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andi (they/them) 🩷🤍🧡

@wordsforyoulbc

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🌈 long beach, ca.
@thehorrormonger - WIP blog
secondhand book popups & local politics
gay stuff, thrillers, horror, ya, & non fiction
2026 📚241

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Somehow I have over 400 followers here for book recommendations, ARC reviews, and local community solidarity in Long Beach, CA, so I figured it was time to make a Meet the Word Lover post. I was taught to read when I was two and basically never stopped. I’ve written an LGBTQ YA mystery novel (that will never see the light of day) about a high schooler with a Real Housewife for a mom, and I’m currently in the development and first draft stage of a thriller/horror novel set at a high school church camp.

My main genres of interest are thriller, horror, gay stuff, literary fiction, young adult, and non-fiction, specifically early Christian history, the process of writing the Christian Bible, theology behind American Christianity, the Tanakh, and abolition studies. In college, I studied women writers of the American west and wrote papers about postcolonial and decolonial theory, gender studies, and the Dominican-American diaspora.

I live with my two partners and Winnie the chihuahua. My favorite musicians are Emma Ruth Rundle, Bad Omens, Sleep Token, NIN, Tool, System of a Down, and Orville Peck. My favorite movies are The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Wet Hot American Summer, Fiddler on the Roof, and Office Space. My favorite TV show is The Office (yes, I’m an elder millennial), and I am always mid-rewatch. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it. My favorite reality shows are Survivor, Drag Race (esp seasons 1-6), Sister Wives, RHOSLC, The Traitors, & Rock of Love. I’m addicted to watching YouTube documentaries and have made a few videos myself (about discrepancies in the Christian Bible, the history of American Evangelicalism, and growing up fundamentalist). My non-reading special interest is theme park construction, operations, and history.

Love everyone and take care of others are my mottos. I practice radical empathy. And I read to escape the horrors of this lifetime. 1312. I’m nonbinary and my pronouns are they/them. If you call me “girl,” be clear that it’s in a gay way, not a woman way. ✌🏻 💗 🏳️‍⚧️ by @wordsforyoulbc

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR JAN 19 & PRE-ORDER “THAT GIRL WON’T DIE” BY JUMATA EMILL!

Thank you to Random House, Delacourt, and NetGalley for early access to this book in exchange for honest review.

That Girl Won’t Die was a highly engaging speed-read that kept me sat until the last chapter…and left me dying for a sequel. There’s gonna be a sequel, right? Right?!

Anyway, this book was giving me Gossip Girl x Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, and it’s gonna be on my recommends list when it comes out next year. I love boarding school books and murder mysteries, and this novel is full of both. It’s told via two pov’s throughout different points in time. I loved it because I really enjoy when the plot unfolds in a non-linear fashion.

Five Stars from me! 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Seriously go pre-order this one! by @wordsforyoulbc

i ventured out into the heat because i’m trying to make myself leave the house more (😬) and these two lovely little free libraries are always on my route @casitalinford @pinkpagesonrogers

also, this is my TBR shelf reveal. i stay asking the universe to hold off on earthquakes for this reason. i am chaos. i have no ability to make my shelves aesthetic. i just hoard 😂🫣. by @wordsforyoulbc

Happy pub day to @thebuffwriter and this AMAZING book! I was privileged to read the ARC earlier this summer, and I’m eagerly awaiting my physical copy.

I’ve never read a book like this one, and I am SO glad I requested it.

Petra is an orphan who makes a living as a cave diver in The Void, a massive chasm in the earth made up of six layers, each more dangerous and deadly than the last. After an accident on a dive, Petra is forced to ally herself with her current best friend Jade or her childhood best friend, Flint. Each deeper level of The Void brings fresh terrors and new depths to the reader’s imagination.

The way I described this book to my wife was: The Descent x if Dungeon Crawler Carl was about a teen girl. And you know what? I stand by it. This was such a fun & gross read. And I love it when my horror books have a dose of real world commentary. (This novel is set on a planet/continent where end stage capitalism has teenagers selling their bodies for dangerous tourism labor.)

If you haven’t picked this one up yet, I highly recommend it. by @wordsforyoulbc

LONG BEACH! 🎃 hey horror & halloween & fall fans! here’s a sneak peek at some of the books and clothes i’ll have at this weekend’s Queer Vegan Club @woodcoffeeco (sunday 11-3) always secondhand & sustainable, curated for souls with like minded vibes & interests. all of your donations go directly to my family’s bills and back into the community. by @wordsforyoulbc

almost murdered (by nature) while picking up this murder book from @casitalinford 😂😂😂 (everyone is ok! no one was harmed, so I’m finding it kinda funny now.) also can’t wait to read this book! (hopefully my TBR stack doesn’t go the way of the tree and crash on me 😂)#bookstagram #ecohorror by @wordsforyoulbc

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was billed as a Nigerian gothic, so I was expecting haunting imagery and creepy vibes when I requested it, maybe something thriller or horror adjacent. I would instead describe this book as literary fiction.

The story concerns Celia da Silva in 1967 Nigeria. After being sent to reform school on suspicion of fratricide, she starts to try and launch herself into a career, first through teaching and then as a typist. When a failed engagement leaves her life unstable, Celia returns to her family home, The Water House, where her brother died and where her mother still resides. Set against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War, Celia works to uncover the truth about her brother’s death with the help of townsfolk from her past.

For folks who aren’t big into horror or thrillers, this would be a decently creepy/unsettling read for fall. For those who do read a ton of horror, I’d give this one a pass. by @wordsforyoulbc

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Widow’s Bay on winning 14 Emmys this week! I’ve been on a binge of books with similar vibes ever since watching the show, so I figured I’d pass along some recs to keep you busy til Season Two! 🌊 🎣 🏖️

My personal ratings:
Reliquary: 🌟 5
One of Us Knows: 🌟 4.75
Wilder Girls: 🌟 4.5
Little Kin: 🌟 4.5
A Fate Worse Than Drowning: 🌟 4.5
Scorpion Deep: 🌟 4.0
Looking Glass Sound: 🌟 2.75 (even tho it wasn’t for me doesn’t mean it isn’t for you!)
#widowsbay #emmy #tbr #bookstagram by @wordsforyoulbc

Thanks to Bindery Books & NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Petra is an orphan who makes a living as a cave diver in The Void, a massive chasm in the earth made up of six layers, each more dangerous and deadly than the last. After an accident on a dive, Petra is forced to ally herself with her current best friend Jade or her childhood best friend, Flint.

The way I described this book to my wife was: The Descent x if Dungeon Crawler Carl was about a teen girl. And you know what? I stand by it. This was such a fun & gross read. And I love it when my horror books have a dose of real world commentary. (This novel is set on a planet/continent where end stage capitalism has teenagers selling their bodies for dangerous tourism labor.) by @wordsforyoulbc

calling all horror & thrifting lovers to long beach! see you saturday :)

The Horrormonger is a genre popup brought to you by me, @wordsforyoulbc! 🎃 find me popping up in long beach for the whole holiday season :)

the map to find me!

<33 by @wordsforyoulbc

This one’s for people who love creepy small town horror and eldritch entities wreaking havoc through new technology. This one’s a horror novel, not a picking apart trad wives novel. Yes, there is a trad wife involved, and the text offers criticism along with the fun, but at its element, Trad Wife is a supernatural horror novel. Thanks to NetGalley & Atria for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While attempting to claw herself back after an online cancellation, journalist Jenny Kaplan takes a free lance writing job to expose a trad wife influencer, Mia Wright. Pressured into spending an entire week on Black Swan Farm, Jenny knows she’ll uncover something, but what she discovers is vastly beyond anything she could have imagined. Heads up, there will be spoilers below.

My rating for this book was based on total vibes. There were parts that could have been tighter, and I personally could have used a whole lot less of Steadman. For those concerned about the fact that the book has a dog, <spoiler>Buddy does not die!</spoiler>

I would have loved less backstory about the original article she wrote and visiting her sister’s place at the beginning. Instead, the book could have benefitted from more about Corrie and the Six. It felt like the lore drops were random and by the time the text turned back to it, I was so caught up in the current story that it was hard to remember the specifics regarding <spoiler>the town’s cursed origins. </spoiler>

I’m not sure if I’ve just lucked out on the vast majority of my NetGalley reads, but this book was so full of spelling and punctuation errors. I know they have time to edit those before publishing, but I’ve never seen so many still included during the ARC phase. by @wordsforyoulbc

I had two goals this month: read 31 books in 31 days and read ZERO books by men. #goals achieved!

It’s weird how I usually have multiple 5.0 reads each month, but this month, the month I read the most amount of books, I only came up with two! That being said, I consider everything 4.0 and up a great read, so here are the 17/31 books I can confidently recommend to those who read in my genres of interest:

5 ⭐️
That Which Feeds Us (YA Gothic Hawaiian Horror)
Camp Scare (Middle Grade Horror)
4.75 ⭐️
Deadstream (YA Twitch/YouTube Horror)
The Silenced (YA Troubled Teen Industry Thriller)
4.5 ⭐️
The Vacancy in Room 10 (Domestic Thriller)
A Fate Worse Than Drowning (LGBTQ+ Horror)
Little Kin (Eldritch Folklore Horror)
4.25 ⭐️
House of Idyll (Jared L*to-core Horror)
The Companion (YA Orphan Horror)
With Friends Like These (YA Religious Horror)
The Inheritance Games (YA Domestic Mystery)
4.0 ⭐️
The Lake House (YA Survival Thriller)
Darling Rose Gold (G-Rose Blanchard Fictional Retelling)
White Smoke (YA Psychological Thriller)
Ride or Die (Middle Grade Horror)
Becoming Baba Yaga (Nonfiction)
The Exes (Domestic Thriller) by @wordsforyoulbc