All posts tagged: book

Phantasma by Kaylie Smith – Book Review by The Bookish Elf

Phantasma by Kaylie Smith – Book Review by The Bookish Elf

Published by skeptic

Kaylie Smith’s Phantasma, the first installment in the Wicked Games series, arrives with all the flair of a midnight spell—unfurling slowly, seductively, and laced with shadows that linger. A dark romantasy that will resonate with fans of Caraval and Throne of the Fallen, this novel conjures a world where death dances with desire, and the most dangerous game is not surviving Phantasma’s trials—but falling in love. With themes of grief, legacy, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and forbidden romance braided into its gothic narrative, Phantasma is both haunting and heartfelt. Smith’s voice is richly atmospheric, adapting classic gothic motifs into a modern romantic fantasy that is as emotionally intense as it is darkly seductive. The Dead Don’t Rest in Grimm Manor Plot Overview: A Game of Survival, a Romance of Ruin Ophelia Grimm never expected to inherit her mother’s necromantic powers—or her debt. Following her mother’s sudden death, Ophelia is thrust into a crumbling world of magic, ghosts, and a looming threat of foreclosure over their ancestral home, Grimm Manor. To protect her younger sister Genevieve and …

Universality by Natasha Brown – Book Review by The Bookish Elf

Universality by Natasha Brown – Book Review by The Bookish Elf

Published by skeptic

In a literary landscape often characterized by safe bets and predictable formulas, Natasha Brown’s sophomore novel “Universality” arrives as a thrilling disruption. Following her critically acclaimed debut “Assembly” (2021), Brown solidifies her position as one of Britain’s most intellectually ambitious and stylistically daring writers with this multi-layered exploration of truth, narrative, and power. “Universality” presents itself as a compilation of interconnected stories centered around an alleged attack at a Yorkshire farm where a young man named Jake is nearly killed with a gold bar during an illegal rave. But this seemingly straightforward mystery quickly transforms into something far more complex—a hall of mirrors examining how stories are constructed, manipulated, and consumed in our media-saturated world. Structure and Style: Literature That Knows It’s Literature Brown’s novel is structured as a series of distinct but interconnected sections, each employing different stylistic approaches: “A Fool’s Gold” – A magazine article investigating the gold bar attack “Edmonton” – A dinner party unraveling social and racial tensions “Weybridge” – A banker’s reflection on his public shaming “Cartmel” – A controversial …

Book Banning Attempts Rise in UK as US Groups Reach Overseas

Book Banning Attempts Rise in UK as US Groups Reach Overseas

Published by skeptic

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Help shape our future newsletters! Take our survey and share your feedback. UK Librarians See Impact of US Censorship Attempts Librarians across the pond are reporting an increase in requests to remove books from their shelves, a change they attribute to the growing influence of US-based pressure groups. As in the States, many of the books being targeted for banning center on LGBTQ+ themes. At present, most of the book challenges in the UK come from individuals and small groups, but librarians report being harassed by members of US-based groups online, and one librarian found propaganda from a US-based group on her desk. While library professionals in the UK report that the situation there is not (yet) as dire as it is here in the US, the global media ecosystem and the rise of far-right groups worldwide make …

Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer – Book Review by The Bookish Elf

Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer – Book Review by The Bookish Elf

Published by skeptic

In the sterile white environment of a university dissection room, Patrick Fort is about to embark on an obsessive quest that will lead him through the darkest corners of the human body and mind. Belinda Bauer’s Rubbernecker (2013) is a masterfully crafted crime novel that draws readers into an unforgettable exploration of life, death, and the murky space between. Rubbernecker stands as the first installment in what will soon be a two-book series, with The Impossible Thing set to be released in 2025. While fans have waited over a decade for a sequel, Bauer’s unforgettable protagonist Patrick Fort has remained etched in readers’ minds, making the wait worthwhile for those who fell in love with his unique perspective on the world. A Dissection of Plot Patrick Fort isn’t your typical protagonist. A young man with Asperger’s Syndrome, he approaches the world with literal-minded precision, unable to interpret social cues but possessing a razor-sharp focus on details others miss. After being accepted to study anatomy at Cardiff University, Patrick’s obsession with understanding death—sparked by witnessing his …

In new book, Adam Sobsey retraces his ancestors’ exodus and finds his Jewish soul

In new book, Adam Sobsey retraces his ancestors’ exodus and finds his Jewish soul

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Passover is about memory. The central commandment at the traditional seder feast is to remember the exodus, the flight of the ancient Israelites from slavery to freedom. Adam Sobsey’s new book, “A Jewish Appendix: A Memoir,” isn’t about Passover, but it is about tracing the journey his great-grandparents took in 1910 from a small town in northeastern Romania to Ellis Island and eventually to Pittsburgh. Sobsey, 54, never talked to his great-grandparents about that exodus. In fact, they refused to talk about it to anyone. His parents drifted away from their Jewish observance, and he was left with a Jewish identity in name only — sort of like his appendix that was surgically removed in 2018. But the following year, Sobsey and his wife, Heather, took “a sort of speculative ancestry tour” to the place his great-grandparents on his mother’s side came from. The book recounts that three-month journey, which also took Sobsey to Albania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Greece, a tour he realized later, spanned of the borders of the Ottoman Empire.  …