I really enjoyed this book. From the first chapter, I was hooked, and I found this book to have the perfect blend of rage and dark humour.

I LOVED the structure of this book. It's split into parts, each named after different types of moons, and the chapters within these parts are named after symptoms and side effects of menopause. Some of them are the obvious ones, like hot flashes, but some of the less well-known ones, like loose teeth! I also really enjoyed the use of lists, as someone who is a chronic lister, and loved the little extra bits of sarcasm or wit included in parentheses.

The characters, overall, are really well written and are believable and relatable. I adored Brenda, what a legend. I want to be her when I grow up. Overall, I liked Ellie (MC) and found her mostly relatable, whilst at times I did think she was insufferable. Her passive aggressiveness grated on me, although I do understand that this is a problem with societal expectations and the patriarchy, and that this can be hard for people to work through. Her husband was infuriating! He's mastered the art of weaponised incompetence and is completely useless, whilst also saying some really stupid shit which made me want to slap him, but because he's not an abusive POS, I sat there wondering whether I was overreacting. Which, I guess, is part of the underlying message, that women second-guess themselves and "rein in their temper" constantly to be seen as more palatable. I was somewhat disappointed that neither the passive aggressiveness nor the weaponised incompetence was addressed.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. It's not a bad ending at all, I just had expected/wanted it to go in a different direction rather than be wrapped up nicely and neatly. On top of that, the ending didn't make sense given what we know of the characters.

One thing to note is that the author included a disclaimer that she used ChatGPT to generate some of the AI meditations, which seems a bit odd given her ability to write the other fictional AI meditations well. There are also lots of examples online of when AI has gone bad that she could have used, without resorting to using generative AI herself. I don't think that the rest of the book is written using AI, but I can see how others might be wary of this.

This book perfectly describes the emotional and mental labour that women often do for free, and the weaponised incompetence displayed by men. The underlying message is about how society expects women to hold it all together and not get emotional, and how repressing that rage turns us into monsters. I think this is a really enjoyable book that, despite some darker themes and content, is a quick(ish) and fun read.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Australia following a zombie apocalypse, Kristina, our queer narrator, is planning to escape the city with her best friend, a trans man called Josh, when she’s attacked by a zombie and turned into one herself.

This is where the book becomes an original take on zombie lore. Kristina remains cognisant of the world around her, rather than becoming a stereotypical brain-dead zombie. Aware enough to seek revenge on her abusive family, who have since disowned her for being queer. Feeding on people along the way, she realises that not only does eating people give glimpses of their memories, but it also heals any physical wounds. In this book, zombies aren’t easily killed by damaging the brain or severing the spinal cord.

This is a psychological and emotionally driven character study that uses the zombie trope as a backdrop. This isn’t a typical “good for her” story - although there is revenge, it’s just kinda sad.

Given the short length of this story, Osborne has managed to write a character who has so much depth. I felt so many things for Kristina - sorrow, grief, joy, rage.

There were a few sentences that didn’t make sense, and I had to re-read them a few times, and a few decisions Kristina made that confused me slightly, but overall, I thought this was a very solid book.

An impressive debut novel - I’m looking forward to reading more from Emma Osborne.

Thank you to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book as a Chinese person who has grown up in both the UK and Hong Kong.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the food and the menu Amber put together for Celeste. The book also gives the reader glimpses into the xenophobia and racism towards Chinese people in the UK.

Where this book fell flat for me was that despite the content, I felt it lacked depth and was quite disjointed. Nothing really happened, and a lot of the dialogue was unnatural and confusing.

I didn't feel like there was any character development, and I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable.

These things combined made it quite difficult for me to stay engaged, and ultimately, I wasn't interested in continuing.

Thank you to World Editions and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This has all the elements of a book that I would love - gothic atmosphere, samurai history, time jumps, and I was so excited about getting this, but unfortunately it's not holding my interest.

The setting of the book is really well done, with the isolated house in the forest creating a tense and claustrophobic Gothic atmosphere.

I enjoyed the structure of the different POV/timelines and how each POV sets up the scene for the next.

I found the pacing to be off - Lee's chapters are very slow (perhaps a conscious choice to reflect his reliance on sedatives?) and Sen's were well paced. The difference in these frustrated me and pulled me out of the story sometimes. On top of that, I did find myself a bit confused (surprisingly, not by the dual POV/timelines).

I think this book will be an amazing read for a lot of people, however, it's just not for me.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't know what to expect going into this, and I was very pleasantly surprised! I knew about 10% in that if the book carried on in the same vein, I'd love it. In fact, I've read the whole book in half a day - couldn't put it down.

The story is told through mixed media - Ava's journal entries and Savannah's thoughts as she navigates life before and after finding Ava's journal. I really enjoyed the structure of this book; it was very engaging, and I enjoyed the tension it provided in pulling the story along.

It provides great insight into the impact that OCD itself and OCD coupled with trauma can have on someone and their life. Despite Savannah being very morally ambiguous, I enjoyed her characterisation. I thought the characters of Ava, Megan and Chad were well written and had good development.

There were a few bits of the book that niggled me, but nothing so big as to detract from my enjoyment of this book.

While this book is very dark and unhinged, it's also peppered with dark and dry humour that had me laughing out loud throughout the book.

I look forward to reading more from Sara van Os.

Thank you to Dead Ink Books and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I enjoyed the unique plot, a blend of post-apocalyptic cosmic horror and folklore, which kept me engaged. I read this in two sittings, couldn't put it down!

The pacing of this was pretty good, the writing was clear and created a creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere.

There are a few plot points that aren't resolved, leaving me with more questions.

One of the things I would have liked explored more was the lore behind the wards and the "witches" themselves.

I liked the relationship between Sara and her sibling, Danny. The relationship between Sara and Parsley seemed a bit flat and I wasn't particularly interested in this aspect of the plot. Although this is more of a plot driven story, I'd like to have seen a bit of character background and development.

Overall, I thought this was an easy, fun and enjoyable read!

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A collection of Amal El-Mohtar's favourite short stories and poems over the years. There were a couple of stories in the collection that I didn't love as much as the others, but I still enjoyed them. That being said, I think the synopsis is somewhat misleading as some of the stories were actually poems - while there's nothing wrong with that, it's not what I expected.

I fell in love with El-Mohtar's writing style after reading The River Has Roots last year and have read a couple of her short stories, so was very happy to receive the ARC for this!

The collection covers a range of themes such as misogyny, patriarchy, feminism, being queer, being an immigrant, and being displaced, through a variety of modes including diary entries, letters, and poetic verses.

I won't review each story individually, but a few that were standouts for me were:

'Seasons of Glass and Iron', a sapphic feminist fairytale, which I felt was an excellent choice for the first story in the collection.

'Qahr' and 'Anabasis' for their excellent political and social commentary.

'To Follow the Waves' - I thought the world-building in this was excellent for a short story, and I'd read a novel/novella of this in a heartbeat!

'The Truth About Owls' and 'Florilegia; or Some Lies about Flowers' were both strong as separate stories, but they tie in really well with each other.

I loved 'John Hollowback and the Witch' when I read it in my copy of The River Has Roots, and couldn't wait to return to it. A great example of morals in a story.

If you enjoy fantasy/sci-fi and poetic prose, you'll love this!

Thank you, Quercus Books and NetGalley, for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own

This book is bananas, like a wild fever dream, and the body horror in this was messed up.

The book tackles issues like poverty, racism, Asian fetishisation, exploitation, white (male) saviour complex, alongside stories of Korean folklore, which I enjoyed.

The first 20% had me hooked, although I started to lose interest for a bit when Hee-Jin got to America. But then the book picks back up again around 30%, where a lot of the WTF moments of the plot come in.

Because this book is so weird and a lot of stuff is going on, some of the confusion lends itself well to us being gaslit as readers alongside Hee-Jin. I still can't decide if I like that or not.

Either way, I couldn't stop reading this; I had to know what was going to happen next.

After finishing it, I feel like the book tries to cover too many things at once, meaning that a lot of things get lost or don't really amount to anything. It also means that there were a lot of loose ends and plot inconsistencies.

Despite this, I still really enjoyed reading this.

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.