Feb Reading Review
Witches, Vampires, and Dogs - Oh my!
Reading Red will always be a free publication, but if you’d like to support me and my work, please consider a paid subscription or buy me a coffee
Good morning, friends. I hope February was kind to you all. I, for one, was buried under multiple rounds of blizzards and felt like I was going to lose my mind. Luckily, the warm weather is on its way, and I am ready to read on the beach! I haven’t finished my Feb granny squares but wanted to get this post out, so granny squares will be in a separate post.
Let me know what you have been reading or if any of these selections got added to your TBR 💌
Strange Houses - Uketsu
Strange Houses follows a journalist as he uncovers a twisted conspiracy regarding a home his friend is purchasing. Through examination of the floor plan, twisted theories emerge as to why the house was built with hidden rooms and dead zones, and if there are more strange houses across Japan.
There is nothing about this book that is stand-out or life changing; it’s simply fun. The mystery is gripping and the plot moves fast. I unfortunately think this book has the same reread value as a newspaper, so I suggest borrowing it from a library if you’re interested. Overall, a great way to spend an afternoon.
3/5 ⭐
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls - Grady Hendrix
It’s the summer of 1970 and Fern finds herself sent away to a “home for wayward girls,” where unwed teen-moms-to-be are hidden from the public eye. Fern and the rest of the girls are shamed and controlled, held to strict schedules, diets, and ethics. When the local book bus comes by, the strange librarian offers the girls a way to gain power. But the librarian warns: you should never start something you cannot finish.
I had a great time with this book. Hendrix takes a nuanced approach to fictionalizing a disturbing aspect of pre-Roe America. He never degrades his characters or makes their situations their defining character trait. Instead, he weaves a bustling home of teenagers looking for freedom and all the chaos that follows. To me, this felt wrongly classified as horror. There are some scary moments, but generally this read as a coming-of-age thriller. I also always appreciate Hendrix putting content warnings in his works, so if this seems like your type of book, I suggest checking those before diving in as the novel can handle some triggering topics.
4/5 ⭐
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil - V.E. Schwab
Sapphic vampires in three interweaving stories - what isn’t there to love? Well, how about 300 extra pages.
This was one of my most anticipated reads; I even receiving a signed copy for the holidays, and I was largely disappointed. The writing is fluffy and pretty, but the story itself stretches on far too long. At page 350 I was read to DNF but what kept me going was the online community that assured me the payoff would be worth my time. Chat, I fear that is simply false. When the girls’ stories are finally connected ~page 400, there is little time spent building tension between them. Instead, we are supposed to use the egregious amount of backstory to intuit how the characters view each other and will react.
This novel could have been great with another round of editing, but as it stands, it is simply good. I don’t regret reading it but doubt I will pick it up again in the future.
3.5/5 ⭐
The Hounding - Xenobe Purvis
The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs. (Goodreads)
Told from the perspective of the town’s folk, The Hounding explores how easily groups of women are demonized. Because the sisters keep to themselves and do not return smiles, the men believe them to be monsters, literally turning into dogs at night and killing livestock. This was a quick read at ~220 pages, all of which were enjoyable — albeit maddening due to how realistic and triggering the ‘villain’ is written.
4.25/5 ⭐
Blood on Her Tongue - Johanna van Veen
From one dog covered book to another. BohT follows twins Lucy and Sarah. Lucy arrives at Sarah’s estate to nurse her sister back from a grave and mysterious illness. Is Sarah mentally insane, like their aunt who was institutionalized, or is this illness somehow related to the hundreds-of-years-old bog body recently dug up on the property?
Gothic mystery, rot, vampirism — this book has everything! I’ve seen this title floating around in the “weird girl books” sphere and can confirm it fills the role through its use of body horror and exploration of sisters’ bonds. I would not recommend this one if you’re squeamish about eyes and light gore.
4.5/5 ⭐
TBR 📚
Medium Rare - A. Natasha Joukovsky
Blob - Maggie Su
You Weren’t Meant to be Human - Andrew Joseph White
Katabasis - R. F. Kuang
She Made Herself a Monster - Anna Kovatcheva
“Because the sisters keep to themselves and do not return smiles, the men believe them to be monsters” is an absolute banger of a line
Amazing recommendations! I hope you enjoy “you weren’t meant to be human!” I absolutely loved it.