MadisonBailey
(Surprising) LitFic fanatic. Historical fiction, horror, and thriller enjoyer.
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MadisonBailey commented on a List
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Booker Prize Longlist 2026
by molecoid
//
13 books
The longlist for the Booker Prize 2026 has been announced!
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
14h
Credence
Penelope Douglas
Tiernan de Haas doesnât care about anything anymore. The only child of a film producer and his starlet wife, sheâs grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. Shipped off to boarding schools from an early age, it was still impossible to escape the loneliness and carve out a life of her own. The shadow of her parentsâ fame followed her everywhere.
And when they suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But has anything really changed? Sheâs always been alone, hasnât she?
Jake Van der Berg, her fatherâs stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan who is still two months shy of eighteen. Sent to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the mountains of Colorado, Tiernan soon learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore. As the three of them take her under their wing, teach her to work and survive in the remote woods far away from the rest of the world, she slowly finds her place among them.
And as a part of them.
She also realizes that lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching.
One of them has her.
The other one wants her.
But heâŠ
Heâs going to keep her.
*Credence is a new adult standalone novel suitable for readers 18+.
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
14h
Kairos
Jenny Erpenbeck
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power. And the world around them is changing as the GDR begins to crumble, so too do all the old certainties and the old loyalties, ushering in a new era whose great gains also involve profound loss.
From a prize-winning German writer, this is the intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history.
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
14h
Blessed is the Rot (Alfom)
Sheri Singerling
Fenrir is a mask. Before his fall from grace, he was Ashtin, a lauded surveyor responsible for containing distortions, corrupted pockets of space-time that twist all they touch into horrid creatures. Five years prior, Ashtin defied the teachings of the Church he once served, costing him privilege, purpose, and his old name. Now, he is Fenrir, a shadow of his former self, reduced to ringing a bell for his livelihood.When a distortion claims Fenrirâs bell tower, the Church sends Surveyor Sophie to assess and contain the threat. She is a painful reminder of all that Fenrir has lost, but as the weeks slip by, Fenrir falls for her. And her him, even after learning his true identity.But Sophie harbors an even darker secret. Her only hope of salvation? Commit an unforgivable sin by descending into ancient ruins festering with distortions and their horrifying victims. Fenrir accompanies Sophie on the journey, but the truths they uncover are heinous in their own right. He must make a choiceâabandon Sophie to fate or throw the world into chaos.Blessed is the Rot is a dark science fantasy novel, the first in the Bit Trilogy and part of the Alfom shared universe.
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
14h
The Shrouded Queen
Ashley Tropea
In the first book in this romantasy duology inspired by ancient Egyptian mythology, a slave and a princess switch places during an enemy attack, igniting parallel journeys of love and survival.As a slave to the Ashoran royals, Samira has always known she was expendable. So when the vicious Kaldfolk attack the palace, she is ready to die as a decoy for her princess. But when sheâs captured instead, sheâs forced to impersonate the princess and survive through brutal trials designed to awaken her divine powersâall under the watch of her dangerously intriguing, shape-shifting captor. Amunet Khadaânow queen of Ashorahâis on the run following the kingâs death. With only her guard-with-benefits, Jasim, by her side, she must evade treacherous allies while racing to contact her fatherâthe god of the underworldâbefore her long-promised powers slip beyond reach. While Amunet embarks on a quest through the wastelands, Samira learns the true reason for the attack and unlocks secrets in her past that could change everything. And with threats growing on all sides, Samira and Amunet must decide...who can they trust?
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
14h
Narcissi - A Novel
Babette Fraser Hale
Cole Burnett, a Texas writer, needs to keep moving. At first, it's something in his blood pressing him, pushing him to write more, achieve more. Later, after the death threat, it becomes a way to stay alive. Cole is the kind of man whose need for freedom should send lovers running in the opposite direction. But he has a lanky charisma and the gift of listening, a somewhat rare quality for a man in the 1980's. The women he encounters in Narcissi find his attention compelling, and they all get hurt, or cause hurt, to a greater or lesser degree. But hurt is never the whole story. Each woman brings her own complicated life into her time with Cole, conflicts with husbands, traumas survived, needs postponed, children. And children grow up. He rarely sees his own. They left home before he did. He understands that loneliness compels him toward the women he meets on his travels--whether in a tavern, like Amelia; or a street dance, like Stephanie; or a book-and-author event, like Lorna. And others he connects with while working, like Dolly, Elsa, Trish and Gladys. They all know something has to change.
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MadisonBailey finished a book
22h
Her Side of the Story
Alba de CĂ©spedes
From the author of Forbidden Notebook, Alba de CĂ©spedes, a richly told novel she called âthe story of a great love and of a crime.â
As she looks back on her life, Alessandra Corteggiani recalls her youth during the rise of fascism in Italy, the resistance, and the fall of Mussolini, the lives of the women in her family and her working-class neighborhood, rigorously committed to telling âher side of the story.â
Alessandra witnesses her mother, an aspiring concert pianist, suffer from the inability to escape her oppressive marriage. Later, she is sent away to live with her father's relatives in the country, in the hope sheâll finally learn to submit herself to the patriarchal system and authority. But at the farm, Alessandra grows increasingly rebellious, conscious of the unjust treatment of generations of hardworking women in her family. When she refuses the marriage proposal from a neighboring farmer, she is sent back to Rome to tend to her ailing father.
In Rome, Alessandra meets Francesco, a charismatic anti-fascist professor, who ostensibly admires and supports her sense of independence and justice. But she soon comes to recognize that even as she respects Francesco and is keen to participate in his struggle to reclaim their country from fascism, this respect is unrequited, and that her own beloved husband is ensnared by patriarchal conventions when it comes to their relationship.
In these pages, De CĂ©spedes delivers a breathtakingly accurate and timeless portrayal of the complexity of the female condition against the dramatic backdrop of WWII and the partisan uprising in Italy
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MadisonBailey finished a book
22h
Her Side of the Story
Alba de CĂ©spedes
From the author of Forbidden Notebook, Alba de CĂ©spedes, a richly told novel she called âthe story of a great love and of a crime.â
As she looks back on her life, Alessandra Corteggiani recalls her youth during the rise of fascism in Italy, the resistance, and the fall of Mussolini, the lives of the women in her family and her working-class neighborhood, rigorously committed to telling âher side of the story.â
Alessandra witnesses her mother, an aspiring concert pianist, suffer from the inability to escape her oppressive marriage. Later, she is sent away to live with her father's relatives in the country, in the hope sheâll finally learn to submit herself to the patriarchal system and authority. But at the farm, Alessandra grows increasingly rebellious, conscious of the unjust treatment of generations of hardworking women in her family. When she refuses the marriage proposal from a neighboring farmer, she is sent back to Rome to tend to her ailing father.
In Rome, Alessandra meets Francesco, a charismatic anti-fascist professor, who ostensibly admires and supports her sense of independence and justice. But she soon comes to recognize that even as she respects Francesco and is keen to participate in his struggle to reclaim their country from fascism, this respect is unrequited, and that her own beloved husband is ensnared by patriarchal conventions when it comes to their relationship.
In these pages, De CĂ©spedes delivers a breathtakingly accurate and timeless portrayal of the complexity of the female condition against the dramatic backdrop of WWII and the partisan uprising in Italy
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3Reply
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MadisonBailey finished a book
1d
Diary of a Superfluous Man
Ivan Turgenev
A vivid picture of nineteenth-century Russian society, but above all the poignant story of a man whose mortality becomes the only aspect of life that he shares with his fellow man. When Turgenev published Diary of a Superfluous Man in 1850, he created one of the first literary portraits of the alienated man. Turgenev once said that there was a great deal of himself in the unsuccessful lovers who appear in his fiction. This failure, along with painful self-consciousness, is a central fact for the ailing Chulkaturin in this melancholy tale. As he reflects on his life, he tells the story of Liza, whom he loved, and a prince, whom she loved instead, and the curious turns all their lives took.
4
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
1d
Three Years
Anton Chekhov
Three Years is Anton Chekhov's heartfelt attempt to create a "novel of Moscow life." In it, he paints a poignant portrait of the struggles and frustrations that go hand in hand with human relationships. Away from his native Moscow to care for his ailing sister, Laptev falls instantly in love with Yulia Sergeyevna, the daughter of the local doctor. She in turn feels nothing for him, but convinces herself it would be doing him a gross disservice to refuse his proposal. So begins the unequal marriage between the two, a marriage that will bring a bitter and desperate sorrow to them both. Yet as the years go by, and as they face and overcome tragedy together, they learn to value each other in new ways, and so restore their faith in the redemptive power of time. Most famous for The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, and Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov is one of Russiaâs most highly regarded dramatists and short story writers.
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MadisonBailey TBR'd a book
1d
This Side of Paradise
F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the Jazz Age, based on Fitzgerald's original manuscript. In this definitive text, This Side of Paradise captures the rhythms and romance of Fitzgerald's youth and offers a poignant portrait of the "Lost Generation."
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MadisonBailey started reading...
1d
Diary of a Superfluous Man
Ivan Turgenev
A vivid picture of nineteenth-century Russian society, but above all the poignant story of a man whose mortality becomes the only aspect of life that he shares with his fellow man. When Turgenev published Diary of a Superfluous Man in 1850, he created one of the first literary portraits of the alienated man. Turgenev once said that there was a great deal of himself in the unsuccessful lovers who appear in his fiction. This failure, along with painful self-consciousness, is a central fact for the ailing Chulkaturin in this melancholy tale. As he reflects on his life, he tells the story of Liza, whom he loved, and a prince, whom she loved instead, and the curious turns all their lives took.
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MadisonBailey commented on maryleong's update
2d
maryleong started reading...
2d
The Haar
David Sodergren
âI donât fear death... but they do.â
Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there.
But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost⊠until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.
THE HAAR
To some it brings redemption⊠to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie withinâŠ
THE HAAR
Romantic and deranged, THE HAAR is a gore-soaked folk-horror fairy tale from David Sodergren, author of The Forgotten Island and Maggieâs Grave.
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