What I'm Reading: April 2025 Booklist

Monday we had my 8 book LJ column but today I also have 2 reviews in the April 1&15, 2025 issue of Booklist. Both are must purchases and super easy hand-sells. One got a star, but the other is also excellent. 

Enjoy my draft reviews with bonus appeal info and my three words below.

Also I have paper ARCs of both of these books. They will be available in future #HorrorForLibraries giveaways. There is not a giveaway this week, but it will be back next week with a strong of titles for which I have posted reviews for this week. You can go here to see how to enter for future giveaways. 

STAR

The Night Birds
by Christopher Golden
May 2025. 320p. St. Martin’s, $29  (9781250285911). 
First published April 1, 2025 (Booklist).

STAR

The Night Birds

By Christopher Golden

Ruby Cahill and Charlie Book broke up almost 2 years ago, but during a hurricane, Ruby returns, without warning, another woman and baby in tow, at the Galveston dock where Book is about to leave to shelter on the sunken ship, where he commands a team studying the mangrove forest that has taken root there. They are on the run from an ancient coven of witches who will stop at nothing to have the baby, a baby whose mother is Ruby’s estranged sister, the woman, that sister’s partner, and the sister, dead. Drenched with unease from the opening pages, Golden [Road of Bones] takes readers on a bleak, but captivating ride told over one harrowing night, shifting the point of view to allow the characters to develop organically without ever sacrificing the quick pace. Heartbreakingly beautiful, filled with action, evil, shape-shifting witches, superior world building, and visceral terror, this is a tale where every detail matters, and reader’s emotions will be put through the wringer, but not left without hope. A strong choice for Horror or Thriller readers, this story will ring the most true in the space where fans of Hex by Olde Heuvelt overlap with This Wretched Valley by Kiefer.

Three Words That Describe This Book: pervasive unease, multiple povs, captivating

Further Appeal: I loved how the tension drenches every page just like the lashing rain. As the storm rages on, things go from uneasy to terrifying to heart breaking.

Notes I took while reading:

• Remarkable – captivating and original setting– pacing, heartbreakingly beautiful and terrifying bleak entertaining
• EVERY DETAIL MATTERS (That made it an easy star-- the details and the compelling story that allows you to get lost and not think about the details and yet you notice when they pay off)
• A perfect example of a Horror-Thriller. But please note-- it is Horror first and Thriller second. Not a 50-50 split. The tone and the storyline are Horror first. 
• More words: original trapped, witches, bleak, balance of character and action, original and captivating world building, heartbreakingly beautiful, every detail matters (one of my favorite things and something that makes a book rise to the top of the top), entertaining from start to finish.
• Original setting. The unease is pervasive because of the setting-- a sunken ship that has become a mangrove and a hurricane. But also the title-- every time a bird is mentioned, even before you learn the "truth" you as a reader are a bit uneasy.
• Golden does superior world building here-- both the ship but also the witchcraft and its original. HE is also great at developing characters (sympathy and flaws) and place without sacrificing the action and keeping the plot moving forward. He does that in every book, but here it is top of his game.
• The characters-- Book and Ruby are the main ones, but POV is spread to a few other key figures (no spoilers) and the details and information the reader gets from those chapters is important. Not a word is wasted here. We see the characters, flaws and all, and we sympathize with them. No POV is unnecessary tot he story and our enjoyment of it. 
• Golden is already a must buy at your library, but this one will be an easy handsell to anyone who likes supernatural thrillers. bonus if they like witches or sunken ships. 
• But please note-- it is Horror first and Thriller second. Not a 50-50 split. The tone and the storyline are Horror first. 

Readalikes: This reminded me of ARARAT and ROAD OF BONES-- two of Golden's best ever.  But for readalikes, I think it is for readers in the Venn diagram who liked Hex by Thomas Olde Huevelt (the witch parts and the bleak and menacing tone) and This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer (the trapped trope and the multiple point of view for character development that keeps the story moving). Also both Horror books that appeal to a wide audience.

Laid Barron fans will like this one. The Troop by Cutter also a good readalike. 

The Butcher’s Daughter: The Hitherto Untold story of Mrs. Lovett
By David Demchuk and Corinne Leigh Clark
May 2025. 418p. Hell’s Hundred, $27.95  (9781641296427); e-book (9781641296434). First published April 1, 2025 (Booklist).

It’s 1887 and London journalist Emily Gibson is missing. Police do find her dossier of papers all tied to Margaret Evans, the woman who Gibson is convinced is the “real” Mrs Lovett. Unveiled in a well paced, epistolary style, this clever and entertaining tale is Margaret’s life story as relayed in her correspondence with Gibson. Her voice is confident, her story filled with hardship, but it also features exciting twists as she uses her wits and strategically placed lies to find her footing. While readers know from the title that she will end up a villain, Demchuk and Clark imbue Margaret with sympathy throughout, even as murder victims are cut up and made into delicious pies. However, there is an even more shocking reveal in the novel’s final pages, a horror that will punch readers in the gut and reverberate off the page and into history. Those who enjoy being immersed in the gritty, visceral, and historically accurate world of Victorian London as seen in Victorian Psycho by Feito or From Hell by Moore will eagerly devour this tale.

Three Words That Describe This Book: strong sense of place, fiction about fictional characters, epistolary 

Further Appeal: More words-- fun, clever, compelling, atmospheric, menacing, psychological thriller, visceral (but from the start readers should be prepared if they know the story of Sweeney Todd. The thing is though, it is visceral throughout)

Readers will be immersed in the second half of the 1800 hundreds in the streets of London. All five senses. 2 main time frames-- 1887, the story's present when Margery is an older woman to back to beginning in her childhood (50 years before) and moving forward to the present as she tells journalist Emily Gibson her story though letters and diary entries. 

The entire novel is framed as the dossier given to the head investigator-- documents gathered by Gibson, a journalist trying to figure out who Margaret really was. It has the letters and diary entries but also correspondences that Gibson received as part of her inquiry. The dossier was found at the start of the novel in Gibbons rooms but she is missing. 

So we have a double mystery of who Margaret is and where Gibson is? 

This is a story of a woman pushed into the shadows of a famous story being given her moment to be the star. Yes, she is fictional, but the story that is told feels real and even makes connections to things that really happened and places that exist. So in making her real-- the way Margaret was able to move around the world despite being poor makes sense within its time. She can only act when desperate and in certain allowable ways. She must use those with power to allow her to act. The reader is frustrated for her.

But, as will come as a surprise to no one, she is also the (fictional) accomplice to Todd, a woman who took his murder victims and turned them into meat pies. Yes, we the reader have been knowingly enchanted by and are rooting for a horrible human. But again it is not a surprise-- it is in the titles for goodness sake. And this is important, because when you give away what some would think of as the twist in the title, you have to deliver a story that not only keeps people reading but has its own new revelations and still elects and emotional response. Don't worry, they do.

The discoveries here come from revealing Margaret's story-- all its twists and turns-- and it all pieces together up thru and even AFTER her turn as Mrs Lovett. Only in this time period and as a woman would Margaret be able to take on the identity of some many different people and live so many different lives. The whole book is an indictment of the way women were treated and still are in many ways. But also as we have sympathy, we readers also know that she is a horrible person, a murderer, and yet we read on-- wanting to know more and feeling badly for her.

That feeling we readers have to sit with as the authors not only "close the book" on Margaret's story but also Gibson's is the biggest reveal and totally worth the price of admission here. The emotional punch is awesome. The authors rely on you thinking you know where the story will go to add another wrinkle that allows the fear and horror to travel off the page and reverberate onside the reader and into history as well.

I will never be able to experience Sweeney Todd the same way again which says a lot about this book. It reminds me of how no one can watch he Wizard of Oz the same way again after Gregory Magure wrote Wicked. This story is much more menacing and darker but same idea.

Readers unfamiliar with Sweeney Todd should be okay as the fiction character and actions are explained, but I do think the authors use the reader's knowledge of the story to their advantage and you would enjoy this novel more if you read at least a synopsis of the story before reading this book.

Readalikes: The two above are the best matches. but I wanted to add this but had no room: Like Gregory Maguire’s Wicked did for the Wizard of Oz, readers will not be able to look at Sweeney Todd the same way again. So this is a readalike as well.

Further readalikes-- The Historian by Kostova and The Alienist by Carr as well-- to backlist favorites.

So many books to send readers to with this one. Really anyone who loves gritty Victorian set novels will rejoice with this one.

Kirkus Takes on "The Best Books of The Century" and It Includes YOUTH

Kirkus threw their hat in the Best Books of the Century So Far conversation and  unlike the NYT, they considered books for all ages. And within their adult selections, graphic novels and genre titles are in abundance. Finally, unlike the NYT limit to 100 books, Kirkus has 500!

Here is the direct link to the page where you can choose the category and see the lists. Below I have also included the introduction to this special issue by editor-in-chief.

But before that I wanted to remind you that this can be used in a variety of ways at your library.

First, check your collections. You should have all of these books at your library across your collections. 

Second, what a great "forgotten favorites" this display would make, and you can make it intergenerational in order to show your community that you have a book for all ages at your library by highlighting these books in one centralized display. Click here for more on that topic.

Third, go to this post where I talked about using the NYT list from late last year as a conversation starter, to get your patrons to share with you their favorite books of this century. What better way to not only show them you care about what they like (and don't just care about what a magazine likes best), but also, for you to find out what books mean the most to your patrons. (Remember circulation statistics just show us what goes out and comes back, not how people felt about the items.)

And finally, fourth, lists are fun. We could all use some more fun in our library lives these days.

Please go to the landing page to see all the books. Or read the introduction first.

How do you recapture the past? You could flip through the pages of a photo album or old diary, or listen to an old playlist that evokes a particular time in your life. If you’re a hardcore reader, as I am, you might well scan your bookshelves and recall when and where you read certain titles.

I see my copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, for example, and remember speed-reading it over a few days in the summer of 2004—mostly on a blanket in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park—to prepare for an interview with debut author Susanna Clarke. Ordinarily, I’d have been stressed out by a long book (800 pages!) and a tight deadline, but I soon lost myself in Clarke’s absorbing work of historical fantasy, set in an early-19th-century England where the practice of magic is resurgent. It’s one of my favorite reading experiences ever.

On another shelf, I spy Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad, which I read in long, blissfully uninterrupted sprints as I commuted daily by train out to Long Island in 2010, the scenery—and the pages—rushing by. It was thrilling to see what a contemporary novel could become in the hands of a gifted practitioner—there’s a chapter in the form of a PowerPoint presentation!—without sacrificing the old-fashioned investment we feel in Egan’s all-too-human characters. It’s certainly a top contender, in my opinion, for the best novel of the past 25 years.

Numerous other candidates appear—along with short fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, and young adult literature—in our special issue dedicated to the best books of the 21st century (so far). The staff of the magazine has been hard at work on the issue for months now, revisiting old favorites, unearthing neglected gems, and arguing the merits of this or that title. We’ve chosen 100 books in each category, all published in the U.S. between 2000 and 2024; also scattered throughout these pages are spotlight features with details about the creation, reception, and long-term impact of select titles.

What a pleasure to reflect on a quarter-century of great reads! (And what agony to whittle the list down to 500.) Among the other books that set off Proustian reveries for me personally were Alison Bechdel’s funny and moving graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2008), Isabel Wilkerson’s magisterial yet intimate history, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (2010), Viet Thanh Nguyen’s sly post-Vietnam spy novel, The Sympathizer (2015), and Jennifer Homans’ vivid biography of a ballet genius, Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century (2022). They’re such stellar books that I wish I could read them all again for the first time.

Fortunately, such an array of riches means that every reader will find something unfamiliar among our lists, along with beloved old favorites. If you discover a new favorite here, I hope you’ll let us know. And if you want to argue for a title that didn’t make the cut, please let us know that, too. What fun is a booklist without some debate? As always, my email is tbeer@kirkus.com.

Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.

Click here to get to the books 

Fun April Fools Day Conversation Starter: What is a Book You Have Faked Reading

I was presenting the latest version of my Booktalking program the other day and we were talking about some of my favorite conversation starter questions.

And I mentioned this post: Display Idea: Books We Have Faked Reading. Click through to read the full post and see how you can have this "cheeky" conversation but turn it into a great display.

After that program I made a note in my calendar to bring back this fun post-- originally appeared 5/8/23. When I was looking at the week of blogging ahead, I realized this would make for a fun April Fool's Day post and idea. 

You don't have to do this only on April Fool's Day however, it is an evergreen idea that will be sure to grab your patron's attention. This question-- What Books Have you Faked Reading?-- will make your patrons do a double take and look at you as if saying, "Did you really just ask me that?" 

We need ways to shake people out of the same old, same old. This is why surprising them with authentic questions that are clearly meant to spark a conversation is key.

It is a GREAT idea for a display and/or an online conversation. Send around this question to all staff and explain that you want to get up a display of titles that answer this question, and you want to start with everyone who works at the library. Then get up the book display and make sure you ask patrons to add their own titles to the list. Have them add a post-it notes to a board, put a slip of paper in a box, or add their title online.

It can extend the April Fool's fun a bit longer. And look, goodness knows we all need an innocent laugh these days.

Click here for every post labeled "conversation starters." And click here to see the first post where I explain how to take conversation starters and turn them into interactive displays, including a link to a handout with example questions. 

Have fun with this. And reminder, don't fall for any jokes yourself today.

What I'm Reading: April 2025 Horror Review Column in Library Journal

     

My April 2025 Horror Review Column is now live on the LJ site and in the current issue of the print magazine! In this post I have gathered the titles with my three words and links to my full draft reviews on Goodreads. Click through for readalikes and more appeal information.

First this month's STARS:

• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling (richly detailed, highly unnerving, 3 points of view)
• Interview with the author in this issue. Link coming soon
• The Country Under Heaven by Frederic S. Durbin (vignettes, weird western, thought-provoking)
• This was the surprise of the column. I knew nothing about this book before starting it; I picked it because it looked interesting and was releasing in my time frame. But wow, it was spectacular.
• Girl in the Creek by Wendy Wagner (sporror, invasively creepy, strong sense of place)

And the other 5 excellent titles:

• We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough (fast paced, mind-blowing, sinister)
• Overgrowth by Mira Grant (existential terror, alien invasion, single point of view)
• The Map of Lost Places edited by 
  Sheree Renée Thomas and 
  Lesley Conner
   (themed anthology, strong sense of place, diverse in every way)
• Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror From the Asian Diaspora edited by Kristy Park Kulski (discomfiting, rage, identity)
• Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes (slow burn, ancient evil, strong sense of place (also taxidermy!)

Promote Far and Wide: Free for All: The Public Library on PBS Premieres April 29th

As reported on Reactor:

There’s a new documentary celebrating the history and impact of libraries heading to PBS, and the trailer released today touches on the unequivocal positive impact they—and the librarians who work there—have on communities.

Here’s the synopsis:

Free For All: The Public Library chronicles the fascinating evolution of the American public library’s trajectory, from the original “Free Library Movement” that began in the late 19th century to the present, when many libraries find themselves caught in the crosshairs of the culture wars and struggling to survive amid budget cuts and closures. 

Here is the PBS landing page for the film. It has access to the trailer which I have also embedded below.

This is the positive library PR we need right now. We need to remind everyone how great the library is but also, why we get caught in the culture wars. 

Look I know all of you are going to watch it, but I am posting about it here so that you promote it to your patrons. HEAVILY. We need our supporters to see this and then spread it to others. We need this to help energize our base which includes people from all identities, locations, political parties, and socioeconomic statuses. 

Post on your socials, put up signs in your buildings, and host a watch party. All of it. We need to positive press right now.

Free For All: The Public Library premieres on PBS’s Independent Lens on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 10 p.m. It will also be available to stream on the PBS app at that time.

Booklist March 2025 Issue

The Booklist Online redesign makes sharing the content from the current issue very easy.  Go to this link and get access to the lists and articles from the most current issue. Any of these links from the current issue work whether you have a log in or not (I logged out to double check), so have at it with book lists, award winners, and interviews for all ages of readers below.

But also, remember that if your library receives a print edition of Booklist, you can have online access. Click here for the FAQ and scroll down to the section "Setting Up Access to Booklist Online."

And another reminder that if you are an ALA Member you now have Booklist Reader Access. I wrote about that last month, here. Or you can just go to this link to set it up for yourself.

Many resources to help a slew of readers below. Enjoy.

Booklist: March 1&15, 2025.

FEATURE. First published March 1, 2025 (Booklist).

On the Cover
From The Paper Bridge, by Joëlle Veyrenc, illustrated by Seng Soun Ratanavanh, translated by Katy Lockwood-Holmes, and published by Floris Books.The Paper Bridge is reviewed in this issue’s Spotlight on Picture Books. Illustration © 2022 La Martinière Jeunesse. Used by kind permission of Floris Books, Edinburgh.

ALA’s 2025 Best Lists

Notable Books, 2025

The Reading List: Best Adult Genre Fiction, 2025

Over the Rainbow, 2025

The CODES List: Cookbooks, 2025

Notable Children’s Books, 2025

Alex Awards, 2025

Rise: A Feminist Book Project, 2025

Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2025

Top 10 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2025

Rainbow List, 2025

Top 10 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults, 2025

Notable Children’s Recordings, 2025

The RUSA Codes Listen List, 2025

Odyssey Winners and Honor Audiobooks, 2025

 

Spotlight on the Environment & Sustainability

Top 10 Environment & Sustainability Books

Essentials: The Perils of Plastic and Toxic Chemicals

Essentials: Novels of Fires and Floods

Top 10 Environment & Sustainability Books for Youth

Read-alikes: Eco-Horror

 

Spotlight on Picture Books

Trade Secrets: Tips for Spanish-Language Storytime

Top 10 Picture Book Read-alouds

 

Features

Top 10 Poetry Collections

Manga Essentials: Putting the Sci in Sci-Fi

Top 10 Novels in Verse

The Booklist Printz Interview: Samuel Teer and Mar Julia

Listen-alikes: More or Less Maddy

Booklist Backlist: Mushroom Boom