4/5 stars The Conductors, by Nicole Glover (2021) Husband and wife Benjy and Hetty Rhodes are escaped slaves, and former Underground...

3/5 stars A Cosmology of Monsters, by Shaun Hamill (2019) TW: mental illness, suicide, cancer, sexual assault "Noah Turner sees monsters....

3/5 stars The Liar's Dictionary, by Eley Williams (2020) You need to love learning about language and, more specifically, the etymology...

1/5 stars The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris (2021) Y I K E S. Huh. That was unexpected and not... umm... yeah, just not...

3/5 stars Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, by Matthew Sullivan (2017) TW: Suicide & murder I thought this was a really fun,...

4/5 stars My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018) I really enjoyed this dark, morbid, thriller/crime story - not...

3/5 stars Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley (2021) TW: grief, suicide, murder, drug addition, & rape Despite the heavy nature of the content warnings above, this is a fun, YA mystery novel. Daunis, an 18-year old young woman, lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior and just across the border from Canada. She is half white, half Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe or Chippewa). Her "Nish" father and her uncle on her mother's side are bot

3/5 stars Conjure Women, by Afia Atakora (2020) An impressive debut of historical fiction, the book is set on a large plantation in the...

3/5 stars If We Were Villains, by M.L. Rio (2017) A murder mystery for fans of Shakespeare! It's a very dramatic, literary, theatrical...

3/5 stars Detransition, Baby, by Torrey Peters (2021) TW: Trans- and Homophobia, Miscarriage/Abortion, Suicide, Sexual Content & Violence...

3/5 stars Nights When Nothing Happened, by Simon Han (2020) This book is a slow, ponderous burn. I found myself feeling distracted at...

2/5 stars Long Division, by Kiese Laymon (2013) This one's a thinker. The book is two separate but very intertwined stories. One starts...

5/5 stars The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (2018) I enjoyed this book SO MUCH! It is as thrilling as it is confusing,...

2/5 stars Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold, by Bolu Babalola A collection of folktales retold with a modern...

3-5/5 stars - Homegoing (2016) & Transcendent Kingdom (2020), by Yaa Gyasi I just finished reading Transcendent Kingdom, and realized...

3/5 stars The Near Witch, by V.E. Schwab (2011) This is Schwab's first novel, originally published in 2011, then republished in 2019...

2/5 stars Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid (2019) This is a tough one to review. I think the premise is interesting and important......

4/5 stars ... I think? The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins (2015) Uhhmmm. So. THAT was weird. Honestly it's the weirdest book...

4/5 stars Luster, by Raven Leilani (2020) This book was beautifully written, with a splash of dark humor, but also so hard to read. It's...