Category: Book reviews

The Herd by Andrea Bartz A smart, feminist thriller with elegant prose and complex, skilfully constructed characters. The Herd (emphasis on her) is set in an all-female work environment, exploring the relationships between women, female ambition, and the price of success for women. Katie and her sister Hana are finally reunited when Katie moves back…

In the Dark by Loreth Anne White My rating: 5 of 5 stars A cleverly re-done version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, this is an atmospheric, chilling locked-room mystery. With unreliable, nefarious characters and an excellent mystery to unravel, In the Dark is a fun book that almost feels like a game…

Psychological Types by C.G. Jung Not sure I should even be marking this as done, as I mostly just scanned it! lol This is a veeerrry densely packed book that reads somewhat like a college textbook. I suspect it’s one that would need multiple readings to really interpret Jung’s full meaning. However, it gives a…

A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold My rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s hard to review a book like this because it covers such a traumatic part of history that a lot of us remember vividly. I myself had only just graduated high school a few years before Columbine…

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena A easy, fast-paced read that focuses entirely on plot, although little on character development. Great for a quick read that entertains. I’d recommend as a good summertime, beach read. View all my reviews

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi My rating: 5 of 5 stars Luminous and life-affirming, When Breath Becomes Air is an emotional and heart-breakingly beautiful story about what it means to live in the face of dying. Chronicling Paul Kalanithi’s diagnosis with inoperable cancer as a neurosurgical resident to becoming a patient himself, the…

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison My rating: 5 of 5 stars “There are truths, and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened, which is where you and I will meet.” Tightly plotted and brilliantly executed, this story of secrets, hazing, suicides and murder is told in the most evocative way.…

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris My rating: 3 of 5 stars Well researched and authentic, with the potential to be emotional, thought provoking and poignant. However, it fell a little flat for me and I felt like I really struggled to get through it. While I loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I felt like this…

Little White Lies by Philippa East My rating: 5 of 5 stars Emotionally taut, poignant and raw, Little White Lies is a beautiful thriller about the bitter cost of lies and the enduring quality of a mother’s love. The story begins with what usually is the ending for most thrillers: a kidnapped child is returned.…

For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt My rating: 5 of 5 stars Brilliantly, breathlessly entertaining, For Better and Worse poses the question, do some people really just need killing? When Natalie and Will first met, they talking about how to get away with murder. But they never thought they’d do it in real life.…

What You Did by Claire McGowan Covering a range of very sensitive issues, from rape to domestic abuse, this is not a lighthearted. McGowan writes a story that weaves a past murder with a current sexual attack, leaving the reader increasingly determined to find out what really happened. While the protagonist is clearly blind to…

Follow Me by Kathleen Barber My rating: 5 of 5 stars Barber ratchets up the tension in this spine-tingling thriller about the dangers of over-sharing in the age of social media. Addictive, disturbing, and frighteningly real, Follow Me is about self-obsessed Audrey, an Instagram influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers. But one of her…