Let’s review the books I’ve read in December and plan my TBR for January.
December reading wrap up
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Synopsis
It’s about a couple, Eve and Charlie, who move into a remote new home. Their peace is shattered when a seemingly friendly family arrives one night, insisting the house was theirs and asking to look around.
Rating & Review
3.97/5 stars
This is the one I was the most excited to read and it did not disappoint. It was creepy and the mystery quite unique. However, I would have liked to get more answers. There are so many details that are never explored, and the ending wasn’t necessarily satisfying.
Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
Synopsis
After a traumatic birth leaves Ana paralyzed and struggling with postpartum, she and her husband, Reid, win a housing lottery for a luxury apartment in the Deptford, a prestigious Manhattan building. Their "lucky break" quickly sours as Ana notices the building’s staff and neighbors are unsettling, and their baby begins suffering from mysterious needle-like bite marks.
Rating & Review
3.97/5 stars
I was impressed by everything this book managed to achieve. Our world is perfectly portrayed, as is the couple, who are very realistic. We can relate to both the woman and the man and their difficulty in adjusting to their lives as young parents, but also as young adults facing a world that no longer excites them.
Regarding the horror aspect, the mystery was obvious, especially when you consider the inspirations (Rosemary's Baby and Salem's Lot) and the numerous references throughout the book.
Thank You For Listening by Julia Wheelan
Synopsis
Sewanee Chester, a successful but disillusioned audiobook narrator, gave up acting and romance narration after a tragic accident. To provide for her grandmother, she reluctantly accepts one last, highly lucrative job: co-narrating a steamy romance novel with the industry's most mysterious and sought-after male voice, Brock McNight.
Rating & Review
4.05/5 stars
I'm not sure what to say about it. Which is strange, considering the rating I gave to it! However, while I was reading it, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing to make it great. I still don't have the answer, so I'm putting it down to the fact that I took a break for a few days at the worst possible moment (before they actually met). I wasn't a fan of the hidden identities either.
On the other hand, I found it very realistic, especially the main character's family and her difficulties in paying for her grandmother's nursing home and her relationship with her father.
As for the romance, their chemistry was just incredible. I just wish they had spent more time together, even though their messages were funny and romantic.
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey
Synopsis
Kinsey, the leader of a research team at a remote desert outpost, breaks protocol by bringing a mysterious specimen they find buried in the sand into their lab.
Rating & Review
2.60/5 stars
This is probably the craziest thing I’ve read in a while. It reminded me of that book during covid of a scientist falling in love with the virus, then its variant. This book is pretty similar to this.
It's short, extremely fast-paced, and strangely horny as fuck. I have nothing against the idea, but I don't think the execution is the best. Kinsey is a very bad leader who only thinks about getting closer to the virus, even if it means sacrificing her entire team, or even the whole world. She expresses all her feelings out loud, without much subtlety.
I didn't find it particularly scary, since the narrator likes what's happening and the other characters are hardly panicked, if at all, before their imminent demise. Besides, their deaths were anticlimactic.
Zodiac Academy The Awakening by Carolie Peckham and Susanne Valenti
Synopsis
Zodiac Academy follows twin sisters Tory and Darcy Vega, who discover they are the long-lost Fae Princesses and heirs to the throne. They are brought to the prestigious Zodiac Academy to master their powers, but they immediately clash with the four powerful and popular Celestial Heirs (Darius, Seth, Caleb, and Max), who are determined to bully the twins out of the academy and prevent them from claiming their birthright.
Rating & Review
2.59/5 stars
The book is very entertaining, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. The worldbuilding is underdeveloped, most of the characters are caricatures (even though Tory is incredible), and I'm not a fan of the repeated harassment. Paradoxically, I had a good time annotating it.
You can purchase my annotated copy here!
The Nesting by C.J. Cooke
Synopsis
Lexi takes a job as a nanny in a remote house in the Norwegian woods for a widowed architect and his two daughters, following the mysterious death of their mother. The house is beautiful but isolated, and Lexi quickly senses that the family's grief masks something far darker.
Rating & Review
3.10/5 stars
I initially added it to my TBR because I read The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware, which I didn’t enjoy and this book was supposed to be really similar. I’ve been wanting to read this forever and sadly got disappointed. I appreciated the Nordic setting and folklore but unfortunately felt underwhelmed. The protagonist was super relatable and the writing was amazing when it depicted mental health struggles. However, as soon as she arrived in the house, I lost interest. Nothing much happens, it’s not scary nor shocking. I got bored, expecting a plot twist that never came. I love the premise but the execution wasn’t my favorite.
Now we’re entering the « I had to read short books to complete my reading challenge ». They were on my radar but not a priority. They became one when I was 3 books behind and had a single day before 2026.
The Mist by Stephen King
Synopsis
After a violent thunderstorm, a thick fog envelops a small town in Maine (obviously, it’s a Stephen King novel), trapping a group of people inside a grocery store. They soon discover what the mist hides and that certain people are as dangerous.
Rating & Review
2.95/5 stars
I have a complicated relationship with Stephen King’s books. Quick history: I did not finish Misery, gave 3 stars to The Shining and only enjoyed Salem’s Lot because I literally like everything with vampires in it. I tend to dislike how his male characters behave and that was the case here.
I liked the mystery but felt like they understood what happened pretty easily and I just wasn’t invested. I loved the ending, though.
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Synopsis
Laura, a lonely young woman living in an isolated castle befriends a mysterious guest named Carmilla. As Laura’s health begins to fail and she experiences haunting nighttime visitations, she discovers that her charismatic friend is actually a vampire with a centuries-old connection to her family.
Rating & Review
3/5 stars
This was beautifully written, especially Carmilla’s monologues. I wish this was longer and more shown than told. I wanted more scenes deepening Carmilla and Laura’s bond, showing her hold on her and her health getting worse. Lastly, I wish they found out what was happening another way than having a random guy info-dump his own experience. The whole explanation of vampirism in the last chapter also breaks Carmilla’s mysticism, even though it was interesting.
Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Synopsis
Sophia lives a perfect life with her perfect husband in the exclusive community of Arcadia Gardens, a place where everything is flawless and safe. Despite the perfection, Sophia can't shake a growing unease about her husband's frequent absences, the suspicious rules of the community, and the strange objects she begins to find in her otherwise immaculate home.
Rating & Review
3.22/5 stars
I love the concept. It’s like a mix of The Stepford Wives and Mother!
However, it wasn’t scary or unsettling. The mystery is just handed to us after a while and overexplained by the villain.
January TBR
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
Sydney Green returns to her Brooklyn neighborhood to find it rapidly gentrifying, only to realize that her neighbors aren't just moving away—they're disappearing under suspicious circumstances. Partnering with her new neighbor Theo, she investigates.
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon
A seemingly charming family man and local hero hides a dark secret: he has kept a woman captive in his shed for eight years. When he is forced to move into a small apartment with his teenage daughter, he brings his prisoner with him
The House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward
In a boarded-up house at the end of a dead-end street, a reclusive man lives with his daughter and a very unusual cat. Their fragile existence is threatened when a new neighbor moves in next door, determined to uncover the truth about a local child's disappearance years ago.
Best Offer Wins by Marisha Kashino
A woman pushed to the brink by a cutthroat real estate market becomes obsessed with securing a dream home before anyone else can bid on it. What begins as harmless research quickly spirals into unhinged stalking and manipulation as she infiltrates the owners' lives, proving there is no boundary she won't cross to claim the life she feels she’s owed.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
After discovering a portal to a terrifying parallel dimension hidden inside her uncle’s museum of curiosities, a young divorcée must find a way to escape the "willow world" before its predatory entities follow her home.
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
After her Ivy League acceptance is revoked due to a scandal, scholarship student Adina Walker enters « The Finish », a high-stakes and secretive competition hosted by a powerful elite family only to discover that the prize of a restored future comes with a deadly tournament.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Lily competes on a cutthroat reality TV show set in a remote desert compound, where contestants must navigate increasingly dangerous tasks and blurred moral lines for the chance to win luxury rewards and a permanent escape from reality.
Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood
Andromeda is a young, unlicensed debtera—an exorcist trained to cleanse homes of the malevolent Evil Eye. Desperate for work, she accepts a job at a cursed isolated mansion belonging to the handsome but eccentric young heir, Magnus Rochester.
I’ve been trying to get to it for two months. I hope this is finally the right time!
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
Amber Patterson is a master manipulator who thinks she deserves a life of luxury. She targets Daphne Parrish—a wealthy socialite and philanthropist—with the goal of befriending her, usurping her life, and becoming the next Mrs. Parrish. However, as Amber gets closer to Daphne’s husband and their glamorous world, she realizes that the "perfect" life she’s trying to steal contains secrets she didn't bargain for.
And you, what’s your TBR for January ?
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