minimicropup's reviews
479 reviews

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Def not a light read! It’s one of those books you have to be in the mood for (and psychologically prepared to read).

Energy: Abashed. Raw. Resigned.

Scene: 🇰🇷 Anjin and Seoul, South Korea in the 1990s/2000s.

Perspective: We follow multiple perspectives giving their experiences around feminism, sexual abuse, misogyny, domestic violence, and unhealthy relationships. Sometimes we know who is speaking and other times they are peripheral to the main story. For example, a medical worker, a professor, a high school friend etc. Told in three parts.

🐕 Howls: Hyper-focus on trauma with repeating (not repetitive) exploration and commentary made this feel so long and dense sometimes.

🐩 Tail Wags: The snapshot essay style. Different viewpoints that show, not tell. Thought-provoking commentary and discussions. Excellent translation.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

Check content heads-up! This could be validating or super triggering and a little too accurate depending on your past experiences and where you are in your life journey right now.

I wouldn't say this is trauma porn, but there is a LOT and it’s the entire focus of every single chapter. Everything from rejection by peers to violent sexual abuse. I liked that the reveals helped me feel for the characters even when I didn’t understand their actions or was getting judgey. But (and this will sound awful) …it’s so focused on all the characters traumas that I forgot who experienced what as the stories start to overlap.

If you aren’t familiar with Korean naming, just have Google nearby to help you get the hang of it, then it'll be easier to keep track of characters

🤓 Reader Role: Characters speaking to us and thinking aloud. Others reflecting and we are privy to their thoughts via third person narrator who also assists with showing us the significance of events.

🗺️ World-Building: Barren. Mentions place names but we are mostly in the characters' minds or exploring concepts and commentary.

🔥 Fuel: Emotional investment, moral dilemmas, and crossing paths where seemingly unrelated characters stories overlap in surprising and meaningful ways.

📖 Cred: Hyper-realistic.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Fresh grass. Misty lake. Ripe persimmon. Karaoke bar. Stained glass. Choral voices. Sobbing. Jane Eyre.

Psychological literary fiction
Show-more-than-tell commentary on power dynamics, abuse, misogyny, and victim blaming.
Coming of age examination of friendships with consequences
Stream of consciousness essay style
Jumping between thoughts and characters
Observational (from a distance) character focused narratives
Book club/buddy read deep dives
Topics from a 1990s/early 2000s viewpoint (unfortunately much is still relevant today)
Second hand cringe, morally complex characters
Symbolism and metaphors with a touch of purple prose
Large cast of characters
Random snapshot POVs that ultimately interconnect

Content Heads-Up: Physical assault. Victim shaming/blaming. Sexual assault, rape (by partner; intoxicated/no memory). Peer rejection. Bullying (rumours, body shaming). Misogyny. Medical (discussion; STIs, cervical cancer, pus). Alcohol (casual, parties). Possible false accusation. Abortion. Parental/in-law pressure. Suicidal ideation, planning (on page, descriptive). Loss of grandparent. Toxic masculinity. Body shaming (weight gain, ageing). Incest, pedophilia (very brief mention). Infertility.

Rep: Dark and light skin tones. Korean. Cisgender. Heterosexual.

📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Pushkin Press and NetGalley.

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Content Warnings

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Thank you for validating my nightmares?

If you also have a deeply irrational fear of ‘what if this moment is only a dream and one day I wake up in the past, in pain, or in parallel universe?’, you will probably Love and Hate this for making it all feel Real.

Energy: Metaphysical. Acute. Instinctive.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in an isolated rural area of Oregon.

Perspective: Our MC and their spouse flip old homes. Their recent purchase seems beyond saving, requiring a complete rebuild. When a father arrives hoping to quickly share his childhood home with his family before it’s gone, they feel obligated to let them in.

Between chapters we get morse code alongside seemingly random ads, research papers, obituaries, and articles.

🐕 Howls: The nightmares.

🐩 Tail Wags: The nightmares. How seemingly minor decisions snowball. Making the ‘impossible’ feel possible on an innate level. Horror that hits hard for homebodies and introverts. Eve and her reactions. The pacing and ending. Easily imagining the scares.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

The gradual building of unease reminded me of the beginning of Lost (but this ends much better).

I totally get how the ending will let some readers down. For me, it made the story feel more real, like this could happen…or is happening. We get no answers but can invest in inferring an ending. This could be a good book club discussion pick depending on your tastes.

Visceral descriptions of the horrors. Sometimes descriptions of scary moments are too cartoonish in my mind, but this was subtle and didn’t knock me out of the story, it was making me see it. I still see it…

----

🤓 Reader Role: Tagging along with Eve, hearing her thoughts, sometimes in the corner of a room with her, other times trying to see something but with our view obstructed.

🗺️ World-Building: Immersive, atmospheric, chaotic, claustrophobic. Easy to feel the energy and build the layout of the house in your mind.

🔥 Fuel: Atmospheric tension and twisty turns. How long will Eve have to entertain this family? When will her spouse get back? What is so ‘off’ about this family? How can she get them to leave without being rude? Where is her spouse? What is happening in her home?

📖 Cred: Surreal and speculative psychological

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Musty basement. Yellow wallpaper. Blowing snow. The Mandela effect. Bacon and eggs. Faint cigarette smoke. Glinting eyes. Rotting wood. Buzzing lights. Ants. Stuffy attic. Shadows.

Strangers as houseguests
r/nosleep style storylines
Slowly unraveling unhinged sci fi of the unknown
Psychological theoretical what-ifs
Introvert horror
Randomness
Mostly plot, not sure why anything is happening
Go with the flow confusions
Slow and steady pacing with hits of spooks without typical ‘high stakes’ moments
Open to reader interpretation endings
Shadows and glimpses of things that go bump in the night
Swipes of liminal space
The past lives of Homes
Unsolved mysteries

Content Heads-Up: Homophobia (religious, insinuated). Panic attacks. Sleepwalking, night terrors, sleep paralysis. Mental illness (delusions, paranoia, psychosis). Religious trauma (guilt, fear, shaming). Institutionalization.

Rep: Lesbian. Queer. Heterosexual. Ex-Christian. White and ambiguously described Americans.

📚 Format: Library Digital

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🥺 Potential Fav of 2024

Content Warnings

The Unwedding by Ally Condie

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I liked it while reading, but when I put this down, I didn’t feel like continuing. Kinda just read to get to the end. And the end was too contrived, convoluted, and drawn out, so I lost interest.

Energy: Ominous. Inquisitive. Gullible.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Broken Point, a romantic nature resort near Big Sur, California.

Perspective: Our recently divorced MC decides to attend the resort they originally booked for their 20th wedding anniversary, but misses their kids and starts to regret their decision as loneliness settles in. A wedding party and new friends provide some distraction, as does a natural disaster and the groom suddenly calling off the wedding.

🐺 Growls: Frustratingly drawn out reveals with misplaced tangents. The whodunnit. The whydunnit. Constantly interrupting tense moments with minor details/long inner monologue.

🐕 Howls: Weak dialogue sometimes, especially in the middle

🐩 Tail Wags: Resort map! The characters and their personalities. Immersive setting. Initial mystery building. The gradual way isolation happens.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

If you like slowish burn contemporary fiction + cozy mysteries, you might enjoy this.

From my tangential experience of parents and friends: contact and scheduling boundaries can be lifesavers in a divorce agreement, especially if an ex abused their spouse (including emotional and narcissistic abuse). The writing hints those aren’t good and one is a healthy parent for not having them. Co-parenting after divorce often requires an official agreement with clear boundaries and expectations for stability and to minimize ongoing abuse and manipulation. Shouldn’t feel badly for that.

On the plus side, I think this accurately showed the stress of divorce with kids – suddenly you are solely responsible for your kid(s) when you have them! And your support system has changed or is lost entirely, so the grief about that felt well portrayed.

On that note, if you want kids or have them, especially if you are worried about relationship breakdowns and not living with them sometimes, this could be a hard read (or a validating one).

In high stakes scenes, it felt like everyone paused so characters could muse about who did what, overexplaining the situation and giving their commentary.

It took page after page to make a single point later in the book and a character spoon-fed us the ending. And we sometimes get double explanations, like “ohhh I see, [summarizes what was just said]”. It made a contrived, convoluted ending feel even more drawn out.

🤓 Reader Role: Ghost in the room. Getting the gossip from the narrator and eavesdropping, watching from the corners, privy to certain character thoughts.

🗺️ World-Building: Immersive with sensory details.

🔥 Fuel: Escalating stakes race against time. Were the deaths accidents or something else? How long will it take rescuers to reach the resort? Do they have enough resources? Does a killer walk among them? Why did the groom call off the wedding?

📖 Cred: Technically Not Impossible to Suspended Disbelief

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Moonlight. Tree scented breeze. Glass walls. Glimmering waves. Buffet. Rolling hills. Heavy rainfall. Mud. Bergamot.

Grown up summer camp energy
Cozy mystery style amateur sleuthing (more like nosiness lol)
Quirky found family
Isolated at a luxury lodge murder mystery
Bits of wedding drama
Contemporary fiction about life not turning out as expected
Speculating, side-eyeing, everyone’s a suspect
Day-by-day chapters
Large casts of characters
Caring mom main character trying her best

Content Heads-Up: Divorce. Grief. Panic attacks. Loneliness. Corpse (discovery of). Death. Murder. Blood. Vehicle accident (descriptive, memory; injuries, fatalities, stranded). Betrayal. Loss of spouse. Violence (gun).

Rep: Gay. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Special needs child. Brown and white skin colours. American.

📚 Format: Library Digital

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Content Warnings

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Never thought I’d be rooting so hard for someone to get eyeballs. This temporarily ruined tomatoes for me.

Energy: Resilient. Direct. Urgent.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in and around Koreatown, Los Angeles

Perspective: We follow an 18-year-old college student living at home when their father suddenly divorces their mother, leaveing them and their sibling behind. They navigate their mother’s heartbreak and a toxic stepparent while trying to build a foundation for their future.

🐕 Howls: Dialogue was a little stilted sometimes in a way that knocked me out of story.

🐩 Tail Wags: Short chapters. Plot snapshots that get to the point immediately. Mix of direct commentary with symbolism and subtly underneath. Family dynamics. Relatable homicidal thoughts. The ending.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

I thought this would be bizarro weird, like how could it not be? But it’s surprisingly realistic feeling.

The commentary is heavy and direct in some places, but not over the top. Just obvious monologues and red flags that characters ignore because Trauma. But there's subtle symbolism and commentary in the background events too. I think this could be a good book club book...if you don’t mind eye stuff.

That ending was so satisfying. I predicted it after reveals in the last 75% but was hooked rooting for Ji-won. There are unresolved plot lines, but not in a bad way, just not everything is tied up tidily. It ends naturally without ‘solving’ everything.

The writing style felt YA to me. Not in a bad way – we’re following the life of a young adult! But if you aren’t used to that or don’t like it, then it could feel simplistic. Also, for 14+ readers I think this could be a fun to cathartic read (but check those content warnings too).

Can we get a streaming adaptation please?

🤓 Reader Role: Riding the emotional roller coaster. Ji-won candidly telling us her story, what is happening, and her motivations and feels.

🗺️ World-Building: Foreboding. Easy to imagine. Not overly detailed.

🔥 Fuel: Emotional investment atmospheric tension + cathartic energy. Will Ji-won survive the toxic men in her life? Can she protect herself and her sister? Is she starting to catch feelings for her new friend? What will she do about her new cravings?

📖 Cred: Plausible realism (if forensics/police are incompetent, which happens!)

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Peppermint. Fish eyes. Blue eyes. Kimchi jjiage. Slamming doors. Chinese American takeout. Lecture halls. Pocket knife. Salty brine. Metal. Footsteps. Emojis. Tequila. Oleander.

· Generational trauma

· Surreal dreams and nightmares

· Symbolic cannibalistic cravings

· Hint of crushing on a Bestie sapphic romance

· Shitty stepparent horrors

· Toxic men behaving badly

· Vengeance gore and fantasizing

· Paranoia, real life, or unhinged?

· Direct but deep commentary on misogyny and racism

· Psychological horror with elements of body horror

· Claustrophobic family life

· Destiny, fortune, fate

· Sisterhood

· Feminine Dexter-style rage

Content Heads-Up: Parental abandonment. Infidelity, spousal abandonment, heartbreak/grief. Extreme poverty, starvation (very brief recall, off page). Generational trauma. Unhealthy parent (triangulation, passive aggressive, guilting). Racism (fetishization, virtue signalling, objectification, targeting/taking advantage of language barriers, prejudice, bias, projecting). Toxic wokeness. Toxic masculinity/misogyny (sexual comments, leering). Step-incest/abuse (leering, sexually charged comments, controlling). Toxic friendship (controlling, monitoring, guilting, stalking, obsession). Homicidal/intrusive thoughts. Blood. Cannibalism. Medical (brief; tumours, hospital). Vomit. Parental neglect (toxic romantic partner).

Rep: Korean, Black, and White Americans. Koreans. Second generation culture. Cisgender. Heterosexual. Pale, brown-freckled, and ambiguous skin tones.

📚 Format: Library Digital

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Content Warnings

A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I mostly enjoyed this. It was such an interesting premise. I wish it was truly a standalone, I didn’t need the previous characters here for this one.

Energy: Affected. Brusque. Patronizing.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Various locations in Maine and New Hampshire.

Perspectives (3): A 39-year-old highly introverted librarian who had just about given up on love, now married. An old friend from high school reconnecting to help our MC with their suspicions around their new spouse. A murderer.

🐕 Howls: Too condensed (wish we had slower burn on Martha’s suspicions and sleuthing). Contrived solutions that just didn’t hit. Inclusion of Lily and other characters from previous books.

🐩 Tail Wags: The concept of the story. Fast pace. Martha’s conundrum. Serial murderer perspective. Narrative style.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

This had a 90s early 2000s vibe to me for some reason.

Such an interesting premise but I feel like too much time diverged from the story to fit the previous characters in. Wish it was more standalone so we could spend more time on the plot, rather than the plot adjusting to work the characters into it.

Also felt like we only ever get a taste of several intriguing storylines and then they're gone. The Martha-husband angle. Then the serial murderer angle. Then the Lily vs the monster angle. I would read like, three more books based on those ideas that were more fleshed out instead of crammed into one.

If you aren’t vibing with the Martha suspicions story, by 50% it changes direction and we get different perspectives, so maybe hang in there.

🤓 Reader Role: Narrator speaking to us. Like we are watching events unfold and the narrator is whispering to us what the background context is.

🗺️ World-Building: Barren. Tiny details given on the type of house, pub, or neighbourhood – just enough for the reader to build off of if they want.

🔥 Fuel: Dialogue and suspense is what builds and is driving story. Pure plot with little hints of vibes/building descriptions.

📖 Cred: Plausible suspended disbelief

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Google searches. Watching TV. Seedy bars. Dark parks. Watching out the window.

Secret life of the spouse
Serial killer POVs
Fast paced storylines
Plot driven interconnecting character arcs
Murders and mayhem
Revenge, stalking, and unhingedness
Twisty plots with slightly contrived/convenient solutions
Mysterious multiple POVs and whodunnit/whosisit

Content Heads-Up: Serial murder. Homicidal tendencies/thoughts. Sexual content (pressured, curiosity; discussion/recall; polyamory, threesomes). Sexual violence (off page mention, pressured). Toxic relationship. Stalking. Sex work (discrimination, targeting). Drugging (very brief mention). Rape (very brief mention). Sociopathy. Kidnapping, confinement.

Rep: American. Cisgender. Heterosexual. Pale and ambiguously described skin tones.

📚 Format: Library Digital

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Content Warnings

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Low on spooks, but I still loved this. Recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of contemporary fiction with paranormal undertones, coming of age friendships, or cozy (but heartbreaking) horror.

Energy: Worried. Vigilant. Grieving.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Suburb of Hemlock Circle, New Jersey in the summer of 1994 and in modern day.

Perspective: Our main character (40-something) staying in their childhood home after their parents move south to retire. Our MC at 10 years old in 1990s, as well as the other neighbours of various ages in the ‘90s.

🐕 Howls: Unexpected sadness and heartbreak (but if I knew it was sad I wouldn’t have read it, so no regrets).

🐩 Tail Wags: The nostalgia and memories the writing invoked. Preteen friendship dynamics. A suburban setting that feels real. How kid viewpoints were written.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

This is more contemporary fiction than horror/thriller. The writing captured growing up in the 90s so vividly for me. And I didn’t even grow up in suburbia!

The kid POVs transported me back to kid-logic days…excited to grow up but it comes with friendship changes, and realizing your parents are fallible in a way that make you want to stay a kid.

The 1990s chapters allow us to have the same memories as Ethan and other characters for the way things were. In the modern chapters we spend a lot of time exploring that as an adult, so it can feel slow if you just want to get on with the plot. Ethan mulls over all the theories and possibilities for everything from paranormal activity to What Could Have Been.

Horrific things happen but not much horror. If you aren’t invested in the characters and loving the vibe I see how this would be uninteresting.

🤓 Reader Role: Time jumping and off to the side watching while the narrator fills us in.

🗺️ World-Building: Nostalgic, sensory, and a little tranquil.

🔥 Fuel: Relatable Layered secrets and dynamic relationships. Who took Billy? Why? What would life be like if Billy were never taken? Is he still alive?

📖 Cred: Realistic with paranormal realism

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Grass. Sweat. Bug spray. Weathered baseball. Lawnmowers. Leafblowers. Garden hoses. Summer sun. Crickets. Leaves rustling. Fireflies. Page turning. Security cam thumbnail pings. Mausoleum. Chain link fence.

Cozy grief horror
Dual timelines
Neighbourhood study
Growing up in the 90s, childhood summers nostalgia
Stephen King coming-of-age meets grown up Goosebumps coming-of-age
Mysterious private research institute in the woods
Suburban neighborhood that isn’t fully unhinged
Loveable mishmash of characters you can root for
Jump scare & eerie security camera footage
Non-convoluted sleuthing in the neighbourhood
Fascination with ghosts and monsters
Heartwarming moments with heartbreaking hits
Sprinklings of paranormal realism
Recovered memory trope

Content Heads-Up: Missing child. Loss of child (teen, preteen). Loss of childhood friend. Anxiety. Insomnia. Childhood bullying (brief; teasing, namecalling, prejudice). Peer pressure. Relationship break-up. Drug use (teen). Overdose/suicide (recall, grief). Grief. Drunkenness. Guilt. Dementia.

Rep: White, Chinese, and Diwali-celebrating Americans. Cisgender. Heterosexual. Gay. Lesbian. Diverse skin tones.

📚 Format: Libro.fm

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Content Warnings

She Left by Stacie Grey

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Intriguing to start, but became boring fast.

Energy: Condemnatory. Grumpy. Toiling.

Scene: 🇺🇸 A luxury cliffside cabin in the Sierras, California

Perspective: A senior high school student who narrowly escaped a deadly incident at a party. Twenty years later and now an FBI agent, they accept a journalist's invitation to meet others connected to the case for interviews. We also get snippets from the nine others in between the main chapters.

🐺 Growls: Took too long to get a sense of the characters even with notes (not well-anchored). Simplistic storyline lacking suspense. Weak dialogue. Meandering spinning wheels pacing. Characters that felt a little stereotypical. Male body shaming that felt ick. Clunky action-interrupting writing style.

🐕 Howls: Nothing-really-happens-but-keeps-hinting-something-will filler plot between beginning and end. Awkward pacing. All the characters felt one-dimensional.

🐩 Tail Wags: This way this kicks off.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

This was about as fun as actually being stuck in a room with your arrogant, homophobic neighbour nobody likes and a bunch of adults acting like toddlers.

Weak dialogue which sucks because this is heavy on chit-chatty dialogue. Lots of repetitive philosophizing about the same topics. Therese having revelations then forgetting what they are just as she's about to tell us...

How many times did I read about people going into areas that are dangerous just to prove they can’t be ‘bossed around’? Too many.

Speculating and theorizing in the middle of high stakes action, instead of running or fighting. That stuff really breaks it for me.

🤓 Reader Role: Overhearing conversations while following Therese around and hearing her musings. Getting snippets of others thoughts and theories.

🗺️ World-Building: Lackluster. Lacking atmosphere (I forgot there was a storm half the time). Lots of “the library”, “the kitchen”, “the storm”.

🔥 Fuel: Quests and managing difficult people. Who is the journalist that invited everyone together? How are they all connected to the case? Murder, suicide, or accident? Should they leave to seek help or stay put until the roads clear?

📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Eucalyptus. Scotch. Foosball cheers. Mud. Rain. Ozone. Lightning flashes. Distant shouting. Rain.

-Isolated-ish strangers stuck together death mysteries and whodunnits

-FBI agent amateur sleuthing

-Group dissent arguing and disobeying

-Storylines dominated by musing, discussing clues, and scheming

-Lots of unlikeable characters

-Stuck with whiny, defiant adults and jerks making jerky comments

-Chit chatty dialogue, puzzling and speculating

-Manageable number of clues with dialogue leading the reader through them

-Touch of deus ex machina storylines

Content Heads-Up: Explosion, death. Suicide (off page recall; potential on page). Murder. Blood. Homophobic characters. Bullying (frenemies). Body shaming (brief). Addiction (maintenance). Gun violence.

Rep: Chinese, Black, Mexican, and White Americans. Diverse body sizes. Gay. Heterosexual. Cisgender.

📚 Format: Library Digital

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Content Warnings

We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

I can’t seem to get into this one. Definitely a slow burn, which I normally prefer, and I even like being thrown into a story and having to figure out things as they happen around us. But I feel like I’m being thrown around by the writing instead of story.

Sometimes I don’t know who is speaking so I connect those events with a different character and have to fix it later when I realize it wasn’t Wyatt or Odette or Angel or True etc.

There’s a staccato barrage of terrible things happening or being remembered without much context, combined with lots of withholding (“I shouldn’t do this given my past…” kinda stuff). And all under a slightly flowery verbose writing style that I admit I could get used to and even find atmospheric if I wasn’t feeling so much like I’m trying to Read a Book instead of following the author’s story in my mind’s eye.

Might be a soft DNF or a donate. I’m sure others will like it based on other reviews!

Content Warnings

The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant

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adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It wasn’t the story I thought it’d be, but it was still good.

Energy: Benevolent. Cooperative. Optimistic.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in the wilds of Idaho.

Perspective: Our main character is a hunting and fishing guide. Their old bestie goes missing just as they’re starting to reconnect, prompting our MC to look deeper into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.

🐕 Howls: The direction of the story once we find out what happened to Janessa. The cozy mystery feels and the Big Bad. The YA overthinking-style romances.

🐩 Tail Wags: Emlyn’s character development. The flashback chapters. Janessa and Emlyn’s friendship ups and downs. The mystery of what happened to Janessa.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

This is obviously somewhat inspired by the Gabby Petito case…it wasn’t an icky copycat story (looking at you Joyce Maynard lol), it felt respectful and takes a different direction.

If you like mysteries on the lighter, cozier side, check this one out. The resolutions felt more like what you’d get in a cozy mystery and are secondary. Most of the plot is character development and friendship/relationship dynamics, spurred on by the mystery. It wasn’t poorly done or too convoluted and contrived, I just felt a disinterested near the end because I was expecting something darker and grittier.

🤓 Reader Role: Guided by the narrator to explore the scenes around us and observe the characters and learning their backstories.

🗺️ World-Building: Atmospheric, lush. Easy to imagine with sensory details sprinkled throughout.

🔥 Fuel: Character evolution and emotional investment. How did Emlyn and Janessa meet? Why did they lose touch? Why has Janessa stopped posting her #vanlife journey? Is she in danger? Will Emlyn and Tyler figure out what happened? Will they reconnect romantically?

📖 Cred: Romanticized realistic-ish

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Rivers. Osprey. Airstream trailer. Prayers. Streams. Campfire. Espresso beans. Lake water. Sun through the trees. Cold. Hunger.

Contemporary fiction with romance and cozy #vanlife mystery storylines
Bff dynamics, falling apart, reconnecting, reconciling differences and growing up
Shy girl emerging from her shell
Threads of second chance romance, secret crushes, first loves, and heart break
Atmospheric campingcore
Amateur wilderness sleuthing quests
Cat-and-mouse games in the forest with the bad guy
Loving (and leaving) an addict
Wise Christian elder and finding a safe space community
Breezy reflective reads, easy to listen to
Books to read at the park/out in nature

Content Heads-Up: Date rape (attempted). Missing person. Misogyny. Addiction (recovery, relapse). Painkillers (prescribed, addiction). Parental abandonment. Medical (appendicitis, injuries). Drugging. Drug trafficking. Animal death (hunting, trapping). Animal cruelty (inhumane trapping). Guns. Betrayal. Violence (fighting, attack).

Rep: Cisgender. Heterosexual. Brown, pale, and ambiguous skin tones. American. Christian.

📚 Format: Library Audio

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Content Warnings

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.

Decided to DNF this (21%), I was procrastinating picking it up. Just not for me, but others may like it!

🇺🇸 Takes place in 1980s Hollywood, but I wasn't picking up any 80s vibes. It kept feeling like it took place in modern day.

I love horror movies, but don't really like the behind-the-scenes or franchise/lore stuff. This is almost info-dumping horror movie-making facts, but I think I just felt that way because I find that uninteresting.

Our main character is unlikeable, which I generally like, but he was too one-dimensional cranky chip-on-his-shoulder dude for me.

The narration felt like it was trying too hard to be scheming or foreboding. A character would do something and the narration would be like "___ did [insert thing here]. Oh yes, yes he did". It's just wasn't working for me.

The deaths were kind of satirical? They were graphic, gruesome and horrifying ways to go. But it read more like ridiculous, as if someone just described horrible things like guts and blood to gross you out. I didn't feel anything, it was kind of cartoony/comical (that's on my imagination, but I found it hard to imagine it any other way!)

Mood Reading Match Up:

Arrogant moviemaker
Aspiring Final Girl starlett
Say Cheese and Die Goosebumps-ish, but gorey
Cursed camera
Satirical supernatural body horror and gore

Content Heads-Up: Dog death. Body horror, gore, blood, dismembering. Sexual content (consenting). Eyeball stuff.

Content Warnings

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minimicropup's reviews 479 reviews

minimicropup's reviews
479 reviews