January 2025 TBR

blurb:

Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself.

Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.

Amazon | Bookshop.org

blurb:

“I’ve chased you across time and space, and you’ve never been able to get away.”
For Adeline Reilly, moving back to Seattle was supposed to be the perfect fresh start. With her flourishing career as an author, and the inheritance of her late grandmother’s gothic mansion, there is nothing to stand in her way. But Adeline isn’t alone in Parson’s Manor. It isn’t the angry souls haunting the hallways of her childhood home that Adeline fears–it’s the mysterious break-ins, roses appearing, and threatening messages that somehow sound more like eerie promises.

Adeline has a stalker. Yet, she quickly discovers she’s not the first person in her family to fall victim to a shadow in pursuit. Left behind are her great-grandmother’s haunting journals detailing the story of her own phantom, and subsequently, her brutal murder. Parson’s Manor now holds more than just Adeline’s memories—it houses a grim future that could lead to history repeating itself. If she doesn’t fall in love with her stalker first.

Amazon | Bookshop.org

blurb:

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon.
 
The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

Amazon | Bookshop.org