![luce [is reading]](https://wishfullyreading.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/9429655-1.jpeg){kind=small}
-
Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli
“Grief is not neat. Pain is not dignified. Both are ugly, visceral things. They rip holes through you and burst forth when they see fit. They are constant, controlling companions, and if they don’t destroy you or your relationship with others, they certainly go a long way to damaging you […] There is nothing eloquent…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, Black & Black heritage authors, black diaspora, Contemporary, DEATH, DEPRESSION, england, evil stepmother, female authors, forgiveness, GRIEF, GUILT, MARRIAGE, MEMORY, mental health, nigerian british author, Onyi Nwabineli, photographers, pregnancy, published in 2022, read in 2022, Someday Maybe, suicide, widows -
All This I Will Give to You by Dolores Redondo
“There’s a type of open grief that’s public, one of tears and mourning; and there’s another, immense and silent, that is a million times more powerful.” Initially, the premise for All This I Will Give to You intrigued me and I was gripped by the story’s tragic momentum. Manuel, a bestselling author, receives a visit…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, All This I Will Give to You, books about writers, class, Contemporary, CRIME, Dolores Redondo, drama, female authors, gay, GRIEF, lgbtq+, m/m, MURDER, murder mystery, MYSTERY, police, published in 2016, queer, read in 2022, rich people, SMALL TOWN, small town crime, spain, spanish author, SUSPENSE, TRANSLATED FICTION, widows -
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
Cheesy, boring, poorly executed. While there is indeed a murder and the identity behind the culprit is, supposedly, a ‘mystery’, The Widows of Malabar Hill struck me as something in the realms of a third-rate period drama. The first part of the novel introduces us to Perveen Mistry, our protagonist, and works to establish the…
1910s, 1920s, 2 STARS, 3rd pov, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, cheating, cheesy, courtroom drama, CRIME, divorce/separations, drama, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, India, lawyers, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+ side, MARRIAGE, MURDER, murder investigation, murder mystery, My reviews, MYSTERY, Not Like Other Girls, Perveen Mistry, published in 2018, read in 2021, reading, Sujata Massey, The Widows of Malabar Hill, weak prose, widows, zoroastrianism -
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
The blurb for This Thing Between Us is somewhat misleading. After reading it, I went into this novel expecting to be a tale about this couple who buy a possibly evil home smart speaker only to discover that said home speaker is a mere speck in the story and that the events described in the…
1st pov, 2.5 STARS, Adult, America, American, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Contemporary, DEATH, graphic content, GRIEF, Gus Moreno, HORROR, latin america, latinx author, loneliness, male authors, MARRIAGE, MEXICAN AMERICAN AUTHOR, Mexico, My reviews, MYSTERY, PARANORMAL, published in 2021, read in 2021, reading, SUPERNATURAL, This Thing Between Us, THRILLER, widows -
Braised Pork by An Yu
Sparsely written and permeated by a sense of surreality Braised Pork had the potential of being a wonderfully weird tale. Alas, Braised Pork falls short of its premise. I found the story to be painfully slow-going, the main character failed to drew me in, and, ultimately, the novel left me feeling rather unimpressed (in ‘was…
-
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez — book review
Afterlife is a slim novel that covers many topical and important issues, like mental health, in a not always satisfactory way. Alvarez’s style was at times a detriment to her story. While I could have moved past the lack of quotations, I had a harder time buying into the recursive narration. I sort of understood…
3 STARS, Adult, afterlife, America, American, Caribbean, caribbean author, Contemporary, Dominican American author, dominican republic, family, female authors, GRIEF, Julia Alvarez, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, mental health, migration/immigration, published in 2020, read in 2020, SISTERS, social issues, Vermont, widows -
Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
Lisey’s Story by Stephen King ★★★★✰ (4 stars) Stephen King is such a skilled storyteller. He has a ‘voice’ that I find incredibly compelling. “And then sometimes a day would come, a gray one (or a sunny one) when she missed him so fiercely she felt empty, not a woman at all anymore but…
luce [is reading] 