So I have been really slacking on reviews lately. I have no idea what it is but I have been really struggling with writer’s block and can’t write more than a paragraph about books I have been reading. Whether I love the book or hate the book.

In the past week, I read 3 books! So here are mini reviews for all 3 of books. All 5 stars btw.

Also I just realised this is my first review since early August oop…

Curious Tides – Pascale Lacelle

• Series: The Drowned Gods #1
• Genre: Fantasy
• No. of pages: 544
• Dates read: 08.10.2023 – 13.10.2023
• Star Rating: 5 stars

Plot: Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess. Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them. To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths. And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.

After finishing this a week I am still struggling to form the words to describe how much I enjoyed this book. The writing was incredibly insightful and poetic, the plot kept me up at night and constantly guessing, the mystical meta element to the plot was super fun (listen I love books about books), the beauty of relationships and how complicated they can be was probably the most interesting and humanising factor of the novel and finally I loved the exploration into how insecurity and fear can hold you back.

Starling House

• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Horror
• No. of pages: 320
• Dates read: 09.10.2023 – 14.10.2023
• Star Rating: 5 stars

Plot: Starling House is odd and ugly and fully of secrets, just like its heir. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but it might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden, and it feels dangerously like something she’s never had: a home. But she isn’t the only one interested in the house, or the horrors and wonders that lie beneath it. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it. She’ll have to dig up her family’s dark past and let herself dream of a brighter future. She’ll have to go down, down into Underland, and claw her way back to the light.

I read this and audio booked it concurrently and I want to just shout out the narrator Natalie Naudus for an exceptional performance. I normally struggle to follow along with audiobooks but Natalie helped to sweep me up into this world and kept me engaged on all my bus journeys.

This book is an amazing slow-burn urban fantasy/horror novel about creepy houses with a complicated history, a book about a book, the topic of how history distorts the truth, how poverty can be just as horrific and scary as the fantastical horrors plaguing this story, slavery in the American South, Opal’s character from start to finish was so incredibly written and I feel that Harrow has truly nailed flowery prose with a straight to the point plot.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop

• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Literary Fiction
• No. of pages: 320
• Dates read: 16.10.2023 – 19.10.2023
• Star Rating: 5 stars

Plot: Yeongju is burned out. With her high–flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop. For the first few months, all Yeongju does is cry, deterring visitors. But the long hours in the shop give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store, and as she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she begins to ease into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

This book resonated with me on a molecular level. Most likely due to me being a bookseller but I loved all the conversations that were had about lifelong happiness, how that is different from one person to another and how the pursuit for happiness takes courage, sincerity, putting yourself first and a big leap. I loved the mix between the funny slice-of-life moments in the bookshop alongside the more introspective elements of the novel. 10/10!