The Sun Walks Down, by Fiona McFarlane: Slow-paced but dreamy. I know have a predisposition toward books set in Australia, but this was especially appealing.
Natural Beauty, by Ling Ling Huang: The premise was great but everything did unravel after the setup was established, getting very silly in the end.
Tell Us No Secrets, by Siena Sterling: Was this YA? I don’t think it was intended to be, but…a very rote, highly on the nose, somewhat didactic entry to the “something bad happened at boarding school” genre (which does contain some great books). Nothing new is being said here, even if it’s geared toward a YA audience.
We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo: This is billed as a novel and does have a throughline, but felt very impressionistic and very much a set of thematically linked stories. It didn’t all quite hang together for me – amazing pieces that felt stronger on their own.
Prom Mom, by Laura Lippman: I never fail to be impressed by Laura Lippman’s writing and plotting. Initially I thought this was going to take a twist that disappointed me, but I should have known better. The characters were all unlikeable in various degrees and ways, which I’ve seen critiqued as a failure of the book, but seemed clearly intentional to me!
