The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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I read Lucy Foley’s last novel, The Hunting Party, and found it just difficult enough to figure out that I decided I would read whatever she publishes next. The Guest List is a huge disappointment. It is a mystery thriller that takes place the day before and the day of a wedding on a remote Irish island. It sounds interesting in theory, but in practice the characters, main and supporting, are all clichés and it does not take a lot of effort to figure out who the murder victim is, how all the suspects’ motives connect to the murder victim, and who the killer is. There are no surprises at all in this novel. The setting, the remote Irish island with a bog that is probably full of bodies and rumored to be haunted, is the most interesting part of the novel, but too bad it is underutilized; it is the perfect setting for a supernatural thriller. In any event, it would not take you very long to read The Guest List, but I do not suggest wasting your time on it.

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

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The Hidden Palace is the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni (which I reviewed back in February). The Hidden Palace is even more intricately plotted than its predecessor and is as incredibly immersive. It is no wonder that it took Helene Wecker seven years to write this novel. The plot spans decades and touches on major historical events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the sinking of the Titanic and World War I. I found the tone of the novel to be on the pessimistic side, so I do not love it quite as much as The Golem and the Jinni, but it is definitely still worth reading.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI YET.

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Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

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I have not read many of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, and I really should rectify this because his novels are so engrossing and beautifully written. But I am also a little reluctant to read Ishiguro’s novels because the ones that I have read end up making me feel depressed. If you have read Never Let Me Go, you may know what I am talking about. I absolutely love that novel, but I do not think I could ever read it again because it is so heartbreaking. Klara and the Sun is much easier to read, but the ending still left me feeling sad for the sweet, little android at the heart of this novel.

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Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

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Meddling Kids is an adult homage to Scooby-Doo. Imagine Velma is a lesbian with a crush on Daphne and likes to beat up people; Daphne may or may not reciprocate Velma’s feelings and self medicates with alcohol; Fred is dead; Shaggy is in a mental institution and is either seeing his friend’s ghost or a hallucination; and Scooby-Doo is more of a Scrappy-Doo. In Meddling Kids, the four preteens, Andy, Kerri, Peter and Nate, and dog that solve mysteries call themselves the “Blyton Summer Detective Club”. In 1977, they solved their greatest, and last, mystery of the haunted Deboën Mansion and the “Sleepy Lake Creature”, which turned out to be a guy in an amphibian costume who was looking for gold supposedly hidden in the mansion.

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The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

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The Other Black Girl is currently being majorly hyped as the book to read this summer. Although I did enjoy reading this novel, for the most part, and it kept me up later than I should have been up on a work night because I did not want to put it down, I saw the ending coming a mile away, so I am on the fence if it is worth all the hype.

The premise of The Other Black Girl is very intriguing, especially when you learn that the author has based some of it on her own experience in the publishing industry: it is about an editorial assistant named Nella Rogers, who is the only Black girl that works at the prestigious Wagner Books (a fictional publishing company) in New York, until the other Black girl shows up, Hazel-May McCall. At first it seems like Nella may have finally found an ally in Hazel at the very white Wagner, but then things begin to happen and suddenly Hazel has become the office darling while everyone has turned against Nella. Then Nella finds a note on her desk that says, “LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.”

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Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson

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Monkey Beach is the first novel by Indigenous writer Eden Robinson and was first published in 2000. It is set in Haisla territory on the British Columbia coast just north of Vancouver Island, where Robinson was born. Monkey Beach is an engrossing read, but the ending devastated me, and I actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it.

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White Fox by Sara Faring

White Fox by Sara Faring

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I had my eye on White Fox for awhile before finally purchasing it. It sounds exactly like the kind of novel that I would eat up: a mystery about two sisters whose famous actor mother, Mireille Foix, disappeared a decade earlier, they discover their mother’s long-lost screenplay, White Fox, that she was working on when she disappeared, and it may hold clues to what really happened to her. I devoured this novel in two days, not able to put it down until I knew what happened to Mireille Foix. I found this novel very interesting to read because of the way it is structured, but I think the whole mystery behind the mother’s disappearance was a bit too simplistic in the end.

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From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way by Jesse Thistle

From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way by Jesse Thistle

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I highly recommend Jesse Thistle’s memoir, From the Ashes, but I warn you that it can be difficult to read as he spent decades living as a homeless drug addict. A couple of times I had to put this book aside because it was too much to stomach. However, Jesse’s story is incredibly inspiring as he would not have written this memoir if he did not eventually have the willpower to give up drugs and get his life back on track and go to university. He now works as an Assistant Professor in Métis Studies at York University.

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The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

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I enjoyed reading The Library of the Unwritten, but do I think it is an amazing book that would I recommend over a lot of the other books I have read recently? No. The concept is interesting, but the characters are not original enough to make this novel really stand out. I am not saying that you would be wasting your time reading this novel, but I would not blame you if you had something else you are really excited to read instead.

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Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

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Firekeeper’s Daughter is an impressive debut from Angeline Boulley that I highly recommend. It is classified as YA, but aside from the 18-year-old protagonist, it reads like an adult novel. There is no magic, no supernatural creatures, no “chosen one” trope and certainly no love triangles. Firekeeper’s Daughter is very much grounded in the real world and in real-life situations and is a mystery/crime thriller rather than a fantasy novel.

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