✦ a digital literary archive ✦
book review
-
2025 has been an interesting reading year for me. Though I’ve read less in terms of quantity, I have thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of the books that I did pick up. Here’s an overview of what I read during the second half of the year. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward I finally read
-
“I’m still trying to find the words.” Those were my initial thoughts after finishing Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, my first novel by the author. I went into Salvage with a critical eye as the book was highly lauded, and it was also set to chronicle an experience I knew all too well. By the…
-
The book review is one of my favorite forms writing. I’ve been writing reviews on this blog for about five years now (and writing/sharing other forms of book reviews and reactions since I began my Bookstagram over ten years ago), and I still love experiencing the satisfaction of publishing a book review. With so many
-
I finally read Tracy Deonn’s contemporary fantasy smash hit, Legendborn. And it was everything and more. About the Book After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until
-
As the third and final installment in Olivie Blake’s Atlas trilogy, The Atlas Complex had a tall order to fill as the conclusion to a thematically intricate and character-driven series. And while this conclusion was just as compulsively readable as its predecessors, the meat of the story tasted familiar in a way that was slightly…
-
R.F. Kuang’s Babel: An Arcane History was a pretty good read—if a little imbalanced. About the Book Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and
-
At the start of this year, I decided that it was finally time to read Cassandra Clare’s fifth Shadowhunter’s series, The Last Hours. The Last Hours trilogy—which includes Chain of Gold, Chain of Iron, and Chain of Thorns—is Clare’s second historical fiction series set in the wider urban fantasy world of the Shadowhunter Chronicles. I
-
My first read by R.F. Kuang was one part an enjoyable enigma and another part hollow social commentary. I inhaled the book in two days, but was left a bit puzzled by the end. Note: There are slight spoilers ahead for Yellowface. Nothing major, as the synopsis really spells out what happens in the book,
-
To say I was hesitant to pick up One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake is quite the understatement. I read and loved The Atlas Paradox (the sequel to The Atlas Six) earlier this year, but was deeply disappointed by Alone With You in the Ether, my first standalone read from Blake. However, I decided
-
I finally read another book by Olivie Blake. And it was…something. About the Book From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and
City of Deja 