Hello 🙂
I haven’t updated the blog since September of last year, which means I’m due for a big update regarding my 2025 wrap up and the reviews of the books I didn’t create dedicated posts for. I’m not going to lie, I don’t currently feel like writing a whole post for each of the 7 books I’ve read but that I haven’t written reviews for yet, so we’ll kind of do a rapid-fire type of thing here, then we’ll dig into my personal thoughts about my 2025 in regards to books in a different post.
With that out of the way, let’s do this:
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
This book is a certified classic©, incredibly forward thinking for its time, it brings cozy vibes, and a testament that character focused stories can be great. That being said, I thought it was just OK. I understand the historical impact the book had, and I do really appreciate how it started paving the way for more feminist stories in literature. But I read this in 2025, where the world has changed, and the impact isn’t as big nowadays, so it was harder for me to connect with the story at a more personal level (in addition to my being male, and I also recognize that my life experience is very different from womens’ life experiences).
The book also felt very “serialized” to me, there isn’t really a focused, main plot, but each chapter focuses on a different aspect of each of the main characters, which works lovely for the book, but it just isn’t for me. I do think this might be one of the first character driven stories I’ve read, and I’m looking forward to read more of them. All in all, I liked it, I don’t think I’d read it again (maybe if I ever have a daughter I’d read it to her though).
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Las Muertas by Jorge Ibargüengoitia
Yes, it’s true, I’m a born and raised Mexican, so when we chose this book for our September read in the book club I go to I was pretty excited. We read it during peak hype, the Netflix series had just released (called “The Dead Girls” in English), Ibargüengoitia is one of the most famous Mexican authors, and is especially known for his dark humor. I really like dark humor, especially when it comes to mocking our own government (which is a very Mexican thing to do, by the way).
The book is loosely based on the poquianchis, who were 4 sisters from Jalisco, Mexico, who ran a prostitution ring and where at least 91 took place, and the Guinness World Records called them the “most prolific murder partnership”. Taking such a tragic, serious, and sensitive subject matter and turning it into a dark comedy, mocking our own government (which, again, very Mexican) takes skill, and doing a great job at it, is masterful.
This is a short book, it’s fast paced, it’s funny, honestly, just all around a great time. I really really enjoyed my time with the book and I definitely look forward to reading more by Ibargüengoitia.
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I was worried about not liking this book, I thought that the main character would be one-dimensional, and an annoying Mary Sue (kind of what I experienced with Project Hail Mary) but if this isn’t a testament to not prejudge books, then I don’t know what is, because I found this book incredibly enjoyable.
The book centers around chemist Elizabeth Zott, as she works around the misogynistic and belittling idea of women most people had back in the 1950s, she eventually gets fired from her lab technician job and finds work as the host of a cooking TV show, which becomes a smash hit, to the dismay of the director of the TV station.
The book is unapologetically feminist, and it gets its point across without being preachy, while also delivering an interesting and charming narrative. The worries I had at the beginning were non-starters. The protagonist could be viewed as a Mary Sue, but honestly, her superpowers are limited to chemistry and cooking (which the book did a great job of convincing me was a consequence of her being so into chemistry). Was the daughter a little annoying in how prim and perfect she was? Maybe a little, but not enough to distract me from the main storyline, so I’m fine letting that minor gripe go. Elizabeth is also complex, like any human should be, the book focuses a lot on her personal struggles, and highlights her moments of weakness as much as her highlights, this brings a balance I thoroughly enjoyed.
There’s also an Apple+ TV mini series based on the book, it’s not a 1:1 adaptation, but honestly? It’s pretty close, and the bigger things that were changed were honestly not even bad, so I’d actually also recommend watching that if it fancies you.
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Mandíbula by Mónica Ojeda
Here’s another book club pick, this time for October, where we picked this one expecting spooky vibes. What did we get? A psychological horror novel focused on the twisted “games” of a group of high school girls obsessed with internet creepy pastas, and who make up their own “White God” who they now worship and give offerings to. One of the leaders of this group ends up being kidnapped by one of their teachers who the group had previously bullied, and the plot follows a dual timeline that is woven throughout: before and after the kidnapping.
I honestly had zero expectations for this book, I’d never read anything by the author, and the synopsis made it sound interesting but I wasn’t sure if the author would pull it off, and she did! I will admit this book isn’t for everyone, opinions on it were very divisive in the book club, one member called it “the worst book she’d ever read”, she just couldn’t connect with the prose or the story.
On the other hand, I had a blast. I did feel just the right amount of uneasiness/creepiness during certain chapters, and found the plot to be intriguing and creative. It also didn’t overstay its welcome, it was a fast read, a good conclusion, and one of the better individual chapters I read all year long, which consisted of an essay one of the girls writes to the bullied teacher explaining to her what her belief system is in regards to the White God, and what fear actually is. This felt a lot like the author talking directly to the reader and felt like the true climax of the book. I didn’t expect such a literary section in the book, it took me by surprise in the best way possible.
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
I won’t lie to you, I’ve only read one Stephen King book, which wasn’t even a horror book, I read 11/22/63, which I really liked, and I actually nominated Pet Sematary for the book club October pick, which clearly didn’t win (see review above). So given that, I somehow rationalized that I should read a book by King’s son instead. Don’t ask me to explain the logic behind this, it was honestly a decision based on vibes and that’s what I felt like reading.
I feel like I got catfished by this book, I was expecting a horror story, and got more of a thriller. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a thriller (and this is a good one!), but since I was expecting more horror, it just took me a bit to rearrange my expectations.
The story follows Victoria (Vic) McQueen, a woman who can travel “between spaces” so to speak, when riding her bike she can imagine and essentially materialize a bridge that will take her wherever she wants. She uses this power to track lost belongings at first, but it eventually leads her to the house of Charles Manx, a kidnapper who also possesses a similar power and kidnaps children to steal their vitality and turn them into soulless individuals.
I still have some mixed feelings about this book, more positive than negative, so this review is subject to change, but as of right now: despite not being the exact genre I was expecting, I really like the plot, but I did find it dragged in some places. I think it could have shaved anywhere between 200-300 pages and it would’ve been a much better experience. The beginning in particular I feel like it took a long time to get the story going, I listened to the audiobook and was surprised at how much time passed before we got to the main plot of the book. I guess the idea is to have a big reward for being patient, which might just not be quite my cup of tea.
As a thriller, this was really good, there are clear antagonists and trying to figure out what they or the protagonist will do next did keep me wanting more, so if the synopsis seems even remotely interesting to you, give it a shot.
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Note
For the purposes of being completely transparent, NOS4A2 was originally 4 stars, but like I said, it was subject to change, as I’ve let my feelings and thoughts about this book settle, it’s a very firm three stars for me now.
La Ridícula Idea de No Volver A Verte by Rosa Montero
You guessed it, another book club pick.
This is more akin to an essay than an actual novel. The author uses this essay to explore her grief after her husband passed away, and she does so by drawing parallels between her experience and that of Marie Curie. The way Montero mixes stories from Curie’s early life up until her death and all the struggles she faced with her personal experience and things she’s faced in her life are fascinating. She also references letters Curie wrote to her family and also draws from them to explain her feelings.
This book felt like it was super cathartic for the author, and I feel it also has the potential to be very cathartic for people currently trying to process grief. I never thought I’d ever read a book like this, much less like it, but I do think that to fully appreciate it you need to have some level of life experience, I’ve never been married, for example, so it was hard for me to connect with the author’s feelings on marriage, but I still found the book interesting and worth reading.
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
This has got to be among the heaviest hitters, even among classics, right?
There’s not much I can say that a billion other people haven’t already, so I’ll keep it short. I had never read anything by Kafka, and I must say: everything I’ve read about this book is true.
I found the narrative straight-forward at surface level, but absolutely packed with symbolism and a fantastic take on the human condition of how anyone can be viewed as an object, or just a means to an end, even by your own family. There’s a lot packed into a short book. I will definitely come back to it in the future and I’m sure each time I’ll take away something different.
If you haven’t, read it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆