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Headlights

CJ Leede

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Every instinct tells him to run. Every memory tells him he can’t.

Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it's happening again. Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they've allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue.

Now Daniel is pulled back into the gruesome cycle, and every clue leads him deeper into the shadows of his own past. He will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along—before he and the people he loves become the next victims.

Perfect for fans of The Shining and Longlegs, bestselling author CJ Leede’s Headlights is a pulse-pounding hunt across the frozen wilderness of Colorado.

Also by CJ Leede: American Rapture, Maeve Fly

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Posts about this title from DocoftheDarkArts

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 22

\ \ Every month, one of my paid members' perks is to pick a book for me to read. This can be one they read with me, or one they want me to simply read and review. For July, I was really excited to see the group pick Headlights by CJ Leede. I had Leede on my radar, and had heard some really good things about this one in particular. A few of the members were using me as a canary in the coal mine to test this one out, and a few read along. \ \ Anyone who has been reading my reviews over the last year knows that I have been loving stories that don't fit easily into one genre. Genre bending/genre mixing stories that do more than one thing really well have been hooking me for some reason. Headlights is my first CJ Leede book, and I was really impressed with the layers that she built in to this story, and the different genre elements of the story that helped propel this one to some weird, wild places.\ \ I have heard this described as True Detective meets the X Files, and I think that's a reasonably fair assessment. Headlights tells the story of an agent with a traumatic past with some possible supernatural skills who gets pulled back into investigating a series of murders that he was unable to solve in the past. What begins to unfold is part detective thriller, part murder mystery, part folk horror, and part cosmic horror. It is a story about trauma and grief, nature and man's destruction of it, and the horrors of our past and how we face and reconcile who we were and are.\ \ The book is divided into 6 parts. As I first jumped into part one, where we get Daniel's introduction, some mysterious background, and his route back into the fold of this investigation, I was a little put off by the writing. Much of the first part, especially our main character's internal monologue, is written in that staccato "Blake Crouch-esque" micro paragraphing style. I think this writing style has its place, and can be used to build some tension, but for me I only enjoy it in small doses. As with Blake Crouch, it often makes me feel like I'm reading a screenplay versus a book, and I wind up fighting with the story, trying to avoid the skimming that this style pushes me towards. I was worried at first that the rest of the book would be a dump of this style of writing.\ \ However, as we get more into the meat of the book, this style was definitely mixed in, and I began to understand why Leede was using it. Daniel's character suffers from post traumatic stress, and is constantly questioning and fighting himself, and this micro paragraphing became a good insight into how his mind was working. When juxtaposed with the dialogue and the exposition, we get the sense of someone who is calm on the outside while a war of feelings and thoughts wages within. There was a chapter in part 4 where this technique felt a little heavy handed to me, but again overall it was used well. As someone who also deals with cPTSD myself, I thought the subject was handled well, and it was a really interesting exploration of trauma and its impacts. I can certainly relate to Daniel and how sometimes, you look calm on the outside but inside you're a mess. \ \ The horror elements of the book were also really well done. We have supernatural elements, cosmic horror, some folk and eldritch horror mixed in, with a sprinkling of gore and body horror. The book is also a love letter to Stephen King's The Shining. Our main characters have a connection to the cosmic and supernatural and they "shine," we get a scene in the hotel that inspired the book, our main character's mom loved The Shining, and we get multiple other nods and references to the story. This creates a fun element to the story for King fans. \ \ One of the thins that impressed me the most is how Leede built tension as the story goes on. She never resorts to using cheap scares, opting instead to constantly build the fear and horror of the story while mixing it with the mystery and tension of the crime solving elements. Ultimately, some of the horror is what we as humans are doing to nature, to our environment, and to the world around us, and how that world can fight back. We get supernatural horror elements and cosmic horror blending in as time goes on, and the interplay with these and the violent/gore horror of the murders creates a very multimodal tension and fear. \ \ The last two parts of the book were a brilliant catharsis of all of that tension. We get the reveal about the murders, why they were happening and who did them, and what role our main characters played. We get a beautiful exploration of our main characters' relationship, especially as it relates to accepting who we are, and accepting the people we love for who they are. Leede also does a great job exploring how facing our trauma and facing the difficulties in our past and present can lead to a better understanding of self and the world around us, and bring us some peace about the less peaceful elements of our lives. This includes some exploration of family dynamics, and how our subconscious can affect our conscious being. \ \ My only issues were some of the writing elements, as discussed above, and I did want a bit more time at the end exploring some of the horror, as well as maybe a bit more time exploring what ultimately becomes of our main characters. On the whole, however, the great elements of the book ultimately far outshined the downsides. \ \ Overall, this was a wonderful story, and I had a ton of fun with it. I would highly recommend you check it out, especially if you like weird horror that blends genres to explore big themes. I will definitely be reading Leede's other books! And if you want to read books like this with me or pick books for me to read, make sure to check out the Dark Traveler's membership tier!\ \ 4.25/5 Stars\ \ Format: Hardcover](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/FxA2G1mjhOdvwjuSLtVB/)

Book Review: Headlights by CJ Leede

1 book

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 19

The Sunday Prescription: July 19, 2026

10 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 12

The Sunday Prescription: July 12, 2026

7 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 28

Poll:\ \ Where do you get most of your books?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ Symptoms: Tribalism in Bookish Spaces \ \ I have been thinking a lot recently about how we, as people, have a natural tendency towards tribalism. From an evolutionary sense, it is a highly logical reaction - often in our ancient history, finding a group of people and sticking with them meant safety and access to resources. It's a fascinating phenomenon from a neuroscience standpoint as well. Research has shown that feeling like you are part of a group activates circuits in our brains that have to do with rewards and positive associations, and even activates empathy (at least within our tribe). And of course, as with all things, there are positive and negative aspects of tribalism. \ \ Over the last year in the online book space, I have seen a lot of the positive aspects of this - the support that people who feel some sort of connection with the content I put out there has been overwhelming and amazing. But of course, there are downsides as well, and one of the times where I see this the most is anytime I talk about where I get my books. \ \ I love books in all forms - I love a good special edition of a book that I adore. I love buying used, and I like buying new. I consume stories in all forms, including hardbacks, paperbacks, e-books, and audiobooks, and use a library when possible. And inevitably, when I post about a specific kind of purchase, I hear from the opposite tribe. If I post about being a Broken Binding rep, I can count on a comment about special editions ruining books and gatekeeping reading. If I talk about a used purchase, I will get someone telling me I should support the author and buy new. Team Kindle is always lurking, and of course, team library is always there as well. \ \ I personally think that having a plethora of options is good for reading. As more and more studies come out showing how, all around the world, the percentage of people who read for pleasure is declining, and literacy rates are dropping, giving people options is a good thing. If you have disposable income and love buying a big fancy expensive special edition, that's awesome - you're supporting a publishing company, the author, and the artists involved. If you have a great library near you and you never buy books, that's awesome - you're supporting a great thing, and supporting the author with your rentals. Used books support other book buyers and allow stories to perpetuate, and I've encouraged a lot of people to buy a new book because of my review of a used one. E books are accessible for lots of folks, and audiobooks have made reading stories easier and more accessible for a myriad of people (busy parents, people with reading disorders, folks with long commutes and busy lives, etc.). And while I am always a big supporter of shopping local, and using resources like Libro.fm for audiobooks and Bookshop.org for purchasing online and supporting independent booksellers, I understand that for some folks, financial and logistical pressures make Amazon the best route for purchasing. It's easy to judge, but reality is messy, and we all have different and unknown circumstances. \ \ The same can be said for toxic fandoms - as a Lord of the Rings fan, I would never criticize someone for mispronouncing a word (I do it all the time), but it happens everywhere. If someone doesn't like my favorite books, why would I criticize them? It wasn't their thing, and I can't force you to like something. However, we see it all the time in the book world. At all levels, tribalism can turn into gatekeeping, and put people off from reading. \ \ So my hope for the book world, and something I encourage highly, is to make our tribe the tribe of people who love books and stories, and who encourage and support people who read, no matter what that looks like (as long as you're not stealing of course)! Offer people options, but don't criticize their choices in how they interact with or consume books. Talk about the books you love, but don't get mad when they don't like your favorite book - talk to them about the why! Let's encourage more reading, even if that reading doesn't look like your reading. \ \ What do you think about tribalism in the book space, and have you encountered it in any way? Let's chat down below!\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ My new Fable Book Club starts this Wednesday, July 1 with Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. The book club is called Dr. Bob's Literary Apothecary, and our goal is to read diverse authors, diverse genres, and try to find diverse books that aren't popping up on your algorithm! I'd love to have you join, we'll do a book a month, and no changes to our usual book club. I'm really excited to kick this off, and would love to see you there!\ \ In terms of reading, I was on vacation last week and, being at the beach, had loads of great reading time! I finished our Dark Travelers June book, Stoner by John Williams, Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian, The Dungeon Crawler Carl Graphic Novel, and The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen. Be on the lookout for my reviews on IG and TikTok, as well as some here, in the coming weeks!\ \ I am currently all over the place with reading! I should be finishing up What Blood Remembers by C William Phillips this weekend, and am loving the Audiobook of Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove. I started our July Doc of the Dark Arts Book Club pick Jade City by Fonda Lee, and am enjoying it so far - if you want to be part of that book club, make sure to join us on Discord! And I also started a deep dive reread of the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien with the Celebreabird read along. A second read there has been amazing so far!\ \ Given I was off, I didn't;t do a weekly reading update or a YouTube video last week, but I will be back this week. One of the YouTube videos I'm working on is a Q&A Video, so if you have any bookish/book content/personal questions you'd like to ask, let me know!\ \ July is going to be a great month - as I said we are doing Jade City for the main bookclub, Our Sister's Keeper for the Fable book club, and the Dark Travelers book for July is going to be Headlights by CJ Leede. \ \ It is also time for our July reading challenge! Participants are eligible for a $25 bookshop.org gift card. To be eligible, you have to either complete the challenge on StoryGraph, or share what you read on the challenge channel in our Discord server. If you are outside of the US, we can figure out a website/gift card/prize for you if Bookshop is not available to you. The theme for July is "Choose a book by its cover." The goal here it to pick a book just based on whatever is on the cover (so the cover, the description on the back/inside the dust jacket). No looking up reviews, no advanced information, just finding something that looks and sounds cool. I am going to be reading A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang. \ \ Want More In-Depth Access? \ \ If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier! My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it!\ \ Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you all have a great week of reading!

The Sunday Prescription: June 28, 2026

10 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 7

[Poll:\ \ Should I give Dungeon Crawler Carl another try and read book 2?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ \ \ Happy Sunday everyone, and welcome to the first installment of The Sunday Prescription, where each week I plan on discussing a bookish topic, my reading plans for the week, and call out some books you all should be checking out! And as always, none of my stuff is written with any kind of generative AI - it's just me rambling!\ \ My Symptoms: DNFing \ \ I've talked a bunch before both here and other platforms about DNFing books, and my general thoughts around that. And, truth be told, I think I have a pretty solid feel for how I handle individual books. But I've had a few experiences this week that have really got me thinking about my approach to a series and whether I DNF that or not. \ \ First, I saw some really interesting reels from C.J.Dennyreads and Sarahdoesbookishstuff\ \ where they discussed the price of admission for reading a series, or the idea that for some series, you need to make it through a book or two before the series "gets good." This is pretty common (Suneater, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Throne of Glass all come to mind). Now generally speaking, I usually give a series one book. One. That's it. My thought is that, if I get to the end of book one, and I absolutely hate the characters, the story, and am severely bored or angry, I should just DNF the series. Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect any money because I don't get paid to read things I hate. And as I thought about my favorite series, I realized I loved all the book 1's. \ \ Now of course, if I can find some redeeming qualities, or see some light at the end of the tunnel, I'll keep going. However, Both Sarah and CJ made some great points and really got me thinking about this. Then I started listening to The Dragon Republlic, book 2 in The Poppy War Trilogy, and that got me thinking even more. Mild spoilers ahead for The Poppy War in the next paragraph. \ \ I've posted my review of The Poppy War on socials before, and I really struggled with Rin. I think throughout the book, she wreaked havoc on everyone around her, made frustrating decisions (even for someone her age), and showed a tendency to be a sociopath (remember in tactics when she suggested to ruin the ecology of an area of the country for decades and lose tons of civilians in the process just to win one battle? THAT'S A SOCIOPATH!). And by the end, I was like wow, this book is really just about a sociopath who gets too much power and how bad war is - I know how that works as an avid reader of history. \ \ Over the last few months I have been strongly considering DNFing the whole series, because I just thought this was a one note, one theme series, and I didn't find any of the characters interesting or compelling. Just kind of different shades of miserable. However, CJ and Sarah got me thinking about if I'm being too harsh. So I got my Libro audiobook credits, and promptly picked up the Dragon Republic. And wishing the first few chapters, this book is already showing more humanity and nuance for our characters than the entire first book, and has even made Rin redeemable for me. I was floored by how good the first six or so chapters have been. And it's made me think: should I revisit a few series I put down after book one, or start a series I have said I never would?\ \ Now this is not to say I expect every single reading experience going forward to be game changing, and I will still probably DNF some series and avoid others. But it got me thinking about how I might tweak this approach this year. It's even got me thinking about whether or not I should read book 2 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Let me know what you think in the poll below!\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ Now as you all know, I am a feral mood reader, so my plans always reserve the right to change. However, this is what I'm reading this week:\ \

Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes - this is a Bindery book, and I got an ARC on NetGalley. I'm going to finish the sone up as soon as I hit send on this newsletter. I have LOVED this so far. It is a souther gothic horror that focuses on a black town in Mississippi in the 1920's where the women are forced to bear the men's burdens through a mystical act, leaving the town eerily patriarchal and off. \ \
You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White - Buddy reading this with a few of you all (Aiko in particular!), and have loved it so far. Body horror about a trans man in a dystopian world where cults, body horror, and the horror of existence for marginalized communities are explored. \ \
The Dragon Republic by RF Kuang - Will it turn out I love The Poppy War Trilogy?\ \
Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Ourllian - I was offered this as an ARC last week, and thought it would be cool to check out!\ \ \ I am also excited because I'm approaching 25k on Instagram, 10k on TikTok, 1500 on YouTube, and 250+ here on bindery. The support everyone has shown me in the last year has been tremendous, and I'm working on a cool giveaway to celebrate all of these milestones. So stay Tuned!\ \ Like More In-Depth Access? \ \ If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier. My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. I'm running over to my bookstore today to grab this month's pick, Stoner by John Williams, and we're doing Headlights by CJ Leede in July! It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it!\ \ Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you all have a great week of reading!](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/wING2g2ZsTQqWB2Uh8AH/)

The Sunday Prescription: June 7, 2026

One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.

7 books

Posts about this book from across Bindery

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 22

Book Review: Headlights by CJ Leede

1 book

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 19

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The Sunday Prescription: July 19, 2026

10 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 12

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The Sunday Prescription: July 12, 2026

7 books

Sarah Does Bookish Stuff\ \ Sarah\ \ • Jul 9

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We've done it. We've made it to the halfway mark of the year! I can't believe it's half over already. 2026 has been a banner year for me with reading and coming out on top reading some incredible books I never thought I would get the chance to read. \ \ I've had so many opportunities and changes and experiences in the last 6 months I almost feel like a different person sitting here typing this up. I've read ARCs, connected with authors, joined a writing cohort, taken on a job doing developmental edits, started a podcast, started an interview series... \ \ All because I just like to talk about my weird and wonderful books. \ \ So, halfway through 2026, let's talk about those wonderful books and what's been a 5-star read for me this year. \ \ The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon\ \ My first five star read of the year. Candon built this incredible, lush, weird, amazing world I wanted to live in. Fever dream mech fantasy about a man trying to figure out how to be normal and escape a past that won't let him go. Sunai makes horrible choices, but all of them consistently lead him back to the one place he never really left. I loved how wild and bizarre this was. I was left wanting more and more of this world and I hope so hard that Candon continues this series. \ \ Slewfoot by Brom\ \ If you want me to rate your book five stars, make it about female rage and killing puritans. Brom outdid himself with this one. He wrote Abitha with such conviction there's no way his wife didn't advise him on it, I refuse to believe a man capable of capturing the frustration and rage about the female experience so accurately. I love the tapestry of witchcraft and small mindedness and the blindness of religion and the effects of patriarchy on us all. This was so delightful and 5 stars well earned. \ \ The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman\ \ Book so good I emailed the author. I've never emailed an author before. Finn was the first. This book is a retelling of a real 13-century fairytale that was the first example of fiction in medieval France. Longman turned it into a beautiful test of prose, writing styles, and an exploration in chronic illness, queer identity, and what it means for love to endure. This book was so full of yearning and so beautifully written I finished it in a day and I bullied several other people into reading it after. \ \ Shark Heart by Emily Habeck\ \ I picked this up on a whim because the premise was bizarre. A man is slowly turning into a great white shark because of a genetic disorder? And someone said it wrecked them? Okay, bet. And bet I did. I walked away sobbing over this heart wrenching, existence examining piece on caretaking, loss, illness, and love. Shark Heart does not get enough love for what it did.\ \ Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir\ \ Muir is incapable of writing something that isn't five stars. Her use of prose and style, turning the writing itself into a character... nobody does it like Muir does. Every book in this series is different, it changes you. Nona was her solarpunk installation that gave me so many painful, beautiful moments of seeing characters I loved overcome and endure for each other. It also made me mad at Jod.\ \ Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson\ \ I am a Malazan bro because of this book. MoI was the culmination of two books - 1800 pages - worth of trust in a process I was unsure could be trusted. Erikson delivered on every single front. He gave readers something incredible in this book and really proved to me how multifaceted and gifted he is at world building and writing. This was an incredible installment. \ \ Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang\ \ I am a different person because of this book. Because of Sciona, unlikable heroine and dogged in her pursuit of knowledge. Because of Thomil who understands the cost of power and pushes to make Scion see it, too. I adored this book and how it addressed the importance of intersectionality and listening to marginalized voices. It was so beautiful and fearless and Wang knows exactly how to break your heart to teach you something important. This book should be required reading.\ \ Headlights by C.J. Leede\ \ This was the first ARC I have ever given five stars to. I was a mess. A disaster. If you had told me a book about an unretired FBI agent investigating wild killings where victims are skinned and the perpetrators have no memory would change me, I would never have believed you. I adored every second of this. It was about wildness and fear and loss and love and so, so much more than I can articulate in a single post. If I had my Bindery a few months sooner, I would have written pages upon pages about this. Leede's writing is poetry, her symbolism is subtle and unique, her approach to loss and grief is spellbinding. \ \ The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes\ \ Ennes will go down as one of the most stunning writers in the modern era. They have a grasp of language that I can only hope to have a fraction of. This book was weird and stunning and unforgiving. It made me forget I was reading about bugs because I was constantly engrossed in the characters and the world and the slow collapse of this bizarre government. It accosted my senses in incredible ways and showed the costs of power without question. I adored the characters and I will forever be rooting for Guy and his love of the theater. Ennes made politics, art, and theater inextricable from each other. One begets the others, every time. I am so, so impressed at this book. \ \ The Soft Touch by Daniel Polansky\ \ How did one man pack so much into a novella? Really. I finished this, stared at the cover, and bought everything Polansky has ever written. I loved this world. I loved how stubbornly optimistic Wren was and how he refused to let pessimism win in a town where pessimism already believed it had won. He was clever and sharp, the writing was witty and dry, and everything was so alive in such a short time. I didn't want it to end, this wild blend of steampunk magic. This novella made me realize the draw of urban fantasy. \ \ The Butcher of Nazareth by David Scott Hay\ \ I have a whole post about this book and I can never stop saying wonderful things about it. Hay created a masterwork here, just an absolute class in how to leverage the physicality of writing to meet the story and create something beautiful and tragic. II was so sad and so hurt for the Butcher, but I was in his grief with him in ways I didn't think I could be in a book. I am deeply impressed by this story and how David crafted it. Everyone should read it, especially if you love religious horror. \ \ So this has been my year in favorites so far. I've read 100 books on the nose so far and this is the sliver of those who really changed something about me. Every five star I give out changes a piece of me - my perspective, my sense of self, my understanding of a genre, something. I walked away from each of these books with something new in my bones that wasn't there before. I love all our popular series just as much as the next person, but my heart will always be with books that dig deep and demand things of me nothing else does.

Meeting Up Halfway

11 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 28

The Sunday Prescription: June 28, 2026

10 books

Sarah Does Bookish Stuff\ \ Sarah\ \ • Jun 21

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Everyone has books that live in their bones. Some sediment of emotion or change that has settled into their marrow and left them changed in a way they can't articulate. Over time, that sediment calcifies and those books become part of who we are. They shape our morality, our world views, our empathy... they become us.\ \ I have my five books that have historically settled and fossilized and are inextricably linked to me as a person. I also have the modern, recent reads that I just know are doing something to me. Taking my ligaments apart and putting them in new places. Making room in my muscles and viscera for something new to grow and change me.\ \ So... What are they?\ \ The Butcher of Nazareth by David Scott Hay\ \ This book was something entirely different. New. Hard to let go of. It touched on grief and faith and the importance of community in processing loss. Hay did something amazing with turning his lessons learned into a biblical cautionary tale to show his readers how unprocessed loss in isolation can turn you into someone you don't recognize. It can cost you everything.\ \ The care and love this was crafted with is incredible. Paper weights, font styles, later inclusions of page stamps, text coloring... everything about this book from the contents to the structure was deliberate. It delivers a brutal message made all the more impactful by the love with which it was sent.\ \ The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes\ \ Never have I seen more beautiful, mad prose in a book. Ennes writes with a paintbrush the likes of which I rarely see in books. I am treated like I'm smart, I'm respected by the material, and they take the opportunity to show me what I am capable of. The characters are never what you think and never who you believe them to be. Nobody is all one thing and the character who are suffer because of it. It talks about denial and loss and art and politics and what it means to let someone be who they are.\ \ The weirdness of this book never feels offputting or gross. It feels like texture and color and sound. Ennes proved that a book can live with me long after I finished it and make me rethink and turn over its lessons again and again without exhausting what I find in it. This was such a beautifully unexpected read that is feeding off of my attention.\ \ Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang\ \ I have never been forced to confront myself like I have in this book. Wang is fearless, direct, and wastes no time worrying about your feelings. She immediately makes you uncomfortable and forces you to look at horrible truths about yourself whether you like it or not. Some folks said this was too on the nose, but I disagree. I believe this book is exactly what it must be. Subtlety won't always get people to confront themselves and their biases. Wang found a way to dispense with the subtlety and not make it feel preaching or taunting. Instead, she takes you by the chin and asks, "Is this who you are deciding to be?"\ \ The themes of otherness, inclusivity, intersectionality, and whether or not a haven is truly a haven if it's paid for in blood? Stunning. Layered. I'm still thinking about it months later.\ \ Headlights by C. J. Leede\ \ This rocketed to the top of my list when it made me bawl my eyes out at 10pm on a Saturday. It reads like a procedural turned folkloric horror, but it's so much more than that. It sinks its teeth into the rose-colored glasses of childhood memory. What does it mean to love and lose? Where do we put our grief when it's too big to hold onto? How do the ghosts of our past become a part of us? Leede puts Danny through so much to learn how to love wild things and make peace with the people he loves no longer being there for him to lean on. She made me consider what it is to let someone in, the fear of leaving a part of yourself with someone and trusting them to care for it.\ \ This book told a wild story in such weird and wonderful ways that thinking about it still makes me tear up and wonder if I really saw everything she had to say or if there's more.\ \ Shark Heart by Emily Habeck\ \ How did a book about a man turning into a shark become a beautiful, bittersweet, hopeful story about how to love someone through chronic illness and the strain of love and resentment held by caretakers? I opened this book expecting a weird, wonderful story and instead I learned so much about the weight we carry when we have no power to help someone we love. Living through chronic illness and caring for someone through it are tragic, beautiful, complicated experiences Habeck articulated perfectly in this book. Habeck shows how different degrees of loss take a toll on people, they all add a new straw to the back of that camel that eventually breaks.\ \ But she also showed us how when its broken, there exists only one choice: stay broken or stand up and go on. At some point, optimism and hope and survival are a choice. We have to look grief and hardship in the face and decide not to let it drown us. Hope is a choice. Habeck illustrates that phenomenally.

The Books That Change Us

5 books

Death by TBR Books\ \ Stephanie\ \ • Jun 20

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Poll:\ \ Next Exclusive Post Subject\ \ It's been a long, tiring, but also incredibly exciting week. I've been working on the second draft to my upcoming middle grade novel, I Wish I Was a Vampire, and will have it ready for beta readers in July! It's been really freeing to write this book. I went through a lot of what the MC goes through, but I thought, "What if she had a mom who actually cared?" or "What if the girl realized having one best friend who accepts you for you is enough?" Through these characters, I'm able to have hope and closure with different times of my life.\ \ Also, as of this afternoon I have shipped ALL of the preorders for Twisted Tales to Tell in the Night: Another Halloween Horror Anthology along with other pending orders. This weekend I'll be editing one of the Yuletide Horror stories, writing/editing the middle grade book, and continuing my grassroots effort to gain readers for Death by TBR Books titles. Sunday is Litha (Summer Solstice), so I'll be doing a ritual and rewatching Midsommar. I'm definitely excited for the upcoming week with the release, but also fewer packages NOT that I'm complaining over sales. I'm incredibly grateful. :)\ \ I love the summer solstice because it gets darker and darker every day after that. Muahahaha!\ \ BOOKS\ \ The Elsewhere Express by Sotto Yambao\ \ The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy\ \ How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson\ \ Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli\ \ Currently reading: Witch Season by Julia Bianco and Moonflow by Bitter Karella\ \ SHOWS\ \ NEW\ \ MasterChef\ \ Widows Bay\ \ Something Bad is Going to Happen\ \ FILMS - I'm on LetterBoxd - horrormaven13\ \ Deep Water\ \ Swapped\ \ Rewatches that I'm enjoying as I pretend to live in the late 90s/early 00s.\ \ TV Buffy the Vampire Slayer\ \ The X-Files\ \ Law and Order: SVU\ \ Owl House\ \ Cruel Summer\ \ The Golden Girls\ \ FILMS\ \ Evil Dead Rises\ \ Enough\ \ Maternal Instinct\ \ That's all for this week! Please share what you've been reading and watching! The next exclusive post (a week from Wednesday) will be decided by a poll. :)\ \ xoxo\ \ Spooky Girl\ \ Join for free or login

Weekly Update: Writing my first middle grade book & only 4 days until the next Twisted Tales

2 books

Judging By The Cover\ \ judgingby_thecover\ \ • Jun 14

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[Welcome back to After the Walk, where Link and I return from our Sunday morning stroll, and I attempt to organize my thoughts about everything I've been reading.\ \ This week took me through horror, fantasy, romance, thrillers, and one very chaotic dungeon. \ \ It Came From Neverland \ \ Peter Pan was one of my favorite movies growing up, which is exactly why this book worked so well for me.\ \ Cynthia Pelayo takes a story most of us know by heart and asks a deeply unsettling question: What if we got it wrong?\ \ What if Peter Pan isn't the hero? What if he's the monster?\ \ This isn't simply a fairy tale retelling. It's historical horror wrapped around childhood nostalgia and slowly transformed into something terrifying.\ \ What impressed me most was how effectively Pelayo weaponizes familiarity. Before Peter Pan even appears on the page, you're already afraid of him. Every mention of Neverland feels wrong in a way that's difficult to articulate but impossible to ignore.\ \ The result feels less like fantasy and more like a childhood nightmare you've somehow forgotten until now.\ \ Headlights \ \ I picked this up because of the cover, but I kept reading because I physically could not put it down.\ \ Headlights begins as a dark, atmospheric serial killer thriller. A broken detective. A frozen landscape. A disturbing murder investigation.\ \ Then the book mutates.\ \ Every time I thought I understood what kind of story I was reading, CJ Leede pulled the rug out from under me. What starts as crime horror gradually becomes stranger, darker, and far more unsettling than I ever expected.\ \ The body horror is intense. The imagery is unforgettable. There are scenes I genuinely wish I could remove from my memory.\ \ And yet somehow there is also an oddly beautiful emotional core underneath all of it. I still don't know exactly how to describe this book. I only know I'm not going to stop thinking about it anytime soon.\ \ Obstetrix \ \ Some premises immediately grab your attention.\ \ An OB-GYN who survives a highly publicized abortion trial is kidnapped by a religious compound and forced to provide medical care to the women living there.\ \ I mean...how do you not pick that up?\ \ The tension here is excellent. Once Liz arrives at the compound, the story becomes incredibly difficult to put down. The pacing moves quickly, the danger feels immediate, and the constant uncertainty kept me turning pages.\ \ What ultimately held this back for me was emotional depth.\ \ The situations Liz experiences are traumatic enough that I wanted a deeper exploration of her psychological state. The story raises fascinating questions about reproductive healthcare, bodily autonomy, and religious extremism, but often stops just short of fully exploring them.\ \ Still, as a fast-paced thriller, it absolutely succeeds.\ \ The Great Outdoors \ \ This was exactly the palate cleanser I needed.\ \ After being dumped for being "too high maintenance," Sadie signs up for a twelve-day wilderness trek to prove she can survive outside her comfort zone.\ \ As someone who enjoys indoor plumbing and a cozy pillow, I found this deeply relatable.\ \ What I appreciated most was that the story never asks Sadie to become someone else. Her growth comes from learning that she doesn't need complete control over every aspect of her life.\ \ The romance between Sadie and Thorn develops naturally, the mountain setting is gorgeous, and the entire book feels like summer.\ \ Did it make me want to go hiking? Absolutely not.\ \ Did it make me want more books like this? Absolutely.\ \ Good at Being Alive \ \ This was the biggest surprise of the week. I expected fake dating and a travel romance. And while I definetly got those things, what I didn't expect was such a thoughtful exploration of grief.\ \ One of the things this book does particularly well is acknowledge that grief isn't always straightforward. Sometimes the people we lose were complicated. Sometimes our relationships with them were messy. Sometimes love and resentment exist side by side.\ \ Theo and Bex are fantastic together, but what stayed with me most was the emotional honesty underneath the romance.\ \ This ended up being much deeper than its premise initially suggests.\ \ The Shrouded Queen \ \ This is one of the easiest almost-five-star books I've read recently.\ \ The Egyptian-inspired mythology, political intrigue, hidden identities, divine powers, and shifting loyalties all worked incredibly well for me.\ \ And then there was Samira. I LOVED her.\ \ Every chapter from her perspective pulled me further into the story. Her growth, her secrets, and the impossible position she finds herself in made her one of my favorite fantasy protagonists I've encountered this year.\ \ Unfortunately, the other POV had the exact opposite effect. I found Amunet frustrating, selfish, and nearly impossible to root for. Every time the narrative shifted away from Samira, I found myself impatiently waiting to return to the storyline I actually cared about.\ \ It's a testament to how strong the rest of the novel is that I still enjoyed it so much despite that disconnect. Because make no mistake: I will absolutely be reading the sequel.\ \ The Butcher's Masquerade \ \ At this point, Dungeon Crawler Carl has become something much bigger than a survival story.\ \ Early in the series, Carl was trying to survive the dungeon. Now the dungeon is trying to survive Carl.\ \ The Butcher's Masquerade feels like a turning point. The politics become more complicated. The moral questions become murkier. The consequences become more personal.\ \ What struck me most was how much this series continues to ask readers to think about power.\ \ Who has it? Who deserves it? Also, I am increasingly concerned about future emotional damage.\ \ Nasty Little Secrets \ \ This was one of those books that reminded me why I love mysteries.\ \ A missing sister. A decades-old murder conviction. A family that has never fully recovered from either.\ \ The dual timelines worked beautifully here, gradually revealing information without ever feeling repetitive. Every answer created new questions, and every revelation added another layer to the mystery.\ \ I guessed one of the twists early, but I absolutely did not guess the other.\ \ For a debut novel, this is incredibly confident work, and I'm already looking forward to seeing what Gabbie Hanks writes next.\ \ Final Thoughts \ \ The books that resonated most with me this week were all asking variations of the same question: Who are we when the life we expected disappears?\ \

A woman confronting the horrors of her childhood. \ \
A detective uncovering truths he was never meant to find. \ \
A hiker discovering she doesn't need to control everything.\ \
A grieving woman learning how to move forward.\ \
A maid becoming something far greater than anyone expected.\ \
A crawler becoming a revolutionary.\ \ \ Different genres. Different worlds. Same question.\ \ 📚 Full ratings, reviews, and reading updates can always be found here on Bindery and over on Goodreads.](https://judgingbythecover.binderybooks.com/item/35PHo9pztW00qGcOxR9a/)

After the Walk: Monsters, Survival, and Reinventing Yourself

3 books

Judging By The Cover\ \ judgingby_thecover\ \ • Jun 9

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One of my goals this year is to help you spend less time wondering what to read next and more time actually reading.\ \ Every Tuesday on Instagram, I share a roundup of books hitting shelves that day. But over here, we get to answer the real question: Should you read it or skip it?\ \ This week's stack was a reminder of just how many directions speculative fiction, horror, and thrillers can take you. We’ve got a wellness retreat that feels one bad decision away from becoming a cult documentary, a Peter Pan retelling that may permanently ruin Neverland for you, a time-travel story that had me both crying and questioning the nature of existence, and a thriller-horror that absolutely steamrolled its way onto my list of favorite books of the year.\ \ As always, these are just my personal reactions. A book that didn't work for me might end up being your next five-star read, and a book I loved may not land the same way for everyone else. That's the fun part of reading.\ \ So let's sort through this week's new releases and figure out which books earned a spot on your TBR and which ones deserve a pass.\ \ \ \ 🩺 Obstetrix\ \ Read or Skip: SKIP\ \ Rating: 3 stars\ \ This is one of those books where I loved the premise more than the execution.\ \ The story follows an OB-GYN who has recently stood trial for performing an abortion in a state with an abortion ban. Just as she's beginning to put her life back together, she's kidnapped by a religious community and forced to provide medical care to the women living there.\ \ That's an incredible setup, and the subject matter feels especially relevant right now.\ \ What worked for me was the tension. Once Liz arrives at the compound, the story becomes genuinely stressful. The pacing moves quickly, the stakes are clear, and there was never a point where I felt bored. This is a relatively short novel, and it keeps the pressure on throughout.\ \ Where it lost me was the emotional depth.\ \ Liz has been through two incredibly traumatic experiences: a highly publicized trial and a kidnapping. Yet she felt surprisingly well-adjusted throughout much of the story. I kept wanting the book to spend more time exploring the psychological aftermath of everything she'd endured.\ \ I also would have loved to see the political and social commentary pushed further. The novel touches on some fascinating ideas surrounding reproductive healthcare, bodily autonomy, and religious extremism, but never digs quite as deeply as I wanted it to.\ \ Final thought: The premise is timely, the pacing is strong, and the tension absolutely works. But if you're hoping for a deeper exploration of the themes it raises, you may find yourself wanting a little more by the end.\ \ \ \ 🌲 The Break-Up Retreat\ \ Read or Skip: READ\ \ Rating: 4.5 stars\ \ An isolated wellness retreat in the Swedish woods. A founder who feels equal parts therapist and cult leader. An undercover journalist trying to uncover the truth behind a string of disappearances.\ \ Say less.\ \ Camilla Sten took a premise I already love and somehow made it feel fresh. The atmosphere is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The entire book feels claustrophobic despite being set in the middle of a forest, and there’s a constant sense that something is wrong long before anyone can prove it.\ \ The first half leans heavily into psychological suspense. The second half shifts into full popcorn-thriller territory with twists, reveals, and plenty of "just one more chapter" energy. I flew through the final hundred pages.\ \ I also loved the mixed-media elements, the suspicious cast of characters, and Isobel as a narrator. She's complicated, messy, and exactly the kind of character I enjoy spending a few hundred pages with.\ \ Final thought: If you love isolated settings, cult vibes, suspicious characters, and thrillers that steadily crank up the paranoia, this is an easy recommendation.\ \ \ \ 🪝 It Came From Neverland\ \ Read or Skip: READ\ \ Rating: 4.5 stars\ \ The moment I saw "Peter Pan meets Stephen King's IT," I knew I was going to read this book.\ \ The good news? It absolutely delivers on that promise.\ \ Set against the backdrop of World War I London, this horror retelling takes everything familiar about Peter Pan and twists it into something genuinely unsettling. The wonder is still there, but it's layered beneath grief, trauma, and a growing sense of dread.\ \ Wendy was easily my favorite part of the story. Years after escaping Peter's grasp, she's still carrying the scars of what happened to her, and now she's forced to confront the nightmare all over again. Her emotional journey gives the story real weight beyond the horror elements.\ \ What I loved most, though, was how the book forces you to reconsider a character we've spent generations viewing as magical and innocent. This version of Peter Pan is something else entirely.\ \ Final thought: If you enjoy dark fairy-tale retellings, atmospheric horror, and stories that take beloved childhood classics and break them in fascinating ways, put this one on your summer reading list.\ \ \ \ ⏳ The Traveler\ \ Read or Skip: READ\ \ Rating: 4 stars\ \ Every once in a while, I finish a book and immediately struggle to explain it.\ \ The Traveler is one of those books.\ \ At its core, it's the story of a father who begins involuntarily jumping forward through time. One day. Then two. Then four. Then years. While Scott is losing pieces of his life in an instant, his son Lyle is growing up without him and dedicating his life to understanding what's happening.\ \ Yes, this is science fiction, but it's also a family saga, a meditation on time, and one of the more thought-provoking books I've read this year.\ \ What impressed me most was how seamlessly it blended deeply personal stakes with massive existential questions. One chapter had me emotional over a father-son relationship. The next had me contemplating humanity's future and our place in the universe.\ \ The second half becomes much more abstract and philosophical, which I suspect will be divisive. For me, it worked. I found it moving, ambitious, and surprisingly emotional.\ \ Final thought: If you loved the emotional heart of The Time Traveler's Wife, the scope of Interstellar, or the high-concept ideas of Dark Matter, this one is worth your attention.\ \ \ \ 🚔 Headlights\ \ Read or Skip: READ IMMEDIATELY\ \ Rating: 5 stars\ \ This is one of my favorite books of 2026.\ \ I went into Headlights expecting a thriller-horror. What I got was part police procedural, part supernatural mystery, part meditation on grief, and one of the most memorable reading experiences I've had all year.\ \ The story follows a deeply traumatized FBI agent pulled back into a horrific case that turns out to be far bigger than anyone realizes. The less you know going in, the better, because this book takes several turns I never saw coming.\ \ What starts as an addictive mystery eventually evolves into something much larger. It's a story about grief. About survival. About the darkness people carry with them. About the things we refuse to let go.\ \ Colorado itself feels like a character. The Stephen King influences are obvious in the best possible way. And there are scenes from this book that I genuinely don't think I'll forget anytime soon.\ \ Final thought: If you love Later, Odd Thomas, Red Dragon, or thriller-horror novels that have something meaningful to say beneath the scares, put this at the top of your TBR immediately.\ \ And that's a wrap on this week's new releases.\ \ If you're looking for my biggest recommendation, it's Headlights without question. If horror isn't your thing, I'd point you toward The Traveler for a thoughtful, emotional science fiction story that will leave you staring into space for a while after you finish it. And if you're in the mood for a page-turner, both The Break-Up Retreat and It Came From Neverland deliver plenty of tension and late-night "just one more chapter" energy.\ \ There are also several other releases hitting shelves this week that I'm excited to get to, including Harvest Season and Light Wielder, two sequels I've been eagerly anticipating.\ \ As always, I'd love to hear from you: Which new release is at the top of your TBR this week?

New Release Roundup: What to Read & What to Skip

4 books

Two Stories Bookshop\ \ Queer-Owned Shelves🌈\ \ • Jun 9

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[Hello, all! Happy New Release Tuesday! There are a few great releases today, so let's jump in!\ \

Headlights by CJ Leede (Ryn's top read of the year so far!)\ \
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo (******)\ \
Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer\ \
The Other by Annie Neugebauer\ \
The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher\ \ \ If you're in the Chicago area, Cynthia Pelayo will be in conversation tonight with Christina Henry about their two Peter Pan-inspired books at Bucket 'o' Blood at 6:30pm!\ \ Recent reads include:\ \
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo\ \
Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle\ \
He Will Have the World by David-Jack Fletcher\ \
Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm\ \
American Rapture by CJ Leede\ \
Phoning Faust by Sophia Mutiara Nova\ \ \ I would recommend them all! My favorite recent read is a tie between It Came From Neverland and Our Cut of Salt, but I think they were all solid reads! Have you read any of the books mentioned above? If you want to pick them up, please use our Bookshop.org link!\ \ Till next time!\ \ -Ryn](https://twostoriesbookshop.binderybooks.com/item/ztjVvp48fCyFtFiswqYt/)

June 9 Releases

10 books

Ronnica Reads\ \ Ronnica Fatt\ \ • Jun 8

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I had a staycation last week, so it feels like we JUST had a Tuesday new release...but here we are again! \ \ Here are the new releases on my radar:\ \ Headlights by CJ Leede\ \ Why it interests me: after Maeve Fly and American Rapture, I am absolutely interested in whatever CJ puts out, and preordered this without knowing anything but the title.\ \ Pool House by Mary HK Choi\ \ Why it interests me: a messy mother and daughter dealing with grief. I still have Yolk on my immediate TBR, but I have high hopes for both.\ \ Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer\ \ Why it interests me: reproductive justice speculative fiction.\ \ Strangers Behind Closed Doors by Catherine Adel West\ \ Why it interests me: a mystery set in a high-end hotel.\ \ I'll Take the Fire by Leila Slimani\ \ Why it interests me: autobiographical novel featuring a queer Moroccan coming of age. I actually sat down to read it when I realized it was a 3rd book in a series...I will be getting to it though.\ \ The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher\ \ Why it interests me: romantasy with dark academia vibes.

June 9th New Releases by Marginalized Authors

8 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 7

The Sunday Prescription: June 7, 2026

One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.

7 books

Sarah Does Bookish Stuff\ \ Sarah\ \ • Jun 1

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[Dang, May was a decent month for reading. I ended up at 16 total books and I want to write a little bit about them! 16 is a lot so I won't go into too much detail. In the future, I'll be sharing longer-form reviews that give a lot more of my takeaways so be on the lookout for those!\ \ Toothsucker by Kaden Love\ \ I was fortunate to listen to the audiobook of this and I enjoyed it a lot. The narrator had the perfect cadence for the book. It surprised me! It wasn't what I expected and significantly more cyberpunk than I realized. The world is fun, weird, gross, and weaves in a lot of political themes. Kaden is clearly just having a blast writing this and I feel like authors who have fun always make something incredible.\ \ Headlights by C.J. Leede\ \ I could write a dissertation on the beauty of this book. Truly. I read the ARC, cried my eyes out, and preordered a signed copy. This book lives in me. It did something to my brain. Leede has a magnetic writing style I couldn't stop devouring. How she threaded in folk horror to her work was creative and considerate. Her characters and how they're connected, their pasts, and the way they find meaning in each other, however, was so beautiful. Also, I am having a hard time explaining why a woman eating a man's finger during sex is heart-achingly romantic.\ \ The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang\ \ I don't understand why people didn't adore this book. I mean, I do, but I don't. Kuang is incredibly good at making it less clear what it means to be a hero. This book showed the horror of genocide and the aftermath of Rin's destructive meltdown at the end of The Poppy War, plus the lingering ghost of Altan coloring her view of the world. Kuang is fantastic at showing Rin's imperfections and giving us depth and color to Nezah that made me fall in love with him - yes, even in the ending. Every character is their own ecosystem of motivation and an exploration of nature versus nurture. I LOVE her character work. \ \ The Burning God by R.F. Kuang\ \ This was my favorite in the series, just fantastic. It's bleak, but its raw and visceral and real. Rin isn't a moral paragon and I think people disliked that, but I absolutely loved it. Rin begins to realize she has no foresight and no plan, she struggles in the way a young person with too much power and no guidance would struggle. She has nobody left to turn to and has to figure it out, which makes her struggle and suffer in personal ways. It turns the war from abstract to overt and she has to contend with the different facets of having power. The power of a god, an army, a country... and she does not handle it well. I thought the ending was deft, Kuang tells you how it has to end the entire time and people just weren't paying attention. \ \ A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab\ \ Holland mt love. My absolute perfect book husband. This book was an extraordinary sequel and gave us such a fun experience. Schwab is a master of character work, it's impossible not to fall in love with all of them. I really enjoyed how she showed Holland's history and why he is the way he is. I think he is one of the most complex, beautiful characters I've read in a long time. I could write a treatise in his defense. He didn't have what Kell had and if he did, he would have been extremely similar. Holland knew only suffering in his world and still he only ever sought to change it for the better. \ \ A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab\ \ A phenomenal final entry into the first era. Just amazing. Deep characters, meaningful arcs, all knots tied with enough left to come back. I love how fantastical and whimsical this world is while feeling threatening and deep. I stand by all my previously sung praises for Holland, they could never make me hate him. It could only ever end one way, even if it broke my heart. Still, no matter what, I will always be delusionally hopeful Era 2 might change something about it.\ \ Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne\ \ This was a significant bar-raise from Malice and Valor. I know The Faithful and the Fallen is a crowd favorite, but I'm only finding it alright. Nothing about it sticks to me. I liked Shadow of the Gods, but I don't get the cinematic click everyone else seems to. It's fun, predictable, with distinct characters, but nothing about it really blew me away. I like Orka, but she isn't a favorite in my house. I'm not sure if Gwynne's writing style is just not for me? \ \ Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao\ \ I wanted to love this. I did. I loved Iron Widow so much, it was a neck-breaking fever dream that played out like a dramatic anime in my mind. Zhao just bogged this down in so much theory and interjected way too much modernism that it drowned the story for me. Eventually, hearing the fifth iterative explanation of communism versus socialism just turns to white noise in my head. Plus, the introduction of the Emperor and the disappearance of Yizhi and Shimin for most of the story made my interest in the three of them fade. \ \ The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling\ \ Okay this was exactly the kind of weird medieval cannibal lesbian nun book I was hoping for. Starling makes you work for it. People described it as "slow", but I disagree completely. Starling makes every sentence matter, she forces you to focus and pay attention to what she is saying. Her commentary on weak leadership, the fallibility of man, isolation, duty, honor, disconnection, community... all of it was perfectly captured in this claustrophobic horror novel. Plus, I would let Ser Voyne do unspeakable things to me, but she would never. Too much honor. \ \ The Starless Crown by James Rollins\ \ This book is AMAZING. Sci-fantasy peak. I can't believe more people aren't reading and loving it. This trilogy is incredibly inventive and creative, the world is realistic and strange. Rollins built characters who are insightful and a villain that truly shocked me to my core. I didn't expect a surprise villain because who does that?! Rollins is known for his sci-fi thrillers, so I think people expect this to be the same, but I assure you it's anything but. I can't wait to continue this series!\ \ The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten\ \ How I wanted to love this, but I only felt okay about it. I loved The Foxglove King and enjoyed The Hemlock Queen, but this one felt a bit messy and crowded. The added perspective for Alie was great, I wish it had been included starting in Book 2. I didn't love the ending, but I loved that we got to see so much change and see how Lore's enduring love for her men carried her through the worst losses of her life. I wish we had more explanation about why Lore's arc ended the way it did, the Fount's motivations felt dubious to me. However, I still read it in two days and Whitten has a beautifully addictive style of writing no matter what. \ \ The Daughters' War by Christopher Buehlman\ \ Galva dom Braga is my book wife and I will follow her to the ends of the earth. Buehlman wrote something so special that this book is basically family now. The tone is completely different from The Blacktongue Thief, first in the series, but it should be and it works wonders for this story. His world is so gritty and intense, it's creative and sharp and still funny in a different way. Galva's story is a harrowing, tragic explanation about who she is and how she came to be the Ispanthian warrior we know and love. I adored this book. This book was magical. It feels like listening to a story at a campfire and I urge people to try this series. \ \ The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo\ \ What a unique read this was! I love foxes and all the mythology around them, but Choo did something fantastical with it. This story was not just about Snow overcoming her grief and her thirst for revenge, it was about the subtle differences in fox mythology around East Asia and how the British occupation was slowly erasing the cultural identity of so many countries. Bao's tale wasn't just solving the crime of a peculiar death, it was teaching readers about cultural practices and regional differences and how women were oppressed in more ways than just foot binding in China. \ \ The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes\ \ This book was a miraculous work of weird fiction. I am so emotional about it it's bizarre. What masterful storytelling and unbelievable prose! Ennes is a stunning writer that manages to make stab wounds into poetry. This world wove art and politics together until they were not separate from one another. They showed you how tyrants are born in a slow drip, not a flood. So much more went into this. The ease around trans identity, control versus love, how sociopolitical rot destroys a society, our unresolved mistakes always come back to us, and so much more. I can't even speak about the characters because to do so is to reveal the story, which I would never want to do. I didn't expect a story about extermination to move me like this. \ \ House of Chains by Steven Erikson\ \ Erikson really flexed on his readers with this one. He proved he can hold a single character POV in his hands and simply chooses not to because that's not what the story demands. This book was a real open-faucet torrent of his background in archaeology and anthropology. He has so many poignant things to say about cultures formed on the bones of each other, changing worlds and ever-changing societies, etc. Plus he managed to pull off one of the greatest redemption arcs I've ever read. Lookin' at you, Karsa. \ \ A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett\ \ Convinced RJB isn't capable of writing anything short of fantastic. This mystery was wild and the world is so bizarre and fun, I never want to leave it. I love how Bennett's goal isn't to solve this world's ills or take out its Empire or change the leviathans, it's just to show you a glimpse of the bigger way the machine of it functions. We learn a bit more about Ana and who she is every book through these mysteries that feel like a fever dream. Dinios Kol remains my disaster bisexual son who misses the love of his life and just won't admit it to himself. The problem is that if he won't, Ana will. \ \ This was an amazing month for reading! I got through a lot of books and only didn't squeeze ONE from my original TBR into the mix. I am so fortunate to have walked away loving so many of them this month, too. I actually changed The Works of Vermin from a 4.5 to a 5 because it sat with me that much. I had TWO 5-star reads this month:\ \

Headlights by C.J. Leede\ \
The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes\ \ \ June will be a deviation from my regularly scheduled reading programming as I'm doing my very first read through and analysis of Throne of Glass! I'm calling it June of Glass! Which is ridiculous! \ \ I'm looking forward to analyzing what about this series speaks to people and trying to piece together how Sarah J. Maas was able to captivate a generation of woman readers from multiple ages and bring them into reading again. Be on the lookout for my analysis of the first book - Throne of Glass.](https://sarahdoesbookishstuff.binderybooks.com/item/KqlWx7tQrzNV0FlNt9ut/)

May Reading Recap!

15 books

Death by TBR Books\ \ Stephanie\ \ • May 9

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April was full of strange women, unraveling minds, body horror, caves, literary magic, and at least one scene that permanently altered my brain chemistry.\ \ 📖 LOVED\ \ The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer is easily in my top three books of 2026 so far. I related to the main character so much and the anxiety running through this book felt painfully real at times. The tension never lets up. It just slowly tightens around you until every interaction feels wrong in the best possible way. One of those books where you start questioning everyone and everything alongside the protagonist.\ \ Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os completely caught me off guard. Weird, sexy, feral, uncomfortable. Exactly the kind of book I love stumbling into without really knowing what I’m about to experience. It felt messy and human and emotionally raw in a way that really worked for me.\ \ Headlights by C.J. Leede proves once again that C.J. Leede apparently refuses to let readers know peace. There is at least one scene in this book that is going to live in my brain forever like a cursed VHS tape. I loved this more than American Rapture, though Maeve Fly still owns a permanent section of my soul.\ \ The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer had me from the first few pages. A blend of whodunnit, fantasy, and literary love letter with the kind of cozy magic that makes you want to disappear into a rainy bookstore for a weekend. I already know this is a reread for me.\ \ Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams was our book club pick and Taylor Adams really knows how to create panic-inducing situations. The cave imagery especially got under my skin in a very claustrophobic way.\ \ Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir... that ending. Absolute chef’s kiss. Quietly unsettling in a way that sneaks up on you.\ \ 📖 LIKED\ \ The Cove by Claire Rose had a really strong atmosphere, but the plot became a little confusing for me by the end.\ \ My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Part 2 by Emil Ferris is still visually incredible, but I just wasn’t as emotionally pulled in as I hoped to be.\ \ Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer had a fascinating concept, though the pacing felt a little repetitive for me at times.\ \ 📖 NOT FOR ME\ \ Odessa by Gabrielle Sher just never fully grabbed my attention.\ \ Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth leaned way too heavily into world building for my personal taste.\ \ Body Count by Codie Crowley unfortunately just didn’t work for me. The dialogue and character voices felt a little too cringy and whiny.\ \ Abyss by Nicholas Binge sounded like something I should have loved on paper, but it never fully hooked me emotionally.\ \ Shoot Me in the Face on a Beautiful Day by Emma E. Murray wasn’t bad at all, it was just a little too emotionally heavy for me personally without enough light breaking through by the end.\ \ ❓What was your favorite read of April?\ \ Join for free or login

April Reads: Body Horror, Book Witches, & Emotional Damage

12 books

Death by TBR Books\ \ Stephanie\ \ • Apr 11

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I've read almost 50 books this year so far. A few on my list I had been looking forward to since early 2025. Some left me disappointed and others just weren't very memorable or were challenging for me to follow. As an author I know now how challenging it is to write a book and put a piece of yourself into the world. And with that I won't negatively review any book. I am just not the reader for certain books.\ \ So let's break down my top 5 reads of 2026 (so far) in no particular order. Headlights by CJ Leede was a recent read and really shows how much Leede cares about the environment and animals. I love how she focuses on a part of the country with every book. Maeve Fly will always be my favorite of hers. American Rapture wasn't my favorite so I was a bit nervous about reading Headlights. It broke my heart and while CJ did put it back together it was done so in a messy way. It was haunting, heartbreaking, and sad. I'm not sure if I'll reread it as right now I am enjoying reading lighter horror or cozy horror.\ \ Now some may not consider Morsel, Nothing Tastes as Good, and Trad Wife lighter but I do because they have parts in them that are so off the wall. Parts I did not see coming AT ALL and I loved that. I laughed at parts and thought "good for them" numerous times. This is my new favorite genre of horror. Not sure what to call it but for me all of these are in it.\ \ The Caretaker grabbed me from the beginning and I was led through a wild ride. I'd say most of the decisions the MC make are ones I would have made too because money troubles are very relatable. I'm definitely going to read more fantasy and sci-fi this year too. I'm not sure where to start but I'm excited to dive into other genres.\ \ What are your favorite reads of 2026 (so far)?\ \ Join for free or login