January

• Displacement - What a touching read! This is such a great way to introduce kids to the Japanese internment camps and how horrible they were, as well as the complex relationship Japanese and Japanese-Americans had with both America and Japan
• Cooking with My Dad - This was a cute book and had a lot of good, gluten-free options for meals! I also like how they mention the science of cooking and why some recipes work so well. The art is cute too!
• Professor Gargoyle - I was pleasantly surprised by this one! It had some creepy moments in there and I loved the characters. A good kids' horror!
• Lair of the Bat Monster - Okay, first of all, I did not know these books were written by T. Kingfisher. I definitely have to look out for the others. That said, I did sometimes find this book a little disctracting with the way it mixed the illustrations with the prose, kinda in a half-novel half-comic manner. I imagine it's really fun for kids to read though!

February

• Too Small Tola - I loved this one! Toola is such a sweet little girl and I love her grandmother. I also loved learning more about Nigeria—there need to be more kids' books that take place in Africa and is not a stereotype!
• Piggy - This was pretty spooky! And the art was super cute too.
• Surprisingly Sarah - I didn't really like this one, unfortunately. I found the two storylines very confusing (and noticed a plot hole between them, which just confused me more). And I can't say without spoiling, but I'm really not a fan of a certain trope that's revealed at the end of the novel. It's cute! But not for me.
• House of Cotton - This one!!!!!!! I love this one so much!!! I read it in less than 48 hours, it was that good. I describe this book as a ghost. The themes were barely there, the racism was barely there, the supernatural aspect was barely there, everything was just touched on briefly, but that's what made it perfect. Everything is such a quiet part of the MC's life, and yet it seeps into her skin. And the little fairy tale stories where she always imagined herself as an item that helps the hero, showing that she didn't think of herself as her own person, just someone there to help others???? Perfect. Chef's kiss. I love it so much.
• The Canary Caper - Okay, look. I know it's a kids book and maybe the reason I didn't like it was because I'm not a kid anymore. But also, I've read far better books for this age range than this. Much better off looking elsewhere.
• Beetle and the Hollowbones - PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!!!!! I swear, I have never seen such good homeschooling representation in a juvenile book. I was worried when Beetle mentioned she was homeschooling, because that NEVER goes well in YA fic, but I was so pleasantly surprised. It's also super fun, great art, queer main characters. But also, most importantly, GOOD HOMESCHOOLING REP. More people write homeschoolers like this please. Not the trillionth stereotype over and over again. Please? Pretty please? Thank you.
• Murder Among the Pyramids - This was such a fun read! I'm excited to start the second book as well~
• Verity Fairy and Snow White - This was a cute book. I like the art a lot!
• We Still Belong - I like this book a lot! I like how it brings video game livestreaming and Native American culture together. It's very touching! Does have one throwaway line of an ex-homeschooler stereotype, though. Sigh. Can't get away from it.
• Artemis the Brave - Maybe I need to brush up on my Greek Mythology lore, but reading this book as a pagan felt blasphemous. What do you MEAN one of the virgin Goddesses, Artemis, has a crush on a boy and makes herself a fool because of it? Like, huh?? The art is cute, though.
• Ring Shout - This book was a lot of fun! I loved all the gore and body horror in it. I very much wish it was much longer and not a novella. This was one of those books where I wanted to cozy up with a tea and really got lost into the world.
• Positively Izzy - I liked this one much better! The dual storylines seemed to floor better and I loved the characters. The twist was so good too! Izzy most definitely has ADHD. And—you know I have to say it—she totally should have been homeschooled. I'm a little frustrated that just a little tutoring was what seemed to "fix" her problems, because the issue was that she couldn't pay attention, not that she wasn't getting the material. I think she needed a much better environment where the teachers (or her parent—just saying) are actually patient and know how to work with her. But hey, I'm just looking too deep in a kids' novel again wwwwww
• The Jungle Book - Fun fact: I've never seen the Jungle Book, just the sequel (and I don't remember it). This book was a good read, though. There's actually way more than Mowgli's story in there. I was severely disappointed in the lack of Baloo, though. Who knew Disney added that much!
• Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind - These two!!!!!!! This was an omnibus my mom owned and I had it for YEARS trying to finish both novels. I'm often p slow with V.C. Andrews, but god, her books hit so hard. The generational trauma is so strong here. I can't wait to read the third.

March

• Gyo - God, I love Junji Ito. Also, this had the infamous "This is my hole! It was made for me!" story. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed that more than the main story. It was very creepy and unsettling. The main story, Gyo, was also unsettling, but more gross than anything else. Which, I do love a good gross out horror!

April

• Tusk Love - This book!!!!!! Listen, romantasy is not my thing usually, but not only is it a Critical Role book, but it's Jester's favorite book. I trust her taste and, man, was I not disappointed! It was sweet, it was sexy, the 3rd act break up wasn't overly annoying. Did have a bit of instalove, but it actually worked here??? It was just such a fun read. I love when I actually enjoy a book that's in a genre that I don't usually like; it shows that every genre has gold in it sometimes.
• Alley - God...Ito does it again. It's SO creepy. The Alley story does not disappoint, and neither do any of the other ones. For those with mold focused mycophobia though, be warned that there is, in fact, a story called "Mold" about, you guessed it, mold. I had a hard time getting through that one, but I did it! But...eugh....I'm glad the title was so obvious so that I could properly prepare myself.
• To Love a Texan - Sigh. This was...not good. I read this because my bookclub's theme for the month was western, but...sigh. I really should not have picked a western romance. The respectibility politics in here is ridiculous, and I hoped it would have been criticized eventually, but nope. I did appreciate that the writer seemed to address the racism against Native Americans. Also a couple other things that I can't mention because spoilers. Like, the writer tried, she really did! But also—oof. Also, spoiler, but I think it's important to mention for trigger warning reasons, if the only penetrative sex scene with the "love interest" is going to be basically intoxicated rape, maybe ummmmmm have at least one more sex scene where it's consensual? Please? So that we can know what the main female character is like when she's happy and actually consenting?

May

• Wilder Girls - I LOVED this! The body horror was so good. I wish it was pushed just a bit further, but I guess it's a teen novel, not adult. Still, I was enamored with this story the whole time! I saw a lot of complaints about how open-ended the ending was, that it felt unfinished, but I really prefer my books to be like that. I genuinely didn't know how this story would have ended and anything that actually gave proper answers would have felt too easy. It wouldn't have been earned. The ambiguous ending felt far more realistic, and far creepier too.
• The Blood Card - I liked this book! It was a good mystery and the characters were fun. There were some points where I was worried about some harmful stereotypes, especially with the time period the book takes place in, but I was pleasantly surprised! Also, this book has made me realize some sayings are apparently "American" that I thought were universal. There was a point where they stated "Have a nice day! That's what the Americans say," and just had to sit and stare at the page a bit. I love getting culture shock from a book; I love expanding my experiences~
• Peggy Finds the Theater - This is such a good "Don't you wish this was you?" book! Like, this is the kinda book kids read and they go "I wanna do that!" and it inspires them to do things in their life, like acting and going to an acting school! There is a reference to black face; it's from the 1960s, after all. But it was a fun read! I kinda wish I had bought the other books in the series from my bookshop.
• Because I Could Not Stop for Death - I was so blindsided by the topic of this book, but I can't say I'm disappointed! I don't usually enjoy white people writing about slavery (or the Black experience period), but I feel like this was pretty well done. I also learned quite a few things about the Dickinson's from this novel. I'm excited to read the other books in the series!
• The Dead of Summer - I wanted to like this book so much. It's queer, there's beach zombies, it's a perfect summer horror. But the execution just...wasn't there. The writer time-hopped way too much and kept skipping all the interesting bits. Information about the characters relationships I felt like were introduced too late. On that note, I didn't even really care about any of the characters. It was creepy and the body horror was great, but compared to Wilder Girls, the latter definitely did the "body horror sickness" theme better. I think it could have gone through many more rounds of editing. I will admit, though, the twist was pretty good.
• The Comfy Cozy Witch's Guide to Making Magic in Your Everyday Life - This was such a nice book to get back into my witchcraft practice! I've fallen off for a long time. Now that I'm off social media, I've been dedicating a lot more of my time to witchcraft, as well as journaling, which this book really encourages doing both! I haven't returned it to my library yet, so maybe it's a good idea for me to do a quick flip-through before I do.
• Tender is the Flesh - God. This book. It's so good. That ending hits SO hard. I do think the second half is much better than the first. The first is kindaaaaaa an infodump (though a very horrifying one!). But it's worth pushing past, because that second half man. Holy hell.
• No Honor Amongst Thieves - I surprisingly liked this book! I don't read much hood fiction, or even dark romance, but this was a pretty fun read. And while the three-year-old in the story seemed to be smarter than one would expect for three, she did actually talk like a three-year-old. Just a fun read!

June

• The Renaissance - I learned a lot from this book! I appreciate that it deconstructed some false ideas about the Renaissance and how people sometimes put it on a pedastal (often for nationalist gain). It also mentions the origin of a couple stereotypes that I found very interesting. I'll admit, there's so much information that I'll probably forget most of it—I gotta read more than one book for it to stick! But the stuff that stood out I think will stick around and I still believe it's well worth the read.
• The Beautiful Stories of Life - Some fun Greek stories told for kids! I knew most of these already, but it's always fun to read again. Plus, I was trying to get to know my library's children's collection more. I wanna be the kinda library worker that knows a collection so well that people can just say the cover's color and I can be like "Oh, I know the one, follow me" wwwwwww
• Black Bears - Another "getting to know the collection" read, but god, was it worth it. I learned so much from this book. Did you know black bears can be white??? I didn't! It also has so many jokes that I tortured my coworkers with. To quote what I said to them, "This book really knows its audience, the audience being me."
• SpyxFamily - I'll talk about these as a group. This was so much fun! Well worth the hype! I love how over the top manga can get, even when it's not speculative. Plus, while I usually roll my eyes at kids' romance, I am a sucker for a good enemies to lovers.
• Passing - This one!!!! I have been wanting to read this book since I watched the movie (PLEASE watch the movie; especially if you like old movies!). This book was well-timed too. Seeing Irene hate herself for her feelings when I was hating myself for my feelings was very cathartic.
• Mothman - I wish I had liked this book more. It was good! Really good actually! The art was amazing and the way the stories and choices work together was very nice. But there just...wasn't enough Mothman. There were more aliens than there was Mothman. I know he's elusive and hard to find, but like, when I read a Mothman book, I kinda expect Mothman? So I was a little disappointed on that front.
• Dungeon Meshi - This was so much fun!! Also very funny to read as a Fear and Hunger fan lmao. It's legit a similar setup—cursed dungeon and people go in and go hungry. But ummmmmm in this one, they find food! In monsters :) Imagine a D&D party were everyone is Ragnvaldr wwwwww Still though, this was so much fun and I love the art! And I know it wasn't on purpose, but I totally see how people thought there was sapphic coding in here. Not gonna lie, I kinda ship Farcille now.
• Galápagos - I have had to be corrected on the pronunciation of this title multiple times. I'm probably still saying it wrong. It's high time I started adding Spanish to my list of foreign languages, methinks. Anyway! This was so good! I loved learning about the islands and all the different turtles and animals that lived here. It would make a good homeschooling book! It touches on history, geography, and science! You could easily jumpstart a unit study from it. I will admit, though, reading about Lonely George, the last pinta turtle who was so alone on his island that when he finally saw other turtles, he didn't know how to react, during a time when I was still reconciling with the fact that I am not the kind of person who can have internet friends anymore and probably never should have to begin with, uhhhh it hit kinda hard. He's just like me for real. Except, he was a turtle. And his kind was basically extinct. And I'm just a person who can't regulate my emotions...But other than that, just like me!
• The Salt Grows Heavy - This was a fun, short read! It was written like a fairy tale~ I think it needs multiple rereads to get the full experience, but alas, this was a library book and I have already returned it. I think I might read it again one day, though, because I definitely missed some stuff. Not spooky, but unsettling. Violent. Written in a way where you kinda have to read multiple times to know what's going on (or maybe that's just my ADHD not focusing well fjkelajekl)
• How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive - I started reading this book because I remember my favorite Let's Player, Gabsmolders, talking about it, and holy shit! One of the best books I've read! I think it helps that I read it during a time I was also watching the Scream movies too. They both deconstruct the horror and slasher genre in different, but interesting ways. And the main characters are fascinating! I read the last 200 pages in one day because I just could NOT put it down.