JOMP Book Photo Challenge - February - 28/02/25 - Read in February
All the books I read this month were truly fantastic, tackling difficult and intense topics with depth and skill.
Gone Girl (re-read), for instance, delivers a twisted tale of a marriage filled with secrets and deception, with one of the best contemporary femmes fatales ever written. If you are not familiar with this story, you can expect sharp plot twists and a dark exploration of manipulative behaviour.
Hush (re-read) by Nicole Lyons is a raw, fierce and unapologetic poetry collection that I will guard and defend with my life if I have to. If you were part of the poetry Instagram scene between 2017 and 2019, her name could ring a bell. I am not quite sure whether it is still possible to purchase Hush, but her other two poetry collections Lithium Chronicles Volume 1 and 2 feature a bunch of poems that were published in Hush as well.
Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson can shortly be described as a sapphic Hannibalesque horror story - a quick and marvelous read that picks up the pace and intensity mostly in the last third of the story.
I've stumbled upon Carmilla (re-read) in my fifth semester of studying literature and it became one of my favourite gothic classics that I revisit time and time again. Mostly known for being the infamous predecessor of Dracula, Carmilla is not only a sapphic vampire story of obsession and desire, but also a mirror of Victorian anxieties.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang is a Kafkaesque exploration of what constitutes suffering. Without revealing to much of the story, the overall premise of it centers on Yeong-hye, a Korean woman who decides to stop eating meat after being plagued by disturbingly vivid nightmares.Β I won't go into much detail about my interpretation of the book, but I would definitely argue that The Vegetarian offers a brilliant exploration of how society, through the lens of both intimate relationships and broader cultural expectations, can suppress the individual's right to define one's own existence.
I didn't expect Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker to blow me away the way it did. I literally inhaled this book within a single day. The story revolves around Cora, who loses her sister under very tragic circumstances and tries to navigate through her grief while working as a crime scene cleaner in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Weird things unfold at the crime scenes, and quite unexpectedly, the story's suspense is accompanied by a blend of supernatural elements with gory horror, while simultaneously addressing serious issues like xenophobia. Sacrificing a few hours of sleep to finish this book was absolutely worth it.
Hunger Stone by Kat Dunne is a lush neo-victorian retelling of Carmilla. One of the best one's I've read so far. It's dark, seductive and full of feminine rage.
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