Book Review: On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield

Title: On Sundays She Picked Flowers

Author: Yah-Yah Scholfield

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Horror, LGBT, Magical Realism, Adult Fiction

Pages: 231

Publisher: Saga Press

Year Published: 2020

Format: Hardcover (Library Copy)

"In this sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut, a woman escapes into the uncanny woods of southern Georgia and must contend with ghosts, haints and most dangerous of all, the truth about herself.

When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she'd severed her abusive mother's hold on her. She didn't have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own. 

Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer.

But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the owman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline.

Haunting and thought-provoking, On Sunday She Picked Flowers explores retribution, family trauma, and the power of building oneself back up after breaking down."

My Rating: 2/5

For such a short novel, this story covers so many topics. This book covers the tale of Judith Rice, who is escaping a childhood full of abuse and a home that never felt much like it, even though she's a child of forty-one. Taking to the woods, a house full of spirits and a world where it's hard to say what is real and what is not, we watch as she comes into her own. Who she is, who she's meant to be and who she will become. I enjoyed the start of the novel, and there were portions I found interesting in the middle. But there were portions that I just didn't like. The use of magical realism was fair, but it felt overdone to me. The metaphors and allagories were intense and important, but it felt like too much to be in such a short story.  For me, this was a book that felt just alright. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, it just was. 

Sidny

Book Review: The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

Title: The Amalfi Curse

Author: Sarah Penner

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adult, Magical Realism

Pages: 336

Publisher: Park Row

Year Published: 2025

Format: Audiobook

"Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse...

Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artefacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven's arrival, strange malestroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?

As Haven searches for her father's sunken treasure, she begins to unearth a centuries-old tale of ancient sorcery and one woman's quest to save her lover and her village by using the legendary art of stregheria, a magical ability to harness the ocean. Could this magic be behind Positano's latest calamities? Haven must unravel the Amalfi Curse before the region is destroyed forever...

Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea."

My Rating: 3/5

I listened to this book on audio, and I would strongly recommend this version just due to the narration style. I loved the changing perspectives and the time shifts. This one rang closer to The Lost Apothecary, which is my favourite book I've read by the author so far. All of this being said, it still lacked the original magic and the feeling of the first book I read by the author. This one, the ending felt a little disjointed and abrupt. While fun, I don't think that this one will stay with me.

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno

Title: You Must Not Miss

Author: Katrina Leno

Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Magical Realism

Pages: 304

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Year Published: 2019

Format: Audiobook (Library Copy)

"Magpie Lewis started writing in her yellow notebook the day her family self-destructed. That was the night Eryn, Magpie's sister, skipped town and left her to fend for herself. That was the night of Brandon Phipp's party.

Now, Magpie is called a slut whenever she walks down the hallways of her high school, her former best friend won't speak to her, and she spends her lunch period with a group of misfits who've all been socially exiled like she has. And so, feeling trapped and forgotten, Magpie retreats to her notebook, dreaming up a place called Near.

Near is perfect- somewhere where her father never cheated, her mother never drank and Magpie's own life never derailed so suddenly. She imagines Near so completely, so fully, that she writes it into existence, right in her own backyard. It's a place where she can have anything she wants... even revenge."

My Rating: 2/5

This wasn't what I expected from this novel, which was my own fault. If I had done any research about this book, I would have read that there were elements of magical realism. For me, that is either a real hit or a real miss. I'm guessing you can see which one it was for me. This book felt long for me and just didn't have the momentum I was hoping for. I would be curious to read more work by the author, but if this is her normal writing style, I can't guarantee no DNFS.

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Title: Elatsoe

Author: Darcie Little Badger

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magical Realism

Pages: 362

Publisher: Levine Querida

Year Published: 2020

Format: Audiobook

"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.

There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family."

My Rating: 3.75/5

I'm so glad to see more representation of mythology and Indigenous culture in media and stories. This was done so well; the nonchalant writing style and the magical realism feeling of it all were amazing to read. I liked that our main character reads as age-appropriate; the only thing I didn't love was the conversation pieces at points. The banter wasn't all I hoped for, but the relation back to colonization is well done. 

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Title: The Midnight Library

Author: Matt Haig

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Adult Fiction, Magical Realism, Contemporary

Pages: 304

Publisher: Canongate Books

Year Published: 2020

Format: Audiobook (Own Paperback Copy)

"Between life and death there is a library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? A novel about the choice that go into a life well lived.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place."

My Rating: 5/5

I ultimately really enjoyed this book. While I see how people would feel upset about how the author handled depression and if you were in the midst of it, or had been suicidal I wouldn't recommend reading this during that time. I don't think that the author was necessarily saying that you just have to look on the bright side to cure depression. But more so that often as humans we think about the roads that we didn't take, they plague us and when they become inescapable maybe that's part of the reason we spiral. This hit hard for me in a lot of ways and I hope to read more work by the author soon.

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey

Title: When We Were Magic

Author: Sarah Gailey

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Magical Realism, Young Adult

Pages: 352

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Year Published: 2020

Format: Audiobook

"A moving, darkly funny novel about six teens whose magic goes wildly awry from Magic Liars author Sarah Gailey, who Chuck Wendig calls an 'author to watch.'

Keeping your magic a secret is hard. Being in love with your best friend is harder.

Alexis has always been able to rely on two things: her best friends, and the magic powers they all share. Their secret is what brought them together, and their love for each other is unshakeable- even when that love is complicated. Complicated by problems like jealousy, or insecurity, or lust. Or love.

That unshakeable, complicated love is one of the only things that doesn't change on prom night.

When accidental magic goes sideways and a boy winds up dead, Alexis and her best friends come together to try to right a terrible wrong. Their first attempt fails- and their second attempt fails even harder. Left with the remains of their failed spells and more consequences than anyone could have predicted, each of them must find a way to live with their part of the story."

My Rating: 4/5

This was a great foray for me into magical realism. I haven't read much from the genre, and what I had read before I found complicated or to lyrical for my own personal taste. But this features a bad-ass group of girls trying to find a way to fix a problem they weren't even sure how they managed to create. I loved the characters and hearing about their magic. I loved how the story wrapped overall. It was a great read, and I look forward to reading much more from the author.

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Title: The Memory Police

Author: Yoko Ogawa

Translator(s): Stephen Snyder, and Markus Juslin

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Magical Realism, Adult

Pages: 274

Publisher: Pantheon Books

Year Published: 1994

Format: Audiobook

"On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses- until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocation fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language."

My Rating: 1/5

I don't know how I didn't know this was a mix of magical realism and science fiction. I need to do more research when I pick up books such as these because as I've previously stated magical realism is not for me. I just want more answers than it can give. I want to know more about the world, and why things function the way they do. Maybe I'm not smart enough to read books like these but I'm going to try to avoid them in the future. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy.

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Author: Neil Gaiman

Series/Standalone: Standalone

Genre: Magical Realism, Young Adult,

Pages: 181

Publisher: William Morrow Books

Year Published: 2013

Format: Paperback Copy

First Line: "I wore a black suit and a white shirt, a black tie and black shoes, all polished and shiny; clothes that normally would make me feel uncomfortable, as if I were in a stolen uniform, or pretending to be an adult."

"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. he hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie- magical, comforting, wise beyond her years- promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a string, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark."

My Rating: 1/5

I want to start this review by saying that I get why people like this book. I do understand that it is well-loved, and I understand why people loved it. It just 100% was not for me. And here is why. First, I really like to be connected to our characters and get an idea of who they are, they are what helps carry me through stories. Second, I needed more information throughout the story it was both too long and not long enough for my enjoyment. And finally, I don't think I like magical realism. Looking back I can't think of a story in that genre that I just adored. I either want fantasy or not, not some in-between trying to figure out what is real. It's just not for me. And that's ok. 

Thanks for reading,

Sidny

Book Review: Transcendent by Katelyn Detweiler

Title: Transcendent 
Author: Katelyn Detweiler
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Magical Realism, Fiction
Pages: 448
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Year Published: 2016
Format: Physical Copy (Hardcover)
First Line: "Where were you the day Disney World was bombed?"

"What would you do if the world was crumbling to pieces... and everyone believed you were the only person who could put it back together?

Terrorists have just bombed Disney World. A thousand miles away, a stranger shows up on Iris Spero's stoop in Brooklyn. He brings with him a shocking secret about Iris's birth, throwing her entire identity into question.

Suddenly, the press is confronting Iris with the wild notion that she might be the miracle the world now so desperately needs. Families all across the grieving nation are pinning their hopes on her as if she is some kind of saint or saviour. She's no longer sure whom she can trust- except for Zane, a homeless boy who long ago abandoned any kind of hope

When no one knows her but everyone wants a piece of her, who is Iris Spero now? And how can she- one teenage girl- possibly heal a broken world?"

My Rating: 2.5/5

So this wasn't at all what I expected. Not even a little bit. I was going to DNF it but I always worry if I do that, by the end of the story I would have liked it. But this book was just ok for me. I think that the storyline was interesting but very drawn out. Also the characters were fleshed out but not in an important way. I think this story is something you should read if you're needing a pick me up and someone to believe in. I would also recommend for younger readers.

Thank you for reading,
Sidny