Moth

“Our Wives Under the Sea”

by Julia Armfield

Finished: February 15th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Six months later than predicted, Leah returns home from her deep-sea exhibition. Yet some part of her is missing, and something new is emerging. How does love and self survive when identity is stripped, and fighting for the past no longer feels plausible?

“Red, White and Royal Blue”

By Casey McQuiston

Finished: February 3rd Format: eBook Overall Rating: ★★★★★

What happens when two sarcastic, twenty-somethings who have no privacy and no self-preservation fall for each other? Some disaster, private jets to fix miscommunication, and a worldwide catalyst for LGBTQ pride.

“The Puma Years: A Memoir”

by Laura Coleman

Finished: January 27th Format: eBook Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

A recounting of Coleman's time at what she affectionately calls “the parque” and her deep love and bond with a puma named Wayra. Throughout this memoir, we follow Coleman as she learns who she is, how to tackle her fears, and how to fight for the world and the animals she helps care for and protect.

“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier

Finished: January 24th Format: eBook Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

A gothic “psychological thriller” recounting a young woman as she marries an older gentleman, Mr. Maxim de Winter, an esteemed widower and owner of the well-known estate named “ The Manderley”. Throughout this novel, we follow our unnamed narrator as she falls in love with Maxim and becomes a shadow of a person in comparison to Maxim’s late wife, Rebecca. Though this novel was very long and wordy, it was very intriguing, as we uncover what happened to Rebecca, and who Maxim and our narrator truly are in the face of peril.

“The Mysterious Study of Doctor

Sex” by Tamsyn Muir

Finished: January 15th Format: eBook Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

First novel of the year!

A side story to the Locked Tomb Series follows teenage Palamedes and Camilla in the Sixth House as they are recruited to uncover the locked study of a “Doctor Sex”. However, upon entry, things are not as they seem, and quickly, young Camilla and Palamedes decipher a secret that was left hundreds of years ago.

Officially read 50 books this year! Here is a glimpse into all the books I have read, a collection of mostly Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Biographies.

“Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer

Finished: December 20th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

The first novel in the “Southern Reach” series, following an unnamed narrator, called “Biologist”, and three other women, “Anthropologist”, “Physicologist”, and “Surveyor”, on an expedition to a supernatural region called “Area X”. However, everything escalates to the extreme as the biologist becomes infected by an unknown fungus, and the psychologist becomes dangerous.

“Bluets” by Maggie Nelson

Finished: December 12th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

A short collection of poems and essays surrounding the compulsion, love, and impact of the color blue throughout Maggie Nelson's life. This collection, an incredible feat of vulnerability, engulfs the reader in waves of sorrow, helplessness, and grief for a past we have not experienced.

Although this collection was relatively short, it was profound and multifaceted through Nelson’s seemingly effortless ability to unravel herself, her yearning, her loss, and her subconscious desire and endless search for blue.

“Wedding People” by Alison Espach

Finished: December 9th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

A wild-card read, and a rollercoaster from start to finish in the best way possible, “Wedding People” by Alison Espach, was an incredible story of how, when life goes miserably wrong, being in the right place at the right time can change your life forever.

“We‘ll Prescribe You Another Cat”

by Syou Ishida

Finished: December 1st Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

The sequel to “We’ll Prescribe You a Cat”, this novel dives deeper into the lore of the first novel, revealing the true identity of Dr. Nikké and his struggle to keep the clinic open as he waits for a final patient. In this novel, however, as all the patients (except for one) are interconnected with one another, as they are all friends or related. This novel (like the first) is broken up into chapters named after the cats being prescribed. These cats are: Kotesu, Noella, and Bibi (one chapter), Tatsuya and Shasha (one chapter), Ms. Michiko, and Hajime and Nikké (one chapter).

“Cleopatra and Frankenstein”

by Coco Mellors

Finished: November 19th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

“Cleopatra and Frankenstein” follows the story of the infamous characters Cleo and Frank, more affectionately known as Cleopatra and Frankenstein, as they impulsively decide to marry each other despite their significant differences ( the most notable being their age difference, as Cleo is 24 and Frank is 45).

“Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang

Finished: November 16th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★☆ ☆

The newest release from R.F. Kaung, “Katabasis,” depicts a world full of magic and a version of hell unlike anyone has seen before. In this novel, we follow the two college students/magicians, Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, as they venture into hell to save the awful professor Jacob Grimes, whom they both believe they are at fault for killing. However, this hell is not like anything seen before, as it is not Dante's Inferno with nine circles, but an endless walk where hell appears to the magicians in the form of Cambridge. As Alice and Peter rekindle their past “relationship,” what compels each other towards magic and to the act of accidentally killing their professor is revealed, and a bond between them is formed.

“Daisy Jones & the Six”

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Finished: November 8th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

A “audio transcript interview” of the infamous Daisy Jones and the Six long after their first (and final) tour together. Throughout this novel, we follow each member of the band (as well as other people in the band's orbit) as The Six formed and created their iconic sound, the consequential entering of Daisy Jones, and the shattering end of the band.

This novel had been on my list since the TV adaptation came out. The premise of a fictionalized but heavily 70’s band really caught my attention as I love nothing more than music from this era. And upon picking up the book, I was immediately intrigued by the written format of this novel, transcripts.

“Milk Fed” by Melissa Broder

Finished: November 4th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

A fantastic and genuinely wild novel by Melissa Broder, “Milk Fed” shows us the reality of being fucked up in your 20s. Rachel, a repressed queer, Jewish woman with an eating disorder, has her whole life turned around when she falls in love with someone who is all the things she fears: Miriam, an unabashed, fat, practicing Jewish woman who works at a frozen yogurt shop. The two navigate what it is like to be closeted and Jewish, while Rachel also discovers what it is like to enjoy food and love herself as she forms a healthy relationship with her body.

“Invisible Things” by Mat Johnson

Finished: November 2nd Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Would I read this book again? No

A novel depicting what happens when all the people who have gone missing over generations have somehow been collected on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, and what happens when this dystopia is discovered.

Throughout this novel, we follow a variety of main characters, who all end up on Europa. However, the reader follows the narration of the main character, Nalini Jackson, as she witnesses how life can quickly change and what happens when you adapt to or reject an alternate reality that has been chosen for you.

“The Tusks of Extinction”

by Ray Nayler

Finished: October 26th Format: Book Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

A science fiction novel following the main character, Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an elephant scientist and activist, who, decades after being murdered, is asked to lead and save a herd of woolly mammoths who have been brought back from extinction. As well as two side characters, Svyatoslav, a young boy who is forced into mammoth hunting with his father, and Vladimir, the husband of a rich trophy hunter who has his eyes set on the mammoths.