Bookseller Victoria's Recent Reads - March '25

Bookseller Victoria's Recent Reads - March '25

As always, because we’re in this private little space, I’ll be more forthcoming and honest with you about how I felt. The intention is always to help guide you, my lovely readers, not to tear anyone down. (And on the rare occasion my intention is, in fact, to tear someone down, tbh they probably deserve it!!!) 

THIS WORLD IS NOT YOURS by Kemi Ashing-Giwa—3/5—I was excited for this one, but unfortunately it felt more like a draft or a short story to me than anything else. There’s a lot of interesting premise; in particular I enjoy the not-quite-linear storytelling. And I’m always down for a toxic sapphic couple. But at no point do the characters really grow beyond pawns for the plot—and, even worse, the plot just isn’t strong enough to make up for that lack of characterization. It’s a quick read, so if it’s on your TBR, by no means should it come off, I don’t think. It’s just … a bit forgettable, I’m afraid.

MARY AND THE RABBIT DREAM by Noemi Kiss-Deaki—3.25/5—this is a translation, which always brings in the issue of not knowing whether you’re critiquing the translator’s work or the writer’s, or (perhaps most realistically) a bit of both. Again, we have what I find to be a fascinating premise: taking the tale of Mary Toft, the rabbit-birther, and transforming it into a commentary on class and gender. Cool, sign me up. There’s some particularly searing parts of this book, but overall, the style it’s written in seems to do little more than appeal to people who want to feel smarter for reading works they deem literary or complex or difficult. I’m always excited by experimentation with structure and language, but when it gets in the way of the story itself … I find that kind of useless, personally.

SO THIRSTY by Rachel Harrison—3/5—vampires are having a moment again (well, they’re always having a moment, just in varying degrees) and I’m always here for that, tbh. This book is a fun exploration into female friendship, what women are willing to put up with in life, and what exactly it means to be a monster. I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more were the cast not entirely white (or at least white-appearing, OR perhaps I’m just fucking stupid and can’t read) and if this didn’t often kind of veer into … white feminism vampires, I guess? I don’t know. This could’ve been really good if Harrison had let things be a bit more complex and really investigated some of the themes she brought up. For something that often looks like it’s going to dig deeper into complex morality, it just always falls a little short, at least for me. But arguably, that makes this book more commercially viable, so there’s that reality.

LUCY UNDYING by Kiersten White—4/5—listen, if you told me that we were gonna combine gender politics + MLMs + vampires, I would’ve been excited but unclear on how anyone could pull that off. Well, I would argue White nearly nails it. This book is long, sometimes meandering, and unfortunately bogged down in a few places, but it’s incredibly fun, smart and deeply engaging in a way White has really mastered. There’s both healthy and toxic sapphic relationships to play with here, plus a great commentary on the way that (all too often) men view women as something to be consumed and controlled, and how women gleefully cannibalize each other in the name of power. I’m not convinced this couldn’t have been shortened up and tightened by a heavier edit, but it’s fresh and well-written, plus it’s got a beautiful cover. I recommend picking this one up!

Back to blog