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@lyds.library

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book reviews & general fangirl shenanigans 💫
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“I can remember entire years before me. Oh it’s so odd. I remember the centuries in which I was small, nothing but a single flower drifting in the dark, and then I gushed through a brilliant tear, right into this world. I was tiny then. Simple. Just a single waving hand reading for the light. And I was hungry.” 🐚

For the second time, I am finishing a Ryan La Sala novel asking “...is he okay?” (I have zero regrets.)

Initally, I had put this book off beyond its release date because I was nervous reading it during the summer or during beach season would be too spooky. I knew the vibes were ocean and zombies - two things in which I usually steer clear of when it comes to horror. But it was the PERFECT amount of scary and real. Ecological horror is a genre quickly gaining traction, and I can see why...

I love the Suds - Ollie, Bash, and Elisa, while they had their problems at the very beginning, were the perfect trio of teen heroes. The other characters, and the little town of Anchor’s Mercy itself, were such a great backdrop for this story. There was so much intrigue right from the very start. We knew something fishy (pun intended) was going on on the island, something had happened way back in the 1960’s - was it really a chemical spill? Was it biowarfare?

The worldbuilding for this novel was fantastic. There are countless stories written about small towns where something mysterious is going on, and about beach towns where the full-time residents keep the town afloat during tourist season. This book was somehow both. While also being a horror novel about an outbreak of coral growths and slime that creates zombie-like creatures. It is truly so creative.

I read this book in a mixed way - I had a physical copy I read, but I also listened to parts of it on audio. The audio production was SO good. I love how much of a true production audiobooks have become recently. The sound effects - especially during the researcher’s interviews and reports - made this feel even more eerie.

If you’re looking for spooky worldbuilding, cutting-edge eco-horror, zombies, found family, and a bachelorette party coming back to haunt you: you’ll find it in The De by @lyds.library

7

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16 days ago

It was the best day of summer - the National Book Festival!

Once again, the @librarycongress put on an incredible event! There is truly something for everyone at the National Book Festival.

Getting to hear Meg Cabot and Shannon Hale in conversation about their princess stories was such a treat! I also attended a conversation about book to screen adaptations with everyone’s favorite bookstagrammer, Jordy of Jordy’s Book Club. I listened to a moving conversation with Nephi Craig and Beronda Montgomery about food, nature, and American Legacy. And I ended my day as I did last year - with a panel on contemporary horror (this year with Nick Cutter and Johnny Compton).

The thing is, I barely scratched the surface of panels and conversations happening! I missed out on a few I wanted to see because of timing and space constraints. Regardless of crowds, I had such a great time hearing from authors and those in the industry, and being surrounded by fellow book lovers. Can’t wait for next year!! taken in Washington D. C. by @lyds.library

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a month ago

“This was getting out of hand. It wasn’t even paranoia anymore, or at least not a paranoid I’d ever experienced. I felt like an addict, chasing little bumps of dopamine every time I checked a lock. Relief, relief, relief.” 🔓

Marcus Kliewer does it again. Five stars.

While this is a haunted house story, it is also a story deeply about mental health. The themes in this book cover heavy topics - OCD, depression, suicidal ideation, and grief - but that doesn’t mean it holds back from being a nonstop thrill ride.

Macy is a fascinating character.I enjoyed the way her was slowly revealed throughout the book. I loved her sister as a voice of reason and brief comic relief. There weren’t many characters, but, of course, the house had plenty to say.

If you’ve read this DM me! I have more thoughts - especially about the ending - that are too spoiler-y for a feed post! by @lyds.library

6

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2 months ago

“The promise of the mom influencer and family vlogger is a dream: you will be paid for the labor of motherhood. And you will be paid well. Right?” 📸

I have read many books on the topic of family influencers, internet culture, and the few memoirs that we already have of former stars of family youtube channels. This is the most comprehensive. Fortesa Latifi is a journalist who has broken multiple major stories in this genre and brings her all her expertise together in Like, Follow, Subscribe. This book looks at influencer families from every angle - the parents, the children, the business aspect, the benefits, the dangers. It is well-rounded, well-researched, and presented in an extremely consumable way.

What struck me throughout the book was truly the amount of families that the author was able to talk to. Families spoke both on and off the record, current and former influencers, from some of the original mommy bloggers to some of today’s hottest family youtubers. She covered some of the biggest stories, such as Ruby Franke and Piper Rockelle, but also micro-influencers and the way that this type of fame (and fortune) has become the new American Dream.

The breadth of this book was also noteworthy. The world of family and kid influencers is as vast as the sea, so to condense every topic into something readable was remarkable. I found the last few chapters particularly interesting since it wasn’t something that I have done much of a deep dive on yet - the laws that have been created to “protect” kids in influencer families. Because not much regulation can be done when the lines between your life at home and your life at work are as blurry as they are. She also got multiple families to speak on images of children from family influencers have been taken and altered and ended up on the dark web.

While in some ways this book was scratching the surface of the world of family influencing, in other ways it will become one of the most relevant primary sources for this topic. For anyone who is considering influencing, posting about their families, or has children that aspire to be youtubers (as we learned, most of them do), this book is absolutely a must-read. by @lyds.library

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4 months ago

“Fear is the consequence of love. Now that you’ve registered how much you care about the people in your life, you understand how horrible it would be to lose them.” 👻

Edgar Lovejoy is haunted. Literally, he sees ghosts and they terrify him. Jamie Wendon-Dale creates ghosts. Well, they create haunted houses. Regardless, these opposites attract in a perfect way. And I LOVED IT. EVERY MOMENT. Truly, every page of this book was such a joy. It made me want to move to New Orleans, it made me want to learn how to create haunted houses, it made me want to research ghosts. Most importantly, it made me want to hug on the people I love. The core of this book is love. Love for yourself, your family, your partner, all of the people who make life beautiful.

I’m struggling to find the words beyond that for how much I enjoyed this book. I had a lot of the same feelings reading this book that I did when I read The Prospects by KT Hoffman. Just a lot of hope and love. I’m sad this book isn’t real. I would read about Edgar and Jamie forever. I hugged the book when I finished it. I always want to feel this way when I read romance. by @lyds.library

10

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4 months ago

Happy Independent Bookstore Day!!

It’s my fourth year doing a bookstore crawl for IBD and this year felt like the busiest yet! I went to six stores, and it warmed my book loving heart so much to see these bookstores FULL of customers! And shoutout to @dcbookstorecrawl and @halseyberryman for designing the sickest tote bag ever - it’s like a concert tote but for bookstores. With cute lil pigeons!

I’m so lucky to live in a city with so many indies. Each one is so special and unique and an important part of their community. Today’s celebrations were a perfect example of that. Keep doing what yall are doing, indie bookstores!! We love you!! taken in Washington D. C. by @lyds.library

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5 months ago

“I’ve observed Mom long enough to know that nothing scares off a man like what a woman wants from him.” 👄

Jeanette McCurdy’s voice is as strong in fiction as I expected. This is a powerful debut unmatched in vulgarity and rawness. It demands from its readers something bigger than the initial expectation. Many will pick this up expecting a Gen Z Lolita and that’s not what they’re going to find. Waldo’s infatuation, her obsession with Mr. Korgy is a symptom of the horrors of teenage girlhood. It is from generational trauma, the expectations we place on women to become mature as soon as their bodies do.

One thing I think McCurdy absolutely nails is the soul-sucking daily routine of Waldo’s life. While she is responsible and bright, she has a shopping addiction, depression, a dysfunctional home life. She is the kind of girl who has had to fight for what she has, so when she thinks she can get what she wants, she fights hard for it. I really appreciated the stark contrast of Waldo’s nights shopping to soothe herself and the highs she feels when she is pursing Mr. Korgy.

A key theme for me as a reader was the concept of creativity. While it wasn’t woven through every moment of the book, I think there’s something to be said about these types of men. Ones that are so devoid of the creativity that teenage girls have effortlessly oozing out of their pores, that they feel putting themselves in their proximity makes these men cooler, better, or more creative. But it doesn’t. It just makes them creeps.

I imagine there isn’t much to be said that hasn’t been said about men like Mr. Korgy. He reminded me of Jason Bateman’s character in Juno. That type of guy who repressed his loser self into conformity and the moment a hint of something fresh enters his life, he tries to go back in time. It’s a story we’ve heard before and will hear again. We never saw his point of view, but that doesn’t matter.

Anyways, I loved this book. I think it won’t hit for a lot of people, and that’s okay. This kind of writing, these kind of open wound stories of girlhood are special in their own way. There is much to learn from a writer like Jeanette McCurdy. by @lyds.library

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6 months ago

“I think that the way we’re living now…preys on the idea of desire. It amplifies it to the point of absurdity…they throw these tasks and rewards at you, and you keep living in this uncertain state, lurching between wanting and having. I think that must affect all of the decisions we make here, don’t you?” 🌵

This book, teetering between depression and nihilism, is a unique look at the effects of late-stage capitalism. It is a creative idea for a story, but falls just a little bit short. I genuinely loved the concept, and was pleasantly surprised when I began the story that it just drops you right into the action. That is probably the best way to approach a book like this. You can’t spend much time on the outside, the producers, or anyone not on the show, or you’ll be taken right out of the story. I think maybe that was something missing for me though? I wanted a bit of a cabin in the woods situation, I suppose.

I appreciated the ending, I think it was the only way to end the book, but I don’t know if I particularly liked it. The clear lesson about consumerism and capitalism and how empty life would feel in supposed paradise was something I had picked up on very early, so it wasn’t a huge revelation for me.

There is something to be said for Lily’s lack of motivation throughout the book. I think that is something that speaks deeply to millennials, as we were promised a life that isn’t available anymore in the way it was for our parents. And not having motivation to improve your life because you know it’s nearly impossible is something that I related deeply to.

Overall, I think I enjoyed the experience of reading this book more than I did the book itself. And that’s okay! I’m still glad I read it. And I think this author has a really bright future ahead of her. by @lyds.library

9

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6 months ago

“I was overwhelmed. I’d never experienced it so fully before. I realized that this was the bitter taste of adulthood - the numerous ways life could topple over someone, one thing after another, relentless, like a flurry of blows. There was no respite from it, the constant aggravation of life. We were all at its mercy, we adults. We were just expected to carry on.” 🥩

This is my first experience with one of the (now very popular) “female rage” books, and what a way to begin. Ronny is starting high school, her family just endured a tragedy, and now, a victim of a violent act, she has a newfound taste for blood. What Hunger, indeed.

There were so many layers to this book that I loved - the family tragedy, deeply nuanced conversation about immigration and being first generation American, Ronny’s dwindling social life, and then, of course, her craving for meat. All of it was woven through the few weeks we get a glimpse into Ronny’s life as if we were her. And it reminded me, so vividly, how painful it is to be a teenage girl. Especially fourteen. You’re a kid and an adult all at once. There are expectations on your shoulders that have never been explicitly stated to you, and it feels like you have to figure out how the world works all on your own. Ronny experienced that tenfold, in the hazy way her family operates. Her stoic father and deeply traumatized mother, both scarred refugees from Vietnam are just another thing she has to figure out how to navigate on her own.

Overall, while this wasn’t initially what I was expecting from this novel, the story of What Hunger absolutely gripped me. I have had my eye on it for quite a while, and finally picking it up felt so refreshing. Catherine Dang truly has a knack for storytelling. by @lyds.library

7

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9 months ago

Here we go! A (only slightly belated) top dozen books of 2025!!

• Time to Shine by Rachel Reid
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
• The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• Careless People: A Memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams
• The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
• We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
• The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
• The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith by April Ajoy
• Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum
• A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander

In total, I read 80 books - which is the second drop in my reading in the past two years. I’m still figuring out how I feel about that. I’ve been a reader all my life, so seeing myself not meet goals in my favorite hobby is strange. Perhaps I’ll write more on how this feels later in the year. For now, I’m going into 2026 with the goals of reading what I want and allowing myself to really soak up stories.

Some other fun stats about my reading for 2025 - those 80 books consisted of 16,128 pages and over 456 hours. As usual, I read primarily romance, thriller, and nonfiction, and 9 of the books I read this were actually rereads! 53 authors I read were new to me, and for 6 lucky authors, I read 2 or more of their books!

Let’s hope 2026 exceeds expectations (which, to be fair, aren’t very high) - in reading and in life! Happy New Year! by @lyds.library

26

4

9 months ago

“Did she have the courage to expose herself, inside and out? To stop hiding? But this was what love was all about, according to the songs and poems and books that had been written through the ages. It was about giving yourself to another person and trusting them with all your secrets.” 🌸

Told in dual timelines, the historical fiction (but based on real events) story of The Frick Museum in New York City, The Magnolia Palace was a gorgeous novel. A love letter to the city and its beauty through a novel, I really enjoyed this book.

It was another book I likely wouldn’t have picked up if not for the brilliant recommendation of my book club. While I often struggle with dual timelines, this novel was unique in the time spans over which it was told. A few hours versus many months. Lillian, Helen, and Veronica’s stories carried beautiful parallels that wove through time. It was such a rich story - with a well researched setting and gorgeous descriptive prose.

I also loved the way this book was about the very complicated (but also very nuanced) relationships between women throughout the years. In two different decades, social status playing a large role as well. It was very well done. (Also most of the men in this book were The Worst.)

Fiona Davis is a new to me author I absolutely see myself returning to again and again. We spent 15 minutes at the end of book club browsing her backlist and adding more books to our TBR. She has so many more stories for me to explore, I can’t wait! by @lyds.library

7

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10 months ago

“We remember the past, live in the present, and write the future. The universe may forget us, but our light will brighten the darkness for eons after we’ve departed this world. The universe may forget us, but it can’t forget us until we’re done, and we’re still here, our futures still unwritten. We can choose to sit on our asses and wait for the end, or we can live right now. We can march to the edge of the void and scream in defiance. Yell out for all to hear that we do matter. That we are still here, living our absurd, bullshit lives, and nothing can take that away from us. Not rogue comets, not black holes, not the heat death of the universe. We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live.” 🪐
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This book is about grief. This book is about love. This book is about high school. This book is about science. This book is about mental health. This book is about learning who you are. This book is about the end of the world. This book is about everything.

My third Shaun David Hutchinson book and he continues to blow me away with his prose. This book hooked me from the very beginning and I can’t think of enough positive words to describe it. We have a high school plot, with its bullies and failing classes. We have a romance, with its highs and lows. We have a dysfunctional family, with a dropout older brother and a grandmother slowly losing her memory. We have sci-fi, with alien abductions and the end of the world.

Of course the concept is brilliant, and the story within the pages followed suit. Henry is such a complex character with flaws like any teenager, with the grief of abandonment and trust issues. The supporting cast was so strong as well - from Henry’s well meaning but somewhat checked out mom, to his abusive FWB, every character was strongly developed and contributed to the story.

And you know me and sci-fi: if there isn’t an element that makes me want to squeeze the book and remember why humans are important, I don’t want it. Humans are important and complex. You don’t always know why people do the things they do, and you won’t get all the answers you feel you deserve in life. We may be the ants, but we’ll keep marching on. by @lyds.library

8

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a year ago