My Selling Pitch:
Painfully predictable Midsommar X The Lorax horror.

On my do not read list.

Pre-reading: My brain is still too cloudy for Blake. But let’s see if what I presume will be feminine rage horror can jumpstart her. (Tried and failed to finish this before the start of 2026.)

(obviously potential spoilers from here on) Thick of it: Well, that’s creepy.

Girl, fucking a married dude is not it. (We drop this plotline immediately.)

Fuck Trump.

I feel like dad met a tree spirit and maybe got turned into a tree. (I opened this book.)

Is she a faerie changeling? And mom hates dad because she thinks he had an affair? (Basically.)

This book has a lot of SAT vocab for a very immature FMC.

You know, I hate the man too, but I don’t necessarily wanna read about how a character thinks he stole the election. It’s a little past heavy-handed.

Loins? Ew.

That doesn’t feel like he’s trying to get a rise out of you. That feels like a genuine condolence.

A me!

Girl, that’s like the most obvious case of evidence planting. At this point are we not all operating under the assumption that they found the magic tree grove and then faked an injury so that she wouldn’t also find it? Her dad was obviously trying to protect them from the lumber company- the sprites or whatever it’s gonna turn out to be. (I didn’t need to read this book.)

Truly never understand when characters don't want to open a journal for privacy reasons. I'm a nosy bitch. Blame a childhood of Nancy Drew.

Tree-hugging over your daughter is crazy.

So like faerie wine. God, I'm so bored. I feel like I know exactly where this is going. (I did.)

I can’t escape the werewolf smut lol.

CAMARADERIE, I mean🎶 (New year, same jokes.)

Detritus sin

Fell out of a plane also made me immediately think of DB Cooper lol.

All the comments that she keeps making in this book that she thinks are feminist are actually just internalized misogyny. You don’t have to not puke to be a strong woman. Puking isn’t girly. Puking isn’t weak. Like it’s such a warped mindset.

This ain’t Texas🎶

It’s like shitty Lorax horror.

Detritus sin part deux

What do you mean you have to teach the boys to braid? I don’t believe that for a second.

Technically a mixed media book

This book would’ve been better if we had these journal entries throughout the other chapters.

The author is like plot twist! And I’m like I opened the book.

Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see🎶 A criminally bad dad joke lol.

Post-reading: I really hate when I open a book and know exactly where it’s going. This is Midsommar x The Lorax. It’s not wrong in its comparison, but just by comparing it to that movie, it’s kinda spoiled the plot. You know you’re waiting for a betrayal so it can devolve into a revenge fantasy.

And maybe if this had some insightful commentary about environmentalism, or engaging characters, or pretty prose, it could’ve skated by into 2 or 3 star territory, but it doesn’t. The main character is an insufferable pick me. The author kept dropping in these feminist asides, but they’re actually worryingly misogynistic.

The pacing is slow, and it’s even more noticeable since the vast majority of readers are going to pick this book up and figure out whodunnit immediately. It’s so heavy-handed with its foreshadowing, you’d have to be blind not to pick up on it. I think alternating the chapters with the journal entries could’ve improved the pacing of this and would’ve ratcheted up the tension. Quite frankly, I’m surprised whoever the editor was for this didn’t suggest such a change.

The gore descriptions were the one bright spot in this. I think they were well done in a grotesque sense, but they ring hollow when your audience isn’t scared of the threat.

I hate rating a book so lowly, when I don’t think the writing is outright offensive, but this is such a boring slog for no payoff, I can’t see anyone picking this up and truly enjoying it. I wouldn’t pick this author up again without hearing rave reviews.

Who should read this: Folktale horror fans

Ideal reading time: Winter-there’s a lot of Christmas references for a book not about Christmas.

Do I want to reread this: Nope.

Would I buy this: Nope.

Similar books:

• Stag Dance by Torrey Peters-short story collection, historical, horror, myth retelling, queer, trans
• Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah-YA gothic horror, magical realism, revenge thriller, queer
• Veal by Mackenzie Nolan-psychological horror, family drama, queer romance
• The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney-mystery, horror, family drama
• Overgrowth by Mira Grant-sci-fi, horror, queer, trans, autism
• Grey Dog by Elliot Gish-gothic horror, queer
• Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew-Peter Pan retelling, gothic horror, family drama

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Under patriarchal capitalism, feminism cannibalizes itself. Girls can have a little existential crisis served with biblical allegory as a treat. One hell of a WOOF, and a genre-defining, femme horror must-read.

Pre-reading: Only feels right and fair to give Olivie Blake a chance to unseat herself as my best book of the year.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on) Thick of it: Immediately yes. Olivie Blake, the woman that you are.

I hope Blake’s home life is nothing like this because the woman is brilliant.

I LOVE THIS WOMAN.

Her writing tickles my brain so good. Fuck the haters. Blake is brilliant.

Blake gets fashion, and that's so crucial for a sorority book, even if it's going to date it immediately.

The dog licking sound also drives me nuts.

I genuinely don't understand how moms do it.

Blake is genre-defining feminism, and you're all sleeping on her because you can't handle a run on.

CAMARADERIE, I mean🎶

Hello TA. I hope they eat him.

God, she ends a chapter so well and thematically, and she’s so good at different voices!

I love this book. I love that she’s a hand girly.

She just gets it. No matter how much of an overachiever you are, you're still wrong by way of being a woman and not the best.

I don’t know that Nascosta coined competency porn, but it’s so violently Capricorn and it makes me think of Run Run every time I hear it.

That cool girl monologue, baby. Iconic.

Preachhhh. She gets the compound happily ever after. She gets the everything politically sucks.

If we’re going like Jesus, who’s Judas, hmm? (It’s kinda there. I kinda love it.)

Tripp? I see you, Ninth House.

We’re supposed to realize Nina‘s professor is Max, right? They haven’t named him, but like I know.

She’s so good at thematic, cheeky callbacks. But there’s no way to properly highlight the quote and share it. Like how do you express your delight that there’s a malevolent biblical undercurrent to this while it also rips religion’s inherent campness with a #blessed. It’s Sabrina Carpenter’s Feather music video. Like Blake just gets it.

Holy fuck, I think I love Caroline.

I LOVE Caroline.

Here’s the problem. This book slaps, will easily be on my best of the year list. I don’t know if it’s gonna unseat Gifted just because Gifted is so much more fun. This book is punchy and angry, but it doesn’t quite have the campy levity of Gifted, and at my core, I love a silly goofy time.

Uh, comparing cannibalism to homosexuality, transgender, and interracial marriage as just little taboos doesn’t sit right with me. And like obviously it doesn’t sit right with Sloane, but that is an off-putting line in an otherwise phenomenal book. (It's like the devil’s advocate intellectualizing of it, and like I GET it, but it’s SO ICKY to me.)

OK, but that kind of slaps that girl bossing is cannibalizing others because you’re succeeding in a system not designed to be equal or fair.

Girls can have an existential crisis as a treat.

I find most of her lyrics pretty cringe but give me back my girlhood, it was mine first🎶 will never not hit.

G spot sin

Hahaha fuck me, this book is depressing me. But like it’s so true and inescapable. We all get eaten alive by the patriarchy and are just expected to move on like that’s something you can just get over.

A much, much better version of the Barbie monologue.

Samantha, why do you hate the Barbie movie monologue so much? Because it should’ve been this! God, the movie’s is such a joke by comparison.

Who’s the chef for these girls? I’m so curious.

I love her cannibalism short story in Januaries that clearly inspired this, and this is also very, very good, but I feel like this last 20% could nose-dive real quick. (It sticks the landing! It's just not happy.)

I really, really hope Blake isn’t pulling from her own marriage.

He has to be fucking Fawn, no? Like I got that from the beginning. (What I haven't gotten from the jump, is the Tessa Fawn drama.)

She’s mother, and mother fucking ate 🎶

Oh shit, full Jesus' last supper. LOVE IT. Blake’s a genius.

I don’t know how I feel about this ending. Like it is just so depressing. You have to cannibalize other women in this broken system, but it feels very fitting who the victim is and how the buck got passed. BUT LIKE FUCK THAT’S SO DEPRESSING.

Okay, the author’s note reassured me about her personal life haha. She truly is one of my very favorite authors.

Me flipping back with the Tessa stuff-she had an issue with the English department and “the whole house had her back.” Fawn won’t run against Nina because she loves her, but she was supposed to love Tessa too, and it seems like she campaigned against her. I’m assuming Fawn voted against helping Tessa with the English department, and Summer let it slip. Hence the whole “I'm just doing my job” line from the both of them.

Post-reading: What a way to end the year! Olivie Blake is one of my very favorite authors. She’s so talented at writing biting, incisive social commentary while pairing it with genuine humor, AND putting a literary spin on it. I did not have this book pegged for biblical allegory, but holy fuck, does it work.

I think truly successful modern horrors understand that the scariest thing you can encounter isn't some mythological monster, it’s other people. This book bites off so much, and its stomach is never bigger than its eyes. It’s a slow build, and I can see less staunch readers dropping it, but if you stick with it, the payoff is more than worth it.

If, like me, you were deeply and fundamentally let down by the Barbie movie, this is a balm against the sting. THIS is feminine rage. Under patriarchal capitalism, feminism cannibalizes itself is such a mic drop. This book so smartly side steps revenge thriller territory. If it had devolved into another man eater, it would've lost me. But it doesn't. This book is never about the men.

I don't have much more to say about it other than that it’s a phenomenal, must-read. It’s genre-defining. In any other year, this would absolutely be up for my best book of the year. It IS my best horror of the year. Fittingly it’s losing out to another Olivie Blake book. I'll pick up anything this woman writes.

Who should read this: Feminists Femme horror fans Good for her fans I support women’s rights and their wrongs audiences

Ideal reading time: Fall semester

Do I want to reread this: Fuck yes.

Would I buy this: I want MULTIPLE copies.

Similar books:

• Normal Women by Ainslie Hogarth-same book, different font, angry sad girl lit fic, mommy horror, social commentary
• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo-dark academia, urban fantasy, murder mystery, social commentary
• Bunny by Mona Awad-dark academia, psychological horror, unreliable narrator
• Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth-lit fic, femme horror, social commentary
• The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw-dark academia, fairytale retelling, horror, revenge thriller
• Oddbody by Rose Keating-short story collection, horror, fairytale retelling, queer, social commentary
• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling-historical, magical realism, psychological horror, cults, queer, cannibalism
• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas-dark academia, lit fic, family drama, affairs, social commentary, revenge thriller
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• What Hunger by Catherine Dang-lit fic, revenge thriller, family drama, social commentary, cannibalism
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• Moonflow-magical realism, horror, queer, trans
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• House of Idyll by Delilah S. Dawson-magical realism, cult horror
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• The Lamb by Lucy Rose-lit fic, horror, family drama, social commentary, cannibalism
• Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter-dystopian, satire, lit fic, horror, family drama, social commentary
• Januaries by Olivie Blake-short story collection, horror, fairytale retelling, social commentary, cannibalism
• A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers-lit fic, horror, social commentary, cannibalism