Books I've Rated 4.5 / 5

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  One Yellow Eye

  by Leigh Radford

  Finished 2026-02-01

  I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s very accessible, really keeps you coming back, but it’s also got a lot of layers to it. There is a point in the second act—when she starts trying to recruit for human trials herself—where I briefly felt like “wow, has this gone off the rails” but it’s resolved in a satisfying way that makes sense in-universe and advances the plot. I was not really prepared for how it would end, which was unexpected but actually a really great way to end it. The fact that this story was inspired by the author watching her father die of cancer really adds something to the overall impact of the story, to me.

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  The Second Death of Locke

  by V.L. Bovalino

  Finished 2025-12-26

  I really liked this book. The magic is interesting, the characters are sympathetic and compelling, and the romance is sweet and sincere. I think the third act lost me a little bit as action films sometimes do—I start to tune out when the conflicts get larger and less personal—but it never zoomed too far out, and I think it stuck the landing well-enough, albeit with a bit of a deus ex machina, almost literally, averting any significant stakes.

  The book also does admirably at injecting a pretty familiar Arthurian fantasy setting with some subversion of the Anglo puritanism you might expect, and I think it did it very naturally, and in a number of ways that allowed characters to simply be rather than needing to provide some narrative purpose in their identity. Though it’s probably worth noting that the central protagonists are by all appearances cis and though the characters are bi, the central romance is straight. Which is of course OK! But it does then leave the trans and nonbinary characters, and queer stories, in the background.

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  Age of Legend The First Empire. Roman

  by Michael J. Sullivan

  Finished 2025-11-03

  Most of these epic fantasy series start to lose me as they get this deep into the series, because the stakes get too broad, and even focusing on the characters, I just lose the sense of who’s who (and, to be fair, I definitely mix up names in this one, which is probably made worse by listening to the audiobook) and so I can’t identify with the stakes, the storylines, etc. But I really enjoyed this one. The stakes are large but the focus of the story still remains on characters that I connect to and root for.

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  The Lies You Wrote

  by Brianna Labuskes

  Finished 2025-09-30

  This was a very satisfying thriller/mystery. I liked the linguistic angle and for the most part I think it was convincing – I’m not a linguist but I do think there are times when one reads a book and the writer’s actual lack of expertise is apparent, and I don’t think that was the case here. The payoff, the resolution, was certainly spectacular, but it didn’t feel unearned or out of left field. I really enjoyed it, start to finish.

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  Katabasis

  by R.F. Kuang

  Finished 2025-09-05
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  The Woman in Suite 11

  by Ruth Ware

  Finished 2025-07-13

  My recollection is that I liked but didn’t love The Woman in Cabin 10, although I don’t remember specifically why. This one, I loved. Even when I thought I’d figured it out, or even when I kind of did have it figured out, I didn’t. Fun, twisty, engaging. Ware is such a great thriller writer.

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  Black Pill How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics

  by Elle Reeve

  Finished 2025-05-31
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  Semiosis A novel of first contact

  by Sue Burke

  Finished 2025-03-16
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  Impossible Creatures

  by Katherine Rundell

  Finished 2025-02-14

  This has been getting major marketing and though the cover had me interested right away I was a bit skeptical for that reason (that and it was presented in one store very closely connected to the now-poisoned HP franchise). But boy, I really enjoyed it. It’s comfortable and built on a lot of tropes, but in a really nice way. The world felt distinct, and the characters were charming. The writing is smart and not at all cynical, and it’s hard to write without cynicism and not come off as saccharine. Definitely recommend.

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  How Civil Wars Start And How to Stop Them

  by Barbara F. Walter

  Finished 2025-01-23
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  The Book That Wouldn't Burn

  by Mark Lawrence

  Finished 2024-11-09
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  Children of Memory

  by Adrian Tchaikovsky

  Finished 2024-09-06
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  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

  by Gabrielle Zevin

  Finished 2024-05-09
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  End of Story

  by A.J. Finn

  Finished 2024-03-26

  Honestly the mystery wrapped up really nicely with nothing coming out of thin air and yet I didn’t figure basically any of it out. A very satisfying mystery with what I think is a well-handled “trans!” twist that doesn’t belittle the character, reduce her to the twist, or treat her as abnormal. But I’m an outsider there as a cis dude so maybe I’m off base.

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  The Golden Enclaves

  by Naomi Novik

  Finished 2024-03-20

  I really enjoyed the first two books but this one took it to a whole new level and I loved it. A great end to the trilogy.