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720 reviews

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC and the publisher for the gifted physical ARC! This book was published in the US by Avon and Harper Voyager on January 14th, 2025.

Edward Underhill’s The In-Between Bookstore is a heartfelt meditation on queerness, homecoming, and the ghosts of our past selves. It follows Darby, a trans man freshly laid off from his New York City startup job, as he returns to his hometown of Oak Falls to help his mother pack up his childhood home. What begins as an escape from his perceived failures quickly turns surreal when Darby finds himself slipping through time—encountering his pre-transition teenage self working at the local bookstore where he once found refuge.

The novel’s greatest strength is its portrayal of queerness in the American Midwest. Darby arrives in Oak Falls expecting to feel as alienated as he did in his youth, only to find that the town—and the people in it—are more nuanced than he remembered. His former best friend, Michael, who once drifted away from him, is now openly gay and surrounded by a group of queer friends. These revelations force Darby to confront not just his assumptions about Oak Falls but also the ways his younger self internalized its limitations.

The time-travel element adds an emotional depth to Darby’s journey. Watching teenage Darby interact with teenage Michael, not yet aware of the fracture that will come between them, makes their estrangement even more poignant. The novel delicately explores how misunderstandings—especially around identity—can wound, as Michael once mistook Darby’s struggles with gender for distaste for his own budding queerness. In revisiting these moments, Darby gains clarity and, ultimately, closure. The book resists the easy narrative of a hometown romance as the answer to Darby’s journey; instead, it allows him to embrace both his past and his chosen family in New York.

While nothing about the novel particularly stood out to me, it was undeniably cozy and compelling in its exploration of self-acceptance. The In-Between Bookstore is a quiet, introspective read—perfect for those who love books that gently untangle identity and belonging through the lens of time, memory, and queer community.

📖 Read this if you love:  Cozy, introspective queer fiction, time-travel narratives, and stories of self-discovery; and small-town dynamics and nuanced portrayals of queerness in rural settings.

🔑 Key Themes: Queerness in the Midwest, Self-Acceptance and Identity, Time Travel and Memory, Love and Friendship, Healing from the Past.
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House of Beth by Kerry Cullen

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dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book will be published in the US by Simon and Schuster on July 15, 2025.

“There were normal brains out there, and I didn’t have one, and how was I supposed to know which kind of fucked up I was? Maybe it was OCD, but maybe it wasn’t, maybe I was just evil and perverse, haunted in ways beyond the obvious.”

Kerry Cullen’s House of Beth is a haunting and deeply introspective novel that toes the line between literary fiction and horror. From the first page, we’re thrust into the chaotic, intrusive mind of Cassie, a woman whose harm OCD leaves her questioning her very existence. She’s anxious, sarcastic, and darkly funny, her inner world a relentless loop of self-doubt and dread. Her relationship with Lavender is collateral damage in her battle with her own brain—Cassie breaks up with her to protect her, convinced she’s capable of unimaginable harm. But the thing that truly unravels Cassie is the moment she walks into work and finds her boss unconscious in a pool of his own blood. Her first thought: I did this.

Fleeing back to New Jersey, Cassie reconnects with Eli, her former best friend whose love for her once fractured their friendship. But Eli isn’t the same either—his wife, Beth, died six months ago, and he’s drowning in his own grief. A drunken reunion leads to a whirlwind relationship, culminating in a marriage that feels more like an escape route than a love story. Cassie convinces herself that if she follows the script of heteronormativity, she might finally silence the intrusive thoughts clawing at her mind. Instead, she finds herself in a house still haunted by Beth—literally.

Beth’s voice enters the narrative as she pieces together her own fragmented memories from the afterlife. She longs to be heard, to make sense of the life she left behind, and—most importantly—to be recognized beyond the roles she was forced into. As Beth takes up residence in Cassie’s consciousness, their relationship grows into something raw, defiant, and deeply affirming. Beth understands Cassie in a way no one else does, especially as Cassie unravels her own queerness and the suffocating constraints of domesticity. Their bond culminates in Cassie’s final act of solidarity
: leaving Eli, not just for herself, but for Beth too
.

Cullen’s prose is both sharp and lyrical, suffused with a biting wit that makes even the heaviest moments feel electric. The novel’s exploration of harm OCD is unflinchingly honest, giving voice to a struggle rarely depicted with such nuance. House of Beth is a deeply unsettling, deeply beautiful novel about queerness, autonomy, and the ghosts—both literal and figurative—that shape us. It lingers like an afterimage, a whisper that refuses to fade. Kerry Cullen is certainly one to watch out for.

📖 Read this if you love: dark, introspective character studies; unflinching portrayals of mental illness; themes of girlhood, desire, and self-destruction; and books by Carmen Maria Machado.

🔑 Key Themes: Harm OCD and Morality, Girlhood and Shame, Familial Abandonment and Self-Worth, Love as Consumption and Escape.
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Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House for the eARC! This book will be published in the US on April 1, 2025.

Natalia Theodoridou’s Sour Cherry is a haunting and lyrical reimagining of Bluebeard, steeped in magical realism and gothic horror. At its core, the novel is an exploration of monstrosity—what makes a man a monster, and who is left to carry the burden of his destruction? The book unfolds as a layered, intergenerational ghost story, where survivors’ voices are given prominence over the myth of the abuser. Through a hypnotic blend of folklore, decay, and psychological horror, Theodoridou crafts an unsettling meditation on power, legacy, and the insidious nature of violence.

The novel’s narrative structure is framed as a story being told by an unnamed narrator to her son, a deliberate shift in perspective that emphasizes survival and remembrance over the abuser’s own self-mythologizing. The lord, a cursed and deeply feared man, is rendered monstrous not through supernatural transformation, but through the quiet, accumulating horrors of his life—his unchecked violence, the suffocating decay that follows him from town to town, and the way he consumes those who try to love him. The question is never whether he can be saved, but whether those around him will survive his presence. The book does not concern itself with redemption, only the wreckage left in its wake.

Thematically, Sour Cherry is rich with explorations of fate, identity, and the cyclical nature of violence. Names and their absence carry particular weight—what does it mean to be named, to be claimed, to be erased? The narrator, like many before her, is drawn into the gravitational pull of the lord’s decay, yet her voice remains. She listens to the ghosts that haunt her, bears witness to the stories of those before her, and in doing so, resists the silence that so often swallows survivors whole.

A deeply unsettling, beautifully wrought novel, Sour Cherry does not offer easy answers—only the ghosts of those who came before, whispering their truths. In choosing to center survivors over monsters, Theodoridou crafts a narrative that is both devastating and quietly triumphant.

📖 Read this if you love: haunting, folkloric storytelling; pro-survivor narratives that center resilience over redemption; and lyrical, psychologically rich prose.

🔑 Key Themes: Monstrosity and Power, Legacy and Inescapable Cycles, Survival and Testimony.
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We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

Well this was a book! Alternatively, I liked the concept and not the execution. A few problems:

  • Mandela effect, doppelgangers, AND the multiverse? Pick a trope, sir!
  • This book was so weighed down by Paige and the kids. I get it, the "we used to live here" trope doesn't really work without a family; no one is gonna let some lone guy wander into their house. But besides that, what was the point of those characters?? The focus on them in the first third of the book made the latter two-thirds feel like a whole different book. 
  • Eve's paranoia was not well thought out or appropriately handled. Again, I get it: it's not really psychological horror without evoking the "is it all in her head?" scenario. But I felt the descriptions of Eve's paranoia truly bordered into a mental illness, which felt even weirder with Charlie's outright dismissal of fears. Also, Eve's paranoia was seemingly dropped halfway through the book. Ok. 
  • Speaking of Charlie, another character without much development. I never got a sense of her or of her relationship with Eve. Honestly, towards the end, when Eve is looking for Charlie and fighting to get back to her, I was kinda like "....but why?" There wasn't enough backstory for Eve's love for Charlie to feel real. Also I found their relationship super annoying.

Anyways, this was a fun time but not a good time. Do with that what you will!
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

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

5.0

I absolutely adored this story. Cosby covers so much, and very little of it is easy to consume. The racism and homophobia in this book is virulent, but not a moment of it lacks purpose. Cosby's exploration of how two fathers, one white and one Black, reckon with the homophobia they inflicted on their sons was so powerful. I also truly enjoyed the dynamic between Ike and Billy Lee, how they talked through their ideas about race without punishing each other. This is not an easy read/listen by any means, but I found it as powerful as it was painful. 
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A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to Covid-19 by Edna Bonhomme

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
As many other early reviewers have mentioned, this book wasn't appropriately marketed. Rather than historical, it takes a sociological lens to investigate how the state has used confinement to further racial capitalism during times of pandemics. I initially was not dissuaded by this; I found it an interesting angle of analysis. However, the further I got, the less cohesive the analysis felt. Bonhomme shifts between some history and her analytical focus in a way that didn't feel very fluid. After several days of avoiding this book due to disinterest, I gave it another try and just couldn't do it. Perhaps others who are aware of what they are getting themselves into when they pick up this book will find it easier to track Bonhomme's thinking. 
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win by Jessica Valenti

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.
There's nothing wrong with this book! It just took a different angle than I found interesting or useful. As an abolitionist, I'm not looking to operate within the bounds of policy and law-making. Additionally, there were only so many facts I could read about how Americans vote before they started to leak out of my ears. Facts have their utility, but 30% in and I felt like Valenti wasn't going to provide much else. This will probably be a better fit for people earlier on in their leftist/feminist political awakening. 
Penitence: A Novel by Kristin Koval

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2.5

This would've gone down as a "fine, just not for me" book if it weren't for the two H*rry P*tter references and single use of the term Asp*rg*rs. There were some interesting transformative justice and abolition themes in this, but they got lost along the way. I was curious, then bored. Plus, it's 2025. It should be easy to avoid the aforementioned missteps. 
Confessions by Catherine Airey

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3.0

I read this book a month ago and haven't reviewed it yet because I don't have anything to say about it. It was easy to read, but I'm not sure that's a compliment in this case. There's nothing wrong with this book. It just bored me!
Moon Dust in My Hairnet by J.R. Creaden

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
Audiobook wasn’t holding my attention but gonna give this a try in print eventually!