{I've Been Reading} We Were Never Meant to Survive This

Trad Wife by Sarah Langan

If this isn't the best of the "trad wife" thrillers, it's darn close. The prologue makes it immediately clear that this is folk horror and then the book spends a lot of time introducing the reader to Jenny, a journalist who is just desperate enough to accept an assignment travelling to Black Swan Farm to write about Mia Wright, one of the most popular influencers online. Jenny's story is interesting on its own. She's a fully developed character, not just a young woman out to write a hit piece. Mia is a bit more enigmatic. There's far more too her than her online persona would suggest and it's not something you've seen in the many other thrillers that share this same basic premise. It's wonderfully creepy and one of my favorite horror novels of the year. 

Jay to the World by Donna Andrews

The Meg Lanslow mysteries are always a fun flurry of delightful activity and this one is no exception. As Meg and her extended family prepare for their annual Christmas celebrations, disaster strikes in the form of sabotage and a dangerous booby trap. There's an injured blue jay, a sabotaged playhouse, secret tunnels, stolen decorations....and, in the middle of all of that, there's a mystery with a satisfying conclusion. I've only read the most recent six of this forty book series, but it's easy to jump right in and enjoy the chaos.  I didn't even mind that some of my favorite characters were absent from the book -- I was so caught up in what was going on that I barely noticed! 

We Were Never Meant to Survive This by Jesse Sherwood 

This thriller is a slow, fascinating burn that runs out of steam before the underwhelming end. It opens with the protagonist in a hospital bed, unsure of what's happened or how they got there. It's a while before we learn that character's name or anything at all about them (and a whole lot longer before we find out what's going on with that bandaged arm.) After seeing the arrowhead a co-worker made at a survival camp, Jamie visited an outdated webiste and sends and email, then forgot about the whole thing until he receives a response weeks later. Hidden in the Catskills, The Camp is run by A, a women who is preparing her students for "Day Zero." The whole thing reminds me of The Beach by Alex Garland. It took me a while to work out the timeline. There's "Before" and "After" and then I'm pretty sure there's a second "After" at least as far as the chapter names and number of days since are concerned. I enjoyed the read,  but the ending dragged on for far too long before it came to an abrupt stop. 

Until the Last Light Goes Out by Courtney Gold

Set in an abandoned luxury resort on an isolated  Florida Key, this thriller feels like the Backrooms mixed up with Sarah Winchester's sprawling mansion. Everything is drenched in pink and neon and, after and absolutely gripping prologue, the plot rambles in a creepy slow burn that eventually reaches a satisfying ending. Twenty-five years earlier, The Kaleidoscope was sight of a graduation party that ended with the discovery of a hundred and eighty-three dead students the following morning. No one has ever figured out what happened and the place never reopened. It just sat there, empty and waiting...until the children of the few surviving students make their way to the island and go inside.  

America Obscura An Explorer's Guide to the Hidden Wonders of the United States

I miss the good old days, when we'd hit the road with a stack of  the state TourBooks from AAA and, as we'd approach a little down we'd never heard of I'd flip to that page and see if there were any interesting detours we should make. We found some of the greatest little museums and historic sites that way. The books are digital now, and I hate that. (I know you're going to tell me that I can look it all up on my phone, but that doesn't account for the spotty reception in the places we go.) 

This book feels like someone took the best of those guides and added color photos. Odds are, we'll never be anywhere near most of the places, but I enjoyed reading about them and plan on researching quite a few to learn more about them. Not everything in our own neck of the woods is something that you can actually see or do, and it's all going to require more research to figure out prices and hours, but it's a great starting point. I'm going to go through the book and start bookmarking possibilies -- we may plan a trip around part of the United States I never expected to visit!   

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies.