Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen
Im not feeling it☹️ The first one was funny, at least. This one is just annoyingly horny without much to back it up. I felt so much anticipation in the first one, and now Im just kinda ehhh the whole time.

Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen


Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen


minsuni commented...
4h
oh yayy I love creepy! I was told that it has a similar botanical horror vibe to C.G. Drews so now obviously I have to read it


minsuni TBR'd a book
5h

House of Hollow
Krystal Sutherland
Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind. As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children. The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.


minsuni TBR'd a book
5h

House of Hollow
Krystal Sutherland
Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind. As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children. The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.


minsuni TBR'd a book
10h

The Only Good Indians
Stephen Graham Jones
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Sylvia Moreno Garcia and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way. In this “thrilling, literate, scary, [and] immersive” (Stephen King) tale, Jones blends his signature storytelling style with a haunting narrative that masterfully intertwines revenge, cultural identity, and tradition.


minsuni finished a book
9h

The Incandescent
Emily Tesh
Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. "Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us." Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions. Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.


minsuni TBR'd a book
10h

The Only Good Indians
Stephen Graham Jones
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Sylvia Moreno Garcia and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way. In this “thrilling, literate, scary, [and] immersive” (Stephen King) tale, Jones blends his signature storytelling style with a haunting narrative that masterfully intertwines revenge, cultural identity, and tradition.


I might be in the minority here but I absolutely loved this. The structure, the characters, the way the story was split between them, the social commentary around how women are viewed and manipulated by society, how much their trauma changed them and makes them so angry and hurt to the point where that harm switches from the outside to coming from themselves without them even realizing it.
None of the characters are likable, but that’s exactly what makes reading this and learning about their stories so much more interesting. You get an immediate first impression when you’re introduced to them, but the more they tell their story, the more you get to understand that there’s so much more to them than just being “unlikable”, that they’re also hurt and most have never had the chance to heal and get help. For most of the book, a lot of the characters show no empathy for the other people in the group, they’re not what you’d call “girls girls”, but they’re also not supposed to be. This is not a book about women caring for each other, it’s a book about how much harm was caused to them and how they deal with it in the present.
The characters feel exaggerated with the way they talk and interact with others, but in a way that is done on purpose, to emphasize how different they are, how each has a distinct personality and how their story makes sense to them.
The way each character's story was told was so interesting to read. Because each of their stories are based on fairytail, there’s so many unique details that indicate what fairytail they’re representing, so many similes and parallels that I found to be written so well, casually inserted into their story that could otherwise be seen as a mindless details, but that here have so much meaning. You can still read this without knowing each fairytail and what each character represents, though I do think it has a way bigger impact when you know the original story and how the author decided to put their own spin in this book.
There’s also an element of mystery with all these women having been called to join this therapy group and these mystery emails having been sent to them. Why? Who sent the emails? Why them? With what purpose? You get to slowly make theories and find out why they all got together to share their lives.
I won’t say this was the most well written book ever, and I do understand some of the criticism it gets, but this worked for me and personally really enjoyed reading it.


minsuni commented...
22h
I love that you take the time to read other people's reviews and comment on them after you finish a book, just wanna say how cute that is of you 💗


ehawley finished a book
1d

The Palace Beneath the Sea
Lauren Wiesebron
The acclaimed author of House of Frost and Feathers returns with a sweeping, lyrical novel inspired by a mermaid folktale filled with exploration, love, adventure, and magic. A GREAT LOVE. A MYSTERIOUS KINGDOM BENEATH THE WAVES. A DEVASTATING BETRAYAL. A doomed love story created the city of Ys, it’s fitting that another one would end it . . . Nolwenn is sure that her life’s purpose is to defend her beloved coastal city of Ys as a lighthouse keeper. But when a dangerous, unnatural tide threatens Ys, the queen instead tasks Nolwen with collecting enough rare seasilk to shield the city from the deadly monsters who lurk deep beneath the waves. Determined to fulfill her task, Nolwenn recklessly puts her life in danger, only to be attacked by the very creatures she’s trying to defend her city against. She’s saved by Morvan, a member of the korrigez people, with the torso of a human and the tail of a fish. Against her will, Morvan drags her deeper into the ocean to the coral palace of Below-Ys. Although Nolwenn is terrified and homesick, Below-Ys is also strange and beautiful…as is Morvan. The more time Nolwenn spends below the surface, the less she is sure she wants to leave. As danger draws ever nearer to her homeland and Ys remains precariously unprotected, Nolwenn must decide between her heart and her home.


Caught Up (Into Darkness #2)
Navessa Allen