I adored Hungerstone when I read that at the end of 2024 and I think if you also enjoyed that book then this will hit for you. Spoiled Milk is a slow paced lesbian horror set at a crumbling all girls boarding school in the British countryside. Our protagonist, Emily, is perfectly terrible and moody which makes her a really interesting character to read from. You get to watch her parse through a former toxic friendship and finally come to terms with her sexuality. The scenes of self actualizing are then paired with some really well done horror moments. Everything that the author did with Sophie in the latter half the book spooked me out in the best way.

What made this book more of a four star read was the slow pacing. It's definitely an intentional choice to reflect the encroachment of the supernatural horror that's picking off our girls. There was just a point where we kept going from spooky school scene to seance, where it felt slow and repetitive. Otherwise, this was a really fun read that I would definitely recommend if you're looking for a slow paced horror that utilizes suspense in a really nice way.

CW: murder, gore, implied past CSA, past teacher/student relationship, cannibalism

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I mean, I guess. It's so sanitized and corporate, but what more can I expect from RuPaul?

This is supposed to be a memoir, but the interiority is so shallow that there's nothing to analyze. This is RuPaul's rags-to-riches story, wrapped in a liberal American dream messaging. There's nothing really here about RuPaul's complexity, or a sense that there is any reflection upon his life.

The most interesting potential of this book lies in its exploration of early drag culture, the nitty-gritty of the scene in the heart of New York City, the trauma of the AIDS crisis, the realization of his identity. There are only small glimpses; blink-and-you-might-miss-them moments that are soon interrupted by RuPaul distancing himself and holding the reader at arms-length in favor of flowery quotes that mean nothing.

The writing is so focused on trying to sound deeper than it really is, and it ends up becoming repetitive in a way that feels sloppy rather than intentional. The titular house of hidden meanings is meant to represent the ways that healing and connection sneak up on us, the way we find ourselves reflected in the spaces and people that we least expect. Because of its shallow interiority, the hidden meaning is... nothing. The most bare-bones reflections upon life that feel like sanitized quotes for RuPaul's Instagram rather than anything substantial.

RuPaul distances himself from everything that makes his story unique. The drag scene wasn't "his tribe", and it often felt like his only identity was wanting to be famous. His supermodel persona was simply a brand created to achieve his "destiny" of being a superstar, not something that meant anything to him. Because of this, everything he says must match that persona. Clean, programmed, with struggles that wrap up easily, no loose ends left untied.

His language constantly downplays the moments of his life that should be hard-hitting. His years-long addiction to cocaine, weed, and alcohol is minimized as "partying too hard". When his father confronts him about "hanging out with gay boys", he simply puffs out his chest and tells him off. There is no feeling behind anything he does, no meaning beyond painting himself the way he wants to be seen. Even his years of experience with homelessness breeze by in a blur as opportunities and remedies seemingly fall into his lap.

His entire legacy is summed up as another cookie-cutter American dream fantasy. Work hard, and you will be rewarded. If you try hard enough, and want something bad enough, you too can make it. Of course, this is his entire brand, his entire philosophy. Forward-moving, positivity, persona-as-armor. Unfortunately the RuPaul project is not something I am interested in buying into.

Personally, I expect something meaningful to come from memoirs, some type of reflection and reckoning with one's own life in its full complexity; the good, bad, and the ugly. I certainly think RuPaul has lived a life worth retelling, but this book might as well have been a fluff article for a tabloid magazine.

Vicious is a sci-fi/fantasy thriller that had me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. It is fast-paced, exciting, and easy to digest. It reminded me a lot of a comic book or action movie in that, it was fun and entertaining to read, but doesn’t have a ton of depth or complexity.

The two main protagonists are unequivocally evil in a way that felt one-note. They are both defined by the motivating force behind their evil, and while each of them has their own unique flavor, this is about as far as their character development goes. While they were fun characters to follow and initially interesting to try to understand, once I understood them, it felt like there was nothing more to dissect or think about. They didn’t feel like real people, which again, reminds me of supervillains in movies and comics.

There is also quite a lot of suspension of disbelief that a reader has to do in order to buy in, that is unrelated to the fantasy/sci-fi elements. Plot events happened in a way that felt very convenient for the story to progress. Characters showed up coincidentally in the same town, the same locations, knew the same people, etc. This aspect also reminded me of superhero movies. Everything happened to fall into place perfectly so that the story could progress in the way that Schwab needed it to.

While the characters and believability were not strengths, the plot was engaging. I enjoyed the fast pace and timeline switches that slowly reveal information from the past to catch the reader up to the present. It built up the anticipation in a satisfying way that led to a satisfying conclusion. It was pretty hard to put down at times, because I kept wanting to know what happened next.

I think this would be great for someone who is looking for a book that is easy but still engaging. It was a nice change of pace from the denser works that I typically read, but it didn’t blow me away.

Shoutout to @beezus for buddy-reading this with me!