Category: Read This Book

Chances are, if you follow any kind of bookish content on the social media platform of your choosing, you heard about Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf translation when it smashed onto the scene last August. I’ve been a fan of Beowulf for years, and was introduced to the Seamus Heaney translation (probably the favorite go-to edition before Headley rumbled up with her bro-tastic new translation) in my Medieval Lit class, and while it’s certainly poetic I do remember feeling a bit underwhelmed. Like something of the bravado and blustering of the tale was lost in Heaney’s more staid take on the Old English classic. And then along came Headley, with a translation that begins, in a legendary take on the hotly debated “hwæt”, with “Bro!”, and proceeds to lay down the tale of a swaggering, bawdy, braggadocious band of warriors who are fueled as much by arrogance as by bravery.

Unsurprisingly, given the success of Headley’s novel The Mere Wife, some of the most memorable passages in her Beowulf are those pertaining to the figure of Grendel’s mother. In the introduction, Headley talks at length about her as the inspiration, not just for The Mere Wife but for her translation of Beowulf itself. An oft sidelined or outright maligned figure, Grendel’s mother is seldom given her due as a grieving parent with a blood debt to settle. It was a real delight to see Headley cast the “mighty mere-wife” as a warrior worth her mettle, and not just another mindless monster for Beowulf to bloody.

Whether Headley’s translation is your first Beowulf, or the chance to revisit an old favorite in a new guise, I highly recommend that you add a copy to your TBR.

Heather Corinna is founder of Scarleteen, an online resource I’ve recommended countless times. Wait, What? is a full-color comic book that can be read in a single sitting. It’s super conversational and casual while being inclusive and accurate. The intended audience of this book are tweens and teens, but, as I mentioned, many adults can find useful information in Wait, What? as well.

The book centers around a diverse group of five friends and responds to some common questions and concerns that folks going through puberty generally have. There aren’t enough pages to dive deep into the answers to the questions; however, succinct and clear responses are offered that are a good starting point for any information-hungry reader.

There is a wide variety of questions throughout the book. There is discussion about particular things happening at a certain time, like when should someone have their first kiss or when should someone get their period (the answer is it’s different for everyone). There are also things that I really wish that many of my peers were taught, such as the fact that different people have different ideas of what dating or going out or going steady are like and you and the person you’re with actually have to agree on what that is for you. Of course there is also information on sex, gender, orientation, masturbation, labels, virginity, consent, and a whole bunch of other topics. But like I said, this book puts everything in a form that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

Wait, What? is an engaging read on a subject that can feel off-limits for some young people. I also recommend this read if you are an adult (a cool aunt, maybe?) that has young people in your life. Always good to have resources!

Angel Smith took the position of cook at the Burke-Ruhe Research Station as a means of funding her new life. A chance to press restart when she makes her reentry to the world at the end of the season. But when her last day arrives so does violence and cold-blooded murder. When the blood settles, only she and fellow research station resident Ford Cooper are left on the ice. Cooper, the taciturn, grumpy, annoyingly attractive glaciologist who hasn’t had two words to say to her except to coldly shut her down the one time she dared to approach him. But regardless of their mutual irritation with one another, Coop and Angel only have each other to rely on as they set out on a high-stakes journey across the Antarctic.

It’s no easy feat to blend romance and thriller elements in an even balance so that the two genres carry even weight. More often than not, one set of beats will overshadow the other. In most romantic suspense novels, because they are marketed as romances, that often means that by necessity the romance takes the foreground. But for readers who don’t want thrills to take a back seat to hearts, Anders’ novel, with its near perfect balance of suspenseful action and budding romance, is a TBR must have. Harrowing scenes of danger, both man-made and nature-made, provide a perfect foil for, rather than being overwhelmed by, the delightfully antagonistic relationship developing between Angel and Coop.

With the second book in Anders’ Survival Instincts series due out in August, there is no better time to grab a copy of Whiteout and get caught up on this gripping new romantic suspense series.

The premise is that during the U.S. Civil war after the battle of Gettysburg (so, 1863), all the dead on the battlefield rose up and started walking. The war stopped abruptly so that everyone could focus their attention on dealing with zombies. Why did the dead start walking? It is unknown. The enslaved Black folks were “freed” and then commissioned as zombie-fighters. I keep writing “zombies” but the zombies aren’t called zombies in this story. Instead, they are known as shamblers. Fresh shamblers can move as fast as a living person and it is terrifying.

Our dashing, smartass, amazing protagonist is one Miss Jane McKeene, a Black teen. The story is that her mother was the plantation owner’s wife and her father was a field hand. Against her mother’s wishes, when Jane was 14, she went with the other Black children to go to a combat school, where she would be trained to fight shamblers. Once she graduates, the hope is that she would be hired as an attendant to protect the wealthy white women from shamblers as well as protecting the affluent white women’s virtue.

After the prologue, the story begins just outside of Baltimore at Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls where we meet Jane doing drills with the scythe (we learn that it is not Jane’s favorite weapon. She prefers the sickles). We also meet Katherine Deveraux, one of the other girls at Miss Preston’s. Katherine is Jane’s nemesis, and they’ve butted heads since they first met. Katherine is so light skinned she could pass for white. She is also beautiful and great with a rifle.

The girls are all taken to the university to hear a lecture from a scientist who claims to have created a vaccine. There’s a demonstration.

It does not go well and it is all downhill from there.

This book is full of so much action and is an absolute page-turner, not to mention that there are some lines of dialogue that pulled real laughter from my chest. I even bought a copy for my dad and he loved it just as much. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland is clever and fun and a must for your TBR. While you’re there, add Deathless Divide, the sequel to Dread Nation.

Mexican Gothic is set in a remote corner of the Mexican countryside, where a crumbling, old mansion sits almost forgotten amid high mountains and jagged ravines. High Place was once a beautiful, English-style Victorian perched above the Doyle family’s prosperous silver mine. But political turmoil in the country spelled the end of the mine a generation ago, and now the house is falling into ruin while the family passes out of existence one violent death at a time.

This is the family into which Noemí’s cousin Catalina marries, falling out of touch with her family until a frantic, barely coherent letter arrives at Noemí’s home, begging for help. Catalina claims that her new husband, Virgil, is trying to poison her. That her life is in danger at High Place. That the house itself, full of death and rot, is trying to do her harm. Convinced that either Catalina’s husband really is hurting her, or that at least her cousin is in need of psychiatric help her new family will not provide, Noemí makes the journey into the mountains to discover the truth. But what she finds behind the aging veneer of High Place is much darker than she could have imagined.

Steeped in rot and romance, from its beautiful but forbidding landscapes to its moldering aristocratic family, Mexican Gothic is a novel with a deep respect for its literary roots. But Moreno-Garcia’s novel also interrogates its own origins, introducing the Doyle’s as not just a wilting example of European dynasticism but also as a brutal colonizing force preying in more ways than one on the land they have usurped and the people they deem beneath them.

Mexican Gothic is dark and visceral with a gruesome biological twist, and for fans of Gothic fiction it’s a must have for any summer horror TBR.

Nedra Glover Tawwab is a therapist, content creator, and expert at boundaries. While this book is built on the premise that boundaries are healthy and make strong foundations for healthy relationships, it goes well beyond just cheerleading. There is actual concrete advice for drawing boundaries from what words to say and how to say them to advice on when boundaries should be drawn.

So many of us resist drawing boundaries out of fear. Fear that we will appear mean by drawing boundaries. Fear of the guilt that comes with drawing boundaries. Fear that drawing boundaries will end a relationship. Fear that we don’t deserve to have boundaries with a certain person or people, like our parents. She addresses all of this in explicit detail and it is simultaneously a wake-up call and a hug of support.

Tawwab is often asked how we can draw boundaries without feeling guilty and her answer caught me by surprise. Because her answer is, you don’t. Guilt is a natural part of drawing boundaries and her goal is to not try to alleviate guilt, but instead to offer some solid ways to manage the guilt that always comes with the territory. I, for one, was certainly shocked to learn that my guilt around drawing boundaries isn’t because of some internal weakness.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is on understanding the importance of boundaries. What are they? What is the cost of not having boundaries? What are the six types of boundaries? And more. One particularly potent chapter in this section is on what boundary violations look like. I was in a full-body cringe reading about guilt trips. The second part of the book is some solid advice on how to do the boundary work in your own life.

Set Boundaries, Find Peace is the best book I’ve read this year and it may end up being my favorite book of 2021, not to mention an automatic addition to my annual rereads list.

No one knows what caused the blackout that took out all of the country’s major systems – cell service, electricity, water – only that, so far as anyone can tell, they’re not coming back on. And it turns out that civilization goes downhill pretty quick when no one can flush a toilet or turn on the lights. Which is how Arden and her roommate John ended up hiking cross country from Rochester, New York to his parents’ cabin near the Canadian border in search of food and safety.

But when they are attacked a few miles from the cabin, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe, no matter how remote. Gabriel, John’s older brother, comes to the rescue – sparking off an antagonistic attraction between him and Arden – and brings more bad news: their parents are missing. The only ones left in the cabin are Gabriel and their little sister Maggie. Now the four of them – Arden, John, Gabriel, and Maggie – are sharing the cabin, isolated not just geographically but by what seems to be an increasingly hostile world outside their four walls.

I loved this book. So much. I expected to like it because, again, genre mash-ups are my catnip. I did not expect to love this book with every fiber of my being. I did wish at times that it could have more suspenseful, more intense, with regards to the post-apocalyptic portion of the novel. But Radio Silence is primarily a romance novel, so the focus of the novel is on Arden and Gabriel’s sharp chemistry while the blackout serves more as an impetus for their love story, bringing them together and keeping them in close proximity to one another until their attraction has a chance to boil over. That being said, there is definitely still enough of a “threat of the unknown” to keep the tension high, so romantic suspense fans won’t be left wanting.

Kiera wakes up alone on the forest floor, in the dark, with no memories of her past and the sound of nearby gunshots ringing in her ears. While fleeing from her pursuers, she takes shelter with the local pastor who offers to let her stay in the abandoned groundskeeper’s cottage next to the cemetery until she finds out who she is. The Whispering Dead is the first book in Coates’ new Gravekeeper series, which means that we haven’t yet found out who Keira is, who was chasing her, and why she has a head full of covert training that she can’t explain. She’s a bit of a Bourne character, with the notable exception that one of Keira’s inexplicable talents is the ability to see and communicate with the dead.

While we aren’t yet privy to all of Keira’s secrets, it turns out that there is plenty of plot to be had in the picturesque town of Blighty. Soon after Keira arrives she becomes entangled with the ghost of a woman who, according to a grisly chapter in local history, was torn away from the man she loved and murdered by his cruel, overbearing father. But the man who killed Emma was caught, and is himself long dead. So what is keeping her here, roaming the cemetery outside Keira’s cabin? With the help from some new friends, Keira sets out to solve the mystery, and unearths a few of Blighty’s darker secrets in the process.

Though I would definitely still categorize The Whispering Dead as horror, it would be a great crossover recommendation for frequent cozy mystery readers who are looking to make the jump to horror. It has plenty of suspense and ghostly goings on to satisfy horror fans, but it has the obligatory “unusual small town” setting, quirky secondary ensemble cast, and general feeling of a cozy mystery. And while Kiera’s missing past hints that darker things may be waiting later in the series, for now we have budding friendships, the promising of a blossoming romance, and one very, very cute black cat.

Content warnings for abduction, violence, including murder, and abuse.

This book is told via points of view of a few different characters. One of these characters (and one of our heroes) is Florian, formerly Flora. He and his brother Alfie joined the crew on the pirate ship, the Dove, when they were children. They were small, starving, orphaned, and prepared to do anything, even kill, to have the opportunity for somewhere to belong. The opportunity to join the crew of the Dove arose, and it was an offer they could not refuse.

The Nameless Captain, the captain of the Dove, has a hustle where he disguises the ship as a passenger ship for wealthy folks. After a couple weeks into the journey, far enough from land where the “passengers” cannot escape and get to a shore, the captain then tells them they’re all prisoners and he will sell them off into slavery for a significant profit.

One of these wealthy passengers of the Dove is Lady Evelyn Hasagawa, a young high-born Imperial woman. Her parents are sending her off to get married against her will, one of the reasons being that she is queer and the parents are awful. Florian is ordered by the Nameless Captain to guard Lady Hasagawa, especially from the more aggressive men on the crew.

In this story, the sea is sentient and has one really big rule, which is to not harm the mermaids. The thing is, mermaid’s blood, when drunk by humans, is a powerful drug that can take memories away. If you drink mermaid’s blood, then you are automatically an enemy of the sea and an enemy of the Pirate Supreme, who serves the sea.

Of course, the crew of the Dove has no interest in following the rules of the sea.

This book centers queer characters of color in a beautiful, sweeping adventure that is just a delight and it is definitely a must-read.

Dark Lullaby is a bleak portrait of a future in which the world’s population has contracted. Sharply. Entire villages stand empty, abandoned, as the remaining population squeezes into city centers. Infertility has reached a staggering 99.8%, and natural conception is nearly unheard of. Children can only be conceived by Induction, a dangerous and difficult process of conception that kills women nearly as frequently as it succeeds in impregnating them.

And the trials don’t end there. Children have become the world’s most precious resource, and their rearing the primary business of the ominous Office of Standards in Parenting (OSIP). Fail to meet their exacting standards of perfect parenthood and your child will be extracted… for its own good, of course. In a society in which the majority of parents have their children taken from them, Kit knew the risks when she chose to have a child. But that doesn’t mean that she’s going to allow anyone to take her daughter from her without putting up a fight.

This book was such an upsetting read for me because you could clearly see how a future like the one Polly Ho-Yen depicts could be possible. Every description, every terrible reality that for these people was simply the “norm”, every bit of propaganda – it was so anxiety-inducing because I could see where Ho-Yen had found her inspiration. The world of Dark Lullaby is our world, just with all the dials turned up to ten. And being able to see that reflection of ourselves in the terrible mirror that Ho-Yen holds up was so unsettling that there were times when I felt physically ill.

Dark Lullaby is definitely a must read for horror or dark sci-fi fans. But be forewarned: this is not an easy read. It will enthrall you from page one, and haunt you long after it’s done.