A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
This had a great interesting start, with the narrator being the daughter of a serial killer arrested when she was a teen and “left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath”. When the book begins as Chloe is trying to keep moving on with her life – through with the help of alcohol and drugs – the murders start again… the work of a copycat?
Though it was slow-paced, it was a quick read. It has a bunch of twists, some predictable, some less, I expected a bit more. It seems like it was meant to be a psychological thriller but I found the end a bit too messy on this side.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
A psychic tells siblings the date of their death, some soon, some decades later. How will each of them handle the prophecy and how much knowing when they’ll die will influence how they live?
I had some troubles getting into the book at first, but then we dived into Simon’s story and it was so representative of his time, so sad but so full of life too… My favorite part of the book for sure.

A Good Man by Ani Katz
The narrator is a good man, with a good family and a good life. Or is he? How fragile can this perfect life be? Everything has taken a turn for the worst and though we won’t know specifically what happened until the very end, we listened as he unraveled the story of his life to try to understand when things took a spin, and if he is a victim, or a monster.
Through the story was not groundbreaking or the ending as surprising as maybe intended, it was a super short read, I picked it up and didn’t put it down before it was over. A good drama book for an afternoon.

The Body in Question by Jill Ciment
Another great starting point: Hannah is a juror on a very mediation and horrible crime, we follow her during her period of sequestration. It was a quick read too, some passages about jury duty life were interesting, but overall I couldn’t really believe the [SPOILER] love affaire with another member of the jury.[/SPOILER]. The choice of not telling us either what really happened in the actual murder case was a bit frustrating, but I actually loved that choice. The jurors don’t know more than what was presented and a year later they still can’t be sure if their verdict was right. Annoying, but real!

Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash

I only read two books in February:

I thought it would be a short fun witchy read, and it was witchy-ish but not really my cup of tea witchy I guess. Too juvenile and “simple” maybe. I couldn’t really get into the relationship at the center of the book, nor their past or their evolution. It’s probably a good young adult book, and there are some love scenes too that may be found spicy to a younger audience.

I am sure this book spoke deeper to Asian-Americans but because I lost my dad after a long period of illness, I could unfortunately relate very much to some parts of the book. Though the food is at the center of the book, and food is not very important to me and none of the dishes were familiar, the author did a good job at transmitting their meaning and importance to the reader. I understand the search for our personality and culture, and trying to figure out what came through our parents, and what in this is them, and what is really us.
I liked the book, it was intimate, honest, sad (I did cry), vulnerable (and so, brave).