“There was something desperately frightening about seeing a light underground where no light should be.”
alex easton is traveling to an abandoned coal mine in west virginia in this third installment of this series. each novella really does have its own standalone mystery that you are solving alongside alex, but i still recommend reading these in order. alex is a nonbinary retired soldier, who comes to the states to help a good friend, whose family is in possession of this abandoned mine… and whose cousin is the most recent person to go missing inside its deepness.
i think that’s all i want to say, because i really would have never guessed in a million years where this story went. but i really enjoyed this - i very much felt the scary atmosphere, i respected the themes of the horrors of industrialization, i loved the talk of gender and toxic masculinity, i got emotional with the themes of connection and belonging, i always adore t kingfisher’s writing, and i just love alex so very much. i do think that maybe once the reveal is revealed the tension and momentum kind of stalls out, but i still really recommend this novella, and this entire series. truly a treat for me to read every fall season.
trigger + content warnings: talk of war, drinking, talk of pregnancy, misgendering (with mc’s consent), insects, gore, dead animals, talk of ptsd, talk of the horrors of industrialization, hurt animal (horse, is okay), claustrophobic vibes
i really adored the set up of this one. Basically, ethel is a vampire, and lazlo is a vampire hunter that is tasked to kill ethel’s entire bloodline. they are both immortal, and have been playing a very flirty, but violent, game of cat and mouse for a thousand years! from berlin, to manhattan, we get glimpses of their chase, but their game is quickly put on hold when lazlo get amnesia and ethel chooses to take care of him. oh, and it is under the guise that she is an entomologist and he works in pest control lol. this was cute, i loved the set up, i just wish we got a little more with the ending.
trigger + content warnings: violence, blood, childhood abandonment in past, kidnapping / captivity, amnesia, spider mention, loss of friend in past, self harm to get blood
cat is attending a halloween party in new york, with her soon to be ex-boyfriend. brigan is an immortal being, who was cursed by a sorceress many years ago, who is also attending this random party, and instantly is intrigued by cat in her lamb costume lol. and one break up text in a bathroom later, these two have what they think will be a one night stand. but then a game of five questions, with a lot of past trauma, and a couple twilight references happens, and maybe their paths were fated to cross again. this just was not my favorite, and i didn’t feel anything for the characters, and the set up was just very wild because you have such few pages in a short story. (if you’re looking for a sexy 120 page story that’s set at a halloween party, i really highly recommend the dare (losers, #0.5) by harley laroux! )
trigger + content warnings: mind control persuasion magic (that might not work 100% on the mc, idk >.<), drinking, talk of loss of loved ones (and partner) in past, brief talk of suicide attempts as an immortal in past, one sentence mention of a car crash in past
petra is a journalist from chicago, who is tasked to write up a halloween article in new orleans, about different urban legends. this leads her to dax and his tattoo shop, and even though she was a nonbeliever prior, dax’s tattoos make petra think she might actually have some sort of supernatural story on her hands. but she was not expecting an ancient bloodline curse!
this was actually the only author of the entire collection that i had not read from before! But even with that mysterious excitement, this one still didn’t really work for me. not because of the writing, but the main character was a little cringe and so very insufferable! yet, this does feel like a continuation story or an already established, or soon to be established, story.
trigger + content warnings: a lot of talk of death and loss, one sentence cult mention, blood, and an hp reference
maybe i just really am truly in my scifi era, but i had a good time with this. dana, a slave to the head scientist on this space ship, is left behind while the whole crew flees for their lives from a monster. meanwhile, said monster is stuck in the lab that he was created in. they work together, through their current situation, but also through past trauma that was done to them at the hands of these awful people who will be coming back to collect their ship sooner rather than later.
this is so niche, but this was truly giving rimworld (and the dlcs) for me! a lab created vampire and enslaved humanoid are forced to leave via escape pod and find a new habitable planet?! this was giving a new colony, without the hours, upon hours of gametime played!
but, much like finishing iced planet barbarians, i still believe that this author likes draenei in wow, because what do you mean i am reading about another alien mc with blue skin and a tail?! but, i will choose to look past that in 2025, because i really did enjoy this one a lot. (maybe i will finally try that beautiful minotaur book i see every time i am at barnes!)
content warning at the start of the short story: explicitly sexual content, strong language, violence, enslaved characters (nothing bad happens on page), discussions on gene tampering, and a character who drinks blood in space
additional content and trigger warning i found while reading: talk of torture in past and mention of abduction in past
this short story had a really unique concept that lured me in! basically, gemma is a sleep paralysis demon in training, but she is not very good at it. and caleb is the human she is tasked to scare, but he has a much different reaction than fear. and in this world, demons feed off the strong emotion of fear, but they also can feed on other strong emotions… like lust lol. i really loved this set up, i really adored the emphasis on consent, and i feel like this had some gender fluidity exploration that i also appreciated! i just wish it was a bit more sexy, especially considering the set up.
trigger + content warnings: talk of sleep paralysis, anxiety mention, talk of broken healthcare systems
[image] bonus: not me reading this the day after the critical role campaign 4 character art drops and this main character is giving tyranny! yes, i am pretending tieflings are demons for this comparison lol. (art by solelle!)
this is exactly what i wanted from this collection - sexy and funny with an eerie atmosphere! lucy is hiking deep through the mountains with her soon to be ex boyfriend and his shitty friends, when they leave her behind after she hurts her ankle. but something is watching lucy, and planning how to get her to trust them. and this quickly turns into a shapeshifter why-choose set in a very sweet magical town, where lucy feels wanted and appreciated. and we also get to see lucy updating her friends on her situation constantly and i was truly giggling. this was just the perfect balance of lighthearted and hot and i really enjoyed it. for sure my favorite in the collection!
i can't believe i am actually caught up :( 3.5 // mini review to come soon <3 (katia 6 stars though)
1.) Dungeon Crawler Carl ★★★★★ 2.) Carl's Doomsday i can't believe i am actually caught up :( 3.5 // mini review to come soon <3 (katia 6 stars though)
“Why was the union broken so easily? Because they were out in the open. They were playing by the rules. How can you win a deliberately unfair game
“Why was the union broken so easily? Because they were out in the open. They were playing by the rules. How can you win a deliberately unfair game when the rules are written by your opponent? The answer is, you can't. You will never win. Not as long as you follow their arbitrary guidelines.”
one truly shattering touch from prepotente later, and here we are on level eight, with thirty-eight-thousand other crawlers. this floor of the dungeon is a replicated version of earth itself, and carl and donut find themselves starting the christmas season being spawned in at the capitol of cuba. i am a big magic the gathering fan, and this book is all about killing bosses, getting the cards that they drop (that represent said boss), and creating a deck that they can ultimately win your party a key that will allow you to pass through this floor.
we also learn so much history about so many different crawlers in this sixth book. we get to see carl heal some from the immense trauma he experienced while growing up with an abusive father prior to these games. but we also got to learn about so many others, including understanding the weight of the grief that mordecai has been carrying, because of odette. so many things are beginning to happen, and carl is becoming a symbol of hope for the resistance, both inside the dungeon and out all across the universe.
this installment is hard for me to rate, because there is so much i loved, but also so much that did feel a little bit on the boring side at times. i love these characters so much, and im so invested in them and what they are creating, but this one really could have been edited down. i think extra, after how epic and perfect The butcher's masquerade felt. but i am so, beyond words, excited for faction wars. especially after that epilogue and knowing that crawlers from the outside are really about to do something very big inside the dungeon.
trigger + content warnings: slavery, mass killing and death, colonization, gore, violence, vomit, blood, battle, murder, explosions / bombings, fires, abandonment in past, talk of domestic abuse in past, child abuse in past / shitty parent in past, abandonment, drug use, talk of addiction, talk of withdrawal, drinking, smoking, ptsd, talk of loss of family, loss of a loved one / friend, grief, gun violence, insects / spiders, animal death (turkeys), talk of abandon animal (dog), talk of suicide, self sacrifice suicide
“This was also something that trauma could do. It could make you blind, and it could open your eyes wider than they’d ever been, all at the same ti
“This was also something that trauma could do. It could make you blind, and it could open your eyes wider than they’d ever been, all at the same time.”
i think this is my favorite installment yet. there was so much heart in this one, and i really was crying at so much within these pages. i am just becoming too attached to everyone at this point. but yeah, i really loved this one a lot and i am so happy i decided to ask for all these books for my birthday!
okay, we are finally at the sixth level, which is the hunting grounds, where outsiders from the game are able to be hunters and… hunt the crawlers who are being forced to play the game. only eighty-five-thousand crawlers remain, and they have seventeen days to complete this new level. oh, and if you’re in the top fifty for favorite crawlers, you will be able to attend a masquerade at the very end. and yes, it is meant to feel a little menacing, especially when you add the word “butcher” to the front of masquerade in the title.
as i have been saying, one of my favorite aspects of this series is seeing what the new dungeon floor looks like! and the sixth level is just a fantasy lover's dream. (oh, and dinosaurs! i’m not a dino girl myself, but i do think this will be appealing for a lot of other readers!) i also extra loved seeing donut and carl pick specialties on this floor, and i will always love a good performance check!
also, because of the insane ending to the previous book, we also get to see carl get an attorney, which i really did love. i just love seeing more and more ex-crawlers, and just people “working” for the people in charge, in this universe and learning more and more backstory on their histories. i really do think the author is saying a lot in the book about tyrannical government systems that thrive on keeping the oppressed feeling isolated in a game that is set up for them to lose.
lastly, a new entry for people i am cheering so very loudly for: prepotente
trigger + content warnings: slavery, mass killing and death, colonization, gore, violence, vomit, blood, battle, murder, explosions / bombings, fires, abandonment in past, talk of domestic abuse in past, child abuse in past / shitty parent in past, abandonment, drug use, talk of addiction, talk of withdrawal, drinking, smoking, ptsd, talk of loss of family, talk of car accident in past, drugging, one sentence mention of bulimia, needles (tattoo), animal death (dog), loss of a loved one / friend, grief, sacrificial suicide
and just like that, one hundred seventy-eight thousand are left to participate in level five of this televised alien dungeon! basically, this level wiand just like that, one hundred seventy-eight thousand are left to participate in level five of this televised alien dungeon! basically, this level will be divided up and in stages that involve different places, a lot of different mobs, and many different castles that each have a stairwell to the next level! and carl and crew spun a wheel to enter the air quadrant, where they will have to start off by taking down red hat wearing gnomes that like to bomb people! we find out way more about deities, we get to see some beta testing, and we start to learn about guilds! oh, and the ai running the game is starting to lose control much earlier than other seasons.
i feel like in this book we finally are starting to learn more about the world of this game, and all the horrors that are forced within these levels to the npcs. more and more a much bigger story is coming together, from the games themselves, to the universal powers at play, and to carl and the demons from his past that he is fighting more and more as he gets deeper into the dungeon.
and i loved all of that, so very much! but this one does start out with the crew being welcomed to hump town, which (you guessed it) is a brothel town. i don’t know, i just didn’t love it. i wouldn’t say the author did anything offensive, it just gave me the ick a lot. but i will defend juicebox until my last breath. but the end of this book just completely turned it around! oh my gosh, it was giving peak darrow in red rising! i was screaming into my pillow and frantically grabbing book five up! the ending was six stars, truly.
trigger + content warnings: slavery, mass killing and death, colonization, gore, violence, blood, battle, murder, explosions, fires, talk of cheating in past (on the mc), abandonment in past, child abuse in past / shitty parent in past, abandonment, drug use, talk of addiction, talk of withdrawal, drinking, inebriation, drugging, animal death, ptsd, talk of loss of family, talk of birth defects, talk of infertility, talk of pregnancy, a parasite, talk of vore, a lot of talk of a sex doll, and the use of “anorexic” as a description
only three hundred eighty-nine thousand are entering the massive subway station that is level four of the dungeon! we soon get to see carl and crew maonly three hundred eighty-nine thousand are entering the massive subway station that is level four of the dungeon! we soon get to see carl and crew make a customizable base, filled with work stations and crafting tables. we also get to see enchantments, attaching gems (and other things) to items, the new ability to link things in chat, oh, and deities that certain classes are able to worship! and on this floor, we also get to learn about bounties - which are amounts that you are worth if other crawlers choose to kill you!
and, as the title of this third book would suggest, carl finds himself in possession of the anarchist’s cookbook, which is a book that many crawlers before carl have written their stories in. it is filled with crafting recipes, but also just advice ranging from class and spec stuff to what to expect going deeper into the dungeon. i really loved this aspect of the story, and as i am writing this review, i am a few more books ahead, and i am still very in love with this mysterious tome.
sadly, i am just not a train loving girl. i truly just kept picturing myself, every time i am in chicago, trying to memorize all the different color lines. one of my favorite aspects of this series is getting to see a brand new world unfold at each and every level, but i just didn’t feel that same magic, because i don’t love trains! But the end of this really did have me gooped and gagged, i won’t lie. and i really am loving katia more and more. and donut will forever be my favorite, and her little misty step puddle jump is just so cute, too! carl, i still like, but i was about to teleport inside the dungeon myself and remove that ring lol.
trigger + content warnings: slavery, mass killing and death, colonization, gore, violence, blood, battle, murder, explosions, fires, talk of cheating in past (on the mc), abandonment in past, child abuse in past / shitty parent in past, drug use, talk of addiction, talk of withdrawal, drinking, inebriation, loss of friend, grief, anxiety, vomit, torture, a fatphobic comment, talk of suicide, self sacrifice, bullying, talk of childbirth, talk of loss of children, talk of a deepfake / ai fake sex video
this book picks right up where dungeon crawler carl left off - with carl and donut being “welcomed” to the third floor, with a lot of new options and this book picks right up where dungeon crawler carl left off - with carl and donut being “welcomed” to the third floor, with a lot of new options and decisions to make, and a baby velociraptor! and even though ten-million entered at the start of all of this, only seven-hundred-thousand have now entered level three alongside them! and we quickly get to see how this level is different, and filled with a lot more than the previous two levels. yet, we also quickly learn that the major storyline of this level surrounds a carnival and a murder mystery happening as the crawlers explore the differences between night and day in this town.
i didn’t love the violence against women and sex workers in this story. it is always done in a negative light, for said murder mystery, but i am just never going to want to read about that, especially when it starts out with three filipino crawlers. i know there is a lot of commentary in these books, and maybe the author is challenging gamer culture to look at the harmful and hurtful things perpetuated by privilege and red pill gamergate rhetoric, very much including the violence to women and sex workers. and i also understand that this story is showing an ai mimicking the horrors of our planet’s history, and the history of treatment of those two groups are pretty horrific. but, with that all being said, it did take away from my enjoyment of this one. but i do appreciate that carl obviously cared enough to listen to a woman who was not being heard… eventually. (lastly, bautista, i love you, i’m cheering for you, you’d have my follow and favorite or i’d be in your party helping with the revenge mission!)
but i did love everything else. we get more achievements, loot boxes, hot fixes, xp grinding, and party grouping! but now we also get questing, storyline progressions, profession crafting / learning recipes, and even exploiting game mechanics and the punishment that follows lol. and we get to see what carl and donut pick for classes, sub classes, and race at the start of this and… omg, i would read an entire book of all the different options! and i really love how donut’s is going to be extra fun (and scary) each and every level they descend! also, wizards of the coast, please give me a necro bard, me and my cleric and wizard loving heart are begging. (also, just to nerd out a little tiny bit more, mordicai being a master alchemist is everything to me!)
i also loved learning more about how the rich are vacationing / partying it up on some of the deeper levels. i feel like its really popular to compare things to the hunger games right now, but this for sure was giving me those vibes. i also really loved seeing the desperado club, and i can’t wait to see more of it open up upon deeper leveling! and just in general, i can’t wait to see these towns, cities, and communities open up more and more, while also learning about some of the past crawlers and their deals more and more. and obviously, and hopefully, learning all the secrets, too!
trigger + content warnings: violence in particular against women and sex workers (in a very negative light, but >.< still is hard to read), slavery, colonization, mass killing and death, gore, violence, blood, battle, murder, loss of friend, drinking, inebriation, explosions, fires, vomit, gross insect imagery, drugging, kidnapping, self harm to get blood, animal abuse (lizard)
“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel”
me giving frankenstein five stars in 2025? i truly did not see that coming, but for sure
“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel”
me giving frankenstein five stars in 2025? i truly did not see that coming, but for sure a new favorite classic of mine. and the more i learn about mary shelley, her life, and the circumstances around this book and the rewritten version, the more i love it even more.
this was actually a lot different than what growing up with so many media interpretations had lead me to believe. But this story is told in letters / journal entries from a self taught sailor to his sister, while he is voyaging to the north pole and finds a man in the freezing temperatures. this man is none other than victor frankenstein himself, who is now allowing this sailor to write down the tragedy of his life which involves him creating a man.
this story really makes you think about who really is monstrous, what things other people do to create monsters, and how sometimes becoming what people view as a monster is inevitable because of the sad world we live in. this tale really is all about being othered, and i simply can’t believe the things inside this story from 1818, and how they are still so heartbreakingly executed in 2025.
mary shelley every volume: let me also touch on colonization and its evils real quick
trigger + content warnings: loss of a loved one, child death, grief, talk of colorism, talk of colonization, talk of slavery, lots of talk of death, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, abandonment, religious manipulation, shitty law enforcement
“This was a place stitched together by resistance, by acts of defiance by people who could not or would not go gently down the path the world had d
“This was a place stitched together by resistance, by acts of defiance by people who could not or would not go gently down the path the world had decided was inevitable…”
oh, friends, this one really unexpectedly hit me in my feels, and i loved it completely. this story follows, you guessed it, the residents of a magical inn, in england, that is run by a witch. but this inn is extra special, because you can only find it if you are in need of a safe place to spend some time. the book opens up with our main character, sera, losing most of her magic from casting a very powerful spell. and we follow her, with the help of the inn’s residents, both old and new, trying to get her full magical powers back! but the information she needs is being kept away by her old guild that would rather keep her powerless.
if you’re looking for a love letter to family, both blood and found, pick this book up. if you’re looking for a read that involves healing from your past, in all the different and complicated ways, pick this book up. if you’re looking for depictions of people showing up for the ones they love, in all the different ways, and trusting that magical trust you put in people who make you feel safe, pick this book up. if you’re looking for a story about attempting to dismantle systems that have always been in place to keep you feeling lesser, please pick this book up. (also… if you’re in need of a zombie chicken in your literature, also pick this book up lol!)
i will say, seeing other people only talking about this book and how “cute” it is does have me feeling rather insane. because even though that is very true, this is a cute and cozy feeling book, our main character is setting up a safe place for children who feel unwanted and unlovable to know they are very wanted and so worth loving, after she (and the other adults in this story) have been forced to feel that while growing up themselves. there are so many emotional discussions on depression and other mental health conditions throughout this entire story. and also, this book constantly depicts our south asian mc experiencing racism, colorism, and misogyny at the hands of white supremacy and british colonialism throughout the entire book. while the governing powers also are constantly attempting to keep or mc uninformed, uneducated, and without the knowledge she needs to take back her power. again, this is truly a cozy and heartwarming book of healing, and i do think so much of this story is cute, but i just feel like a lot of people are missing some very big, loud, and integral themes that were expressed throughout this one.
“...his history might be a legacy of power, but hers was a legacy of resistance.”
overall, i loved this and i think it was the perfect blend of warm and hard-hitting that i am yearning for in my cozy fantasy. and i would protect sera and jasmine (and everyone who has been made to believe they were at one time unlovable) with everything i am. i also really appreciated that upon closing this book, i was really left with the reminder that you’re never too old to discover new ways to love yourself, to allow yourself to love new people, to love old people harder, and to unapologetically love the life (and safe places) that you have magically created yourself.
trigger + content warnings: abandonment, depression, a lot of talk of shitty parents, grief, anxiety, racism, xenophobia, colonialism, misogyny, ableism, talk of loss of a loved one
this is a very short, but powerful, story that starts out on a tuesday at 3 am, with our main character on the railing of a bridge, contemplating waysthis is a very short, but powerful, story that starts out on a tuesday at 3 am, with our main character on the railing of a bridge, contemplating ways to get out of an isolated situation that feels rather impossible. but a guardian angel soon comes, and tells her that she is a magical girl, with a magical unique gift, and they have been searching for the greatest magical girl of them all, who will be able to harness the magic of time. but first, she must join a mission to be a bodyguard / bounty hunter.
this book really talks about some very serious things, in a whimsical way that most of us, who grew up with magical girls, can connect with. and i feel it was really impactfully done. like how predatory credit card companies / banks can be, how climate change feels impossible because of the leaders our world has had (and continues to have), turned even to the unfairness with the distribution of resources. how a pandemic has made things feel so much more isolated, and how hard it can be to keep going when everything feels so very heavy to carry on your own. when a two-thousand dollar debt can ruin your entire life, but we live in a world where billionaires spend over seven-thousand a day for their private jets, back and forth to their multiple million dollar homes.
i understood the magical girl of time, what she was feeling, and just the impossibleness of it all. but i am going to continue to try to be hopeful, despite it being so heartbreaking seeing the ones who pay for it all every time.
trigger + content warnings: depression, thoughts of suicide, loss of parents + grandparents, talk of debt / credit card debt, grief, ocd depiction, mention of domestic violence, pandemic mention, terrorist attack, bomb threat at airport
how it feels to start this after how the last one ended :] truly feeling like this book beat /me/ up >.< mini review to come <3 [image]
1.) The Awakeninhow it feels to start this after how the last one ended :] truly feeling like this book beat /me/ up >.< mini review to come <3 [image]
this is a thriller that is drawing a lot of inspiration from love island, because it stars a reality tv show being hosted inside a villa (aka a compouthis is a thriller that is drawing a lot of inspiration from love island, because it stars a reality tv show being hosted inside a villa (aka a compound) where ten women and ten men will do challenges, get prizes, and be forced to couple up to stay inside the safety of the villa. and i use the word “safety” because outside of the compound's walls, there is a dystopian mystery that has left the world as we know it in shambles. there are wars going on, climate change has accelerated past the point of any control, the healthcare system is even more in shambles, the housing crisis has reached new devastating levels, but capitalism is still thriving.
we follow lily, as she is waking up alongside the other nine women on day one, and we continue to watch her navigate this reality, while struggling with feeling embarrassment of her past. yet, we also see her willing to do almost anything to stay in the safety of this televised production, where you are able to win food, water, construction supplies, and a ton of luxury gifts. some of these prizes are from group tasks, but sometimes they are from individual challenges, and you cannot talk about them with your costars. you’re also not allowed to talk about other things from the outside, like your job, until there are only five people left in the compound. and that is also when the rules against violence towards your costars are lifted. but if you break the rules before that, there will be consequences after the initial warning.
okay, i think you probably get the idea and vibe of what is going on. it’s eerie and unsettling to read, but it also feels impossible to stop reading. i actually thought this was going to be a five star at the halfway mark, because of the themes of living in this consumerist world, where people just want more and more unapologetically, while the world is literally burning down around us. it really successfully executes the use of satire to show these broken systems, and how most people are just trying to live in this machine that just constantly takes and takes (>.< now i am going to be hearing hamilton while writing the rest of this review). unfortunately, the themes that started out so powerful, just started feeling a little redundant to me, and the story started to feel a little boring.
again, i really respected and enjoyed what was being said. it was very thought provoking and just so very unique as a story in general. i just think the mystery of what was going on outside the compound really had me too curious. and again, i know this is not the point of this story, but i was left disappointed when turning that last page, simply because i just wanted a little bit of answers. i didn’t need to know everything, but i just needed something more. my mind was creating monsters, executions, alien producers… like lol i am insane. But i still highly recommend this one, especially if you like love island.
oh, and lily is bi, and we also meet a few other queer cast members! (and i will admit to you here, that if this would have taken the sapphic route, whew, it would have at least been a four.) lastly, i just want to end this review by saying that, even through disappointment, i did enjoy the feeling at the very end of this, that we as humans do need connection, and community, and we can’t do all of this alone.
trigger + content warnings: talk of war, talk of colorism + racism, talk of body image + food, mention of student teacher relationship in past, drowning (forcing someone underwater for a min for a challenge), misogyny + sexism, starvation, dehydration, blood, death of animals for food (ducks), vomit, fire, physical abuse on page - involving a man being abusive to a women in the villa, talk of loss of family in past, sickness / illness, talk of stalking to past, talk of suicide, cheating, self harm (to attempt to get help), talk of shitty parents, abandonment, gore, violence
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