Books I Have Read Recently and My Thoughts on Them

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

I liked this one quite a lot. It's a sort of fantastical take on the tale of the Countess of Bathory, who is a real historical figure who may or may not have murdered a lot of young women for fun. anyway, the book is set in a fantasy land where the artistocracy loves to drink blood, sort of like drinking fine wine. so they hire these people called blood maids to drink their blood. pretty interesting concept. lots of sex, blood, very sapphic, etc, etc. really liked the underlying themes of power and whatnot, similar to most vampire fiction there's a lot to think about.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Read for my english class. Really fun to talk about with other people. Really reflective of Victorian society, which is part of what makes it so fun. Kinda sexy sometimes too

The Monk by Matthew Lewis

Usually when you hear a really old book was upsetting and caused an uproar it means absolutely nothing bc people back in the day were way less exposed to violence and sex and easily provoked. This book though... I see why people were a upset.... it's surprisingly graphic for its age, and pretty disturbing. read this for my english class and im really glad i did. Basically tells the story of a monk who falls from grace into horrible depravity. also really reads like an incel wrote it, crazy how things don't change.

Bunny by Mona Awad

Kinda cool but i'm tired of reading about sad women in their 20s with no direction who like smoke cigarettes or do drugs or have meaningless sex or whatever

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

This was really good and i still think about it a lot. Presents some really interesting ideas about gender and how performing your gender is something that everyone does and how gender performance relates to sexuality. Would read again, would reccomend. Does NOT shy away from being provocative, difficult, controversial. Peters really goes in, does not try to be overly PC, which made it feel really real.

Luster by Raven Leilani

Yes. This was confusing and dark and dreamy. Leilani seems like she can see through people's brains.