What I've been reading

[whatihavebeenreading]

Review: Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Finished Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul some days ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

The story is told in several POVs spanning a timeline of almost 100 years. The “oldest” POV is the one of Hazel, a black girl growing up in southern USA in the 1920s. Her life is shaped by racism and segregation, and she’s working hard to give her daughter a better life. Eventually, we switch to her daughters POV around the 1940s (if I remember correctly) and move further on in time from there.

This part of the book is so well written. Smith Paul really makes you feel for the characters, makes you understand their struggles and anger. Most characters in this part of the story feel so human, they are flawed and make mistakes, but they also care and want to do better.

The past stories are set against the backdrop of Elize’s POV. She’s a black actress nominated for an Oscar in 2017. And here it gets a bit frustrating. This bit of the story could be compelling but falls flat. The characters in this part are all unlikable and obnoxious. Everything feels rushed and there is so much going on that I can’t care for anything.

I really wish Smith Paul would have turned these stories into two separate books. Following Hazel and Co through the ages was a great read. I wish we could have just continued with it instead of the story being cut off in the 1960s. This was a 4.5 star read, even 5 stars with an interesting ending.

And I can see the structure of Elize’s story shining through the convoluted mess. A black actress just having landed a Vogue cover story, an Oscar nomination, and about to be married to a fellow actor. But then we get to know her and find out that it’s all hollow and that she struggles with not being allowed to speak up about injustice against African Americans since her management wants her to be more palatable.

That alone is a compelling story. But add a secret love story with a photographer telling the life of his grandfather through his photos and Elize finding out a big secret about her family and you get an amazing story about a woman caged in by her own success finding her voice and standing up against social injustice and the rich and famous hoarding money.

As is, I can still recommend the book. The retro POVs make up the majority of the book, and this part is absolutely worth a read. Elize’s POV is frustrating to read, but mostly so because the rest of the book is so well written.

[whatihavebeenreading]

Human Rites - Juno Dawson: A Review

Finished Human Rites yesterday. Read half of the book in one sitting.

I really liked it. It was almost as good as the first novel, but I might just like Her Majesty's Royal Coven more since I listened to the audiobook and Aoife McMahon did such a good job narrating it.

I can now definitely say that my problem with the second novel was the group splitting up and Ciara's POV being so dominant. Human Rites fixes that. The focus is very much on the main characters working best as a group and in this book they all get more or less equal POVs.

I will still say that I could have done without some of the POVs. I think, some of the characters get exactly one short chapter in their POV and it's not adding much to the story.

What carried over from the second book are those conflicts that could have been resolved with a simple conversation. It wasn't as prevalent in this book, but it was still their occasionally and it just annoyed me. At least in The Shadow Cabinet, there was reason for Ciara and Theo not communication properly. But now it's Theo and Niamh not communicating and that just doesn't make much sense.

All in all it was ⭐⭐⭐⭐ star read for me. Some things could have been improved, but it was still a delight to read and it captivated me from beginning to end.

TW: Transphobia, Violence, Death, War, Racism, Murder, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Child abuse

[whatihavebeenreading]

Devil’s Gambit by Jeri Westerson - Review

I got to read Devil's Gambit through Netgalley. The book will be published on 1. January 2026

I managed to completely read over the fact that this was the 4th novel in a series and only realized when I was at least 50 pages in. I can therefore confidently say that Jeri Westerson wrote one of those rare mystery series that you can read completely out of order, having not read or forgotten the previous books, and still follow along without any issues.

Devil’s Gambit is a Whodunit set in 1540 at the court of Henry VIII. When stumbling upon a body, Will, the court jester, immediately starts both helping and investigating. While juggling his own relationships and trying to help ignite the love in Henry VIII’s and Anna von Kleve’s marriage, he uncovers the misgivings and machinations at court that led to a death.

The story was a ⭐⭐⭐ read for me. The characters were fun and likable moving through a story as light-hearted as can be for a murder mystery. However, I kept wishing for higher stakes, for the (perceived) threat of another murder, of someone trying to stop Will from finding the murderer. Obviously, there were red herrings and difficulties, Will’s responsibilities as a court jester or the wishes of other people at court getting in the way, but I wouldn’t have minded a bit more suspense, a bit more focus on the mystery and less on Will’s personal life.

The language and writing were probably what I liked most about the book. It was just flowery and “old-fashioned” enough, for lack of better words, to immerse me in the setting without making it hard to read.

I would recommend Devil’s Gambit to readers who like light-hearted historical fiction and Whodunits with witty characters.

Thank you, Netgalley and Jeri Westerson, for the opportunity of reading Devil's Gambit in advance.

[whatihavebeenreading]

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson is the sequel to Her Majesty’s Royal Coven.

It was a ⭐⭐⭐.5 star read for me since I had a hard time getting into the book and only the second half grabed my attention.

I really like Juno Dawson’s villains and morally grey characters. The villains give me the creeps; I understand their logic and still despise them wholeheartedly. But what I like best about Dawson’s characters is that none of them are without flaws. I don’t have to overlook or excuse every wrong action. I just have to understand the motivation and see that there are always at least two sides of the story.

The POVs Juno Dawson picked made perfect sense, I’ve just noticed in the last few years that, now in my mid-30s, teenage angst and heartache just don’t hold my attention anymore, and a significant (and important) part of the book was just that from Theo’s POV. The other main POV at the beginning was Ciara’s, and her attitude and actions didn’t work for me until the second half of the book.

I would have also preferred for the main group to work together more instead of each going after their own side quest. There was a different threat or problem to overcome for each POV character, and it mostly coming together at the end felt a little forced at times.

There is an interesting plot twist at the end that was done really well and sets the stakes for book 3. I prefer plot twists that the readers could theoretically figure out themselves which, unless I completely missed something, wouldn’t have been possible here. But that’s just my personal preference.

For readers of contemporary fantasy with strong female and lgbtqia+ characters, and for those who like gritty, high-stakes stories about occult organizations and witches in a modern setting.

TW: death, murder, misogyny, violence, description of addiction and transphobia, mentions of miscarriage

[whatihavebeenreading]

I bought The Spectral Wilderness by Oliver Bendorf after hearing him read Love and the Bodega for the Ours Poetica on YouTube.

I won’t give it a star review. Poetry, to me, is too personal and depends to much on feeling it that I could just qualify it on a one to five scale.

"It's a joy … to come nearer to a realm of experience little explored in American poetry, the lives of those who are engaged in the complex project of transforming their own gender... Oliver Bendorf writes from a paradoxical, new-world position: the adult voice of a man who has just appeared in the world. A man emergent, a man in love, alive in the fluid instability of any category."

--Mark Doty, from the Foreword

Some of my avourite lines:

[whatihavebeenreading]

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven gripped me from beginning to end and was a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ read for me. I’m not usually one for multiple POVs, but I was surprised how well the POV split between four people worked.

Maybe listening to the audiobook read by Aoife McMahon also helped. She does an amazing job at giving every character their own distinguishable voice. And it taught me how to pronounce names like Aoife or Niamh which I would’ve been at a complete loss with otherwise 😅

The story follows childhood friends Elle, Helena, Leonie, and Niamh who are witches more or less involved with the institution Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. When a powerful young warlock is found and captured, some believe that a grim old prophecy is about to come true. Still reeling from a civil war among witches and warlocks, the friends have to chose between fear and hope, between tradition and empathy.

I liked the well-written villain with a past that explained some of their behaviour without taking away their choice. The villain’s hatred and hurtful actions were very much their own fault and not just an unavoidable effect of something that had happened to them.

My only qualms were with the one sex scene thrown in there. It didn’t feel necessary and, for me, it came out of nowhere. I don’t mind sex scenes, but I prefer books only having them if there is a reason for it.

For readers of dark, contemporary fantasy with high stakes, villains that are corrupted by their own power, and the struggles of having to balancing loyalty to a sister (both sisters by birth and sisters by choosing) with what is right.

TW: terfs and transphobia (only from the villains, everyone else is very supportive, but still it features majorly), murder, violence, mentions of war and death of a partner, mentions of toxic relationships

Spoilers under the cut

I would be interested to discuss with trans people what they thought of Theo's magical transition.

Obviously, I don't want to see her struggle, and if there's magic why not use it to make trans people's life better.

On the other hand, it felt like a simple fix for a very real issue trans people face. I guess Juno Dawson wanted to show that even if Theo wasn't any different from any other girl her age, Helena would still not consider her a girl or witch. And, obviously, that is also a real problem.

Idk. I'm not trans and feel like I don't even know half of what there is to know about being trans. I would really like to hear others' opinions.

[whatihavebeenreading]

This is my first book by T. Kingfisher and I binged it in two days. I was told that this was not her best work and if that is true than I definitely want to read some of her “better” books. In a dual POV, the story follows Cordelia, a girl of 14 years whose mother is a cruel and ruthless sorceress, and Hester, an old spinster (according to her) with a great sense of humour. When Cordelia’s mother tries to get Hester’s brother to marry her for the money, the two main characters and Hester’s friends team up to intervene. What starts off as a plan to prevent a scheming marriage imposter, soon becomes a fight against a greater evil. I understand some of the criticism I read in other reviews like the villainess being quite stereotypical, Hester’s chapters being noticeably better than Cordelia’s, and the middle being too much stalling and talking instead of actions. I would still recommend the book. It might not be the best book I read this year, but I give it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ for drawing me in and for the depiction of evil. For readers of fantasy with horror elements who prefer manipulation and ruthlessness over brute force, and who like to have the comic relieve of good friends making inappropriate jokes TW toxic mother-daughter relationship and child abuse, animal death, murder and death

[whatihavebeenreading]

Autor: Ben Aaronovitch

Genre: Mystery with Fantasy elements

Rating ⭐⭐⭐

The 10th instalment of the Rivers of London series is set in Aberdeen, Scotland. It follows both Peter with Bev, and Abigail with her spying foxes while they investigate. I read the German translation by Christine Blum.

For anyone who doesn’t know the series:

It follows Police Constable Peter Grant who, after stumbling onto the magical side of London, becomes the first apprentice in 50 years of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. As a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals, and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic. The writing is funny and light-hearted, reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s Guards books, but set in modern day Britain.

The quality of the main series, following Peter, suffered a little throughout the last two or three books. I had high hopes for this one since, in the first 50 pages we were back to Aaronovitch’s humorous play with words that made me giggle through descriptions and conversations. I especially liked the dynamic between Peter and Bev.

However, I kept getting distracted by side characters I kept forgetting and frustrated by half the books being written in Abigail’s POV which I was simply not interested in. After nine books, the cast of characters from the main books is big enough. I didn’t read the spin-offs with Abigail and others as main characters for a reason. They are probably great, but I’m not interested in a teen spin-off, and this book being half a teen mystery wasn’t my cup of tea.

Still, Aaronvitch is a great writer and though this wasn’t my favourite book of his, it definitely wasn't bad, and I would still recommend the series to anyone who likes Terry Pratchett, and light-hearted urban fantasy.

[whatihavebeenreading]

Autor: Marisha Pessl Genre: Fantasy with Mystery elements Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Since her boyfriend’s unexplained death, Bee hasn’t spoken to any of her friends. When she meets them all again five years later, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Or so they believe. Back at the mansion where they are staying, a mysterious man knocks on the door during a raging storm. He tells them that they must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous. Until then, Bee and her friends are forced to repeat the same 11 hours so many times they lose count. With each replay, events twist and fears come alive in horrifying ways. The key to their decision seems to be Jim’s death and the friends start to investigate. Slowly, it becomes clear that all of them have something to hide … Marisha Pessl is one of my favourite authors. Neverworld Wake feels like her Special Topics in Calamity Physics but with a (slightly) more likable cast of friends. The twists and turns their investigations took had me hooked from beginning to end. The friends’ actions were oftentimes rash and impulsive, but it always made sense in the situation, and I liked that their worst, most crass behaviour wasn’t always rewarded, but that they got further with thinking quick and outside of the box. The only thing I was wishing for was that Bee might be a little more proactive. She gets there eventually, and the slow process makes perfect sense with her character, but I wouldn’t have minded her to break out of her stupor 100 pages earlier. For readers who are interested in dark, twisting narratives about secrets with quick-thinking characters that have to work with and around the restrictions of their situation.

[unclejarin]

tumblr cuz them other apps too loud

[artistofnothing]

Why Tumblr, despite everything, still is the best social media:

Sequential timeline unless you choose Best Things First

Suggested posts only if you want to see them (based on your likes or followers likes)

For You Page is NOT the standard page

Suggested blogs are almost entirely based on likes, reblogs or blogs followed by people you follow

Internal meme ecosystem

blacklist both tags AND content

Influencer proof. You can’t see follower counts so Lynda Carter’s posts could do just as well as a shitposter’s

[the-haiku-bot]

Why Tumblr, despite

everything, still is the best

social media:

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[sol-arsystem]

8. haiku bot

[whatihavebeenreading]

9. Every book that showed up on my dash since other tumblr users were obsessed with it was right up my alley.

No famous author, no big marketing, not something everyone was reading because everyone else had already read it. Just books that were niche and exactly my kind of weird.

Thank you, booklr 👌

[whatihavebeenreading]

Review: Witches of Deadly Sin

Author: Ava Reed

The story follows Sasha, a witch who had lived in exile for 10 years and just returned to her family home in Amsterdam. To end the exile, she accepts a deal : for one year, she will help in the search for Pandora's Box. At the same time, an alchemist wants to make a deal for Sasha’s help as well, and his looks and charm are just as interesting to her as his extensive library. But old relationships and animosities make Sasha’s search just as dangerous as the ancient magic she’s dealing with.

I don't want to give this a simple star rating since I think my problems with the book were simply that it was not my kind of book and maybe not even my kind of genre. It took me around 200 pages to actually get into the story. Until then I was constantly annoyed with the world building, the writing, and the fact that the FMC is supposed to read tarot cards professionally but doesn’t comment once on the fact that she’s only pulling mayor arcana in all her readings.

The art on the cover, the dust cover, etc. is gorgeous and the second half of the book managed to draw me in a little more, so I would actually read for an hour at a time and not put it down every 10 minutes. Still, the world building remained confusing and vague, I saw the plot twist coming from a mile away and didn’t think much of it, the writing was fine but did pull me out of the story at times.

I’m 70 % certain I don’t want to read the second part of the duology since it would have to do a lot of heavy lifting for the world building to make sense, and I don’t see that coming. But, again, most of it was simply a case of not my genre, not my book. I’ve seen many reviews loving the book, so I would still recommend it if you like slow-burn romance/romantasy in a story about witches inspired by Greek mythology.

[whatihavebeenreading]

Review: Deep as the Sky, Read as the Sea

Autor: Rita Chang-Eppig

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating ⭐⭐⭐

Set in China's piracy age, the story follows Shek Yeung who has to act fast after the death of her husband, a pirate captain, to keep her power in the fleet. But as the story progresses, Shek Yeung has to face even bigger threads and use her wits to navigate the South China Sea and the dangers of a life outside of the law, but mostly the relationships in her life.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea was a 3-star read for me as I kept wishing for more action and to be shown more of the threads instead of just being told they existed a page before Shek Yeung made short shrift of them. With 281 pages, the book is a pretty short read and I wouldn't have minded it to be 50 pages longer if they were filled with Shek Yeung scheming and getting the better of her enemies through witty conversations and scheming.

These moments were there and I enjoyed them very much. Rita Chang-Eppig wrote Shek Yeung as a strong but morally-grey character whose flaws and strengths felt believable and in line with her actions throughout the story. I liked the characters' spirituality that in times bordered on magical realism.

For readers who are interested in morally-grey characters, strong women, piracy, historical fiction, and a lot of introspection.

[whatihavebeenreading]

The first big autumn storms rolled in last week, but at least I could read In These Hallowed Halls all weekend and the weather did match the book's vibe.

I really liked the book. It's a collection of short stories by various authors all written with Dark Academia aesthetics in mind. I was glad about the occasion horror story mixed in there, otherwise I would have soon grown bored of the theme of "young impressionable student marvels at ivy covered gothic/red brick buildings in autumn". But I can't really complain when reading an anthology from a genre that is so deeply connected to that one aesthetic.

[macksartblock]

for the women enjoyers and Beth May, based on this post lol

[whatihavebeenreading]

This was on my dash last year and I haven't stopped thinking about it ever since, so I have to reblog.

Just gorgeous. I love it

[whatihavebeenreading]

I should really get back to posting my own stuff here and not just reblog.

So, here's a book I read recently which I really liked. In The Bandit Queens, Parini Shroff managed to be funny while at the same time writing about serious issues like violence in marriages, and women's role in society.

And, bc I got quite annoyed with it while reading this copy from my local library, this is a friendly reminder to not annotate books from the library (or that don't belong to you in general, unless you and your friends like doing that). It was just in pencil, and the text was still legible, but I got quite annoyed with the person scribbling "!!!", "LOL" and little hearts all over this copy. Barely a page was without something underlined, or something written or drawn in the margins.

I'm not a book purist, I bend the corners of pages to mark where I stopped reading, I mark stuff, and all my books have stains from when I read them while eating. BUT NOT LIBRARY BOOKS or books I borrowed from someone. I don't want others to be distracted by what I left in the book or unable to read the text because of my scribbles and markings and stains.

Just ... be respectful towards others wanting to read a library book, please.

[you-just-wait-sunshine]

this year for uni i'm going a module on modernism and Ulysses is one of the first set texts so

how long did it take you to read Uylsses

a few days

a week

a few weeks

a month or more

too long

uhhh that's classified (never finished it)

haven't ever tried

Voting ended onAug 10, 2025

[whatihavebeenreading]

It was really not my kind of book and I had to give myself a month with scheduled pages for each day. I think it was around 35 pages per day which is less than I would usually read and, still, I had to force myself through it.

But, again, it was just really not my thing, and I felt like I was just not the targeted reader.

[certaindelusionhideout]

This is an art piece that I made last year. I kinda just wanted to get a reason to practice this embroidery technique.

I took inspiration from floral motives in wallpapers. It got picked up for the local art show and is actually still hanging. I'm working on more stuff with this technique.

#embroidery #fiber arts #i don't know how this work in here #strage aeons

[whatihavebeenreading]

That looks really cool!

I was thinking about trying to crochet or embroider flowers, but I know I wouldn't want a bouquet collecting dust in my flat or office. This, on the other hand, looks like something I would hang somewhere.

Thank you for the inspiration!