THE FICTIONFOX

The start of July marks the half-way point of the year. That means it’s time for my semi-annual check-in post. If you’ve been here before, you know the drill: 20 questioned, originally inspired by the Midyear Book Freak Out Tag, but adapted to fit my reading a bit better. I will try to give as many unique answers where possible, but it’s unavoidable that some titles will appear on multiple questions. Also, since I was so late with my Q1-wrap-up, there is bound to be some over

October Releases Children of Owl - Darcie Little Badger Genre: middle-grade fantasy Expected Release date: October 6th Synopsis: From the peerless master of contemporary fantasy comes a tale of three cousins and the world of creatures, ghosts, and murderers that surrounds their trailer park. Illustrated throughout with comics pages! Maisie: hasn't gotten her life back on track since her best friend died and she saw Owl, harbinger of ill tidings and doom. Joel: Streaming prodi

My Suspiciously Specific Series came into life as a way for me to explore and examine highly (often very specific) microtropes or trends I’ve been loving within my reading lately. A love for novels set in liminal spaces has been on the list of microtropes that I wanted to cover for a long time. Inspired by the trailer of a soon to be released movie, The Backrooms, that is soon to spark broader interest in the topic, I decided that today was the day to tackle this one. For tho

Mermaids are a staple of folklore, and almost every culture historically has a variation on this half-human half-fish creature embedded in their mythology somewhere. As a lover of the ocean, bodies of water, and swimming myself, I've been equally fascinated with these creatures, but less so with their romanticized version in popular culture. Today (on the 12th of May) I bring you 12 recommendations for books featuring mermaids, where all of differ a little from your typical p

Representation within fiction has been a huge passion of mine for as long as I've been active as a reviewer. No form of representation has had the same personal significance to me, as that of disabled, (chronically) ill or divergent bodies. Growing up, illness and disability were always a big part of my life, and I've spoken about how it shaped my relationship with reading as well. My love of reading started in hospital-beds, escaping the reality of my own "stroke of bad gene

With the first quarter of 2026 behind us it’s time for me to give my first of many wrap-ups. And by “time” I mean, almost a month overdue… Thanks to the hectic and eventful month I’ve had, I completely missed the Q1-mark, and instead am giving you a “tertile” review instead… At the time of writing, I’ve completed 41 books, according to Goodreads. Here are the ones that stood out the most. Favourites: Hemlock – Melissa Faliveno A blend of disorienting magical realism and horro

Genre: Contemporary Fiction Published: Soho Press, March 2025 My Rating: 1/5 stars "You look at him, puppy-eyed. At this man who looks like Leo, but isn’t Leo and want to say “my husband always kept pens in his pocket too. I miss you already.” I thought long and hard on how to rate this novel. What I eventually ended up with was the longest review I've ever written, and a rating of a single star. Although it has a bunch of redeeming qualities, which I will address below, I u

During the past month, I’ve been on a bit of an eco-fiction-kick, picking up stories that deal with environmentalism, nature vs humanity, and growth and transformation in various ways. Today, I want to combine 3 recent releases- each with their own spin on this theme – and review them side-by-side. From young-adult horror to literary fiction with a speculative twist; modern eco-fiction has something for everyone. Despite the fact that I didn’t rate any of these books very hig

My Suspiciously Specific Recommendations for February will themed around a topic that’s close to my heart this time of year: grief. Not only does February mark some significant dates and anniversaries in relation to my personal grief, but it also feels like the perfect time of year for the subject matter: gloomy, cold and dark, but with days that are ever so slowly lengthening again towards summer. In this mini-series, I’ll share some grief-themed books, clustered by suspicio

My Suspiciously Specific Recommendations for February will themed around a topic that’s close to my heart this time of year: grief. Not only does February mark some significant dates and anniversaries in relation to my personal grief, but it also feels like the perfect time of year for the subject matter: gloomy, cold and dark, but with days that are ever so slowly lengthening again towards summer. In this mini-series, I’ll share some grief-themed books, clustered by suspicio

As I was compiling my Favourite-reads of 2025 list, I was once again reminded of how much my favourites are personal to me, and don’t always correspond to the books I recommend the broadest. In honour of all those books that I feel would have the potential to be favourites for other readers, but just didn’t make my personal list, I bring you this list of Rapid-Fire Recommendations. These are all recent releases (within the past 3 years); some of them just missed the favourit

As part of my 2025 reading-resolutions, I DNF-ed more books that I wasn’t enjoying than I might have done in previous years. I’m happy to say that that significantly lowered the number of truly awful/harmful/boring books I read, that would qualify for this list. Most of these therefore, were more so disappointing than objectively bad. That being said, there were inevitably going to be a few stinkers that snuck through my defenses. This list is all about them. Unlike my favour

It took me longer than any other year before to compile my end-of-year-lists, and even so, they ended up looking a little different from previous years. 2025 has not been a good year for me. Apart from couple of significant changes in my personal- and professional life that posed challenges, I was visited by the Black Dog again about halfway through the year. If you’re unfamiliar with that metaphor, please feel free to google it… Where this beasty has been a small and well-be

There's always something truly exciting to me about browsing publishers catalogues and Goodreads' release-dates for upcoming novels to add to my TBR. 2026 has a great line-up in store for us all, and I've selected 26 of them to share with you. Split into 13 books from authors I've read from before (including some of my all-time favourites), and 13 books that sold me on their synopsis: let's get excited for the new year together. As always, release-dates might be subject to ch

The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop book 2) - Sarah Beth Durst Genre: cozy fantasy Pagecount: 374 pages Comfort-factor: cottagecore cozy fantasy with a snowy setting Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet, one

In honour of Halloween, today's Suspiciously-Specific micro-trope that I love is all about books inspired by Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I've talked about this classic multiple times on here, as I have a strange relationship with the novel itself. Although I don't particularly love the original text, I adore everything it stands for as a part of the literary canon. I love the themes, the histy behind its creation and the legacy it inspired. It's not a surprise then, that I'

Echoes - Evie Wyld Genre : literary fiction Pagecount : 304 pages The haunted house is a modern-day appartment... Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him. Rose/House - Arkady Martine Genre : sci-fi novella Pagecount : 115 pages The haunted house is a fully-automated futuri

A reading-blog in which I attempt to beat my readingslump by reading recently released horror-novella's until I find a 5-star...

Lanny – Max Porter Genre: literary fiction, magical realism Pagecount: 210 pages A literary novel that reads almost like an extended poem about a young boy who disappears into the local English woods, and the mythological figure of Dead Papa Toothwort - essentially a spirit of the forest, akin to the Green Man - who watches the following events unfold from the shadows of the trees. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater Genre: Young Adult, magical realism Pagecount: 409 pages The

We've reached the halfway point of the year, which means it's time for a Mid-Year check-in. I will stick to my trialed and true format of...