thereadingraccoon's reviews
1490 reviews

Fang Fiction is a contemporary paranormal romance about a hotel manager who tries to help a group of vampires stuck in an alternate New York City.

Tess is a former grad student and Williamsburg hotel manager who is part of the fandom for a series of vampire novels called Blood Feud. Despite being sold as fiction, the books are actually based on rival vampire clans stuck in a parallel New York City, unable to escape. When one of the vampires, Octavia, finds a way out, she seeks Tess’s help after reading her Buzzfeed article on Blood Feud conspiracy theories. Octavia is alone, without her twin Callum or her powers, and needs Tess to cross over to the island and pass a message to her brother. But things quickly go sideways, and it will be up to Tess, Callum, and the clan on one side, and Octavia and Tess’s friend Joni on the other, to end the curse.

This book tried to be a lot of things and ultimately fell short for me. Tess dropped out of college after being assaulted, which set a serious tone, but there are also rom-com moments, pop culture references, and two very rushed romances. I didn’t feel any chemistry or connection between any of the romantic partners, or even between Tess and her entire friendship with Joni. The plot felt odd to me, and the curse, the island, and the entire vampire lore weren’t intriguing or fun to read. It also didn’t feel particularly like New York at all and could have taken place in any big city.

This one didn’t work for me.

The Fate of Magic is the second book in the young adult fantasy “Witch and Hunter duology. 

In this book we have the main characters Fritzi and Otto living in the Black Forest among the witches of the Well. They will need to complete a “bonding” ceremony as Fritzi is the champion of a goddess and Otto is her warrior. They will share magic and use it to defeat Fritzi’s villainous brother Dieter who despite his arrest in the last book is a threat to witches and humans everywhere. But they’ll need to find him first and make sure he doesn’t get his hands on the three elemental stones that will destroy the Origin Tree and give him uncapped access to magic and power. 

I really enjoyed the first book in this duology but this book was missing a lot of excitement and drama for me. There are a couple of scenes of action and fighting but the rest was a lot of detail I didn’t care about around the magical system, goddesses and who should and shouldn’t have access. It has a satisfying conclusion but I was hoping for the similar feeling I got from the first book. 

Rating: 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Disclosure: A copy of The Fate of Magic was provided by the publisher for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. 

When the World Tips Over is a young adult contemporary novel about siblings grappling with connection and acceptance, with elements of magical realism woven throughout.

Dizzy, Miles, and Wynton Fall are still dealing with the abandonment of their father, Theo, more than a decade earlier. Meanwhile, a young girl named Cassidy has been growing up on the backroads of California, traveling in a yellow RV called “Sadie Mae” with her free-spirited mother. As she enters her teen years, the challenges of being out of school, isolated from peers, and dealing with her mother’s mental health begin to weigh on her. She longs for stability and a true home. When Cassidy crosses paths with each of the Fall siblings, she brings them together in unexpected ways, becoming a catalyst for revealing long-held secrets.

When the World Tips Over explores a family cursed over generations by animosity between brothers, secrets, and betrayal. Yet, at its core, it is also about the deep love within families and how the universe can unexpectedly bring people together. I love Jandy Nelson’s writing—the depth and beauty of her characters truly shine through.

Rating: 4 stars

🎧 Narration notes: The audiobook is narrated by Michael Crouch, Alex McKenna, Briggon Snow, Caitlin Kinnunen, and Julia Whelan, who bring the characters to life with their distinct voices. Their performances help capture the personalities of each character, enhancing the listening experience.

The Sequel is the follow up to the 2021 thriller The Plot. 

Anna Williams-Bonner is now a “literary widow” and carrying on the work of publicizing her late husband’s books. After being the subject of both her (now dead) brother’s manuscript and her husband Jake’s successful novel she decides to try her own hand at writing. But messages are starting to appear at her book signings, to her in-laws and finally her editor that make it clear that someone knows where Jake’s inspiration came from and Anna can’t let that her out. 

Anna is not a good person. The reader should not root for her or cheer on any of the murderous lengths she’ll go to. But her sly humor and ability to cut through b.s. make it impossible not to be curious about what she’s capable of doing. Everything from her observations around book signings, dealing with the publishing industry and her ruthless dissection of both her brother and her husband is hilarious to read despite knowing that they were her victims. I love Jean Hanff Korelitz’s way with words and she’s become a favorite writer of mine. 

Disclosure: a copy of The Sequel was provided by the publisher for review purposes but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco is a mystery about a local tour guide operator who finds herself caught up in two separate murder cases.

Before Capri Sanzio was born, her grandfather was convicted of a series of murders in San Francisco and nicknamed “Overkill Bill.” Now, nearly 60 years later, another murderer is copycatting those crimes, and one of the victims is Capri’s own wealthy socialite mother-in-law, Sylvia. Capri needs to get to the bottom of her grandfather’s case and find out how it’s connected to Sylvia before she and her daughter become suspects.

I enjoyed this murder mystery, especially its main character, the amateur detective Capri. It was refreshing to read about a forty-something divorced woman juggling a business and an adult daughter in college. The story includes a lot of details about San Francisco, which makes a great backdrop for the crimes, both old and new. You can really feel the author’s love for the city coming through on the page. I also liked the side characters, like her friends Ryan and Heather, and the handsome Homicide Inspector Dan Petito. I’m not sure I fully followed the financial aspect of the current crime, but it was still a solid mystery. I look forward to reading more by Michelle Chouinard and hope this becomes a series.

It Happened to Anna is a middle-grade paranormal horror about a tween girl who has been haunted by a possessive ghost her entire life.

After the death of her friend Anna the year prior, Sadie is starting over in a new town and school. Just talking to other students in the library causes the lights to go out, and Sadie worries that she’ll never be able to have a friend again after her ghost caused the accident that killed Anna. But mysterious Mal is not afraid of the consequences and wants to be Sadie’s friend despite the risks. Plus, when they’re together, the ghost is unusually quiet. However, Mal begins pushing Sadie to participate in increasingly disturbing pranks on other students, and the stress of hurting people and the fear of getting caught start to overwhelm her.

This is a moderately spooky and entertaining read about a cursed girl navigating middle school friendships. I saw the twist coming from a mile away, but for a younger crowd, this would be a creepy read that isn’t too violent or gory—though there is a scene with a rat carcass and a mention of the death of a pet cat. It also touches on bullying behaviors and toxic friendships.

🎧 Audiobook notes: The audiobook was narrated by Sara Matsui-Colby who brings a youthful energy to the voice of Sadie. 

3.5 stars

An advanced listening copy (ALC) was provided by LibroFm for review purposes.

The Lightning Bottles is a novel about a fictional alternative rock duo that finds both success and despair in the ’90s music era.

Before they were famous, Jane and Elijah were just two teenagers exchanging messages, letters, and phone calls in 1989, musing about life and music. Jane was an isolated girl in a strict Canadian household, while Elijah was a high school dropout playing music with his friends in Seattle. When they finally come together after Jane turns 18, their lives are more difficult than she imagined while dreaming alone in her room in Canada. She feels shut out of Elijah’s musical life by his bandmate, Kim, and is naive about the amount of drugs flowing through Seattle’s music scene in 1990. When tragedy strikes, they make a messy exit and head to Los Angeles to make music on their own, but they can’t completely leave behind Kim or Elijah’s issues with drugs.

They quickly find success with a powerful group of songs written by Jane, but misogyny in rock music is rampant, and they agree to let Elijah take credit for her work. Despite his demons, Elijah’s angelic voice paints him as a sensitive soul ready to be saved, while Jane is portrayed as his scowling and difficult guitarist. This reputation follows them across continents as they continue to tour in support of their albums, but the stress of fame and lawsuits by Elijah’s former bandmates, including Kim, spin them further into their separate addictions and away from each other.

Eventually, a desperate Elijah takes a rowboat out into the cold waters of Iceland and is never seen again. With her husband and musical partner presumed dead, Jane must face life without him and conquer her own demons. But five years later, a German teenager (Hen), living next door to her rented house, shows Jane a piece of her past that leads her to a series of graffiti street art memorializing her private life with Elijah. Jane starts to question if he’s really gone or if he’s been waiting for her to find him again.

The Lightning Bottles is a complicated love story set against the backdrop of the early ’90s music scene. It’s easy to imagine this band existing alongside actual bands of the time, and the author makes it feel real and authentic. I loved how she gave Jane a thoughtful and introverted personality, which could easily be misconstrued by the public as angry and controlling. The bare-bones depiction of their spiral into addiction is heartbreaking but realistic for the era and their chosen career. I really enjoyed this unique love story and look forward to reading more from Marissa Stapley.

Lucy Undying is a vampire fiction novel about Lucy Westenra, one of the victims in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The story is told through multiple points of view: Lucy’s journals from the late 1890s, where she’s an upper-class girl in love with her governess; an interview Lucy gives to a woman named Vanessa in the present day; and Iris, a young woman in 2024 running from her inheritance of her mother’s cult/wellness MLM.

The amount of information withheld from the reader about both Lucy and Iris makes this a confusing and difficult book to enjoy. Lucy’s story is told from both 1890 onward via her journals, but also at different points in the 20th century through her interview with Vanessa. We know very little about Iris, except that she’s inherited property she’s trying to claim in the UK while remaining cash poor and staying off the radar of her mother’s MLM goons from Utah. Iris is barely scraping by in a strange country, living in an abandoned house with no electricity, yet somehow instantly makes friends on her first day of arrival with her taxi driver, Rahul, and Elle, an attractive woman she bumps into on the street. She spends the next few days (or weeks?) dodging her mother’s people, scouring the property for valuables, and reading Lucy’s journal. Through the journals and Lucy’s interview, we learn about her years spent traveling the world, seeking her lost governess love, Mina, and her maker, Dracula.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. The cover is stunning, and vampires are always a hit. But it felt much longer than it actually was. The pacing was off, and it felt like nothing happened for long periods of time. By the time the action did pick up, I no longer cared. I didn’t feel any chemistry or romantic tension between Elle and Iris, and the entire MLM cult and the family connections went over my head. Sadly, this one was a complete miss for me.

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win is a young adult novel about a teenager in 1979 who runs for senior class president and faces a series of moral dilemmas.

Jasmine Zumideh is a high school senior who dreams of going to NYU and becoming a journalist. However, her college application is a little light in the extracurricular department, so she decides that a run for class president is the perfect way to stand out. Unfortunately, the early decision application is due before Election Day, which means she must win to keep her application accurate. This puts intense pressure on both her and her friends, who are helping with the campaign. Jasmine’s opponent uses the recent Iran hostage crisis as part of his platform, forcing her to distance herself from her Iranian heritage and her politically active brother. As the campaign progresses toward Election Day, Jasmine makes increasingly questionable moral decisions that put her relationships at risk and jeopardize her campaign.

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win is a fun, lighthearted story about the struggle to maintain integrity in the midst of an election, especially when your opponent brings world events into a high school competition. While it’s not a fast-paced, high-stakes drama, it is entertaining and offers valuable lessons about friendship, honesty, and being proud of your heritage. Though the plot didn’t fully pull me in, I loved the inclusion of Southern California landmarks from 1979. It was so much fun hearing those names again!

Book Review: Loud by Drew Afualo

Loud is a memoir and feminist guidebook on dealing with men in relationships, the workplace, and social media.

In Loud, Drew Afualo shares her background as a young woman who originally dreamed of a career in sports journalism, but after a layoff, pivoted to content creation on TikTok. She has made a name for herself by calling out trolls and “terrible men” on the internet, earning her 8 million followers (as of September 2024). She emboldens other women to take a stand and call out misogyny when they see it.

This is a helpful book for younger women looking to find their voice in both their professional and personal lives. Afualo doesn’t talk down to the reader, but sheds light on cultural norms that are unfair to both men and women. Although there wasn’t a lot personally for me to take away, I appreciated her voice and what she’s doing in the world to push back on the patriarchy. I would have liked to hear more examples of some exchanges she’s had and how she beats trolls at their own game.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Narrator notes: This book is narrated by the author herself, bringing an engaging and authentic voice to her story.

Disclosure: I was provided a copy of Loud by Macmillan Audio for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.