Wytwavedarling's 2026 Year of Simple Plans

I'm back! But, this year, I'm going to keep it simple. I'll plan on coming back to add in some animal pictures later on, but for now, I just want to get my planning thread up and running...

2025 was a rough year, but things have recently been looking up. Our little Kona, who was diagnosed with FIP last March and has been in treatment all year, is finally being weaned off of his medicine, which feels like a real miracle. My husband was out of work for half of the year (losing his job to AI in April--and it was a human resources job, to add insult to injury!), but finally found a new job with great people, and he absolutely adores it. Meanwhile, my freelancing had been rougher than it had been in years just because of the economy, but I got my profile approved and up on Reedy just in the last month, and am feeling more optimistic about continuing to freelance full-time than I have in years. So, all told, we're all healthy, and things are finally looking up!

I ended up reading 130 books last year, but many of my plans went completely out the window. As such, a good part of this year is simply going to be spent working to catch-up. I want to read all of those books I *planned* to read in 2025, but never got around to, and the list isn't a short one! After I get my main posts set up, though, I'm going to include that list here in this master post. For now, on to the organizing....

The list of books I meant to read in 2025, and didn't get around to...:The Wild Trees, Angel's Game, All the White Spaces, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They matter, Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, Me Of Little Faith, Pre-approved for Haunting, The House at Phantom Park, The Daily Coyote, The Future Second by Second, Peace in the Sky, Tell Me an Ending, Wolf Tales, Incidents Around the House, House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories, The Battle for Roar, Your Body is Not Your Body, Millard Salter's Last Day, The Crowns of Croswald, Learning to Cry, Acheron, Code Peking Duck, Non-Serviam, The Glades, About Time: Poems

My goals this year are built on catching up on what I *meant* to read last year while still trying to keep up with the challenges I love...to the extent that I can! With that in mind, I've created categories for myself built on the challenges, but also with a library category (to accommodate library books whenever they come in) and a catch-up category (for all those books I meant to read last year). My *hope* is to read at least 12 in each category, allowing for some books to serve double or even triple-duty among categories. Wish me luck...

January: The Secret (RandomCat & 'E' AlphaKit), All the White Spaces (Catch-Up Read and ScaredyKit), The Future Second by Second (AlphaKit #2 - 'F' & Catch-Up Read #2), The Last Unicorn (SffKit)
February: The Illness Narratives (RandomCat), Pre-Approved for Haunting (ScaredyKit & Catch-Up Read & 'B' AlphaKit)
March: Millard Salter's Last Day (RandomCat & Catch-Up Read), The Homesick Patrol (AlphaKit #1 - 'V'), House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories (ScaredyKit & Catch-Up Read), Ake by Wole Soyinka (Colored CoverKit), 2001: A Space Odyssey (SffKit)
April: The Cruel Prince (RandomCat), Portrait of a Killer (ScaredyKit & P AlphaKit), A Brief History of Seven Killings (Colored CoverKit & 'J' AlphaKit), The Battle for Roar (SffKit parrallel worlds & Catch-up Read)
May: Sometimes We're Cruel and Other Stories (Howls Read #1), Shadow Dance (RandomCat), The Crowns of Croswald (Catch-Up Read), Wolf Worm (AlphaKit #1 - 'W' & Favorite Author), Monster Island (ScaredyKit), Parting the Veil (Colored CoverKit), Territory by Emma Bull (SffKit western)
June: Death in her Hands (Howls Read #1), October Film Haunt (Howls Read #2), 12.21 (RandomCat & 'T' Alphakit), The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Library Read), The Wild Trees (Catch-Up Read), book by James Hall or Laurell K Hamilton (AlphaKit #2 - 'H' & Favorite Author read), Little Girls (ScaredyKit), Lucid (Colored CoverKit), Trail of Lightning (SffKit)
July: Howls Read #1, Howls Read #2, RandomCat, Library Read, The Glades (AlphaKit #1 - 'G' & Catch-Up Read), Unbearable: A Dark Erotic Romance (AlphaKit #2 - 'U'), Monster Nation (ScaredyKit), Martha Moody (Colored CoverKit), SffKit, Favorite Author Read
August: Howls Read #1, Howls Read #2, RandomCat, Library Read, Catch-Up Read, Saints Astray (AlphaKit #1 - 'C' & SFFKit), The Queen of the Cicadas (AlphaKit #2 - 'Q'), Skin by Kylie Scott (ScaredyKit & Favorite Author Read), Rule of Capture by Christopher Brown (Colored CoverKit)
September: Howls Read #1, Howls Read #2, RandomCat, Library Read, AlphaKit #2 - 'Y', House at Phantom Park (ScaredyKit & Catch-Up Read & 'M' AlphaKit), Black City Saint (Colored CoverKit), Stories of Your Life and Others (SffKit), Favorite Author Read
October: Howls Read #1, Howls Read #2, RandomCat, Library Read, Catch-Up Read, AlphaKit #1 - 'N', AlphaKit #2 - 'D', ScaredyKit, The Year of Disappearances (Colored CoverKit), SffKit, Favorite Author Read
November: Howls Read #1, Howls Read #2, RandomCat, Library Read, Catch-Up Read, AlphaKit #1 - 'K', AlphaKit #2 - 'I', ScaredyKit, The Silver Metal Lover (Colored CoverKit), SffKit, Favorite Author Read
December: Howls Read #1, Howls Read #2, RandomCat, Library Read, Catch-Up Read, AlphaKit #1 - 'L', AlphaKit #2 - 'S', ScaredyKit, Birdman (Colored CoverKit), SffKit, Favorite Author Read

Currently Reading: October Film Haunt, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, Relic

Personally completing the alphabet through titles and authors...

Through Book Titles:

A B C D E F H I L N O P Q T W Y

Through Author Names:

B C E F H K L M O P R S T V W

My book club HOWLS is incredibly important to me. The discord-based horror (and horror-adjacent) book club reads 3-4 books per month, and I try to participate in at least two of the reads. So, the goal for the year is 24. This is one of the few challenge categories I satisfied for myself last year (along with nonfiction, favorite authors, and poetry...)

1. Exiles by Mason Coile 5*
2. The Lamb by Lucy Rose (3*)
3. Mister Magic by Kiersten White (4*)
4. Chlorine by Jade Song (3*)
5. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (4*)
6. Itza by Rios de la Luz (5*)
7. Lady Killers by Tori Telfer (4*)
8. The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan (5*)
9. Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (3.5*)
10. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher (4.5*)
11. Night Film by Marisha Pessl (4*)
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I will always love the RandomCat! Here we go...

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In aiming to buy fewer books this year, I really rediscovered the joy of a good local library. As such, library reads rather took over my reading at some points of the year--the library is 100% the reason why I met so few challenges in 2025 compared to last year--so I figured it deserved its own category. This is the one category where I'm not going to allow cross-over with another category; almost all of my HOWLS' book club reads are library reads, so any book read for HOWLS won't also be counting here. I think I'll mark it down at the bottom as a sort of side note, though, just to keep track of how many library reads I go through total.

Even so, I imagine I'll read far more than 12 here, but I'm curious to see exactly how many....

So, here's to my Library Reads:

1. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (3*)
2. Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud (4.5*)
3. The Quiet After: Poems of Healing Silence by R.H. Sin (4*)
4. Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (5*)
5. Through the Night Like a Snake (no editor listed) (4.5*)
6. Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha (5*)
7. The Deserters by Mathias Enard (4*)
8. Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud (4.5*)
9. House of Quiet by Kiersten White (4.5*)
10. I Live With You by Carol Emshwiller (4*)
11. Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong (5*)
12. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (3*)
13. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World edited by Ada Limon (3*)
14. Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond

Separate from the list: HOWLS reads checked out of the library included: 1) Exiles, 2) The Lamb, 3) Mister Magic, 4) Chlorine, 5) The Wax Child, 6) Itza, 7) Lady Killers

So many books didn't get read last year even though I built them into my plans! I hesitate to count how many, but once I have the list together, I'll place it here as well as in my primary post for record-keeping purposes. The fault lies with the library, but I really do want to get to these books this year. We'll see how it goes...

So, the category: Catch-up Books from 2025, to be fit into this category if not another. Perhaps fittingly, there were 25 total!

Here's the list of books I meant to read in 2025, and didn't get around to. The full list will remain in my original post, but I'm going to erase from the list here (and include them below) as I make my way through them:The Wild Trees, Angel's Game, All the White Spaces, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They matter, Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, Me Of Little Faith, Pre-approved for Haunting, The House at Phantom Park, The Daily Coyote, The Future Second by Second, Peace in the Sky, Tell Me an Ending, Wolf Tales, House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories, The Battle for Roar, Your Body is Not Your Body, Millard Salter's Last Day, The Crowns of Croswald, Learning to Cry, Acheron, Code Peking Duck, Non-Serviam, The Glades, About Time: Poems

1. Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (3.5*)
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The AlphaKit is always a fun way to help design reading plans, so I'm planning on following along once again...

1. Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz - 'O' AlphaKit - February - 4*
2. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes - 'A' AlphaKit - May - 3*
3. Night Film by Marisha Pessl - 'P' AlphaKit - April - 4*
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Of all the Kits, the ScaredyKit is probably the one I most easily find reads for within my TBR. I think this is the first year in ages I didn't finish it out. I'm going to blame that on my getting stalled out on The Tenth Girl, which I'm still about 100 pages away from finishing. I do plan to finish it, though! And, here's to 2026...

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I had a lot of fun with the CoverCat and ColorCat last year, so I couldn't not participate in this one for 2026! Here's my space to record Colored CoverKit Reads:

1. Controlling Interests by Luna Kayne (5*)
2. The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin (4.5*)
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I admit I thought about taking a break from the SFFKit this year. I love SFF, but some of the categories/themes we choose just don't appeal that much to me, so I sometimes struggle to meet the months' goals from my TBR. Still, I'm going to give it a shot, though this will probably be my least-prioritized category.

1. Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (5*) (February)
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I want to make sure I keep reading the authors I love even as I keep up with other challenges, so this little category is just to make sure I stay on track. So, a Favorite Authors Category:

1. Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz (4*)
2. Hide by Kiersten White (4.5*)
3. The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin (4.5*)
4. Tonight I Said Goodbye by Michael Koryta (4*)
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I'm trying to be a touch more realistic about goals this year, so we'll see how it goes.

My plans for January include finishing the books I'm already well into: The Tenth Girl, Bazaar of Bad Dreams, October Film Haunt, and Relic, as well as starting and finishing:

The Last Unicorn
All the White Spaces
The Secret
The Other Wind
The Future Second by Second
The Lamb
The Gone World

Good luck with your reading this year and happy new year!

>13 shimmermarie:, Thank you, and you too!

To start off, I realized I could list my first book! I started this one in 2025, but read the second half this morning. So, to get the list started...

1. Exiles by Mason Coile

I've long been a fan of Andrew Pyper, so when I learned Coile was his pseudonym, that made it a given I'd want to read this work, and I'm so glad I did--it was a fantastic way to shift from 2025 into 2026! Space horror at its best, this slim novel moves fast and has fantastic characters and twists. I absolutely loved it, and would recommend it in a heartbeat.

2. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

As engaging as the art may be in this little book, I ultimately found the story to be wildly uneven in terms of pacing. After a slow start, the book picked up speed around 70% of the way in and sped to the end. A lot of the character development a reader is asked to believe in seemed to happen either off the page or simply get forced--and while the reader can imagine how the character development would happen based on the events we see, it really isn't shown and does have to be imagined, which also weakens the overall story.

As a read, it was fast and entertaining enough, but definitely didn't live up to the potential of a great concept. Ultimately, it's probably not one I'd recommend, and I doubt I'll end up searching out more work by the author or remembering this one for long.

Great blessings to you and your reading in the new year.
I also have a category for books I did not finish for categories in 2025.

You are off to a great start! Exiles looks good and I am adding it to my list. First BB of the year!

>16 lowelibrary:, thank you, and you too! I'm so glad I'm not the only one forced into a catch-up category lol.

>17 DeltaQueen50:, I'm so glad! It really was fantastic!

Happy reading in 2026! I wish you every success with your freelancing, and all the best for Kona!

Happy Reading in 2026, Jennifer. I went back and looked, and I had about 25 that I didn't finish last year too. They may or may not be read in 2026 depending on how they fit in. (There are a few that I know I moved into my challenges this year)

>1 whitewavedarling: >20 dudes22: Wishing us luck as we work through our 2025 backlog books!

>19 MissBrangwen:, Thank you! Happy reading to you also!

>20 dudes22: and >21 rabbitprincess:, I really am glad I'm not the only one who makes ambitious plans and then falls short lol.

I recently-ish read The Death of Jane Lawrence and LOVED it, and that was a book that I'd planned to read multiple times and then kept putting to the side. That memory is so fresh, it's one of the things driving me to try to follow through once I actually plan to read something specific.

Good luck with your 2026 reading!

Have a good reading year!

Have a great year of reading! I took my first BB of the year from you for Exiles.

>23 Tess_W:, 24, 25, Thank you, and you also! >25 Charon07:, Exiles really was a fantastic way to start off the year. I hope you love it!

Meanwhile, I FINALLY finished a book I started back in the fall...

3. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King

I've long been a fan of King's short stories, so I looked forward to this work, but it ended up being a fairly middle-of-the-road read for me. Some of the stories were outstanding--just what I expect from King--but others felt over-written or simply boring, and I often found myself wondering if King had taken every story not-yet-collected in a book and thrown it into this one, whether the story was ready and past its first-draft stage or not. I'm glad this wasn't the first King collection I've read or, to be honest, it would probably be my last.

Also, a side note to readers who struggle with stories depicting animal death/loss: The last story in this collection is a tough one. It kept me up well past my bedtime, I was so disturbed by it, good as it may be in an objective sense. I'd suggest skipping it.

All told, though, this isn't the first King book I'd recommend, by any means. It's not my least favorite of what I've read by him...but it's certainly my least favorite of his collections, and perhaps the only time I've found myself bored by something written by King.

4. The Lamb by Lucy Rose

I enjoyed Lucy Rose's prose, which has a fairy-tale feel for a lot of this book, but on the whole, the story here left me underwhelmed. The conclusion of the work felt fairly predictable almost from the beginning, and there were a few things which seemed intended to be twists, but which were also expected. The bigger issue for me, though, was just the lack of sympathy I felt for the characters, and to a lesser extent, the lack of believability. (For instance, they're regularly drinking wine, but if they never go into town, and they live on their own and don't have any income, where is that wine coming from? And how do they pay for electricity and day-to-day needs, even the most minor, if they have no income?)

All told, I'm not sure whether I'd read more work by Rose. I'm sure it would depend on the concept/premise, but this book just wasn't one I particularly enjoyed, despite thinking a lot of the prose.

5. Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud

I'm a huge fan of Nathan Ballingrud's other works, and while his Wounds is still my favorite of his works, I really enjoyed this short work and I'm looking forward to the next in the series. This little book is the perfect mix of creepiness, action, atmosphere, and character, and it's phenomenal how much story and power are packed into this short work. I hope readers who fear spiders will be scared off by the title--a few of the images here even made me shiver, which is rare--but on the whole, I loved it.

Absolutely recommended for fans of sci-fi/horror.

6. The Quiet After: Poems of Healing Silence by R.H. Sin

Part poetry, part empowerment and affirmations, this little collection is a calm and even meditational amalgamation. With some gorgeous language and analogies, much to reflect over, and many small moments of beauty, it's an easy collection to fall into for an evening and relax with.

It won't be for everyone, but I enjoyed lingering over it.

7. Mister Magic by Kiersten White

White's concept and the pure creepiness in many of these scenes helped pull me in and keep me compelled to read forward, and I ended up really falling in love with the style and characters in the book. I do think the end was a little bit of a race-to-the-finish, with pacing going into overdrive and things ultimately feeling a little messier than I would have liked, but I still really enjoyed the book. Part of me also wonders if the personal allegory coming across in the book made this such a personal project that it was bound to go somewhat off the rails at some point, so I'm anxious to read more of the author's work.

Just a side note to say that I'm DNFing The Gone World at around 40%.

I often struggle to really enjoy time travel-related stories, and this was one of those times. I was sucked in at the beginning, but the more I read, the less compelled I felt to continue. At least for now, I'm going to DNF at around the 40% mark. There are just too many other books that I'm excited to read, whereas it feels like I'm less and less engaged with this one as each chapter passes. I think it's just not for me.

8. Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

I fell head over heels for the first book in this series, and I loved the second just as much. The characters, the magic, the twists, the angst, the humor...I love it all. I can't wait to continue the series, and would recommend these books to anyone who likes either fantasy or romance, they're such fun.

Absolutely recommended. This series is becoming a favorite of mine.

9. Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz

Amos Oz may be the first author of literary fiction who truly became an author I'd return to again and again. I'm not sure what made me first pick his work up; in high school, I mostly read horror, suspense, and the occasional SFF, as well as a scattering of poetry and plays. How Amos Oz made it onto my bookshelves, I have no idea, but from the moment I discovered his prose, I wanted more.

His talent for the nuances of relationships, dialogue, and description are wonderful, and this work is no different. Here, the focus is on a 12-year-old boy, and the childhood remembered from the vantage point of adulthood. Nothing like the other novels I've read from him, and still a gorgeously told tale which is rich with believable drama and nuance, as well as the magic of childhood.

I'm not sure this is the first work I'd recommend for readers who haven't read Oz before, as it is a bit out of the norm in terms of subject and, to a lesser extent, style, but I did very much enjoy it.

10. Chlorine by Jade Song

This is a tough book to review. On one hand, I really enjoyed Song's style and writing, and for about two thirds of the book, I didn't want to stop reading, even though it felt like it was running a little long/wandering in the middle. But on the other hand...the middle did wander, I didn't care for the main character, and the end rather ruined the whole book for me. It's tough to talk about the end without going into spoiler territory, which I don't want to do, but let's just say that the author tries to have it both ways, and at least for me, that didn't remotely work.

All told, I'm just not sure how I feel about this one. I liked a good portion of it...but the end really did ruin it, much as it was well-written. I'm honestly not sure if I'd pick up another book by the author, all things considered.

11. Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories (no editor listed)

This is a fantastic, varied collection, and the fact that the stories get creepier as the anthology unfolds makes it all the more fun. I discovered the book because it includes a story by Mariana Enriquez, but it's definitely led me to some more authors who I hope to continue reading. Some of my favorites in the anthology were "The Third Transformation" by Maximiliano Barrientos, "Visitor" by Julian Isaza, and "The Man with the Leg" by Giovanna Rivero.

Absolutely recommended, as the stories are so varied that there's probably something here for any dark lit or horror lover to love.

12. Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha

This is such a powerful collection, and Toha's care and nuance with each poem make it all the more striking and necessary. The poems are focused on Gaza, and on the art of existing in wartime. Unflinching and personal, the poems manage to confront the history of Gaza as well as the immediate genocide being lived through, and yet there is so much beauty to be had in this slim volume.

Transporting, powerful, necessary...there are many words I could use to describe this work, and yet none to reflect the heart and truth of it all.

Everyone should read this book.

13. Deserters by Mathias Enard

Enard's prose is gorgeous, and this blended novel moves fluidly between the story of an anonymous few and a larger, sprawling story of a family broken, remade, and broken again. War haunts both narratives, anonymous in one and multiple in the other, putting a hyper-focus on how war troubles and unmakes identity as well as connection. And yet, though the themes are visibly careful and the author's artistry cannot be denied, it's the individuals in the anonymous sections that, for me, fill the work with emotion as sort of tortured everymen.

Readers be warned, some of the territory here is difficult to read, even aside from the wars. If there are content warnings you normally look out for, look up the warnings for this work.

For my part, I fell in love with Enard's prose and the radiating truth of his characters here, and I cannot wait to read more of his work.

Absolutely recommended.

14. Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud

I enjoyed the first book in the series, but something about the imagery, the voices, and the sheer horror encased in this one drew me far deeper into the world, and now I can't wait for the third installment in the trilogy. This little book packs so much emotion into the situation, from multiple directions, it's nearly impossible to put down. Fans of the first will love this one.

Absolutely recommended.

15. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

Powerful and dark, this little book is entrancing. Ravn's talent for bringing a whole world to life through one small voice, and making the uncanny seem nothing less than real, is on display on every page, and the prose is gorgeous.

Absolutely recommended for horror lovers.

16. Itza by Rios de la Luz

I ended up reading Itza in one sitting, and though it wasn't what I expected, I absolutely fell in love with it. de la Luz's prose is gorgeous, and the characters bring life to every page. Some of the territory this book covers won't be to every reader's liking, but even where dealing with the most sensitive of topics, de la Luz writes with such poetry and empathy that it's impossible to imagine the book being any other way.

Absolutely recommended.

17. Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer

This is a fascinating and entertaining tour through a whole cast of serial killers, all of whom were women. While poison features regularly, the women themselves are from all walks of life and all over the world, and as a result, there's an incredible feeling of breadth to the work. I will say that the author's humor and tone eventually wore on me a little, to the extent that I took a weeks-long break between killers, and I suspect I might have enjoyed this more if I'd taken my time with it rather than reading it in just a couple of long sittings. Still, it was an eye-opening worthwhile read that I'm happy to recommend to anyone interested.

>41 whitewavedarling: ooo - passing on to my bestie; it's the type of book he'd love!

>42 Cecilturtle:, I'm so glad to hear it!

Meanwhile, I FINALLY finished a book I'd been meandering through for months (literally). I'm still not entirely sure why I finished it, but I did.

18. The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

I'm honestly a little bit amazed that I finished this book, which probably says it all. In the end, the characters and curiosity about how it would wrap up were enough to keep me wandering forward...but I thought about quitting quite a few times, and I don't expect I'll pick up another book by the author.

The biggest issue for me is the writing. The wordiness and repetition make this book far longer than it needs to be, and the fact that we get the same material/scene from both points of view, more than once, is so unnecessary as to be incredibly frustrating. I know some readers complain about a YA tone, but that normally doesn't bother me--here, however, the aggressively YA tone/style of the characters' voices and thoughts made everyone feel a bit over-stylized and immature; considering the characters were meant to be understood as adults, that felt like a bigger and bigger problem as the book unfolded.

I suspect a big draw of this book is the twist, and while I won't get into spoiler territory, I will say that I think I would have seen it coming a mile away if I were from a different demographic or, rather, had different hobbies. Once it was made clear, I admit I felt incredibly disappointed. Part of what drew me to the book was the idea of a 'haunted mansion' as mentioned on the cover, and while I can understand how the marketing team and author might defend that phrasing, I'd say it's misleading at best. By the time the twist came around to disappoint me, I was so far in that I decided not to put the book down and see how it played out, but I can't say I enjoyed it.

All told, it feels like this book was overwritten, and designed around a gimmick/experiment that readers will either love or hate. It obviously wasn't for me, and since the writing also got on my nerves more often than not, I don't see myself picking up another of Faring's books or ever finding cause to recommend this one.

19. The House of Quiet by Kiersten White

Kiersten White is fast becoming a favorite author of mine. Although I had some small quibbles with this one--the ending's pacing felt rushed, mainly--I enjoyed this book so much overall. The concept, the writing, the characters...I just fell in love with it almost immediately and didn't want to put it down. I do expect some readers would be put off by the number of POVs that slip in, as I'm usually happy to have plenty of POVs and even I got a bit annoyed early on in this one, but in the end, I felt like they were all justified and added to the book.

There are layers to this book, and it comes together in something of a puzzle, so be ready for that. I don't often re-read books, but I think I might need to reread this one to appreciate all of it, especially in relation to the less-present POVs and chapters that are more mysterious early on in the book.

Absolutely recommended for readers of YA Horror or Gothics.

20. Controlling Interests by Luna Kayne

While there's certainly some suspension of disbelief involved on a few matters, this romance has so much to love, those suspensions didn't bother me much at all. Kayne's characters are impossible to dislike, and the chemistry and overall writing are so good that this is an easy story to fall in love with. It won't be for everyone, and it's definitely on the explicit side (you've been warned...), but I loved it.

I'll definitely be reading more of Kayne's work, and if you're in the market for fun, steamy contemporary romance, pick up this one if it at all appeals.

21. Hide by Kiersten White

White is fast becoming one of my new favorite horror writers. From start to finish, this book was fantastic and full of twists. The memorable characters, great writing, and surprises along the way made it one I'll remember, and made it so that I never wanted to put the book down.

I did ultimately feel like the ending left things a little unfinished--I'm wondering if there'll be a sequel--but beyond that, I have no complaints. And either way, there's no question that I'd recommend this novel to any horror lover out there.

22. I Live With You by Carol Emshwiller

This is a tough book to rate, and it's one of those collections where I think some of the short stories suffer from being paired with all of the others. Some of the stories here are ones which I fell in love with and will remember for some time--"I Live With You and You Don't Know It", "Boys", "Coo People", and "My General" all stood out to me as being fantastic. On the other hand, other stories that engaged with some of the same themes ended up feeling more like variations on a theme than anything because the same themes were so oft repeated within the collection. In a few other cases, the stories were hard to engage with to such an extent that while I could appreciate moments, the stories themselves were tough to decipher, and based on my overall mixed feelings, I still haven't decided whether or not to revisit them at a later date. Certainly, if I do, I think I'll read them in isolation rather than dealing with the potential issue of a single theme becoming tiresome within the larger work.

All told, I think many of the stories here are worth reading and rereading, and I'm surprised it took me so long to have discovered Emshwiller's work, though I'm glad I finally did.

23. The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

This novel fascinated me from the moment I heard about it, and it didn't disappoint. Khan's brilliant storytelling and immersive descriptions bring the worlds she creates to life, and from chapter to chapter, I couldn't put this one down. I don't know what to call it--speculative literary fiction, or a gothic, or a literary fantasy, or something else entirely--but it doesn't matter. Khan's writing and this story make for a fantastic tale, and it will remain a favorite of mine that I believe I'll read again, though it left me sobbing when I finally finished it.

Absolutely recommended.

26. Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

There are poems in this collection which I read five times through before I was able to move on--not because I didn't understand them, but because the sheer language, power, and nuance captured me so much that I didn't want to leave the experience of them behind. I'm not sure when that's happened with a poem before, let alone with multiple poems in a single collection.

This is a collection I'll return to again and again, and there's no doubt I'll read any collection Vuong puts out after this experience.

Absolutely recommended.

>48 whitewavedarling: I will take your recommendation. Added to the BB list

>50 lowelibrary:, I'm glad! I just loved it. She's only published one other book, but I'm going to try to get my hands on it....

Meanwhile, I still don't know how I feel about this next one, finished last night...

27. Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

For most of this book, I was fully invested and couldn't keep reading. My biggest complaint was fairly minor (that being that the main character feels/acts/speaks as if she's younger that her staged age--but she's consistent in the book, so it's fine). I didn't feel hugely emotionally invested, but the story was fast and interesting, and the characters acted believably. It was a great, well-written, immersive horror read. And then...then came the end.

There's a ton of exposition, and I suppose I kind of get it, but I still feel it was overdone. It certainly pulled me out of the book and away from the story a bit. And then the very end just felt unfinished. Not just ambiguous, but as if it hadn't fully been written. I won't say it ruined the book for me, but what had been a solid 4.5* read went down to 3.5*.

I do think I'll try another Malerman (this was my first time reading his work), as I enjoyed the storytelling and writing for the most part, but that ending... sigh.

So, I think I would recommend it, especially if you want an adult horror novel centered on a child. But I would give the caveat that the end is a little disappointing after what's otherwise been a great read.

28. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes

I don't often read form poetry anymore unless I've revisiting old favorites from Browning or Shelley or whoever else, so I wouldn't normally pick up a collection of sonnets, but I've so enjoyed Hayes' work in the past, I decided to give this one a try.

There are a lot of moments and phrases to love in these poems, but I admit that the form distracted me, and it too often felt like the content was being shaped more due to the form than complete thoughts in and of themselves. In some ways, it occasionally read more as experiment than full polished collection, much as I hate to say that.

I'd recommend Hayes' poetry without hesitation, but this just isn't the collection that I'd hand someone first. Normally with his collections, there are four or five poems that I can't help but reread immediately and plan on returning to later, and that just didn't happen here.

29. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World edited by Ada Limon

I don't search out much nature poetry, per se, as much of what I've read tends to be a little too quiet and strictly observational for my taste, and often apolitical compared to other poetry. Something about the way this anthology was described made me think it might be different, with more of an awareness of climate change/environmental impact, our place in nature now compared to many years ago, or just more in tune with the larger environmental/socio-political landscape. And some few of the poems were...but many of them were not, leaving me wishing that the anthology as a whole had been far more challenging of the status quo and vocally aware of the current moment we're in, environmentally speaking, at least.

I suppose I just expected more overall. Some of the poems were lovely and just what I'd hoped for, but many of them just left me wishing they'd gone further or made more of the opportunity for an anthology like this.

30. Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond

Poetry anthologies can be hit or miss, but this is one of the best I've read in quite some time. Despite a very clear theme, the poems are incredibly wide-ranging in tone, subject matter, and voice, and nearly any one of them would be worth reading the collection for--that's how powerful the collection is, and how powerful most of the poems are.

With incredible language and voice, poem to poem, this anthology brings breadth to the questions and controversies surrounding immigration and the refugee experience, but with such nuance and centering on the individual, the message never overtakes the experience; instead, the message and understandings here are part of the poetry and the experience, all wrapped together, and the nuance is all the more powerful because of it.

31. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

I've become a big fan of T. Kingfisher, and this book was no exception. While the humor in the book put off some readers in my book club, and it is ever-present, I simply found it authentic, and imagined the sort of anxious, panicked humor so present in this book to be exactly how a lot of us would deal with the situation if monsters suddenly wandered into our worlds. And as for the monsters? They're wonderfully horrible, and Kingfisher's writing is as compelling as always.

I'll also add that, for anyone who's ever had a coonhound, this book will be a special treat. Coonhounds are such strange, specific dogs, neurotic and determined and food-driven and nose-driven and utterly ridiculous at so many times, and the coonhound at the center of this book is so well-drawn and coonhoundish, I absolutely adored that aspect of the book.

For me, this was a 4.5* read, and I'd absolutely recommend it. On the lighter side of horror, but so much fun!

>55 whitewavedarling: I’ve become a T. Kingfisher fan too, and I enjoyed The Twisted Ones. (BTW, your touchstone links to the wrong book.) But The Hollow Places is my current favorite.

>56 Charon07:, Oh, that one's on my TBR, so that's great to hear! And thanks for the heads-up about the touchstones--I'll fix that now!

32. The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin

I was long overdue in getting to this book, but I'm actually rather glad it took me so long. Revisiting Earthsea was like a trip home, I so loved the original series, and while the book meanders between characters more than I normally prefer, there's so much magic and emotion packed into this small book, it's still a pleasure of a read.

This certainly isn't the first Le Guin I'd recommend, and I don't think it would work all that well as a standalone, but for what it is, I adore it.

33. Night Film by Marisha Pessl

There were admittedly some points where this dragged a bit for me, but on the whole, I really enjoyed it. Pessl's writing is easy to fall into, and her characters are fascinating. I think if I'd had more reading time when I started this book, I probably would have breezed through it and been fascinated the whole way, so me slowing down likely has more to do with my being busy and unable to read it as much as I'd have liked over just a few weeks.

On the whole, I'd certainly recommend it to anyone interested, and I look forward to checking out more of Pessl's work.

34. Tonight I Said Goodbye by Michael Koryta

Considering Koryta wrote this when he was 21, it's an incredible achievement. I fell in love with Koryta's writing long after he'd established himself as a thriller writer, so it was interesting to go back this week and read his very first week. Compared to his later work, there are clearly some cracks--some of the investigative lines that should have been brought up early on were either unmentioned or forgotten, some of the characters are a little more stereotype than fully developed, and the writing isn't quite as strong as the more recent books (as should be expected)--but I still really enjoyed this. It's probably not where I'd recommend someone start with his work, since it is a first book and his later stuff is the whole reason I fell in love with him, but it's still a fun, engaging read, and just what you'd expect from a first book in a private eye suspense series. If you simply need an escape or if you want to see where Koryta's writing journey started, it's worth looking up. I read it in one day for a reason!