I really enjoyed this. Throughout the book you slowly start to see how each generation leaves something behind for the next one. The good, the bad, the ugly, etc.

I think what I liked most was following the family through time and seeing how the history built on itself. The author did a really good job showing generational trauma and legacy without making it feel overly dramatic or heavy-handed. A big theme is inheritance...but like, not just material inheritance. Emotional inheritance, too (if that's a thing).

The ending wasn’t the huge gut-punch I was hoping for, but it worked. It was quieter and more grounded. Kind of makes you think about how you might balance your own desires with those of a family you never really felt connected to in the first place. I liked that. Definitely gives you something something to consider.

This was really thoughtful and layered. I'll be recommending it!

Heavy on the revenge. It’s such a short story that I feel like saying anything specific will spoil it. There just…isn’t a lot to it. Definitely something most people could read in 30ish minutes. Good for people who want something quick and cathartic for their feminine rage.

I enjoy historical fiction that’s closely based on real events but takes some liberties. Also, perspective is a really fun way to play with a narrative, so the fact that the narrator of this book is the main character’s dead brother is cool.

There were times that it read less like a literary story and more like a news story or periodical. Like…it kind of vacillated in tone. There were times I wished we got more of Margery’s inner dialogue outside of her “communicating” with her brother. I think that could have provided more depth to her character.

It was cool to learn about this medium who I had no idea existed. Sort of made me want to read more about her and get a better understanding of just how widely she was believed.

I think I was thrown off by the juxtaposition of parts 1 and 2. Part 1 is basically a case study of a very sad, very real reality that women are having to face today. It was detailed and extremely emotional. It was successful in honoring those experiences. Part 2 is essentially a speculative sci-fi scenario. Looking at the parts individually I'm like, yeah, absolutely, this makes sense. I completely understand all the things this book is exploring. Together? I just can't make them coalesce. But to be clear--that's 100% a me thing. I could see this working for a lot of people.

Couldn’t stop thinking about Stepford Wives during the first third of the book, but it pretty quickly became its own thing. I definitely wanted to keep reading the whole way; I found it very engaging and couldn’t wait to see what the deal was. Especially with Monroe! It was a bit maddening at times and I wanted to scream at the characters but I think that’s what made it so engaging. Unique premise. Believable romance. Cute dog. What else do you need?

I really enjoyed this one. The alternating timelines worked so well. It kept things moving so it never got stale. The relationships were especially well done. There's an honesty in how the characters make choices (sometimes flawed ones, perhaps?) and how those choices ripple out. What I loved is that it never felt over-explained. Sometimes authors have the tendency to do that when depicting relationships. Also, the space scene were genuinely cool. The final stretch didn’t quite land for me emotionally, but that's the only small gripe I have. Overall it's really thoughtful and layered.

Last Episode has some thoughtful moments, especially around relationships that have kind of gone numb over time. You get the sense that these characters aren’t really *bad*, ojust checked out. Stuck in routines, distracted (maybe quietly unraveling). That part felt real in a way I appreciated.

That said, it didn’t totally pull me in and didn’t strike me as a comedy, with the exception of a couple small parts. Some scenes hit harder than others, and there were places where I wanted more depth or momentum. But it’s a quick read with some sharp observations. Tech-induced apathy is such a real thing.

Would probably work well for readers who like their fiction more introspective and low-key.

Very unique vampire story. It didn’t feel like the same old kind of vampire book—they don’t work the same way, the rules are different, and one of them is even afraid of blood! Because of how it started right in the middle of something, it felt a little bit like watching a limited series or something like that. I wish we had gotten a little more backstory about why the initial situation mattered so much. Overall, really quick read and it kept me entertained.

I won this book in a Library Thing giveaway. I have to say I really enjoyed it overall, even though it tapered off a bit for me toward the very end. The storyline was really interesting and kept me wanting to read…and I liked the alternating perspectives. But I started to realize our main female character really doesn’t have any affect, which made her feel a bit flat. I don’t know how anyone could keep it together like that, given how many major things she was dealing with. But it’s a unique novel that held my attention.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this book. It's a different speed than what I typically read, but I believe it would really resonate with readers who enjoy introspective and emotionally reflective narratives. Leans heavily into themes of personal growth and reckoning with your own past. If you have inner demons, reading about Julie’s journey might help you face them. It’s quiet and thoughtful, definitely more about the internal journey than external action.

I can see this being exactly the kind of collection where different stories will stand out to different people depending on how they've experienced adulthood. Five of these 28 stories really stood out to me--“Proportions,” “Dinnertime,” “In the Great Grown‑Up Game of Make‑Believe,” “Is She a Witch? A Quiz.,” and “Randomized Trial.” I found these really thoughtful, and like they were echoing back at me the exact thoughts and feelings I've had about coping, making sense of myself, or even just trying to grasp onto the absurdity of life.

Many of the others felt a bit thin to me. Some were built around a clever idea but didn't dig very deep, so I didn't get the emotional weight or insight I look for in short fiction. That said, I do really admire the creativity here.

Really enjoyed all of the stories in this collection but there were a few standouts for me (The Experiment, From the Waist Down, The New Jenny). There's quite a lot of focus on the body as something women struggle with, feel trapped in, or slowly disconnect from. A woman's body really is a battlefield! Through those aspects of the stories, along with the themes of unspoken grief and loneliness, the author creates a really powerful emotional undercurrent. There's very little "loudness" to the narratives but you really feel them (especially as a woman).

Also, I loved the bits of dark humor and weirdness sprinkled throughout. It’s subtle, eerie, and really smart.

Short stories are kind of tough for me because I often find it frustrating when they don't wrap up nicely, but I think that's actually a strength of this collection. They linger, and the best of them hit hard in quiet ways.

I didn’t necessarily connect with the setting or storyline in the way I usually hope to when picking up a fantasy novel, but that didn’t really matter because I felt deeply understood by the internal voice of Laceco. His inner monologue—the tangents, the spirals, the over-analyzing, the strange little frameworks his brain built to make sense of things—felt really authentic. I don’t know if that’s neurodivergence or just part of being human, but the precision with which it was captured made me feel seen. That alone made the read worthwhile for me.

Some aspects of it didn’t really “gel” for me (and I found Ven to be kind of an insufferable, holier-than-thou character, which made the fact that Laceco practically worships her maddening)…but I get what the point of this story was and overall I think it was well-executed.

What I really appreciate about this collection of short stories is how they approach some of the really ugly aspects of human nature. Some of these stories were straight up uncomfy (“Refrain” comes to mind) but they felt authentic. I felt like the style was a bit formulaic from one story to the next, and I found myself craving some harder-hitting endings in some cases. Overall, though, I really enjoyed the grittiness and surprising levity in these narratives.

This novel is very introspective, using internal monologue to explore the themes of motherhood, guilt, and grief. It has short chapters and the main character’s thoughts sometimes jump from one to the next in quick succession, making this style really effective and true to form, all the while holding the reader’s attention. The narrative also has sort of a dreamlike quality to it that I really liked. It felt very genuine. I don’t have particularly strong feelings about the folktale woven throughout. It was executed well enough but I don’t know that it added anything to the story for me.

About 80% of this book felt like a fairly wild ride. The characters were really well developed and unique. I found myself thinking I wished it would have ended with more of a bang, but upon reflection I think that’s kind of the whole point. People are multi-faceted. Their personal and inner lives are so much more layered than what’s on always on display play in their public lives. So although we (sometimes often) experience surprising, bizarre, or tragic occurrences in daily life, at the end of the day most of us are just…trending toward the mean, I guess. Really enjoyed this one! A little highbrow. EXCELLENT writing.

The cover art for this book is really cool. The story itself didn’t hold my attention as I hoped it would. There was a lot of traveling place-to-place, back-and-forth, for a very short while and only for the characters to have very brief conversations. It felt a little bit like…whiplash maybe?

I will say the book got more readable in the second half. In the first half, a lot of the sentence structure felt needlessly complex or wordy.

I like that there were layers to the final resolution, though I do think the reveals fell a bit flat.

Though it wasn’t marked as such, I have to assume the epub I received was an uncorrected proof. The formatting was really disorienting and made the flow of the narrative really choppy and hard to follow at times. I’d often get lost in sections because it wasn’t clear if it was dialogue or narrative.

If you’re into young adult/sci-fi/mystery, this may be the perfect book for you. The story is really unique and it left me wondering what would happen next after every chapter. I thought it was paced really well, and the writing was excellent. Some of the dialogue between characters was perhaps a bit stale, but for me that’s less a critique of this book specifically than of most young adult books (it’s not exactly my #1 genre). That being said, though, I really did like this one. It kept me entertained throughout and I am interested in seeing what happens in the sequel that will be released later in 2025!

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.