2024 End of Year Book Survey

Posted January 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Tags / 4 Comments

I found Jamie’s End of Year Book Survey through Jana @ The Artsy Reader Girl last year and decided to do it again this year! Please feel free to do this too and leave a comment with your link so I can check out your answers!

Here’s my 2023 End of Year Book Survey if you’d like to check it out. I’m late with my 2024 book survey but I got it done! I was still logging in some of the books I read in 2024 because I wasn’t up to date, and there are several reviews for 2024 books I haven’t written yet. The 2024/2025 end of year season was a really hectic one for me and I haven’t been very present in the blogosphere but hopefully I’ll get things squared away soon. I’ve missed visiting with everyone!

2024 Reading Stats

Click here to check out My Year In Books in detail. You can also use it to check yours.

Number of books you read: 172

Number of re-reads: 20! So many this year for some reason!
1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
4. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
5. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
6. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
7. Anne of Green Gables Books 1-5 by L.M. Montgomery
8. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
9. Cujo by Stephen King
10. The Shining by Stephen King
11. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
12. The Outsider by Stephen King
13. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
14. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
15. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
16. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Number of books you DNFed: I didn’t keep track of them this year!
Number of pages you read: 62,076
Most read genre: Fantasy at 80 books
Number of new-to-you authors you discovered: 69

Firsts and Lasts

First book you read: Holly by Stephen King
Last book you read: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
First 2023 release you read: The Improbable Meet-Cute series by various authors

Best In Books

1. Best book you read in 2024:
There were so many amazing books this year it’s honestly hard to choose. I did make a list for the top ten best books I read in 2024, but they did not include rereads. If I had to choose one new read, it’d be the Heartstopper series. If I could include rereads, it’d be The Count of Monte Cristo.

2. Book you were excited about & thought you were going to love more but didn’t:
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was a disappointment. It sounded so good and there was so much praise for it, I thought I was going to like it a lot more. To be fair, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read:
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, and the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes. I didn’t have very high expectations for both; I thought they were a couple of generic YA stories that would be somewhat entertaining but not memorable. I am happy to be proven wrong for both! They are very entertaining! And also very memorable!

4. Book you “pushed” the most people to read (and they did):
Interestingly, Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. Someone was looking for a book to fit a prompt and I recommended this book. Before I knew it, it became a buddy read, and I got twelve people to read it! Plus, one more person from my irl bookclub! And another bookblogger who read my review! So altogether 14 people? Not too shabby!

5. Best first book in a series you started in 2024. Best sequel of 2024. Best series ender of 2024.
Started: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Sequel: Doctor Sleep (The Shining #2) by Stephen King
Ender: Super Powereds Year 4 by Drew Hayes

6. Favorite new-to-you author you discovered in 2024:
I read so many new-to-me authors in 2024 and I enjoyed so many of them, but I have to go with Drew Hayes on this one. I read his whole Super Powered series, and also Fred, the Vampire Accountant, and I have to say they’re just so much fun to read, plus his characters are all so wonderful!

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone:
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. I listened to it on audio, but it’s listed as poetry and it sounds very poetic while I was listening, that’s for sure. I don’t typically read a lot of poetry, so this was definitely out of my comfort zone, but it was so beautiful to listen to and very emotional.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year:
The Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes! I couldn’t put them down and it was just one thrilling thing after another! I love the relationship dynamics, the action-packed challenges they had to go through, the storyline. It was four books with a total of approximately 160 hours on audio and I breezed through them because they were so fun!

9. Book you read in 2024 that you are most likely to re-read next year?
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and/or Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. For the “simple” reason that they’re both first books in a series that have quite a complicated world-building and I listened to them on audio. I’m probably going to have to refresh my memory for these books before moving on with the rest of the series. Oh, also Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, for the same reason.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2024:
The Emily Wilde books! I read both the first and second book in 2024 and they are both gorgeous!

11. Most memorable character of 2024:
Boris from The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I don’t necessarily like him as a person, but he’s very memorable as a character! Here’s what I said in my buddy read discussions for the book;

“He is the most exasperating, annoying, toxic, incredible, idiotic, brilliant, CRAZY person, and I think I wouldn’t have any idea what to do with a friend like him. You gotta love him but you also gotta hate him. And I think I’d stay far far away from him and his antics, he’d drive me to an early grave!”

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2024:
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. It was such an experience listening to this book on audio. Such painful topics told so lyrically, so beautifully, in such an expressive voice. It was incredible.

13. Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2024:
Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown. It’s basically an encyclopedia of emotions, which doesn’t seem like it would be life-changing, but the definitions really got me to understand my own feelings and why I was feeling them. It was very validating and still makes me think.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2024 to finally read:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. There was a lot of talk about it when it came out and I was very curious. It’d been in my TBR since but I hadn’t read it until 2024!

15. Favorite quote from a book you read in 2024:
Omg, I have so many! But I’ll narrow it down to these few, for now!

“I’m one of those people who doesn’t really know what he thinks until he writes it down.” – 11/22/63 by Stephen King

“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” – Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

“Science is not the truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more.” – Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown

16. Shortest and longest books you read in 2024:
Shortest: Drop, Cover, and Hold On by Jasmine Guillory (40 pages)
Longest: Super Powereds Year 4 by Drew Hayes (1981 pages)

17. Book that shocked you the most:
Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman. The things they did were horrendous and unbelievable. You never think you’d be susceptible to being influenced into joining a cult, but you never know. It’s that whole slow boiling the frog thing, and I honestly can’t say for sure I wouldn’t fall for it. It’s scary.

18. OTP of the year (you will go down with this ship!):
Nick and Charlie from Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, hands down! I love them and I would die for them!

19. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year:
Carl and Donut from Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. I love their dynamic, I love their chemistry, I love the way they work together, I love how hilarious they are! I love them!

20. Favorite book you read in 2024 from an author you’ve read previously:
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. It was such a magical, whimsical fairy-tale that made me feel like I was transported to a whole other existence while reading it. I love the MC and how mysterious she is. I loved how the story unfolded and how we find out more about her and her life. It’s a beautiful story.

21. Best book you read in 2024 that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from somebody else:
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. So many recommendations by so many of you, but yes, I only read it because it was so highly recommended and I trust your judgments!

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2024:
Carrie Soto from Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She’s so strong and inspiring, and I’ve got a thing for strong, inspiring women. She also has her moments where she can be a little abrasive, but I think seeing her weaknesses and vulnerabilities only makes me love her more.

23. Best 2024 debut you read:
Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer. I think it was the only 2024 debut I read; I would’ve had others but I didn’t get to them in time, and now I’ll have to read them in 2025!

24. Most vivid setting you read this year:
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I don’t know why but it really stood out to me. Every scene was so vivid and descriptive to me, I could imagine it all so clearly.

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most FUN to read:
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan. I was cackling gleefully while reading it because it was just so unexpectedly good! I also want to say Dungeon Crawler Carl, but it’s been praised so much already so I wanted to give Long Live Evil a mention.

26. Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2024:
There were several books I read this year that made me cry or almost cry; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and Carrie Soto Is Back made me sob like a baby.

27. Hidden gem of the year:
I’ll admit that I’m not very up-to-date on what’s being hyped up out there in social media, but I haven’t heard a lot of hype around Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, and I also personally didn’t expect much from it and was pleasantly surprised.

28. Most unique book you read in 2024:
Oooh, maybe I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. It’s an interesting format with an interesting premise, but I really enjoyed it.

39. Book that made you the maddest (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it):
This year it was the non-fiction that made me mad; The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the injustice and exploitation of both these women for albeit different reasons just really gets to me.

My Blogging/Bookish Life

1. Favorite review that you wrote in 2024:
I don’t know, I wrote so many I can’t remember them all! Possibly the ones with additional discussion and notes because I had so much more to say about them!

2. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog:
I really enjoy doing my Sunday Posts, but I’ve been missing them for a couple of months now. I’m still trying to catch up with regular life stuff at the moment. I hope I’ll be back soon.

3. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.):
My in-person bookclub’s road trip to The Royal Tyrrell Museum in conjunction with our Book of the Month, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte! It was the most fun book-related event in 2024!

6. Most popular post this year on your blog (whether it be by comments or views):
I don’t really look at my stats (not sure how?) so I had to check manually but my Top Ten Tuesday Most Anticipated Books for 2024 Jan-Jun has 58 comments.

8. Post you wished got a little more love:
I’m pretty happy with the love I got, and very grateful for all of it!

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.):
It might be a little basic but it’s Audible for me. I know it’s been around for a while, and I had definitely heard of it before, I just didn’t know how it worked and how much fun I would have with it. I got a year’s membership for a discount and it includes a lot of free audiobooks I would otherwise have never listened to or learned about. I’m really happy with it so far!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year:
I finished all my reading challenges in 2024 except two – I signed up for ten. I’m pretty happy with how I did on the challenges, but I definitely felt overwhelmed a couple of times. I’m cutting down on challenges in 2025 and hoping to take it easier!

Looking Ahead in 2025

1. Book you are most anticipating in 2025 (non-debut):
I have a few books I’m anticipating in 2025 and I made a Top Ten Tuesday post about it. I’m very excited about a lot of them actually; Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, Never Flinch by Stephen King, but I think I’m most excited about TJR’s Atmosphere because I loved the last book I read by her and this one sounds really good!

2. 2025 debut you are most anticipating:
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson. I have no idea if it’s going to be good, but it sounds good and I’m really excited about it!

3. Sequel you are most anticipating in 2025:
All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan, the sequel to Long Live Evil, which I absolutely loved! It’s expected to be released September 16, 2025, a long wait, but I’ll be ready for it!

4. One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life in 2025?
I want to be more present on the blog. I am starting out this year very frazzled and behind on everything! I have been contemplating cutting down on book clubs, book challenges, and buddy reads, and even blogging, because of irl stuff getting busy, but I would be very sad if I had to do any of that. I’m hoping that it’s a temporary thing while I adjust and I’ll get better and more organized in time.

What are your answers to these questions? If you do this survey, let me know so I can visit your post and check out your answers. You can also leave your answers in the comments!

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Top Ten Tuesday | Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

Posted January 6, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 11 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

So many books to be excited about this year and these are just for the first half of the year! As if I didn’t already have tons of backlist books on the TBR, I’ve got new ones to contend with! I can’t wait!

Top Ten Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

  1. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – Expected publication date: Jan 21, 2025. The third book in the Empyrean series. The second was a little disappointing but I have to see this through!
  2. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins – Expected publication date: Mar 18, 2025. I wasn’t interested in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes when it was released but have since read it and now I’m all in for any other book in the THG universe.
  3. Swept Away by Beth O’Leary – Expected publication date: Apr 10, 2025. I love her other books and I’m sure I’ll love this one too!
  4. Never Flinch by Stephen King – Expected publication date: May 27, 2025. I know some people are tired of reading about Holly but I love her, so I’m totally here for it!
  5. The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb – Expected publication date: May 6, 2025. I’m anticipating this alright, but I’m also scared to read it because I cried so hard with two other books from the author I loved.
  6. The Love Haters by Katherine Center – Expected publication date: May 20, 2025. I’m completely sold on Katherine Center and I’m excited for this next one!
  7. Overgrowth by Mira Grant – Expected publication date: May 6, 2025. I read a couple of her books a long time ago and they made an impression on me. Curious to read this one and see how I feel about it.
  8. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett – Expected publication date: Feb 11, 2025. More Emily Wilde! More Wendell! More faerie hijinks! I can’t wait!
  9. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Expected publication date: Jun 3, 2025. I love everything TJR, and this one sounds so good!
  10. A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson – Expected publication date: Jan 7, 2025. Dragons, languages, dark academia! I mean, how can I resist?!

Are you anticipating any of these books? Have you read any books by these authors? What books are you looking forward to?

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Monthly Wrap Up | December 2024

Posted January 2, 2025 by Haze in Monthly Wrap Up / 2 Comments

Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.

December 2024 Wrap Up

Happy New Year 2025, everyone!!

I’ve been so frazzled and disorganized these last couple of months that I haven’t been very present on the blog at all, or in other areas of my life. Things haven’t settled down yet and I’m still catching up but I’m trying to be a little more organized. I’m also cutting down on reading challenges this year because I got so overwhelmed last year with more than ten of them!

At this point, I’m still just trying to catch up, so I don’t have a complete picture of my goals and plans yet, but I’ll get there eventually! Thank you for being patient with me!

My December 2024 TBR Intentions

Well, the good news is that I read 5 out of 7 of the books on my TBR in December! Yayy!

  1. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
  2. In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
  3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  4. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
  5. The Outsider by Stephen King
  6. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
  7. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Books Read in December 2024

  1. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
  2. Bloody Acquisitions (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 3) by Drew Hayes
  3. The Fangs of Freelance (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 4) by Drew Hayes
  4. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
  5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
  6. Deadly Assessments (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 5) by Drew Hayes
  7. The Outsider by Stephen King
  8. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
  9. Undeading Bells (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 6) by Drew Hayes
  10. In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
  11. Out of House and Home (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 7) by Drew Hayes
  12. Posthumous Education (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 8) by Drew Hayes
  13. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Notable Books This Month

I ended up spending most of the month reading Drew Hayes’ Fred, the Vampire Accountant series! They were so fun and enjoyable, and I really loved reading about Fred and his friends. I’m a huge fan of found family stories, and Hayes really has a talent for writing interesting characters. I was so sad when I finished the last one, but I found out there’s going to be a Book 9, so I’m eagerly waiting for its release!

I also really loved The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, and I’m completely invested in the story and intend to read the rest of the series.

The Outsider and A Closed and Common Orbit are both rereads, but worth mentioning because they’re both still so good the second time around.

And finally, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was such an eye-opening read. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it, I learned so much and it made me feel so many things. I’m also very curious about the movie and I’ll probably want to watch it sometime soon.

Reading Challenges

I’m going easy on the reading challenges in 2025 because I got a little overzealous last year. These are the ones I’m committing to this year:

  1. The 52 Book Club 2025 Reading Challenge – I’m doing this one again this year because I enjoyed it so much last year!
  2. The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge – My own personal challenge because I’m a fan of SK but have plenty of his books I haven’t read yet. No time limit, and everyone is welcome to join me if you’d like.
  3. The Classics Club – This is a 5-year challenge and I’m on Year 2.
  4. Reading From My TBR Challenge – Also a personal challenge because I figure I should be at least trying to read from my TBR, but I haven’t figured out the parameters yet so I’ll come back to this later.

January 2025 TBR Intentions

I’m just taking it one month at a time. I hope to read these books in January! What about you?

  1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  2. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
  3. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
  4. ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
  5. The Terror by Dan Simmons
  6. Vicious by V.E. Schwab

How was your month in December? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful 2025 with lots of great books!

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Top Ten Tuesday | Best Books I Read in 2024

Posted December 30, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 5 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Best Books I Read in 2024

I was looking through my books read in 2024 and I feel very grateful because it was filled with so many amazing books! I had so many “best books” that it was really difficult to choose, plus favorite books that I reread this year. So for the sake of narrowing it down, I’m only listing books I read for the first time this year. There were still more than ten, but I did my best to choose the ones that I enjoyed most!

Top Ten Best Books I Read in 2024

  1. Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I’ve read and loved a lot of TJR’s books but this one is a cut above. I don’t know anything about tennis, but that drive and determination that Carrie has in this book is so palpable through the pages and transcends tennis or any sport. It’s just so powerful and emotional.
  2. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – I’ve only read the first two books in this seven-book series (so far?) and I’m completely sold on it! It’s hard to describe because it sounds campy and silly, which it is, but it’s so much more than that too! It’s hilarious, imaginative, emotional, infuriating, and serious too, and I highly recommend it even if it doesn’t sound like something you’d like at first.
  3. Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan – This one was a huge surprise! I almost passed on it and didn’t have very high expectations, but maybe that’s why I ended up loving it. It’s “isekai” which apparently means a regular person who lives in our world gets transported into a magical/fantastical world and have to figure out how to live there. It was fun and funny, and it gave me all the feels!
  4. Super Powereds by Drew Hayes – Another surprise! I didn’t expect very much from this series because I was initially very annoyed with the writing style of the author, but I ended up loving the series and the characters and now I’m a fan! I finished the series and got caught up with the story; I love the fight scenes, the strategizing, the found family, and I was so sad when I got to the end because there’s just something about these characters that make you want to keep reading about them.
  5. Born A Crime by Trevor Noah – I have to recommend listening to this on audio, even if you’ve already read it on print. Trevor Noah narrates it himself and it’s so engrossing to listen to him tell you his story. He’s an amazing storyteller; his inflections, emotions, accents, languages, everything hits perfectly!
  6. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – One of the most enthralling books I’ve read this year, there’s just something about the way the author tells this story that really captures me. I also read David Copperfield immediately after this and obviously I see the similarities with all the important elements, but Kingsolver still manages to bring something really new and fresh to the table.
  7. You Like It Darker by Stephen King – I never get tired of Stephen King. I’ve read so many of his other books this year, many of which were rereads so I didn’t list them here, and they are all so good I wouldn’t have been able to choose between them if I didn’t have the “no rereads” caveat for this list. This one is a book of short stories but every single one of them held my attention and wouldn’t let go! I’m so excited to read more of him for my Stephen King challenge!
  8. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo – I’ve been a fan of the author ever since reading The Ghost Bride, and I think I might love The Fox Wife even more! I love how magical and mysterious the story is, and there’s always a sense of otherworldliness with the way Choo writes and tells her stories. If I had my way, I’d make everyone read her!
  9. Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown – I think this might be one of the most important books I’ve read this year. I sometimes have trouble articulating how I feel, but this book gives me the words for them and helps me understand my feelings better. I feel like I could do with a deeper study of this book and all the emotional words within, and I feel like everyone would benefit from it too!
  10. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman – I had absolutely no interest in these books when they came out because it was about teenage boys and honestly, what do I have in common with teenage boys? But by some stroke of fate, I picked it up because it was available and I wanted something quick and easy to read, and now I cannot imagine a world without these books in it. It is the most wholesome, heartwarming, pure, goodest thing in the world, and we must protect Nick and Charlie at all costs!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Book Review | The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

Posted December 23, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

2017: 19 year old Tallulah is going out on a date, leaving her baby with her mother, Kim.

Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits.

The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah’s friends who tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a party at a house in the nearby woods called Dark Place.

She never returns.

2019: Sophie is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started work as a head-teacher when she sees a note fixed to a tree.

‘DIG HERE’ . . .

A cold case, an abandoned mansion, family trauma and dark secrets lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s remarkable new novel.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
None

The Reason

It was my online bookclub’s BOTM for December.

The Quotes

“Men don’t know, she thinks, they don’t know how having a baby makes you protective of your skin, your body, your space. When you spend all day giving yourself to a baby in every way that it’s possible to give yourself to another human being, the last thing you want at the end of the day is a grown man wanting you to give him things too.”

“Kim sometimes thinks that women practice being mothers on men until they become actual mothers, leaving behind a kind of vacancy.”

“She thinks, You didn’t see the look he gave me just now on the stairs. You don’t know how he looks at me when you’re not in the room; the way his voice sets hard like stone, his eyes bore through me like lasers. You really don’t know.”

My Thoughts

I was very disappointed with this book. I had heard good things about the author and was eager to read a delicious mystery but this story fell flat for me.

The biggest issue I had with the book is that the characters are very one-dimensional and I didn’t connect to any of them at all. Many of them acted inconsistently, and any personality they had were often told to us, rather than shown. The one character that had any depth at all was the boyfriend, Zach, and while I hated him as a character, I thought his portrayal was incredibly scary and accurate. Other than Zach, none of the other characters made sense, which was obviously a detriment to the story. The plot only made sense because the characters didn’t make sense, which ultimately means that the story doesn’t work.

This was my first Lisa Jewell book, and based off this book, I probably wouldn’t bother with any more of her books, but I’ve been told that this isn’t a good representation of her works so I might try another one eventually.

My Rating

⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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The 52 Book Club’s 2025 Reading Challenge

Posted December 23, 2024 by Haze in Reading Challenges / 1 Comment

I finished the 52 Book Club’s 2024 challenge and really loved the prompts and how it made me read out of my comfort zone, so I’ll be doing it again in 2025! There were some books I loved, and some I didn’t like so much and only read because of the challenge, but that’s the fun of it and the reason I want to do it again! You can find a list of 2024’s prompts and the books I read for each of the prompts here.

The 52 Book Club’s annual reading challenge is made up of 52 unique prompts. The goal is to match one book to each prompt, for a total of fifty-two books over the course of the year. Prompts are related to everything from specific titles, to cover designs, authors, genres, settings, themes, characters, etc. (Think of it like a giant bookish scavenger hunt!) We encourage participants to try books outside of their regular reading comfort zones and push themselves to read more, read differently, and get creative with it!

Visit The 52 Book Club to find out more and join the challenge!

Below is the 52 Book Club’s list of prompts for 2025. These prompts are linked to Goodreads Lists of books that fit each prompt. I copy and pasted them from here, for easy access, and so I can link to each prompt with the books I finish.

The 2025 Goodreads Lists:

  1. A pun in the title
  2. A character with red hair
  3. Title starts with letter “M” – The Measure by Nikki Erlick
  4. Title starts with letter “N”
  5. Plot includes a heist
  6. Genre One: Set in Spring
  7. Genre Two: Set in Summer
  8. Genre Three: Set in Autumn
  9. Genre Four: Set in Winter
  10. Author’s last name is also a first name
  11. A prequel
  12. Has a moon on the cover – Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
  13. Title is ten letters or less – Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson
  14. Climate fiction
  15. Includes Latin American history
  16. Author has won an Edgar award
  17. Told in verse
  18. A character who can fly – The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
  19. Has short chapters – Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
  20. A fairy tale retelling
  21. Character’s name in the title
  22. Found family trope
  23. A sprayed edge
  24. Title is a spoiler
  25. Breaks the fourth wall
  26. More than a million copies sold – The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
  27. Features a magician
  28. A crossover (Set in a shared universe)
  29. Shares universe with prompt 28
  30. In the public domain
  31. Audiobook has multiple narrators
  32. Includes a diary entry
  33. A standalone novel
  34. Direction in the title
  35. Written in third person
  36. Final sentence is less than 6 words long
  37. Genre chosen for you by someone else
  38. An adventure story
  39. Has an epigraph
  40. Stream of consciousness narrative
  41. Cover font is in a primary color – Vicious by V.E. Schwab
  42. Non-human antagonist – ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
  43. Explores social class
  44. A celebrity on the cover
  45. Author releases more than one book a year – Joyland by Stephen King
  46. Read in a “-ber” month
  47. “I think it was blue”
  48. Related to the word “puzzle”
  49. Set in a country with an active volcano
  50. Set in the 1940s (Books that do NOT include WWII) / Set in the 1940s (Books that includes WWII) – The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  51. 300-400 pages long
  52. Published in 2025

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The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge

Posted December 23, 2024 by Haze in Reading Challenges / 1 Comment

I’m not normally a reader who feels the need to read an author’s full catalog, but I’ve read and enjoyed so many of Stephen King’s books and I feel like if I was going to do it, his catalog would be the way to go. I’ve actually already read many of his books, but for the sake of this challenge, I will be re-reading them again. They are considered done when I’ve written reviews for every single one of them here on my blog.

I’m not putting any time limit on this challenge. It’s just a personal challenge for myself that I want to have fun with, but also keeping in mind that the list is probably going to grow the longer I take, because Stephen King is going to keep churning out those books!

Feel free to join me if you’re a fan of SK and want to do the challenge too! Post a comment with a link to your challenge page/reviews and I’ll check them out!

  1. Carrie (1974)
  2. ‘Salem’s Lot (1975)
  3. The Shining (1977)
  4. Rage (1977)*
  5. Night Shift (1978)
  6. The Stand (1978)
  7. The Long Walk (1979) [by Richard Bachman]*
  8. The Dead Zone (1979)
  9. Firestarter (1980)
  10. Roadwork (1981) [by Richard Bachman]*
  11. Danse Macabre (1981)
  12. Cujo (1981)
  13. The Running Man (1982) [by Richard Bachman]*
  14. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)
  15. Different Seasons (1982)
  16. Christine (1983)
  17. Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)
  18. Pet Sematary (1983)
  19. The Eyes of the Dragon (1984)
  20. The Talisman (1984) with Peter Straub
  21. Thinner (1984) [by Richard Bachman]
  22. Skeleton Crew (1985)
  23. IT (1986)
  24. The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
  25. Misery (1987)
  26. The Tommyknockers (1987)
  27. The Dark Half (1989)
  28. The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990)
  29. Four Past Midnight (1990)
  30. The Dark Towe: The Waste Lands (1991)
  31. Needful Things (1991)
  32. Gerald’s Game (1992)
  33. Dolores Claiborne (1992)
  34. Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993)
  35. Insomnia (1994)
  36. Rose Madder (1995)
  37. The Green Mile (1996)
  38. Desperation (1996)
  39. The Regulators (1996) [by Richard Bachman]
  40. The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass (1997)
  41. Bag of Bones (1998)
  42. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999)
  43. Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
  44. Storm of the Century (1999)**
  45. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)
  46. Dreamcatcher (2001)
  47. Black House (2001) with Peter Straub
  48. Everything’s Eventual (2002)
  49. From a Buick 8 (2002)
  50. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger: Resumption (2003)
  51. The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
  52. The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah (2004)
  53. The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower (2004)
  54. Faithful (2004) with Stewart O’Nan
  55. The Colorado Kid (2005)
  56. Cell (2006)
  57. Lisey’s Story (2006)
  58. Blaze (2007) [by Richard Bachman]
  59. Duma Key (2008)
  60. Just After Sunset (2008)
  61. Under the Dome (2009)
  62. Blockade Billy (2010)
  63. Full Dark, No Stars (2010)
  64. 11/22/63 (2011)
  65. The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)
  66. Joyland (2013)
  67. The Dark Man (2013)
  68. Doctor Sleep (2013)
  69. Mr. Mercedes (2014)
  70. Revival (2014)
  71. Finders Keepers (2015)
  72. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015)
  73. End of Watch (2016)
  74. Charlie the Choo-Choo (2016) [by Beryl Evans]
  75. Hearts in Suspension (2016)
  76. Gwendy’s Button Box (2017) with Richard Chizmar
  77. Sleeping Beauties (2017) with Owen King
  78. The Outsider (2018)
  79. Elevation (2018)
  80. The Institute (2019)
  81. If It Bleeds (2020)
  82. Later (2021)
  83. Billy Summers (2021)
  84. Gwendy’s Final Task (2022) with Richard Chizmar
  85. Fairy Tale (2022)
  86. Holly (2023)
  87. You Like It Darker (2024)

*collected in The Bachman Books
**screenplay

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Book Review | The Outsider by Stephen King

Posted December 23, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Outsider by Stephen King

An unspeakable crime. A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories.

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge

The Reason

This is a reread and a buddy read on my online bookclub. I’m also planning a Stephen King reading challenge, so I’ll be going through his works including the ones I’ve read before!

The Quotes

“If you can’t let go of the past, the mistakes you’ve made will eat you alive.”

“People are blind to explanations that lie outside their perception of reality.”

“Thinking that if a person did begin considering supernatural possibilities, that person would no longer be able to think of himself as a completely sane person, and thinking about one’s sanity was maybe not a good thing. It was like thinking about your heartbeat: if you had to go there, you might already be in trouble.”

“Terry gave him a look of which only high school teachers are capable: We both know you’re an idiot, but I will not embarrass you in front of your peers by saying so.”

The Narrator(s)

Will Patton. I’ve mentioned I loved Will Patton as a narrator for Stephen King’s books, and that is still true, but this audiobook was difficult to listen to. I see it as a production issue rather than a narrator issue; the volume mix was inconsistent and there were times when the narration was almost inaudible and I had to raise the volume, and then it suddenly got louder and hurt my ears. My copy was published by Simon & Schuster Audio, I’m not sure if the same issues exist with other publishers.

My Thoughts

I read this book first out of all the books that feature Holly Gibney, without context at the time about who Holly was, but I remember loving the book and it becoming one of my favorite SK books. Now that I’ve read more of SK’s books, too many of them are becoming favorites and I feel he’s just getting better and better. I’ve also since read all of the other books that feature Holly and it was really interesting to revisit this story knowing her history.

One of the things I loved most about this book is the conversation about how there is no end to the universe and that we must accept the impossible when there’s no other explanation. I love the initial buildup of the story with Terry Maitland, which was painful to read about and so intense, but such a testament to SK’s mastery of telling a story. A lot of things happen in this book that make you feel… a lot of feelings; the injustice of the law enforcement system, the corruption of the people in power, the tragic suffering of so many innocent people. This book just gives so much.

The supernatural aspect of this story is scary and terrifying, and I remember it creeping me out so much the first time I read it. This time I wasn’t as freaked out, maybe because I know what to expect now, but also because, I think, the real life implications are more horrifying to me this time around. Things like this happen in real life, and it’s human beings doing it to other human beings. There are monsters amongst us, and often we can’t do much against them. In a way, this scary horror story is a comfort because in fiction, the heroes win and the monsters are defeated. Maybe it can be an inspiration too.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Posted December 23, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

The Reason

It was a big deal when it came out, and I had it on my TBR, but it’s taken me years to finally get to it!

The Quotes

“She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother is so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?”

“But today when people talk about the history of Hopkins’s relationship with the black community, the story many of them hold up as the worst offense is that of Henrietta Lacks—a black woman whose body, they say, was exploited by white scientists.”

“Henrietta’s cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it.”

“Whether you think the commercialization of medical research is good or bad depends on how into capitalism you are.”

The Narrator(s)

Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin. The narrators were amazing, I loved listening to the audiobook and the production was really good.

My Thoughts

It’s hard to know where to begin. I had so many conflicting feelings while reading this book. The HeLa cells have done so much good for the medical science industry, but at the cost of exploiting vulnerable people for the benefit of a select few. It’s even worse to think about now because the medical industry has only gotten more exploitative in the way they markup the cost of healthcare and very much needed lifesaving medication. It isn’t the layperson holding back medical progress but rather the greedy CEOs of the medical industry.

There’s so much more to say about unethical practices in regards to the HeLa cells and so many other instances in medical history, some of which are highlighted in this book. It is so infuriating to read about them, and it seems that many of these medical practitioners were never made to answer for any of it. Perhaps this hits a little close to home at this time, considering what’s been happening recently.

My favorite part of the book was the focus on the real humans who were impacted by these unethical practices. I was very pulled into the story of the lives of Henrietta Lacks’ children in the aftermath of her death, and with dealing with unanswered questions for decades about what happened to their mother and her cells. I feel like Skloot did an amazing job telling the story, keeping to the integrity of the facts while respecting the wishes of the Lacks family. I haven’t watched the movie, but I’m very curious to see it.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books on My Winter 2024-2025 TBR

Posted December 16, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 6 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books on My Winter 2024-2025 to-Read List

Alright, now that we’re almost at the end of the year and we’re doing a Winter TBR post, I can say that I’m a little disappointed that some of the books that have been on my TBR since last year haven’t been crossed off the list yet. I’ve read some great books this year, don’t get me wrong, but I really want to get to those pesky books still on my TBR too! Still, for the sake of this post, I’m posting different books so that I won’t feel sad about having the same books from last year on this year’s list!

Top Ten Books on My Winter 2024-2025 TBR

  1. A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher – I’ve been wanting to read this but haven’t gotten my hands on the book yet. I’m a huge fan of Kingfisher and this one sounds really good too!
  2. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers – This is the second book in The Wayfarer series and will be a reread for me. I read the first and second book a while ago but not the next in the series, so I’m rereading before moving on to the next ones.
  3. In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren – My irl bookclub’s BOTM. I’ve read other books by the authors and I’m hoping it will be a much needed light-hearted read for the holidays.
  4. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell – My online bookclub’s BOTM and hopefully a fast-paced, thrilling read!
  5. The Terror by Dan Simmons – This one sounds ominous but I’m intrigued and really want to read it. I’m scared but also very curious!
  6. Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson – The third book in The Stormlight Archive series. I just finished reading the first two recently and I am hooked! I know the fifth book just came out and I’m really excited to get through the books!
  7. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst – Honestly, this one is purely judged based on the cover. And title. It seems so whimsical and magical and I just want to read it!
  8. Deadly Assessments by Drew Hayes – The fifth book in Fred, the Vampire Accountant series. I breezed through the first four and have enjoyed them all. Very much intending to finish the whole series.
  9. The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman – The third book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I loved the first two and I’m excited to read the rest of these books!
  10. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston – I just want a little more light-hearted romance in my life and heard this one was good.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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