are an effective method for handling multiple transactions efficiently. This payment mechanism is gaining … Continue reading

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Keeping track of your reading list can be a rewarding task. A well-organized list not only helps you remember the books you want to read but also enhances your overall reading experience. Many people struggle with this aspect of reading. … Continue reading

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As winter arrives and temperatures drop, seniors may experience increased isolation. Cold weather limits mobility, making it harder for them to maintain social connections. Family and caregivers can play a crucial role in helping seniors stay connected and avoid the … Continue reading

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The darkness of night can cast an unwelcoming shadow over your journey home. As a woman, whether walking, taking public transportation, or driving alone, traveling after dark presents potential risks that don’t exist during daylight hours. However, with some simple … Continue reading

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Literacy skills are super important for everyone’s education and growth. Being able to read and understand text is key to doing well in school, landing a job, and handling everyday life. But for many people, especially kids, learning these skills … Continue reading

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The rise of streaming services has revolutionized the film industry, fundamentally changing how films are produced, distributed, and consumed. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ have transformed the traditional model of cinema releases into a digital-first landscape, creating an … Continue reading

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Book Title:
The Eyes Are the Best Part
Book Author:
Monika Kim
Page Count:
288
Publishing Date:
June 25th, 2024
Publisher:
Erewhon Books
Date Read:
July 15th, 2024
Format:
Hardcover
Source:
Purchased

Synopsis

“Violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original, this novel pulls readers into a horrific world of murder and cannibalism while also critiquing misogyny, exploring Asian fetishization and stereotypes, sharing what it’s like to navigate two cultures and telling a touching story of a family in turmoil.” —New York Times Book Review

Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.

My Review

Anything involving eyes makes me queasy. It’s why I’ve never worn contact lenses – only glasses – since I was seven years old. It’s why I’ve never attempted any kind of vision correcting surgery. And it’s why I almost feel … Continue reading

5 stars
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Book Title:
Brat
Book Author:
Gabriel Smith
Page Count:
320
Publishing Date:
June 4th, 2024
Publisher:
Penguin Press
Date Read:
July 13th, 2024
Format:
Hardcover
Source:
Purchased

Synopsis

From a provocative new literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel featuring an unlikable protagonist grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past.

We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the story’s titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. The Gabriel of the novel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup, and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents’ house to clear it out for sale. Here, the clichés end.

Gabriel has trouble delivering on his promise as the moldy, overgrown house deteriorates around him, so does his own health, and large sheets of his skin begin to peel from his body at a terrifying rate. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents which seem to mutate every time he picks them up, and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets.

Strange people and figures emerge—perhaps directly from the novel’s embedded fictions—and despite his compromised state (and his more successful brother’s growing frustration) Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings. Part ghost story, part grief story; flirting with the autofictional mode while sitting squarely in the tradition of the gothic, Brat crackles with deadpan humor and delightfully taut prose.

Smith’s arrival heralds the next generation of fiction writers—formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. Irreverent and boundary-pushing, but not for its own sake, the novel that follows is muscular yet lyrical, riddled with paradox, and told with a truly rare and compelling clarity of voice. Brat is a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.

My Review

This book…was a series of mind games from the first chapter to the very last page. I still don’t understand, 100%, what I read – even two weeks after I finished the book. Was it a good read? Yes. Was … Continue reading

3.5 stars
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