July, 2025
July 2nd, 2025, 8:04 p.m. - One of those I-probably-could-have-written-this-better books
26. The Death of Us (Abigail Dean)
Up next: Relight My Fire (C.K. McDonnell)
July 10th, 2025, 4:52 p.m. - Grace, Ox, and Reggie need more to do
27. Relight My Fire (C.K. McDonnell)
Up next: The Doorman (Chris Pavone)
July 17th, 2025, 5:26 p.m. - Two people need to be fired: Whoever copyedited this book and whoever marketed it as a thriller
28. The Doorman (Chris Pavone)
Up next: Julie Chan Is Dead (Liann Zhang)
July 25th, 2025, 4:59 p.m. - "What in the actual ya-ya-sisterhood living f%$# is this?"
29. Julie Chan Is Dead (Liann Zhang)
Up next: Don't Forget the Girl (Rebecca McKanna)
July 31st, 2025, 7:54 p.m. - We're all stocked up on books about podcasts investigating old crimes, thanks
30. Don't Forget the Girl (Rebecca McKanna)
Up next: Madwoman (Chelsea Bieker)
While I thought Dean's writing was great here, even better than her last two books, the story didn't really go anywhere. I was waited for bigger bombshells than we got.
I didn't like this as much as the others in the series, partly because there were too many characters and too much going on. Also, not nearly enough Cogs and Zeke. But I shall forgive McDonnell, because I can't stop reading his books.
The last quarter of this book was really good. The first three-quarters did nothing to make up for that. I should have quit when I first started getting annoyed about Pavone's constant misuse of commas.
I liked the first half of this, but then it went completely off the rails, to the point where I was continually asking myself, "What am I reading?" I don't know that Zhang was clear on what she wanted this book to be.
The plot twists I thought up based on a couple of red herrings made this a much better book in my head.