Senior year of college is hectic and busy, which means I haven’t had any time for reading just for my own enjoyment. During my spring break I had the chance to finally get through some of the books that have been on my list for a while, so here are my reviews of them!
- A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan
This was a book I had heard about from TikTok, and it was certainly out of my usual comfort zone in terms of genre. This was a sort of psychological horror book, which I have only read a few of before so I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I have to say this was probably my favorite out of the list!
The novel is about a couple, Remy and Alicia, who are both obsessed with Remy’s ex-coworker Jen. All of their conversations revolve around her, Alicia has a strange obsession with wanting to be her– even their sex life revolves around Jen. Remy hasn’t seen Jen in years so at first it is very much an obsession from afar, but that changes one day when they run into Jen in an Apple store and she invites them on a surfing trip with some old coworkers. I thought this concept alone was really interesting and made the first half of the book really fun to get to look into the mindset of this single-minded couple. The later half of the book took a drastic turn into some different realities and monster horror, which took me by complete surprise. Shockingly, I wasn’t mad at it! The writing style is blunt and to the point, with the plot evolving very rapidly at times, and it keeps it fun and fast-paced the entire time. Morgan also manages to make you love and hate every single character, with some definitely being worse than others.
This book was definitely out there and it’s not for everyone, but as someone who usually passes on horror books I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I also saw that Bunny by Mona Awad had a similar vibe and feel to this one so I will have to read that one next!
- Vicious by V.E. Schwab
My dad actually recommended this one to me as he had read it years ago and he told me it was a cool twist on the idea of villains and heroes. The book follows Victor Vale, an escaped convict seeking revenge on his old college roommate and best friend Eli. Victor and Eli had been researching people with supernatural abilities and trying to recreate the circumstances in which one of these ‘ExtraOrdinaries’ (EOs) are formed. The two both end up at these EOs but between their college days and the present setting of the book have come to be mortal enemies set on killing each other.
It’s a really interesting look on the idea of the villain vs the hero and what actually determines what makes a hero. Plotwise I do wish a bit more happened, as it spent so much time jumping between the past and present day that it felt like not much actually happened in present day until the end, but overall I would definitely recommend giving this a read.
- Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
This was another TikTok, or BookTok, recommendation! Out of the three I read it was definitely the least heavy and serious, even though some of the themes seem like it may be.
This book revolves around Naomi, the perfect twin with a notoriously awful twin sister that she hasn’t seen in years. On the night of Naomi’s wedding she gets a call from her sister for help in a town in the middle of nowhere, and she runs away from her wedding to go to her aid. When she gets to the town her sister steals her car, all her money, and dumps an 11-year old niece on her that she didn’t know existed. Cue the grumpy local bar owner who becomes entangled with Naomi and her niece’s life.
If you like enemies to lovers, this would be right up your alley. I thought this was a perfect beach book– it wasn’t too serious and it reads as a pretty standard romance novel. I personally didn’t think it was as good as some people on TikTok seemed to think it was, but it was still a fun and easy read while laying on the beach.