

Iām still not sure if I can call this a haunted house story. Sure, thereās a weird house that does weird things to certain people but the book didnāt l communicate that as clearly as it should have. Some parts are so surreal, so chaotic that itās impossible to grasp whatās actually happening.
The long and short of this books plot is that a sister, Rawena, is trying to find her sister, Anaya, after she mysteriously disappeared with another woman during an exclusive writing retreat with a prestigious publishing company. Itās seems pretty straightforward right? I thought so too, and at first it was. The narrative is told from Rawenaās first person perspective, a podcast from one of the members of the retreat, news articles, and police interview transcripts.
Now I love an epistolary like novel, getting bits and pieces of information from outside sources as will as intimate correspondences. But this got a bit metaphysical for me. Like Anayaās phone that Rawena mysterious gets that somehow gets missing episodes of the podcast. Itās a little creepy sure but the content of those particular episodes were the ones that were so surreal and strange that I could make very little sense out of them. I do admit they were filled with both beautiful and disturbing imagery but I didnāt find them accessible to be able to associate them to the plot.
Another thing I felt was difficult about the book was that there were so many political and social points that were focused on. Colonialism, racism, sexism, marginalization, tokenism, religion, cultural erasure, sexual assault, whitewashing just to name a few. These paired with the dream-like weirdness of the events happening to Anaya it just felt like I was overwhelmed.
The book just felt a little messy to me in its execution, a victim maybe of taking on too much. I never felt like the author reached the balance between creativity and social commentary that she was looking for.


jess_the_reader started reading...
2h

Our Wives Under the Sea
Julia Armfield
Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah is not the same. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has brought part of it back with her, onto dry land and into their home. Moving through something that only resembles normal life, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had before might be gone. Though Leah is still there, Miri can feel the woman she loves slipping from her grasp. Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut novel from Julia Armfield, the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. Itās a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep deep sea.


jess_the_reader finished a book
3h

House of Margins
Tlotlo Tsamaase
SerialĀ the podcast meetsĀ The Other Black GirlĀ in a haunted house, as young African author disappears after being invited to an exclusive writing residency, and her sister is left only with a true crime podcast to help her uncover the truth about what really happenedā¦Anaya Sebeya is missing. Before her disappearance, Anaya was a brilliant a rising star. Invited to a prestigious writing residency at Günter Huis, an eerie colonial mansion on the slopes of Devilās Peak, Anaya was supposed to craft the next great African literary masterpieceāand so were four other young, emerging writers, all competing for the grand prize. But Anaya never made it home. When a sensationalized true crime podcast about Anaya emerges, claiming to reveal everything that happened at Günter Huis, her sister Ranewa is both skeptical and furious. But with each surreal episode, Ranewa begins to piece together a truth worse than she ever could have imagined⦠At Günter Huis, Anayaās nightmares consume her. Time slips away from her. Günter Huis inflicts distorted visions and terrible supernatural visitations, pushing Anaya to tell a story no one dares. But exorcising the houseās endless cycle of evil requires a sacrifice that neither Anaya nor her fellows are ready to make. In House of Margins, award-winning Motswana author Tlotlo Tsamaase delivers a mesmerizing story of a young generation facing colonialismās cultural legacy in Africa.

I was fucking around with Chatgpt and it said this was extreme body horror. I don't think it knows what that means. It's a short story about a creepy chairmaker that makes a chair he can hide in so women will sit on him.

The Ritual
Adam L.G. Nevill


jess_the_reader commented...
18h
lol I sometimes think about it in the way that when Iām reading Iām so invested in the story but then Iāll notice the words and then it will hit me and Iāll think āIām reading words on a pageā. And suddenly itās my voice in my head instead of whatever character or narrator. And it does pull me out of the story for a second or two. (Thatās a terrible description š¤¦š¼āāļø but I donāt know how else to explain it.)
As for scenery Iāve never had trouble envisioning and keeping the writers description as long as itās reasonably detailed, otherwise Iāll fill in the blanks on my own with something I feel like makes sense. But in terms of actual characters I almost always only see them as bodies with heads of hair and no faces, even if their faces are described. Itās super weird, donāt ask me why, Iāve done it since I was a kid. Maybe because faces are usually only described once?
I'm one of those people that "see" books like a movie in my head. I'm either in the perspective of the main character or like a camera shot of the whole scene. Sometimes I'm seeing the movie so well that when I become conscious of the books' words again it kind of throws me off - kind of like when you're watching something with captions. You get used to them and they blend in, and then you notice them again and they become impossible to ignore until you get used to them again.
I was just wondering what you all "see". Is it like a movie? A picture book? Is it just the words? I feel like seeing just the words would make reading quite unenjoyable but that might just be me.


jess_the_reader TBR'd a book
19h

The Passenger
Lisa Lutz
āA dead-serious thriller (with a funny bone)ā ( The New York Times Book Review ), from the author of the New York Times bestselling Spellman Files series, comes the story of a woman who creates and sheds new identities as she crisscrosses the country to escape her past. Forty-eight hours after leaving her husbandās body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. Itās not the first time. She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitiveās eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasyāand dangerousāalliance is born. Itās almost impossible to live off the grid in the twenty-first century, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret. From heart-stopping escapes and devious deceptions, we are left to wonderā¦can she possibly outrun her past? The Passenger ās white-knuckled plot and unforeseeable twists make one thing for certain: the ride will leave you breathless. āWhen the answers finally come, they are juicy, complex, and unexpected. The satisfying conclusion will leave readers rethinking everything and immediately turning back to the first page to start again. Psychological suspense lovers will tear through this thrillerā ( Library Journal , starred review).

leiaasky joined a quest
1d
Supporting* Women's Wrongs
šŖšš¬
Main Quest š // 7519 joined

Whether you love to hate or hate to love 'em, these literary bad girls are anything but well-behaved. *Disclaimer: we do not literally support the illegal and oft cruel behavior of these protagonists (usually); we support the authors bold enough to write them (always).


jess_the_reader commented...
19h
My favorite looking badge for a quest is the LGBTQ+ SciFi & Fantasy, itās just so pretty and colorful and aesthetically pleasing to me. Perfection š¤š»š My favorite actual quest though has to be Whispers In the Walls (Iām just a sucker for a haunted house) with Supporting Womenās Wrongs a very very close second. I guess Iām a fan of the darknessā¦
WItW (so far) ā¢The Haunting of Hill House ā¢Rebecca ā¢Diavola ā¢The Elementals
SWW (so far) ā¢Mary: An Awakening of Terror ā¢Exalted ā¢A Good Person ā¢My Husband
What quest have you enjoyed the most for the books you've read in it? The quest that you read the books for the books, not the badge, or not just the badge. What is/are your favorite book(s) from that quest? Which book(s) would you recommend to convince people to join the quest?
My favorite quest is The Monstrous Feminine. Since I'm indecisive, I have four favorite books from the quest: ⢠The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim ⢠Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang ⢠The Lamb by Lucy Rose ⢠Bed Rot Baby by Wendy Dalrymple