Pauline's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:52:42 -0700 60 Pauline's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Burning Chrome 21940560 Best-known for his seminal sf novel Neuromancer, William Gibson is actually best when writing short fiction. Tautly-written and suspenseful, Burning Chrome collects 10 of his best short stories with a preface from Bruce Sterling, now available for the first time in trade paperback. These brilliant, high-resolution stories show Gibson's characters and intensely-realized worlds at his absolute best, from the chip-enhanced couriers of "Johnny Mnemonic" to the street-tech melancholy of "Burning Chrome."

]]> 223 William Gibson Pauline 0 to-read 4.25 1986 Burning Chrome
author: William Gibson
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Cat, a Man, and Two Women 37822483 'One of the finest pieces of literature concerning cats ever written.' (Choice)

Shinako has been ousted from her marriage by her husband Shozo and his younger lover Fukuko. She's lost her home, status, and respectability. Yet the only thing she longs for is Lily, the elegant tortoiseshell cat she shared with her husband. As Shinako pleads for Lily's return, Shozo's reluctance to part with the cat reveals his true affections, and the lengths he'll go to hold onto the one he loves most.

A small masterpiece, A Cat, a Man, and Two Women is a novel about loneliness, love, and companionship of the most unexpected kind. In this story of Japanese society and manners, Tanizaki gives us a perfectly-formed oddball comedy, and a love triangle in which the only real rival is feline.]]> 128 Jun'ichirō Tanizaki 1911547038 Pauline 0 to-read 3.71 1936 A Cat, a Man, and Two Women
author: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1936
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61219635 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250886088.

A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success—not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 304 Travis Baldree Pauline 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hell House 62301971 "Hell House is the scariest haunted house novel ever written. It looms over the rest the way the mountains loom over the foothills." -- Stephen King]]> 309 Richard Matheson 1399605577 Pauline 4 horror, haunted-house 3.68 1971 Hell House
author: Richard Matheson
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: horror, haunted-house
review:

]]> Weyward 127280850
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 392 Emilia Hart 1250842727 Pauline 0 to-read 4.02 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Laughing House: a short story]]> 219742830 30 B. Muraca Pauline 0 to-read 3.86 The Laughing House: a short story
author: B. Muraca
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Trees 56269278 309 Percival Everett 164445064X Pauline 0 to-read 4.06 2021 The Trees
author: Percival Everett
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Pauline 0 currently-reading 3.50 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Pauline 0 to-read 4.60 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blood Over Bright Haven 208430658 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]> 430 M.L. Wang 0593873351 Pauline 0 to-read 4.39 2023 Blood Over Bright Haven
author: M.L. Wang
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 56791389 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08BKGYQXW


The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Pauline 0 to-read 4.49 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wake Up and Open Your Eyes 204640265 From Vulture's "master of horror" Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and When Evil Lurks

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening� is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn�-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.]]> 384 Clay McLeod Chapman Pauline 0 to-read 3.38 2025 Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
author: Clay McLeod Chapman
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Manitou 22591019 An ancient vengeful spirit attempts to return through the body of a terrified young woman in this horror classic by an award-winning “master of the genre� (Rocky Mountain News). Phony psychic and conman Harry Erskine never really believed in the occult until Karen Tandy approached him with a rapidly growing tumor on her neck, complaining of dark and disturbing dreams. When the mass is revealed by doctors to contain something living, the stakes skyrocket—not only for Karen and Harry but for all humanity. Something terrible is returning from the shadows to which it has been confined for centuries—a Native American monstrosity determined to destroy every vestige of the white race that oppressed and preyed upon America’s Indians. And unless a motley group of ill-prepared defenders can harness an ancient native magic, there will be no stopping the malevolent shaman’s terrible rebirth—and no escaping the wholesale carnage it will engender. The Manitou introduced the great Graham Masterton to the canon of horror, instantly placing him among the genre’s elite. A longtime favorite for its bold originality, unrelenting creepiness, supernatural shocks, and otherworldly surprises that would have made H. P. Lovecraft proud, Masterton’s classic continues to stand tall alongside Stephen King’s Carrie, Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, and other unforgettable literary horror debuts.]]> 206 Graham Masterton Pauline 0 to-read 3.88 1975 The Manitou
author: Graham Masterton
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Leech 59807968 In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies.

For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed.

In the frozen north, the Institute's body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron's castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again.]]> 323 Hiron Ennes 125081118X Pauline 0 horror, to-read 3.57 2022 Leech
author: Hiron Ennes
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: horror, to-read
review:

]]> Shark Heart 219207892
At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds.]]> 415 Emily Habeck Pauline 4 4.08 2023 Shark Heart
author: Emily Habeck
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nyankees, Vol. 1 (Nyankees, 1)]]> 40929035 176 Atsushi Okada 1975383370 Pauline 0 manga, currently-reading 3.81 2017 Nyankees, Vol. 1 (Nyankees, 1)
author: Atsushi Okada
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: manga, currently-reading
review:

]]> Motherthing 60097451 A darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law.

When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone. With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura's hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken à la king…]]> 288 Ainslie Hogarth 0593467027 Pauline 0 to-read 3.64 2022 Motherthing
author: Ainslie Hogarth
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fox Wife 127278666 Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.]]> 390 Yangsze Choo 1250266017 Pauline 0 currently-reading 3.97 2024 The Fox Wife
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stephen King's The Dark Tower: Beginnings: The Complete Graphic Novel Series]]> 40606142 Enter once more the world of Roland Deschain—and the world of the Dark Tower...now presented in a stunning graphic novel form that will unlock the doorways to terrifying secrets and bold storytelling as part of the dark fantasy masterwork and magnum opus from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King.

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.� With these unforgettable words, millions of readers were introduced to Stephen King’s iconic character Roland Deschain of Gilead. Roland is the last of his kind, a “gunslinger� charged with protecting whatever goodness and light remains in his world—a world that “moved on,� as they say. In this desolate reality—a dangerous land filled with ancient technology and deadly magic, and yet one that mirrors our own in frightening ways—Roland is on a spellbinding and soul-shattering quest to locate and somehow save the mystical nexus of all worlds, all universes: the Dark Tower.

Now, in the graphic novel series Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: Beginnings, originally published by Marvel Comics in single-issue form and creatively overseen by Stephen King himself, the full story of Roland's troubled past and coming-of-age is revealed. Sumptuously drawn by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove, plotted by longtime Stephen King expert Robin Furth, and scripted by New York Times bestselling author Peter David, Beginnings is an extraordinary and terrifying journey into Roland’s origins—ultimately serving as the perfect introduction for new readers to Stephen King’s modern literary classic The Dark Tower, while giving longtime fans thrilling adventures merely hinted at in his blockbuster novels.

This boxed set includes the complete graphic novel series BEGINNINGS: THE GUNSLINGER BORN * THE LONG ROAD HOME * TREACHERY * THE FALL OF GILEAD * THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL]]> 832 Robin Furth 1982110201 Pauline 0 to-read 4.58 2011 Stephen King's The Dark Tower: Beginnings: The Complete Graphic Novel Series
author: Robin Furth
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> King Sorrow 60866023 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill, a chilling tale of modern-world dangers, dark academia, and the unexpected consequences of revenge as six friends dabble in the occult and are tragically, horrifyingly successful� calling forth an evil entity that demands regular human sacrifice.

“A brilliantly Faustian fable with a heart as huge as a dragon’s, and a stinging twist in its tail. I devoured it.� —Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Suite 11

Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library.

Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.

But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.]]> Joe Hill Pauline 0 to-read 4.75 2025 King Sorrow
author: Joe Hill
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives]]> 59705289
"And if you had any favorite characters in Clown in a Cornfield, I'm preemptively sorry. #FrendoLives" - Adam Cesare]]> 406 Adam Cesare 0063096919 Pauline 4 3.84 2022 Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives
author: Adam Cesare
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Pauline 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196864520

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.


But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

]]> 360 Brynne Weaver Pauline 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61242426
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success � not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 296 Travis Baldree Pauline 0 to-read 4.04 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bright Young Women 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]> 384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 Pauline 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Bright Young Women
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Berry Pickers 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Pauline 0 to-read 4.04 2023 The Berry Pickers
author: Amanda Peters
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird]]> 62919399 A collection of nineteen dark, wildly imaginative short stories from the author of the award-winning TikTok sensation Tender Is the Flesh.

From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica’s vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways—often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In “Roberto,� a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman’s neighbor jumps to his death in “A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound,� and in “Candy Pink,� a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps.

Written in Bazterrica’s signature clever, vivid style, these stories question love, friendship, family relationships, and unspeakable desires.]]> 154 Agustina Bazterrica 1668012669 Pauline 0 to-read 3.11 2020 Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> The Unworthy 214151601 The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]> 192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668051885 Pauline 0 to-read 3.64 2023 The Unworthy
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Martyr! 139400713 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Pauline 0 to-read 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Indian Burial Ground 192724951 A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation.

All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on—just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her—things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down.

But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects that something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands.

After over a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets, horror, and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers…but as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to wonder whether it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.]]> 370 Nick Medina 0593546881 Pauline 0 to-read 3.58 2024 Indian Burial Ground
author: Nick Medina
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Diavola 157035866 Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)]]> 293 Jennifer Marie Thorne 1250826128 Pauline 0 to-read 3.85 2024 Diavola
author: Jennifer Marie Thorne
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Beautyland 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Pauline 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Beautyland
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Other Valley 176450755
Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town--except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.

When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.]]> 290 Scott Alexander Howard 1668015471 Pauline 0 to-read 3.85 2024 The Other Valley
author: Scott Alexander Howard
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Orbital 123136728
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.

The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?]]> 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Pauline 0 to-read 3.55 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Pauline 0 to-read 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Dead Cat Tail Assassins 127305606 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.

Nor do they have tails.

But they are most assuredly dead.

Nebula and Alex Award winner P. Djèlí Clark introduces a brand-new world and a fantastical city full of gods and assassins.

Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins―resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories―have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.

The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.]]> 213 P. Djèlí Clark 1250767040 Pauline 0 to-read 3.84 2024 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Book of Doors 156009464
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.

But this is no ordinary book�

It is the Book of Doors.

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there.

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.]]> 404 Gareth Brown 0063323982 Pauline 0 to-read 4.01 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The God of the Woods 199700434 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.

Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet, The God of the Woods is a story of inheritance and second chances, the tensions between a family and a community, and a history that will not let any of them go.]]> 478 Liz Moore 0593418913 Pauline 0 to-read 4.09 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Great Divide 181110028
It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection.

Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone and with no resources, she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her ailing sister’s surgery. When she sees a young man—Omar—who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid.

John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada’s bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.

Searing and empathetic, The Great Divide explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers—those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.]]> 321 Cristina Henríquez 0063291320 Pauline 0 to-read 3.62 2024 The Great Divide
author: Cristina Henríquez
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Pauline 0 to-read 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Crow Mary 74891539
In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in a Métis named Jeannie; makes a lifelong enemy in a wolfer named Stiller; and despite learning a dark secret of Farwell’s past, falls in love with her husband.

The winter trading season passes peacefully. Then, on the eve of their return to Montana, a group of drunken whiskey traders slaughters forty Nakota—despite Farwell’s efforts to stop them. Mary, hiding from the hail of bullets, sees the murderers, including Stiller, take five Nakota women back to their fort. She begs Farwell to save them, and when he refuses, Mary takes two guns, creeps into the fort, and saves the women from certain death. Thus, she sets off a whirlwind of colliding cultures that brings out the worst and best in the cast of unforgettable characters and pushes the love between Farwell and Crow Mary to the breaking point.

Crow Mary sweeps across decades and the landscape of the upper West and Canada, showcasing the beauty of the natural world, while at the same time probing the intimacies of a marriage and one woman’s heart.]]> 364 Kathleen Grissom Pauline 5 4.49 2023 Crow Mary
author: Kathleen Grissom
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
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]]> Grave Talk 209496283 Time is a healer, but it helps to have a friend.

The last thing Alice expects to see at her husband’s graveside on his birthday is a giant, talking frog. On closer inspection, it’s a grown man dressed as Kermit.

Turns out Alice’s husband is buried next to Ben’s older brother Harry, who—as a parting practical joke in his will—insisted that Ben visit his grave each year, on this specific day, dressed in an as-yet-undisclosed pageant of embarrassing fancy dress.

With little but their grief and this one day in common, Alice and Ben form a very special, very strange friendship, meeting just once a same day, same time, same place—different silly costume. As the years pass and grief alters, can their unique bond help them cope with the hardest part of life?]]> 314 Nick Spalding 1662519990 Pauline 4 4.24 2024 Grave Talk
author: Nick Spalding
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> Hungry Ghosts 78939340
A short story.
(Collected in Dark Celebrations)]]> 19 Calvin Demmer Pauline 4 4.00 2016 Hungry Ghosts
author: Calvin Demmer
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Wayside School, #1)]]> 15779 There was a terrible mistake - Wayside School was built with one classroom on top of another, thirty stories high (The builder said he was sorry.) Maybe that's why all kinds of funny things happened at Wayside-especially on the thirteenth floor.

]]> 144 Louis Sachar 0747571775 Pauline 5 4.15 1978 Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Wayside School, #1)
author: Louis Sachar
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> Cleopatra and Frankenstein 57693262 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]> 368 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Pauline 4 3.70 2022 Cleopatra and Frankenstein
author: Coco Mellors
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
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]]> The Pram 195945795
Willy and Marianne’s farmhouse in Maine has acres of meadow and fresh air, and a lonesome bridle path in the forest along which Willy daydreams and ambles. When he’s loaned a decrepit old baby stroller to cart his groceries home, the rickety squeak of the wheels comforts him. So do the sweet coos of a baby Willy knows can’t be real. Can it? In this twisted thicket, wishes come true—with a price.

Joe Hill’s The Pram is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 58 Joe Hill 1662516894 Pauline 4 3.74 2023 The Pram
author: Joe Hill
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> The Memory Library 182359374 For forty-two years, Sally Harrison has been building a library.

Each year, on her daughter’s birthday, she adds a new book to her shelves � with a note in the front dedicated to her own greatest work.

But Ella � Sally’s only child � fled to Australia twenty-two years ago after a heated exchange, and never looked back. And though Sally still dutifully adds a new paperback to the shelves every time the clock strikes midnight on July 11th, her hopes of her daughter ever thumbing through the pages are starting to dwindle.

Then disaster strikes and Ella is forced to return to the home she once knew.

She is soon to discover that when one chapter ends, another will soon follow�

All you have to do is turn the page�

Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second changes are written in the margins.]]> 335 Kate Storey Pauline 4 4.32 2024 The Memory Library
author: Kate Storey
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[We have always lived in the castle]]> 217362664
Discover the dark, atmospheric, and utterly enthralling novel by Shirley Jackson, the master of Gothic horror.

"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" tells the story of Merricat Blackwood, who lives with her sister Constance and their Uncle Julian in a secluded mansion, shrouded in mystery and terrorized by the local villagers. The family's dark past and the secrets they keep have made them outcasts, but Merricat's narration reveals a complex web of family dynamics, trauma, and the blurred lines between reality and fantasy.

*A Chilling Exploration

Family secrets and isolation
Trauma, guilt, and redemption
The power of stories and manipulation
The blurred lines between reality and fantasy

*Praise for the

"A masterpiece of Gothic suspense" - The New York Times
"A mesmerizing, macabre, and subtle novel" - The Guardian
"A haunting, atmospheric, and deeply unsettling read" - Publishers Weekly

*Get Ready to Enter a World of Suspense and Intrigue*

Buy "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" today and immerse yourself in a world of mystery, family secrets, and the darker side of human nature.]]> 173 Shirley Jackson 1998488306 Pauline 5 3.64 1962 We have always lived in the castle
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2025/01/14
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]]> Ankle Snatcher 195945776 The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Marcus grew up believing his father killed his mother—then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. Always leave the lights on, his father warned, or the boogeyman will get you. Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over.

Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.

Grady Hendrix’s 'Ankle Snatcher' is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.]]> 29 Grady Hendrix 166251705X Pauline 4 3.71 2023 Ankle Snatcher
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Prophet Song 158875813
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what � or who � is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.]]> 259 Paul Lynch Pauline 5 4.03 2023 Prophet Song
author: Paul Lynch
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Maeve Fly 61884781 A Bram Stoker and Splatterpunk Award Nominee!
One of Esquire's Best Horror Books of the Year!
An Indie Next Pick!

"This is gory and brutal and beautiful and painful and terrifying and a pure delight."—Stephen Graham Jones

A provocative and unforgettable debut that is both a blood-soaked love letter to Los Angeles and a gleeful send-up to iconic horror villains, Maeve Fly will thrill fans of slashers and the macabre.

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.

By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green - her best friend’s brother - moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

"An apocalyptic Anaheim Psycho." —Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House]]> 288 C.J. Leede 1250857856 Pauline 4 2024-mount-tbr-challenge 3.71 2023 Maeve Fly
author: C.J. Leede
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: 2024-mount-tbr-challenge
review:

]]> Maeve Fly 59007823
By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green - her best friend’s brother - moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho . Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.]]> 288 C.J. Leede Pauline 4 3.85 2023 Maeve Fly
author: C.J. Leede
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Unlucky Young Men 2 101251806 essayer d'échapper à son lourd passé criminel, Norio Nagayama rejoint la capitale dans l'espoir d'un nouveau départ. Au Village Vanguard, bar jazz dans lequel la jeunesse révolutionnaire nipponne a ses quartiers, il fait la connaissance de Takeshi Kitano, un jeune comique raté qui tente de faire carrière dans le cinéma. Le grand projet de Takeshi : Unlucky Young Men, un scénario qu'il a rédigé, véritable chronique d'une jeunesse japonaise désabusée et prête à tout pour réaliser ses rêves.

Pour financer la réalisation du film et assurer leur avenir, les deux jeunes hommes vont fomenter
l'attaque d'un fourgon transportant 300 millions de yens...

Aux frontières du polar et de la chronique sociale, Unlucky Young Men nous entraîne dans un Tokyo des années 60 ébranlé par le terrorisme et les révoltes étudiantes. Du futur prix Nobel de littérature Oe Kenzaburo, à l'écrivain maudit Yukio Mishima, en passant par le tueur en série Norio Nagayama, cette fiction-réalité extrêmement documentée s'appuie sur de véritables figures historiques pour nous dresser le portrait fascinant et sans concession d'un Japon à la croisée des chemins.]]> 384 Kamui Fujiwara 2355929297 Pauline 4 manga 3.71 2007 Unlucky Young Men 2
author: Kamui Fujiwara
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: manga
review:

]]> The Jungle Book 26313668 Rudyard Kipling Pauline 0 to-read 5.00 1994 The Jungle Book
author: Rudyard Kipling
name: Pauline
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Twisted Tales of Halloween Horror: 11 Spicy and Gory Tales of Halloween Terror]]> 196771207
Read tales focused on the legends of Halloween and the stuff of nightmares including; Bloody Mary, Stingy Jack, The Boogeyman, and so many more.]]> 316 Pauline 4 3.92 Twisted Tales of Halloween Horror: 11 Spicy and Gory Tales of Halloween Terror
author: The Sisterhood of the Black Pen
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Seven Shakespeares, tome 1 16102458 264 Harold Sakuishi 2820303099 Pauline 5 manga 3.60 2010 Seven Shakespeares, tome 1
author: Harold Sakuishi
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: manga
review:

]]> The Graveyard Book 6746355
Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are beings such as ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other.

The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal and is a Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel.]]> 325 Neil Gaiman 0061972657 Pauline 5 fantasy, young-adult 4.39 2008 The Graveyard Book
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/22
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: fantasy, young-adult
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Undead Girl Murder Farce Vol. 1]]> 58197217 152 Yugo Aosaki 1636991505 Pauline 0 to-read 3.38 Undead Girl Murder Farce Vol. 1
author: Yugo Aosaki
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.38
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bats 28767261 Wings of DeathThey’d flown north from Central and South America, appearing one day in the southern wetlands of the U.S. like ominous ink stains in the twilight sky. With each sunset, more appeared, first hundreds then thousands. Massing into a great black cloud of terror, the vampire bats were beating their wings in time with the panicked heartbeats in the towns below. No one knew how to stop them as they fell onto their prey like dark, deadly shadows. But someone had to find a way. Because somewhere in the night, they had become a threat to more than wild animals and livestock. Somewhere in the night madness took hold as these vampire bats developed a taste for human blood. And the feasting had only just begun.]]> 283 William W. Johnstone 1601835353 Pauline 4 4.14 1993 Bats
author: William W. Johnstone
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/08
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: horror, 2020-halloween-challenge, bats
review:

]]> Until Summer Comes Around 54983758 228 Glenn Rolfe 1787583953 Pauline 5 vampires, young-adult, horror 4.25 2020 Until Summer Comes Around
author: Glenn Rolfe
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/04
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: vampires, young-adult, horror
review:

]]> Five Decembers 57650856

"Read this book for its palpitating story, its perfect emotional and physical detailing and, most of all, for its unforgettable conjuring of a steamy quicksilver world that will be new to almost every reader."
Pico Iyer

December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves; and though the U.S. doesn't know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor.

This extraordinary novel is so much more than just a gripping crime story—it's a story of survival against all odds, of love and loss and the human cost of war. Spanning the entirety of World War II, FIVE DECEMBERS is a beautiful, masterful, powerful novel that will live in your memory forever.]]> 432 James Kestrel 178909612X Pauline 0 to-read 4.55 2021 Five Decembers
author: James Kestrel
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Your Name. 34668116
Written by director MAKOTO SHINKAI during the production of the film by the same title, your name. is in turns funny, heartwarming, and heart-wrenching as it follows the struggles of two young people determined to hold on to one another.]]> 156 Makoto Shinkai 031647309X Pauline 5 4.44 2016 Your Name.
author: Makoto Shinkai
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/12
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: light-novel, fantasy, favorites
review:
A truly beautiful story. A big thank you to my friend Kairia for the recommendation.
]]> My Life for Yours 53399398
No husband should ever have to lose a wife.

No one should ever have to choose.

Paige and Nick are happy. They have a beautiful home, a loving family and, most importantly, they would do anything for each other. Now, they are having a baby and it feels like all their dreams are coming true.

But joy turns to despair when they discover that Paige has a rare, life-threatening heart condition and they lose their longed-for child. Heartbroken, the couple must accept the reality that they may not become parents after all.

Just as they begin to come to terms with their loss, Paige unexpectedly falls pregnant again. Paige’s heart is still weak, and to carry the baby to term puts them both at risk. The couple now face an impossible Paige’s life or the life of their unborn child?

If Paige keeps the baby, she could lose her life and destroy the man she loves. If Nick tries to stop her, he may lose them both forever. It’s the most important decision they have ever had to make � and time is running out.

My Life for Yours is a heartbreaking, gripping and emotional story about love, loss and an impossible choice, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Kelly Rimmer and Kate Hewitt.]]> 297 Vanessa Carnevale 1838886524 Pauline 0 to-read 4.41 My Life for Yours
author: Vanessa Carnevale
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Cartographers 56224531
What is the purpose of a map?

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field, and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn't seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable, and also exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence� because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret, and discover the true power that lies in maps...

Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V.E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.]]> 400 Peng Shepherd 0062910728 Pauline 0 to-read 3.72 2022 The Cartographers
author: Peng Shepherd
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Greyfriars Reformatory (Fiction Without Frontiers)]]> 55746580 "Greyfriars Reformatory delivers on suspense and a classic asylum setting that brings to mind novels like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." � Chicago Review of Books

Nineteen year-old Emily's acute dissociative disorder causes her to be institutionalised - again - at Greyfriars Reformatory For Girls. Caught in the crossfire between brutal Principal Quick and cruel bully Saffron Chassay, Emily befriends fellow outcast Victoria. When the terrifying apparition of the mysterious ‘Grey Girl' begins scaring the inmates to death, Emily’s disorder may be the one thing that can save her.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.]]> 203 Frazer Lee 1787584771 Pauline 0 to-read 3.50 2020 Greyfriars Reformatory (Fiction Without Frontiers)
author: Frazer Lee
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ghost Road Blues (Pine Deep, #1)]]> 6572352
From a new master of horror comes an apocalyptic showdown between the residents of a secluded, rural town and the deadly evil that confronts them wherever they turn . . .

Evil Doesn't Die

The cozy little town of Pine Deep buried the horrors of its past a long time ago. Thirty years have gone by since the darkness descended and the Black Harvest began, a time when a serial killer sheared a bloody swath through the quiet Pennsylvania village. The evil that once coursed through Pine Deep has been replaced by cheerful tourists getting ready to enjoy the country's largest Halloween celebration in what is now called "The Spookiest Town in America."

It Just Grows Stronger

But then--a month before Halloween--it begins. Unspeakably desecrated bodies. Inexplicable insanity. And an ancient evil walking the streets, drawing in those who would fall to their own demons and seeking to shred the very soul of this rapidly fracturing community. Yes, the residents of Pine Deep have drawn together and faced a killer before. But this time, evil has many faces--and the lust and will to rule the earth. This struggle will be epic.

"Serves up scares like pancakes at a church social."--Gregory Frost

"Without a doubt this prolific author is the next Stephen King. Maberry deserves more then a Bram Stoker Award for this; he deserves Bram Stoker to rise from his grave and shake his hand." --Chad Wendell, New World Reviews

"If I were asked to select only one new voice in horror fiction to read today, it would be Jonathan Maberry."--Katherine Ramsland

"A fun, fun read and creepy as hell."--Gregory Frost

"If you think small town horror has nothing new to offer, you have a surprise in store. Ghost Road Blues demonstrates that even the most haunted town in America is unprepared for the full depth of evil, either human or inhuman."--Don D'Ammassa

"Reminiscent of Stephen King. . .Maberry supplies plenty of chills in this atmospheric novel. . .This is horror on a grand scale." � Publishers Weekly]]> 480 Jonathan Maberry 0786022027 Pauline 4 3.86 2006 Ghost Road Blues (Pine Deep, #1)
author: Jonathan Maberry
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/04
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: 2022-mount-tbr-challenge, horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Their Silent Graves (Detective Gina Harte, #7)]]> 54137760
Following a piece of old rope, the girls find a large mound of freshly laid earth, undisturbed in the darkness of the trees. Clawing at the ground beneath them, they make contact with something solid. When they realise what they’ve discovered, the silence is broken by their piercing screams as they stare down at the shallow grave.

Without looking back, they run as fast as they can, failing to spot the person nearby watching their every move�

And when another grave is found just days later, it’s clear a serial killer is praying on the small town. But who is the killer watching now? And when will another grave be filled?

If you like Angela Marsons, Cara Hunter and Clare Mackintosh, you’ll love this heart-racing thriller from bestselling author, Carla Kovach. With gripping suspense and a twist you won’t see coming, Their Silent Graves will have you hooked from page one.]]> 360 Carla Kovach 1838888659 Pauline 0 to-read 4.29 2020 Their Silent Graves (Detective Gina Harte, #7)
author: Carla Kovach
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Perfect World, Vol. 1 39307271 172 Rie Aruga 1642121908 Pauline 0 to-read 4.20 2015 Perfect World, Vol. 1
author: Rie Aruga
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Collected Ghost Stories 30288341 A View from a Hill, Rats, A School Story, The Ash Tree, and The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance. Read by BAFTA and Emmy-award winning actor Derek Jacobi, and with haunting and evocative music, these tales cannot fail to send a shiver down your spine.]]> 356 M.R. James 1840225513 Pauline 0 to-read 3.68 1931 Collected Ghost Stories
author: M.R. James
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1931
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Elfen Lied - Double Édition - Tome 02]]> 58980438 425 Lynn Okamoto 2413043802 Pauline 4 manga 4.33 2002 Elfen Lied - Double Édition - Tome 02
author: Lynn Okamoto
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/15
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: manga
review:

]]> Lady in the Lake 41735375 New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel set in 1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman.

In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know--everyone, that is, except Madeline "Maddie" Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she's bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life. Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl--assistance that leads to a job at the city's afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African-American woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie--and the dead woman herself. Maddie's going to find the truth about Cleo's life and death. Cleo's ghost, privy to Maddie's poking and prying, wants to be left alone. Maddie's investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life--a jewelery store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people--including the man who shares her bed, a black police officer who cares for Maddie more than she knows.']]> 352 Laura Lippman 0062390031 Pauline 0 to-read 3.46 2019 Lady in the Lake
author: Laura Lippman
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ascension 62911562
An enormous snow-covered mountain has appeared in the Pacific Ocean. No one knows when exactly it showed up, precisely how big it might be, or how to explain its existence. When Harold Tunmore, a scientist of mysterious phenomena, is contacted by a shadowy organization to help investigate, he has no idea what he is getting into as he and his team set out for the mountain.

The higher Harold’s team ascends, the less things make sense. Time moves differently, turning minutes into hours, and hours into days. Amid the whipping cold of higher elevation, the climbers� limbs numb and memories of their lives before the mountain begin to fade. Paranoia quickly turns to violence among the crew, and slithering, ancient creatures pursue them in the snow. Still, as the dangers increase, the mystery of the mountain compels them to its peak, where they are certain they will find their answers. Have they stumbled upon the greatest scientific discovery known to man or the seeds of their own demise?

Framed by the discovery of Harold Tunmore’s unsent letters to his family and the chilling and provocative story they tell, Ascension considers the limitations of science and faith and examines both the beautiful and the unsettling sides of human nature.]]> 333 Nicholas Binge 0008505837 Pauline 0 to-read 3.82 2023 Ascension
author: Nicholas Binge
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Letters to a Young Poet 780534 Letters to a Young Poet are arguably the most famous and beloved letters of the twentieth century. Written when the poet was himself still a young man, with most of his greatest work before him, they were addressed to a student who had sent Rilke some of his own writing, asking for advice on becoming a writer. The two never met, but over a period of several years Rilke wrote him these ten letters, which have been cherished by hundreds of thousands of readers for what Stephen Mitchell calls in his Foreword the "vibrant and deeply felt experience of life" that informs them.

Eloquent and personal, Rilke’s meditations on the creative process, the nature of love, the wisdom of children, and the importance of solitude offer a wealth of spiritual and practical guidance for anyone. At the same time, this collection, in Stephen Mitchell’s definitive translation, reveals the thoughts and feelings of one of the greatest poets and most distinctive sensibilities of the twentieth century.]]> 109 Rainer Maria Rilke 0679642323 Pauline 0 to-read 4.34 1929 Letters to a Young Poet
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books]]> 200987258
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic� books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome� dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.]]> 298 Kirsten Miller 0063348691 Pauline 4 4.06 2024 Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books
author: Kirsten Miller
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Alone 15986417
From award-winning, best-selling horror writer Brian Keene comes this quiet, chilling, supernatural short tale (15,000 words).]]> 54 Brian Keene Pauline 0 to-read 3.86 2011 Alone
author: Brian Keene
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tonight, Again 28043424 118 Clive Barker Pauline 0 to-read 3.59 Tonight, Again
author: Clive Barker
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.59
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Was a Teenage Slasher 199798522
It’s the summer before senior year for best friends Tolly Driver and Amber Dennison. They’re not in the marching band, they’re not in the FFA � they don’t really count. Amber’s the only Native student in town, and Tolly’s only on the radar due to his father’s recent death.

This is all about to change.

Bodies are going to be dropping fast in this small West Texas town. For a few unbearably hot days that will resonate through the decades and even get made into a TV movie, Tolly and Amber will be famous. Notorious even. Finally, everyone will know their names.

This is Stephen Graham Jones x-raying the slasher genre, interrogating its motivations over the shoulder and in the voice of the killer itself � from a town he did some growing up in, in a year he was also seventeen.

The kills will be poignant, the jokes will hurt, and the violence will be endearing. Everything’s turned around for Tolly, for Amber � for all of Lamesa, Texas.

Be happy you weren’t there.

Be happy you’re only reading about it.]]> 373 Stephen Graham Jones 1668022249 Pauline 5 3.54 2024 I Was a Teenage Slasher
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Book of Elsewhere 202950650
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.�

And he wants to be able to die.

In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.

A mind-blowing epic of ancient powers, modern war, and an outcast who cannot die. Combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books.]]> 352 Keanu Reeves 0593446593 Pauline 0 to-read 3.26 2024 The Book of Elsewhere
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Camp 62922352 Perfect for readers of Riley Sager and Grady Hendrix, a chilling new read from the New York Times bestselling author where a diabolical modern twist on Friday the 13th meets Yellowjackets at a summer sleepaway camp isolated in the woods of Oregon.

There are always stories told around the fire at summer camp—tall tales about gruesome murders and unhinged killers, concocted to scare new arrivals and lend an extra jolt of excitement to those hormone-charged nights. At Camp Luft-Shawk, nicknamed Camp Love Shack, there are stories about a creeping fog that brings death with it. But here, they’re not just campfire tales. Here, the stories are real.

Twenty years ago, a girl’s body was found on a ledge above the lake, arms crossed over her heart. Some said it was part of a suicide pact, connected to the nearby Haven Commune. Brooke, Rona, and Wendy were among the teenagers at camp that summer, looking for fun and sun, sex and adventure. They’ve never breathed a word about what really happened—or about the night their friendship shattered.

Now the camp, renamed Camp Fog Lake, has reopened for a new generation, and many of those who were there on that long-ago night are returning for an alumni weekend. But something is stirring at the lake again. As the fog rolls in, evil comes with it. Those stories were a warning, and they didn’t listen. And the only question is, who will live long enough to regret it?

“Nancy Bush is my go-to author. Always.� —Lisa Jackson, #1 New York Times bestselling author]]> 384 Nancy Bush 1420155687 Pauline 3 horror 3.16 2023 The Camp
author: Nancy Bush
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/22
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves: horror
review:

]]> Off Season 18801281
This novel contains graphic content and is recommended for regular readers of horror novels.]]> 320 Jack Ketchum Pauline 0 to-read 3.79 1980 Off Season
author: Jack Ketchum
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fire Within Them (The Soulfire Saga, #2)]]> 181560880 The second book in Matthew Ward's action-packed trilogy, the Soulfire Saga, The Fire Within Them is set in a world ruled by an immortal king, where souls fuel magic and a supernatural mist known as the Veil threatens to engulf the land. Perfect for fans of John Gwynne and Anthony Ryan.

For the first time in a millennium, the kingdom of Khalad is divided. The Battle of Athenoch has fanned the spark of Bashar Vallant’s rebellion to a raging flame. Tyzanta, jewel of the east, has declared for his cause, and other cities have followed. Vallant, the people’s hero, may soon be powerful enough to challenge Caradan Diar, Khalad’s immortal king.

But such power demands great personal sacrifice.

Afflicted with omen rot after channeling the Deadwinds to save Athenoch from the koilos army, Kat searches for a means to stop the disease killing her as it did her mother. Her journey will uncover secrets long since buried–secrets concerning her past, her family and the kingdom itself. Eventually she’ll learn that the past never stays buried in Khalad–and that the truth can cut deeper than any blade.]]> 593 Matthew Ward 0356518477 Pauline 0 to-read 4.06 2024 The Fire Within Them (The Soulfire Saga, #2)
author: Matthew Ward
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Eyes Are the Best Part 195703882 Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying� yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.]]> 278 Monika Kim 1645661237 Pauline 4 3.81 2024 The Eyes Are the Best Part
author: Monika Kim
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Incidents Around the House 199757490 A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,� from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box

To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’sMommy,Daddo,and Grandma Ruth.But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”�

When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay.

Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.

But Other Mommy needs an answer.

Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.]]> 367 Josh Malerman 0593723120 Pauline 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Incidents Around the House
author: Josh Malerman
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tastes Like Candy 55751498
But someone else has another game planned. Minutes after the girls sneak into the carnival, a madman in a rubber mask begins slashing his way through the group and Violet quickly realizes his motives are personal. As she watches her friends die in a series of increasingly bizarre attacks, she must fight to survive while trying to answer the question: What could she have done to earn a fast-pass for a roller coaster ride straight to hell?]]> 242 Ivy Tholen Pauline 0 to-read 3.62 2020 Tastes Like Candy
author: Ivy Tholen
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Future 123088855 In an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees.

In an alternate history of Detroit, the Motor City was never surrendered to the US. Its residents deal with pollution, poverty, and the legacy of racism—and strange and magical things are happening: children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves. When Gloria arrives looking for answers and her missing granddaughters, at first she finds only a hungry mouse in the derelict home where her daughter was murdered. But the neighbours take pity on her and she turns to their resilience and impressive gardens for sustenance.

When a strange intuition sends Gloria into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city’s orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can’t imagine the strength she will find. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love—together.]]> 288 Catherine Leroux 1771965606 Pauline 4 dystopian, quebecois 3.25 2020 The Future
author: Catherine Leroux
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: dystopian, quebecois
review:

]]> Ghost Station 127280445 A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.

While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her.

That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?

Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by� and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.]]> 377 S.A. Barnes 1250884926 Pauline 3 horror, science-fiction 3.51 2024 Ghost Station
author: S.A. Barnes
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: horror, science-fiction
review:

]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 48484 Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed, and a fainter hope she’ll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called “vampire,� recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist � an informational topologist with half his mind gone � as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find.

But you’d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them…]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765312182 Pauline 0 to-read 4.01 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Beauty 34356502 Nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Saboteur awards.

Somewhere away from the cities and towns, in the Valley of the Rocks, a society of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their history recounted by Nate, the storyteller. Requested most often by the group is the tale of the death of all women.

They are the last generation.

One evening, Nate brings back new secrets from the woods; peculiar mushrooms are growing from the ground where the women’s bodies lie buried. These are the first signs of a strange and insidious presence unlike anything ever known before�

Discover the Beauty.
------------------

Titan editions include the short story Peace, Pipe.]]> 195 Aliya Whiteley Pauline 0 to-read 3.49 2014 The Beauty
author: Aliya Whiteley
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When Women Were Dragons 58783802 A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.

The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.]]> 367 Kelly Barnhill 0385548222 Pauline 5 fantasy 3.79 2022 When Women Were Dragons
author: Kelly Barnhill
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[PTSD Radio 1 (Vol. 1-2) (Ptsd Radio Omnibus, 1)]]> 60543010
Like Junji Ito's Uzumaki, PTSD Radio takes something everyday and weaves it into a series of chilling, cryptic, twisted, repellant, and alluring manga stories that become more than what they first seem.

The hit digital series finally comes to print in three 400-page compilations!

An unseen hand tugs at your braid. You find an old box with only a tangled mess of dark hair inside. You open a door in your home only to witness a river of curls slinking away, an ominous lump at its heart.

Ogushi preys on the unprepared. Before it's too late, tune into PTSD Radio.

These episodes and more await in this acclaimed horror series, coming to print after a successful digital run in double-length omnibus editions featuring sickeningly-textured covers. From the gleefully-twisted mind that created Fuan no Tane, PTSD Radio is a necessity for fans of the masters of manga scares such as Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezz, Shintaro Kago, and Suehiro Maruo.]]> 320 Masaaki Nakayama 164651632X Pauline 0 to-read 3.97 PTSD Radio 1 (Vol. 1-2) (Ptsd Radio Omnibus, 1)
author: Masaaki Nakayama
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Lost Bookshop 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,� she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.�

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found�

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]> 432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Pauline 5 4.03 2023 The Lost Bookshop
author: Evie Woods
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Witch (The Cursed Manuscripts, #1)]]> 57904623
In December 2020, new manuscripts started turning up around the world.

If you find one, do not read it.]]> 195 Iain Rob Wright Pauline 0 to-read 3.72 2021 Witch (The Cursed Manuscripts, #1)
author: Iain Rob Wright
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga]]> 60500357 A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by the Baba Yaga. Featuring Gwendolyn Kiste, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Mercedes M. Yardley, Monique Snyman, Donna Lynch, Lisa Quigley, and R. J. Joseph, with a foreword by Christina Henry.

Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds� legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the baba yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the baba yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales.

Edited by Lindy Ryan, this collection brings together some of today’s leading voices of women-in-horror as they pay tribute to the baba yaga, and go Into the Forest.]]> 270 Lindy Ryan 1645481239 Pauline 0 to-read 3.76 2022 Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga
author: Lindy Ryan
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Full Tilt 163919
In order to escape, Blake must survive seven deadly rides by dawn, each of which represents a deep, personal fear -- from a carousel of stampeding animals to a hall of mirrors that changes people into their deformed reflections. Blake ultimately has to face up to a horrible secret from his own past to save himself and his brother -- that is, if the carnival doesn't claim their souls first!]]> 208 Neal Shusterman 0689873255 Pauline 4 3.88 2003 Full Tilt
author: Neal Shusterman
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: 2024-mount-tbr-challenge, horror
review:

]]> The Boy with the Spider Face 59666612 A transformative science fiction and horror novella about acceptance, reflection, and revenge.

Jeff Pritchet isn’t much different from other teenage boys, with one exception. His monstrous, spider-like appearance and loner persona make him a target for bullying, when all he wants is a friend who sees beyond the surface.

Enter transfer student, Aarav Jain. Thoughtful, accepting, and insightful, he sparks an untapped hope in Jeff, transforming his life. But as the boys grow closer, their deepening relationship becomes hijacked by a darkness Aarav can’t escape and a life-altering secret Jeff can barely contain.

The unconventional pair find themselves marked for hatred, and when his bond to Aarav is threatened, Jeff discovers a sinister side he never knew he had, proving that, when pushed too far, emotions can be deadlier than venom.]]> 122 A.J. Franks Pauline 0 to-read 3.85 The Boy with the Spider Face
author: A.J. Franks
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Venomous Lumpsucker 59593576
The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt. For instance, the biobanks: secure archives of DNA samples, from which lost organisms might someday be resurrected . . . But then, one day, it’s all gone. A mysterious cyber-attack hits every biobank simultaneously, wiping out the last traces of the perished species. Now we’re never getting them back.

Karin Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, a small, ugly bottom-feeder that happens to be the most intelligent fish on the planet. Resaint is an animal cognition scientist consumed with existential grief over what humans have done to nature. Halyard is an exec from the extinction industry, complicit in the mining operation that destroyed the lumpsucker’s last-known habitat.

Across the dystopian landscapes of the 2030s—a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the ocean; the hinterlands of a totalitarian state—Resaint and Halyard hunt for a surviving lumpsucker. And the further they go, the deeper they’re drawn into the mystery of the attack on the biobanks. Who was really behind it? And why would anyone do such a thing?]]> 336 Ned Beauman 1641294124 Pauline 0 to-read 3.77 2022 Venomous Lumpsucker
author: Ned Beauman
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> At Your Service 61660687 Get ready to serve.]]> 51 Caleb C.W. Pauline 4 4.00 2022 At Your Service
author: Caleb C.W.
name: Pauline
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)]]> 42074525
Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.]]> 437 N.K. Jemisin Pauline 0 to-read 3.83 2020 The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mountain in the Sea 59808603 Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses� advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.]]> 456 Ray Nayler 0374605955 Pauline 0 to-read 3.87 2022 The Mountain in the Sea
author: Ray Nayler
name: Pauline
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>