literary fiction

Exploring Sisterhood in Julia Phillips’ Bear

by Stefani

Bear by Julia Phillips

Published: June 25, 2024 by Hogarth

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.

Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.

Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.

A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us — and within us — Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.

Rating:

Review:

At its heart this is a story about two sisters. They have spent their entire lives longing to get off their little island. They watched their mother struggle in bad relationships and care for her elderly mother and wished for more. They stayed up late at night to dream of the day that they would get on the ferry together and never return. Then their mother gets sick and those plans get sidelined. Now they have a new dream, care for their mother until she passes and then escape the island together. Or, do they still have that shared dream?

This story is about so much more than the bear. Yes there is a bear and the two sisters react in completely different ways to the bear. Sam is absolutely terrified and wants the beast removed from their island before something terrible happens. Elena is fascinated with the bear and finds herself looking for him and befriending him. But its not really about the bear. It’s about the fractured relationship between these two sisters. Their differing reactions to their mother’s imminent death. And their shared realization that they will have nothing tying them together once she’s gone.

I loved every minute of this book. I read the entire second half in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. And there is a singular moment, toward the end, that shocked me to my core. It’s not often that a book elicits an involuntary physical reaction from me. But this did. My jaw dropped, my hand clapped itself to my mouth and I audibly gasped. I didn’t expect it for a moment. And yet, it also made perfect sense. It was extraordinarily done.

Exploring Identity in ‘The Names’ by Florence Knapp

by Stefani

The Names by Florence Knapp

Published: May 6, 2025 by Pamela Dorman Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she’d like to call the child, Cora hesitates…

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora’s and her young son’s lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

Rating:

Review:

This boo was so interesting that I couldn’t put it down. We start the story with Cora. Her husband is terribly abusive and controlling. He instructs her to go into town and register the birth of their son, whom he wishes to have named after him. From there the story splits into three separate stories. In one story, Cora names her son after her husband as expected. In another, she names her son the name that she picked and wanted to name him. And in the third, she lets her daughter pick the baby’s name.

The entire rest of the story is about how this family changed over the years based on that singular choice that Cora makes. It was such a touching and moving story about autonomy and the power of a name. This story makes it clear that it’s not really about her son’s name, but about the choice of a name and the power and expectation that comes with each name.

This book was heartbreaking. It was fascinating. It was rich. It was beautiful. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars was that it was difficult to track which events happened to which name. I had to make some notes to keep it straight. But I think that was just part of the nature of the storyline. Also, be aware that this book contains a lot of spousal abuse and is quite graphic in some of those descriptions.

Pride’s Children: Netherworld Review – A Captivating Continuation

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Published: September 19, 2022 by Trilka Press

Buy this book at: Amazon

Synopsis: Every decision he makes from here on will hurt someone .

Is his happiness even in the equation any more?

Pride’s NETHERWORLD, Book 2 of the trilogy, continues the epic saga—one day later.

In Book 1, Pride’s PURGATORY , rising Irish megastar Andrew O’Connell embarked on a beautiful friendship with reclusive author Dr. Kary Ashe , and committed to his stunning costar Bianca Doyle ’s directorial debut film Dodgson , a Lewis Carroll biopic.

He never imagined either would shatter the impenetrable wall he built between his professional and personal lives.

His future as a leading man depends on being an bankable obsession in the lives of the women he seduces, on and off screen.

But a past regret makes his gorge rise when offspring are on the way and he’s suddenly responsible for their very existence.

Rating:

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you Alicia!***

This book was such a lovely complement to the first book in the series. We pick up right where we left off with Kary working on her latest book idea, a fantasy that is far outside of her comfort zone. Andrew is jet setting across the globe for role after role as he becomes the most sought after actor in the business. And Bianca is scheming, really stepping it up a notch from the last book.

I always quite enjoy the author’s writing style. The occasional insertions of the character’s inner thoughts is a nice touch. I’m not sure it would work in any other book but it works for this one. It provides a deeper insight into the character’s and why they’re doing what they are doing. The style might not be for everyone but it makes the story easy to digest.

My only complaint on this book is that the middle dragged a bit. It felt like we were waiting on something to happen. Based on the synopsis I knew what the “something” was. As a result it felt like it took forever to get there and since the plot has a bit of a lull at the same time it dragged the plot down a little.

But apart from that I was delighted by this book. Kary was frustratingly pragmatic, seemingly more so than in the first book. But it’s her defense mechanism and survival technique. But I desperately wanted her to just drop the walls for a moment. Andrew was so sweet and I find myself falling for him more with every book. Even though he was a bit of a knucklehead in this one, I’ll forgive him for it. While I felt like Bianca was a rather dull villain in the first one, she justified her villain title in this one. I really hope that karma visits her in the end.

Overall, this book was great. I think I enjoyed it even more than the first one. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Progress Updates: May 30, 2025

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Progress: 338 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

This book has such a different feeling and tension in it than the first one did. I am starting to see a vicious plot start to come to fruition and I am on the edge of my seat to see how it ends up. I did get a lagging feeling a bit in the middle of this one, it was a transition moment in the plot that just slowed everything way down. It picked back up though and I’m breezing along now.

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J Taylor

Progress: 6 hours, 11 minutes of 11 hours, 22 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

How it’s going:

I am torn on this one so far. Loving the magic system and the other dimensions. Love the scriptomancy university. Maeve is incredibly boring so far and hasn’t really done much of anything except worry. And why have they might told me what her father’s crime is? We talk about it in very vague, euphemistic ways that don’t actually tell me anything. Whatever he did was bad enough for a young girl to abandon her name and live in hiding but….what was it? It’s getting annoying.

Old Soul: A Haunting Literary Horror Experience

by Stefani

Old Soul by Susan Barker

Published: January 28, 2025 by G.P Putnam’s Sons

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko, miss a flight, and over dinner, discover they’ve both brutally lost loved ones whose paths crossed with the same beguiling woman no one has seen since.

Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades—a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is.

Part horror, part western, part thriller, Old Soul is a fearlessly bold and genre-defying tale about predation, morality and free will, and one man’s quest to bring a centuries-long chain of human devastation to an end.

Rating:

Review: **Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own. Thank you G.P Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley!**

I had some reservations about this book when I saw it being described a literary fiction and horror. I had a hard time seeing how those two genres meshed together and it made me nervous about the book. But, in the end I loved the book and I completely agree that it is a combination of horror and literary fiction.

This book wasn’t your typical scary horror book. It was haunting. Unsettling. Uneasy. It makes you read with a pit in your stomach that you can’t quite explain. And as the pieces get put together you find yourself reflecting on the book long after you’ve put it down. That was my experience. I was haunted by thoughts on this book long after I put it away and moved on to my next book.

But apart from the horror aspects of this mysterious woman this story is a character study. Each of the main characters are people that are explored in depth by the author. I found this part fascinating. I loved learning more about these people. It also made the horror aspects even more horrifying because I grew to care about them and knew what was likely going to happen to them.

When we got to the ending, I honestly felt like I wanted to scream helplessly into the void. It wasn’t the ending I expected. But, truthfully, it was the correct ending for this book. The ending makes the book even more unsettling than it was before. This was a great book, I highly recommend it.

Progress Updates – April 27, 2025

by Stefani

It’s been a little while since I did a progress update so it seemed like a good time, though usually I save them for Fridays. Things have been crazy busy with doctor’s appointments, state testing at school and toddlers getting things stuck in their ears. So most of what I’ve been reading it audiobooks but I still pull out physical books and ebooks every day to make even a few minutes of progress.

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrdardt

Published: September 19, 2022 by Trillka Press

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Progress: 152 pages of 540

How it’s going:

The beginning of this one started fairly slowly and I feel like I’ve been waiting to get to the good stuff. We are finally into the good stuff! Kary is still mildly frustrating and fiercely independent. Andrew is such a sweetie and trying so hard to not impose on Kary’s energy or ability even though he really wants to be near here. It’s cute and I can’t help but sigh a little at it. Bianca’s is becoming quite the villain so I am pleased by that development. She was a mostly disposable plot device in the first book but now she is really making strides at being a really despised character. Long way to go still but I am thoroughly invested.

Clean by James Hamblin

Published: July 21, 2020 by Riverhead Books

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Progress: 127 of 280 pages

Synopsis:

Keeping skin healthy is a booming industry, and yet it seems like almost no one agrees on what actually works. Confusing messages from health authorities and ineffective treatments have left many people desperate for reliable solutions. An enormous alternative industry is filling the void, selling products that are often of questionable safety and totally unknown effectiveness.

In Clean, doctor and journalist James Hamblin explores how we got here, examining the science and culture of how we care for our skin today. He talks to dermatologists, microbiologists, allergists, immunologists, aestheticians, bar-soap enthusiasts, venture capitalists, Amish people, theologians, and straight-up scam artists, trying to figure out what it really means to be clean. He even experiments with giving up showers entirely, and discovers that he is not alone.

Along the way he realizes that most of our standards of cleanliness are less related to health than most people think. A major part of the picture has been missing: a little-known ecosystem known as the skin microbiome–the trillions of microbes that live on our skin and in our pores. These microbes are not dangerous; they’re more like an outer layer of skin that no one knew we had, and they influence everything from acne, eczema, and dry skin to how we smell. The new goal of skin care will be to cultivate a healthy biome–and to embrace the meaning of “clean” in the natural sense. This can mean doing much less, saving time, money, energy, water, and plastic bottles in the process.

How it’s going:

At first I thought this book would be a little bit too far out there for me. I mean, who is actually going to just stop showering? But this book is about a lot more than that. So far the most interesting parts is when Hamblin ties an evolutionary drive to seek out “clean” things as a method of rooting out disease, but in the modern human we have turned cleanliness into a virtue. It was a very interesting connection that I have never thought about but it makes a lot of sense.

Daughters of Shandong: A Tale of Resilience and Liberation

by Stefani

Daughters of Shandong by Eve J Chung

Published: May 7, 2024 by Berkley

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Daughters are the Ang family’s curse.

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed.

Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family’s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.

From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they’ve known also comes new freedom—to take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story.

Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.

Rating:

Review:

I have been on something of an audiobook spree the past month or two because it is such an easy way to listen to some great books when relax my brain. My life has been insanely busy and stressful so it’s a good way to get in more reading time while I am busy cleaning the bathrooms, making dinner or running a bath for a tiny human. I picked this one up based on the synopsis alone and it was worth the listen.

This book is the fictionalized story of the author’s grandmother. The family had always talked in hushed tones about her grandmother’s flight from the Communist Revolution in China but everyone refused to talk about it further. So the author went on a quest to further understand what her grandmother had gone through and started researching. Once she discovered as much as she could she wrote this book and filled in some of the missing details with fiction.

It was a beautifully written story. The prose carries you along like a gentle river before suddenly plunging you down a steep waterfall when something shockingly evil happens. The trauma of this entire family of women is laid out in horrifying but hopeful detail. In the story the mother never gives up hope. She never stops trying to better the lives of her children. She never stops sacrificing for her children’s benefit, even when they hated her for it. A true mother is displayed on these pages. The kind of mother that will endure anything without complaint if it saves her children an ounce of pain. This book brought me to tears quite a few times.

The only detractor from this book was that the plot lags for a little while in the middle. While the family may have been in a transition period, I didn’t want to feel like I was also in a transition period too. My attention started to wander and I hoped the pacing would eventually recover. It did recover and the ending was logical and…well, it wasn’t exactly satisfying but it was sweet on many levels. But given the entirety of the story I don’t think it was supposed to be a satisfying ending. There isn’t a happily ever after when you’ve lived through such horror. Sometimes the happily ever after is being safe with your children, and trying to make it a better life again tomorrow.

The author’s note at the end put a very touching end to this story. It tells another tale of love and devotion. One of hers to her family and to telling the story of their generational trauma so that no one forgets what it took for her family to thrive. It put an extra poignant touch to the story.

Progress Update Fridays – March 14, 2025

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Progress: 52 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: I am thoroughly enjoying my journey back into this world so far. I will have to put this one down briefly as I have another one on my Nook that is about to expire, so have to jump other there for a minute and will be right back on this one.

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Progress: 8 hours, 37 minutes of of 23 hours, 10 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: This one started off really well. I liked Callum a lot and I was really interested in his journey. A young man who desperately wants to be a knight of the Round Table and arrives to find King Arthur dead and the Round Table in shambles. The first 3 hours were great. The last 8 have been utterly boring. I am contemplating giving up.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Progress: 32 of 368 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: The opening chapter of this book was so intensely chilling. On one hand I felt so sorry for this little girl, but on the other hand she can’t feel sorry for anyone so it’s little bit of an odd experience. I only have a few more days with this one so needed to jump in this week.

Intermezzo Review: A Disappointing Narrative by Sally Rooney

by Stefani

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Published: September 20, 2024 by Farrar, Straus and Glroux

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Rating:

Review:

This book caught my eye before it even published and Sally Rooney has a great reputation for writing compelling literary fiction, so I was excited to pick this one up. At first it piqued my interest because I was interested in Ivan. But that initial interest peaking and then faded really fast. Soon I found myself wondering exactly when the story of these brothers dealing with their grief was going to happen.

Like a lot of literary fiction this book is long. 454 pages. I made it halfway through and I gave up. In more than 200 pages, nothing happened! We talk a lot about chess. We complain a lot about how unfair life is. And both brothers sleep with a LOT of inappropriate women. That’s it. That’s all that happened in 50% of the book. The brothers didn’t even see each other! They spoke over the phone….once…for a few paragraphs. I have never been more bored in my life. I decided to stop waiting to see when something would happen and just accept that it wasn’t going to happen at all.

Progress Update Friday – 2/14/2025

by Stefani

It’s been a minute since I did a progress update post. I am working my way through a few things, so let’s jump right in.

Kree by Manuela Draeger

Published: October 22, 2024 by Univerity of Minnesota Press

Progress: 156 out of 280 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

A warrior struggles through an apocalyptic landscape and the world after death

Kree Toronto has been raised as a warrior in a ravaged post apocalyptic, post human world, the population decimated by wars and civilization long since collapsed. After her attempt to avenge the death of her dog, Loka, goes horribly wrong, Kree finds herself lost in a world after death and wanders into the city of the terrible mendicants.

Under the Brothers’ totalitarian rule, Kree can lead a quiet life and forget her violent past, even if needles grow in her skull and hallucinatory blood rains pour down now and then to remind her. She can make friends: a shamanic healer with a shaking tent, a mysterious stranger hatched from an egg, and a gruff Tibetan electrician in a world without electricity. And she can have her Loka, as long as she toes the Party line and does as she’s told. When she can’t—when her friends start to disappear and the Brothers turn against her—Kree sets out on a quest, searching for a new way forward.

How it’s going:

This book is very odd but I have to admit that I’m enjoying it. Before I got it I didn’t realize that this is a side novel that takes places in an established world that have had other books written in it. The author’s name is a pseudonym and is a character in one of the other novels. Which is an interesting idea. The translation also seems to replace the word “that” with “what” almost all the time. But translations can be tricky and once I realized what the intended word likely was I stopped noticing it. It’s an interesting book. It’s beautifully written, but it’s incredibly difficult to follow.

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Published: September 19, 2022 by Trllka Press

Progress: 20 out of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Every decision he makes from here on will hurt someone .

Is his happiness even in the equation any more?

In Book 1, Pride’s PURGATORY , rising Irish megastar Andrew O’Connell embarked on a beautiful friendship with reclusive author Dr. Kary Ashe , and committed to his stunning costar Bianca Doyle ’s directorial debut film Dodgson , a Lewis Carroll biopic.

He never imagined either would shatter the impenetrable wall he built between his professional and personal lives. His future as a leading man depends on being an bankable obsession in the lives of the women he seduces, on and off screen. But a past regret makes his gorge rise when offspring are on the way and he’s suddenly responsible for their very existence.

How it’s going:

Clearly I have a long way to go on this one, but I am excited to be back in Andrew and Kary’s world. So far this one has the same tone as the first, a narrative that carries you on a winding river journey, looking at all the passing scenery. It’s a fun ride and I am happy to be back on this boat.