SOMEONE LIKE US – Dinaw Mengestus

“You look for ruin. And if you can’t find it, you make it.”

My top read of the year came as a surprise right at the tail end of December. I was gifted Dinaw Mengestu’s Someone Like Us (Knopf 2024)  by the publisher earlier this year. With life in the way, I didn’t get around to it as quickly as I had wanted, but I picked it up just after Christmas. Boy, am I glad I did. Certain books just tick all my boxes, and this one did.

Meet Mamush, our extremely unreliable narrator, born in the US to a single woman who’d fled her Ethiopian home and now living in Paris with his wife and infant son, unable to chase the demons that are generational. He’s on his way back to the States to visit his mother and Samuel, the father figure who undoubtedly shares his DNA but doesn’t get the title, and decides to detour to Chicago, where they’d all lived before moving to DC. The novel takes us along his journey, as he walks into the past and his memories, and Samuel’s life unfurls, mingling into Mamush’s memories, like the flag of a country Samuel can’t bring himself to return to.

We know from the first few pages that Samuel has been found dead in the garage before Mamush arrives.  Someone Like Us is brilliantly woven, taxis and maps continuously grounding us and Mamush as he struggles with the present, the past, and escaping them both while trying to find answers as to why Samuel was found dead in the garage, an apparent death by suicide.

I’ve seen no buzz for this book, and I am floored. I’ve read a lot of prize winners and nominees for various literary awards this year, and this novel, by leaps and bounds, is my top read.  Everyone should read this book. 

I’LL COME TO YOU – Rebecca Kauffman

I’m trying to get a bit better at getting my reviews in for ARCS before the book is published, and I’m patting myself on the back with this one because Rebecca Kauffman’s I’ll Come to You (Counterpoint 2024) has an expected publication date of 1/7/2025. (Thank you to the publisher for gifting me this finished copy!)  If family sagas and domestic fiction are your jam, go ahead and preorder or put your library holds in.  It’s a slim volume of intertwined stories of one family, but it is so beautifully and intricately told.

The novel spans from January 1995 to December 1995, following recently divorced Ellen as she tries to juggle her continued confusion over the divorce, figuring how holidays will work, hoping for grandchildren, and entering the dating scene; her son, Paul and daughter-in-law, Corinne, who are juggling fertility issues followed by pregnancy and parenthood in addition to family drama; Corinne’s parents, Janet and Bruce, who are juggling aging, the early stages of dementia, and regrets; and Corinne’s brother, Rob, a divorced middle aged man who has a difficult relationship with the truth but who is drowning in loss following the custody order.

It’s a beautiful novel, with each voice inherently unique.  At times delicate and devastating, it is quite the perfect read for right after the holidays.

Read this book.

A NOVEL LOVE STORY – Ashley Poston

I’m likely not the best person to listen to when it comes to reviewing romance.  That said, I tried really hard to like Ashley Poston’s A Novel Love Story (Berkley 2024), but it fell way flat for me.  The premise is cute enough – a woman who loves romance novels heads to a cabin for a weeklong of reading by herself, takes a wrong turn, and ends up in the fictional town of her favorite book series. The potential of the setup was so exciting.  The execution, however, was meh.

Elsy winds up in Eloraton, the fictional town of her favorite romance series.  The author of the series had tragically and unexpectedly died, and the characters are a bit in a rut.  (Much like Elsy.) There is one character, Anders, that Elsy cannot place in any of the books.  They have instant hate followed by almost instant love, and it annoyed the mess out of me.

There are lovely moments and some delicious descriptions, but overall, this missed every mark. The magical realism aspect seemed half-assed, the romance was only used out of convenience and to pivot the plot or create drama, which is fine, I guess, if there is at least chemistry that can read on the page.  The failing of the novel is, honestly, that it’s a romance.  If this had more of a Big Fish-esque feel of Elsy finding her spark and her identity again in this fictional town through helping these fictional characters whose author had died before finishing their plotlines, and ended with her leaving Anders and the town behind to live her life, I’d likely have enjoyed it far more. (Provided the magical realism aspect was handled correctly.)

Spoiler to come.

I actually thought the set up was to have Elsy take on the series, especially when she found the area with the drafts and bits and pieces of stories. She could have given them all a HEA and Anders never had to be “real” for her to do it. In addition to a plot that had me groan, the writing is repetitive and often dull, not enchanting and whimsical, and there are only so many descriptions I need of his green eyes.

Things I like: The cover. I also enjoyed the description of the town, and the actual set up of the fictional romance series.  I would have likely enjoyed reading about that damn possum instead of this.  This novel seems a bit of a love letter to readers, but I think it falls a bit flat.  Ally Carter hit that note a bit sweeter in The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.

If you typically like romances, give it a go, I guess.

THE MOST WONDERFUL CRIME OF THE YEAR – Ally Carter

While heading home for Christmas, I decided to listen to an audio book.  (I usually get one or two audio books in a year, but it’s really not my reading preference.) I settled on Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (Avon 2024), and I’m so glad I did.  What a delicious holiday candy book this was.  And I mean delicious.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is an enemies-to-lovers, cozy , locked room mystery that is a heck of a lot of fun. Imagine playing a real-life game of CLUE with a coworker you loathe at a gorgeous and mysterious mansion in the English countryside, and you get the idea.  Now make the coworkers mystery and big thrill authors and the owner of the home  the most famous author of their publishing imprint –  Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death. Near perfection.

Cozy mystery writer Maggie Chase is in a bit of slump. Recently divorced after she found out her husband and best friend were having a long-term affair, she’s not in the most festive of moods. Her editor convinces her to take an invite to spend the holidays with “her biggest fan.” She finds out too late her arch nemesis, author Ethan Wyatt, a thriller author with a huge social media presence and throngs of adoring female fans, is also invited. Ethan refuses to learn her name, calling her Marcie regardless of the fact they’re both published at the same company, and they’ve met numerous times. Maggie is not amused and dreading this holiday until she realizes the “fan” is none other than Eleanor Ashley.  Surrounded by Eleanor’s family, all with questionable motives, Eleanor vanishes from a locked room. Is it part of the game or is she truly in danger?

What unfolds is a closed room mystery that throws Maggie and Ethan together in an attempt to solve the case of the missing Duchess of Death.  It’s just fun and was the perfect read for me leading up to Christmas. It’s also the perfect read for folks who find friendships and lifelines in the books they read.

Things I didn’t like? The cover, when the male narrator uses his “Maggie” voice, and Maggie’s repeated proclamation that they hate each other. Things I liked?  Everything else.  It really is a fun read.

Read this book.

THE NIGHT TIGER – Yangsze Choo

While I have all three Yangsze Choo novels on my TBR, I opted to read The Night Tiger (Flatiron 2019) first.  As the story of the ghost bride is referenced in this novel, I should have likely read Choo’s debut before The Night Tiger, but I don’t think it was necessary.  (That may change once I read The Ghost Bride.) I took a gamble that I’d like Choo’s writing and bought all three works at the same time. If The Night Tiger is any indication, that gamble paid off.

A whisper of magical realism sings throughout the pages of this historical fiction, set in the 1930s in colonial Malaysia – and when done correctly, those magical realism whispers will always be my favorite. I loved this novel.

Ji Lin, brilliant and beautiful, is forced into an “acceptable” career as a dressmaker. In secret, she works as a dance-hall girl to help pay off her mother’s mahjong debt. While her stepfather has plenty of money to pay off the debts, he also has a violent temper, and she has no desire to see her mother at the receiving end of his abuse.  Life gets a bit interesting when a client drops a vial with a preserved human finger inside.

                Ji confides in her stepbrother, Shin, who is studying to be a doctor, the course of study she’d longed for but been denied. Shin is of no blood relation, but they were born on the same day, both named for one of the five Confucian Virtues. After he confirms it is human, she decides it must be returned to the man’s family. The patron has unexpectedly died, and she intends to attend his funeral to return it.

                Meanwhile, Ren (another Confucian Virtue) is frantically trying to find the finger of the man he had worked for. When Dr. MacFarlane was dying, he made Ren promise to find the finger and bury it in his grave before the end of the 49-day period. Dr. MacFarlane believed he turned into the night tiger towards the end, and Ren was afraid of his mad ramblings but he is committed to finding the finger and keeping his promise.

Ren is a twin, but his brother, Yi (the fourth Confucian virtue), died. Sometimes, Ren still feels a connection to him. Ji Lin has a strong connection to both Yi and Ren, seeing Yi in her dreams.  Yi tells her of his brother and tells her to be aware of the person whose name is the fifth Confucian Virtue.

Ren’s quest to find Dr. MacFarlene’s finger crosses paths with Ji Len’s quest to return the finger dropped in the dance hall to its rightful owner, and the fifth Confucian value, the one Yi warned Ji of, is revealed. As the story unfolds, colonialism, local legends and folktales, and forbidden love intertwine with a story of grief, loyalty, human trafficking and murder.                                                                                                   

The Night Tiger is an absolute delight of a read, beautifully and magically told – hitting so many of the things that are my favorites.  Read this book.

THE DAVENPORTS: MORE THAN THIS – Krystal Marquis

I really thought The Davenports was going to be a continued series, with each subsequent novel a deep dive into one of the Davenport siblings (with a branch out for Amy-Rose and Ruby Tremaine), but it would seem the second installment, The Davenports: More than This (Dial Books 2024) seems to wrap all the story lines up.  (What follows is pulled nearly word for word from my review of the first novel.)

Inspired by the real-life Patterson family, Krystal Marquis’s The Davenports books is a young adult, Bridgerton-esque romance duology set in Chicago in 1910.  The Davenports are an extremely wealthy Black family, and that fortune has placed them in a very small section of the American population.  William Davenport, a former slave, built his empire from the dirt up, and his children have lived lives of opulence. Olivia, the eldest daughter, continues to involve herself in politics, finding her voice and publishing articles anon. She’s also found herself falling for another lawyer, a man her parents are trying to set her up with.  But what happens when the dashing civil rights attorney Washington DeWight returns, and she finds herself torn between two men?  Helen, heartbroken after Jacob Lawrence left, continues to be more comfortable in the garage. She and her brother, John, will convince their father to add automobiles to the company, and they’ll snag handsome race car driver, Ransom Swift, to help them. Helen finds herself falling for the exciting man when Jacob returns. Much like her sister, she finds herself torn between two men.  Ruby Tremaine is happily engaged but dealing with rumors concerning her purity that may have lost her father his run for mayor.  And Amy-Rose, the daughter of a slave-owner and maid, has thrown herself into her hair care line and salon thanks to a generous benefactor who believed in her, but John Davenport is never far from her thoughts.  Like the first, the novel alternates between Olivia, Helen, Ruby, and Amy-Rose’s POVs.

Despite all the romance, the duology is truly a young adult series and there is no spice other than a few stolen kisses and petting.  But intertwined with the romance and choices, there is also racism, political demonstrations, classism, the Progressive Era, feminism, etc. It’s a fascinating time in American history, even more fascinating for wealthy Black families.

Bridgerton fans, this may be a series for you to check out.  Young adult historical fiction and romance fans, this is a must.  The Davenports duology is a delight.

THE RESURRECTIONIST – A. Rae Dunlap

“… he was my North Star whenever the darkness of doubt threatened to envelop me. When I could not tell my dreams from wakefulness, he remained my touchstone and my Truth; a glimmer in his eye and a quirk of his lips were are that it took to make me feel manifest, whole, and worthy.”

Aardvark rang out 2024 with a bang – including an early release in their December selections that is dark academia meets historical fiction meets true crime meets the gothic and grotesque.  Oh, and it’s also a love story. A. Rae Dunlap’s The Resurrectionist (Kensington Books) was an unexpected thrill of a ride.  And that cover. Isn’t she just lovely?

Set in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1828, The Resurrectionist is the story of James Willoughby, a son of high society who has left his studies at Oxford to pursue his dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. Scotland is a bit removed from life in England, and he has some initial difficulties adjusting.  But James is smart, driven, and excited. He finds like-minded friends and excels in his studies. But the real studies aren’t at the University – but rather at the “private” schools, where James will have his own cadaver.

Here is where fact and fiction dance in a delicious way. These “private” schools would “steal” recently buried bodies – or rather, they would pay for the bodies. When James’s family writes him to advise that the financial situation is a bit dire and they can no longer pay for his studies, James is forced to take things into his own hands; he joins a crew as a digger. It’s dirty, dangerous, and exciting – and James thrives in it, partly because he’s with Nye, the gorgeous dissectionist that stirs many emotions. Things become even more dangerous when Burke and Hare enter the scene.

This is a phenomenal debut. The ending is such that a second novel of Nye and James continuing their romance and their studies in London despite the risk of being revealed is set up quite nicely, though I’m not sure there will be a backdrop as thrilling as the snatchers and Burke and Hare.

Read this book.

TEHRANGELES – Porochista Khakpour

When the publisher sent me a copy of Porochista Khakpour’s Tehrangeles (Pantheon 2024) and I saw that cover, I knew this would be a devilishly decadent over-the-top candy book.  Not one but two Kevin Kwan blurbs on the cover further confirmed my suspicion. Khakpour’s writing is playful and witty, and devastatingly disarming, but this one fell just a bit short for me.  Not because of the writing, but because of the subject matter – spoiled teens during the pandemic.  The idea of a Little Women retelling using spoiled Iranian-American kids is brilliant, and Covid is LW’s scarlet fever, but the conspiracy theorist plotline with the youngest Milani sister, Haylee, built a barrier to enjoying this book the way I should have.

The long and short of the plot is that the Milani family is about to get their own reality TV show.  Producers are interested in part because of the tensions with Iran and in part because of the larger-than-life figures Ali Milani (the father) and his daughter, Roxanna.  Ali is a self-made millionaire, having fled Iran during the revolution and finding his American dream. He has fully embraced being an American and seldom thinks of Iran. Roxanna is the second oldest and cut from her father’s cloth.  She lives for the applause and is a social media influencer.  She’s pushing for the show, but getting a bit concerned because she’s told everyone she’s Italian not Iranian.  The youngest daughter, Haylee, a fitness buff and soon to become overwhelmed with MAGA and conspiracy theories, is also pushing for the show. Homa, the mom, floats through life in a bit of depression and longing for home.  She’ll do what they want.  Violet, the eldest sister, is a model with a sweet tooth who dabbles with an eating disorder. She is seeking to connect to her Persian heritage. She doesn’t really want the show but will do it. Mina, the second youngest, is a sickly political activist (or wants to be) who is out as queer only online under her anon accounts.  She is planning on using the show to “out” herself.

The novel is what happens when the pandemic puts the show on pause and the Milanis are on lockdown.  And of course there’s a superspreader, extravagant party and drugs and a cat medium.  And of course, someone(s) get sick.  Because Covid.  Because Little Women.

I’d read Khakpour again, but I’m not interested in Covid books. If that won’t turn you off and you like Kwan, you’ll love it.  There’s a bit of a difference because this deals with younger characters, but it’s certainly got the decadence and biting commentary.

THE GOD OF THE WOODS – Liz Moore

“It came from the Greek god Pan: the god of the woods. He liked to trick people, to confuse and disorient them until they lost their bearings, and their minds.”

“Something about her looks immortal…a spirit, an apparition, more god than child.”

Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods (Riverhead Books 2024) is in my top three reads for the year, possibly taking the top spot.  We shall see.  A literary thriller, the novel is a slow burn of a who dun it, full of questionable characters, questionable motives, and upended lives, all centered around the wealthy Van Laars, their booze-soaked parties and their wilderness summer camp and off-season endeavors that employ all the blue collars workers in the area.

In 1961, 8-year-old Bear Van Laar, heir to the family fortune, disappears without a trace.  Fourteen years later, his 13-year-old sister, Barbara, vanishes from the family’s summer camp, into the same woods that had taken her brother.  And so, a multilayered mystery unravels.  What happened to Barbara?  What happened to Bear?

It’s a novel of unfortunate wealth, misplaced loyalties, and attachment to the land.  A novel of a much loved and adored child gone missing and his “replacement,” easily forgotten and discarded. A novel of secrets and lies, and the ties that bind. A novel of panic.

I’m not going to spoil the plot, because watching it slowly unfold is part of the magic.  Some readers have complained it’s too slow, but each character is so distinctly developed, each time period so crucial to the final pages.  I found it perfect.

And that cover.  It may be the most perfect of covers of books I’ve read this year.  That pink drip of paint holds the entirety of the novel, and it’s a brilliant choice.

Read this book.

SO THIRSTY – Rachel Harrison

“Besides, anticipating  the worst-case scenario doesn’t prepare you for the worst-case scenario. Just gives you the opportunity to be smug in the face of disaster.”

Rachel Harrison’s So Thirsty (Berkley 2024) was supposed to be my dedicated “spooky season” read, but I was too entrenched in Booker season to get to it.  Oops. In all fairness, I only selected it as my Aardvark selection because it was signed and I needed a “spooky” book for the season.  If you’ve been here even two seconds, you’ll know cozy horror isn’t something I often cuddle up to.  (That said – Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite types of book candy so…)  The book was perfectly fine for what it is. Highly palatable, well-written, at times pretty funny, but equally forgettable.   Its biggest downfall?  A main character who is positively insufferable and her equally awful though for distinct reasons best friend.  If I had actually liked Sloane and Naomi, I’d have enjoyed this a hell of a lot more.

Long story short – Sloane’s husband surprised her with a weekend get-away for her and her best friend, Naomi, who has been on tour with her rockstar boyfriend in Europe. His motives are almost as questionable (he can’t keep it in his pants) as why these two mid-30s women are even friends. Naomi is a spitfire, careless and wild, while Sloane is seeing disaster in everything.  They end up at a house full of hot people having wild sex.  Their new friends are vampires.  In order to save Naomi, Sloane has them turn them both.  The new vampires are “so thirsty” and what follows is a lot of Sloane judging Naomi for being thirsty and Sloane being thirsty.  Folks die, blood is consumed, Sloane and Naomi are disconnected for the first time since they became friends as teens, and Sloane gets involved with a centuries old vampire.  (One of my favorite parts is when she says he’s too old for her but then finds out he was turned in his 20s and decides he’s too young.)

It’s a novel of friendship and making the most of the cards you’ve been dealt, I guess, but I didn’t really care about their friendship or them.  *shrugs* 

It’s a perfectly fine quick read that would have been a delicious candy book had anyone other than Henry and Ilie been remotely likable.