Author: Tirzah Price

Kara has just separated from her husband, she’s broke, and she has nowhere to go. Rather than crash with her mom, she accepts her uncle Earl’s invitation to come live and work at his museum of odd and weird things in a small, southern town. She’s grateful for the place to land and her work helping catalog the museum, even if it’s deeply weird. When Uncle Earl needs surgery and leaves Kara in charge, she thinks it’ll be an easy few days. Instead, a hole appears in the wall in an exhibit. And when she investigates this rather large hole with Simon, the barista next door, she discovers a portal to an alternate dimension where unseen beings stalk them, and a mysterious message — pray they are hungry — haunts them. This was not on Kara’s BINGO card.

I love the humor in this book, and I love how the characters never take themselves too seriously. Kara and Simon are great friends and have an awesome dynamic, and while they don’t want to believe that there is a portal to a different dimension in the wall of the museum, they get on board pretty quickly. And they go exploring, like you do — even though they know it’s maybe not the best idea. And when they get lost in the otherworld with danger around every corner, well. Whoops. Despite the seriousness of their predicament, I do love that they keep a good sense of humor about the whole thing. Call it a coping mechanism, but the humor balances the tension really nicely. There are also so many odd and weird details about this other world, and about the museum, and about the mystery of how and why the portal opened, that I was kept on the edge of my seat. Never in a hundred years could I have come up with a world like Kingfisher describes, and it’s so understatedly creepy that I know it’ll haunt my brain for years to come. Kara’s first-person narration also feels really chatty and intimate, and I was completely drawn in by her voice and her story.

Kingfisher is a prolific author — she writes for kids, teens, and adults and writes horror as well as fantasy, and this is one of her more folksy horror novels. If you enjoyed her book The Twisted Ones, you’d definitely like this one. But really, don’t sleep on any of her quirky (and sometimes creepy) books! I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Hillary Huber, and it was excellent.

During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan wasn’t seen as a domestic terror group. Instead, millions of white Americans bought into the idea that the KKK was a society of brotherhood, American values, and fellowship, despite the white supremacy they preached and the violence they enacted against Black and Jewish Americans, Catholics, and immigrants. A man named D.C. Stephenson was responsible for scamming his way into the upper echelons of the KKK national organization, and recruiting tens of thousands of people in Indiana, making it the state with the most KKK members. He was the law in Indiana and had set his sights on Washington, D.C., when his path crossed with a young woman named Madge Oberholtzer, who would bring his empire of hate crashing down.

If you’ve spent any time in the U.S. or know anything about 20th century American history, you’ve likely heard of the Ku Klux Klan. I’d never really learned about their history and therefore didn’t realize just how pervasive they were in American life and culture in the 1920s — far more so than I realized. They started as a vigilante group following the end of the Civil War but were quashed under President Grant’s term (though never eradicated) until they rose again to prominence in the 1910s and grew and expanded until membership reached the hundreds of thousands in the 1920s. At the height of their power, they marched unmasked in Washington, D.C., and drew tens of thousands of supporters.

I appreciate that Egan makes no excuses or apologies, and he’s very frank on his representation of the facts: Many, if not most, people in the Midwest were a part of the KKK at this time, and they were blatantly violent and hateful. It is likely that many white Americans had ancestors who were members. The parallels between the justification that many used to join the group feel eerily similar to today — all excuses about preserving American values and protecting Christian families, which is chilling. What’s even more horrifying is that Stephenson and the KKK’s rise seemed unstoppable, and his presidential candidacy seemed inevitable until Stephenson met Madge Oberholtzer. She was a young woman without any power or influence, and when Stephenson targeted her for his cruel and sadistic ways, her story just happened to go public — and her tragic run-in with Stephenson changed everything for him and for the KKK on a national scale.

Despite the chilling nature of this story, I think it’s really important to read histories like this to understand where we’ve been and recognize when we’re going too far down that road again. This book is meticulously written and researched, compelling like a train wreck, and really heartbreaking. But until we face the darkest parts of our history, we can’t truly reckon with what it means to be American. The tragic truth is that it took a horrific crime to be committed, some brave souls to publicize it, and a brave jury to find a man guilty to slow the spread of the KKK’s hate. So while this is not an easy read, it is an essential one.

Charity has been working at Camp Mirror Lake, which was the filming location of a cult classic slasher flick and is now a full contact horror simulation game, for two summers. She has the coveted role of final girl, and she loves her job—so she doesn’t mind that much that their owner can’t be bothered to show up half the time. But when one too many of her coworkers take off before the season is over, she calls her best friend and her girlfriend to help finish off the season. Only their final night takes a turn for the very real when it becomes obvious someone is hunting Charity and her friends, and she’ll have to uncover the camp’s secrets to figure out why.

If you enjoy movies like Scream or the Netflix adaptions of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books, then you’re going to devour this one. It’s a relatively short read and it moves quickly, revealing Charity’s workplace confidence and love of the horror genre. The setting of a full contact horror simulation game is one of those amazing/terrible ideas that is either the last place you’d expect to find a killer on the loose, or the first, but Charity takes her job very seriously. And she’s no fool when it comes to creepy occurrences and weird things going bump in the night, and because she’s so savvy, it makes the moment when she realizes that she’s not playing a game anymore all the more satisfying. With really great characters and breakneck pacing, Bayron takes readers from one thrill to the next and the secrets behind Camp Mirror Lake are definitely intriguing. While I don’t think anyone should go into this book expecting the most mind blowing of twists and turns, if you enjoy solid horror and self-aware plots that explore popular horror tropes, this one is a winner. Bonus points for most of the characters being Black and for Charity being queer, which adds some much-needed diversity into a traditionally very white and straight genre. It’s a great read for spooky summer nights!

When two young sisters disappear from a Kmart parking lot in an ordinary town in Pennsylvania, it causes a media frenzy. Without any leads, the family hires Alice Vega, a PI from California who has gained a bit of notoriety for being able to find missing people with unnerving accuracy. Alice is professional, distant, and dogged, but with the police unwilling to cooperate with her, she needs a way in. She finds it in Max Caplan, a local former cop turned PI whom Alice engages to help her on the case, which is just as well — because this is far from a straightforward missing kids case, and both Alice and Cap will need to have each other’s backs to come out unscathed.

I love Louisa Luna’s smart and incisive writing style, and I was instantly intrigued by the characters, who aren’t perfect or even always moral, but they are ethical and they are motivated by all the right reasons: to find the missing girls. Cap is an interesting guy. He quit the police force after taking the fall for a mistake that wasn’t his, and now he’s chasing “cheats and skips” to pay the bills. He has a teenage daughter he loves fiercely, and while he’s not a bad guy, he is reluctant to get involved at first. Alice is an enigma — young, possessing single-minded focus, brazen but not stupid, and not afraid to break (more than) a few rules. Alice intrigues Cap as much as the case does, and it’s to both of their surprise that they work together as well as they do. Come for the intriguing mystery, stay for the fascinating characters! I was genuinely impressed with all the twists this book took, but I was just as entranced by the electric relationship between Cap and Alice — it’s not just sexual attraction (although there is a tiny dash of that), but it’s that delicious tension of two very unlikely people realizing that they need each other…and maybe they could be friends.

I devoured this one on audio, narrated wonderfully by Tavia Gilbert, and I immediately had to download the next two books, The Janes and The Hideout. These books feel like an American version of Jane Harper’s Aaron Falk series, and I think fans of Tana French who might want to give an American series a try would like it too. (And if you like the TV show Broadchurch, I think you’d like this one as well!) It’s got literary writing, fascinating characters, and vibes for days. I highly recommend all three books!

When the witch puts Floralinda at the top of the forty-flight tower, it’s not personal. She’s just interested in testing out her towers and filling each floor with a prince-slaying horror. Floralinda is assured that if she just waits for a prince to rescue her, she won’t be there too long, and she’s even given a few magical food items to last the wait. After watching one too many princes perish on the bottom floor, delicate Floralinda becomes convinced she’s stuck there for life — however long that may be. But when an unexpected ally turns up, Floralinda discovers she just might have a chance at rescuing herself, one floor at a time.

This is a novella that I desperately wished was a novel, that’s how much I enjoyed it. And it was on the longer side for a novella, thank goodness. This contains a lot of humor, which I’ve come to expect of Muir, although it’s a slightly different flavor of humor than what you’ll find in her Locked Tomb trilogy. Floralinda goes through quite the satisfying character transformation in this book, from a helpless and guileless princess who conforms to all the stereotypes of a soft, delicate lady and is quite clueless about the severity of her situation, to a hapless victim, to a reluctant fighter, and finally, a determined woman who relishes taking on the monsters on each level. There’s a lot of great stuff here about agency and autonomy, and facing hard things even when the odds are stacked against you. I was also incredibly amused by Muir’s ability to come up with 40 very different and compelling challenges for each floor, and it was honestly so fun reading about how Floralinda approaches each one. I finished this novella and wanted to immediately start it again, which is about the highest compliment I can pay a book!

Ari is a neurodivergent teen who doesn’t talk around other people, which means she’s often overlooked at school…until Luis Ortega notices her. Luis flirts with her and doesn’t mind that she’s mostly pretty quiet, and Ari likes the attention, until they have sex at a party and Ari becomes a laughingstock. Humiliated, upset, and confused, Ari cuts ties with Luis and tries to figure out how to get her life back on track when she receives a mysterious secret message: Luis has wronged a lot of people at her school, and now they’re banding together for revenge. Is Ari in?

I loved Reyes’ first book, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, and this is a great follow-up full of realistic and flawed characters. Even though Ari doesn’t talk a lot, readers are treated to her funny, sarcastic, and vulnerable first-person narration, allowing them to really get to know her. She’s hesitant to step out of her comfort zone at first, but the need for connection in the wake of Luis’s betrayal is strong, and she finds an unexpected but badly needed group of friends who treat her with respect and dignity. I also really loved that this is a book about consent, not just in the context of sex and physical relationships, but consent within friendships and in day-to-day life. It’s refreshing to see that modeled so clearly, and I think it’s really important. Ari also finds herself falling for a girl that she doesn’t expect, and that romance felt sweet and true, and was a nice counterbalance to the heavier themes of this book. Overall, this is another winner from Reyes!

Cade is a horror-movie-obsessed teen whose family has fallen on hard times. It’s decided that he’ll work on a ranch owned by a stern general that his stepdad used to serve under, to help out the family. Cade couldn’t be more upset at this idea, but soon he finds himself shoveling manure and fixing fences in rural Texas. The only thing that makes it bearable is Henry, the general’s son, whom Cade has a massive crush on…and who might just like Cade back. But Henry is secretive about some things, like how his mom died. And with rumors swirling around the ranch, it’s not long before Cade’s imagination runs off with him and he’s suspecting that Henry is harboring a truly dark secret.

This retelling of Northanger Abbey is really clever and unexpected, but I loved it so much. Cade’s obsession with horror movies make sense, as a closeted queer teen growing up in rural Texas, and it becomes a really lovely point of connection between him and Henry. There is just enough intrigue that it’s really easy to see how Cade can make certain assumptions about Henry and his family, and it’s not long before it seems like there is a true mystery. This is also a fish out of water story, as Cade struggles to fit in at the ranch, with its traditional masculinity and expectations. The color palette of this one — sort of a burnt maroon/brown — also feels really fitting for this Texas gothic story, and it really sets the perfect mood. I loved seeing Austen’s story translated into this new setting, and it works surprisingly well!

Jane was one of the very first people to go viral on the Internet when she was discovered as a baby in a Gucci handbag in a Poughkeepsie train station. She’s since grown up and been adopted by the man who found her, and has a very nice and happy life — which is why it’s a bit of an affront that her incorrigible best friend Algie submits a DNA test on her behalf to find her bio family. As Jane deals with the roil of emotions that comes from searching out her birth family, she’s also falling for Algie’s beguiling cousin Gwen, and trying to keep Algie from breaking her cousin Cecil’s heart. It’s a lot to juggle — and she has to figure out a way to be honest with herself and what she wants if she’s going to find true happiness.

This is a really fun and clever retelling of one of my favorite Oscar Wilde works, The Importance of Being Earnest. I love that Horan recasts Wilde’s class-conscious characters as NYC teens who live with varying degrees of privilege and who are trying to find their own way in the world. Algie is over the top and fun, and I love that you can really feel the friendship between him and Jane, even when they’re driving each other to exasperation. The romance between Jane and Gwen is really sweet as well, and I liked that it felt both inevitable and uncertain as they figured out a way to communicate what they need and want. This is a book about facing the realities of growing up: Relationships change, needs shift, and what we thought we wanted can morph into something different. But this story is also about holding on to what (and who!) you love throughout those changes, and finding your true self in the process. It’s a quick read, but utterly enjoyable and laugh out loud funny!

Casey and her three friends are the anonymous creators behind a popular YouTube channel whose videos focus on exploring old and abandoned places throughout L.A., sometimes relying on some light breaking and entering in order to capture the perfect shots. They’re about to graduate and go their separate ways, and they want one last hurrah. When Jacob convinces the others to break into a house that’s been left virtually untouched since a 1970 murder, Casey is reluctant, but allows herself to be convinced. The experience is thrilling and the footage is unreal…until a security alarm is tripped and the four of them make a hasty retreat, only to discover that Jacob has been stabbed. They make the snap decision to leave him behind, but he hangs on by a thread, lingering in a coma. While they try to cover their tracks, Casey is suspicious of why their friend is targeted, and becomes determined to discover who is responsible for his attempted murder…even if the answer leads to one of them.

This is a great twisty mystery with plenty of thrills, set against the backdrop of L.A.’s more mundane places, and where the elements of fame have a darker edge. I liked Casey as a protagonist and could sympathize with her struggle to balance what they do as an interesting hobby (Casey is responsible for the research elements of their show) alongside with the discomfort she feels as a tragedy tourist for their more sensitive locales. Casey’s mom was a victim of an unsolved murder years before the book begins, so she is especially sensitive to how victims of crimes and their relatives are treated after the fact. The mystery aspect of this book takes her right back to the original murder that occurs 50 years earlier, and it’s a compelling journey for a cold case with some surprising developments. The queer representation in this book also feels very casual and natural — Casey and two of her friends are queer, and although this book doesn’t focus in on any of their romantic relationships, their queer identities have a natural progression and are important to the book.

If you like fiction that interrogates the nature of true crime, is inspired by real locations (the Los Feliz Murder Mansion), and has a queer cast, definitely pick this one up!

June Hayward and Athena Liu met in undergrad and initially bonded over their love of literature and a shared dream of one day becoming authors. Fast forward a few years after college graduation and Athena is a successful, well-published author. June has a debut that flopped. Even though they don’t seem to really like each other anymore, they still occasionally hang out, and one fateful night Athena dies in a tragic, stupid accident and June steals the recently completed first draft of her next book. It’s brilliant, but rough. June tells herself she’s going to polish it off, in Athena’s memory. But before long, she’s immersed in the work, and she makes the fateful decision to pass the book off as her own. Pretty soon, the book has an amazing deal and her publishing team rebrands June, who is white, into the racially ambiguous Juniper Song. The novel launches her into the successful career she’s always dreamed of—but at what cost?

I feel like I should state upfront that if you’re not the type of person who cares about how the sausage gets made when it comes to publishing, and you don’t like books with antiheroes making increasingly terrible decisions, this book might frustrate you! However, it’s spectacularly written and endlessly compelling, and Kuang really knows how to sustain tension throughout the entire novel without losing the reader — I inhaled this book, and so did many other people I know. It’s a not-so-subtle commentary on literary scandals, and the parallels between June’s situation and the controversy surrounding American Dirt are obvious. But Yellowface goes deeper than just the real-life drama of the literary world and asks questions about what it means to be a writer, to create, to take inspiration from life, and to use the experiences of others in order to write a story that you profit from. It’s also about what kinds of stories are told and how the publishing industry shapes those stories. As a writer and someone entrenched in that world, there was a lot that was relatable and a fair amount that was horrifying. I thought I was getting a messy book about publishing, but the story takes the shape of a suspense novel fairly quickly (will June get caught?) and toward the end even verges on horror. It perfectly encapsulates all the ways that publishing can mess with your mind, and by the end I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen next.

This book will mess with your head a little bit, and make you want to take a social media detox, but in a good way! It’ll also be one you won’t be able to stop talking about, so definitely pick it up!