Review: The Shadows Tomorrow

The Shadows Tomorrow by Noëlle Michel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Shadows Tomorrow by Noelle Michel from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.  This book will be published around August 4, 2026.

The Shadows Tomorrow by Noelle Michel was translated into English by Frank Wynne.  The story is told across a span of the near future in alternating chapters from different character perspectives.  I won't be giving anything away to say that in this near future, scientists have brought Neanderthals back from extinction much like we have already done with dire wolves.  For research purposes, they are kept in remote sanctuaries and kept from having contact with Homo Sapiens.  They even use the research footage to make a reality TV show called Another Eden so that people can watch them like a virtual zoo.  Ethicists would be losing their minds.  Disturbing premise aside, it is a great book!  

Bonus points for travel bans on meat eaters.  At least, I think that was the proposal.  I'm sure it had to do with carbon footprint or something, but I am all for it!  Would make my travel so much easier!

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Review: Cat Tales

Cat Tales by Herbert S. Rolfes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Cat Tales by Herbert S. Rolfes from the author via NetGalley.  This book has already been published.

Cat Tales by Herbert S. Rolfes is exactly what the title suggests.  It is a collection of short stories told from the perspective of cats.  The book is broken up into different sections including cats of famous people and cats with occupations.  I really liked the pet store cat.  Each story is fairly short.  They appropriate for most ages.  You don't have to read them in order.  You can read whatever tickles your fancy for the moment.  If you like cats and wish they could talk, give this a read.  It was very fun, and the illustrations are super cute.

Bonus points for being about cats.  That's enough to earn extra points.

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Review: The Library After Dark

The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego from Bantam via NetGalley.  This book will be published around May 5, 2026.

The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego is one of the best books I have read.  If you like Clue or locked room mysteries, you will absolutely want to read this book.  The setting is a spooky, haunted (?) library of death in New York City.  The Daedalus library has sent out invitations to a select few to attend an after hours tour and viewing of an upcoming exhibit.  The exhibit will showcase a supposedly cursed book that is the basis for many myths and fairy tales you might recognize.  Everyone is dying to read it!  Pliego tells the story in alternating character viewpoints as they tour the library and stories from the "cursed" book.  These stories are dark just as the unvarnished fairy tales were.  Putting all the pieces together was so much fun for me!  It was probably less fun for these poor characters.  

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Review: Hunger and Thirst

Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure:  I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller from Tin House via NetGalley.  This book will be published around June 2, 2026.

Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller comes across as horror although it may all just be in the mind of the narrator.  Nobody seems to be able to fully corroborate anything she claims happened.  If anything, people appear to believe she is not guilty of the things she said she did.  Is that because people underestimate teenage girls or because she really is innocent but so traumatized that she blames herself?  You'll have to read it to decide for yourself.  Using a documentary to tell the viewpoints of other characters is clever.  I'm not sure I trust what people say when cameras are rolling.  

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Review: Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes by Nic Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes by Nic Brown from Bloomsbury Academic via NetGalley.  This book will be published around May 14, 2026.

Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes by Nic Brown is part of the 33 1/3 collection of short books about music.  Each book is a deep dive into a single album.  This one is about the debut album from the Violent Femmes.  Nic Brown is a fan and so am I.  For as many time as I have listened to this album, I had a lot to learn.  I feel like Nic did too.  I didn't know that Gordon Gano was a teenager when he wrote so many of their songs or even when the band started.  I never thought about the instruments they played or why they played those specific instruments and how that impacted their sound.  As I read each chapter about a song on the album, I couldn't help but hear it in my head. I also couldn't have told you what the cover art was because I too came to the album from mix tapes made by friends.  If you asked me when the album came out, I would have been extremely wrong.  I went back and listened to the album a few times.  Now with a deeper appreciation for every bit of it.  What a great album!  What a great book!

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Review: Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida

Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman is a true crime Lifetime movie waiting to happen. Maybe it has happened? I don't watch much Lifetime. Anyway... Right in the title you know someone died. How and why are the big questions. Will the murderer get away with it? Sure the sex is titillating, but for me, the most interesting part was the religion component. I will always find religious fanaticism fascinating. The level of hypocrisy is astounding. I would have read it even without the murder. Finally, this book is about a mother who never gives up on her son. People think she is crazy. You might think she is crazy. She might actually be crazy. But if it wasn't for her, people probably would have forgotten anything ever happened.

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Review: Your Behavior Will Be Monitored

Your Behavior Will Be Monitored by Justin Feinstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure:  I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Your Behavior Will Be Monitored by Justin Feinstein from Tachyon Publications via NetGalley.  This book will be published around April 7, 2026.

I was not prepared for how engrossed in Your Behavior Will Be Monitored by Justin Feinstein I got from the moment I picked it up.  I thought I would just read a chapter or two before bed and found myself staying up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't quite put it down.  I did eventually because my eyes refused to stay open but picked it right back up as soon as I could and finished it.  I needed to know how this was going to end.  I should have guessed I was going to love this from the moment I saw it was written in an epistolary form.  I tend to really get into books that are not traditionally formatted.  In this case, you are mostly reading transcripts of videos and exchanges recorded by the corporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is monitoring everyone at this cutting-edge AI company.  In fact, the employees agree to have everything monitored in order to feed their data to the AI to make it better at what it does.  And as we are seeing in the real world, AI is getting better and better at what it does.  The problem is people are not inherently good and tech bros are definitely not interested in using AI to benefit humankind over turning a profit.  Even the AI recognizes this!  And while this book is set in the nearish future, many of the topics are already here.  Personalized advertising is already happening to an extent.  I don't want to give anything else away because I want you to read the book.  If you are interested in AI at all, even the slightest, I think you will want to read this book. I hesitate to say enjoy because oof, that's probably not the right word.  It is a bit heavier than that and yet, also offers just a glimmer of light.

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