Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i by Sara Kehaulani Goo & The Palace of Illusions by Rowenna Miller

  

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!


Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i by Sara Kehaulani Goo
Publication: June 10th, 2025
Flatiron Books
Hardcover. 368 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"Set in one of the world’s most beautiful landscapes, Kuleana is the story of award-winning journalist Sara Kehaulani Goo’s family saga to hold on to her family’s ancestral Hawaiian lands—and find herself along the way.

Along the rugged shores of Maui’s east coast lies Hana, one of the last remaining stretches of Hawai’i untouched by hotels or billionaire retreats. The 60 acres of the author’s family lands, extending from mountain to sea, were given in 1848 by King Kamehameha III.

When a property tax bill arrives with a 500% increase, Goo and her family members are forced to make a decision about the they must fight to keep the land or do as so many other Hawaiian families have done and sell to the next Mainland millionaire.

From an early age, Goo was enchanted by the land, which includes a massive 16th century temple with a mysterious past. But as the financial crisis spurs her into action, she uncovers how much land her family already lost over generations -- and the larger story of displacement of Native Hawaiians.

The author transports readers through the dark colonial history of the islands and takes them along as she learns to hula and reconnect with her culture. Only then can she fulfill her “kuleana”—a word meaning responsibility and stewardship, carried through the generations.

Part journalistic offering and part memoir, Kuleana interrogates deeper questions of identity and what we owe those who come before us and after us. Goo’s breathtaking story of unexpected homecomings, familial hardship, and fierce devotion to ancestry writes a new story about Hawai’i, its native people, and their struggle to hold onto their land and culture today.
"

This is a topic I'm always interested in learning more about, and I think this sounds like it'll be an incredibly informative and important read, so I'm really looking forward to reading it!


The Palace of Illusions by Rowenna Miller
Publication: May 10th, 2025
Redhook
Paperback. 480 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"The Palace of Illusions brings readers to a Paris breathless with excitement at the dawn of the twentieth century, where for a select few there is a second, secret Paris where the magic of the City of Light is very real in this enchanting and atmospheric fantasy from the author of The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill.

In the run up to the 1900s World’s Fair Paris is abuzz with creative energy and innovation. Audiences are spellbound by the Lumiere brothers’ moving pictures and Loie Fuller’s serpentine dance fusing art and technology. But for Clara Ironwood, a talented and pragmatic clockworker, nothing compares to the magic of her godfather’s mechanical creations, and she’d rather spend her days working on the Palace of Illusions, an intricate hall of mirrors that is one of the centerpieces of the world’s fair.

When her godfather sends Clara a hideous nutcracker for Christmas, she is puzzled until she finds a hidden compartment that unlocks a mirror-world Paris where the Seine is musical, fountains spout lemonade, and mechanical ballerinas move with human grace. The magic of her godfather’s toys was real.

As Clara explores this other Paris and begins to imbue her own creations with its magic, she soon discovers a darker side to innovation. Suspicious men begin to approach her outside of work, and she could swear a shadow is following her. There’s no ignoring the danger she’s in, but Clara doesn't know who to trust. The magic of the two Parises are colliding and Clara must find the strength within herself to save them both.
"

I love the sound of this, and I love Rowenna Miller's writing, so this sounds wonderful--I only wish it were coming out during fall or winter since it's a Nutcracker-inspired tale (!?). Regardless, I've had an ARC of this I've been meaning to get to and I can't wait to get started.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Review: Overgrowth by Mira Grant


Overgrowth by Mira Grant
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: May 6th, 2025
Hardcover. 480 pages.

About Overgrowth (from the publisher):

"Day of the Triffids meets Little Shop of Horrors in this smart, charming, harrowing alien invasion story about being human, by a Hugo-award winning author.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has believed her.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

What happens when you know what's coming, and just refuse to listen?"

I'm always excited for new books from Mira Grant (Into the Drowning Deep has long been a favorite of mine), so as soon as I saw Overgrowth announced I knew I was going to have to check it out. This premise sounded pretty wild, and if anyone can tackle weird, it's Mira Grant.

Anastasia is an alien. She has known this since she was a kid, and she has made sure to tell anyone and everyone this fact, along with the additional information that one day her fellow aliens were going to invade Earth. Naturally, no one believed her. But one day, an alien signal is picked up by humans on Earth and suddenly it seems possible that maybe, just maybe, Anastasia has not been lying and/or delusional her entire life...

What a premise, right? I was certainly intrigued to see what Grant would do with it, and while I appreciated the story she created, I'll be honest that I was left feeling this story was a bit hit or miss for me.

I really liked getting to know Anastasia, or Stasia, and I enjoyed learning about how she has lived her entire life in this world as someone who believes/knows that she is actually an alien and isn't actually the same human as everyone else. It's also a fascinating dynamic to have her aware that there is an impending invasion set for Earth, but also to not know when or how or exactly what. She's clever and very perceptive, but also intensely introverted and prefers not to be overly social, and I appreciated hearing her thoughts and takes on the world and people around her. Stasia is also currently in a relationship with Graham when the story begins, and this was a couple I found quite lovely to follow. Their dynamic felt real and full of empathy, respect, and understanding. I particularly appreciated some of the background we got about some of their past relationship struggles and how they worked through them to be the strong couple they are today. I know this book isn't about their relationship and it's not a romance, but it is about the human race and I thought they provided a really good example of what human connection is and how empathy and passion can build even when it's not expected.

What I found didn't work for me with the characters was the fact that they felt much younger than they were. If I recall correctly, I think they are generally supposed to be in their thirties (?), and throughout this book I would've easily believed they were early twenties at most. And this also leads me to the fact that this book really felt like it could've been a YA story. I never say that as an insult or to disparage YA, but there is definitely a vibe these days in YA and a lot of tropes/types of characters that show up, and I kept having to remind myself that this was not, in fact, a YA story. It felt like a lot of the adult books that YA authors have now been writing, or a lot of the adult stories that show up in popular book box subscriptions, etc., where they are basically YA but just... older. The main positive I will say is that Grant is generally very good at writing characters, and that does appear to hold true here. No matter what age or perceived age people are in this story, they are typically fairly well-developed and have some interesting insights to bring to the story based on their own perspectives and experiences, which I always appreciate. Grant just knows how to build an atmosphere and develop some really compelling, complex characters.

I also think Grant generally handled this entire premise well, but the execution didn't always work for me. The pacing felt quite glacial at times, and it just didn't feel like there was always that many worthwhile things happening, but rather some filler here and there. This book's page count is in the high 400s, and I really don't think it needed to be. I would think, "surely this must be close to the end," and then realize I still had 20-30% of the story left. If I think back on the book right now, I couldn't even tell you what fills all of those pages. There is a lot of introspection by our characters to be sure, which isn't a bad thing, but also a lot of minor plot points or just very slow movement that didn't feel like it needed to be there.

What I did love about Grant's writing in this book was her tackling of some many themes and moral questions that popped up. For instance, what's the morality around aliens vs. humans? Is one inherently more full of worth than the other? Is that worth affected by whether one is able to feel more emotions than the other? What about invasions--especially if the ones being invaded aren't taking care of their planet? And what exactly is humanity--what makes up being a human? And how does that differ from other living beings? All of these and more are explored, and it's topics like these that are really why I read and love speculative fiction so much. We don't get to experience things like what happened in this book in our everyday lives (which is probably a good thing, don't get me wrong), so I always relish the chance to explore new ideas and questions whenever I can through creative stories.

Overall, I truly enjoy exploring the ideas in Mira Grant's brain and am so grateful she writes these stories to share them all with us. Overgrowth is a solid alien invasion sci-fi that I think will be a big hit for many readers.

*I received a copy of Overgrowth in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Can't-Wait Wednesday: School of Shards by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko & Flashlight by Susan Choi

  

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!

School of Shards (Vita Nostra, #3) by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko, transl. Julia Meitov Hersey
Publication: June 17th, 2025
Harper Voyager
Paperback. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"'The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos’ magical dark academia novel brings the story of Sasha to a revelatory climax as she learns to take control of her powers and reshape the world...or destroy it forever. Beautifully translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey.

The Institute of Special Technologies teaches students just one the magic that allows them to become parts of speech, and in doing so, transforming into a specific piece of grammar (a verb, or an adjective, or an article) so they will be able to shape the world around them. As the new provost, though, Sasha is facing an enormous the students in the world she just created, her “world without fear,” are unable to master the curriculum. Whether it’s the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and become—Speech—is the basis of the material world.

And if she can’t teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist.

To protect the world, Sasha must collect fragments of her former reality. Only three people carry these fragments within her younger brother, Valya, and the Grigoriev twins, Arthur and Pashka, the sons of her former lover, Yaroslav Grigoriev. Sasha must lure these three to the Institute and make them learn—and understand—at any cost.

But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teacher’s desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle.

And one she must break.

To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesn’t break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish.

Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dream—often her nightmare—and she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on.
"

I had no idea that they were finally translating the third book in this series, so I am beyond thrilled. I absolutely need to re-read the first two books before getting to this one. Vita Nostra remains a favorite of mine (and hopefully stays that way after my re-read, haha). (I don't know why the cover art direction has gone in this direction, either, especially when compared to Vita Nostra's cover, which is one of my favorites ever). I can't wait!

Flashlight by Susan Choi
Publication: June 3rd, 2025
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Hardcover. 464 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise.

One night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the beach. He’s carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later Louisa is found washed up by the tide, barely alive. Her father is gone, presumed drowned. She is ten years old.

In chapters that shift from one member to the next, turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Susan Choi's Flashlight chases the shockwaves of one family’s catastrophe. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, an ethnic Korean born and raised in Japan, lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to the DPRK. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her family after a reckless sexual adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.

What really happened to Louisa’s father? Why did he take Louisa and her mother to Japan just before he disappeared? And how can we love, or make sense of our lives, when there’s so much we can’t see?
"

I really enjoy a thoughtful, character driven literary fiction story, and this sounds like it should hit all of those notes--and of course provide an interesting story while doing so. Looking forward to this one!

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Month in Review: April 2025

 

This was supposed to go up last Friday, but apparently my scheduled post never posted and I just realized it so... here's a slightly delayed April wrap-up!

While March was the longest month ever, April seemed to just speed by somehow. When I look back on it, I can see that it was busy month, so I'm guessing that's why it felt so quick, but I'm feeling genuinely shocked that it's already May(!). How are you all doing so far in May?

In personal news... nothing much to report! April has been another hectic month and I sometimes feel like I'm barely hanging in there, haha--but honestly, I think that's how a lot of us having been feeling lately. Also, our healthcare/medical system still sucks, but what else is new?

In reading news, April was a very stop and go month for me. I read a lot of great books in bursts and also had some mini reading slumps here and there. But overall, I definitely can't complain! Some highlights would be When the Wolf Comes Home, Empire of Silence, and Dreambound. I've fallen a bit behind on April and May ARCs so I'm trying to catch up, but May is going to be another busy month so let's just keep our fingers crossed I can find the time to devour some books. I managed to read some books I've been meaning to read for a number of years, so that always feels really satisfying.

How was your April and what books have you been reading?  Let me know how your month was below and what you've been reading!
   

# books read: 13

When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy ★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC
Thoughts: Nat Cassidy is truly a gem in the horror genre and this book was no exception. I listened to the audiobook version and honestly struggled to metaphorically put it down because I was so captivated. 

The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America by Carrie Schuettpelz ★★★★
Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: This was so informative and honestly a must-read for understanding Native American identity and how it has developed, is perceived, and more within the United States. 

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig ★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC
Thoughts: This felt like a very classic Chuck Wendig horror book, which basically means it was a fantastic one with some intense topics and ideas explored. I just posted my review for this one this past week. 

Dreambound by Dan Frey ★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Paperback
Thoughts: I've been wanting to read this for ages (and especially since reading Tammy from BooksBonesandBuffy's review for it) and it was so good and absolutely lived up to what I was hoping for. I love stories like this, LA settings, and just the general storytelling elements at play here. 

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky ★★★★
Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: This and The Brothers Karamazov are the two main works by Dostoevsky that I'd yet to read, so I was excited to get to this one. I really liked Notes from the Underground and it reminded me how much I've enjoyed Dostoevsky's work in the past. I'm hoping to read The Brothers Karamazov finally sometime soon!

Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi ★★★★
Source: Publisher | Format: Physical ARC
Thoughts: This was a really unique noir/fantasy/future-y story that I honestly just had a great time exploring. It wasn't the most compelling story I've ever read, but I appreciated the writing and setting. 

The Great When (The Long London Quintet, #1) by Alan Moore ★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Hardcover
Thoughts: I finally got around to reading this one, and I have to say that of Alan Moore's prose works, this was probably one of the most accessible! I actually really liked this one, and I'm eager for more. 

Taiwan Travelogue by Shuāng-zǐ Yáng ★★★★
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook
Thoughts: For some reason, I didn't expect this book to be 75% food descriptions, but that's what it felt like! I enjoyed this, but if you like food--like, really love food--then you should check this one out. 

Empire of Silence (Sun Eater, #1) by Christopher Ruocchio ★★★★
Source: Owned | Format: Hardcover
Thoughts: I finally managed to read this one and it was a blast. It definitely gives me classic epic space opera vibes (it really feels like epic fantasy, but sci-fi) and I'm completely here for it. I'm especially loving all the ancient history lore/archaeological aspects that add so much depth to this world and its background. 

Deadstream by Mar Romasco-Moore ★★★★
Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC
Thoughts: I thought this was a pretty fun YA horror/thriller. Reviews aren't overly excited about this one, but I thought it was a really solid addition to the social media/internet horror type genre (I can't remember if there's a name for this?) and I'd heavily compare it to the Unfriended movies, but more focused on the streaming world. The ending was dumb, I'll admit, but it was entertaining enough, and honestly that's all I ask of YA these days since I so rarely read it. 

The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1) by Rachel Gillig ★★★★
Source: Publisher | Format: Physical ARC
Thoughts: This is probably another one of the most highly anticipated fantasy releases of this year and I thought it was a solid read, though not a new favorite.  I definitely liked One Dark Window more, but this seems like a series that has a lot of potential and I'll definitely continue to see what's next.

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict ★★★★
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook
Thoughts: I haven't read a Marie Benedict book in a while, so I thought I'd give this one a go, and I have to say it wasn't my favorite of hers. It's still a nice little mystery of sorts, though. 


Hammajang Luck by Makan Yamamoto ★★★★
Source: Library | Format: Audiobook
Thoughts: I started this book back in February, I think, but then my library hold ran out and I had to return it, and I finally got it back in April to finish, so my reading experience has been a little disjointed, but overall this was a solid heist novel. Nothing I'd really say was overly spectacular, but there's some good writing. 

To-Be-Finished:

None! (that I can recall, at least)
 Posts:
Blog Memes:


Thursday, May 1, 2025

Review: The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig


The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: April 29th, 2025
Hardcover. 400 pages.

About The Staircase in the Woods (from the publisher):

"A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

“Chuck Wendig weaves his magic once more, turning a lonely staircase in the woods into a searing, propulsive, dread-filled exploration of the horrors of knowing and being known.”—Kiersten White, author of Hide and Lucy Undying


Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . ."

Twenty years ago, a group of five high school friends--Nick, Matty, Owen, Hamish, and Lore--took a camping trip in the woods. While in the forest, they stumbled upon a random staircase leading to seemingly nowhere. Matty decides to trek up the staircase... and disappears. The rest of the group have no idea where Matty went, the staircase is gone, and they must eventually move on with their lives. Now, in the present day, the group gathers once again to venture into the forest, where they find the staircase once again, and this time they plan to find Matty. 

The Staircase in the Woods is a dark exploration into the minds of our characters, as well as the horrors that humanity can thrust upon one another. This book travels to some very dark corners of terrible topics, so I would definitely advise caution before diving into this one if you are sensitive to subjects relating to abuse, murder, self harm, suicide, and similar. I will say that Wendig is one of those authors that I fully trust to tackle such topics in a way that is both raw and authentic, but also thoughtful and done with clear intention throughout. There's not too much in the way of misery porn for the sake of it, but rather things seem to be placed intentionally and with care so that readers can fully grasp everything that's happening and feel just as horrified as its characters at everything going on. There are also plenty of little twists and unveilings throughout that keep the pages turning. 

One thing I always expect from Wendig is a focus on his characters, their backstories, motivations, and innermost thoughts and feelings--the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The Staircase in the Woods does just that and we get to fully learn almost as much as there is to learn about each individual friend, as well as the many varying and ever-shifting dynamics of their friend group, including who has feelings for who and how that also affected their friendship. I'm a little torn in how I feel about some of this because I always appreciated getting to learn more about characters and how they became who they are in a story, but I also sometimes felt like the constant narrative shift back in time to explore a certain time period or element of history of a character slowed the pacing a decent bit, and even at times felt somewhat repetitive. This, however, is something that I have found to be present in most of Wendig's novels, so I know it's absolutely his style and overall it works for the story he creates. 

Owen is our primary protagonist, and I appreciated getting to really dive into his own anxieties and struggles that plagued him as he grew into adulthood after experiencing everything the five friends experienced growing up. With this heavy focus on characters, I often find some of Wendig's characters to at times feel a bit over the top in certain ways, and that certainly was the case here for a couple of the characters. Lore, for instance, is someone who I would describe as having a bit of an abrasive personality at times, and I found it difficult to really understand where she stood with everything at times and how who she was in the present reconciled with who she was in the past. What I did appreciate though was how well Wendig really captured the tension that was present among the friends. A tragedy fractured their friendship--and themselves--during some formative years, and nothing ever remained the same. It's sometimes awkward enough just trying to catch up with friends you were so close with once upon a time when you barely no them anymore, it's another thing entirely when there's even more baggage to deal with. 

I don't want to get into too many details about what happens once the group ascends the staircase, but I try to say what I can while remaining a bit vague. The staircase sends them into what I can only describe as a rabbit hole of horrors, what is essentially a--literally--severely haunted house with what appears to be a never-ending shuffle of rooms that feature deeply traumatizing and disturbing scenes that the group is forced to make their way through. There's not so much physically that's a threat in most of these cases (though that's not always the case), but rather it's the psychological aspects that are meant to horrify and slowly eat away at each person's sanity as they attempt to navigate this doomed house. The horrors are truly relentless, and I began to feel as fatigued as our characters by it all. 

This actually brings me to my main issue with this book, and that is with the general pacing. For some reason, I really struggled with this about halfway through. It was slightly perplexing to me considering how much this book should have been something I'd love the entire time, but I think the rut that the characters fell into while trying to survive this how somehow transferred to a rut that I felt with them, and therefore with the book itself. We spend a lot of time exploring the horrors of this house, and then in turn the different backstories of each character, and altogether I felt the pacing just slowed immensely and left me really hoping for something to happen that would renew my interest. Fortunately, I did regain my interest near the end, although even there I felt the ending may have dragged just a bit in some places. 

Overall, The Staircase in the Woods is another incredibly successful horror from Chuck Wendig and definitely reminds me why I'm always so drawn to his work and the incredibly complex and detailed characters he finds within his stories. If you're already a Wendig fan, then I'm sure you'll also enjoy this one, and if you're new to Wendig, then you're certainly in for a--rather messed up--treat!

*I received a copy of The Staircase in the Woods in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Night Birds by Christopher Golden & The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

  

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!


The Night Birds by Christopher Golden
Publication: May 6th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"'The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden, set in a deteriorated, half-sunken freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak, they never expected to see each other again, but when terror enters Ruby’s life, Charlie Book is the only safe harbor she can believe in.

In his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book has been living aboard and studying the Christabel, a 19th century freighter that lies half-sunken in Gulf waters, just off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest, full of birds, crabs, and snakes. Though a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, Book intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, preparing to motor out to the Christabel, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And Ruby’s not alone. With her are a mysterious, terrified woman named Johanna and an infant child. They need Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they're on the run, only it isn’t the police who are after them. It’s the coven of witches Johanna has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom they had hideous plans…or so Johanna claims.

It’s lunacy. Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, back in Galveston there are shadowed figures out in the storm, sniffing the air like bloodhounds. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline as if searching for their prey.
"

This sounds weird as hell and I'm totally here for it. If there's one thing I can trust from Christopher Golden, it's that he is always up for committing to some weird shit


The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
Publication: May 13th, 2025
Tor Books
Hardcover. 560 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"A brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side"

I just posted my review for this on Monday, but I'm still so excited for it's release--and partially because I'm curious to see all of the stunning special editions of it, haha! This book was an awesome ride, and I'm eager to see everyone's thoughts on it. 

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Blog Tour + Excerpt: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

    

We've made it, everyone--today I'm sharing my final Winter 2025 blog tour stop (though it's certainly not winter anymore!)! For this final stop, I'm thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker with you all today. You'll also find some information about the book and its wonderful author, Kylie Lee Baker, below. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is available today!
Happy reading!

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG
Author:  Kylie Lee Baker
Pub. Date: April 29th, 2025
Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA
Pages:
 304
Find it: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org


SYNOPSIS:
"This unsettling adult debut from Kylie Lee Baker follows a biracial crime scene cleaner who’s haunted by both her inner trauma and hungry ghosts as she's entangled in a series of murders in New York City's Chinatown. Parasite meets The Only Good Indians in this sharp novel that explores harsh social edges through the lens of the horror genre.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner in New York City’s Chinatown, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: in the early months of 2020, her sister Delilah was pushed in front of a train as Cora stood next to her. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.

So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the possible germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner. And by the strange spots in her eyes and that food keeps going missing in her apartment. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what anxiety is real and what’s in her head. She can barely keep herself together as it is.

She pushes away all feelings, ignoring the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, ignoring the advice of her aunt to burn joss paper and other paper replicas of items to send to the dead and to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. Ignores the dread in her stomach as she and her weird coworkers keep finding bat carcasses at their crime scene cleanups. Ignores the scary fact that all their recent cleanups have been the bodies of Asian women.
"



Excerpt:

ONE 

April 2020 

East Broadway station bleeds when it rains, water rushing down from cracks in the secret darkness of the ceiling. Someone should probably fix that, but it’s the end of the world, and New York has bigger problems than a soggy train station that no one should be inside of anyway. No one takes the subway at the end of the world. No one except Cora and Delilah Zeng. 
    Delilah wanders too close to the edge of the platform and Cora grabs her arm, tugging her away from the abyss of the tracks that unlatches its jaws, waiting. But Delilah settles safely behind the yellow line and the darkness clenches its teeth.
    Outside the wet mouth of the station, New York is empty. The China Virus, as they call it, has cleared the streets. News stations flash through footage of China—bodies in garbage bags, guards and tanks protecting the city lines, sobbing doctors waving their last goodbyes from packed trains, families who just want to fucking live but are trapped in the plague city for the Greater Good. 
    On the other side of the world, New York is so empty it echoes. You can scream and the ghost of your voice will carry for blocks and blocks. The sound of footsteps lasts forever, the low hum of streetlights a warm undercurrent that was always there, waiting, but no one could hear it until now. Delilah says it’s unnerving, but Cora likes the quiet, likes how much bigger the city feels, likes that the little lights from people’s apartment windows are the only hint of their existence, no one anything more than a bright little square in the sky. 
    What she doesn’t like is that she can’t find any toilet paper at the end of the world. 
    Apparently, people do strange things when they’re scared of dying, and one of them is hoarding toilet paper. Cora and Delilah have been out for an hour trying to find some and finally managed to grab a four-pack of one-ply in Chinatown, which is better than nothing but not by much. 
    They had to walk in the rain because they couldn’t get an Uber. No one wants Chinese girls in their car, and they’re not the kind of Chinese that can afford their own car in a city where it isn’t necessary. But now that they have the precious paper, they’d rather not walk home in the rain and end up with a sodden mess in their arms. 
    “The train isn’t coming,” Cora says. She feels certain of this. She feels certain about a lot of things she can’t explain, the way some people are certain that God exists. Some thoughts just cross her mind and sink their teeth in. Besides, the screen overhead that’s supposed to tell them when the next train arrives has said DELAYS for the last ten minutes. 
    “It’s coming,” Delilah says, checking her phone, then tucking it away when droplets from the leaky roof splatter onto the screen. Delilah is also certain about many things, but for different reasons. Delilah chooses the things she wants to believe, while Cora’s thoughts are bear traps snapping closed around her ankles. 
    Sometimes Cora thinks Delilah is more of a dream than a sister, a camera flash of pretty lights in every color that you can never look at directly. She wraps herself up in pale pink and wispy silk and flower hair clips; she wears different rings on each finger that all have a special meaning; she is Alice in Wonderland who has stumbled out of a rabbit hole and somehow arrived in New York from a world much more kind and lovely than this one. 
    Cora hugs the toilet paper to her chest and peers into the silent train tunnel. She can’t see even a whisper of light from the other side. The darkness closes in like a wall. The train cannot be coming because trains can’t break through walls. 
    Or maybe Cora just doesn’t want to go home, because going home with Delilah means remembering that there is a world outside of this leaky station. 
    There is their dad in China, just a province away from the epicenter of body bags. And there is the man who emptied his garbage over their heads from his window and called them Chinks on the walk here. And there is the big question of What Comes Next? Because another side effect of the end of the world is getting laid off. 
    Cora used to work the front desk at the Met, which wasn’t exactly what an art history degree was designed for and certainly didn’t justify the debt. But it was relevant enough to her studies that for a few months it stopped shame from creeping in like black mold and coating her lungs in her sleep. But no one needs museums at the end of the world, so no one needs Cora. 
    Delilah answered emails and scheduled photo shoots for a local fashion magazine that went belly-up as soon as someone whispered the word pandemic, and suddenly there were two art history majors, twenty-four and twenty-six, with work experience in dead industries and New York City rent to pay. Now the money is gone and there are no careers to show for it and the worst part is that they had a chance, they had a Nai Nai who paid for half their tuition because she thought America was for dreams. They didn’t have to wait tables or strip or sell Adderall to pay for college but they somehow messed it up anyway, and Cora thinks that’s worse than having no chance at all. She thinks a lot of other things about herself too, but she lets those thoughts go quickly, snaps her hands away from them like they’re a hot pan that will burn her skin. 
    Cora thinks this is all Delilah’s fault but won’t say it out loud because that’s another one of her thoughts that no one wants to hear. It’s a little bit her own fault as well, for not having her own dreams. If there was anything Cora actually wanted besides existing comfortably, she would have known what to study in college, wouldn’t have had to chase after Delilah. 
    But not everyone has dreams. Some people just are, the way that trees and rocks and rivers are just there without a reason, the rest of the world moving around them. 
    Cora thinks that the water dripping down the wall looks oddly dark, more so than the usual sludge of the city, and maybe it has a reddish tinge, like the city has slit its own wrists and is dying in this empty station. But she knows better than to say this out loud, because everything looks dirty to her, and Cora Zeng thinking something is dirty doesn’t mean the average human agrees—at least, that’s what everyone tells her. 
    “Maybe I’ll work at a housekeeping company,” Cora says, half to herself and half to the echoing tunnel, but Delilah answers anyway. 
    “You know that’s a bad idea,” she says. 
    Cora shrugs. Objectively, she understands that if you scrub yourself raw with steel wool one singular time, no one likes it when you clean anything for the rest of your life. But things still need to be cleaned even if Delilah doesn’t like it, and Cora thinks there are worse things than leaning a little bit into the crazy parts of you. Isn’t that what artists do, after all? Isn’t that the kind of person Delilah likes? The tortured artist types who smoke indoors and paint with their own blood and feces. 
“Mama cleaned toilets for rich white people because she had no choice,” Delilah says. “You have a college degree and that’s what you want to do?” 
    Cora doesn’t answer at first because Mama means Delilah’s mom, so Cora doesn’t see why her thoughts on Cora’s life should matter. Cora doesn’t have a Mama. She has a Mom, a white lady from Wisconsin who probably hired someone else’s mama to clean her toilet. 
Cora quite likes cleaning toilets, but this is another thing she knows she shouldn’t say out loud. Instead, she says, “What I want is to make rent this month.” 
    Legally, Cora’s fairly certain they can’t be evicted during the pandemic, but she doesn’t want to piss off their landlord, the man who sniffs their mail and saves security camera footage of Delilah entering the building. He price-gouges them for a crappy fourth-floor walkup in the East Village with a radiator that vomits a gallon of brown water onto their floor in the winter and a marching band of pipes banging in the walls, but somehow Cora doubts they’ll find anything better without jobs. 
    Delilah smiles with half her mouth, her gaze distant like Cora is telling her a fairy tale. “I’ve been burning lemongrass for money energy,” Delilah says. “We’ll be fine.” This is another thing Delilah just knows. 
    Cora hates the smell of lemongrass. The scent coats her throat, wakes her up at night feeling like she’s drowning in oil. But she doesn’t know if the oils are a Chinese thing or just a Delilah thing, and she hates accidentally acting like a white girl around Delilah. Whenever she does, Delilah gives her this look, like she’s remembered who Cora really is, and changes the subject. 
    “The train is late,” Cora says instead of acknowledging the lemongrass. “I don’t think it’s coming.” 
    “It’s coming, Cee,” Delilah says. 
    “I read that they reduced service since no one’s taking the train these days,” Cora says. “What if it doesn’t stop here anymore?” 
    “It’s coming,” Delilah says. “It’s not like we have a choice except waiting here anyway.” 
    Cora’s mind flashes with the image of both their skeletons standing at the station, waiting for a train that never comes, while the world crumbles around them. They could walk— they only live in the East Village—but Delilah is made of sugar and her makeup melts off in the rain and her umbrella is too small and she said no, so that’s the end of it. Delilah is not Cora’s boss, she’s not physically intimidating, and she has no blackmail to hold over her, but Cora knows the only choice is to do what Delilah says. When you’re drowning and someone grabs your hand, you don’t ask them where they’re taking you. 
    A quiet breeze sighs through the tunnel, a dying exhale. It blows back Delilah’s bangs and Cora notices that Delilah has penciled in her eyebrows perfectly, even though it’s raining and they only went out to the store to buy toilet paper. Something about the sharp arch of her left eyebrow in particular triggers a thought that Cora doesn’t want to think, but it bites down all the same. 
Sometimes, Cora thinks she hates her sister. 
    It’s strange how hate and love can so quietly exist at the same time. They are moon phases, one silently growing until one day all that’s left is darkness. It’s not something that Delilah says or does, really. Cora is used to her small annoyances. 
    It’s that Delilah is a daydream and standing next to her makes Cora feel real. 
    Cora has pores full of sweat and oil, socks with stains on the bottom, a stomach that sloshes audibly after she eats. Delilah is a pretty arrangement of refracted light who doesn’t have to worry about those things. Cora wanted to be like her for a very long time, because who doesn’t want to transcend their disgusting body and become Delilah Zeng, incorporeal, eternal? But Cora’s not so sure anymore. 
Cora peers into the tunnel. We are going to be stuck here forever, Cora thinks, knows. 
But then the sound begins, a rising symphony to Cora’s ears. The ground begins to rumble, puddles shivering. 
    “Finally,” Delilah says, pocketing her phone. “See? I told you.” 
    Cora nods because Delilah did tell her and sometimes Delilah is right. The things Cora thinks she knows are too often just bad dreams bleeding into her waking hours. 
    Far away, the headlights become visible in the darkness. A tiny mouth of white light. 
    “Cee,” Delilah says. Her tone is too delicate, and it makes coldness curl around Cora’s heart. Delilah tosses words out easily, dandelion parachutes carried about by the wind. But these words have weight. 
Delilah toys with her bracelet—a jade bangle from their Auntie Zeng, the character for hope on the gold band. Cora has a matching one, shoved in a drawer somewhere, except the plate says love, at least that’s what Cora thinks. She’s not very good at reading Chinese. 
    “I’m thinking of going to see Dad,” Delilah says. 
    The mouth of light at the end of the tunnel has expanded into a door of brilliant white, and Cora waits because this cannot be all. Dad lives in Changsha, has lived there ever since America became too much for him, except it’s always been too much for Cora too and she has nowhere to run away to, her father hasn’t given her the words she needs. Delilah has visited him twice in the last five years, so this news isn’t enough to make Delilah’s voice sound so tight, so nervous. 
    “I think I might stay there awhile,” Delilah says, looking away. “Now that I’m out of work, it seems like a good time to get things settled before the pandemic blows over.” 
    Cora stares at the side of Delilah’s head because her sister won’t meet her gaze. Cora isn’t stupid, she knows what this is a “good time” for. Delilah started talking about being a model in China last year. Cora doesn’t know if the odds are better in China and she doubts Delilah knows either. All she knows is that Delilah tried for all of three months to make a career of modeling in New York until that dream fizzled out, smoke spiraling from it, and Delilah stopped trying because everything is disposable to her, right down to her dreams. 
    Cora always thought this particular dream would be too expensive, too logistically complicated for Delilah to actually follow through on. Worst-case scenario, they’d plan a three-week vacation to China that would turn into a week and a half when Delilah lost interest and started fighting with Dad again. The idea of flying during a pandemic feels like a death sentence, but Cora has already resigned herself to hunting down some N95 respirators just so Delilah could give her modeling dream an honest try. 
Because even if Delilah tends to extinguish her own dreams too fast, Cora believes in them for all of their brief, brilliant lives. If Cora ever found a dream of her own, she would nurture it in soft soil, measure out each drop of water, each sunbeam, give it a chance to become. So Cora will not squash her sister’s dreams, not for anything. 
    “I’ll just put my half of the rent on my credit card until I find work,” Delilah says, “so you won’t need a new roommate.” 
    Then Cora understands, all at once, like a knife slipped between her ribs, that Delilah isn’t inviting Cora to come with her. 
    Of course she isn’t. Delilah has a mama who speaks Mandarin to her, so Delilah’s Chinese is good enough to live in China. But Cora’s isn’t. Delilah would have to do everything for her, go everywhere with her because she knows Cora would cry just trying to check out at the supermarket. Delilah could do it for her, but she doesn’t want to. 
    Cora suddenly feels like a child who has wandered too far into a cave. The echoes become ghosts and the darkness wraps in tight ribbons around your throat and you call for a mom who will never come. 
Cora’s hands shake, fingers pressing holes into the plastic wrap of the toilet paper, her whole body vibrating with the sheer unfairness of it all. You can’t string someone along their whole life and then just leave them alone one day holding your toilet paper in a soggy train station. 
    “Or you could stay with your aunt?” Delilah says. “Then you wouldn’t have to worry about rent. It would be better for both of us, I think.” 
    Auntie Lois, she means. Mom’s sister, whose house smells like a magazine, who makes Cora kneel in a confessional booth until she can name all her sins. Delilah has decided that this is Cora’s life, and Delilah is the one who makes decisions. 
    Delilah keeps talking, but Cora can’t hear her. The world rumbles as the train draws closer. The white light is too bright now, too sharp behind Delilah, and it illuminates her silhouette, carves her into the wet darkness. Delilah has a beautiful silhouette, the kind that men would have painted hundreds of years ago. Cora thinks about the Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the Mona Lisa, and all the beautiful women immortalized in oil paint, and wonders if they said cruel things too, if their words had mattered at all or just the roundness of their eyes and softness of their cheeks, if beautiful people are allowed to break your heart and get away with it. 
    The man appears in a flash of a black hoodie and blue surgical mask. 
    He says two words, and even though the train is rushing closer, a roaring wave about to knock them off their feet, those two words are perfectly clear, sharp as if carved into Cora’s skin. 
    Bat eater. 
    Cora has heard those words a lot the past two months. The end of the world began at a wet market in Wuhan, they say, with a sick bat. Cora has never once eaten a bat, but it has somehow become common knowledge that Chinese people eat bats just to start plagues. 
    Cora only glances at the man’s face for a moment before her gaze snaps to his pale hand clamped around Delilah’s skinny arm like a white spider, crunching the polyester of her pink raincoat. Lots of men grab Delilah because she is the kind of girl that men want to devour. Cora thinks the man will try to kiss Delilah, or force her up the stairs and into a cab, or a thousand things better than what actually happens next. 
    Because he doesn’t pull her close. He pushes her away. 
    Delilah stumbles over the yellow line, ankle twisting, and when she crashes down there’s no ground to meet her, just the yawning chasm of the train tracks. 
    The first car hits her face. 
    All at once, Cora’s skin is scorched with something viscous and salty. Brakes scream and blue sparks fly and the wind blasts her hair back, the liquid rushing across her throat, under her shirt. Her first thought is that the train has splashed her in some sort of track sludge, and for half a second that is the worst thought in the entire world. The toilet paper falls from Cora’s arms and splashes into a puddle when it hits the ground and There goes the whole point of the trip, she thinks. 
    Delilah does not stand up. The train is a rushing blur of silver, a solid wall of hot air and screeching metal and Delilah is on the ground, her skirt pooling out around her. Get up, Delilah, Cora thinks, because train station floors are rainforests of bacteria tracked in from so many millions of shoes, because the puddle beneath her can’t be just rainwater—it looks oddly dark, almost black, spreading fast like a hole opening up in the floor. Cora steps closer and it almost, almost looks like Delilah is leaning over the ledge, peering over the lip of the platform. 
    But Delilah ends just above her shoulders. 
    Her throat is a jagged line, torn flaps of skin and sharp bone and the pulsing O of her open trachea. Blood runs unstopped from her throat, swirling together with the rainwater of the rotting train station, and soon the whole platform is bleeding, weeping red water into the crack between the platform and the train, feeding the darkness. Cora is screaming, a raw sound that begins somewhere deep inside her rib cage and tears its way up her throat and becomes a hurricane, a knife-sharp cry, the last sound that many women ever make. 
    But there’s no one to hear it because New York is a dead body, because no one rides the subway at the end of the world. No one but Cora Zeng.


Excerpted from BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG by Kylie Lee Baker. Copyright © 2025 by Kylie Lee Baker. Published by MIRA, an imprint of HTP/HarperCollins.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of Night duology, The Scarlet Alchemist duology, and the forthcoming adult horror Bat Eater. She grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish), as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a BA in creative writing and Spanish from Emory University and a master of library and information science degree from Simmons University.

Find Kylie Lee Baker online: Author Website | Goodreads | Instagram | X/Twitter