I loved those creepy parts the most 
1 Like
Main characters: Victor Vale and Eli Ever
Plot (summary): Victor and Eli started out as college roommates–brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find–aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge–but who will be left alive at the end?
My thoughts; more about the story: Woooooow wooooah.
It’s been a while since I’ve read this book but I never miss a chance to recommend it to someone!! Such a perfect we could’ve been lovers forever if we hadn’t decided to become enemies story (play Frances by role model) . The story goes back and forth between perspectives and time and you can see how Eli and Victor become the people they are, you see that ultimate battle between them and how they went from being friends to enemies. I also looooove the way people get their powers in this series… Just read it, okay? I can bet on everything that you will love it as much as I do. I’ve already bought book 2 and plan on reading it soon, I’m sooooo excited! But I’m also thing about rereading this one first just to remind myself of what happened and lk experience it all over again because it’s that amazing.
Quotes:
“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”
“He wanted to care, he wanted to care so badly, but there was this gap between what he felt and what he wanted to feel, a space where something important had been carved out.”
“All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective.”
2 Likes
Main characters: Geillis and Iris
Plot (summary): IT’S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591.
On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh’s High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor - Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe. As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the tantalising prospect of escape.
Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king’s violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.
My thoughts; more about the story: I get goosebumps every time I think about this book. It’s really short so don’t wait - GO READ IT NOW. It really leaves you with a genuine weight in your heart. You get thrown into this story witnessing Geilis’ last night before her death, you watch the story of two witches connected over time. I feel such a rage at the injustices women in the past and present suffer because of the actions of men and this book really shows it… You read about the 16th century patriarchy and how inherently sexist such a society was. It was such a difficult read but this book will stay with me forever.
Quotes:
“Put those heels away. That click, click, click, click is Morse code for r@pists. It says their sentence will be lenient or non-existent. If only she didn’t wear stilettos. If only she didn’t walk through a park. If only she didn’t go out at night.”
“A woman’s voice is a hex. She must learn to exalt men always. If she doesn’t do that, then she is a threat. A demon whre, a witch – so says everyone and the law.”
- You know what really brings the storms, Geillis?
- What?
- A storm arrives at the exact second when a girl learns she’ll never be free.
1 Like
Main characters: Lakshmi and her kids
Plot (summary): Nothing in Lakshmi’s childhood, running carefree and barefoot on the sun-baked earth amid the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon, could have prepared her for what life was to bring her. At fourteen, she finds herself traded in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the fascinating land of Malaysia.
Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality and a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful.
Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to wrest from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength.
By sheer willpower Lakshmi survives the nightmare of World War II and the Japanese occupation – but not unscathed. The family bears deep scars on its back and in turn inflicts those wounds on the next generation. But it is not until Lakshmi’s great-granddaughter, Nisha, pieces together the mosaic of her family history that the legacy of the Rice Mother bears fruit.
My thoughts; more about the story: I got this book as a gift two summers ago (it’s a fav of one of my friends and she wanted me to read it) and I wasn’t really sure about it at first because it’s not something I used to read! But it was a gift and I wanted to read it and tell my friend what I think about it… Best decision ever made! Beautiful story! Beautifly written, really it’s so vivid! You get to read about lives of people of the diaspora in Malaya, their cultures, customs, religion and then faith of Lakshmi and her kids and husband. There are a lot of characters and povs and it’s filled with so much sadness but they are all well fleshed out, there are not any unnecessary povs and sides of the story - everything is so important.
It is long so prepare for that: 580 pages, a period of 85 years over 4 generations but I highly recommended this book. I will reread it soon and maybe come back to comment more on it because it has been so long since I’ve read it.
Quotes:
“The years have not diminished the Rice Mother. I see her, fierce and magical. Stop despairing and call to her, and you will see, she will come bearing a rainbow of dreams.”
“My uncle said, My heart is my bamboo, and if I treat it kindly and listen for its song, the highest, biggest nest will surely be mine.”
“How not to miss those days when the sun was a happy companion that stayed to play all year round and kissed me a careless nut brown? When Mother caught the sweet rain in her well behind the house, and the air was so clear that the grass smelled green?”
Main characters: Idir
Plot (summary): Britain, the not-too-distant future.
Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test.
He wants his family to belong.
Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress.
When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death.
How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?
My thoughts; more about the story: Wow. I can’t say much because it is really short and I’d just reveal everything. All I’m going to add here is that you should def read this, especially if you’re fan of Black Mirror!! It’s like an episode of Black Mirror and I loved every minute of it. It’s full of social commentary and insights into human behaviour, it really messes with your head.
Quotes:
“People who talk a lot about the environment are always the ones living the farthest away from nature.”
“Why was I so quick to judge this man? I must be nervous, myself. There is a lesson to be learned here. We are all more alike than we think.”
“System justification is the idea that many of our needs can be satisfied by defending and justifying the status quo. It gives stability to our political and economic systems because people are inherently inclined to defend it. It prevents people at a disadvantage from questioning the system that disadvantages them, makes people buy the inevitability of social inequity, ignore or support policies that hurt them.”
1 Like
Main characters: Vanessa
Plot (summary): Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.
2000.Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.
2017.Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?
Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room , My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.
My thoughts; more about the story: I really don’t know how to feel about everything I’ve just read. As a book, it’s excellent - beautifully written - but it left me with such a heaviness in my heart…
I don’t know. It’s hard to see everything from just one perspective where Strane is the villain in this whole story, and everything is illegal, grooming… Because it is, but there’s also the other side. Vanessa’s side and some of her beliefs, which, at times, make me feel… sorry for Strane? What makes it even more powerful is that the reader, just like Vanessa, might find moments of empathy for Strane, not because his actions are excusable but because the grooming has created a reality where Vanessa clings to her own version of the story to survive. I know, I know what someone might say about what I’m writing, but am I not right? As much as she convinces herself that she wanted all of it (“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it? It’s my life. This has been my whole life.” or “I will probably always feel this way, but I want it. I have to.”), we, as readers, can almost believe it too, despite all the obvious facts that she isn’t to blame for any of it. It’s heartbreaking how hard it can be for someone to accept the reality and leave such a toxic relationship.
The complexity of this book lies in how it explores the blurred lines between victimhood and agency. Vanessa’s perspective draws the reader into the psychological depths of manipulation, making it incredibly difficult to fully separate her feelings from the trauma she’s experienced. Her narrative challenges the binary of ‘victim versus perpetrator,’ as her perception of love and consent has been so deeply twisted by Strane’s influence.
It really presents an emotional labyrinth that mirrors Vanessa’s internal conflict, leaving us suffering with the same confusion and pain.
I just feel so empty right now… I’m unsettled.
TBH, I didn’t know if I should post this or not. As much as I loved this book and want to recommend it, I also don’t because it is really serious, heavy, and just a hard book to read. But it could be very important, and I feel like everyone should read it, so here we are.
Quotes:
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it”? I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide open empathy. “It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life.”
“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful.”
“Because even if I sometimes use the word abuse to describe certain things that were done to me, in someone else’s mouth the word turns ugly and absolute. It swallows up everything that happened.”
2 Likes
Main characters: Indigo, Azure, Max
Plot (summary): Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.
My thoughts; more about the story: How breathtakingly beautiful and enchanting this story is… The prose is just hypnotic, so lush, dark, and tender at the same time. Roshani Chokshi doesn’t just tell a story, she creates an entire world filled with mystery, enigmatic relationships and fated bonds.
Would you give your entire life for a friend who believes that fairies are waiting for you on the other side of the fence? Would you wholeheartedly believe in a fairytale because you were told that you were born to cross into that magical world together? This book explores the boundary between imagination and reality, childhood and adulthood, love and obsession. The story follows a married couple - Max obsessed with uncovering his wife’s (Indigo’s) secretive past and Indigo who grew up in a house filled with shadows and memories. Their love is so beautiful but fragile and at time really weird. There are so many unspoken questions and secrets that perhaps should never be revealed but then, returning to her old home opens the doors to the past. We see flashbacks of Indigo and her best friend Azure but where is Azure and what happened to her?
It is such a fun read and the way it is written is so soo sooo beautiful. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys gothic atmospheres, fairytale and purple prose that doesn’t suffocate but instead builds a world out of dreams and memories.
Quotes:
“But maybe it is about finding someone whose heart is like a mirror, whose love can make you stand the sight of yourself.”
“This is why fairy tales are dangerous: their words sneak into your veins and travel into the chambers of your heart, where they whisper of your exceptionalism. They say: Ah, but remember the boy who walked into the woods and came out a king? Oh, but what of the girl who was kicked and slept in ashes? Remember the man who was only kind and so life bent around the shape of his smile? But we are not exceptional.”
“She looked like the nostalgia that settles in your ribs at the end of a story you have never read, yet nevertheless know.”
1 Like
This definitely sounds like an upcoming read 
1 Like
Yessss 
1 Like