If there’s one thing you can come to expect from my TBR lists, it’s that there will rarely be a new release on it. However, if you’re wondering if you really should have read that modernist literature book from your first year of university (the answer is no, never read modlit) then this is the place to be! I’m still very much feeling chiller thriller vibes, even though October has ended, so I expect a fair few sleepless nights due to my November 2023 TBR list keeping me wakeful and worried.
📖 Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
I only discovered Leigh Bardugo earlier this year when I fell head over heels in love with the Six of Crows duology, and quickly devoured the King of Scars duology straight after. The Shadow and Bone trilogy being YA fantasy doesn’t call to me, but Ninth House, Bardugo’s adult debut, felt right up my street. Set in Yale, it follows our main character, Alex, who is running away from her past and the unsolved crime that haunts it. Hoping for a new start, she joins Yale’s freshman class, only to be plunged into more murder and mystery as a girl is murdered and the societies that Alex monitors are somehow involved. A gothic, dark academia novel that sounds like it incorporates magic and the occult – I have a good feeling that this might make my top 5 favourite books of the year.
📖 The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelidas
At this point, who hasn’t seen this book making the rounds on BookTok? The Silent Patient follows criminal psychotherapist, Theo Faber, who finally gets his wish to work with renowned murderess, Alicia Berenson. Alicia, seemingly living the perfect life and happily married to her husband, one night shoots him five times in the face. After this, she never speaks another word. I can only assume that what unravels is secret after dark secret from both Alicia and Theo, hopefully across dual timelines (I love a dual timeline). I read Michaelidas’ other book – The Maidens – earlier this year and enjoyed it (3.5/5 stars) and although both are standalone novels, there is a nod to The Silent Patient within the storyline, which is what finally persuaded me to buy it.
📖 The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
My dad is a massive fan of Clive Cussler, John Grisham and Lee Child and pretty religiously sticks to reading books only authored by these men. Every so often my sister and I will buy him a different book in order to broaden his horizons, and I think that’s how The Snowman came to be on his bookshelf, and then on mine. I remember there being a lot of buzz about this book (it was also made into a film with Michael Fassbender) but other than the fact that both my dad and my sister have enjoyed it, and it follows Detective Harry Hole as he tracks down a serial killer, I know surprising little about it. I do like watching adaptations once read the book, so I’m hoping I’ll like this enough to have a cheeky film night afterwards.
📖 The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
On writing this TBR, I realised I had literally no clue (other than what the title gave away) as to what this book is about. So, I gave the author’s note a read. This how it ends:
“With this book, I wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom. As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.”
The idea of housewives fighting against a vampire? My bet is 100% on the housewives.
I have never read any Grady Hendrix but over the past month quite a few YouTubers who I like have read and reviewed his books and none of them had anything bad to say. I’m expecting this (kinda bananas sounding) novel not only literally be about housewife v. vampire, but also commentary on social inequality, misogyny and sexism. But maybe it’ll just be the former, and I’m okay with that too.
