BOOKLOVES

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar stands as one of the most unflinching portrayals of mental illness in American literature. Through the eyes of nineteen-year-old Esther Greenwood, Plath crafts a narrative that transforms the abstract concept of depression into something viscerally real and terrifyingly accessible. The novel’s central metaphor—the bell jar itself—captures the claustrophobic nature of […]

Eleanor Pilcher’s debut novel “That’s What She Said” arrives with the sort of sharp wit and unabashed honesty that feels both refreshing and necessary in contemporary women’s fiction. The story follows demisexual Beth and her sexually confident best friend Serena as they embark on what they dub a “sexual odyssey” – a journey that begins […]

Kiley Reid’s debut novel, Such a Fun Age, opens with a phone call that disrupts everything—a rock through a window, a frantic request, and twenty-five-year-old Emira Tucker reluctantly agreeing to take her employer’s toddler to the grocery store at nearly midnight. What should be a simple favor transforms into a viral nightmare when a security […]

Meredith Hambrock’s sophomore novel She’s a Lamb! is a masterclass in psychological horror disguised as dark comedy, following the catastrophic unraveling of Jessamyn St. Germain, a twenty-six-year-old aspiring musical theater star whose desperate pursuit of stardom leads to devastating consequences. Set against the backdrop of a Vancouver regional theater’s production of The Sound of Music, […]

Neige Sinno’s Sad Tiger arrives as a literary earthquake, a memoir so unflinchingly honest about childhood sexual abuse that it demands to be read with the lights on. Winner of both the Prix Femina and the Goncourt des Lycéens in 2023, this translated work from French author Neige Sinno represents her debut in English literature, […]

Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca stands as one of literature’s most compelling explorations of how the dead can torment the living. This 1938 gothic masterpiece weaves a tale so psychologically complex that it continues to disturb and captivate readers more than eight decades after its publication. The novel’s opening line—”Last night I dreamt I went to […]

Candice Carty-Williams’ debut novel “Queenie” arrives like a punch to the gut wrapped in dark humor and unflinching honesty. This isn’t your typical coming-of-age story; it’s a brutal examination of what happens when a young Black British woman finds herself completely unmoored, grasping for identity while drowning in her own self-destructive patterns. Twenty-five-year-old Queenie Jenkins […]

Claire Ackroyd’s debut psychological thriller The Surfacing emerges like debris from dark waters—compelling, disturbing, and impossible to ignore. This meticulously crafted novel proves that sometimes the most dangerous secrets aren’t buried in the past, but floating just beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to breach. A Wedding Day Reckoning Set against the deceptively […]