My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh is the epitome of no plot, just vibes. Unlikeable characters, an unreliable narrator, and a bizarre, dark type of humor—this book has it all. It’s year 2000, set in the wealthy enclaves of Chicago. Hilarious and sad at the same time, the…
It is an impressive feat to be able to write an unconventional, let alone an unexplored, type of love story as Audrey Niffenegger does in The Time Traveler’s Wife. While the plotline is intricately woven, the premise is simple: Henry DeTamble has a “Chrono-Displacement Disorder”, a genetic condition that causes him…
Valerie Solanas is the perfect example of a woman angered by society and her own views of the world. Perhaps not inherently a lunatic, but she’s definitely taken it upon herself to rant on the shortcomings of men. Her language is crude, her descriptions brutal, yet theres something invigoriating to…
I looked up because of the laughter, and kept looking because of the girls. Emma Cline, The Girls It is 1969, and 14-year-old Evie Boyd is thrust into a cult-like group of girls. Evie, being the child of recently divorced parents and scurrying for acceptance from her peers, finds herself…
I have mixed feelings about Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. On one side, I want to appreciate the lyrical mastery of the prose; on the other, I’m disgusted at how this very prose portrays our narrator, Humbert Humbert, not as much as a monster as it does a mere protagonist in passing.…
‘Can I take your coat?’ Cupcake offers. I turn to her. She’s looking at me so hopefully. So willing to take a coat I’m not wearing, I almost want to give her my skin. Mona Awad, Bunny Bunny by Mona Awad is a delightfully bizarre and experimental book that is…
Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road…No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. Jon Krakauer in Into…
The Dragon Republic is R.F. Kuang’s second installation to The Poppy War series, and a hard-hitting punch that fantasy needed so badly. This book has been so unpredictable, so action-packed throughout. It is, undeniably, a striking display from an enormously talented writer—600 pages of pure, readable goodness, chock full of ferocious rage and…
As much as I enjoy classics, I haven’t picked up Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein until around last month. The work spans about 300 pages, making it a fairly short novel. I got through it pretty quickly. Of course, it was interesting reading Frankenstein as how it was intended to be written. I’ve realized that retellings…
The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it. Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the Day There is a certain experience that comes with reading this book. Intensely moving and perceptive, The Remains of the…