Our October theme is SEASON OF THE WITCH. We never get tired of reading witch stories, and 'tis the season! Leave your suggestions below and we'll vote on our October book of the month next week!

This week's pick comes from Nerd of Mouth host, Holden McNeely!

-Ever since our Nerd of Mouth episode on this new hot book series, I
have been completely sucked into this post apocalyptic reality
game show world. It oozes video game logic, dark humor, and gripping
action. Also, one of the main characters is a talking cat named
Princess Donut and she rules.

Hey all! This is coming a little late today because I was out of town this weekend and completely forgot to write it before I left, ha. Soooo sorryyyy for ruining your Monday, lol. But I read A LOT last week so I want to talk about these before I forget the details! Books marked with a * were gifted to me, and books marked with a ^ I was paid to read.

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova - Uh, holy shit this is so good? I put it off for a long time because I wasn't sure it was going to be for me. But my fellow book clubbers talked me into it and I'm glad they did. It's a beautiful, painful meditation on the monstrosity of grief, of trying to (literally) cut out the grief, of the monster grief makes us. It's also intensely queer, but the queerness is not central to the horror of the story, which I loved.

If I Could Go Back by Briana Johnson* - This YA novel is about a Black teen raised by her grandpa when her young parents couldn't care for her anymore, and her getting back in contact with them. I'm always so glad that YA novels that tackle hard topics like this exist, especially when - like this one - there isn't a fairytale ending. I liked that this book kind of subverted gender expectations: Grandpa is the caregiver. Aaliyah's love interest, a boy, is being abused by his ex-girlfriend (though I wish this subplot had been given more attention. It kind of disappeared part way through). It's a tough read, but I'm sure some young readers will find themselves in it.

One Of His by Alina Bellchambers^ - A serial killer thriller set in the art world. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded via the past and present timelines, slowly revealing some characters to be who we thought they were, and some characters who were completely different. I wish the fakeout suspect had been a little more believable - it was immediately clear who the killer was the moment they were on the page. There is also some bisexuality/polyamory that verges on shock value, as in, the characters could have been straight and it wouldn't have made a difference to the story.

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman - The great audio reread continues. My spouse and I finished this one on the aforementioned trip out of town this weekend. It's so fun to watch my spouse encounter certain characters for the first time, and for me to know what's coming down the road for them (sometimes. Sometimes that is not fun).

Coffeeshop In An Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee* - This was so fun! A literal coffeeshop AU story. It's cozy but has good stakes, and the central love story is really good for a YA. By this I mean that you can see exactly why they like each other rather than them liking each other just because they're the main characters. I also thought Lee did a good job of imagining what would and would not be different about the modern world if we were using magic instead of electricity and fossil fuel.