Review: "Thirst Trap" by Gráinne O'Hare

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O'Hare
Published November 2025 via Crown
★★★★

They're thirty, or almost thirty, but Róise and Harley and Maggie don't feel grown, not yet. They're still living together in a grimy share house, still sleeping with the wrong people and doing too many drugs and grieving the loss of Lydia, the fourth of their tribe. They're stagnating, each in her own way. They all know something has to change, but nobody is sure what, and nobody is ready to take the plunge.

This is funny and sad all at once. I'm not sure quite what genre I'd put it in—something at once both chick lit and lit fic; coming-of-age for adults. Character-driven but not slow. (Might be a good gentle entry into lit fic for those who are curious?) It took me a minute to get into the rhythm of which character was dealing with which issues, and how, but these are compelling characters. Again, this is not a book in which anyone is perfect; they mostly run around screwing up in various ways. They manage to be sympathetic characters anyway.

There are a number of romances throughout the book, some longer-lasting than others, but what I love most is how much of the story is about friendship, about platonic relationships. The women are acutely aware that what they have can't last forever—eventually one or more of them will want to move in with a partner, or move to another city, or just want a slightly better daily quality of life. There's a feeling of...pre-grief, I guess, of knowing that it can't last, on top of the active grief they already face related to Lydia's death. Even without having had that sort of friend group, it's relatable and oddly nostalgic.

I hoped from the cover alone that this would be a good fit, and it didn't disappoint. More along these lines, please.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The House Saphir" by Marissa Meyer

The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Published November 2025 via Feiwel & Friends
★★★★

If a young lady did not wish to be murdered, it was advisable that she not spend her evenings meeting with strangers on dark street corners. (loc. 82*)

Mallory has settled into a reasonably satisfying gig, giving haunted mansion tours—something she's uniquely qualified to do, as the card up her sleeve is that she can see ghosts. But a good thing can't last forever, and just when it looks like her luck has run out, she's presented with a new opportunity: Rid a related mansion of its violent and manipulative ghost, and she'll earn enough money to set her and her sister up for a long time. Nobody said it would be easy...

I read this largely for the rambling-old-house aspect, but the ghosts turned out to be something of a bonus. (There was a moment, in reading, where I'd forgotten that there was going to be a supernatural element, and then bam! Ghosts. Quite satisfying.) I don't always think Mallory's choices are the wisest—she goes into her new job determined less to do the job well than to scam her new employer, but to my eye she has a great deal more scope for honesty than she permits herself—instead of saying "Yes, I can totally know how to employ skills I don't have to fix this problem," she could theoretically say "I can't do the thing you want, but I can get information that nobody else can." Then again, that would interfere with certain twists deep into the book...

At any rate, I had a grand old time reading this. Mallory is a fun character—determined, sly, sometimes a bit rash but with reason to take the risks she does. The setting is even more fun, what with the rambling house and the ghosts who...well, sometimes they're agreeable. Sometimes not so much. It looks like there's potential for a related book or two, and I wouldn't mind seeing what happens there.

As an aside: I read the line Mallory had been eleven when their mother left this world (loc. 748; not a spoiler) the same day I posted a review for Slip...which is by a woman whose first name is Mallary and who, among other things, lost her mother at the age of eleven. I'm not actually all that superstitious, but it felt like...well, an appropriately spooky coincidence. Not bad vibes to go into a book with!

*Quotes are from an ARC and might not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "150 Days" by Lise Kristine Viken

150 Days by Lise Kristine Viken
Published April 2023
★★★

Lively travelogue of the author's time on the Pacific Crest Trail. I enjoyed this more than I expected—I'd thought from the subtitle that this might be largely focused on weight loss, but though Viken does talk about that (it was one of the reasons she decided to hike the PCT in the first place), it's treated in the book as more of an "I did all this walking and met these people and ate a ton of food and occasionally checked the scales and was satisfied with the trends and then got back to hiking".

Viken took a fairly relaxed approach to the PCT itself, which is nice to see. I've read more than my fair share of thru-hike memoirs in which the authors worry about whether or not to accept lifts, whether they should feel guilty about skipping sections, etc., but even if Viken had planned to hike straight from A to B, it didn't work out that way, and she ended up having a pretty flexible hike that sometimes took her off trail...or off onto another trail. She had the hiking experience already (with no specific evidence to support this, I like to think that that is the norm in Norway), so she was less learning the ins and outs of long walks and more learning what this long walk would look like for her, which is satisfying.

The downside of the relaxed approach is that the book gets a little more scattered in the back half—when it's unclear whether Viken will reach Canada or go off on a different adventure—but that's not so huge a quibble. A nice addition to the PCT thru-hike subgenre.

Review: "Princess Megan" by Trisha Magraw

Princess Megan by Trisha Magraw
Published 1998
★★

A quick dip back into the Magic Attic Club strain of my childhood rereads. In this one, real-world Megan faces a dilemma when her high-powered attorney mother wants Megan to step in for her at a volunteer event—but Megan has a volunteer commitment of her own. When she's magically transported to a version of medieval France that has unicorns and invisibility cloaks and Merlin, she has to put her problem-solving skills to use to save a unicorn. How are these two plotlines related? Nobody knows.

I'm not sure I read this one as a kid—it rings very few bells. (I just read it now because I wanted to see what they'd do with a princess plotline.) I don't think this is one of the stronger books of the series; in some, the characters are magically (and temporarily) given the skills and knowledge they need to function in their magic-attic roles, but here, Megan is basically just herself. She's immediately befriended by a servant her age (who doesn't think it at all odd that Megan knows nothing about their world, and who tells Megan all the secrets that could presumably get the servant's family banished or killed), and the girl just...tows Megan around and tells her all the things that Megan should already know.

I rather wish this one hadn't gone into fantasyland. Seems like there was a chance to add to the historical background and information, no? We get bits and pieces about what life might have entailed in medieval France (e.g., servants sleeping on straw on the floor; Megan learns that not everyone can read), but then Megan has to go steal an invisibility cloak and chase down a unicorn, and that's kind of the end of the historical information.

Back in the real world, Megan manages to have an adult sit-down conversation with her mother, with the satisfying-to-them result that her mother's commitments are spread between Megan and her friends. Who are ten. Because it's great parenting to have to get elementary schoolers to take over an adult's job...

Review: "My Life in the Peace Corps" by Shad Engkilterra

My Life in the Peace Corps by Shad Engkilterra
Published December 2020
★★★

In the late 90s, Engkilterra set off for Guinea to spend a couple of years in the Peace Corps. This ensuing book is made up primarily of letters sent home during that period. It's engaging, if scattered; much like diaries, letters can be hit or miss to turn into books because the writer doesn't know at the time of writing what is going to end up being a through-thread and what is going to just drop off. I picked this up because I'm always curious about Peace Corps experiences—one of those "in another life" things. I find that the Peace Corps memoirs I like best are the ones where it's clear to the author early on that the most important part of the job is going to be about building connections rather than about effecting (or trying to effect) lasting change; this doesn't entirely get there, but the focus on day-to-day life and the sense of humor (including an ability to laugh at oneself) kept me reading.

Review: "When I Picture You" by Sasha Laurens

When I Picture You by Sasha Laurens
Published October 2025 via Avon
★★★

Years ago, Lola and Renee were friends. Nothing happened, but they grew apart. And now Lola is a pop star who needs a director for her documentary, pronto, while Renee is an MFA student struggling with burnout...who happens to need a film project in order to graduate. Sparks fly—but Lola is in the closet, and both women quickly find themselves in uncharted territory, and in over their heads.

What worked for me here: The setup is fun. I mean, pop-star-as-protagonist is always fun (I have no interest in living that kind of life—never mind the lack of talent—but reading about it is fun), and the "documentary" brings another how-the-other-half-live layer: the version of a documentary Lola's team want is so image-managed that it's not really something I'd call a documentary at all. Lola is famous, but whatever limited story she has is not one her team wants told, so their goal is basically a bunch of shots of Lola looking pretty and cooing over babies. The documentary is not realistic...but Lola's team's desire for something unrealistic is. I also like the way Renee's MFA trajectory pans out—I won't say much about that, because it's a question throughout the book, but it keeps things interesting.

What didn't work so well for me: The word "panties". A lot of stereotypes at play, from Renee's MFA cohort to the way Ava is written. I'm not sure how much better (morally, if that's the right word—I'm not talking about directing skill) Renee is than her cohort, though; early on there's mention of a Sweet Sixteen party filming job that Renee took, in which she decided to make it "real" by filming (and cutting into the edit) a fight between the parents. It's a sort of throwaway line, and it's meant to be funny, but what it tells me is that she lacks a sense of circumstance—she doesn't know when it's appropriate to push her vision and when it's appropriate to do the job she was hired for. That would be a great starting point for a character arc, but it's not really something Renee learns from throughout the book. I'm also not a fan of "bad communication" conflict—and here they're both pretty bad communicators. Renee's genuine desire for Lola to be able to be her authentic self gets tangled up in Renee's MFA pressure, and Lola's learned inability to say no means that she is very rarely fully honest with anyone. This is addressed in the book (to a point), but it did kind of leave me thinking that by the end of the book they're not really in a place to be in a serious relationship, let alone one that will play out on a very public stage.

Overall, then, a mixed bag but an energetic one. Plenty of spice here, for readers who like it explicit...and plenty of Taylor Swift–coding (and probably coding for other pop stars whose work I'm not familiar with) for the Swifties.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "En Pointe Photography" by Ersen Türkyilmaz

En Pointe Photography by Ersen Türkyilmaz
Published May 2022 via Trylers Media
★★★

I recently borrowed some photography books—including a couple of ballet photography books—from the library, so when this popped up on Kindle Unlimited I thought it might be a good way to put my free trial to use. (Can't go wrong with pretty ballet photos, right?)

As photos, these are fine, if not wildly inspired. Studio photography rather than performance photography; some of the pictures are lovely, while others feel a bit over-posed. A number of the dancers clearly have skill; I suspect that other models in here are just that—models rather than ballet dancers. (Poses that require a sense of angle but not ballet skill; the least arch I've ever seen on a foot in a ballet photo, etc.) I might well be wrong, but either way some of the pictures were lacking something.

As a book, though: for someone who loves ballet photography, I can see having a physical copy of something like this as a coffee-table book. But other than a one-page introduction, there's no writing and no story—you'd have to love the photos themselves. And as an ebook, I don't think this is worth the purchase price—it would be a slightly better read on a tablet, but I had to read on my computer, which required manually zooming in to see the pictures in any detail. Given the lack of words/story to distinguish this, I'd rather find comparable photos online. This is perhaps more a comment about the limits of ebooks than it is one specific to this book, but if you're going to buy a copy, spring for the paperback—or stick to Kindle Unlimited. 2.5 stars.

Review: "Letting Go of Perfect" by Daniel O'Shaughnessy

Letting Go of Perfect by Daniel O'Shaughnessy
Published October 2025 via Jessica Kingsley Publishers
★★

O’Shaughnessy struggled with body image for years, especially within the context of the queer communities he was part of and where he sought approval. In Letting Go of Perfect, he details some of the lessons he's learned from lived experience and his work as a nutritionist.

I'll go ahead and qualify this review by saying that I'm not a gay man and I don't have personal experience with body dysmorphia, so I'm not the target audience for this book. I read it because I've read quite a bit about eating disorders and body image, and I'm always curious about different perspectives. O’Shaughnessy comes at it with a lot of compassion, acknowledging the internal and external factors that can contribute to body image issues and dysmorphia.

As much as I appreciated the intent here, though, I struggled with the book. The structure is a bit "everything but the kitchen sink", with a lot of lists that feel like something of a rapid-fire overview rather than in-depth experience or advice. Because of the lists, I ended up doing quite a lot of skimming, which is extremely unusual for me and books.

There's a lot of generalization here (particularly significant for gay men; especially when it intersects with body image within the gay community; for many gay individuals, especially those [...], life often becomes; in many fitness spaces, particularly in the gay community, there is often...), and I wasn't sure what to make of that—I think I would have liked to see more hard research worked in, because although I have no doubt that gay men face different body image considerations than other populations, it was never clear to me whether O’Shaughnessy's many particularlys and especiallys were meant only relative to straight men or something else. I'm not here to put body image struggles on a scale (no pun intended), but if you're going to tell me that something is particularly difficult for a certain group, I want to know who the comparison population is and what research this is based on.

A lot of the advice here is basically solid, if broad. Some of it gave me pause, though. I am still not sure why one of the first topics in the book is blood sugar balance, which to me felt like another set of food rules on top of whatever internal rules someone who might be struggling with food might already have, and before any other real discussion of those struggles took place. And while I can imagine some readers finding value in O’Shaughnessy's journal exercises and so on, some of the tasks felt appropriate only for those in a very specific place. "Try setting your strict dietary rules aside and eating whatever you want once a week" (not a direct quote), for example, would be manageable for some people, but for others it might lead to bingeing. I suspect (just a guess, mind) that the things O’Shaughnessy chose to put in here are the ones he found most useful in his own journey, which is of course fine, but it's worth remembering that everyone's path is different, and there are a lot more experiences and resources out there.

So where does this leave us? There's value in validation and seeing some of your own experience in a book, so I can imagine parts of this one being useful to folks with body dysmorphia or body image difficulties (two different things, but though the book officially focuses on the former I think the latter is more applicable for a lot of it) who feel more heard by resources aimed specifically at gay men or even more specifically at gay men who are part of a particular scene. But I'd approach it with caution and suggest using it only in conjunction with other resources, therapy, etc.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Mia and Friends" by Karlin Gray, illustrated by Micheline Hess

Mia and Friends by Karlin Gray, illustrated by Micheline Hess
Published August 2024 via First Second
★★★

Mm. So this is a middle-grade-or-younger graphic biography of Mia Hamm. I was so pleased to see that this was coming out, because Mia Hamm was my first-ever hero—the 1999 Women's World Cup was quite literally the only television I ever watched at home (we very occasionally rented a videotape to watch a movie, but by very occasionally I mean maybe twice a year; the television was stored in my parents' bedroom closet, and other than the World Cup I have no memories of watching any scheduled programming on it) as a child, which maybe tells you something about my family. I had copies of Go for the Goal and The Game and the Glory because that was the sort of thing we did and frankly still do—went looking for books about things and people that interested us. So, you know. Here we are.

I expect this will be a good one for young readers who are interested in soccer and who don't know that much about this earlier generation of soccer players. Most of the sources (and we stan a book with sources) are from the late 90s or early 2000s, which means that there's little in here that I didn't learn as a child reading obsessively about soccer. I think part of that is that that generation of players did not have the same level of celebrity that today's players do (something that the book discusses somewhat), and consequently there was less self-promotion and fewer memoirs and less direct-from source information. But...I would have loved to see some new information, or something that I wouldn't have seen in a book written in 2001—even a casual mention of a queer player would have felt more up to date (some of the players of that generation were out even then, but it wasn't discussed in most media). Or possibly something about Michelle Akers' chronic fatigue syndrome—that wouldn't be new, but it might feel especially relevant in the context of, e.g., long COVID.

So not really the book for me, but then, I'm really not the target audience here.

Review: "Spellfire" by Agatha Willow

Spellfire by Agatha Willow
Published October 2025 via Avon
★★★

Castles and magic and witches, oh my!

I'm always going to perk up at a new queer boarding school book—especially when, as is the case here, the boarding school is in a castle and the characters are witches. Here, Luna thought she'd put her school days behind her...until an unexpected inheritance puts her back on campus and the school head begs her to stay and teach for the term. Never mind that the school head is Luna's school crush...

Relationship- and romance-wise, this gets high marks from me. Luna and Amelia do a generally great job of speaking up and checking in. Just about every time it looks like they're going to go down the well-worn-to-the-point-of-overdone path of "both characters want something long-term but think the other only wants a fling!" one of them steps back and says hmm, actually, while it's okay if that's what you're looking for, I'm actually looking for something else. They even take the (far too unusual in romance) initiative to discuss the power imbalances and possible pitfalls of a head dating a teacher she's hired. And I love to see it.

Plot-wise, this gets...not so high marks from me. The stated conflict of the story is that the school is struggling, and the board is trying to make Amelia into a scapegoat. There are some interesting related points about the role of technology in a magical school, but—partly because so few students and so few other staff members are developed as characters—it doesn't really go anywhere. I wanted to know the names of more than three students; to know the names of more than three other professors; to learn more about the castle layout; the inherited library to come into play; Luna to try to get the ball rolling on ADHD testing for a student who is struggling in all the classes and thinks he does in fact have ADHD; the staff member who is awkwardly introduced two thirds of the way through to have a purpose in the story; the conflict to have a bit more of a solution rather than just...Amelia being impressive, I guess.

I initially gave this a rounded-up four stars, because I read it so quickly—and was so pleased by most of the communication—that it took me until close to the end to start being dismayed that the plot clearly wasn't going to go anywhere. On more reflection, I have to take it back down to three, because the plot just wasn't there. A valiant debut effort, and if there's another book—there's potential setup for a romance between two other staff members—I will hope for more from it.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Don't Forget to Breathe" by Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum

Don't Forget to Breathe by Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum
Published October 2025 via HarperCollins
★★★

For Hanna, uprooting is normal. As an army brat, she's used to picking up and moving. Zoe, though, is grounded—except when she dances. Then she flies. And when their lives intersect, sparks fly too.

I don't read as much YA as I used to, but I like ballet books, so here we are. This was a fun read with a number of overlapping themes—as well as Zoe making tentative plans for her future (and Hanna, well, putting off making even tentative plans for her future), we have neurodiversity, Hanna's worries about her mother, figuring out (some of) the intricacies of sexuality, Hanna struggling with the idea of developing relationships that might last, and so on.

I appreciated Hanna's struggle with sorting out her emotions around parental deployment; she's of an age to be butting heads with her parents but also old enough to understand the real risks that come with deployment, and her struggle to balance all those emotions feels realistic. (I also kind of love how ill prepared for post–high school life she is; she has big dreams but not really the drive to pull them off.) I think I would have liked to see Hanna's storyline with her parents explored a bit more, though; she's perhaps a little less stormy by the end of the book but hasn't worked all that much out yet. Or rather—she starts to figure out how some of that uncertainty has affected her, but not really to make any progress with her family.

This feels like one for readers who like their characters' emotions big—Hanna and Zoe fall hard and fast, and their conversations lean intense and sometimes dramatic in that way of teenagers who are, well, hormonal and full of emotions and still figuring out what to do with them all. I probably could have used a bit more levity at times, but I think this will be a good fit for teenagers who are also in that figuring-it-out stage.

Thanks to the authors and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Longform essay: "Sarah's Riches" by Tonya Bolden

Sarah's Riches by Tonya Bolden
Published October 2025 via Amazon Original Stories

Sarah Rector was an unlikely oil magnate—a young Black child born to a poor family in Oklahoma in 1902, there was probably no expectation that she would have options other than to get a basic education, maybe marry young, maybe someday have a slightly easier life than her parents did. But her Muscogee Creek background entitled her to land under the Treaty of 1866, and though that land at first seemed worthless, it eventually paid out in unexpected dividends and then some, in the form of a gush of oil money.

This is a book partly about Sarah Rector, of course, but just as much it's about early 1900s racism, legal and otherwise. As a minor child, Rector was appointed guardians for her money; as a Black minor child, her parents were not allowed to serve as those guardians (decisions would almost certainly have been different for a White child who came into unexpected money). Bolden is quick to note the ways in which Rector's unexpected wealth made a tremendous difference in her life her family's lives, but just as quick to note the ways in which it didn't make a difference—money didn't change one's rights in the face of Jim Crow laws, and it exposed Rector to all sorts of threats that the average person didn't (and doesn't) face. I'd never heard of Rector before reading this essay, and without knowing her fate I found myself anxious to see what would happen next, whether enough people with Rector's best interests in mind would be, and stay, involved to keep her safe from predators. (No spoilers, but it is kind of telling just how much relied on the good intentions and knowhow of a very few people.)

Sarah's Riches is a little unusual as far as these Amazon Original Stories go, but I'd love to see more in this vein—it's a little slice of history that I might never have come across otherwise.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Losing to Anorexia" by Adela Lily

Losing to Anorexia by Adela Lily
Published August 2024
★★

Short, thematic, rhyme-y poems. Too much focus on finding a rhyme for my tastes. May be written by a teenager, which is interesting—I'm never sure whether to laud self-published teenagers for their initiative or grouse, like the not-quite-elder millennial that I am, that in my day teenagers didn't try to monetize our angsty poetry; we either limited it to our diaries or only shared it on LiveJournal to audiences of, like...three. Can I do both? In any case, I hope this was cathartic to write.

Review: "Any Girl but You" by Dana Hawkins

Any Girl but You by Dana Hawkins
Published October 2025 via Storm Publishing
★★★★

Quinn has gone all in on a reset—packed up her high-powered NYC life, moved back to Minnesota, and bought a Christmas tree farm. She wouldn't mind a hookup or two, but she's not looking for anything serious...which is inconvenient, because the only woman who interests her is Zoey, a local bakery owner who doesn't do casual.

I approach most romance novels with a certain degree of caution, because although there's plenty of good stuff out there, it's a huge genre, and there's also plenty of tosh...and one has to be in the right mindset to happily read tosh. But Any Girl but You exceeded my expectations, and I ended up loving the ways in which it subverted expectations for a fairly trope-heavy holiday romance.

Plenty to like here: Although Quinn and Zoey get off on the wrong foot, neither of them is happy with the first impression they made, and they set out quickly to make amends; Quinn in particular uses the experience to take a closer look at what made her fly off the handle in the first place and, well, work on that. Because they're also very clear about what they do and don't want (that is: Zoey wants a relationship, and Quinn doesn't), they spend a big chunk of the book building a friendship without the pressure of romance, and I'm here for that. And in a sea of grumpy/sunshine Christmas books where one character is a Christmas elf come to life and the other is a wannabe grinch, both characters here are in favor of the holidays; they both have some work-related stressors throughout the book, but they're generally on the same page.

A few things I would have liked to see: First, although Quinn makes inroads into understanding herself and her reactions better, and she learns that struggles are valid even if someone else has worse struggles, that part of her story loses traction midway and never really picks back up again. I'd have liked to see a bit more from it. Zoey is sweet, but her contradictions remind me a bit of high school. And...when characters in a lesbian romance do a U-Haul move-in, then gosh darn it I want a U-Haul joke.

Overall, though, a satisfying holiday read—I'm curious to see where the author will go next.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Taco" by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado

Taco by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
Published October 2025 via Bloomsbury Academic
★★★

When I tell you how much I love this series...!

Taco turned up on NetGalley ten minutes after, I kid you not, I returned from picking up my hold copies of Doll and Doctor at the library. Obviously it was an instant request, because while I am ambivalent about tacos (this is my fault, not tacos'; I am ambivalent about many foods that are widely considered delicious), I am not ambivalent about this series. Object Lessons takes readers through short, varied romps on subjects as varied as...well, as tacos and doctors, or tacos and pregnancy tests, or tacos and questionnaires...

Here we get an exploration of the mighty taco. In many ways this is a food tour: Sánchez Prado grew up in Mexico City, where tacos were (are!) a staple, and although he no longer lives there, tacos remain an integral part of the culinary side of his visits.

I am most compelled by Sánchez Prado's discussions of authenticity and what it means for a taco to be "authentic"—and whether that matters at all in the first place. He mostly focuses on tacos he has known and loved but also gets some fairly entertaining digs in at Taco Bell. Here I should perhaps note that I've never set foot in a Taco Bell, let alone eaten there—my family did not eat fast food when I was growing up, and I never developed a taste for most of it—and thus have no informed opinions about it, but I found the history of its founding interesting. I'm not sure I'm convinced by Sánchez Prado's refusal to try Taco Bell even for the sake of the book, but he has a point that taco as an adjective (even for someone who takes a liberal view, as Sánchez Prado does, of what a taco can be) is perhaps a bridge too far.

But a lot of the book is suited best for people who, you know, eat tacos (and eat meat) and, ideally, think it's a great idea to take their own taco tour somewhere. This should absolutely be required reading for any foodies visiting Mexico City in particular, though Sánchez Prado talks quite a bit about taco culture in other cities (LA, St. Louis, etc.) as well. This is also what made me not the best fit for the book, though, and the book in turn not entirely the book for me: as a slightly neurotic, nearly lifelong vegetarian, I don't get all that much stimulation from descriptions of meat-heavy dishes that I'll never eat; I long ago learned to skip over menu descriptions when there's meat involved, and it turns out that that's a hard habit to break...which is not ideal when reading a book with description after description of tortillas filled with some form of meat!

So go investigate the book, and the series, and perhaps some tacos—and take your taco recommendations from Sánchez Prado, not from me.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Eerie Basin" by Ivy Pochoda

Eerie Basin by Ivy Pochoda
Published October 2025 via Amazon Original Stories

Erin's ready for her chance—Jimmy, the owner of the bar where she's worked for decades, is finally retiring, and she's ready to be more than the hired hand. But Jimmy has a story to tell about costs, and Erin doesn't necessarily want to hear it...

This has an October publishing date, which feels deeply appropriate: it's dark and twisty with a bit of horror to it. Some of the story is in the now, with Erin trying to convince Jimmy that it's time to sell, but much more of it is Jimmy's story, back when he was a struggling beat cop who couldn't get promoted. He describes a New York that is partly lawless, with kids who are sometimes better off on their own than the alternative...and finding a way to success, at least for a while.

There's no big twist here (especially if you've read the official story description, which low-key spoils everything; may I recommend skipping it?), but the story kept me on my toes wondering how it would end—how much Erin is willing to risk, and how much choice she'll have in the matter. Read it on a dark and windy night, when nobody is home and branches are scratching at the walls.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "America the Abandoned" by Brian Sansivero

America the Abandoned by Brian Sansivero
Published October 2025 via Artisan
★★★★★

Oh boy—if you like old houses, this is 100% a book for you. I've been following Sansivero on Instagram for ages, because I'm drawn to images of decay, and that decay is exactly what he documents. And this book, it's a gem: bird nests on mantelpieces, and layers of peeling paint, and mannequins popping up in unexpected places, and houses full to the brim with items that haven't been used since the 1950s, and on it goes.

The book is split between interior and exterior shots, with the former taking up almost the first three quarters of the book. I thought I would like the exterior shots more, but the deeper into the book I got the more the interior photos pulled me in. There's a short line under each photo—sometimes a little bit of context about the person who lived there (either hard-and-fast information or supposition based on the contents of the house), and sometimes a little bit about what Sansivero saw in the shot.

My favourite shots tend to be the ones with mannequins in them (what can I say—I am a sucker for a good mannequin in an unexpected place), but there are also a couple of gorgeous shots of what must have once been a quite nice yellow entryway, and in general a mix of delicacy and decay is always striking. (Many descriptions reference a given house as being one of Sansivero's favourite places to photograph—probably a few too many! But it made me smile to think how much this must be a passion project, if one he's hopefully turning a profit on.) It also surprised me how old so much of this abandonment clearly is. Maybe that's silly, but I guess it just boggles my mind that some of these places have sat abandoned for so many decades without being fully looted (I imagine some things have walked off, of course) and that nobody has claimed them or sold them or...something.

Most of the photos were taken on the East Coast, with a significant minority in the Midwest—I'm curious whether this means there might someday be a follow-up from points farther west.

If this sounds up your alley, I highly recommend it—but absolutely pick a format that allows you to see the pictures in colour and in a large size. (This is not a book to read on your Kindle Paperwhite!) And while you're at it, check out Christopher Payne's Asylum and Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein's Cheap Old Houses. And maybe Abandoned America...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "A Place for People Like Us" by Danila Botha

A Place for People Like Us by Danila Botha
Published September 2025 via Guernica Editions
★★★

To Hannah, Jillian is everything that is cool—not always stable, and not always kind, but magnetic. They're friends and they're lovers and then they're friends again, especially as Hannah dives deep into a new relationship that will ultimately ask her to change just about everything about herself. But, well, not everything is as it seems.

I read this partly for the friendship side of things (I love books about friendship) and partly for the complicated religion side of things (...ditto). The religion side of things is fascinating, if sad: Hannah, who grew up in a cult (here I should note that there are some graphic depictions of CSA within her memories of that experience), falls for Naftali, who is an Orthodox Jew, and it becomes clear that the relationship can only progress if she converts. Naftali is happy with a conversion on paper, but it quickly becomes clear that his family is more complicated, and no matter what Hannah does she's going to be giving part of herself up.

The friendship side of things opens the book, loses some focus as Hannah dives deeper into Judaism and her relationship, and then comes back in full force later in the book—because Jillian is not well, and Hannah and Naftali represent one of the more reliable parts of her life. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that plot line; it's clear for much of the book that there are things that Jillian isn't saying, but Hannah can't or doesn't want to hear it anyway. By then the book is moving faster through time, months passing where days might have before, and Hannah's life is so detached from what it was at the beginning of the book that it's hard to recognize.

The writing was a little hit-or-miss for me. There's a lot of exposition through dialogue, in a way that didn't feel very natural to me. I think I also wanted to see...mm, I'm not quite sure how to put this, but I'm not sure if Hannah ever really considers the consequences of what she's deciding throughout the book. She gets on one train and then another, and if she ever stops to wonder whether she might be able to choose her destination, I'm not sure we see it. The climax of the book comes late, with a hiss and a crash, and if one thing is clear it's that she'll have to find a new train. I do love how messy it gets (there comes a point when Hannah simply doesn't have a lot of good options, and it's also clear that her upbringing hasn't left her with all that many good options), and I'd love to see what Botha might do with either a less dialogue-heavy book or perhaps a script written for the stage.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Food School" by Jade Armstrong

Food School by Jade Armstrong
Published April 2024 via Conundrum Press
★★★★

A pleasant surprise. Food School is a quick graphic novel about a woman in an adult intensive outpatient program for an eating disorder. There's not a ton here that's new, but a couple of things that feel notable: first, this is about trying to get better, not about being sick. That might seem like a small distinction, but (take it from somebody who has read too much in specific genres and subgenres and subsubgenres...) it's actually a significant one. Second, Armstrong is good about avoiding (or rather, redacting) things that are realistic in the context of the story but that could be triggering to some readers. And third, while it's not unheard of to have an adult protagonist in this sort of thing, it's still uncommon, and it's nice to see Olive trying to figure out recovery (and I mean: genuinely trying, even when she hates being in the program and hates everyone around her and hates everything about it; she's often ambivalent and doesn't always get it right, but she knows why she's there) while also trying to adult. The ending is abrupt, but overall the story worked better for me than I expected.

Review: "Portraits of Cape Breton" by Alfred LeBlanc

Portraits of Cape Breton by Alfred LeBlanc
Published May 2024 via SPP Publications
★★★★

What the title says: portraits taken in communities on Cape Breton. The book was published in 2024 but many of the portraits taken some 30 years ago, and I'm guessing things look rather different now—the world was just a different place in the 90s. But I'm reminded of Appalachian Legacy, I think, in the way we're seeing a wee little slice of things for a handful of individuals. Curious about why so many of these portraits are of older folks (perhaps LeBlanc was trying to capture a generation that even at the time was fading out?), but I love the little descriptions under many of the photos; they don't provide a full life story, but they offer an anecdote or a bit of context or a bit of colour.

Says LeBlanc: You might ask, why black and white? Most photography, including my own, is done in colour. That's how we see the world. Colour is an important part of the beauty we see in the world around us. So why do black and white? Colour 'pretends' to capture reality. As such, I have frequently had a gut reaction of disappointment: "that doesn't capture the experience I had on that beach or in those mountains, or with that person". Black and white doesn't trigger that sentiment quite as much because it does not pretend to capture reality. It is clearly and unapologetically an abstraction. And, of course, it suits the subjects in this case, creating an appropriate mood in capturing older people in somewhat traditional settings. (VII)