Genre: Familial Drama

In anticipation of his new book Dearly Departed, I thought it would be an appropriate time to finally read Chip Pon’s debut novel You & I, Rewritten. Originally self‑published as an indie title, this book was subsequently picked up and given a limited hardcover print run by Rainbow Crate as their indie title for their Jan 2025 book box. Following newly hired publishing editor Will Cowen, this book follows his professional and personal journey with his boss Graham Austin as work and romance blend together. This book feels like a safe and wholesome hug to the queer booktok romance community that Chip is a part of, though its indie roots and debut novel nature are quite apparent compared to his more recent trade‑published titles.  I’m fully aware I’m reviewing Chip Pons’s books out of order, in addition to reading an indie self‑published book after a trade‑published one, which puts You & I, Rewritten on an uneven playing field. This book wasn’t on my radar when it was first published, but I had read and generally enjoyed Chip’s 2025 release Winging It With You, which was entertaining and had some unexpectedly great character writing, but left me wanting more given it…

This review is based on a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy provided by St. Martin’s Press. Love, guilt, judgement, and paranoia, all within the four walls that may or may not be alive and angry, You Did Nothing Wrong is psychological thriller and explores Elodie’s twisted descent into madness. C.G. Drews’s adult novel debut, rather than simply serving as a straightforward haunted house narrative, this book instead is a horror story of an entirely different monster. Compared to Drews’s past books that had a more paranormal and fantasy angle to their stories, You Did Nothing Wrong instead plays off the monsters in our head and the horrifying ways love and devotion can spiral into something dark and unrecognizable. While featuring Drews’s signature macabre metaphors and stylistic prose, this book is very different from past YA books for those that enjoyed their past books. Marketed as a pulse-pounding and clever take on the haunted house novel, I went into this book expecting something along the lines of Drews’s past books that mixed elements of paranormal horror with fantasy flair. As a strong cautionary disclaimer upfront, You Did Nothing Wrong is very different and was not at all what I was expecting. While…

Some books are cozy comfort reads, some are poetic and philosophical, and some are humorous comedy or steamy romance. But then there are some like Olivie Blake’s Gifted & Talented that set out to be something entirely different that’s difficult to highlight and discuss due to its complex yet unusual presentation. Following the musings and drama of three siblings and the entangled web of partners, conspirators, rivals, and more, this literary fiction book is a behemoth of a novel that feels far longer than its nearly 500 page count would suggest. Meticulously deliberate, very light on plot, yet incredibly detailed with its spectacular character writing, Gifted & Talented is absolutely not going to be for everyone and admittedly was not my cup of tea. That said, I have nothing but respect for what this novel delivers and while it was on and off from an enjoyment factor for me, from a critical reading/writing standpoint, this novel is great. Although this Gifted & Talented is technically classified in the fantasy, urban fantasy and science fiction genres, they’re largely surface level classifications due to the novel’s premise involving certain magical, or as the novel calls it, “magitech” powers. Each of the three…

Taking the reader back to the English countryside through the eyes of a seven year old boy, Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean At the End of the Lane is an intriguing short novel that I’ve heard such strong opinions and feelings about. Part pseudo Grimm fairy tale, part dark fantasy escapism, Gaiman’s story reads almost like a fictional memoir as its unnamed adult narrator recalls a dark and strained period of his childhood. Much like how time bends and distorts events based on how they’re remembered, so too does the story as the narrator is faced with magical and otherworldly beings in the quiet English countryside. Perhaps the hype set too high an expectation or my impression of the book’s direction was misguided from the get-go (the plot was not what I was expecting), but I found myself wanting to like this book a lot more than I actually did. Despite finding the ambition respectable, I often felt mildly frustrated with the plot not connecting and was left feeling like it ultimately didn’t amount to much in the end. The presentation and writing was great but the actual content felt too abstract and random to leave much of an impression for…

The following review is based on a complimentary ARC provided by Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Part unsolved crime journalism, part familial teenage drama, Julie Clark’s The Ghostwriter is a split perspective thriller featuring storytelling within storytelling. Slow and meticulously paced, this novel follows author Olivia Dumont who is forced to confront her past and her family’s dark history when she accepts a ghostwriting job for her own father Vincent Taylor, a popular and famous author whose life is haunted by accusations that he murdered his two siblings fifty years ago. Featuring a well planned out (and at times tragic) story full of twists and surprises, The Ghostwriter is an engrossing read that transports the reader back to the 1970’s. While subjectively some of the familial drama and teenage sibling quarreling wasn’t my preferred genre or content, I still found Clark’s novel to be well-constructed, complex, and an interesting read. Alternating back and forth between Olivia’s interviews with Vincent retelling events from his youth and the first-person perspective experiences of several characters in the 1970’s, The Ghostwriter has a lot of different plot elements carefully woven together. Despite being recapped out of chronological order and…