books i've read so far this year!! (reviews + reccomendations)

JANUARY

root rot by saskia nislow - OKAY THIS WAS A WILD ONE. so it's about this big family who have this giant holiday lakehouse built by the grandfather. About 10-ish years before the story began the whole family just stopped going to the lakehouse for some reason that we never really find out. But following the death of the grandmother the year prior they all decide to spend a couple weeks there together as a family which they hadn't done in a very long time. The story is told through the point of view of the nine youngest children, none of them have mentioned names but are only known with their titles/roles (The Liar, The Secret Keeper, The Boy Twin etc). When playing in the woods, the children discover something odd about the lake house and the forest and water surrounding it. As the title suggests, this story is very much into mold, fungi and rot. the body horror goes CRAZYY (my favourite part i think is when the liar has a dream about the secret keeper offering her body parts to the forest it sent actuall chills up my spine).

Another odd thing about this book that i really loved was the writing and the way it was told. The story is told through the multiple points of views of the children, but always refers to them as 'us' whenever they're in a group, it gets you wondering who the narrator really is. They never make themselves known exactly, and when speaking through the pov of a single child they refer to them as he or she and never i or me. It got me developing theories pretty early on, and in the end one of them ended up being correct, which made me very happy but also very very concerned and horrified.

Saskia nislow manages to paint such a creepy picture and make mundane things -like getting mushroom spores all over your hands while playing in the forest- feel insanely horiffic.  the narration and storytelling is dreamlike and you're never really sure whats going on because the narrator (whoever they are) is a big fat liar that keeps changing the story. this book kept me on my toes the entire time and i was HOOKED. 11/10

FEBRUARY

what moves the dead by t. kingfisher - another horror book about sentient mushrooms and creepy forests by a trans author. My shivers were absolutely timbered. Tbh I'm not really sure what i expected but it turned out so much worse in the best way possible.

What Moves the Dead is a sort of retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, following a retired soldier who goes to visit their dying chilhood friend --madeline usher-- and uncovers some very upsetting things about both madeline, her brother rodrick and the forest surrounding their manor. Also there was INSANE amounts of lore and worldbuilding surrounding this little fictional country the main character (Alex Easton) came from that was SO interesting and i'm a bit dissappointed that the book was so short and we didn't get to see more of that stuff. But all in all: Heebies were jeebied, spines were crawled, jaws were dropped, 10/10 (I actually had to put this down multiple times when reading late at night cause i kept feeling this weird creeping sensation like mushrooms were bursting out of my skin and felt Watched)

MARCH

i have no mouth, and i must scream by harlan ellison - i got a collection of harlan ellison stories for christmas a couple years ago but i never actually made it through to reading them? the way ellison writes is a bit confusing and he used a lot of metaphors and the sort of "stream-of-thought" style. i've had this story be recommended to me multiple times so i was excited to read it but tbh it wasn't allat. 

the story and premise was pretty interesting especially now with the rise of AI but cmon ellison did you really have to write ellen like *that*???? it pisses me off when male writers include a female character in their story just for them to act like a damsel in distress or be some sort of sex toy for the male leads (see: beverly marsh in IT) and honestly ellen had been inside AM just as long as the others i feel like should have hardened up just as much as the men and i was so hung up on that specific part of the story that the rest was kind of washed out to me 5/10

carrie by stephen king - okay this book was highkey PEAK!! i picked it up at the school library while hiding from Someone I Really Didn't Wanna Talk To and i don't think i've been this hooked on a stephen king book ever.. i finished reading it over the span of 2 days (also i might be returing to my roots of hiding in an obscure corner of school during break reading instead of socialising which i havent done since i was 12 and had no friends so yay???) I only really read it cause the english horror section in at my school is severely lacking and also i've been pretty keen on watching the movie (YES i am the person who always insists on reading the book before watching the film) tbh i've lowkey become kind of desensitized with stephen king books specifically (see: my dad giving me a copy of the shining for christmas when i was 10 and since then gifting me at least one stephen king book every year following) so idk it didn't feel very much like horror to me but still i really enjoyed it

carrie white is a girl who's been raised pretty much under a rock by a very shielding and abusive mother with SEVERE religious views and she's constanly picked on by her classmates, one day she discovers she has telekenetic abilities and then she blows up her town and almost everyone in it idk what to tell you (ALSO TEDDY DUCHAMP FROM STAND BY ME / THE BODY WAS MENTIONED ONCE IN PASSING BUT IT MADE ME SO HAPPY CAUSE I LOVE STAND BY ME) but yea i'd say probably either 8 or 9 /10 the story and the plot is peak but points deducted because of stephen king being stephen king.

korallernas planet (planet of the corals) by fredrik moberg - i got this at the bookshop a couple weeks ago cause of the book sale and its a pretty fun read its just this guy yapping about corals for 300 pages and honestly he's so real for that 10/10

det dina ögon ser by christina wahldén - hmmm im not sure exactly how this title would translate to English but the direct translation is ”what your eyes see” but that’s sounds so ass. I read this book for my Swedish classes in school and it was actually surprisingly good and really interesting

It’s about this girl Molly who’s in lastbilsgymnasiet studying to become a lorry driver idk, one day her friend Tess is assaulted by their classmate and has to go to the hospital in a coma and no one knows whether she’ll survive or not and the book is about Molly battling the guilt of being too afraid to stop or intervene during the attack and whether she’ll be brave enough to testify against her classmate, and if she does what the consequences would be. This book is pretty good and it also taught me a lot more about the Swedish judge system (it sucks) and i relate to molly a lot hmmm I’d say a solid 7/10

APRIL

rita hayworth and the shawshank redemption by stephen king - another stephen king book but what can you expect. This was good but i was a bit put out cause my parents kept pestering me about whether I’d finished it yet cause they want me to watch the films and like I’ve seen a bit from it but not the full thing tbh it seems a bit boring but it i was like 12 back then. I read way more stephen king than i would like to, i hate him.

If you don’t know what the shawshank redemption is about, what are you even doing? Even i know what its about and I’ve only seen like three films in my life. It’s IMDBs most top rated movie of all time and thats a big thing. Whatever. It’s about this guy Red who’s in prision and tells the story of his friend Andy Dufresne, the story was okay, heartwarming yaddayaddayadda. It’s a stephen king book so obviously he managed to sneak in a couple unnecessary racial slurs over there and a few disgusting descriptions of womens bodies over there. 5/10. I’m In a really bad mood today so that could affect the rating. Sorry.

MAY

the goldfinch by donna tartt - i feel like i need a refund for my time tbh, i spent almost two months reading this and nearly got my library card suspended cause i hadnt given it back in time and wasnt able to renew the thing cause someone else had already reserved it and to that person i say: good fucking luck man you’re gonna need it

I’ve watched the film a few times, the first time was when i was twelve i think?? And i got really into it and the fandom but didnt end up getting my hands on the book until this year. It was very philosiphical and i kept zoning out cause it was really just endless words and lowkey kinda boring. Book Boris is so much worse than film Boris in every way possible and thats saying something because i have a burning hate for finn wolfhard. Also every choice Theo makes and everything he does pisses me off so bad. I’d give it probably a 6/10?? though, cause its still a pretty good story i think but im being GENEROUS… if you’re looking for a book that will stress you the fuck out while simoltaniously sending you to sleep i can definitely recommend this one