“Sometimes I dream of them waiting in that tree for a girl who would never come, bringing gift after precious gift to lie unloved in the grass.” Migrations (Flatiron Books 2020) was Charlotte McConaghy’s US debut, and it’s been on my shelf for years. I read Once There Were Wolves and Wild Dark Shore beforeContinue reading “MIGRATIONS – Charlotte McConaghy”
Tag Archives: 2020 release
THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett
“You could never know who might hurt you until it was too late.” I finally got around to reading Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (Riverhead 2020) – it was likely the most hyped on my TBR that had just been sitting there for ages, and it was on my “Must Reads” for 2024. (Yes. IContinue reading “THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett”
GHOSTS OF HARVARD – Francesca Serritella
“They were ghosts, after all, and happy endings don’t haunt anyone.” Francesca Serritella’s Ghosts of Harvard (Random House 2020) is a rather ambitious work that suffers from trying to do too much. There’s a lot of good things, but the ghost story, mental health awareness, and political thriller don’t always mesh that nicely in theContinue reading “GHOSTS OF HARVARD – Francesca Serritella”
THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE – Abi Daré
“This flower be the brown of a wet leaf that suffer a stamping from the dirty feets of a man that forget the promise he make to his dead wife.” Abi Daré’s debut The Girl with the Louding Voice (Dutton 2020) has been on my TBR for ages. I was admittedly a bit reluctant toContinue reading “THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE – Abi Daré”
AFTERLIFE – Julia Alvarez
“It tells a story. That it has been broken.” My last read of 2022 was by an author that fits in a special place in my booklover’s heart. I haven’t read Julia Alvarez in years, but you don’t forget How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents or In the Time of the Butterflies that easily. Continue reading “AFTERLIFE – Julia Alvarez”
BETTY – Tiffany McDaniel
“Then I buried the story alive, making sure it was deep enough, a wolf wouldn’t smell blood on it and dig it up.” I don’t really know what to say about this book, and I keep oscillating between a poor rating and a middle range rating. Part of the flipflopping is because I know thisContinue reading “BETTY – Tiffany McDaniel”
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY – Matt Haig
I finally got around to reading Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library (Viking 2020). Y’all didn’t tell me it was A Christmas Carol on repeat – just heavy on the suicide and not so much on the Christmas. If Hallmark movies allowed references to suicide, Lacey Chabert would be playing Nora; she already has experience withContinue reading “THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY – Matt Haig”
PLAIN BAD HEROINES – Emily M. Danforth
I don’t DNF (Do/Did Not Finish) books for assorted reasons. (I can count on one hand the number of books I’ve abandoned after starting, and they still haunt me.) A few hundred pages into Emily M. Danforth’s Plain Bad Heroines (Harper Collins 2020), I wanted to stop. I had such high hopes for this sapphicContinue reading “PLAIN BAD HEROINES – Emily M. Danforth”
The HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA – TJ Klune
I finally got around to reading one of the most talked about books of 2020, and before I get into my review of TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea (TOR 2020), I want to briefly touch on the problematic aspects of the novel, or as is the case, of the author. During anContinue reading “The HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA – TJ Klune”
NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS – Keisha Bush
Keisha Bush’s No Heaven for Good Boys (Random House 2020) is one of the more delicate and devastating debut novels I’ve read in a long while. The tragedy of it is exquisitely crafted, clinging to the reader like small, dirty hands begging for money, or a hungry child suckling at his mother’s breast. It’s aContinue reading “NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS – Keisha Bush”
A Girl Named Tommi 