Happy pub day!! This week’s releases had me bouncing between obsession, deep thinking, and a couple “hmm…we’re not quite there” moments 👀

We’ve got haunted libraries, ghost-filled cities, body autonomy conversations that will sit with you, and a few that didn’t fully stick the landing for me.

Let’s get into it.

🏛️ The Library After Dark

Read or skip: READ
Rating: 5 stars

This one?? I was addicted.

A haunted library. A private after-dark tour. Themed rooms. Poisoned books. Dark fairy tale interludes. A group of people trapped inside with secrets absolutely rotting beneath the surface.

Yes. Immediately yes.

I loved this author’s debut, You Are Fatally Invited, so my expectations were already high, and somehow this exceeded them.

What worked so well for me is that the library doesn’t just feel like a backdrop. It feels alive. Every room has its own atmosphere, every detail feels slightly cursed, and the entire time you’re wondering who is lying, who is dangerous, and what really happened before these characters ever walked through the doors.

This is the kind of locked-room thriller that understands atmosphere is not decoration. It’s the whole point.

Final thought: A twisty, immersive thriller for readers who love books about books, unreliable characters, and settings with teeth.

🪽 Enormous Wings

Read or skip: READ
Rating: 4.5 stars

This is the one I haven’t been able to shake.

On the surface, it’s about a seventy-seven-year-old woman who moves into a retirement community and then receives a shocking medical diagnosis: she’s pregnant.

But underneath that, this book is asking much harder questions about bodily autonomy, aging, dignity, motherhood, and who gets to make decisions when everyone thinks they know what’s best for you.

And somehow?? It balances all of that with warmth, humor, friendship, and found family.

Pepper is feisty, stubborn, funny, and deeply human. Watching her push back against the people and systems trying to speak for her instead of with her was empowering, but also deeply uncomfortable in the best way.

Because this book makes you sit with the line between care and control.

Final thought: A beautiful, timely, surprisingly funny story about agency, aging, family, and what happens when the world decides your body is up for debate.

🩸 I Know a Place

Read or skip: READ if you like horror, gore, and unhinged short fiction
Rating: 4 stars

Nat Cassidy said, “Let’s take a little detour,” and then immediately drove us straight into the weirdest, bloodiest, most cursed corners imaginable.

This collection is not what I would recommend as your first Nat Cassidy if you’re new to him. I still think his full-length novels are the better entry point. But if you already like his brain? This is such a solid collection.

There are gas stations from hell, creepy children, haunted spaces, ventriloquist dolls, cursed intimacy, body horror, religious horror, and stories that made me go: “I’m sorry…what did I just read?”

Not every story landed equally for me, which is pretty normal with collections, but the ones that worked really worked. My favorites leaned into that blend of wild concept, emotional undercurrent, and absolutely disgusting imagery.

And honestly? Sometimes you just need a book that is here to be gross, weird, and deeply unsettling.

Final thought: A strong horror collection for existing Nat Cassidy fans, especially if you like your horror bloody, bizarre, and emotionally sharper than expected.

👻 The Girl with a Thousand Faces

Read or skip: READ
Rating: 5 stars

This was haunting in the exact way I wanted it to be.

A historical gothic fantasy set in Hong Kong, full of ghosts, grief, memory, war trauma, and women who refuse to stay quiet? I was locked in.

The atmosphere here is stunning. Kowloon Walled City feels claustrophobic, haunted, and alive with history. Mercy Chan is a ghost-talker with a missing past, and as the story unfolds, it becomes less about simply defeating a spirit and more about confronting the pain everyone would rather bury.

And that’s where this book really got me.

The ghosts are terrifying, yes, but the human horrors underneath them are what linger. War. Grief. Survival. Generational trauma. The cost of forgetting. The cost of remembering.

This is gothic fantasy that feels layered, strange, and emotionally brutal in the best way.

Final thought: A ghost story with teeth, grief, and history pressing in from every side.

A Founding Mother

Read or skip: READ
Rating: 4.25 stars

I love when historical fiction reminds you that history was not just built by the men whose names ended up in bold print.

This book follows Abigail Adams during the early years of the American Revolution, and what I appreciated most was how much it centers her labor, intelligence, resilience, and voice.

Yes, she was married to John Adams. Yes, she became First Lady. But this story is much more interested in who she was before and around those titles: a mother, a farmer, a strategist, a woman managing a household during war and political upheaval, and someone brave enough to speak her mind when the world was not exactly eager to listen.

It’s informative without feeling dry, and timely in a way that really works with the 250th anniversary of the country coming up.

Also, the author’s notes? Must-read. I love when historical fiction gives you that extra context around what’s true, what’s imagined, and what had to be shaped for the story.

Final thought: A thoughtful, timely historical novel about a woman ahead of her time and the power behind the scenes of a nation being born.

✍️ Five Weeks in the Country

Read or skip: MAYBE READ
Rating: 3.5 stars

This one has such a distinct tone from the very beginning.

It’s quiet. Heavy. Melancholic. And honestly, a little uncomfortable in a way that feels very intentional.

The story imagines Hans Christian Andersen’s real-life visit to Charles Dickens’ home, and let’s just say… this is not exactly a cozy author sleepover. Andersen feels awkward, misplaced, and painfully aware that he doesn’t quite belong. Every interaction has this strained quality to it, like everyone is trying to be polite while also silently begging the visit to end.

What stood out most to me was Andersen himself. There’s this sadness to him, this uncertainty, like he can’t quite see his own worth or where he fits in the world.

And that part worked for me.

It’s not always the easiest read, and the tone may not be for everyone, but it does tap into something very human: that feeling of being out of place, even among people you admire.

Final thought: A quiet, character-driven historical novel for readers who like literary melancholy, emotional awkwardness, and imagined gaps in real history.

🔒 Payback

Read or skip: SKIP
Rating: 3 stars

This one had a premise that immediately hooked me.

A luxury weekend prison for the wealthy. Seven inmates. A dead guard. A storm. A murder mystery inside a facility where privilege still finds a way to make incarceration more comfortable.

That setup? Fascinating.

And learning about pay-to-stay prisons was genuinely one of the most interesting parts of the book. It’s one of those details where fiction and reality blur in a way that makes you pause.

But the story itself didn’t fully deliver for me.

There’s an early twist that makes a bold choice, but it also removes one of the most compelling pieces from the board too soon. After that, the book settled into something more familiar and predictable than I wanted.

I wanted more bite. More depth. More tension from such a strong concept.

Final thought: Interesting premise, but the execution felt too surface-level for me to fully recommend.

💻 A Zoom with a View

Read or skip: SKIP
Rating: 3 stars

This one is hard because I can see exactly what it was trying to do.

Small town. Messy relationships. A murder. A complicated mother-daughter dynamic. A love triangle. A snarky subreddit thread that honestly might have been my favorite part.

The ingredients were there.

But for me, it never fully came together.

The main character felt stuck in a level of emotional immaturity that made it hard for me to stay invested in her choices, and when a book is built around relationships, that disconnect really matters.

I also needed the ending to feel more resolved. Not perfectly wrapped up, but more satisfying than what we got.

That said, the subreddit element was genuinely fun, and I wish the book had leaned into that structure even more.

Final thought: A few clever pieces, but the emotional payoff wasn’t strong enough for me.

🍽️ Supper Club Saints

Read or skip: READ
Rating: 5 stars

Oh this one?? This one got me.

The story opens with the youngest daughter returning home after disappearing for two years to join a cult-like “mommune,” and immediately you know this is going to dig into something deeper than just the surface-level drama.

And it does.

This is a multi-POV story following the women of the Simon family, and what I loved most is how much care the author gives to each of them. Every choice, every reaction, every complicated relationship, it all feels rooted in something real.

Motherhood is at the center of this story, but not in a soft, idealized way. It’s messy. It’s emotional. It’s shaped by trauma, expectations, generational patterns, and the constant pressure of trying to do better than what came before you… while still figuring out what “better” even means.

Cass’s time in the mommune is especially fascinating because you can see how manipulation works slowly, subtly. It doesn’t feel exaggerated. It feels believable. Which makes it hit even harder.

But what really stayed with me was the relationship between the sisters. Even while navigating their own struggles (infertility, identity, past wounds), they show up for each other in ways that feel honest and earned.

Final thought: A deeply emotional, beautifully written story about motherhood, identity, forgiveness, and the complicated ways women love each other.

Overall, this week had some serious standouts and a couple that didn’t quite hit—but the highs? Very high.

If you’re picking from this list, start with The Library After Dark or The Girl with a Thousand Faces… and if you’re feeling brave, I Know a Place is waiting for you 😈

As always, I want to know: what are you picking up first?