Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Quercus Children's Books 

Released: 9th of November 2023 

Yellowjackets meets She Is a Haunting in this debut speculative thriller that follows a disgraced teen idol who comes face-to-face with the demons of her past in a glittering, cutthroat K-pop competition.

After a shocking scandal that abruptly ended her teen popstar career, eighteen-year-old Sunny Lee spends her days longing for her former life and cyberstalking her ex-BFF and groupmate, Candie. The two were once inseparable, but that was then—before the tragedy and heartache they left in their wake.

In the here and now, Sunny is surprised to discover that Candie is attending a new K-pop workshop in her hometown. Candie might be there chasing stardom, but Sunny can’t resist the chance to join her and finally confront their traumatic history. Because she still can’t figure out what happened that horrible night when Mina, the third in their tight-knit trio, jumped to her death. Or if the dark and otherworldly secrets she and Candie were keeping had something to do with it . . .

But the workshop doesn’t bring the answers Sunny had hoped for, nor a happy reunion with Candie. Instead, Sunny finds herself haunted by ghostly visions while strange injuries start happening to her competitors—followed by even stranger mutilations to their bodies. In her race to survive, Sunny will have to expose just who is behind the carnage—and if Candie is out for blood once more—in Linda Cheng’s spellbinding sapphic thriller that will have readers screaming and swooning for more.

 What I Have to Say 

This book was so good. It was atmospheric, it was gripping and I just loved the storyline. It hit what for me is the right balance of scary. It was creepy without keeping me up all night because I'm too scared to sleep. I'm a wuss when it comes to scary books, so this was just right for me. 

I loved the main characters, I could really see the friendship between Sunny, Candie and Mina in the flashbacks and I loved the chemistry between Candie and Sunny. I would maybe have wanted a bit more of the romance, but it would have been hard to fit in to the story. 

The plot was so interesting, combining the horror plot with the modern, high pressure career of K-pop idol was such a good idea and it really fit well with Candie's past as well. I think the combination worked really really well. 

5 star 

My thanks go to Quercus and Netgalley for providing me with this gifted copy for review. 

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix

Pages: 416 

Publisher: Gollancz 

Released: 23rd of March 2023 

There is often trouble of a mythical sort in Bath. The booksellers who police the Old World keep a careful watch there, particularly on the entity who inhabits the ancient hot spring. Yet this time it is not from Sulis Minerva that trouble starts. It comes from the discovery of a sorcerous map, leading left-handed bookseller Merlin into great danger. A desperate rescue is attempted by his sister the right-handed bookseller Vivien and their friend, art student Susan Arkshaw, who is still struggling to deal with her own recently discovered magical heritage.

The map takes the trio to a place separated from this world, maintained by deadly sorcery performed by an ancient sovereign and guarded by monstrous living statues of Portland Stone. But this is only the beginning, as the booksellers investigate centuries of disappearances and deaths and try to unravel the secrets of the murderous Lady of Stone, a serial killer of awesome powers.

If they do not stop her, she will soon kill again. And this time, her target is not an ordinary mortal.

What I Have to Say 

I'm really enjoying this series. The characters are fantastic, the story has enough twists an turns to make the ending unexpected without making it seem too far out and it has wonderful pop culture references that make the 80s setting pop with life. 

Merlin is a fantastic character. His quirky fashion sense, unpredictability and hints and gender fluidity come together to form a character who I very quickly came to love. Along with Susan and Vivien, he fends off threats that come after them. 

Parts of this book took place in Bath, as you can tell from the title and it really did well to show off the wonderful bits of a city I love. I loved reading about bits of the city I knew, though it left me desperately craving Sally Lunn's buns! 

If you haven't started this series yet, I would really recommend you do so ASAP! 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Gollancz and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.