bethreadsandnaps's reviews
2631 reviews

THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O. by Karen Thompson Walker is a psychological/science fiction/paranonal novel that I felt the reader has to be in the right mindset to wrap their mind around.

Psychiatrist Henry Byrd had an appointment with Jane, but she doesn’t stay long before she leaves. And then she goes missing and is discovered a day later in a park, having gone into a disassociative fugue state. 

I did like the first person perspective from Henry, but the reader finds out he has his own demons. I started doubting his narration at points, which held me back from being fully invested. He becomes obsessed with Jane O. to a degree that seemed much more than a psychiatrist should be. 

Jane’s perspective is from letters to her son as she is trying to piece together what’s happening to her. 

I think I expected to be more of a straight thriller than this was. It does start off that way, and then the other elements threw me more than I expected. I did end up thinking about them quite a bit, much like a movie that has sci fi elements that I try to overlay my primitive logic on to make sense of in my own brain. 

This novel was unique, and I do give it props for that, but I’m not sure I was the best audience for it. I think Blake Crouch fans who also like more mainstream thrillers might be the sweet spot reader for this book. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

3.5 stars

It publishes February 25, 2025. 

Justin posts on Reddit that the women he dates always marry the person they date after him. After being prompted by her friend Maddie to respond, Emma does and they begin a correspondence. 

As traveling nurses, Emma and Maddie can pick where they want to work. They decide to go to Minnesota, where Justin lives, and soon Emma’s dysfunctional mother Amber arrives. Justin’s mother is going off to jail for several years (all the mothers seem to suck in this book), and he’s getting custody of his much younger siblings. 

(With a 20+ year age gap between Justin and his youngest sibling, I thought there were different fathers but seemed like it was just one father who passed away.)

There’s a lot to like here. I like how the author talks about all the trigger warnings and issues discussed in the book, and she also talks about them at the end. She does touch mental illness with deftness in her books. 

This was an enjoyable read. The stakes never felt very high, though, since Emma can work wherever she wants. But I liked how therapy and self-discovery were the crux of the real issue. There were a few moments where I had to suspend belief. All in all, this is a fun book with more depth than you might expect. 

 

 

This was by far one of the best audiobook productions I have ever listened to! If a missing female magician with a dysfunctional family interests you in any way, then PLEASE listen to this on audio! With podcast episodes interspersed, many times I forgot I was listening to an audiobook and thought it was indeed a podcast. It was so immersive. 

Had I actually read this with my eyes, I don’t think I’d rate it as highly. In all honesty, there’s not much of an actual plot. It’s interesting back story and podcast machinations. But as an audiobook? It’s as intriguing as a bingeable podcast season. 

 

 

3.5 stars

CAT’S PEOPLE by Tanya Guerrero is a found family novel set in Brooklyn involving a stray cat and the people that care about it. 

Nuria is a single barista in her 30s with three cats that feeds Brooklyn’s stray cats, including Cat, one of the novel’s narrators. It’s becoming more common to have animal narrators in novels and I went with it easily enough. Omar is a gay postal worker and wasn’t given as much to do as I wanted to see. Bong is a grieving widower and bodega owner who recently lost his wife. Collin is a successful writer who looks out of his window at the alley where Cat resides, and he also gets coffee where Nuria works. And Lily is working on a mission of her own. The notes between Collin and Nuria were very endearing. I thought more emotion could have been created between Nuria and Lily. 

I did have to suspend some disbelief at all of these characters crossing paths due to one stray cat. Also, there wasn’t much tension in this novel. Even the big plot point involving Cat seemed resolved extremely quickly and without any debate.  

I thought this novel had excellent representation. I liked the Brooklyn setting. I thought the novel could have had a bit more forward propulsion, but I did enjoy some of the author’s touches on the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes April 1, 2025. 

 

This has everything I want in a book: compelling narrative, an interesting main character with enough background so you can see the messed-up origination story, and well-researched. 

I was surprised that it took SO long for him to get caught and in Switzerland of all places! And his mom! 

This had a great premise. New mother Cam is going back to work as a literary agent after maternity leave, and on the first morning she’s going to take her daughter Polly to daycare, she can’t find her husband and sees an ambiguous note left for her. She has a sinking feeling despite pretending to be upbeat, and then finds there’s a hostage situation going on. Her husband Luke isn’t being held hostage. He’s the one keeping three others hostage, and he ultimately ends up escaping. 

I enjoyed getting to know the character of Cam and particularly liked learning about hostage negotiator Niall. Seven years and a divorce later, he’s still obsessed with this case. Niall has also sought therapy, which is very endearing. As both Cam and Niall try to move on with their lives, they can’t because the ghost of what happened with Luke keeps nagging at both of them. 

As I said, I enjoyed the characters, and even the side characters like Cam’s sister Libby infuse some realism with her fertility struggle. The plot started out fast-paced with the hostage situation, and it did slow down when time jumped to seven years later. I did figure out where one of the plot strands was going (related to Luke’s occupation) pretty early on, but that didn’t take away my enjoyment of the novel. 

My 4 star rating is really that I thought this was a solid thriller, but I doubt it will rise to my favorites of the year.  

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS publishes February 25, 2025. 

I really liked this relatively slim novel about a young mother who decides to stay in her apartment community’s pool while her husband and boys went to church on a Sunday in 1957 and still stays in once they come home. I was surprised that this book was set in New England in November because it seemed so cold to be in the water then! 

Anyway, the enduring theme of women having fewer choices and those dreams being sidelined for men and children is very strong here. The novel looks back on their lives and the choices they have made. As someone who also is very reflective on how the small choices create a unique life path, I felt a lot of empathy with the main character Kathleen.

I love a good memoir, but I feel like this one dwells on certain things (namely her problematic relationship with her secretive parents, including her donor conception) and gives very little about the things most people are here for (her marriage, kids). 

➕There is a fair amount on acting, especially as she was trying to break into acting and her early roles. 

➖So. Much. About. Her. Parents. 
Very little about her romantic relationships. 

It does hit the trifecta of early sexual abuse, eating disorder, and abortion. But these all seem to be fly-by mentions, and it feels like she went to therapy and discovered that these all seem to originate from her parents (the sleepovers that created a situation where she was abused definitely seemed to be attributable to her parents). Add in the secretive parents, and Kerry has a treasure trove of parent issues to discuss. 

Hey, I like to blame my parents for my issues like the next person. But can we move on beyond that? 

This is decently written, but it is so frustratingly selective that it impeded my enjoyment. 

 

3.5 stars

Katy has recently lost her mother, and that has had her question everything, including her husband Eric. She decides to go on the trip she had planned to go on with her mother Carol to Positano, Italy. 

There she meets Adam and a woman named Carol, who looks like a younger version of her own mother. Is the time travel ever explained? Nope. This is a daughter learning to accept that her mother made her own mistakes when she was younger, just like Katy. 

I liked the message. Lauren Graham narrates the audiobook, and she did a great job but I wouldn’t have known it was her if her name hadn’t been mentioned. I thought the Italian setting would have come more alive than it did. 

 

 

This story reminded me of THE GUNCLE. Lillian’s old friend Madison asks her to look after her two stepchildren who have this problem of spontaneously combusting. Their unsightliness upon the family (Madison’s husband, their biological father, is a Tennessean politician) relegates them to living outside the family home. Lillian bonds with Roland and Bessie as well as fellow employee Carl. Lillian is a spunky protagonist with her own family wounds. 

I think this is a great one to pick up if you’re going to be a stepparent. While it does have some magical realism (spontaneous combusting), the vast majority of this novel is very grounded.