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A Carnivore’s Inquiry by Sabina Murray
“This is what exploration had opened up the door to. Not only widespread slaughter, but the necessary accompaniment of gorging.” Unapologetically solipsistic and deeply manipulative, Katherine, the central character of A Carnivore’s Inquiry, makes for an awful human being and a deeply entertaining narrator. A predecessor to Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad’s protagonists, and many…
1st pov, 2000s, 4 STARS, A Carnivore's Inquiry, A Carnivore's Inquiry by Sabina Murray, Adult, affairs, age gap, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, America, ART/CREATIVITY, books about writers, cannibalism, cheating, class, cold tone, colonialism, Contemporary, dark, dark humor, desire, ennui, female authors, feverish, filipino american author, GOTHIC, history, HORROR, introspective, Italy, LITERARY FICTION, literary references, madness, maine, Mexico, modern gothic, MURDER, MYSTERY, navel gazing, NEW YORK, no plot just vibes, otherness, PRIVILEGE, psychological, Psychological thriller, psychopaths, published in 2004, read in 2023, rich people, road trip, Sabina Murray, satire, self-destructive, serial killers, she is dangerous, she is not feeling good at all, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, the female malaise, travel, unreliable narrators, violence, womanhood/femininity -
The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
The Woman in the Purple Skirt is a thing that exists.Did it elicit any particular reactions, feelings, emotions—be positive or negative—from me? Besides a big fat ‘meh’, not really. This short novel never truly delivers on its premise. After reading the summary, I was expecting this to be a psychological tale about voyeurism and obsession,…
1st pov, 2.5 STARS, Adult, ambiguous protagonist, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Contemporary, doubles, female authors, female doubles, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, jealousy, My reviews, MYSTERY, Natsuko Imamura, obsession, Psychological thriller, published in 2019, read in 2021, reading, slow pacing, stalking, SUSPENSE, The Woman in the Purple Skirt, THRILLER, TRANSLATED FICTION, unnamed characters, unreliable narrators, work culture -
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Secret History lives rent free in my head. It is a masterpiece. A thing of rare beauty. A tour de force. A literary triumph. “One likes to think there’s something in it, that old platitude amor vincit omnia. But if I’ve learned one thing in my short sad life, it is that that particular…
1980s, 1st pov, 20th century, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, addiction, Adult, ALIENATION, AMERICAN AUTHOR, anxiety, beautiful prose, beauty, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, California, campus, class, cliques, Contemporary, CRIME, dark, dark academia, DEATH, donna tartt, ennui, existentialism, female authors, friendships, gay side characters, GUILT, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, incest, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, MEMORY, modern classics, morality, MURDER, My reviews, MYSTERY, obsession, philosophical, PRIVILEGE, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 1992, queer undercurrents, re-reads, read in 2016, read in 2021, reading, rich people, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, the secret history, THRILLER, toxic relationships, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, unrequited love, Vermont, whydunnit, WINTER -
White Ivy by Susie Yang
“She never got too greedy. She never got sloppy. And most important, she never got caught.” Ivy Lin gives characters like Madame Bovary, Becky Sharp, and Lily Bart a run for their money. She’s terrible (and I loved her). White Ivy is an addictive and razor-sharp debut novel. Susie Yang has spun a deliciously dark…
3rd pov, 4.5 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, bad love, BOSTON, cheating, China, chinese american author, class, coming of age, cultural dissonance, dark, domestic thriller, family, female authors, growing up, identity, intergenerational, introspective, lgbtq+ side, loneliness, Massachusetts, migration/immigration, MURDER, MYSTERY, obsession, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2021, read in 2021, rich people, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, Susie Yang, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, toxic relationships, unrequited love, White Ivy -
Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
“Desire places people in dangerous positions. This was a fact I’d yet to learn and something Richard knew all too well.” Dio mio, this book was so stressful.Equal parts gripping and horrifyingYes, Daddy is one hell of a debut novel. This is not the kind of book one enjoys reading. In fact, most of the…
2000s, 2010s, 3.5 STARS, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, age gap, all of the trigger warnings, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, bad love, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, class, Contemporary, courtroom drama, dark, film industry, forgiveness, gay, graphic content, GUILT, Jonathan Parks-Ramage, journalism, kidnapping, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, male authors, netgalley, NEW YORK, Pedophelia, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2021, queer, rape, read in 2021, Religion, sex, sexual assault/abuse/rape, social issues, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, theatre, THRILLER, trauma, violence, Yes Daddy -
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
I should have ended things with this book as soon as I grew irritated by our narrator’s navel-gazing. But, I persevered, hoping against hope that at some point, ideally before reaching the book’s finish line, I would find what I was reading to be even remotely intriguing. At the beginning we have a young woman…
2 STARS, Adult, canada, canadian author, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), endless monologues, feverish, hallucinations, HORROR, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid, illness, male authors, mental health, MYSTERY, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2016, read in 2020, road trip, surreal, SUSPENSE, THRILLER -
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
Heavenly Creatures by way of Patricia Highsmith, plus a sprinkle of Like Minds, and with the kind of teenage morbidity one could find in Hangsaman or Stoker. Adroit and gripping, These Violent Delights is a superlative debut novel. Being the self-proclaimed connoisseur of academia fiction that I am, I was drawn by the comparisons to…
1970s, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ANGST, anxiety, anxiety-inducing reads, bad love, class, dark, dark academia, drama, family, first love, gay, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, Jewish, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, m/m, mental health, Micah Nemerever, morality, MYSTERY, obsession, Pennsylvania, philosophical, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2020, queer, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2022, rich people, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, These Violent Delights, THRILLER, toxic relationships, tragedy, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, whydunnit -
The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo #1) by Keigo Higashino
The Devotion of Suspect X is an unusual detective novel. By the end of the first chapter readers witness the murder that is at the centre of this novel. We know the identity and motivations of the perpetrator. What follows is a compulsive game of cat-and-mouse between ‘detective Galileo’ and Suspect X. At times this…
2000s, 3.25 stars, 3rd pov, Adult, cat and mouse, Contemporary, CRIME, DETECTIVE, Detective Galileo, Detective Galileo series, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, Keigo Higashino, male authors, MURDER, murder mystery, MYSTERY, obsession, police procedural, Psychological thriller, published in 2005, read in 2020, stalking, SUSPENSE, The Devotion of Suspect X, THRILLER, tokyo, TRANSLATED FICTION -
The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine
“There is no time in our lives when we are so conspicuously without mercy as in adolescence.” I don’t think I would ever picked up this ‘obscure’ and forgotten novel if it hadn’t been for the ‘crime fiction’ module I took during my second year of uni. Thanks to that module, which was in every…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1st pov, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Adult, adulthood, ALIENATION, ART/CREATIVITY, atmospheric, bad love, Barbara Vine, beautiful prose, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, books about books, books about writers, British author, class, CRIME, domestic thriller, england, f/f, favourite authors, female authors, first love, friendships, GOTHIC, GUILT, heartbreak/breakups, HISTORICAL FICTION, House As Character, identity, illness, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, loneliness, Longing, manor/big house, MEMORY, modern gothic, MURDER, murder mystery, MYSTERY, obsession, psychological, Psychological thriller, psychopaths, published in 1988, queer, re-reads, read in 2018, read in 2020, read in 2022, rich people, sapphic, SEXUALITY, strong sense of place, SUSPENSE, the female malaise, The House of Stairs, toxic relationships, unrequited love, whydunnit -
The Law of Lines by Hye-Young Pyun — book review
“The future was a dark corridor. And though she would grope her way through it, the door at the end would be locked tight.” After reading that Hye-Young Pyun’s novel The Hole won the ‘Shirley Jackson Award’, I was intrigued to read her work. Thanks to NetGalley I was able to read The Law of…
3 STARS, Adult, CRIME, DEATH, family, female authors, GRIEF, Hye-Young Pyun, Korea, Korean, korean author, morality, netgalley, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2020, read in 2020, revenge, SISTERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, Sora Kim-Russell, SUSPENSE, The Law of Lines, THRILLER, TRANSLATED FICTION, violence, white-collar crime, work culture
luce [is reading] 