My September and October in reading

Oops, I did it again. I fell behind on my reading blogs. Got lost in the game…of starting a new business and finishing my own book. Enough Britney—onto the reviews.

Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter

I picked up this novel by my fellow Chicagoan expecting a standard thriller. What I got was a novel about social and generational trauma. I mean that as a compliment. Hunter could have kept this a story about two suburban moms and best friends, Teresa and Jacqueline, and the jealousy that forms between them, ultimately leading to murder. Instead, Hunter explores the implications and impacts of that murder on their families, even years down the road. It was so much more than I expected—and since Hunter is very talented, my expectations were already high.

Exhibit by R.O. Kwon

You might argue that the queer bondage scenes are the sexiest part of Kwon’s sophomore novel—but I would argue that honor actually goes to Kwon’s peculiar use of commas. When photographer-with-artistic-block Jin Han meets injured ballerina Lidija Jung at a party, she finds the inspiration she has ceased to find with her husband Philip, who suddenly wants kids. Jin divulges a folkloric family secret, Lidija responds with kink, and it’s on—but for how long, and with what consequences? I think I preferred Kwon’s first novel The Incendiaries, but Exhibit is excellent—especially because Kwon is such an unusual writer. Her prose style is so careful, somehow blunt and tender at the same time. Remarkable stuff.

The Devil’s Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared by Randall Sullivan (narrated by Lane Hakel)

Intrigued by the title, I kept expecting this book to get better, and then it didn’t. Sullivan fell into the trap of trying to do too much. The book is simultaneously attempting to be an academic treatise on the history of the devil, a true crime story about “Satanists” in Texas, and Gonzo journalism with Mexican witches. I hate to say it, but it’s a mess.

The Giant Dark by Sarvat Hasin

In this retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, mysterious rockstar Aida and her unknown poet boyfriend Eshan enter a passionate but tumultuous relationship. When Eshan dies, Aida disappears to Pakistan, the country of his birth—alarming her fans, who make up the Greek chorus of the story—where she has an affair with an imaginary vampire from her favorite YA novel. A tale as old as time, but definitely worth a read.

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor (narrated by Gemma Whelan and Richard Armitage)

I listened to this mystery novel while driving from Columbus to Chicago, and it was just what I needed—plot, plot, plot, pushing me along, keeping me awake through every dull stretch of cornfield. Be forewarned: this is no cozy English mystery. It is, in fact, pretty brutal. When Reverend Jack Brooks and her teenage daughter move to Chapel Croft, murder follows—seemingly to do with the Protestant martyrs burned in the town centuries ago. Is it supernatural or just part of the secrets that small towns always hold? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (narrated by the author)

I listened to this campus-meets-immigration novel on the drive from Chicago back to Louisville, and I must say, I love a funny first-person narrator. Catalina is a senior at Harvard. Excellent! She’s dating a rich white boy anthropology student who has a lot to tell her about the place where she was born in Latin America. Excellent? The undocumented grandparents who raised her are facing deportation. Decidedly not excellent. Coming of age is a lot harder when you have to decide what age you’re coming into, and how to come into it, and whether the law will allow you to come into it. I recommend picking this one up, especially given our current political nightmare.

Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

I’ve had this novel sitting on my shelf for about a million years, and I finally got around to it this October. In one lifetime, Ruth and Nat are living at a miserable orphanage, pretending(?)—with the guidance of a local con man—to speak with ghosts in order to make a living and escape. Years later, Cora is surprised by her Aunt Ruth, who can apparently no longer speak, begging her to walk across the state of New York with some mysterious but important intention—despite the fact that Cora is pregnant. Ghosts, cults, meteor strikes—Mr. Splitfoot has it all. I enjoyed this one, though the plot was a bit murky at points.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty (narrated by the author)

I’d read Doughty’s entire oeuvre except her memoir, so I decided to give it a shot. Her stories of working at a California crematory are hilarious and heartbreaking and sometimes hideous. (Two words: grease fire.) Doughty has a particular talent for speaking about death so plainly and clearly that she banishes all fear from the subject. I also appreciated how straightforwardly she addressed her own emotions during that time in her life. It would be easy to write a lighthearted book about a traditionally dark subject while ignoring the darkness in her own life, but Doughty doesn’t take the easy path, and her memoir is better for it.

This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

Aside from a brief trip to Mammoth Cave, I haven’t yet explored much of Kentucky’s vast wilderness. Kiefer’s horror novel is scary enough that I might never explore it. When Clay, a geology student, discovers a brand new rock formation deep in the woods of Kentucky, he recruits his friend Dylan to come along so she can be the first climber to scale it. Along with Dylan’s boyfriend Luke and Clay’s research assistant Sylvia, they set off to explore the new territory—and one by one, they are annihilated by the ghosts of the area’s past. I can totally imagine this book as a movie! I hope somebody picked up the film rights.

Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta

When one of my friends suggested a few of us read this ridiculous monster romance novel together, we all cheerfully agreed. I expected it to be bad—but honestly? That was bias on my part. The story was way more competent than I expected, and the sex scenes were pretty sexy. Plus, the story was weirdly relatable: overqualified and underemployed Millennial woman gets work at (minotaur) sperm bank to make ends meet and unexpectedly falls for a client? Stranger things have happened. My only complaint is that I wish there were more conflict. It seemed a bit too easy for them to get together. But then, I prefer the enemies-to-lovers trope, and this wasn’t that. It was fun! You should read it.

Stay tuned for part 2: October to November.