Tag: 5 stars

Book Review | Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Posted September 5, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

This Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy adventure is the first installment in the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles, set in the magical world of Krynn.

Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods—and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever . . .

When Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager, they wonder if it’s a sign the gods have not abandoned them after all. Fueled by this glimmer of hope, the Companions band together to uncover the truth behind the gods’ absence—though they aren’t the only ones with an interest in the staff. The Seekers, a new religious order, wants the artifact for their own ends, believing it will help them replace the gods and overtake the continent of Ansalon. Now, the Companions must assume the unlikely roles of heroes if they hope to prevent the staff from falling into the hands of darkness.

Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.

No one expected them to be heroes.

Least of all, them.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #8: Genre Three: Set in Autumn)

The Reason

Rereading one of my favorite fantasy series.

The Quotes

“Say that our lives are measured not by gain but by giving.”

“People want to believe in something—even if, deep inside, they know it is false.”

“He said kenders were small because we were meant to do small things. ‘If you look at all the big things in the world closely,’ he said, ‘you’ll see that they’re really made up of small things all joined together.’ That big dragon down there comes to nothing but tiny drops of blood, maybe. It’s the small things that make the difference.”

“We do not mourn the loss of those who die fulfilling their destinies.”

The Narrator(s)

Paul Boehmer. I really like his narration and the different voices he makes for the different characters; they really bring the characters to life!

My Thoughts

It was so nice to revisit this story and some of my favorite characters. Tasslehoff Burrfoot, the kender, I’m sure would be an annoying friend to have in real life, but he’s so funny and adorable in the book and I always look forward to scenes with him and his antics! Raistlin is another standout character; I don’t necessarily like him as a person, but he is the most fascinating character and I want to know more about him.

We also meet a couple of non-main characters in this book; Fizban, an absent-minded wizard, and Bupu, a sweet gully dwarf, that are hilarious and I love reading about them! The plot is also really good, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that the characters are the best part of the series. The first time I read this series was decades ago so I was more easily impressed and although the details of the story didn’t stay with me, the impression it made on me certainly did, and I’m glad to say I still love the story and the characters decades later!

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 | Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

Posted September 5, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
N/A

The Reason

I’d been curious about the author because of another one of their books, and one of my friends convinced me to read this one as a buddy read.

The Quotes

“It’s much easier to tell yourself you’re a good person than it is to actually be one.”

“The question isn’t: How do I stop feeling this way? That’s stupid. I can’t. The question is: What can I do with this feeling?”

“So many parents will try to kill everything brilliant about a girl in the name of giving her a good life, a safe life, a chance at happiness.”

“Because good people can turn desperate when the horrors are upon them—especially people whose culture of plenty has left them with no systems to cope with scarcity or cataclysm. Good people will turn monstrous when it’s down to their survival or someone else’s.”

My Thoughts

This story was so brutal and hard hitting. It’s not what I expected because I thought there would be more magic study, more learning, advancements of the craft, more feminism and women breaking into the Magistry as Highmage, but instead, it’s a whole riot and revolution that happens so quickly, and with so much destruction! I’m not sure yet what I think about the direction the story went with all this destruction, but the storytelling itself is great. All that teaching through dialogue is not an easy thing to do without boring the reader, but I found it interesting and now I’m a little sad that this is a standalone and there’s not more to the story.

The thing that stands out most to me is definitely the denial of truth when it interferes with your comfort and way of life. We all do that to an extent, I think, but when it goes so deep and is rooted so deeply in evil, it’s just easier to not think about it and justify all the evil doing. Most evil doers don’t see themselves as evil, so it’s also interesting to see that characterized with some of the characters and how they see themselves. There is so much to think about with this story, honestly. I think I’ll be thinking about this book for a while.

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 Long Walk by Stephen King

Posted August 13, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Long Walk by Stephen King

Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as The Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping… with the winner being awarded “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—permanently…

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

The Reason

For the The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge and because the movie is coming out soon, I wanted to reread to refresh.

The Quotes

“They’re animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?”

“Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.”

“Crowd was to be pleased. Crowd was to be worshipped and feared. Ultimately, Crowd was to be made sacrifice unto.”

“They walked on, somehow in step, although all three of them were bent forever in different shapes by the pains that pulled them.”

The Narrator(s)

Kirby Heyborne. Not a big deal but there were some parts where I felt his inflection didn’t fit the part. Otherwise, it was good listening.

My Thoughts

Stephen King’s psychological horror is always so chilling to me. I’ve read this book before but had forgotten much of it and recently I’d been wanting to read it again because the movie was coming out later this year. I’d been wondering how this could be a full length book when all they do is walk and nothing else happens.

Well, never underestimate the power of King’s storytelling. There are backstories, conversations, philosophizing… in addition to the things happening directly to the plotline. It turns out reading about their walk itself is incredibly fascinating, sometimes horrifying. King is so good at describing the feel of the ground, the movement of their feet, the landscape they walk across, and so much more. But still, the best parts are the psychological thought processes as they walk.

There’s a challenge among some fans of the book where they walk while listening to the audiobook according to the rules of the story. They walk for the whole time they’re listening to the book, and they’re not supposed to go slower than the walkers in the book. It sounds “fun” and immersive, and maybe one day, when I’m a lot fitter, I’ll do 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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Book Review | A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Posted August 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

All you need is Ove.

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet, a curmudgeon with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People think him bitter, and he thinks himself surrounded by idiots.

Ove’s well-ordered, solitary world gets a shake-up one November morning with the appearance of new neighbors, a chatty young couple and their two boisterous daughters, who announce their arrival by accidentally flattening Ove’s mailbox with their U-Haul. What follows is a heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unlikely friendships, and a community’s unexpected reassessment of the one person they thought they had all figured out.

A word-of-mouth bestseller that has caused a sensation across Europe, Fredrik Backman’s irresistible novel about the angry old man next door is an uplifting exploration of the unreliability of first impressions and a gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it is shared with other people.

Ove is all you need.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #33: A standalone novel)

The Reason

I have been wanting to read a Fredrik Backman book for a while. I recently watched A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks, and I loved it, so I bumped this book up the TBR.

The Quotes

“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”

“We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like ‘if’.”

“Men are what they are because of what they do. Not what they say.”

“We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”

The Narrator(s)

George Newbern. It was good, no notes!

My Thoughts

I am in love with this book. I watched the movie with Tom Hanks and now that I’ve read the book, I feel like it did a great job of covering most of the things that happened in the book. I love that even though I’ve watched the movie and knew what was coming, I still got so invested and emotional when I read the book. I couldn’t help myself from crying all over again at the end.

This is such a wonderful story of unconditional love; both of the romantic and platonic kind. I love that it also talks about difficult topics; of grief, and loneliness, of loss, growing old. So many difficult topics, with Ove at the center of it all. He’s a miserable old man; unfriendly, rigid, difficult. And yet, he’s got the biggest heart. He’s the perfect character for us to follow through this journey. What a joy to have read this book!

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 | Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Posted August 6, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #31: Audiobook has multiple narrators)

The Reason

It’s a TJR book, plus Julia Whelan narrates it. Of course I’m reading it!

The Quotes

“Happiness is so hard to come by. I don’t understand why anyone would begrudge anyone else for managing to find some of it.”

“You are what you are, and I like what you are. Anyway, nobody is one thing all the time.”

“In all of her time spent watching others, she hadn’t picked up on this part of falling in love, that someone could look at you as if you were the very center of everything. And even though you knew better, you’d allow yourself a moment to believe you were worthy of being revolved around, too.”

“So when you look out at the sky, the farther you can see, the further back you are looking in time. The space between you and the star is time.”

The Narrator(s)

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Julia Whelan, Kristen DiMercurio. TJR narrated the Author’s Note. Julia Whelan and Kristen DiMercurio read the different timelines of the book. They were both great, and of course, everyone knows I love Julia Whelan!

My Thoughts

This book packs 100% emotional damage. I know it’s a little dramatic but I was genuinely emotionally wrecked at the last part of this book and I was sobbing so loudly the night I finished it that my husband was completely perplexed. He asked me the next morning, hesitantly, to tell him about the book because he wanted to know why I was crying so hard, and so I told him the summary, and started crying again!

I don’t know why the book hit me so hard, I can’t even say it’s my favorite TJR book, and I do have issues with the storytelling/time jumps and feeling like they spoil the story for me. It’s just that the whole scene at the end was so emotionally powerful. It was hit after hit after hit, and a KO punch at the end!

Well, now that we’ve established that I’m a huge crybaby, let’s move on. I loved the story; I love reading about how life might have been like for female astronauts breaking into a male dominated space. I love seeing the women navigate their environment, and I love that different coping methods were represented, not all good ones. Times are different now, I know, but I like that Lydia’s reasoning for why she does that was discussed, because I can see her pov as well. I also love how Lydia learned and grew as a person. Not saying that I like her as a person, but I love her character!

Overall, I loved the story, and I guess I loved being emotionally destroyed, but as I said, I’m not sure I like the timeline edits, and I’m also on the fence about where the story ended. I feel like it ended there for maximum emotional impact, but I also feel like the story is unfinished. I wanted to know more about everyone else; there were other characters’ stories that felt unresolved and I needed more. I feel like it might have been better served with an epilogue. Still a great story by one of my favorite authors!

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 | Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Posted July 11, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They’re completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating.

As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.

Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #37: Genre chosen for you by someone else)

The Reason

I read We Should All Be Feminists by the same author some time ago and had been meaning to read more of her works.

The Quotes

“There are people, she once wrote, who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.”

“We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know.”

“The educated ones leave, the ones with the potential to right the wrongs. They leave the weak behind. The tyrants continue to reign because the weak cannot resist. Do you not see that it is a cycle? Who will break that cycle?”

“I cannot control even the dreams that I have made.”

The Narrator(s)

Lisette Lecat. She’s a wonderful narrator, she had just the right emotional expression.

My Thoughts

I’m not sure how I can begin to gush about this book. It is so emotionally powerful, heartbreaking, and completely pulls you in. I’d only read We Should All Be Feminists by Adichie previously and it was a short nonfiction, but I respected the way she wrote and expressed her ideas so clearly. I had been meaning to read more of her works and only just finally read this one.

The writing is so powerful; it gut punches you from the very beginning and just keeps getting more and more intense. Realizing that this is Adichie’s first book makes it even more incredible. You really get into Kambili’s mind, feel her feelings, care for her. I have a visceral hate for her father, and so much sadness for her circumstances. I am still feeling my feelings over this book and I am very much wanting to read more of her books after this.

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 | Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

The timeless tale continues… The most popular and beloved American historical novel ever written, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind is unparalleled in its portrayal of men and women at once larger than life but as real as ourselves. Now bestselling writer Alexandra Ripley brings us back to Tara and reintroduces us to the characters we remember so well: Rhett, Ashley, Mammy, Suellen, Aunt Pittypat, and, of course, Scarlett. As the classic story, first told over half a century ago, moves forward, the greatest love affair in all fiction is reignited; amidst heartbreak and joy, the endless, consuming passion between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler reaches its startling culmination. Rich with surprises at every turn and new emotional, breathtaking adventures, Scarlett satisfies our longing to reenter the world of Gone With the Wind, and like its predecessor, Scarlett will find an eternal place in our hearts.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #21: Character’s name in the title)
The Classics Club

The Reason

It’s the unofficial sequel to Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and I usually read them both together.

The Quotes

“Should-haves solve nothing. It’s the next thing to happen that needs thinking about.”

“’If only’ repeated again and again in her head like a battering ram…’if only’ could break your heart.”

“I’m going to make a world for myself by my rules, not anybody else’s. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to learn to be happy.”

“She’d done harder things in her life, she could do this. She had to.”

The Narrator(s)

Linda Stephens. I enjoyed the narration very much, I was completely immersed in the world.

My Thoughts

I realize that a lot of GWTW purists hate this book for various reasons, but I personally love it and in fact, I love this more than GWTW itself. Some of the complaints include the fact that Scarlett’s personality in this book isn’t consistent with her personality in GWTW, but in my opinion that’s one of the weakest arguments against this book, because Scarlett starts off at what? 17 years old? in GWTW, and she’s in her 30s in this book.

Honestly, if you haven’t changed from the time you were 17 to when you were in your 30s, I’d be more concerned. Plus, we know Scarlett had gone through so much, and that final scene at the end of GWTW was another catalyst for her and I’d like to think that she grew from that. Not overnight, but that’s the reason why I love this book so much.

I’m a character-driven reader, and I loved seeing Scarlett grow and change throughout the book. It was such a great study of her character by a writer that wasn’t even the original author, and I respect Ripley for it. It was very realistic for me that Scarlett would make the choices she made, do the things she did, act the way she acted, in this book. I’ve always loved Scarlett as a character but I didn’t necessarily like her as a person in GWTW. I grew to love her as both in this book.

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 | Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Posted July 10, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Since its original publication in 1936, Gone with the Wind—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time—has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Widely considered The Great American Novel, and often remembered for its epic film version, Gone with the Wind explores the depth of human passions with an intensity as bold as its setting in the red hills of Georgia. A superb piece of storytelling, it vividly depicts the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

This is the tale of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled, manipulative daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, who arrives at young womanhood just in time to see the Civil War forever change her way of life. A sweeping story of tangled passion and courage, in the pages of Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell brings to life the unforgettable characters that have captured readers for over seventy years.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #2: A character with red hair)
The Classics Club

The Reason

It’s one of my favorite books as a child and I was feeling a little nostalgic.

The Quotes

“I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it’s no worse than it is.”

“No, my dear, I’m not in love with you, no more than you are with me, and if I were, you would be the last person I’d ever tell. God help the man who ever really loves you. You’d break his heart, my darling, cruel, destructive little cat who is so careless and confident she doesn’t even trouble to sheathe her claws.”

“I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can’t… My dear, I don’t give a damn.”

The Narrator(s)

Linda Stephens. I enjoyed the narration very much, I was completely immersed in the world.

My Thoughts

This is one of my favorite books that I read and reread over and over again as a child. I thought it was one of the most romantic stories I’ve ever read, but unfortunately, there are many parts of the book that hasn’t aged well at all. The last time I read this was maybe four years ago and I remember feeling sad and disillusioned about all the problematic issues with the toxic romance, abusive relationships, slavery and the KKK.

I was hesitant to reread it again this time, but I went into it with the understanding that it was written a long time ago and it was true to the times, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that times like these existed, things like these happened. I no longer romanticize the story, but I now enjoy it for the historical masterpiece that it is. It is an interesting story with amazing characters, written extremely well, and I think I’m happy to leave it at that.

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 Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Posted June 30, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

A startlingly original voice makes her literary debut with this wondrous coming-of-age story infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, adventure, and fascinating, dreamlike twists.

‘One evening, my father asked me whether I would like to become a ghost bride…’

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family’s only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, traditional ghost marriages are used to placate restless spirits. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims’ handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits, and monstrous bureaucracy—including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family—before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #51: 300-400 pages long)

The Reason

This is one of my favorite books by a favorite Malaysian author. It’s my in-person bookclub’s BOTM and I’m excited to discuss it with them!

The Quotes

“The problem with the dead was that they all wanted someone to listen to them.”

“It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures we had acquired one another’s superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.”

“The contrast between the realization of his neglect and the fondness I had for my father was painful”.”

“If I had known how easy it is to lose your life, I would have treasured mine better”.”

The Narrator(s)

The author herself. I love her! She’s got such a gift for writing and storytelling, and is also such a talent with voices!

My Thoughts

I’ve read this book and loved it before, but it had been a while and I had forgotten a lot of the details. Sometimes when I reread a book, I get scared that I might not like it as much as I used to, but if anything, I think I loved it more this time around!

It’s such a joy to read about my own culture and heritage, through the lens of both real life and folklore. Our culture is so filled with superstition, but also so rich in flavor and imagination, it’s sometimes difficult to explain it to people of other cultures. But Choo’s storytelling is wonderful and sublime, and her portrayal of 1900’s Malaya and the Chinese’s idea of the underworld is just perfect.

The story itself is wonderful too. I can’t stop using all the positive adjectives to describe this book. It’s good, amazing, incredible, gorgeous, delightful, magnificent. It’s all the things I love in a fantasy, historical fiction, folklore and mythology, romance… everything! I just love 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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Book Review | Rose Madder by Stephen King

Posted June 30, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Rose Madder by Stephen King

Rose Daniels saw the single drop of blood on the bed sheet and knew she must escape from her macabre marriage before it was too late.

But escape was not as easy as fleeing to a new city, picking a new name, finding a new job, lucking out with a new man. Her husband, Norman, was a cop, with a cop’s training, a cop’s technology, a cop’s bloodhound instincts. And even worse, Norman was – well, Norman. Rose knew she had been married to a savage brute. Now she realized she was being tracked down by a terrifying monster – but the only place she found to hide could be the most dangerous of all…

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

The Reason

I’m reading all of King’s books and this one was very highly recommended.

The Quotes

“But she stayed where she was a moment longer, like an animal which has been kept in a cage so long it cannot believe in freedom even when it is offered.”

“This man saw women like her all the time, women hiding behind dark glasses, women buying tickets to different timezones, women who looked as if they had forgotten who they were somewhere along the way, and what they thought they were doing, and why.”

“For gals like these, paranoia was a lot more than a way of life; it was full state-of-the-art.”

“It’s best to be ruthless with the past. It ain’t the blows we’re dealt that matter, but the ones we survive.”

The Narrator(s)

Stephen King, and Blair Brown. Blair Brown does most of the narration, but Stephen King does the parts where we see from the eyes of the MMC. I loved both of them.

My Thoughts

This one came highly recommended even among Stephen King fans and I got curious. I know it’s about a battered and abused woman, and knowing that King’s works tend to explore the human psyche, I really wanted to see how he wrote about this very important and sensitive topic. I was not disappointed.

It’s interesting to me that some critics have said that King doesn’t write women well, because I haven’t found that to be the case in many of the books I’ve already read, and with this book focused on Rose as the main character and seeing things from her POV, I thought it was written incredibly well. All the fear, the hypervigilantism, the little things that women do to protect themselves that men never think twice about; they’re represented very well here.

As I said about King’s storytelling tendencies, this isn’t an action-packed, plot-heavy story but rather, an exploration of the human psyche, and in this case, the battered woman and the abusive husband. We see a lot of their thought processes, we feel a lot of their feelings, the evolution of their relationship instructs the evolution of their feelings, thoughts, and then actions. It’s scary and thrilling, but also really emotional. I loved reading about Rose as she navigated her journey. This book deserves its hype.

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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