Alisha Dempsey

May Total: 5
Year-to-date Total: 23

Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil – V.E. Schwab ★★★★★
Yes yes yes yes yes! Love this author – after loving The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, I was so excited to (pardon the pun) sink my teeth into this one. Details lesbian vampires over the centuries and their plight of staying unnoticed by the living. Each new vampire was born from a need to escape their previous life, and as time grows on, one woman is turned who did not welcome the change. Alice is hell-bent on revenge.

Carmilla – J. Sheridan Le Fanu ★★★★☆
Sensing a bit of a theme for lesbian vampires here – whilst not explicitly LGBTQ, there is definitely an undertone. Carmilla paved the way for vampire stories a full 26 years before Bram Stoker and Dracula. This short but great tale is broody, dark, and details a stranger being dropped at the doorstep of a noble – and she looks a lot like his daughter’s childhood night terror.

Darius the Great is Not Okay – Adib Khorram ★★★★☆
Darius is Persian-American, but doesn’t quite feel like he fits in either culture. After his mother learns that her father, still in Iran, is dying of a brain tumor, the family pack up for their first visit since before Darius was born. On his first day, he makes friends with a local, Sohrab, who welcomes him into his family and teaches him all about their culture, the history, and how to successfully navigate a taarof. Darius (or ‘Darioush’ as Sohrab uses the original Persian version of his name) feels more familiar with himself than he ever has done. The only downside to this book was the heavy use of repetitive language (‘True Persian’ and continuously calling his dad ‘Ubermensch Stephen Kellner’).

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir ★★★★★
Embarrassed to admit I only realised after reading that Andy Weir also wrote The Martian (and it’s because I wanted to re-read The Martian). Project Hail Mary is easily a contender for my favourite book of the year, and it’s only June. After discovering a new life-form is absorbing the sun’s energy at an alarming rate, Ryland Grace wakes up on a spacecraft with two dead crew mates and a view of Tau Ceti. With his memories trickling slowly back to him after a cryo-enduced nap, Grace must figure out a way to stop the astrophage from killing Sol. Just when he believes he’s all alone in a different solar system to his home, he spots another space craft on his radar.

Melmoth – Sarah Perry ★★☆☆☆
Forgive the curtness, but this book could’ve been an email. A short story at most. After one man dies and her friend disappears, Helen begins to delve into the reason behind it and discovers each of them were investigating a folk of a woman named ‘Melmoth the Wanderer’. An amazing premise but a totally unfulfilling and boring book, unfortunately.