Picked up Batch #1 of my summer reading list from our local indie, @bookbroads! (Still waiting on one Claire LeGrand and one @hafsahfaizal they had to order in for me). Bummed I can’t go read them all in a hotel room in Seattle next weekend as planned, but BOOK VACATION SOMEDAY

Started with HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS and it’s like a mashup of The Twelve Dancing Princesses with a fuckton of Poe plus a creepy haunted island kingdom and a side order of Sister Drama

the vibe is very Don’t Turn Around There’s a Drowned Lady Ghost Standing Behind You

I’m never gonna sleep again but it’s amazing

Small Child Innocently Drawing Horrifying Pictures of the Ghost Visitations Only She Can See is a god-tier spooky trope

also the ball scenes are like LABYRINTH fanfic, I’m living

if “Maritime Fairy Tale Horror” is a genre it’s my new favorite genre and I want all your recs

FAM I FINISHED IT AND IT WAS INCREDIBLE

so spooky and sinister, perfect haunted house vibes, there’s even a LIGHTHOUSE

it’s a romance, it’s a ghost story, it’s a murder mystery, it’s a love letter to baby sea turtles, and it fully scared the crap out of me like a dozen times

Started in on ALL THE STARS AND TEETH next and it immediately won me over the moment the female protagonist got her period unexpectedly in the middle of a Big Action Adventure Moment and it was treated perfectly casually and realistically as a plot-relevant logistical headache

I’m wildly delighted by the notion of a heroine on the lam, attempting to outrun an army of guards while she’s in disguise, being temporarily foiled because she has a completely unpredictable menstrual cycle and her disguise came with white pants

normalize acknowledging that menstruation exists in fantasy worlds tbh

It’s 4 am and I gotta put this book down and sleep but I just got to the BISEXUAL VENGEANCE MERMAID

this is a perfect book