Book Report: Spring 2025

Everything I've read this year, and what's up next on my list.

I don’t want to jinx it, but I finally feel like I’ve broken whatever reading slump I was in for the past several years (yeah, I said year). I’ve read so many great books already this year, though I am starting to sense a theme emerging.

Well, I’ll let my Storygraph stats speak for themselves…

Yeah, that seems about right. To quote my husband the most recent time he found me curled up in my reading chair with tears streaming down my face, “Why don’t you ever read books that make you happy?”

I like my books how I like my music… subtly devastating. So sue me. Anyways, this is a long list so I’ll quit my yapping and catch you up on what I’ve been reading this year.

What I’ve Read

Weyward by Emilia Hart

★★★☆☆ 3.5/5

I don’t know why, exactly, but this book didn’t hit quite as hard as I thought it would upon reading the description (magical bloodlines? female rage? witchcraft? it should have been tailor-made for me). That said, I did enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. It follows three women across multiple centuries who are connected by a magical bloodline and who use this connection to escape abuse and persecution (and sometimes enact revenge upon those who perpetrate it). Something about it made me feel sad, even though it technically has a happy ending for the modern-day protagonist. Definitely worth a read for the vibes I would say.

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

★★★★☆ 3.75/5

I was immediately captivated by this book and blazed through it. Ultimately I really liked it, though it did leave me with more questions than answers at the end, in a frustrating way. Like, there was a lot more that I wish they would have explored or investigated in the narrative. It’s hard to explain more beyond that without giving too much away. But it was very eerie, and I’m told very similar in vibe to House of Leaves, which is still on my list to read.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

★★★★☆ 3.75/5

Weirdly I think the witchcraft was the least interesting part of this book for me. Which, if you know me, is really saying something. This book follows a group of pregnant, unwed mothers, mostly teenagers, in the 70s who were shipped off to a “home for wayward girls” to finish their pregnancies, have their babies, and then return to polite society once they’ve given the baby up for adoption and recovered from their episode of indecency. The protagonist and a group of friends discover the ability to do actual witchcraft and use it to change their fates. The relationships between the girls and the setting was infinitely more interesting to me than the magic aspect, weirdly. But overall I loved it, and it made me very emotional.

The Lamb by Lucy Rose

★★★★☆ 4.5/5

Gosh, this book. I blazed through it in an evening, slightly disgusted at every turn. Closed it after I finished, thought “huh that was weird” and then next thing I knew I was full-on sobbing in my bathroom. It essentially uses cannibalism as an extended metaphor for strained mother-daughter relationships. It was brutal and visceral and not for the faint of heart. And it was beautiful and utterly heartbreaking. It feels irreverent to even try to explain much more. Just give it a try if you’re not squeamish.

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

★★★★☆ 4/5

“How many generations of women had delayed their greatness only to have time extinguish it completely? How many women had run out of time while the men didn’t know what to do with theirs? And what a mean trick to call such things holy or selfless. How evil to praise women for giving up each and every dream.”

I’ve read a lot of literature, listicles, pamphlets, blog posts, and Tiktok captions trying to decide if I want to be a mother or not. This book, unintentionally, was the absolute best piece I’ve read on the subject. It was so bizarre but so beautifully written that I couldn’t tear myself away.

If you somehow have missed the hype on this book, the premise is fairly simple – a suburban mom starts to feel like she’s turning into a dog. I read that synopsis ages ago and thought, nah, not for me. But after finishing the Lamb, I was really craving another “meat as a metaphor for female rage” type of book, and this came up on every list. I decided to give it a chance and was really blown away. I did feel a bit like the pacing slowed down a bit in the second half of the book, but overall I still really loved it and highly recommend.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

★★★☆☆ 3/5

I wanted to to like this book a lot more than I did. I liked it as I was reading it. But the more I thought about it afterward, the pacing felt off, Haymitch’s narration was jarring and almost comical in a bad way from time to time. It makes perfect sense to show the backstories of as many characters from the original series as you can, but it did end up feeling a bit like an “avengers assemble” moment for THG. Overall, it fell a bit flat for me. Did I still cry a bunch while reading it? Sure. Can I recognize that it lacked the weight and heft of the original books? Also yes.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

★★★☆☆ 3.5/5

For a book that I picked up purely on a whim after reading the back cover at a bookstore, it was pretty good. Maybe not quite as emotionally devastating as I had hoped (or maybe my mood stabilizers were working overtime that day, who knows) but it was really sad and raw, and I enjoyed reading about a setting/time period that I don’t know a ton about (outside of Derry Girls, of course). The story was essentially a classic forbidden romance set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 80s. It was captivating and emotional but for whatever reason, I didn’t quite connect with the characters as much as I was clearly meant to.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

★★★☆☆ 2.75/5

This was a book that I largely enjoyed while I was reading it, then as soon as I finished it and thought more about it a bit, I got really mad. Ugh. I don’t know. The characters are bland, their single-minded infatuation with each other despite any real evidence of personalities from either of them is boring. I dunno. It was painful to read without any real feeling of catharsis at the end. And look, I don’t NEED a happy ending, I’m a sad lit girl through and through, but jeez, it was just torture reading them go through all of that only to fall back into the same bad habits again at the very end when things seemed settled (spoilers I guess).

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

★★★★★ 5/5

I talked about this a bit in my last newsletter, but I loved this book so much. So delicious, so sensual, so full of female rage and revenge. Plus, vampires. You know I love a good vampire situation.

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

★★★★☆ 4/5

“How many different ways is it even possible for the same two people to break each other’s hearts?”

This book was what I wanted from Normal People. It was so much more satisfying! The characters were still kind of terrible people, but my god, at least they did have some interests (okay, one main interest) outside of each other.

On My Shelf

• Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget Read

• Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert

• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

• Model Home by Rivers Solomon

• The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

• First Love by Lilly Dancyger

• Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner