Emily's Reverie
@nettlesomeone.bsky.social
840 followers 1.5K following 620 posts
Unitarian Universalist homeschooler Favorite things: horror novels and kind people My Substack: scarybooks.substack.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
A secretly psychic woman is forced to join the training program for the elite squad that hunts secret psychics.

Think Divergent, but not YA.

The romance is meh, but the twists and set pieces were fun. I can't defend it on literary terms. But did I have a good time? Absolutely.

#books #booksky
Silver Elite by Dani Francis
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Mystery + Horror:

Anna, age 17, works as a maid in the tribe casino. When a couple of teen girls go missing, she starts putting pieces together. #MMIWG

Meanwhile she knows a folklore entity is coming for her. A disembodied head, rolling towards her, always. SPOOKY.

#books #booksky
Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina cover shows a stylized campfire with a skull in the center and an arrow at the bottom
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Isola is a novel about Marguerite de La Rocque, who in 1541 was marooned with her young lover on a island. But the most tense chapters are her childhood, where she learns that an orphan girl's survival takes cunning. A story of courage, resilience, reflection, and redemption. #books #booksky
Isola by Allegra Goodman cover show a woman in a long gown on a rocky cliff, looking down at the ocean.
Reposted by Emily's Reverie
meidastouch.com
This photo just about sums it up
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
This is a haunted house page turner has wit and a touch a rage.
I enjoyed our POV character Clio, a clever NYC influence with a chaotic streak, who observes early on "The easiest way to tell who a man really is, is to injure his ego and see how he reacts".

Best in print.
#books #booksky
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison book cover shows a devil tale wrapped around a purple house
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
5 stars - perfectly paced fantasy / dark academia
This is a book anti-colonialist and feels very relevant.

Sciona aspires to be the first woman archmage in Bright Haven. As she rises, she uncovers uncomfortable truths. TW gore, misogyny, racism

I gulped it down. And that ending!

#books #booksky
Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang
Reposted by Emily's Reverie
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Folk Horror: In a war-torn world, the island of Lute is peaceful and protected. But every 7 years, there is "The Day" where tragedy happens as a tithe. Nina, who moved here almost 7 years ago by marriage, doesn't buy it, thinks she's being hazed ... no gore, evocative.

#books #booksky
Lute by Jennifer Thorne shows an image of 7 transparent women and girls
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
I just started season 2 of This is Us and I don't want to cancel Hulu. Of course I did, because of course I did. Fuck them for making me miss this goddamn tearjerker show.
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
The most 2025 novel of 2025.
7 years ago journalist Rhys punched his MAGA son in law at Thanksgiving. Then he went off grid. Now his grandkids show up needing help.
What comes next is a wild ride: a road trip, guns, and Rhys trying to figure out cell phones. This book is ALIVE. #books #booksky
So far gone by Jess Walter
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
This is a dual-timeline atmospheric gothic mystery set in Cornwall. In 1947, Alice is the new governess in a spooky manor house that the locals are wary of..... the modern part is about an orphaned woman who inherits that house, now abandoned. Good horror-adjacent fall pick.
#books #booksky
The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James show a woman on a cliff near a mansion
Reposted by Emily's Reverie
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
This literary mystery-within-a-mystery is atmospheric; it makes Texas drip with menace and regrets. Featuring a mute child with one eye - secrets hidden in cookbooks - biblical verses as threats - a missing homecoming queen named Trumanell. The twists are *chef's kiss*.

#books #booksky
We are all the Same in the dark by Julia Heaberlin
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Evvie is leaving her crappy husband when he unexpected dies. She gets a renter: a struggling pro baseball player. Both are experiencing complicated grief.

This is in the "romance as self discovery / therapy" subgenre, but it's smart, honest, funny and feels grounded.

#booksky #books
Evvie Drake starts over by Linda Holmes
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Been a while since I read a horror book that is actually scary.
Also the voice: “Cora imagines if she herself were someone’s one and only source of American culture, how they would find it strange that Americans take such long showers and have such smelly jobs and cry so much.” #booksky #horror
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng By Kylie Lee Baker
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
WWII fantasy / adventure

This debut is about a 19 year old English witch, a French resistance fighter named Rebecca, and a Haitian-American art expert racing to find a powerful artifact before the Nazis do.

The Nazis have witches too.

Intense, action-packed, emotional.

#books #booksky #fantasy
A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Qualifying conditions for COVID vaccine
'Physical inactivity' could be your reason if none other fit
CDC conditions allowing for the COVID vaccine
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
I'd LOVE a short story collection inspired by Sam & Dean....

Happy to have this: a dark horror novella about a woman mourning her teen son, a roadside memorial, a ghost(?), and some bad decisions. Well written & paced, emotional, doesn't play nice. TW grief, body horror. #books #booksky #horror
Crossroads by Laurel Hightower.  Book cover shows the silloutie of a woman with a messy bun, in her body we see a cross (memorial-style) at a crossroads.
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
I wonder if Dystopia scent is just a neutral non-fragrance
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
Such an intimate and emotional novel. Easily will make my best of the year list. I usually prefer genre fiction, but this has such humor and sense and suspense and empathy.......I think just about anyone would enjoy it.

I am sure Virignia Evans is now inundated with letters.
#books #booksky
The Correspondent by Virignia Evans book cover shows two watercolor birds looking at each other
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
I have a universalist Bluesky feed, and I have never seen so many posts about a death as I have this one. It is a struggle.
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
There are lots of people in divinity school who don't want to be congregational ministers. But I worry this is a path to "concierge ministry" ......
Reposted by Emily's Reverie
nettlesomeone.bsky.social
THE epic fantasy novel of 2025. Not grimdark, not romantasy, just intrigue, worldbuilding, twists, wit and most importantly, it's well written!

Plot start: locked room murder mystery, rival monasteries, and a big competition. Main POV character is a Black woman in her 30s.

#books #booksky
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson