Weird Fiction

Best Reads of 2025

Book Review, Books, Climate Fiction, Creative Non Fiction, Crime Fiction, Eco-criticism, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Speculative historical fiction, Thrutopia, Weird Fiction

This was a hard year for me – I was ill for a lot of it which impacted on my reading speed. During the second half of December, however, I decided to consciously stop checking social media and make my life much more analogue. Surprising no one, this was the month I read the most – and also when I mentally felt the healthiest I’ve been in a long while. So this is something I’m hoping to embrace in 2026 – less time in the digital sphere and more time with a book in my hands…

Books that blew my mind:

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin

Very late to the party with this one, I know, but it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Cosmic horror, philosophy and religion. Fantasy at its best. We follow a teenager who has been hailed as the high-priestess of an ancient religion. Who has been educated to believe she’s one of the most important humans on Earth – but actually, does she have any power at all to decide her own fate? The descriptions of the maze of caves under the tombs of Atuan had be dizzy with fear and wonder.

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Dystopias and Introspection: September 2025 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Creative Non Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, Short Story Collection, Weird Fiction

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin

This is the second book in the Earthsea series that I started reading in August this year. I loved this second instalment even more than the first one, if that is even possible. Whereas A Wizard of Earthsea was more classical fantasy, this book had some horror and weird fiction features intertwined that I particularly enjoyed.

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Travels through space and time: August 2025 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Creative Non Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Horror, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Weird Fiction
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Here by Richard McGuire

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When I worked at the bookshop, we had a graphic novel that I would check on occasion. Its concept fascinated me. If you don’t know it yet, Here tells a story through double-page illustrations of the same space – a room in a house – spanning years, centuries, and millennia. For example, if you are watching the space millennia ago, there is only plants, maybe some strange prehistoric animal lurking in the background. In the future, water floods everywhere. Or we may get glimpses of a futuristic society. The present time focuses mainly on the twentieth century, allowing you to see the same family grow and evolve in the same space.

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Books I can’t shut up about: May 2025 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Climate Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Weird Fiction

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

This is the second (and final part) of the Six of Crows duology. I enjoyed it as much as the first one, especially when it came to the evolution of some of the characters from the previous book, such as Wylan, the disowned son of the wealthy merchant Van Eck. Something I loved about this series is how dark it can get, but also, how it also contains some hilarious moments (such as the gang kidnapping Van Eck’s young wife, who turns out to be a very bad singer who loves to sing…and torments them all). Another character that I enjoyed getting to know more of in this second book was Jasper – a gunslinger with a great sense of humour (and also, a gambling issue). His relationship with his father is both sad and tender (he’s been spending his father’s money while pretending he’s a university student, whereas in reality he’s just devoted to a life of crime as a member of Kaz’s band).

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Seahorses, aliens and willows: September 2024 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Creative Non Fiction, Graphic Novels, Horror, Queer Literature, Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Weird Fiction

The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher

This is the third book I read by T Kingfisher and it’s possibly the one that I’ve found the spookiest. By now I know Kingfisher is an author I enjoy – I’ve literally devoured all her books. What I love the most is her fast-paced writing style and her characters.

In this story, we follow Kara, a thirty-something-year-old recently divorced who goes back to live with her uncle Earl in North Carolina. Now, Uncle Earl has quite a special job. He’s the owner and curator of a very particular museum: Natural Wonders, Curiosity and Taxidermy. You can imagine the deal: all sorts of quirky stuffed animals (including a Fiji siren) and strange artefacts. Kara, however, is anything but spooked. In fact, she has very good memories of growing up around the museum, so when her uncle offers her a job there helping him out she immediately accepts.

Things are going normal until one day, when she’s taking care of the museum while his uncle is in the hospital healingfrom back surgery, she discovers a strange hole in the wall. At the beginning she tries to patch it up but ends up realising that the hole is actually quite large – she gets inside (of course!) and discovers that she’s actually in a tunnel in a completely different dimension. That’s how she ends up accessing another world. Now, this new space she discovers is one of my favourite parts of the book. A strange alien, empty land filled only with water and willows.

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Non-fiction and psychedelics: April 2024 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Creative Non Fiction, Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Science-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Weird Fiction

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This seemed a fun book and I was in the mood for something I could read on a long train journey. It was a quick, entertaining reading – even though it’s narrated in quite an interesting way. Basically, it’s written in the form of interviews and statements made by people who belonged to the fictional rock band from the title. This American band became extremely famous in the 1970s and is loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. This formatting threw me off at the beginning but I soon got into it and I think that, thanks to it, the book is certainly quite pacy.

One of the things that I didn’t like (subjectively) was how Daisy Jones (the band’s female lead) was depicted from the beginning. She’s from a rich but emotionally detached family, and she’sbasically born gorgeous (she’s described as beautiful as a girl, as a teenager, and as a woman, no matter how much alcohol she drinks and how many drugs she does). She’s also incredibly talented music-wise. And everyone loves her. But she’s also kind of broken inside because it’s so hard to be perceived ‘only’ as a beautiful girl… I mean yes, but also, give me a break. I’m so tired of female characters that have beauty as their primary characteristic.

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Parents, Families and Trouble: February 2024 Reading Log

Book Review, Books, Crime Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Literary Fiction, Queer Literature, Weird Fiction

Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher

I really enjoyed T Kingfisher’s writing style when I read The Twisted Ones, so when I got this book for my birthday I was really looking forward to it – especially as some of my friends said they thought I’d love this one even more. They were right.

First of all, this is a revenge quest, and I have a thing for revenge quests. I adore them, there’s something about getting what you are owed in the end that I just– yeah, I know life is not often like this, which is perhaps why I really like characters to get some retribution in fiction.

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