Little Fires Everywhere

Get this book.

Read this book.

Love this book.

I'm not even going to lie to you guys, I absolutely inhaled this book.

Now the first....30 or so pages I was thinking "Why the hell would I care about this rich ass white family and their problems?" Then suddenly four hours had passed and I was so painfully invested in their lives and LOVING IT.

So, Little Fires Everywhere actually has quite a bit going on.

It's set in the late 90's with flashbacks to the 80's. It follows two families: The Richardson's, family of 6 which include Mr. and Mrs. Richardson -lawyer and news reporter respectively, Trip -athlete, Moody -his name is very fitting, Lexie -perfect child, and Izzy -the black sheep; and then there's the Warrens, family of 2, Mia -a struggling artist, and Pearl -a teenager looking for a normal life.

When Mia finds the Richardson's apartment for rent, it seems too good to be true. The neighborhood is picturesque, the people are incredibly friendly, and everyone is truly proud of who they are and where they come from. Which comes easy for Mrs. Elena Richardson who was born and raised in Shaker Heights, left for college and promptly returned home with her new husband to start a family. 

But Mia has led a vastly different life. She's never really had a place to call her own. Pearl has never even had her own bedroom. They've bounced around from town to town whenever Mia has a new photography project on her mind. They pack all their belongings into a car and hit the road. But Shaker Heights is different. They might finally have a place to belong.

Honestly, this book amazed me. I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this and how quickly I devoured it. I'm highly recommending it to literally EVERYONE!

 

Looking for other books by Celeste Ng?

Everything I Never Told You

The Dead Girls Club

The Dead Girls Club focuses on a foursome of teenage girls who are obsessed with all things macabre. They gather around to talk about serial killers, death, witches, and ghosts. But when one girl starts telling the story of the Red Lady, things start to get weird......

This book grabbed my attention because I also love all things macabre. I thought this would be a fun little read about what it would have been like to have a group of friends to discuss these topics with, without them thinking I was crazy. Well, that's exactly what happens in the book until main character, Heather, tells all the girls Becca's story is just a story. There's no way the Red Lady can be real. Legend has it, the Red Lady was a witch who was buried alive. No one tried to stop the town when they cut out her tongue, chopped off her hands and feet, and began shoveling dirt onto her body and into her mouth. Soon, the entire town began dreaming about the Red Lady, blood covering everything; everywhere she went blood flowed freely from her stumps. The people in the town began waking up with the taste of dirt in their mouth, eventually they would end up at the bottom of a pit, dead. Becca told stories about the Red Lady for weeks. Convincing all the girls she was real. They began doing rituals to contact her to ask for her help. Becca needed someone when her life got too hard to handle. She believed the Red Lady was the person who would make things right.

This story was told through alternating timelines, past and present.

We follow 13 year old Heather and the Dead Girls Club throughout the 90s and up to the fateful night that Heather would rather forget. The present day storyline follows Dr. Heather Cole, a child psychologist who begins receiving mysteries gifts; gifts that lead her to believe someone was there the night that Becca died....

Huge thanks to Crooked Lane Books for sending me an ARC!

The Night Stalker

It's no surprise that I love true crime books with a passion.

I've had The Night Stalker on my shelf for several years but had never gotten around to reading it until now. Truth be told, my motivation to pick it up came from Richard Ramirez being a character on American Horror Story: 1984.

Richard Ramirez was a petty thief, a measly criminal, a self-professed Satanist.

He moved to Los Angeles, where he could become one with the night. He could easily sneak into homes and take whatever he deemed valuable. Before long he deemed human life the most valuable of all. He fed off of the fear he inflicted on unsuspecting victims. Over the course of two years, he terrorized California. There were break-ins all over the state, all of which included rapes and murders of men and women of all ages. No one was safe with the Night Stalker on the prowl.

Influenced by heavy metal and a rocky home life, Ramirez was not surprised by who he had become. He believed Satan was on his side through it all. He was protected by evil forces, the same evil forces that drove him to rape, sodomize, and murder. He believed this was his destiny. When caught, he was fully prepared to plead guilty to most of the crimes he was being charged with (he opposed the abduction charges??? I mean those weren't even the worst charges).

Now, I have a few problems with the case.

Richard was eventually apprehended by a neighborhood of people who went on to receive awards for their heroism.....before Ramirez was even convicted of these crimes. The very public theatrics the police departments put on for these civilians could have very easily skewed the public perception of who the Night Stalker really was. Because of these public praises, many people, victims and potential jurors alike, knew Ramirez had been badly beaten when caught. Therefore having Ramirez be identified in a lineup after his image and suspected crimes had been all over the news did not particularly seem fair. I also find it crazy that because of this media presence, they refused to move his trial out of the area?!

Regardless, he needed to be punished for his crimes.

After a grueling trial, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death 19 times. Given that California overturned their stance on the death penalty, Ramirez lived out the rest of his life on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Looking for other books that include Richard Ramirez?

Supernatural Serial Killers

Three Perfect Liars

This was.....weird.

I always put thrillers in my list of fav genres, but this kind of has me second guessing that. Maybe this just wasn't the kind of thrillers I usually enjoy.

Anyway, this is told through three different points of view.

We follow new mom Laura returning to work from her 6 months of maternity leave. Laura's temp, Mia who got hired to permanently work with Laura's main client. And of course, there's the bosses wife, Janie who believes everyone but herself is in love with her all powerful husband.

Now, this is where it gets weird for me.

The story is told through three separate time frames; before the fire, the night of the fire, and then through interrogations after the fire. Why is this fire so stinkin' important, you ask? Well it's because all of their lives are intertwined and none of them knew it, well except Mia. But they all have reason to set fire to the building where Janie's husband runs his marketing agency. They all have vindictive personalities. All they think about is themselves and how they can get the outcome they desire the most.  Which makes it painful to keep "guessing" what's going to happen when you already know the ending like a hundred pages in.

I don't think I liked this book near as much as I hoped I would.

Huge thanks to Gallery Books for sending me an ARC!

Mark your calendars, Three Perfect Liars hits shelves June 9, 2020!

Admission

Yup, this is going in my most anticipated teen reads of 2020.

Admission is loosely based on the college admissions scandal. You know, the one with Lori Loughlin, aka Aunt Becky (I really hope you teens know who that is). Now, I didn't totally keep up with the scandal because honestly, I had better things to do. But I was intrigued by the idea behind this book because it's a fictionalization of what happened. 

So, told from alternating timelines (past and present), we follow Chloe's story.

Chloe is the daughter of hallmark movie superstar, Joy Fields. She knows she's a privileged white kid, but she never really thinks about what that means. She never thought that meant her mother would spend HALF A MILLION DOLLARS to get her into the side door of college. Most of the book is Chloe struggling to understand what this is going to do to her life. She doesn't understand why her mother wanted her to hire a private college admissions counselor, or why she would be given extra time for her SAT's at a remote location, or why she found her face photoshopped onto a pole vaulter's body. But she never once questions aloud why these things would be allowed for her but not some of her other classmates.

Parents are willing to go to extreme measures to make sure they are doing what they believe is best for their kids, but Joy never once stopped to think about the fact that she was committing a felony and could actually face time in prison. This is a story about a family that has always been in the public eye and screwed up royally. The circumstances surrounding them felt surreal and staged. There was no way this could be their lives. They had to hit rock bottom and I mean ROCK BOTTOM before they could begin to have some semblance of family again.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me an advanced copy of Admission.

Even bigger thanks to Julie Buxhaum for writing such an awesome story.

 

Looking for other books on the College Admission Scandal?

Unacceptable

Everything is #@%!ed

In the midst of the COVID-19 apocalypse, I found Everything is Fucked to be a fairly fitting read. My coworker loaned me her copies of Mark Manson's books. I didn't really expect to find anything substantial in books with curse words in the title, but honestly I kind of love it. The dry sarcasm, the hint of impending doom, the sense of hope we all need.

 

I personally enjoyed one of the last chapters in this book. It talked about algorithms and how every choice we make is based on these algorithms. We move through life thinking we know what we want, how we want it, and how fast we can get it. But have you ever stopped to wonder how you got to that point? Maybe it was a passing thought, maybe a dream even, but most likely it was a billboard you glanced at while driving, an article you quickly scrolled past, maybe a stranger mentioned it in passing. All of these things are in our lives and we've never stopped to think why or how they got there.

Another chapter I really enjoyed was one about happiness. Yes, the title says everything is fucked, but we know that isn't always the case. But based on a little survey I did via Instagram, colleagues, and friends; most people will say their happiness on a scale of 1-10 is a steady 7 (which is said in the book). What amazed me is that I have friends literally all over the world and 90% of them said they were a 7. Some made note of how lucky they are to be able to spend time with their family, some expressed concern over the rising COVID-19 numbers, some just felt bored from laying around at home. But they all believed their happiness level was a 7. It's intriguing to me that we're in a global crises right now and people can still find happiness. 

Looking for other books by Mark Manson?

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Will

Serpent & Dove

A few weeks ago my friend and I were talking about how there are no good witch books out right now. Then lo and behold, Serpent & Dove was perched on an endcap are B&N and we snatched it up.

I was skeptical because it's about an out of practice witch who ends up marrying a huntsman, a man who literally burns witches at the stake. Louise, better known as Lou, is a petty thief, a criminal, and does not care in the least what people think of her. But she knows that dressing as a man will keep her incognito for much longer than if a woman was running around the streets. 

However, things go haywire when Lou is forced to marry Chasseur, Reid Diggory, who happens to be the Chasseur Captain, leading attacks against witches. His dreams are officially stomped out when the Archbishops weds him to a heathen like Lou. But in the midst of learning about each other, they eventually decide that marriage isn't so bad. They could learn to love each other, right?

Outside of the Lou-Reid love aspect of the book, I loved Ansel. Ansel was a Chasseur in training when he was ordered to watch Lou. They soon become fast friends, and honestly their friendship was one of my favorite things about the book. However, I do wish there was more magic throughout the book instead of just towards the last 200 pages. But that definitely gives me hope for Blood & Honey, which I've already pre-ordered!

 

Looking for the rest of the series?

Blood & Honey (S&D #2)

Gods & Monsters (S&D #3)