A January Reading Wrap Up
Or, making movies in my head is my favorite hobby.
I’ve been thinking a lot about hobbies lately. I think the mark of a well-rounded individual is someone who has activities they love and prioritize that have nothing to do with making them money. I also think being able to prioritize those things is difficult in a day and age where everything is about to cost 25% more (😒) but I think in the name of keeping ourselves sane for the next however many years (😒😒) I really think hobbies are becoming mentally and emotionally necessary.
There are a lot of things I look forward to when I get to close my laptop at the end of a day. Seeing how my plants have perked up from being watered earlier, baking something with semi-sweet chocolate and topping it with flaky salt, caramelizing onions or perfecting my grilled cheese recipes, watching one of the many shows on my radar, exploring different wineries around the area, just to name a few. But the hobby I’ve been most happy I’ve found again in the last few years has been reading.
I am a book girl through and through. My favorite way to spend an afternoon is reading something cover to cover with a few glasses of crisp white wine. My best friend got me a Kindle only a year ago and the cover is already fraying and worn from being carted with me everywhere. The first thing I do when I go somewhere new is find a bookstore, ideally within walking distance of my hotel. My shelves are almost always overflowing unless I’m restocking the little free library near me. There’s little I love more than a really good story.
And along the same lines, I love sharing what I’ve read. I love pointing people towards a book I could see them being unable to stop talking about once they’ve reached the final chapter. It’s a type of documentation that really just fulfills me.
Previously I was documenting this on my Instagram stories, but a) because I’m trying to read more this year and b) in an effort to serve this space a little more, I’m moving my book reviews here to Substack. Once a month I’ll talk in depth about the titles I finished the month before. There will be raves, there will be complaints, there will be recommendations, there will be snark, there will be requests for recommendations. It’s like a book club that’s just about my own choices—oh how very Virgo and how very Fun.
Anyway. If you’re also a reader I hope you like it. I hope it helps you find a good story.
The Stillwater Girls
Sisters Wren, Sage, and Evie live off grid and isolated on a primitive farm with their mother somewhere in upstate New York. When Evie, the youngest, falls gravely ill in the middle of winter their mother sets off with the youngest sister to get medicine and help. Months pass and neither returns—leaving the remaining naive pair of sisters on their own. Facing starvation and an ominous stranger who comes knocking one day and says he will not be leaving without them, the girls decide to escape by breaking a rule they’ve grown up knowing: Never go beyond the forest.
I’ve been describing this book as one part The Village, one part Room, one part Undefined Lifetime Thriller™. It’s suspenseful, it’s fun, it keeps you guessing even until the last few chapters. There’s a dual POV element here that I really enjoyed which helped keep the pace snappy and moving. And that can be tricky! I’ve read some thrillers that attempt it and it’s almost like the reading version of someone trying to mimic an accent they have no business trying. But Minka Kent does it successfully, in my opinion.
If you go to Goodreads you’ll see that people are very divided on the big “reveal” and I get it. But to anyone crying out “sooooo unrealistic ugh ugh ugh” I have to ask, gently, respectfully…THAT was what was unrealistic to you? Not, you know, the entire premise of sisters existing in New York and somehow avoiding any semblance of technology until they’re basically 18? Okay, I guess. Sure lol.
I don’t read thrillers to grow more braincells, I read thrillers and mysteries to have a good time. I read something like The Stillwater Girls for the same reason I watch Scream or Happy Death Day; because they’re fun. They don’t need to change my life, that’s not the purpose. And this book served it’s twisty, never see it coming, interestingly feminist, curious premise and setting of a purpose for me.
☆☆☆.7 stars out of 5
The Grownup
An unnamed narrator trying to survive in the world makes her way by committing various levels of fraud and crime. When introduced to the wealthy Susan Burke, she is confronted with a haunting, a nefarious tween, and a mystery she may not be able to con her way out of. Originally published in the “What Do You Do?” anthology from George R. R. Martin, The Grownup is 64 pages of grief, terror, with a little bit of wtf mixed all together.
Speaking of George R. R. Martin, I get it GOT fans, I really do. Because I really hate that Gillian Flynn hasn’t written anything since Gone Girl. I understand she’s been writing for TV and Film, I get it. But it doesn’t hit quite the same.
Reading a book from start to finish it better, to me, than bingeing a full show. So while yes, Amy Adams was incroyable in the Sharp Objects adaptation, finding out it was Amma all along while I tore through a paperback copy of the book on a particularly brutal layover in the MSP airport in my twenties will never leave me. Rosamund Pike’s delivery of the “cool girl” monologue is absolutely life-changing, but realizing Amy Dunne was amazing for more reasons than one at my favorite lounge in Missoula was a thrill I can’t really describe.
All of this to say, I miss Gillian Flynn’s books. I wish there were more. While I respect she is not a “bang ‘em out” kind of writer, I wish it hadn’t be over 10 years since we got a novel from her. I can’t wait for her eventual fourth to be in my hands, keeping me up past my bedtime while I devour whatever story she’s aiming to tell.
So in an effort to satiate my Flynn-shortage, I finally read her short story last month. And it! did not! disappoint! It’s slightly more supernatural (kind of) than she usually goes, but filled with the same things that have gripped me with her writing in more long form styles. Unreliable characters, unlikable women at the forefront, and a culmination that makes you unsure you ever knew what was happening from the get go. My only gripe is that 64 pages wasn’t enough. But I’ll get over it.
☆☆☆☆ stars out of 5
Written in the Stars
Darcy Lowell is particular, uptight, and no nonsense. Elle Jones is flighty, a little dramatic, and dreams of romance. Aka: Just your stereotypical Capricorn and Pisces. After a disastrous date between the two that was set up by Darcy’s brother, Darcy finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place when she lies that it was not so much a disaster to get her brother off her back. Partially a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, partially a fake dating in the PNW original, this little RomCom asks if maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars.
I will say all of the following with the biggest caveat: I’m not a romance lover and yet I keep trying to find the one that changes my mind. There’s an extremely popular sapphic booktok author who I have a one-sided fight with because I found/find their books to be so unbearable and just…bad. I do think SOME of that comes from just not being that strong of a writer especially for the stories they clearly want to tell, but also they’re a multi-published writer and I’m just some bitch on Substack so it very well could be a me problem!!
Idk if it’s some reader version of car accident syndrome or if I just can’t resist something set in Seattle because I love reading a restaurant name and thinking, “Hey! I’ve been there!!” but I’ve found myself with a TBR that somehow contains…multiple queer PNW romances, Written in the Stars being the first that I actually gave a shot.
And it’s cute! I can see that there would be an audience for it. But is that audience me? I dunno, so far it seems that all fingers point to no. I just don’t find romance novels to be the kinds of books I would ever recommend. More often I’m passing particular chapters to my friends/reading partners and saying, “Read this sex scene this would never happen,” or rolling my eyes at the fact that no one seems to be able to write a romance with characters who act like actual human beings.
The pros: It’s a quick, predictable, love story with fake dating and good representation that also doesn’t read like someone trying to come to the queer party and letting you know how good of an ally they are.
The cons: It’s a quick, predictable love story with fake dating and the characters, while representative, also don’t feel like real people. They feel like predictable romcom characters, and that’s not really my cup of tea.
☆☆☆ stars out of 5
Local Woman Missing
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold. 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find.
I wanted to love this. Really, really wanted to love it. The opening act and a half were PHENOM; gripping, chilling, striking, and kicked the story off with a bang. The middle section with the jumping between timelines and POVs had me.
And then it alllllll went to hell and not in the way I want a thriller to.
If people called the twist in The Stillwater Girls “unrealistic” and that was a failure on the author’s part, the twist/reveal in Local Woman Missing is like a bomb ruining the rest of the book. I just cannot even express how much I hated it. When it started to shake out I audibly said, “Are you KIDDING??” so loud my basically deaf, geriatric dog heard me and wondered what the fuck happened. I finished the last chapters rolling my eyes every few sentences. To say I think it ruined the book is an understatement—I genuinely found it that stupid.
I said earlier that I don’t need zingy thrillers to change my life and I do not enter reading them with that expectation. And I stand by that! But while I may not need, or want, or expect them to alter my brain chemistry, I still expect them to try. And for a book that started so strong, to have it end so idiotically really disappointed me.
☆☆ stars out of 5
The House of My Mother
At the height of her popularity, mommy vlogger Ruby Franke boasted 2.5 million subscribers on her viral 8 Passengers YouTube channel. Ruby documented everything from her daughter’s first period to sending her eldest son away to a reform camp; nothing was off limits for the Mormon mother of six. In 2023, Ruby and her business partner/life coach Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse after Ruby’s youngest son jumped out of a window and sot help from a neighbor. Ruby is currently serving four to thirty years in prison for the aforementioned charges.
For the first time, Ruby’s oldest daughter Shari Franke is telling her side of the story. A story about the disturbing truth behind the multi-billion dollar family influencer industry, and her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.
I’ve said for years that I think we’re in for a reckoning when it comes to family channels, mommy bloggers, and influencer culture. Similar to the laws that came as a result of child actors like Jackie Coogan or even just the societal realizations that came to be more recently because of the likes of Macaulay Culkin and Jennette McCurdy, I really think we’re in for an awakening when the children who made up the content we consumed grow up and start talking about what things were really like on the other sides of our screens.
This is something I think everyone should be paying attention to, whether family content is something you’ve watched or otherwise. If you consider yourself to be mindful consumer, including a consumer of content, you should be thinking about the ramifications of said content and the people involved in it. A harsh reality is that social media and digital footprints are still relatively new; we don’t really know what the consequences of our digital choices will be offline in the long run.
While I don’t personally think there’s any ethical way to use children in your content, it’s safe to say Ruby Franke was the worst of the worst. I’m a person who also believes in restorative justice and I cannot fathom a reality in which Ruby Franke is able to rectify anything she did to her family; it’s that awful. Shari only scratches the surface in her memoir and still leaves you with the heartbreaking and powerful impression of a household filled with abuse, selfishness, a power struggle of a child asking for love and a mother incapable of giving it, and a life no one should have had to live.
This is absolutely not a tell all. Likely because of her own childhood being riddled with exploitation, Shari is extremely careful to only tell stories that are hers. Her younger siblings are not named in the book and she does not dive into what life was like for anyone other than herself. And I really appreciated that. I think Shari deserves to get hers and to put it all out there, but I think that choice showed a level of maturity and consideration she clearly did not learn from her parents. It’s impressive.
That being said, because of that choice it does leave you (the reader) walking away feeling a little bit like you haven’t learned anything new. Maybe that will come with age (Shari is only 22), more time, and more distance from her mother and the vlogging days, but I was left a little bit thinking, “Well what did she want to leave us with from this?” Still a very powerful read and one filled with questions and thoughts I think anyone who wants to be on social media should require themselves to consider.
☆☆☆.8 stars out of 5
The Auction
Set in an alternate universe in which Harry Potter is dead and Voldemort has won the Wizarding War, Hermione Granger finds herself taken prisoner by The Dark Lord and his followers of Death Eaters. Stripped of her magic and dignity, Hermione and other captives are auctioned off to Death Eaters willing to place the highest bid. And who buys Hermione but none other than Draco Malfoy. Whisking her away to the mysterious Malfoy Manor to live with himself, his cold and domineering father, and perplexing yet seemingly kind mother, Hermione must find it in herself to uncover the secrets hidden away in the manor about her new “owner,” the world she finds herself in, and also the answer to surviving.
I’m literally pumped to talk briefly about fanfic here. What used to be something embarrassing fandoms would take in under the cover of darkness is now something we’re openly talking about loving. Because the thing about fanfic is it not only expands on the worlds we already know and love, it’s also genuinely really good. No bullshit, fanfiction can be dope you heard it here first!!
Here’s the thing: Fanfic, whether you read it or not, is already in the zeitgeist. See: 50 Shades of Grey, The Love Hypothesis, City of Bones, and I think you could even argue that books like James (which is currently everywhere) is technically a version of fanfiction. Every retelling of Greek mythology? That’s fanfiction. So why don’t we recognize that? Why is inspiration only valid if it’s seen as highbrow? Why are stories only winning metaphorical or literal awards if they’re “mature” enough? (I mean, sexism, but you get the question(s).)
The other thing: I love how much J.K. Rowling HATES fanfiction. It makes me CACKLE. Her disdain over fic is just her copping to how insecure of a person she is. Which as a billionaire? Wow. Pathetic. But also if someone writing under the handle LovesBitca8 wrote circles around me with my own IP, I might be insecure too.
So am I admitting and filing here for the class that I read a 181,287 word Dramione fanfic this year in my 30s? I sure, sure am. And it was really good. I only didn’t give it 4 stars because Manacled was better.
Note: This has been taken off of AO3 because the author is publishing it as a traditional story and original IP. However if you wanna read it, I have a PDF. Same with Manacled.
☆☆☆.9 stars out of 5
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Told in a story spanning well past a decade with the perspectives of almost anyone involved, Bryn Greenwood's novel asks you to challenge what you know about love, family, and growing up and into yourself. Wavy, the daughter of a drug dealer running a meth lab in the Midwest, is doing her best to raise her little brother and survive in the world she was born into. Quiet and reserved due to the emotional abuse of her mother, Wavy finds solace in tracking constellations and learning. After witnessing one of her father’s associates, the tattooed and much older Kellen, wreck his motorcycle, the two form a unique and unmovable bond that will shape the way they move through the world the rest of their lives.
Before I dive into this if you decide to read this book, essentially expect a trigger warning for everything under the sun. This is not an easy read. At all. It’s controversial, it’s heavy, it’s moving, it’s conflicting, you will not come away with it knowing exactly how to feel and that is the whoooole point. So go in with caution and with that in mind. Last caveat, while it’s probably pretty obvious where this novel goes (to a certain extent) I’m going to do my best to talk about it without getting into specifics or spoilers.
I am not going to call this a love story. I actually think that anyone who does is grossly oversimplifying Greenwood’s story of Wavy, her life, her autonomy or lack thereof, and her overall relationship with Kellen. Additionally, if that was the goal of the story, why would the perspectives of other adults and people who are a part of Wavy’s life be necessary? Why would the author want to challenge your perspective of the main relationship she is so deliberately pairing together if not to make you, the reader, also question every part of it?
This is not an easy read. Every thought or takeaway you can have as the reader digesting Wavy’s story can be tested with a conflicting question. The character’s circumstances are devastating, but not in A Little Life way where it feels like a continuous intentional punch down that then borders on trauma-porn. Instead, it’s a painfully accurate portrayal of growing up with the background of the Midwest drug crisis informing the ways in which that would inevitably impact you.
I loved this book so much, as hard as that might be to say given its subject matter. But I loved it BECAUSE it’s a book that, for lack of a better way to say it, really made me think. It’s an exceptional story that made me feel like the author wasn’t trying to dumb anything down for me. Rather, she said, “I’m going to make this really hard but make you need to know where and how it’s going to end up.”
I’ve been told this would be a terrible book club recommendation but I couldn’t disagree more! What are books supposed to do if not create discussion? And this absolutely would do that. If you read or have in the past it please DM me immediately. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it a few weeks ago.
☆☆☆☆☆ stars out of 5
Reading Goal Thus Far: 7/50
Well on my way to my goal! If you’re reading something or read something you’ve loved lately, please leave a comment. I would love to check it out. 📖