Books

Print books and audiobooks.

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2026

  1. The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (1988)
    7.2/10. What if Madoka's word processor had just read "the victim had terrible explosive diarrhea covering all surfaces of the bathroom"?
    You think it's a relatively predictable murder mystery until the very end (after the afterword) surprises you.
  2. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (1987)
    8.2/10. Narrated by P.J. Ochlan. A thrilling classic mystery told even better than And Then There Were None in my opinion. The murders are not as clever in that respect, but the characters are much more dynamic and lively. I want to say more but I want to avoid spoilers. This is a must-read if you're into mystery fiction.
  3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999)
    7.4/10. Narrated by Mandy Siegfried. This book tackles a heavy topic and Anderson does it justice. It started out at a sluggish pace but gets much better. Anderson's writing and imagery are fantastic.
  4. There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (2020)
    5.7/10. What a strange book. It's like if Men In Black was a book involving time travel and alternate universes. I'm not going to pretend that I understood any of it.
  5. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
    7.6/10. Narrated by Kirsten Potter. A pretty depressing take on a post-apocalyptic world. It's an engaging read but slow to start. I hate that this book seems to put pedophilic preying men on pedestals, but maybe that's the point.
  6. You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao (2021)
    6.8/10. This book is pretty sad. The main criticism I have of it is that the main character has no agency outside of Sam. They also do a lot of telling, not showing ("you like to talk, remember?"). It's a bit frustrating because sometimes the author does a great job showing... but not all the time. Every time I thought the author might try something interesting with the story, the cliches took over. I also think the resolution wasn't impactful and didn't feel absolute.
  7. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020)
    6.8/10. I enjoyed the narrative at first but the resolution at the end of the courtroom act was essentially "assimilate into white society so you aren't racially profiled" which is silly. Asian Americans shouldn't have to adapt to fit white culture.
  8. Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (2021)
    6.7/10. Narrated by Thérèse Plummer. A good read with a fun concept but the twist was a bit too predictable for me. I already knew what Maud Dixon had planned after the crash occurred. I also didn't think the change of the main character at the end seemed realistic.
  9. We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (2016)
    9.0/10. Narrated by Gibson Frazier. This is such a beautifully written story. This book started as a sci-fi thriller, became a depression survival story, then transitioned into a love triangle romance. Hutchinson's vocabulary and imagery are superb and kept me wanting more.
  10. Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (2023)
    7.2/10. Narrated by Gregory D. Barnett, Sam Slade, Kimberly Bonny, Louis B. Jack, James Lewis, and Jay Aaseng. A fun creepy story and Jake was my favorite character - for some reason he reminded me of one of my coworkers. I only wish the story was scarier. To be fair, there's nothing scarier than a cop with a gun.