May Reading Wrap Up

May's TBR list wasn't the most successful, so I veered away from it a bit, still with mixed results (7 DNFs)

1. The Examiner by Janice Hallett 

Pretty good, very similar to The Appeal

2. Mrs England by Stacey Halls

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

3. Hare House by Sally Hinchcliffe

I liked the mystery around the hares

4. All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

Great story, if a little bleak

5. Carrie by Stephen King

Telekinetic female revenge

6. Box 88 by Charles Cumming

Spy thriller - DNF

7. In The Woods by Tana French

Thriller - DNF

8. The House On Cold Hill by Peter James

Haunted house, but still a DNF

9. Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio

DNF

10. We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Mostly brilliant, quite creepy

11. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Vampires, so a DNF

12. The White Road by Sarah Lotz

Spelunking and climbing Everest - terror at either extreme, really good

13. Abandon by Blake Crouch

Abandoned town called Abandon - very creepy

14. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

Baseball fan lost in the woods - meh

15. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Beautiful, magical, fever dream!

16. Pet Semetary by Stephen King

DNF

17. Gerald's Game by Stephen King 

Not even a DNF, just decided I didn't want to read this at all. I don't think my Stephen King challenge is going to be very successful...

18. Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez

Cute romance

19. Revival by Stephen King

Another DNF

TBR Picks for June

I wasn't sure whether to skip the TBR prompts for a bit, or maybe just pull them one at a time as I finish each book, rather than choosing them all at the beginning of the month. But it's just so much fun! So what the heck, here we go for the month of June:

First of all, the oldest book on my list is The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex, from the 30th November 2025.

I don't know what Stephen King book(s) I'll read yet, now that I'm just picking them at random, but I'll try and fit at least one in.

1. Added to list in 2025 - Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh. I think this prompt probably meant "if it's been on the list for ages and you haven't bought it yet, now's your chance!" but I've just decided to choose the next 'oldest' book on the list, which I've had from the 2nd December 2025.

2. Animal on the cover - The Witches At The End Of The World by Chelsea Iversen. This was harder to choose than I thought it would be, but since this book came up in a previous month, and I didn't get around to reading it, I'm going to try again. There are hares on the cover.

3. House on the cover - The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas. I had quite a few, but I've kind of been avoiding some of my thriller books, so I chose this one.

4. Gothic vibes - The Ghost Woods by C. J. Cooke. Gothic vibes is almost every book I own!! But as I sorted through them, this was the first one I saw with the word 'gothic' on the cover, so that decided it for me.

5. Buy something new - hmm, I'm really trying not to buy any more books at the moment, so I'm going to choose another prompt. Ghosts/Supernatural - A Haunting On The Hill by Elizabeth Hand. Again, this prompt covers quite a lot of my books! This is a follow up to The Haunting Of Hill House, officially approved by Shirley Jackson's estate.

6. Yellow book - Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang. The previous book is yellow, and this is the only other yellow book I have left!

7. Cover I don't like - The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell. I bought a proof copy of this from Vinted, and the cover is mostly plain black (slightly patterned), so it's not so much that I don't like it, it's just a bit boring. (Doesn't look like this image-->)

8. Five word title - There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. Looking forward to this, though I'm not expecting to understand any of it...

9. Two word title - Red Queen by Christina Henry. Hopefully I can still remember most of what happened in Alice...

10. Authors name includes initials - The Other People by C. J. Tudor. I've already got CJ Cooke, RF Kuang and qntm in this list!! 

So that's it for June. Excited for some of these!

P.S. I've just remembered that I might also need to read The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah for a book club, but I've got that on Kindle, so I don't know if I'll bother...

Revival by Stephen King

Started: 30.5.26

DNF: 31.5.26

Paperback

Why am I doing this to myself? I knew before I started this challenge that I didn't really like Stephen King novels, based on the few I'd read. Another DNF. He's just too... wordy... 

Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez

Started: 28.5.26

Finished: 30.5.26

Paperback

When I was in my early teens I read about a gazillion Mills and Boon and Silhouette Special Editions. I didn't have Microsoft Excel back then, but I kept a list on paper of every book I had. They had symbols on the spine, like squares, triangles, circles, diamonds - I didn't know what they meant, but I logged them too, just in case I ever figured out the system. 

So it's safe to say that I've read my fair share of romance novels. I'm not really into that genre any more, but I'd seen so many good reviews about this book that I wanted to try it, and to be honest, I really enjoyed it. Really cute story with likeable characters, but some quite heavy themes running through it, which I think were dealt with respectfully. It even made me well up a bit in places! I didn't realise till I'd finished it that it's book 3 of 3, but I don't think I missed anything having not read the first two in the series, so presumably they can all be read as stand-alones. I did really enjoy the writing style, so I've added the authors other books to my wish list.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Started: 28.5.26

DNF: 28.5.26

Paperback

I'm not having much luck with Stephen King so far. Another DNF. I think it's just the amount of detail that he goes into about every little thing; it's just too much, I feel kind of bogged down in it all. This is what has put me off in the past, why I haven't read many of his books.

I didn't really know what the story was about - I knew it featured a cat - but I read a few reviews and quickly realised that the plot wasn't going to be one that appealed to me. I skimmed through it and read the last few pages, but I don't regret not finishing it.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Started: 26.5.26

Finished: 27.5.26

Paperback

Well. What can I say about this book? Very little really, because it's a genre-less, fever dream of a story, and most of the time I had no idea what was happening, but not in a bad way! If it ever gets made into a film, Guillermo Del Toro will probably be the director.

A man answering to the name of Piranesi lives in a labyrinthine House of infinite Halls, Staircases and Statues. He doesn't really question why he's there, he just is, and he makes the best of his situation, keeps his routines, and enjoys the beauty of the place. And then he receives a message from someone new, and The House begins to feel strange to him...

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

Started: 26.5.26

Finished: 26.5.26

Paperback

I've already had to abandon my plan to read all the Stephen King novels, in publication date order. I read Carrie, that was the first, and then DNF'd the second, Salem's Lot. The third is The Shining, which I bought on Kindle, but I'm trying to whittle down my physical books at the moment, so I've decided to just read the Stephen King books that I have, in any order, and try to get a hold of the remaining ones from the library.

This one is about Trisha, a nine year old girl who is on a hike with her family, when she veers from the path and gets lost in the woods. And that's basically all it's about. She's a big baseball fan (Tom Gordon is her favourite player) and luckily she has her Walkman with her, so to keep her spirits up she keeps tuning into the radio broadcasts of the Red Sox games. She hallucinates / daydreams that Tom is with her in the woods, talking to her about baseball; this is a kind of metaphor throughout the book - how to win a game, how to survive in the woods. Unfortunately, I neither understand or care about baseball, so I kept skimming over these parts.

Trisha was remarkably resilient for a nine year old girl, to the point that I found it quite hard to believe that she would have the sense to do some of the things she does. She was a very likeable character though, and I was really rooting for her.

Abandon by Blake Crouch

Started: 24.5.26

Finished: 25.5.26

Paperback

We've just had a really hot (for the UK) late May Bank Holiday (around 30 degrees celsius), and I've just read two books back to back set in freezing cold locations - I think that may have been a subconscious reaction, as I'm not a big fan of the hot weather.

Abandon was a remote mining town in the American West, where all the inhabitants vanished without a trace on Christmas Day in 1893. In the present day, a group including a historian and two paranormal investigators set out to try to uncover the mystery of what happened. Miles from civilization, and in the middle of a harsh blizzard, the group realise that they are not alone in the town.

I couldn't imagine what had happened to the residents of Abandon back in 1893; I was hoping for some kind of supernatural occurrence, but the reality was actually far scarier than I'd thought. I enjoyed the dual timelines, especially when they began to kind of mirror each other towards the end. Although I don't think this is based on a true story, it's certainly inspired by the history of ghost towns in the American West, and I would definitely recommend this to fans of The Hunger by Alma Katsu, and The Terror by Dan Simmons. 

The White Road by Sarah Lotz

Started: 23.5.26

Finished: 24.5.26

Paperback

I've tried to keep my star ratings* simple by not using half and quarter stars, but if I did, this would definitely be either a 4.5 or 4.75. It was almost a 5, until it just dragged a little bit in part three. To be honest, I could forgive that and still round it up to a five. This is all to say that I loved this book! 

It follows Simon who, along with flatmate and colleague Thierry, runs a website where they capture footage of dead bodies. Simon is the adrenaline junkie of the two, with some climbing experience from his youth, so he's the one 'out in the field'. After a caving trip goes badly wrong, Thierry convinces him to join an Everest climbing party, so that he can record some of the deceased climbers who remain on the mountain. Again, this does not end well.

Although Simon is a bit of a jerk, he's a jerk with something of a conscience, haunted by his mistakes. Realising that what he's doing is morally and ethically wrong, he tries to make amends, but is it all too late?

The beginning of the book, with the spelunking trip, brought to mind the real life horrors of Nutty Putty (IYKYK). The Everest part reminded me of Thin Air by Michelle Paver, and even, in parts, of Dark Matter, my favourite ghost story, so that's high praise from me!

*I don't use them on this blog, but I do on Pagebound, Storygraph and Goodreads.

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Started: 23.5.26

DNF: 23.5.26

Paperback

When I told my other half that the next SK book that I was going to read was Salem's Lot, he said something like "ooh, you can't beat a good vampire story". My heart sank. I really don't like vampire stories... So I'm not going to force myself to read over 700 pages of something that I'm not really interested in...

We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Started: 22.5.26

Finished: 23.5.26

Paperback

At last, a finished book! I really enjoyed this, the story was gripping, and I loved the little 'reader participation' bits, with working out the Morse Code and the capitalised letters. The psychological thriller aspect was so creepy, a (mostly) normal family coming into your house and then just not leaving. Towards the end it started to get very weird, almost a bit 'cosmic horror' (or cosmic thriller, if that's a genre), and is it too much of a spoiler to say I got a few Shutter Island vibes? Definitely left me with more questions than answers, but it was a good read, nonetheless. 

Breaking From The TBR... Kind Of

I've got three books left from my May TBR choices, but they're all on my kindle. My book buying has got a bit out of hand lately, and the shelves are overflowing, so I think I really need to focus on reading physical books that I can put on Vinted when I've finished them, so that I can start whittling them down. 

My last few choices have unfortunately been DNFs; I might have a break from the TBR prompts and just choose a book that I really want to read, and hopefully lift myself out of this slump...

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

Started: 20.5.26

DNF: 22.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Under 300 pages

Well, I seem to be in a bit of a reading slump at the moment, because I couldn't even finish a book that's only 108 pages! It's a silly reason for not continuing, I suppose, but I didn't like the way the characters were speaking to each other, or some of the nicknames they used - I was confused just a few pages in. And things being referred to as The Lump, and The Hole... I don't know, it was just bugging me. Fungi and a rat on the cover are a clue, and I think I'm done with botanical horror for now...

The House On Cold Hill by Peter James

Started: 18.5.26

DNF: 20.5.26

Hardcover

TBR Prompt: From the top shelf (of my bookcase)

Oh dear, it's another DNF! As much as I love a good ghost story - and this was a haunted house ghost story - it just wasn't holding my interest.

In The Woods by Tana French

Started: 18.5.26

DNF: 18.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Grey book

Another DNF, another one that could've been the last prompt because I'd been putting this off too. Not for me.

Box 88 by Charles Cumming

Started: 17.5.26

DNF: 18.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Book I've been putting off

Well, with a TBR prompt of "book I've been putting off" there was always a chance that I wasn't going to get far with this, and I'm afraid I DNF'd it just a couple of chapters in. Not my cup of tea.

Carrie by Stephen King

Started: 16.5.26

Finished: 17.5.26

Paperback / library book

Stephen King Challenge Book 1

I feel like everyone knows the plot already, but in short, Carrie is a girl with telekinetic powers, which become amplified with the late onset of puberty. Bullied by the other kids at school, and beaten down by her religious fanatic of a mother, she finally exacts her revenge on those who have hurt her. Written in the style of various reports from investigation commissions, witness statements and personal accounts, with flashbacks to the events discussed, this was a quick, easy read. I've seen the original film (Sissy Spacek) so I had occasional images from that in my mind as I read the book.

All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

Started: 10.5.26

Finished: 15.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: A book from the bottom shelf

Whew, this was epic, in the original sense of that word! The story follows two childhood best friends, Patch and Saint, whose lives are changed forever after a tragedy. Through the years that follow, their search for truth and justice takes them on very different, and incompatible, journeys, at times stretching their friendship almost to breaking point. This was not a happy story, though there were some happy moments. There was a kind of bleak inevitability running through it, knowing that what happened to them as children changed the whole trajectory of their lives. 261 mostly very short chapters, sometimes less than a page, kept the pace going in what might otherwise have been quite a slog. Characters were well fleshed out and likeable (except the ones we're not meant to like), descriptions of setting and location were, well, very descriptive. The last few chapters were kind of 'chase scene' exciting, and the very end of the book reminded me a lot of The Shawshank Redemption. 

Hare House by Sally Hinchcliffe

Started: 7.5.26

Finished: 9.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: black book

This is a curious book and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It was very atmospheric; the setting of the south west of Scotland really came to life. I love anything to do with hares, and this story was full of them, in all their mystical and mysterious wonder. There was an unreliable narrator escaping from a troubled past, a woman who seemed to bear a serious grudge, another person who kept appearing randomly out of nowhere, talk of witchcraft, folk charms and possible hexes (and TW: some animal death). As I read it I had that feeling of creeping dread; that there was some kind of malevolence around Hare House. But... it never really materialised into anything, and I was left feeling a bit confused at the end of it. What had it all been about?

Mrs England by Stacey Halls

Started: 3.5.26

Finished: 7.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Set in the early 1900s

I really enjoyed this book, more than I thought I would. It tells the story of a newly graduated nurse called Ruby, who gets a job looking after the children of Mr and Mrs England. Unusually for these kinds of stories, the children's father is loving, attentive and engaged with them, whereas their mother seems distant and aloof. However, Ruby begins to realise that not all is as it seems with the family. As well as this, she is also dealing with past trauma from her own childhood. There was a sense of unease throughout the book; I was never sure who could be trusted, or what was motivating certain behaviours, and that uncertainty made me want to keep reading to find out. I'll definitely look out for other novels by Stacey Halls.

The Examiner by Janice Hallett

Started: 1.5.26

Finished: 3.5.26

Paperback

Oldest book on my list (from 14.11.25)

Janice Hallett definitely seems to have found her USP. This is the third one of her books that I've read, and again it's written in an 'epistolary' style, although this time it's in the form of WhatsApp messages and Doodles, which is the fictional intranet / messaging service of the Royal Hastings university, and also essays, diary entries and tutor reports.

Six mature students embark on a Masters Art Degree, and very quickly, tensions rise amongst the group. Personalities and egos clash, and it seems that people are not who they claim to be. Part of their coursework consists of creating a multimedia installation for a communications company, and on a resource gathering trip to the companies museum, things take a sinister turn. 

I couldn't really tell you more than that if I wanted to, because I was utterly confused! I've never been one of those readers who can figure out 'whodunnit' really early on, so that's more of a 'me' problem, than a book problem. I enjoyed the story and was eager to understand the who, the how and the why, but there was just so much going on, and things being introduced late in the story, that I gave up trying to work anything out and just waited for the answers to be revealed. I do like the unique format of these books, though I did find that this one reminded me a lot of The Appeal, with each group of characters having similar personalities (a young, eager one, an older dismissive one, a friendly keeps-the-peace one etc).

I've got a copy of The Mysterious Case of The Alperton Angels to read, and I'm sure I'll continue to look out for new books from Janice Hallett in the future. 

Top Ten

I was thinking about the books I'd put in my Top Ten. Usually I struggle to remember any details about books, even the ones that I've enjoyed, but there are a few that have stayed with me, so I suppose they should be the ones that go into my Top Ten. These are what I've come up with so far:

1) Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Obviously. My favourite ghost story, it ticks all the boxes for me.

2) The Terror by Dan Simmons. I loved the mix of historical fact and fiction. I loved the characters, especially Crozier and Goodsir. I loved the setting and the descriptions of the frozen conditions. Even the supernatural elements were just the right side of 'too weird' for me. I think about this book a lot.

3) The Sword Of Kaigen by M.L. Wang. Gripping high fantasy, complex world building, cinematic fight scenes where martial arts meet elemental magic.

4) The Fisherman by John Langan. Cosmic horror, hard to get my head around at times, but that's kind of the point.

5) Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Beautifully written, emotional book.

6) The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. First foray into 'grimdark fantasy' and really enjoyed it, looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

7) The Ascent Of Rum Doodle by W. E. Bowman. Very funny book!

8) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I'll put this here because it's the first, but also probably the best, even though I read it ages ago. It kind of represents the whole series though.

9) The Solitude Of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding. I've read this a couple of times. 

10) The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I don't 'love' this, I struggle a bit with some of the writing, but I do enjoy the overall story of the haunted house, and in this case I think it helps that I've seen the film too, just to pad out some of the images and events.

For now...