Ralsie

Most random and chaotic taste in books you'll ever see, will read almost anything.

1202 points

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My Taste

The Ruin of Kings (A Chorus of Dragons, #1)

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The Bog Wife

Kay Chronister

In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future. Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself. Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.

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The Bog Wife

Kay Chronister

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The Raven Scholar (The Eternal Path, #1)

mairasbookshelf

Thoughts from 31% (Post Chapter 19)

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The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Kiran Desai

The spellbinding story of two young people whose fates will intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of LossBehind every love story are the myriad stories of two families.In the snowy mountains of Vermont, Sonia is lonely. A college student and aspiring writer homesick for India, she turns to an older artist for inspiration and intimacy, a man who will cast a dark spell on the next many years of her life. In Brooklyn, Sunny is lonely, too. A struggling journalist originally from Delhi, he is both beguiled and perplexed by his American girlfriend and the country in which he plans to find his future. As Sonia and Sunny each becomes more and more alienated, they begin to question their understanding of happiness, human connection, and where they belong.Back in India, Sonia and Sunny's extended families cannot fathom how anyone could be lonely in this great, bustling world. They arrange a meeting between the two—a clumsy meddling that only drives Sonia and Sunny apart before they have a chance to fall in love. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists.

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The Killer Question

Janice Hallett

Get ready for the sudden-death round... Mal and Sue Eastwood were once the kindly landlords of a local village pub, The Case is Altered. They ran a weekly pub quiz and were well liked by their customers and colleagues alike, always happy to lend a helping hand. But now The Case stands empty, its windows boarded up. What could have happened to Mal and Sue? Did The Case close because it was failing? Was it because of the body pulled from the nearby river? Or perhaps it had something to do with the quiz? It had always been a quiet affair, five teams of locals battling it out for a small prize pot. Until one day a mysterious new team of outsiders arrived, and started winning every round... Only by sifting through the quiz sheets, the WhatsApps, and Mal and Sue's hidden past may the truth be revealed. Someone's not playing fair, so get the drinks in and see if you can get a perfect score.

Post from the The Killer Question forum

Ralsie

Thoughts from 78% (page 341)

Something I appreciate about Janice Hallett's books is not just the mixed-media storytelling (which I'm a big fan of in itself) but also the framing devices at the beginning: she could have simply written a book told in text messages and emails, but she chooses to frames it as a story-within-a-story (the two junior lawyers reviewing a case at their boss's request in The Appeal, the relative pitching a documentary idea to a production company here), which is honestly such a clever workaround for what gets mentioned when and why certain information and plot points aren't revealed chronologically.

Authors don't necessarily need to justify themselves and give a plausible in-book explanation for why they are structuring a story the way they do, of course, I just think it's nice when they do.

Idk, I just love me a good gimmick in a book ❤️

Ralsie TBR'd a book

Eyeliner: A Cultural History

Zahra Hankir

From the acclaimed editor of Our Women on the Ground comes a dazzling exploration of the intersections of beauty and power around the globe, told through the lens of an iconic cosmetic From the distant past to the present, with fingers and felt-tipped pens, metallic powders and gel pots, humans have been drawn to lining their eyes. The aesthetic trademark of figures ranging from Nefertiti to Amy Winehouse, eyeliner is one of our most enduring cosmetic tools; ancient royals and Gen Z beauty influencers alike would attest to its uniquely transformative power. It is undeniably fun—yet it is also far from frivolous. Seen through Zahra Hankir’s (kohl-lined) eyes, this ubiquitous but seldom-examined product becomes a portal to history, proof both of the stunning variety among cultures across time and space and of our shared humanity. Through intimate reporting and conversations—with nomads in Chad, geishas in Japan, dancers in India, drag queens in New York, and more— Eyeliner embraces the rich history and significance of its namesake, especially among communities of color. What emerges is an unexpectedly moving portrait of a tool that, in various corners of the globe, can signal religious devotion, attract potential partners, ward off evil forces, shield eyes from the sun, transform faces into fantasies, and communicate volumes without saying a word. Delightful, surprising, and utterly absorbing, Eyeliner is a fascinating tour through streets, stages, and bedrooms around the world, and a thought-provoking reclamation of a key piece of our collective history.

Ralsie TBR'd a book

Rouge

Mona Awad

From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep? For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

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Ralsie

Melmoth

So happy to see mentions of Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth ❤️

always thought it's a shame more people don't know about it, it's a bit of a hidden gem of gothic literature if you ask me

Ralsie commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum

jenniferPagebound

Roadmap, Feature Requests, and Enhancements [11/19/25]

We have a new app release available on iOS and Android as of this afternoon! Please update your apps to see the following updates (also available on web):

Public Roadmap We get a huge amount of feedback every day, and see all of your chatter in the Pagebound Club about requests and enhancements. One of our core values is transparency, and in that spirit we have released a public Roadmap to show everyone what we’re working on, what we have planned, and what has been released. Everyone can view this roadmap in the footer on web, or in the “more” menu on the app.

Official Feature Requests On the Roadmap, you’ll see a link to Feature Requests. One benefit of joining Pagebound Royalty is that you can submit official feature requests, which we will mark as “approved” or “won't do,” each with an explanation. Once work has started on a request, it will move to the roadmap. Pagebound Royalty members also have the ability to comment and like both roadmap items and feature requests. We have pre-populated the roadmap with things we’re working on through the end of the year, and added our most popular requests to the Feature Request section. While we accept and read feedback from anyone, we do not have the bandwidth as a 2-person team to respond individually; the Roadmap will give everyone the ability to see what’s coming soon on Pagebound, give us a streamlined and efficient way to respond to requests, and the feedback form is still available at support.pagebound.co to anyone.

Giveaways We've been working behind the scenes to put together a Giveaway offering which will go live early 2026. This means anyone on Pagebound will be able to enter Giveaways for physical, audio, and ebooks :) Authors of Pagebound: If you or anyone you know is looking for marketing opportunities, we'd love work with you! Check out https://support.pagebound.co/giveaways to learn more; we'd love if you shared this with your author communities as well!

Other Improvements In addition to various bug fixes, we also added a quick-link when you create a Progress Update (% bar on your home page) to add a comment to update your followers! This is a great place to share personal updates, what you think of the book so far, and quick thoughts (ex. "loving this so far"). The book forums are still the place to start more in-depth discussions relevant to the broader community.

Thanks everyone and happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy 💜💙

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Ralsie is interested in reading...

The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Gael Song #1)

Shauna Lawless

The first in a gripping new historical fantasy series that intertwines Irish mythology with real-life history, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is the thrilling debut novel by Shauna Lawless. They think they've killed the last of us... 981 AD. The Viking King of Dublin is dead. His young widow, Gormflaith, has ambitions for her son – and herself – but Ireland is a dangerous place and kings tend not to stay kings for long. Gormflaith also has a secret. She is one of the Fomorians, an immortal race who can do fire-magic. She has kept her powers hidden at all costs, for there are other immortals in this world – like the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of warriors who are sworn to kill Fomorians. Fódla is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann with the gift of healing. Her kind dwell hidden in a fortress, forbidden to live amongst the mortals. Fódla agrees to help her kin by going to spy on Brian Boru, a powerful man who aims to be High King of Ireland. She finds a land on the brink of war – a war she is desperate to stop. However, preventing the loss of mortal lives is not easy with Ireland in turmoil and the Fomorians now on the rise...

Post from the Gothic Literature forum

Ralsie

Melmoth

So happy to see mentions of Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth ❤️

always thought it's a shame more people don't know about it, it's a bit of a hidden gem of gothic literature if you ask me

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Gothic Literature 🏰💀👻

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I like my castles cold, my moors windswept, and my heroines swooning.

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Gothic Literature

Silver: Finished 10 Main Quest books.

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Mythological World Tour ⚔️🗺️🔱

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Do you suffer from frequent wanderlust, longing to explore cultures & history across time? Here is your ticket: tour the world with fantasy inspired by various world myths. For series, only the first book is featured.

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Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2)

Pyxishroom

Wendell Bambelby and the Cloak of Adoration

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Botanical Horror ☠️🍂🍄‍🟫

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Creepy crawling vines, sentient mushrooms, or a killer forest; no matter what shape they take, plants and fungi play a main part in these horror novels.

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Mermaids After Dark 🌊🦈🧜‍♀️

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This isn't Disney's little mermaid! A collection of horror, dark fiction, and gothic romances featuring mermaids.

Post from the The Killer Question forum

Ralsie

Edited

Thoughts from 63%

Really enjoying this so far, but if I'm being honest, not quite as much as I did The Appeal which remains my favourite Janine Hallett book so far.

Just feel like The Appeal had more mini-mysteries to solve and did a better job of establishing all the characters and the relationships between them, whereas here I'm almost 300 pages in and there are still characters we know nothing or very little about. I wish there was more interaction between all the quiz teams. Maybe it's because the players in The Appeal were all involved in the play and had strong ties with each other going back many years, while here the characters only meet up for like 3 hours once a week, but the sense of community is a bit lacking - still there, just maybe not as strong as I would have liked.

Ralsie TBR'd a book

A Sorceress Comes to Call

T. Kingfisher

A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers. After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister. Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.

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