Reviews & Essays

Not Good for Maidens By Tori Bovalino I received an ARC of Not Good for Maidens from Page Street Publishing in exchange for an honest review. I have fond memories of encountering Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” for the first time in college, but it doesn’t seem to have a strong grip on pop culture the … [Read More]

Hell Followed With Us By Andrew Joseph White I received an ARC of Hell Followed With Us from Peachtree Teen in exchange for an honest review. Hell Followed With Us left me deeply conflicted. It takes place in a world in which a cult has used a bioweapon to eradicate most of humanity, and focuses … [Read More]

Nightcrawling By Leila Mottley I received an ARC of Nightcrawling from Knopf Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Nightcrawling is a frustrating book. It is an accomplished debut novel from a young writer (Oakland’s former youth poet laureate, seventeen years old when she wrote Nightcrawling) with a strong authorial voice—it wouldn’t surprise me … [Read More]

Counterfeit By Kirstin Chen I received an ARC of Counterfeit from William Morrow in exchange for an honest review. Counterfeit is a novel best experienced if you go in cold, but I have to write something besides “this book is good and you should read it” (although it is and you should), so here are … [Read More]

Yerba Buena By Nina LaCour I received an ARC of Yerba Buena from Flatiron Books in exchange for an honest review. I was very much looking forward to Nina LaCour’s adult debut after being enraptured by the lyrical prose and melancholy tone of We Are Okay—I wasn’t sure if that mood was specific to that … [Read More]

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty By Akwaeke Emezi I received an ARC of You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty from Atria Books in exchange for an honest review. After Pet and The Death of Vivek Oji, of course I would be reading the latest Akwaeke Emezi. Of course! … [Read More]

The Evening Hero By Marie Myung-Ok Lee I received an ARC of The Evening Hero from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. The Evening Hero oscillates between two stories, two time periods: the first follows Dr. Yungman Kwak, who has worked at Horse Breath’s General Hospital in Minnesota for fifty years after … [Read More]

Either/Or By Elif Batuman I received an ARC of Either/Or from Penguin Press in exchange for an honest review. Oops! I did the thing I promised myself I would never do: I requested a book without realizing it was a sequel. After receiving Either/Or and recognizing my mistake, I frantically scrambled to acquire a copy … [Read More]

When Women Were Dragons By Kelly Barnhill I received an ARC of When Women Were Dragons from Doubleday Books in exchange for an honest review. Kelly Barnhill (author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon) makes her adult fiction debut with this alternate history of America in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, after an … [Read More]

The Hacienda By Isabel Cañas I received an ARC of The Hacienda from Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Isabel Cañas’ debut novel is an anti-colonialist take on the haunted house genre set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence. It follows two characters: Beatriz, who has recently married a … [Read More]