4/5 stars The Memory of Animals , by Claire Fuller (2023) I'm always surprised when a post-apocalyptic novel surprises me. There are so many ways to do and say and show the same things that others have already done and said and shown. The Memory of Animals doesn't escape all of this sort of repetition, but it is a unique take on the story. The main character is Neffy (Nefeli), a former marine biologist specializing in octopuses, who was let go and is now disgraced and stra

3/5 stars I Who Have Never Known Men , by Jacqueline Harpman (1995) Translated by Ros Schwartz I finished this a while back and it's been tough to get myself to write about it... because I know a lot of people love it, and I think it's because they feel it's really thoughtful and deep, in that Handmaid's Tale kind of way that says something about our misogynistic culture. And I'm not saying they're wrong. It just didn't speak to me in that way. But I really liked it for the

3/5 stars The Last Murder at the End of the World , by Stuart Turton (2024) "Solve the murder to save what's left of the world..." It's...

5/5 stars The Girl in Red (2019), and Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook (2017) , by Christina Henry Trigger Warnings (both...

4/5 stars Chain-Gang All Stars , by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2023) Trigger Warnings: Graphic violence, Imprisonment and enslavement,...

3/5 stars Sunrise on the Reaping , by Suzanne Collins (2025) This iteration of the Hunger Games takes us back in time to the Second...

4/5 stars Scythe, Thunderhead, & The Toll, by Neal Shusterman (2016, 2018, 2019) I'm going to start with a review of only the first book,...

5/5 stars Re-read of Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel (2014) I first read this book in 2017, when the realities of a worldwide...

2/5 stars How High We Go in the Dark, by Sequoia Nagamatsu (2022) I saw this compared favorably to Emily St. John's Station Eleven, which...

4/5 stars Hestia Strikes a Match, by Christine Grillo (2023) This is a great piece of speculative / alternate universe fiction. The year...

3/5 stars Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng (2022) This book is set in a dystopian version of the US that pulls from many real-life...

3/5 stars The Power, by Naomi Alderman (2016) TW: Physical violence, murder, rape (men towards women, and women towards men) The Power...

3/5 stars (some of) The Grisha Series, by Leigh Bardugo (2012 - 2016) TW: Graphic violence, Allusions to rape Of the seven books in this...

1/5 stars Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi (2019) UGH. I really didn't enjoy this book. I'm so confused by all the praise it has received (including...

3/5 stars overall Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation, Authority, & Acceptance, by Jeff Vandermeer (2014) Rating this was tough because...

3/5 stars Parable of the Sower (1993) & Parable of the Talents (1998), by Octavia Butler Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought....

3/5 stars The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, by Suzanne Collins (2020) Listen, I'm just a sucker for a good prequel. I enjoyed this book,...

There are so, so many amazing books out there that it can be really hard to narrow the list down and decide what you want to sink into,...

3/5 stars The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky - by N.K. Jemisin (2015, 2016, 2017) On the recommendation of my brother...