56 book reviews in 16 minutes 📚 One Sentence Reviews July-December 2025

A rushed and somewhat undercooked installment in this series that left me wondering why I read it in the first place.

Six excruciating conversations that turned into one very long, frustrating experience that sadly just did not work for me in any capacity.

a prequel that I hardily enjoyed, but that felt a little rushed. I honestly could have used a hundred more pages. 200 even.

A character-driven fantasy that actually for once engages with the trauma, emotional weight, and real cost of being the chosen one.

a heart-wrenching conclusion to this trilogy that really leans into the sacrifice, consequences, and long-term psychological cost of everything these characters have endured. Devastating, but also five stars.

A haunting, grief soaked blend of real life and supernatural horror that refuses to leave my brain or my heart even many months later.

This book is gothic, weird, and a little feral in all the best ways. And it did creep me out while reading, but lost me a little bit with a rushed pacing and thin character work.

layered oral storytelling driven historical horror with multiple POVs that absolutely captivated me and I will be rereading in the future.

Yet another strange experimental collection of ideas that feels like being let into the brain of a deeply weird man and I enjoyed it.

An absolutely chilling sci-fi parable that interrogates consent, bodily autonomy, colonization, and control with clinical precision, and a very lasting impact.

A very strong first half about a dysfunctional family in a very unsettling situation that slowly unraveled into something a little too scattered for my taste in the second half.

My Heart is a Chainsaw's grownup bloodier sister that brought a little bit of maturity and some very atmospheric deep winter chill to the table and I appreciated it.

Despite having a lot of potential with a very cool premise, this book left me cold with its overworked pros and the sense that it was a little too enamored with its own cleverness.

A gorgeously woven, emotionally rich tapestry of interconnected lives that manages to balance humor and heart so beautifully.

Insomnia sucks so hard, I can attest. But this book helped cuz it was very boring.

A grief memoir that feels deeply personal and introspective, using falconry as a lens to examine grief in a way that is both deeply personal and somehow universal.

Despite this book engaging with some really powerful themes like grief, justice, and the destruction of our environment for capitalistic gain, I struggled to connect emotionally to the story due to the nonlinear structure and also a regular point of view that was made up of a collective faceless combined voice.

A thoughtful, deeply passionate and beautifully written essay collection about reading connection, the publishing industry, and how we can engage more critically with the media we consume.

A sappic vampire story with compelling characters, gorgeous pros, and great atmosphere that was just a little too simplistic and rushed at times to get full marks.

This is a novel deeply rooted in confronting the horrific realities of residential schools in Canada's history, speaking to universal truths about cultural genocide, generational trauma, and the kind of resilience and strength that it takes to survive. And it does it all with raw honesty, and a heartening glimmer of hope for a better future.

A book with a premise so perfect for me that it could have been created in a lab that I found excruciatingly boring despite taking place in hell. And that is quite a feat.

A rivals to lovers sapphic historical romance where they each want to get into each other's stockings but they don't want to admit it. And I wholeheartedly support it.

A soft and emotional historical romance that made me feel all the feelings.

An outof print little pulp sci-fi book that is just time travel competence porn for one very average man who knows somehow how to build literally every modern invention of his time and proceeds to do so. I'm tired.

A weird and ambiguous little horror book where almost nothing happens, but the vibes are so immaculate that I had a fantastic time.

My dude, I'm going to need you to go to Home Depot post haste for the love of everything holy. Truly, what is your issue? Four stars.

Pride and Prejudice for Socialists, except it's not socialist and also not all that romantic, unfortunately. Very beautifully written, though.

A devastating and absolutely visceral exploration of grief that came into my life at just the right time to absolutely obliterate me. I'm not sure I could ever read this again.

Emotionally devastating, beautifully written, very realistic in its portrayal of sisterhood and grief, and aggressively moist.

An endlessly readable and eerie classic that is so thick with atmosphere you could chew it and has impeccable character work, making it one of my favorites that I will happily reread forever.

A strange, emotional, and engaging short story collection that really drew me in with its characters and its sometimes humorous, sometimes deeply serious social and political commentary.

Even more emotional trauma somehow, but excellent.

A bizarre and very horny desert horror that I absolutely could not look away from, even as I questioned everything about my life and choices. And also as it devolved into something quite repetitive that made me realize that maybe it should have been a short story.

a weird little puzzle of a book that leaves you guessing as it progresses through increasingly absurd scenarios that I really enjoyed piecing together, even if I wanted a touch more emotional resolution at the end.

A short but effective graphic novel primer on the residential school system in Canada that is accessible, impactful, and honestly should be required reading.

a book and series that is deeply nostalgic to me to the point where I can't really think or talk about it objectively at all, but it's genuinely interesting. It's heartfelt.

A compelling and emotional horror with really great characters that lost me a little bit with the pacing and a convenient ending that felt just a little too neat.

A beautifully written historical fiction novel about sisterhood, girlhood, and mass hysteria that was gripping and absolutely heartbreaking.

A richly built fantasy incorporating religion and magic with strong characters and a sapphic romance I really fell for.

A beautifully written and very emotionally intense conclusion to the series that brought together all the characters I had grown to love and care about in a way that made me feel all the things. So, even though it had one very weird fumble near the end, I can't help but love it overall.

A haunting and powerful story that you can't simply move on from. This book touched my heart and I will never ever forget it.

A chaotic, layered, and deeply complex political satire full to the brim with sharp commentary, absurdity, and some shockingly touching emotional moments.

An expansive sapphic dragonfilled fantasy with impeccable worldbuing, complex political systems and religions that I will always love yesterday, today, and forever.

This was a book with an immersive setting and a very interesting premise that was let down by some of the weirdest writing I have read in recent years. Choppy, repetitive, weak world building, and just choices that did not make sense to me.

an absolutely incredible premise that was obliterated by some of the worst characters I've ever had the displeasure of reading about and so much trauma porn.

a sequel that took everything awesome about book one and eliminated it while highlighting and amplifying everything that I struggled with in the first installment, leaving me very unsatisfied and realizing that maybe this series just isn't for me.

It also had some really great character work, but I did find that the writing quality and the execution in general was somewhat uneven, and that definitely took away from the experience for me.

All the same applies, but also this one specifically is about our resilient Cro-Magn protagonist learning to survive on her own in a beautiful meditation on grief, loss, identity, and our deep human need for belonging that just gets me every time.

An incredibly complex and experimental novel, but feels more like a play most of the time and left such a deep impact on me despite its unconventional structure.

A short story collection that was such a mixed bag, I almost didn't know how to react. some incredible, heartwarming stories, many fine stories, and a few stories that were actively disturbing.

This was a really fascinating and atmospheric eco horror that explores a teen's alienation from her own body while incorporating Vietnamese myth that was just a touch heavy-handed in its use of metaphor and had some uneven pacing that held it back.

A book that tried extremely hard to be shocking and funny that just felt excessive and unpleasant to me. Just not my cup of tea.

A weird, funny, and honestly unfairly maligned prequel to Bunny. I said what I said.

a very creepy and engrossing read that tried to do a few too many things, but was entertaining enough for me to forgive mostly.

A messy, emotional, and deeply human story of a late in life transition that handled its themes with so much care and compassion.