I had such good intentions to get back into blogging when I wrote my post back in January, and now it’s been over two months and I’m just getting around to it now. Life happens. The second trimester is over and I’m well into my third (8 months along!), and with it has returned fatigue plus some exciting (read: irritating) new pregnancy symptoms. I’ve been frantically trying to get all my ducks in a row at work so my coworkers aren’t overwhelmed while I’m on maternity leave, plus getting ready for the baby. As I’m sure is typical of first-time parents, I feel like there’s always something else to be done for baby prep, and it’s left little time for other things. But I wanted to get in a quick update here at Stacked.
Firstly, we chose Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson as our Cybils winner. We all really enjoyed this magical story about a socially anxious necromancer. You can read more about the book and why we chose it, plus more about the other winners, on the Cybils page here.
Aside from Cybils books, I’ve been reading mostly audiobooks, and most of those have been thrillers for adults that I don’t need to pay 100% attention to. Spoiler alert: most have been kinda bad. But still enjoyable! I go to the library’s Overdrive site, select audiobook thrillers available now, and basically choose the standalones that sound kind of interesting. Here are brief reviews of a few of them.
No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield
This one was pretty good. It’s one of those that relies on a big twist partway through the novel, and how much you enjoy the book will likely depend on whether you saw the twist coming – and whether you think it’s any good. It’s about two women, one suspected of killing the other, and is narrated by both – the dead one from beyond the grave. Characterization is good and I feel like the twist was well-executed and fun. I also appreciated that this one didn’t end like I thought it would.
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
This is another one that I thought was pretty good. It’s one of the growing body of books that addresses Covid-19 directly: a man and a woman meet in Dublin, start dating, and then lockdown hits. They’re not allowed to visit each other, so their solution is to…move in together. After only knowing each other a few weeks. This will go well, right? Of course, both people have their own hidden reasons for choosing to put their relationship on superspeed, and they both have a lot to hide from their pasts. Howard is good at unraveling all these secrets through the course of the book, not giving too much away at once but not holding it all for the end either, and again this one didn’t end like I thought it would.
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
I regret to write that I didn’t think this one was that great. It was…fine. I liked that it was about intrigue with the Supreme Court (a justice falls into a coma and gives power of attorney to one of his law clerks, who must unravel a huge international conspiracy while avoiding being assassinated), but I felt the pacing was off – it kind of dragged, surprising for a book with such an exciting premise. I didn’t love the narrator either.
Falling by TJ Newman
A pilot’s family is kidnapped mid-flight, and he’s told by the kidnapper that he must crash the plane or his family dies. The kidnapper tells the pilot he has a confederate on the plane, and he can’t trust anyone or call law enforcement. What will the pilot choose? Is there a way to save both his family and the plane full of innocent people? And where exactly is the kidnapper directing the pilot to crash the plane, and why? I really didn’t care for this one. It’s suspenseful, but left a bad taste in my mouth. My biggest issue was the main character’s (and other characters’) takeaway that the hijackers kind of had a point. Yuck.