No matter what I do, I will never get these newsletters out on the timeline I’m attempting. In my defense, I was pretty sick end of June through the Fourth of July weekend (and still have a lingering cough boooo) so I wasn’t doing much of anything, let alone writing a newsletter. And then I had a bit of a reading slump (for me, anyway) so I decided to wait and combine two months. One day, these will be one time. One day!
Nothing beats a good Emily Henry. This one has a unique set up: a girl is dumped by her fiance after his bachelor party when he realizes he’s actually in love with his lifelong female best friend. Kicked out of her own home, she ends up becoming roommates with said female best friend’s now ex-boyfriend. Neither of them are doing great but they can commiserate and after a mourning period, actually become something like friends. And maybe more? Emily Henry is really good at making the characters in her books feel like real people: nuanced, flawed, but ultimately well-meaning. She also writes my favorite romance novels, where our leads have to deal with their own inner problems (our heroine uprooted her life to move to this small town her fiance was from and realizes she has no life of her own now as she always just adapts to her partner of the time, our hero has deep-seated fears of not being enough) and they have to work past those rather than invented shenanigans. Add in that our heroine is a librarian who actually talks about working in a library in a (mostly) true to life way? I adored it! Highly recommended!
We Used to Live Here - Marcus Kliewer
This had been on my tbr list since it came out, very much seeming up my alley. A lesbian couple buy an old house in the middle of nowhere to flip it. When one is home alone, a family walks up, the father claiming to have grown up in the house and wanting to show it to his kids. Despite her better judgment, she lets them in. But will they leave? This is very clearly a creepypasta that’s been stretched out into novel form and I think that’s what leaves me a little cold on it. Creepypasta works best when it’s fragmented, when it’s an idea that sticks in your mind. Meanwhile, horror novels need something more, a proper ending to stick to. I don’t think this one stuck the landing, although it tried. I loved the idea, though, and I’ll definitely check out more Kliewer in the future.
This thriller, which moves back and forth between a college student joining a subversive theater company in the seventies and said student as a drama teacher at an elite high school in the nineties, was very fun. While the bare bones plot (someone from her past is threatening to blackmail her but who?) is pretty standard, the setting of an avant garde theater company that is clearly going to end in disaster was incredibly fresh and interesting to read about. I’m a sucker for theater.
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers - Caroline Fraser
A memoir/true crime study looking at growing up in the Tacoma/Seattle area, Pacific Northwest serial killers, and the shocking number of them that came out of that area in the sixties, seventies, and eighties? This should have been the best book I’ve ever read. And yet, something just didn’t click with me. This book is actually the reason I kind of took a break: it took me ages to slog through. I don’t know if it was just too many threads being pulled at, the bite-sized bits of chapters (something I normally adore) not quite connecting like they should, or what but this book was just not for me. I seem to be the only person that felt this way, though, so take my review with a grain of salt.
I Make My Own Fun - Hannah Beer
When the comp title is My Sister, The Serial Killer, you know you’re in for a good time. Marina is the nation’s darling, think Taylor Swift if she were an actress rather than a singer. Secretly, though, she’s a sociopath who enjoys playing games with people. When she becomes enamored with a one night stand, a bartender named Anna, it’s only a matter of time before things go bad. I really enjoyed this one. Very much a dark comedy, it switches between online articles and message board posts and Marina’s twisted point of view. This is a debut and I’m looking forward to seeing what Beer writes next!
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin - Alison Goodman
I adored the first book in this series, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, so I was thrilled when I saw this at the library and snapped it up. And it did not disappoint. Picking up pretty much exactly where the last book left off, this follows our lovely twin spinsters (ancient at the old age of 42) using their status to help women in Regency England. This time, however, they might have bit off more than they can chew as hiding a sickly woman from her overbearing brother (along with avoiding their own overbearing brother) becomes harder and harder as an overreaching conspiracy begins to come to light. It also ends in such a good place for the next book, I cannot wait until I can have it in my hands.
In the late 70s, a man and his daughter walk along the western shore of Japan. The daughter is found later in the surf, the man thought drowned. From there, we go back to how the man, a Korean born in Japan, makes it to the US, marries an American wife, has a daughter, goes missing, and what happens to the wife and daughter from there. This book is long, picking some parts of people’s histories to cover and some to skip over in ways I found interesting, but now, having finished it, I’m not sure how much I liked it. But to be fair, I felt the same way about Trust Exercises, the last Susan Choi I read. I can appreciate the story and the writing and at the end, still go “…yeah, okay.”
I can’t believe I took two months to get this out. I just was having a real reading and writing slump, especially over the past two weeks. Which is embarrassing because I actually ended up having a lot of free time these past two weeks so I really should have gotten ahead of things. Alas.
The good news is that I’ve at least been doing fun things (when not sick.) I’ve taken myself to a whole mess of plays, now that I live in a town that has proper theater again. I’ve seen a production of Frankenstein, Les Mis, a production of Romeo and Juliet that was basically Cirque Du Soleil, and a pantomime Midsummer Night’s Dream. I have ~opinions~ about basically all of them and I was wondering, is that something you guys would like me to cover? Back in the day (over ten years ago), writing about theater was something I did all the time but it has been awhile. Let me know if you’d be interested!
I’ve also been spending a lot of time with friends which is good as that’s the main reason I moved here. Just this past weekend, four of us jumped in a car and drove two hours to the beach (well, the place where the Potomac dumps into the bay but let’s go with beach) for an absolutely wonderful day. It was in the high 70s, no humidity, a light breeze, and we were in a cute little town. We got brunch on a covered deck that faced the water and then set up underneath the shade of tree and just read books and people watched for hours. Perhaps a perfect day. I am very, very lucky that I have the friends I do.
I’ve got some movies to report on, as well, coming up so keep your eyes peeled for a Horror Dispatch Double Feature in the near future. I took myself to a triple feature the other weekend and I might just do another this coming weekend so I’ve got my work cut out for me!
As always, this newsletter is always free but if you’d like to support me for $5/month or $35/year, I will happily read a book of your choice and devote a whole bonus newsletter to it. And it won’t take me two months, either. I promise!
Until next time, keep reading!
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