jrayereads's reviews
386 reviews

 The Vanishing Half was one of my favorite books of 2022 so I was really excited to pick up Brit Bennett’s debut. Though this one didn’t land like The Vanishing Half did, I still think it has its strengths and is worth checking out.

There’s a quality to Bennett’s writing that feels comforting and nostalgic, even when the subject matter of her books is very serious. Though I appreciated the characterization of these deeply flawed, sometimes extremely unlikable people, I didn’t feel connected to them. Lots of very painful and emotional things happened. Suicide, grief, abortion, rehab, fertility struggles, etc. I was drawn to Nadia, Aubrey, and Luke initially, but their individual stories felt so distant. As the book went on, I started to actively dislike Luke and Nadia. I think they were intentionally flawed, but I was so bothered by their actions and the excellent writing didn’t make up for it. 

 

This book made its way to the top of my TBR so I could watch the TV adaptation with my partner, and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. 

My Lady Jane is crazy. It’s weird, it’s completely historically inaccurate, and it's hilarious. The premise is so insane and for the first 20% or so I kept thinking, “What the hell is going on??? Why is this man a horse???? Is the show like this????” (to which, my partner confirmed that yes, the show is like this)

I’m not very familiar with the specifics of Tudor history, so it was pretty easy for me to give this the Bridgerton treatment in my mind and completely divorce the characters and events of the book from real history. I adored these characters and their sense of humor. The writing is witty and sharp and compulsively readable. I burned through the audiobook in less than 24 hours. There was a surprising amount of mystery and action and the magical/fantastical elements were well executed. Even with how ridiculous everything was, the characters and their motivations and desires still felt grounded and realistic. This book is undeniably silly and ridiculous, but it still has enough weight to keep the stakes high and keep me invested in what’s going on.

If you’re looking for something fast paced and lighthearted and you can ignore the ways this book flubs historical accuracy, this is for you. 

Also, the audiobook narrator goes ALL OUT in this role. She matches the crazy and unhinged energy of the book and it really enhanced my overall experience, so I would highly recommend the audiobook. 

 

Rating: 3 Stars

Format: E-book (ARC - pub Jan 21, 2025)

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Myths and Retellings

TWs:

Murder, violence, gore, miscarriage (graphic, on page), sexual assault, sexual violence, rape, cannibalism

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review! 

Those Fatal Flowers is a fascinating take on a mythical retelling, blending Greco-Roman inspiration with colonial historical fiction. It follows Thelia, who is one of three sirens, former handmaidens to Proserpina (Perseophone). After she is taken by Dis (Hades) to the underworld, the sirens are exiled to an island called Scopuli as punishment for failing to protect Proserpina from Dis’s attack. From there we follow the three cursed sisters’ struggle for survival and efforts to escape their exile. 

One of this book’s strongest elements is the writing. I enjoyed the alternating timelines and felt like Ives did a good job of giving us just enough information to keep things moving without bogging down the pacing. I was definitely entertained throughout the entire book and I was invested in Thelia’s arc enough to want to know what she was up to and how she would grow. Thelia had some major character flaws at the beginning of this book and it was satisfying to see her grow and change some of her problematic beliefs. I liked many of the side characters, but I do wish we got more development of Thelia’s sisters. They didn’t feel as fleshed out as some of the other members of the cast. 

And as a warning, this book is pretty brutal. I think some of the violence was effective and some of it took up a bit too much space. There are graphic descriptions of the killing, mutilating, and eating of the men that Thelia and her sisters lure to their island through their magic song.  I appreciated the underlying rage that the women in this book felt and I understand the catharsis of some of the violence against very bad and corrupt characters, but it didn’t always land. 

As others have mentioned, an element that didn’t really work for me was the discussions, or lack thereof, of colonization. We don’t see a single Native person on-page. There are references to Indigenous populations in Virginia, but I didn’t like how the atrocities committed against those Indigenous groups by the community Thelia found herself in were sort of swept under the rug by the narrative. Those atrocities are mentioned, and there are hints that the narrative is self-aware enough to paint them as bad because they are denounced on-page, but I don’t think that Ives explored that enough, especially when so much of the book discusses morality, violence, and innocence. If you’re going to do a colonial setting in historical fiction, you should flesh out all the implications of a character like Thelia stumbling into that colonial setting. The absence of Indigenous characters was very weird throughout. 

Overall, I thought this book was entertaining and easy to read even with its flaws and thematic missteps. I think enjoyers of myths and retellings will find a lot to like here. 

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Format: E-book, Audiobook

Genre: Fantasy

When you tell me that a book is “Gideon the Ninth (one of my fave books of all time) meets Game of Thrones” I’m going to have insanely high expectations. Aside from the bone magic, I wouldn’t really compare Bonesmith to the Locked Tomb. Bonesmith has a much more straightforward fantasy vibe with its themes and conflict. I think I ended up being a bit impatient at the beginning because of this comparison, so that’s my fault. 

This book had a mix of good and not-so-good for me. The characterization, magic system, and atmosphere are all solid. I went back and forth on whether or not I liked Wren or found her annoying, but by the end I think her characterization and growth worked well. I liked Leo and Julian a lot, also. It was unfortunate that their POVs weren’t introduced until about halfway through the book. I enjoyed both of them and would’ve liked to have had more of an equal split between our main characters’ perspectives. The magic system for the different smiths and elements was very cool and a unique take on necromancy. The atmosphere of the Wall and the ghost-infested forests was immersive and I felt like I was there in the midst of danger alongside Wren.

Now for the not-so-good. There is a solid amount of lore-dumping in the beginning that hurt the pacing and made me struggle to get invested. Again, having Julian and Leo’s POVs earlier might have let us be shown more of different aspects of the world instead of just being told. I also didn’t really buy into the romance. The majority of the book takes place over the course of about a week, so the romance moved too quickly for me. I think that we could’ve spent the whole book just building relationships and maybe have the romance culminate in the second book. 

I was pretty conflicted on how I felt throughout most of the book but around the 70% mark things started to fall into place and I was excited to see the stakes start to ramp up. The twists??? The threads that came together??? I was SAT for the ending. Based on where things left off, I will definitely be reading the second book. This was a flawed book, but it wasn’t bad at all. There is a lot to enjoy here, especially for YA fantasy lovers.

Also, I swapped between the e-book and the audiobook and the audiobook narrator SLAYED. I loved her accent and delivery. Highly recommend the audio. 

 

Rating: 2.5
Format: Physical book
Genre: Literary fiction

I am so glad that I didn’t read this book when I initially bought it in 2023, when I was working at a job I hated and that made my life much more stressful and miserable than it needed to be. Even now, at a job that is better for my mental health in every way, this book was bleak. Cassie’s existential dread was all too relatable. Her disdain for corporate life that uneasily coexists with the pervasive desire to perform well at her job for validation and security. . . ouch. 

I enjoyed Sarah Rose Etter’s writing. Ripe is short and well-paced, pretty easy to read in a day or two. Its readability is a big strength. Despite this, I feel like I just kept waiting for something bigger or more impactful to happen. I’m not sure how I feel about some of the unique structural elements that were included. The story is broken up by dictionary definitions and short discussions of those definitions and how they tie to her life and snapshots from her childhood. Sometimes this felt kind of gimmicky or repetitive but other times I liked it as a way to bridge the underlying themes of the book to other elements (like the recurring black hole discussion).

But what are the themes of this book? It’s attempting to touch on a few different things, but I’m not sure that it covered many of them very well. Hustle culture, late-stage capitalism, the impacts of technology and social media, loneliness and isolation, motherhood and monogamy. Cassie feels alone and distant from others but views the majority of the people she interacts with as “Believers”, assuming that they have a genuine, deep passion and adoration for their job and productivity culture that has turned them into lifeless husks. The entire time I wanted to shake her shoulders and say, “Don’t you think they might be faking it, just like you are? Are you so self absorbed to believe you are the only one at your job who isn’t happy???” I don’t have a lot of patience for characters who seem to genuinely believe that they are the only ones who possess depth or importance or personality. Maybe the intention of the narrative was to satirize Cassie in this way, but I don’t think so. 

I ultimately feel conflicted on this one. I liked the writing, the unique structure, and the overall goals of the book, but I’m not sure it worked for me in its execution. I certainly related to Cassie in many instances and understood the tedium of corporate life that the book is criticizing, but I found the characterization so lacking that I didn’t feel invested in Cassie or her relationships. The commentary just didn’t have enough nuance or development in order to convince me this book was as deep as it seems to believe it is. 

 Rating: 3.5 stars

Format: Audiobook

Genre: Romance

The Truth According to Ember is a lighthearted, comforting contemporary romance that follows Ember Cardinal, who “embellishes” her resume to get a corporate accounting job at a tech start-up. There she meets Danuwua, who is a fellow Native and IT guy who works at her new company. As she progresses within the company and gets closer to Danuwa, her lies continue to grow bigger and bigger.

I will always be rooting for a queen to scam her way into a corporate job that pays well. Good for her. Maybe I’m the problem, but I really did not see anything wrong with Ember’s actions throughout the majority book. Of course lying is bad, but baring your soul and telling all your coworkers about your personal life should NOT be a requirement at work. Y’all do not need to know everything about me. I’m here to do my job and go home. Because I felt this way prior to reading this, I had pretty much no moral or ethical qualms with Ember doing what she needed to do to game the system. Especially because she was such a hard worker once she got her job and, as a character, I felt like her motivations, desires, and fears were very clear and understandable. 

The romance developed pretty slowly, which I liked. Ember has understandable reasons to be closed off at first and I loved getting to know her as a character. So much time was spent building her relationships with her friends and family, so by the time that she and Danuwua started getting more involved, I was rooting for her and invested in the high stakes added by their company’s no-dating policy.

I do think the plot and various emotional threads in Ember’s life resolved really quickly at the end, specifically in her relationship with Danuwua and with her brother, Sage. Since there was so much groundwork laid, I was surprised how conveniently things wrapped up. I would’ve liked to see that develop more.

I think that if you’re a fan of rom-coms, this is absolutely worth reading. I loved the Native representation that was woven throughout and I am excited to read more from this author. 

 

 Rating: 4 stars

Format: Physical book, Audiobook

Genre: Literary fiction

Wow, what to even say about this book? It was visceral and bizarre and sensual and cathartic. The writing was punchy and evocative. The underlying tension in the prose and in the protagonist’s restless languor kept me locked in. It took me about 15% of the way to get really invested, but once I was, I couldn’t stop thinking about this story. I was dreading what she would do to bring about the excitement and change she so badly desired and how she would potentially blow her life up along the way.

Though I am a true hater of cheating as a plot device in books, the broader discussions about monogamy, parenthood, menopause, sexuality, aging, all from the perspective of a hilarious and anxiously unhinged middle-aged female protagonist made it work for me. The cheating (and fantasizing about cheating) didn’t just feel like a cheap way to manufacture conflict and it was the foundation of many of the themes of the book. July wove a satisfying complexity into the protagonist’s inner monologue that provided depth and purpose to sexual content that might otherwise have felt shocking for the sake of being shocking. 

I swapped between the physical book and audiobook and I would recommend the physical book. The audio is read by the author and I thought her performance was okay, but she has a dry quality to her delivery that made some sections less impactful. 

Some people could easily find this book pretentious or “too much” but I loved it in all its horrifying, yet so real, weirdness. 

 

Rating: 3 Stars
Format: Ebook
Genre: Horror, Fantasy

I was really impressed by the writing and the overall tension built throughout this book, but ultimately the ending didn’t land for me. The realization of what was going on about 50% or 60% in was really satisfying and I was excited to see where things would go from there, but the ending just didn’t make me feel anything for the characters or the world. I can see why people really love this though. 

I recommend knowing as little as possible going into this book and reading it in one sitting, if you can. 

Also am I dumb or did the entirety of the piano player character lead to nothing? Did I miss how he was important? 

Rating: 3 Stars

Format: Ebook, Audiobook

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction

There is something so lovely about a book that follows a woman who, after her husband dies, finds a renewed purpose and passion. Stories following older women whose lives do not revolve around serving their husbands and families feel rare, so this was refreshing to see.

While I liked Venetia I felt disconnected from her for most of the book. We get flashbacks sprinkled in and more explicitly character history towards the end, but for the first 50% of the book I didn’t understand why she seemed so indifferent to Hawk’s death. And, even with the very late context given, I didn’t feel satisfied by her character arc. I was definitely more interested in Liberty and Kite as characters. They both had clearer motivations and more personality and life to them.

This was very low stakes and cozy, occasionally leaning into mundane. It’s the kind of book that my grandmother would love. Not bad at all if you’re looking for a palette cleanser.