When I was younger I read the book Bound by Donna Jo Napoli and remeber being absolutely entranced by it. The Lotus Shoes brought me back to the same era but settles itself in a stronger narrative of classism, culture wars in the face in the face colonization, and the painful few choices Chinese women had afforded to them in their lives. I'm diving into historical fiction this year, which isn't usually my scene (outside of regency romances a la Bridgerton vibes) - and honestly I'm not hating it. Does it often make me angry? Yeah. Is that inherently a bad thing? No. The intertwined stories of Lingjing and Little Flower presented in The Lotus Shoes show how tenous status is, and how strength of character can get you further if you're willing to fight for it. The two girls go through very different paths to end up in the same situation, even though they are together for the majority of their lives. Lingjing makes Little Flower's life unnecessarily harder than it needs to be, even as a servant, at every given opportunity out of what amounts to petty jealousy. Little Flower does her best to keep her spirit through it all, even when met with circumstances that would leave others in despair. And when both girls find themselves on an even playing field, Little Flower continues to be respectful and kind to an undeserving Lingjing. My one qualm with this story was that I found the ending to be a bit to happy in light of the realism of the rest of the setting. It just seemed unlikely that circumstances would fall into place for the ending to tie up in the way it did; which I know sounds crazy coming from me because I am usually all about getting a sweet HEA. This is honestly a really great story and I would recommend it. Its well paced, with great setting and characters, and the plot really does keep you engaged all the way to the end.

🌶🌶 Do you enjoy tasting treats at farmer's markets from local artisans? Then maybe skip this one... I really wanted to like this book. I was looking forward to reading it, I picked it up at the end of last year and have been anxiously awaiting a chance to squeeze it into my reading time. A sapphic horror novella? Right up my alley. But it just really flopped for me. The prose is overly flowery with way too many SAT words. The intimacy feels like it was written by a straight woman who didn't really do any research about being with the same sex, which really skews the bisexual romance that they're attempting to portray between Ro and Ash. And it took way too long to get to the meat of the story, and then it was just over. Once we got to the actual horror reveal, I was really enjoying it for the most part. It wasn't a surprise in any way, shape, or form because it had been heavily forecasted to us throughout the story, but still an enjoyable "unraveling" of character. I actually loved the last chapter and that's why I gave this rating an extra .25 stars, purely on the final chapter. I also love that Ro is a fucking disrespectful partner and we don't really get into that because she's our narrator and plays victim the whole time - so clearly she's not in the wrong ever. But the cons just really outweighed the pros on this one for me, and left me disappointed.

And she is hungry. This is the story of three women and how their lives come to intersect. It is not a love story. It is is a story about power, and control, and revenge, and remorse, and most importantly hunger. Come and wander the garden and see what grows from the midnight soil. I recommend the audiobook because the trio of narrators did a fantastic job! This novel was full of metaphor and motif, but even on its face it was just a good tale that I was pretty satisfied with overall. One standout element is that the three POVs have DRAMATICALLY different timelines, ranging from nearly half a century to about 4 days, which does complicate the storytelling and pacing just a hair. And also María, whose narration dominates the majority of the novel, is a deeply unlikeable character. I wanted to be on her side at the beginning, in a "good for her" kind of vibe, but she just continues on a path of red flag behavior that becomes increasingly unsupportable. The unhinged amount of time we had to wait for Lottie to reappear was also crazy. I understand on a plot level why we had the intense delay but it was FRUSTRATING. Alice was far and away my favorite POV - and her backstory with her sister was more impactful to me the entirety of the vampire story honestly. I don't know what that says about the book overall but here we are. V. E. Schwab's prose smacks here, I really enjoyed the wit from all of our narrators, and the beautiful descriptions of environment and emotion. She paints some really lovely scenes for our not so lovely characters to be rotten in. There is a simmer of feminine rage frothing underneath the entire story as well, which just fed my feral soul. Give it a go and be prepared to feel feelings.

🌶🌶🌶🌶 I admittedly did not read Hunt on Dark Waters but was told it wasn't required? So I'm not sure if I was missing any critical backstory that would have made this more enjoyable. I was super excited for a sapphic selkie story, but this didn't quite meet the mark for me. It felt a bit shallow (get it, cause they're at sea? I'll shut up now) compared to Katee Robert's other work I've read. There was also so much repetition: oh we can't actually be falling for eachother because Lizzie is leaving/Maeve is dedicated to the rebellion; Lizzie continously "realizing" that Maeve is more capable than she anticipated; Maeve continously "realizing" that Lizzie is much sweeter than she lets on; Lizzie's indecisiveness about whether she actually wants to go home or not - it was a bit tiresome after reading the same internal debate for the third plus time in as many chapters. It felt like going in circles for two-thirds of the book and then getting a very sudden plot dump in the latter third (presumably to connect to the next piece of the series). The spice was fun and flirty and certainly spicy, but the story was just kind of okay for me. I think I just built it up in my head to be more than it was - which is more on me than anything.

Nightvale book club number 6! Do you enjoy really ambiguous endings? How about historically-adjacent stories? The suggestion of ghosts? Then might I recommend We Do Not Part by Han Kang? This story centers on Kyungha who appears to be severely depressed and/or suffering from a form of PTSD as we begin our story. Throughout we learn that her and her friend Inseon have both become deeply involved in research around the tragedy of the Jeju massacre - a real event from Korea's history - that has left them both scarred. They both share their trauma in the heart of a snowstorm as other strange happenings occur around Kyungha. I am not normally a fan of an ambiguous ending. This one was perfect. The entire story was so ephemeral and uncertain in its reality that the ambiguity of the ending was really the only way that this story could have ended that would come anywhere close to satisfying. And this one was deeply satisfying. This is not an easy read by any means, but I do recommend it.

TW: Lots of use of the f slur Nightvale bookclub number 7! They keep throwing unique titles my way. Down the Rabbit Hole is a very apt title for this book. You really do feel like you're falling deeper and deeper as the narrative continues. Tochtli is living in a dangerous situation, but doesn't quite grasp just how serious it is; and instead focuses on the events that he sees as most critical as a young boy. Tochtli is quite possibly my favorite unreliable narrator I've ever encountered. He is unreliable not because he is mentally disturbed, or because he is traumatized, or denying the truth to himself, but simply because he is a child. His point of view is skewed by the lens of youth, and while we the audience can grasp what is going on through his descriptions, he doesn't seem to quite understand the severity of his own situation. He instead is caught up in the elements that would be most important to a child: a desire for a pet (exotic nature aside), that his father (whom he deeply trusts) has lied to him, curiosity about a gun (how many times have we heard that story on the news?), loneliness... All things that would be top of mind for a kid, and that makes the cartel story that we the reader take in around Tochtli's priorities that much more unsettling. The part of this novelette that sat the oddest with me was that it feels almost happy at the end from Tochtli's point of view, and that just feels so strange because really nothing in the story is happy or uplifting, but that is the tone that we are left with - almost joyful even. That cognitive dissonance between the narration and the story was so odd and so well done. Very much worth a read, especially with how short it is.