First chapter gave me chills! I liked the switching POVs but those didn’t seem to last long sadly.

While I enjoyed the first third and it did well with having tension, it slowly started to drag due to telling over showing and repetitive writing. The storytelling felt overly wordy and clunky which interrupted the flow and removed any tension. I’m not sure if that’s how it’s originally written or due to the translation. I’ve enjoyed other Korean thrillers like The Hole and The Good Son so had high hopes for Sleep Well, Mommy!

By 55% in, I no longer cared what happened. The overly worded sentences and minute details were pulling me into a slump.

Thanks to edelweiss and Ecco for the eARC.

Fun read that at least kept me engaged! I didn’t connect with the characters as much as her other novels and I predicted 2 of the twists VERY early on. But 2 of the other twists I didn’t guess so it evens out maybe? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was intrigued enough to finish it in 3 days but won’t stay with me and didn’t have me on the edge of my seat or anxious like the One of Us is Lying trilogy. Also the writing was meh at times with being telling over showing and giving “hello fellow kids” 😅 Might still read more of McManus’ books though!

"Palestinians have the right to be part of the world" - Yousef M. Aljamal

Anthology of 16 essays ranging from Poetry, personal narratives, and academic discussions of cultural, political, and/or economic issues.

Each essay covers a different aspect of life in or around the Gaza Strip but all have the same central question: how do we understand Gaza in the shadow of the Nakba? And How can we imagine a better future?

Most of the essays are important and informative! I had two essays that I really struggled with though. One was "ethical implications of experimental design on affected communities in the Gaza Strip" -author didn’t go into depth in his arguments, really dry writing, and he kept saying "and now I’m going to provide context/talk about/explain/etc. It just didn’t flow well and I ended up not finishing that essay.

And the second essay I struggled with and was the biggest negative for me was about AI. This collection is from 2021 so maybe then it wasn’t as big of an issue but it has aged extremely poorly (but really was it ever a good tool for "promoting civil liberties" as the author claimed??). I also disagreed about some of the proposed usages like using it to prosecute war criminals…there are PEOPLE who do that. Just really rubbed me the wrong way.

Some essays are emotional, personal narratives while others are very academic heavy so it felt odd to have these put together in the same anthology. Plus many of them were repetitive with most of the essays mentioning the same exact facts. While I enjoyed the content itself and found it a necessary read, the writing styles disrupted the flow for me. I’d really enjoy one essay and then struggle through the next because of the huge difference in tone and writing style. While still important and necessary to have academic texts written by and about Palestinians, it wasn’t what I was expecting/hoping for and therefore was a difficult book to get through.

I’m still glad to have read it and would recommend! It’s important to understand all the different aspects of life in Gaza, and it’s nice to have a lot of it in one book.

My favorite essays (aside from the poems because I loved all of those): Gaza Asks: When Shall This Pass, Lost Identity (the importance of farming and agriculture), On why we still hold onto our phones and keep recording, In the Haze of Fifty-One Days, and Gaza 2050: Three Scenarios 🍉

3.75 stars rounded up

Paulette Kennedy does it once again! Loved the gothic vibes of the book-her inspiration from Shirley Jackson definitely came through. I was hooked on this story and didn’t want it to end!

There were some parts that dragged a little and I wasn’t totally happy with the ending but I still enjoyed it a lot. Highly recommend if you enjoy historical horror that explores the horrors of men using religion to control women and/or psychic ghostly powers!

Very different from some of the previous entries-reminded me of Into the Riverlands as both move away from the usual story element. Unlike ITR though, I actually loved this one!! It was so eerie and gave me gothic mystery vibes. I was pulled in right from the start and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I wasn’t expecting the big twist and the only part that I was unhappy with was how the ending wrapped up. It just felt too neat and perfect after all the build up. Will be one of my favorites of the series though!

4.75 ⭐️