I went to the beach post-marathon, and let me tell you, I needed the getaway. Ocean waves are truly my brain’s hard reset.
I read 5 books while laying in the sand and trying to fix my runner’s tan. My ratings and reviews are below and also up on The StoryGraph!
I also picked up one of the books I read at the beach! I stopped by The Buzzed Word, a bookstore and wine shop in Ocean City, Maryland, and it’s now one of my favorite indie bookstores. Books and wine? The best time.
Let me know if you’ve read any of these books or have visited The Buzzed Word!
1. Queen’s Hope: Star Wars: Queen Trilogy #3
By E.K. Johnston
Padmé Amidala faces a time of war in another thrilling adventure from the author of the New York Times best-sellers Queen’s Peril and Queen’s Shadow!
Padmé is adjusting to being a wartime senator during the Clone Wars. Her secret husband, Anakin Skywalker, excels at being a wartime Jedi. In contrast, Padmé is horrified by the casualties on the war-torn front lines.
Meanwhile, Padmé’s handmaiden Sabé steps into the role of Senator Amidala. Sabé is equally horrified by the machinations that happen there. She comes face-to-face with a gut-wrenching decision as she realizes she cannot fight a war this way, not even for Padmé. Chancellor Palpatine hovers over it all, manipulating everyone to his own ends…
The stakes have never been higher for the galaxy.
Review:
★★★★
A satisfying conclusion to the series! I’m absolutely the target audience as a Star Wars fan with an obsession for all things Padme and handmaidens. I was truly alive when (no spoilers) Sabe and Anakin’s paths finally crossed. Can’t wait to dive back in to the Darth Vader comics now that I have this backstory.
2. The Bog Wife
By Kay Chronister
A “haunting, brilliant” Appalachian folktale evoking the Southern gothic suspense of Sharp Objects and the eco spine-tinglers of Jeff Vandermeer (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts).
Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured.
Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails–or refuses–to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.
Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.
At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.
Review:
★★★★
Eco-horror in Appalachia? Say less. There were places I wish the book went, but truthfully, between the descriptive writing and the boggish concept, this was art.
3. What Moves the Dead
By T. Kingfisher
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
Review:
★★★★
This novella and retelling of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” delivered on the vibes. Wanted more in terms of character relationships and development, but I quite enjoyed myself with this one. Give me all the fungal horror.
4. The River Has Roots
By Amal El-Mohtar
The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.
The hardcover edition features beautiful interior illustrations.
“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.
There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.
But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
Review:
★★★★★
Weeped and kicked my heels over this fairytale novella. Sisters? Fae? Magic woods? Music? Five stars from me. No notes.
5. Eat the Ones You Love
By Sarah Maria Griffin
A twisted, tangled story about first love and identity—and plants with a taste for human flesh
During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Michelle “Shelly” Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window, and decides that she can be exactly the help the florist needs. She’s recently left her fiancé, and lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house during the strange, dull thick of the pandemic – she needs something good. Flowers are good, she decides, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help.
However, an orchid growing nearby is watching her, closely. His name is Baby, and Neve, who runs the little flower shop belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody, he eats – can satisfy the thing he most desires. Neve. She who has tended to him since he was a seedling. Or, something resembling a seedling, at least. He adores her, and wants to consume her – and he thinks Shelly can help him.
This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and why we want to eat the ones we love. It is about things that grow, like hunger, and desire, which sometimes can feel a lot like the very same thing.
Review:
★★★★
Went into this without any expectations, and from the other reviews I’ve read/heard, that was to my benefit. I was absolutely the target reader, and I swear I have a comeback for every criticism. The allegory of narcissistic men, abusive relationships, and trauma bonds is unmatched. The chill I got with that POV shift to the plant was unnerving in the best way. Adored how the book was in four parts coinciding with the growth and death of plants. Hated most of the characters but loved hating them, and it added to the meaning: shitty people don’t deserve manipulation either; they deserve autonomy too.
Not only did I relax at the beach, I read 5 books and discovered my new favorite sub-genre: eco horror. Give me all your eco-horror recommendations!
Morgan Vega 