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Cat's March Reading Round-Up


Hello all!


I have officially given up on making a graphic for this segment -- why would I need to? Atticus Finch is right there, being adorable. (And he likes the attention.)


We have a lot of books to cover in this month's round-up, so let's just dive right in.


The Unfinished Read:


  • Don Quixote


I know everyone is dying to know what is going on with my classic read that I put on hold for Women in Horror Month. The answer is that I did not open it once during March, so I am still 3/4 of the way through. But I'll be picking it up again tonight so this should be the last wrap-up it's mentioned in. (I hope.)


Women in Horror Month Reads


For the most part I was pretty good about reading exclusively Women in Horror. I got sidetracked a little at the end of the month, but we'll talk about that in a little bit. In the meantime, here were my picks.


  • Three Days in the Pink Tower by E. V. Knight: This was such an empowering experience and a very impactful way to kick off my month of reading.

  • Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt : I had a couple issues with this book. Unsurprisingly, they were not the issues everyone else had with the book. However the sections I loved, I really loved, and I think it's worth checking out if you have a little bit of patience with it.

  • A Blackness Absolute by Caitlin Marceau : I am a sucker for anything by Caitlin Marceau and this, of course, was no exception.

  • Earth VS The Lava Spiders by Candance Nola : This one was so fun and the perfect palate cleanser for a horror fan. Campy, ridiculous, and with a healthy dose of gore. Loved it!

  • Little Eve by Catriona Ward: This is dead center in the middle of my Catriona Ward book ranking.

  • Toxic by Judith Sonnet : I have been obsessed with this cover before I knew what amazing writer was going to write the book. I thought Toxic was exceptional, and I was so pleased I was able to get a Judith Sonnet book on Godless!

  • Nocturnal Liberation by Villimey Mist : I talk about this in the full review as well, but I've really been meaning to read the Nocturnal series. I don't often like vampire books, but this is hands down the best full series of vampire fiction I've ever read. Mist's writing is fantastic, and I was so lucky to get this one as an ARC.

  • Goddess of Filth by V. Castro : V Castro is such a phenomenal writer. I love the way she puts words together and I loved that Goddess of Filth starts at an 11 and doesn't let up.

  • Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier : This is not the first time I've snuck a classic from my TBR into Women in Horror Month and until I'm all caught up on all my Shirley Jackson and all my Daphne du Maurier, it probably won't be the last time.

  • Your Darling Death by Lauren Carter : This is different than the horror that I usually read, but it was immersive, fun and a read-in-a-single-sitting style of compelling that I just couldn't pull myself away from.



Then I got sucked into the #TransRightsReadathon hosted by Sim Kern! I started the event still trying to pick trans women in horror, but I got book ravenous and ended up with quite the selection.


  • Here Be Nightmares by Julya Oui : This has some of the most inventive story premises I've seen in a single author collection for awhile. While I'm not sure all the narrative choices were for me, I know I'll be stuck with some of the imagery for a long time to come.

  • Transmuted by Eve Harms : This was probably my favorite book from the Readathon. It reminded me a lot of Waif, another one of my favorites, and I was really impressed by how bold the story was.

  • No Gods for Drowning by Hailey Piper : This was more fantasy than I expected, but Piper's prose remains as beautiful as always.

  • Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey : Someone recommended this to me as "dark academia" which I think was incredibly misleading. But I thought it was a ton of fun nonetheless, and am glad to have been misled into giving it a go.

  • Shadowdays by Polly Schattel : This one was a little hard to follow (but I read it with a fever, so who really knows.) I like the main character a lot, and overall found the story to be quite daring.

  • Something Akin to Revulsion by Judith Sonnet : This was another fantastic collection by Judith Sonnet. I don't know if I liked it as much as Toxic, but there were a couple of absolute bangers in here.

  • Inside Out by Lor Gislason : This was so much fun. It was weird. It was gross. It tosses you in the deep end of a Cronenberg style world and leaves you there. I would highly recommend this one.

  • Torture the Sinners by Judith Sonnet : This is my last Sonnet of the month, I swear. But it was another fun read, and probably the most cinematic on my list. (Rivaled only by Earth Vs The Lava Spiders in that department.)

  • Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White This one is fantastic. I knew that it was getting a lot of praise and I'm so glad I took the opportunity to read it. Unparalleled LGBTQ+ representation, great world building, strong body horror and so much nuance with character morality.

  • Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo I rated this at 3 stars and at the time felt that was really low. The more this one sits with me the less I'm sure that I liked it. The atmosphere was great and the story had its moments. I felt like the horror element was too weak, and I didn't like any of the characters. Even in the week or so since I've read it, this one is fading from my memory pretty fast. It's the one from this month's round up that I'm just not too sure I'd recommend picking up unless you're looking for a very specific kind of book. (Bleak.)



Conclusion:


That's it! This coming month I will probably have fewer reads because even though I have an impressive amount of ARCs that have piled up, I am also determined to finish Don Quixote and that is going to take up a lot of time.


But!


Before I go!


I need a favor from all of you! Yes, you!


We have comments enabled on the posts, including this wrap-up. This month is April and I am looking for some recommendations. Not only is it National Poetry Month, it's also Indie month!


If all of you would be so good as to recommend to me your favorite poetry collections (especially horror poetry) and your favorite self-published book. You can recommend your own book if you self-publish, but also try to recommend someone else's book. We want to spread the positivity (and I can never have too many books in my TBR.


Thank you so much, and check back with me next month to see what all I picked.


-- Cat


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