Book Reviews

Action Adventure Book Reviews Fantasy

Trapped by Bella Olson: A Glitter-Bomb Escape Room With Heart

If you’ve ever wished a middle grade adventure could feel like an escape room designed by a kid with unlimited glitter, snacks, and zero respect for “normal,” Trapped is exactly that ride. It follows Ava—an inventive, sporty, claustrophobic eleven-year-old—who stumbles into the facility of Dr. Heynis and gets pulled into a maze of riddles, traps, and utterly unhinged surprises. What starts as a “get out alive” challenge quickly becomes a loud, funny, surprisingly warm story about fear, friendship, and the kind of bravery that shows up even when you’re shaking.

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Book Reviews Fiction Teens

The Thin Door by Rho Weber Mack: A fascinating example of storytelling

The Thin Door is a YA coming-of-age slipstream tale where a teen steps through a reality-bending “thin door” and must untangle who she is across two worlds.

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Book Reviews Drama Fantasy

Wooden Dolls Game by Ivonne Hoyos – A Haunting Tale of Sisters, Time, and Consequences

Wooden Dolls Game is a dark, emotional family drama with a speculative twist. Instead of grand sci-fi mechanics, it gives us something more intimate: a girl who can rewind time and a family that keeps breaking in different ways no matter how many times she tries to fix it.

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Book Reviews Horror

The Chosen Tenant: Metaphors, Medication, and the Horror of Being Functional

The Chosen Tenant takes a deliciously unnerving “what if” and refuses to let you look away: what if the way your brain processes language—especially under medication—could physically rewrite reality? It’s a story that starts in the familiar grind of deadlines and executive dysfunction, then slides into speculative horror with a very specific flavor: the kind that feels like it could happen to you if you answered one more email while running on fumes. And once the book reveals what the house really is—an archive that literalizes idioms and stores them behind labeled doors—it becomes clear you’re not just reading a haunted-house story. You’re reading a systems story.

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Book Reviews Poetry

Peering Into Infinity: Mirrors of Love & Grief By Steven Lewis — Grief, Unarmored

Peering Into Infinity: Mirrors of Love & Grief is a poetry collection that stares straight at the kind of loss most of us circle around in euphemisms. Steven Lewis writes in the wake of his grandson Rory’s death, and the book becomes a record of what grief does to time, language, faith, memory, and the body itself. These poems don’t try to “resolve” mourning into something tidy or inspirational. Instead, they track the daily weather of it—shock, numbness, rage, tenderness, flashes of humor, and the occasional, startling moment of lightness that doesn’t erase the dark, but sits beside it.

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Book Reviews Children's Book

A Friend for Hope by Amie White and Olena Oprich: A great starting point to get kids into reading

Loneliness isn’t an emotion reserved for adults—kids feel it, too, often in quieter ways. A Friend for Hope by Amie White, illustrated by Olena Oprich, taps into that truth with a gentle story about a new beginning, a shelter dog, and the kind of friendship that doesn’t fix everything instantly—but makes life feel a little less heavy.

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Book Reviews Thriller

Have You Seen Him by Kimberly Lee – Greatness from small beginnings

David sees his face looking back at him. Him. But not him. The features are skewed, giving a rough approximation of what a computer would think he might look like twenty-five years on from his own disappearance.

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Book Reviews Historical Fiction

The Legacy of Prairie Winds by Glenda K Clare – Prairie Winds, Iron Roots

This is a generational prairie saga that cares less about plot twists and more about the slow, grinding truth of making a life where the land doesn’t promise mercy. If you enjoy historical family epics—where endurance is the main character and “home” is something you build with your hands—this will likely land for you.

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Book Reviews SCI-FI

Journey from the End of the World by Miguel Wandenbergh Book Review

“Journey from the End of the World” is a science fiction novel. It tells Luis’s story. One morning when he wakes up, everyone is gone. The street is empty. It’s quiet all around. He becomes frightened as he strolls by himself. He might be the last person still alive. He encounters an Australian pilot while exploring deserted towns. To discover what became of humanity, they journey across Europe. Do they have a chance?

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Book Reviews Fiction SCI-FI

Mean Higher High Water by D.S.G. Burke: A powerful insight into loss and starting again

In Mean Higher High Water, D.S.G. Burke drops readers into a near-future that feels uncomfortably familiar—one where climate collapse has reshaped everything, from politics to basic survival. Anchored by Nia, an older, razor-tongued forager chasing the truth behind a decades-old tragedy, the story balances grief, grit, and dark humor while keeping its environmental themes woven tightly into the plot rather than preached.

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Book Reviews

Trapped by Bella Olson: A Glitter-Bomb Escape Room With Heart

The Thin Door by Rho Weber Mack: A fascinating example of storytelling

Wooden Dolls Game by Ivonne Hoyos – A Haunting Tale of Sisters, Time, and Consequences

The Chosen Tenant: Metaphors, Medication, and the Horror of Being Functional

Peering Into Infinity: Mirrors of Love & Grief By Steven Lewis — Grief, Unarmored

A Friend for Hope by Amie White and Olena Oprich: A great starting point to get kids into reading

Have You Seen Him by Kimberly Lee – Greatness from small beginnings

The Legacy of Prairie Winds by Glenda K Clare – Prairie Winds, Iron Roots

Journey from the End of the World by Miguel Wandenbergh Book Review

Mean Higher High Water by D.S.G. Burke: A powerful insight into loss and starting again

Emily Henry Writes Her Own Screenplay

The Commonwealth Prize AI Investigation: What Every Author Should Know

Kennedy Ryan Is Heading to Hollywood—and Book Lovers Have Every Reason to Be Excited

The Lunar Chronicles Movie Adaptation Officially Moving Forward as Warner Bros. Sets 2028 Release Date

From Self-Published Zombie Novel to Three-Book Deal: Jo Salazar’s Publishing Breakthrough Signals a Growing Industry Trend

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Sparks a Surge in Homer Book Sales: Which Edition Should You Read Before the Film?

10 Portal Fantasy and Sci-Fi Books About Other Dimensions, Time Travel, and Strange Worlds

10 Amazing Science Fantasy Books with Strange Worlds and Hidden Realities

Burn Everything… Then Forget It By Boston Teran – America at War with Itself

The Adaptability Quotient by Alec Litowitz Book Review

The Adaptability Quotient by Alec Litowitz Book Review

From Puerto Rico to New York: Fragments from a Life of Service By Manuel Cabranes

A Moment’s Surrender by John Burt – Forbidden fruit within arm’s reach

A New Theory of the Visible Universe By Joe Fisher Book Review

Cherry Creek by Linda Griffin – Freedom found at last

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