KL's Reviews

Like a carp along the bottom of the lake, Kassabova stirs through the murky depths of the Balkan past. As she journeys through her grandmother's place of origin, the people and places she encounters tell the stories of a region long defined by conflict. Part biography, part history, part geography, To the Lake is a pellucid reflection of the weight and trauma of national division, and an urgent call to overcome it. Prepare for a deep dive! —Kalina

A delightful whodunit that features one of the most charming detectives I have come across in the mystery genre, The Honjin Murders is the perfect book to relax with on a chilly fall day. The story begins when a wealthy newlywed couple is murdered on the eve of their wedding. Shortly after their shocking murder, the small town the couple lived in is buzzing with gossip as several characters are exposed for hiding potential grudges and concealing incriminating evidence. The setting of the book is atmospheric due to the honjin, an inn that caters to well to do clientele, which creates an intimate, conspiratorial reading experience. I felt immersed in the world of the honjin as I eagerly anticipated the unveiling of the culprit. —K.L.

Kate Aitken, a former journalist who has fled her native New York in order to archive the personal effects of the famous artist Miranda Brand, does not expect to become obsessed with the enigmatic woman and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death. Kate begins to uncover Miranda’s hidden secrets, secrets that contradict Miranda’s image as a rebellious feminist icon. Although the book is a psychological thriller about a potential murder, its most hair-raising aspect is the inability of the female characters to control their own stories, to seek relief from their demons, even to escape scrutiny. In Take Me Apart, Sarah Sligar implies that life in America is full of traps set for women, and it is the lucky ones who make it out alive.

The revenge narrative has gotten a bold new update with You-Jeong Jeong’s Seven Years of Darkness. This is a book driven by atmospheric setting and character development, and these features certainly deliver. The characters are endearingly flawed, and you feel for them as they attempt to right the wrongs that they have committed, and in some cases, inherited. As a reader, I was especially intrigued by Sowon, the son of a convicted mass murderer who grapples with the disparity between the loving memories he has of his father and the reality of his father’s crimes. The uncompromising yet sympathetic depiction of the characters’ moral ambiguities makes this book a one-of-a-kind read.

Sometimes fact is far more compelling than fiction.
This absorbing and epic narrative meticulously depicts the theft of Europe’s art treasures by the German Third Reich. Providing an alternative history of the politics leading up to WWII, Nichols asks the important question, to what extent does art play a pivotal role in the formation of society? Is it important enough to kill for?