Instagram story viewer> @tessaragdudley> Posts

Tessara Gabrielle Dudley

@tessaragdudley

992

followers

5319

following

Poet. Queer, disabled, autistic, Black Jew. Book reviews on Substack: horror, mystery, sff, lit fic, historical. #BlackLivesMatter #FreePalestine

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Everyone’s star ratings are different—here are mine! I tried to be thoughtful and thorough, and to really identify what earns each star level for me. I’ll be using this from now on to make sure my ratings really reflect how I feel about a book.

Thanks to @netgalley for the pdf template!
#NetGalley #Bookstagram #BookReviews #RatingSystem #Reading by @tessaragdudley

3

1

3 months ago

I’ve just seen the advert for this, and is anyone else feeling ‘no thanks’ about this? They’ve got some weird anachronisms in a couple of scenes, the costuming is odd and jarringly modern in the magical settings, and the music choice seems to play specifically on Gen X nostalgia in a way that tells me this isn’t really for fans of the book per se, but suggests it is also not likely to draw in the Gen Zers it seems to be trying to get... I dunno. Maybe future adverts will be different, and it’ll be better than I expect, but this iteration looks a mess.

#NarniaTheMagiciansNephew #ChroniclesOfNarnia #NetflixAdaptation #GretaGerwig by @tessaragdudley

1

0

2 days ago

Book review: Where the Gods Rot by Lauren Morrison

Where The Gods Rot is an immersive story full of creepy and intriguing events. The swamp is a great setting, full of natural dangers like wild animals and marshy pits that drag the unwary traveler under to smother them. This is a masterful debut, full of the perfect amount of creepy horror elements, romantic subplot, and narrative twists to keep the reader hooked.

Read my full review on Substack—check the linktree in my bio!

#BookReview #ARCReader #WhereTheGodsRot #SpecLit #Fantasy #SouthernGothic by @tessaragdudley

0

0

2 days ago

Here is my review of an advance reader copy of Connor Mancuso's forthcoming poetry collection, Interior: Ex Tenebris. This is my honest opinion.

This short collection of poems revolves around the human experience of and reaction to some extinction-level event. Extremely brief, it uses religious imagery, strange and unsettling metaphor, and the idea of an ultimately uncaring creator to invoke a sense of cosmic horror in the reader.

I gave it 1.5 of 5 stars.

Note: “Interior: Ex Tenebris” will be released on October 31st, 2026. If you'd like to read it for yourself, you can find it on Amazon and on Connor’s website.

#Horror #Poetry #CosmicHorror #BookReview by @tessaragdudley

2

1

4 days ago

Book Review: A Locket to Die For by Nora Kest

This was just as fun as the last one! Jasper, the talking cat, was as delightfully snarky as usual, and the many residents of the town all played their parts, giving Fiona all the little bits and pieces that no one had considered important when the case was ruled an accident so long ago. The fledgling romance between Fiona and Sheriff Ethan floated around the edges of the case, carefully unspoken for the most part. Fiona’s neighbor Dolores had some wonderful little words of wisdom, and the robust gossip network of Moonfall Valley nudged the plot along. I particularly enjoyed that the victim was pretty universally disliked—the crew’s dedication to solving the case despite this fact speaks well of them all, and I think the willingness to include such messy feelings lends realism to this type of story. As with the last one, the mystery is not very deep, but the setting and characters more than make up for it by being incredibly charming. Best enjoyed with a cup of tea, a cozy blanket, and a cute animal companion, this is a quick little read that will leave you with fuzzy warm feelings. 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to the author for providing an advance reader copy through Booksprout!

#BookReview #NoraKest #FionaMathisMystery #ARCReview #CozyMystery #ColdCaseMystery by @tessaragdudley

0

0

5 days ago

A new post is up on Substack: Bite-Sized Horror To Read Before Halloween, where I share 14 short novels, novellas, and short story collections to get into this October, most of them short enough to get through in a single day!

Check it out—follow the linktree in my bio.

#BookReviews #SpookySeason #SpookyReads #Horror #GothicHorror #SupernaturalHorror #SpecLit by @tessaragdudley

2

0

7 days ago

Book Review: What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Thanks @netgalley and @bindery_books for the ARC!

This was a gripping read, full of shocking occurrences and tense moments! I will be the first to admit that spelunking/caving is in my top 3 most legitimately horrifying nopes of all time, outstripped only by underwater cave diving. Why did I pick up and devour a book that features both? Who knows—but I did, and it was absolutely worth the skin-crawling heebie-jeebies! This was an incredibly well-developed and interesting world, even if it contains rather more disgusting and disfigured corpses than I was expecting. If you're in the mood for dangerous environments, man-eating plants and animals, and a lot of body horror, you can't go wrong with What Feeds Below!

Read my full review on Substack—click through from the linktree in my bio!

#NetGalley #BookReview #ARCReader #WhatFeedsBelow #YA #Horror #BodyHorror by @tessaragdudley

2

0

9 days ago

Book mail!
No Such Thing As Monday by Sian Hughes publishes on November 10th in the US, and I just received an advance copy. Thanks to @stmartinspress and @goodreads!

#BookMail #ARCReader #GoodreadsGiveaways by @tessaragdudley

2

0

10 days ago

I received a giveaway box over the weekend! Thanks to @emilyisoverbooked, @booksandbedtime, and all the other Witch Weekers for a magical experience!!

#WitchyReads #WitchWeek2026 #Bookmail #Bookstagram by @tessaragdudley

4

2

11 days ago

Review: Our Caged Fates by @pagesbyrobin (Release date: Oct. 5, 2026)

I loved this book! The setting was creepy and dangerous, the villain was appropriately hateable, and the two women are delightfully complex characters. I adore how Ros and Sol were so complex—women who had begun life as something akin to monsters themselves, and how their years (possibly centuries, in Sol’s case) living under Kastiel’s spell and in his domain had fundamentally changed something in them. It is an allegorical reckoning with the very real ways that toxic relationships can reshape you, and how you can never be the same, even once those relationships end. And Sliver, the ‘monster-doggo’ that Sol has tamed and who protects her, was a delightful addition. (I love his wonderful little monster face, and will brook no criticism of our good boy!) It’s a quick read, well worth the time, with unforgettable characters and powerful lessons. I recommend this to readers who like feminine rage, sapphic relationships, found families, and modern stories that evoke the feelings of old fairy tales—the brutal kind that came before we started sanitizing them. 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to the author for providing an advance reader copy!

#BookReview #ARCReader #OurCagedFates #Fantasy #LGBTQIA+ by @tessaragdudley

3

1

12 days ago

Happy release day to @authorwolfgunnarbooks! Wolf Gunnar's Come Inside hits shelves today.

About the book: Every October, the house appears somewhere new. Taking what it wants, and then vanishing without a trace. This year, it has come to Blackwater. Claire Hayes finds an envelope in the mailbox, addressed in her own handwriting and containing only the words 'COME HOME.' But something inside is telling her to run, before it's too late.

#authorwolfgunnar #authorwolfgunnar #dragonflydesigndesingandpr #spookyreads #tbr by @tessaragdudley

0

0

15 days ago

New book review up now: The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford

Preview: Jumping between the point of view of Rich’s cook Alberta Mays, each of his four wives, and the residents of town, Thompson-Spires shows us the same situation from both an insider and an outsider perspective. The secretive nature of Milford and his family leaves the suspicious townsfolk gossiping and guessing about the goings-on in his home, while the jealousy and rivalry between the wives leaves the household itself tense and explosive by turns. Each new point of view asks the reader to consider the nature of truth and whose reality is ultimately the most real.

Read it on Substack—link in my bio. Thanks to @scribnerbooks for providing a review copy through @netgalley!

#BookReview #NetGalley #BlackLit #OwnVoices #HistoricalFiction #Mystery by @tessaragdudley

2

0

16 days ago