In March, I feel like I finally hit a good rhythm with reading. I ended up finishing EIGHT books this month. In January and February, I only finished two books each month, so I’m feeling pretty proud of my progress. Lately, I’ve been trying to catch up with on a backlog of Book of the Month selections I’ve made over the last year – this month, I got around to The Neighbor’s Secret, Malibu Rising, and A History of Wild Places. I couldn’t resist picking up The School for Good Mothers, and I’m so glad I did – it’s my favorite pick of the month! The other four books from my March reads are a mix of thrillers, sci-fi, and horror. I feel like I can always depend on thrillers and sci-fi to get me out of a reading slump, and I’m trying to get into horror again (which I loved when I was younger). Almost everything I read this month gets at least three stars from me, and I ended up with two five-star picks!

WHAT I READ IN MARCH

SCIENCE FICTION

The School for Good Mothers / Jessamine Chan
Frida is a newly single mom, struggling to balance her toddler, her work, and her relationship with her ex (and his new, seemingly flawless partner). On a particularly bad day, she has a lapse in parental judgment and leaves her daughter unattended. When the incident is reported by a neighbor, Frida must undergo investigation by a near-future, amped-up version of Child Protective Services.

After failing to meet CPS’s rigid standards, she’s assigned to an experimental year-long program – the titular “School for Good Mothers.” At the school, Frida is required to recognize her failures and undergo training to become a “good” mother, in a process that is grueling, heart-wrenching, and, at times, downright creepy.

If I had to describe this book in one line, I’d call it “The Handmaid’s Tale for millennials.” It’s both compelling and disturbing, examining the standards to which mothers and women are held, as well as mental health, class, and racism. I absolutely loved it. I cried. I gasped aloud. I almost threw it across the room, more than once. Please read it!

Rating: 5/5

THRILLERS

The Neighbor’s Secret / L. Allison Heller (My September 2021 BOTM pick)
Cottonwood Estates is an idyllic, safe, upper-class neighborhood with amazing schools and a monthly ladies’ book club. But not everything in the community is as wonderful as it seems on the surface. Increasingly violent acts of vandalism have the entire neighborhood on edge. Meanwhile, some of the residents are having their own troubles. Jen is alarmed by her adolescent son’s antisocial tendencies and secretly wonders if he’s the vandal. Annie worries over her teen daughter’s recent emotional distance and rebellious behavior. Once famous for throwing lavish parties, Lena has become the neighborhood recluse years after a tragic accident. And, of course, everyone is keeping plenty of secrets of their own. Lena, Annie, and Jen’s lives collide in a super-satisfying plot reveal and conclusion.

This was a fun and quick read – I love a suspenseful neighborhood drama that draws the reader into the lives of multiple people and families (and, in this case, the meetings of a gossipy book club.) Some of my favorite parts were about the book club meetings!

Rating: 4/5

Verity / Colleen Hoover
Author Verity Crawford is injured and unconscious following an accident, and her husband is looking for someone to take over writing duties for the remaining novels in her bestselling book series. Lowen Ashleigh, a little-known writer with one published novel, can’t believe she’s chosen for the job – but ultimately, she’s just happy to have a paycheck. When Lowen moves into the Crawford family home so she can research Verity’s notes, she discovers a secret autobiography that paints a pretty chilling portrait of Verity and the Crawford family’s recent tragedies.

I read this book because I kept seeing it on TikTok, and I feel torn! It was a page-turner for sure (I finished it in a day), but the writing itself wasn’t for me. Be warned that none of the main characters are likable, but if you like twisty mysteries with some dark elements, you should give it a shot. And if you do read it (or if you’ve read it already): manuscript or letter? I’m team manuscript!

Rating: 3/5

The Echo Wife / Sarah Gailey
Evelyn Caldwell, a brilliant scientist specializing in clone research, recently discovered her husband Nathan’s years-long affair – with her clone, Martine. When Nathan is murdered, Evelyn and Martine find themselves in a precarious situation, forced to rely on one another as they deal with the consequences of their actions and the fallout from Nathan’s choices. That is literally all I can say about this novel without revealing too much!

This book is exactly the kind of sci-fi I love to read: it takes place in a world that’s more or less like our own, but just a little bit different. In this case, the difference is we’ve figured out human cloning. The plot itself is excellent, but this book also has so much to say about relationships, control, abuse, and trauma. What would we be like if we could be remade, free of the experiences that formed us? What if our partner could construct a version of us that is absent of the things about us they find less than desirable? How much of ourselves is unavoidable nature? And what, exactly, makes a human?

Rating: 5/5

MAGICAL FICTION/THRILLER

A History of Wild Places / Shea Earnshaw (my December 2021 BOTM pick)
Maggie St. James, the author of a dark children’s book series, goes missing while hiking. When he’s hired to find her, private investigator Travis Wren traces Maggie’s path to Pastoral, an isolated commune deep in the forest. But after entering Pastoral, Travis also disappears. Two years later, Pastoral resident Theo discovers Travis’s truck outside the community. But exploring what lies beyond the boundaries of Pastoral is a violation of the rules, which puts Theo and the other residents at risk of a deadly contagious disease called “the rot.” To keep his actions secret, Theo only tells his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, what he’s found. Throughout the story, the mystery of what happened to Travis and Maggie unfolds as Theo, Calla, and Bee become suspicious that they haven’t been told the whole truth about what’s going on in Pastoral.

The setup for this book is so mysterious and strange that I couldn’t resist! It threw me a little bit when the story jumped from Travis’ perspective to the characters inside of Pastoral, but I’m glad I stuck it out – the ending is truly wild. I don’t want to give too much away, but this book was a really entertaining read!

Rating: 4/5

FAMILY DRAMA

Malibu Rising / Taylor Jenkins Reid (my June 2021 BOTM pick)
Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit are the children of world-famous singer Mick Riva. Though each of the children has found their own success, Mick is such a huge star that they all live in his shadow. He’s also an incredibly awful father. The story unfolds over two timelines: the first begins in the 50’s and 60’s as Mick Riva and June Costas meet and fall in love, spanning the years of their relationship and their children’s adolescence and young adulthood. The second focuses on the early 80’s, and primarily on one day in 1983 when everything comes to a head on the night of the infamous annual Riva party in Malibu.

This is everything I love about a dual timeline book! Watching characters develop over spans of years and getting invested in their lives over decades always leaves me with such a bittersweet feeling. So far, I’ve only read this and Daisy Jones and the Six from Reid, and I’ve really enjoyed both. I was surprised to learn that apparently Mick Riva is from the same universe as Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo! 

Rating: 4/5

HORROR

The Deep / Nick Cutter
Humanity has been plagued for years by an incurable disease, which causes people to slowly forget things until their bodies ultimately can’t recall how to function, and they die. When a mysterious, miraculous healing substance called “ambrosia” is discovered, three scientists are sent to a research station at the bottom of the Mariana Trench to harvest more and conduct research. After one scientist surfaces ahead of schedule and the other two stop responding to communication, a second team is sent down to investigate. That’s when things start to get spooky.

As much as I love it when horror fiction really hits for me, I find it a hard genre to dig into – I love creepy story lines and spookiness, and this book definitely delivered on the unsettling atmosphere. But I thought the ending felt a little rushed, especially with all of the last-minute reveals about the main characters’ previous trauma. I know a lot of people really love this book, but last third of the book really ruined it for me.

Rating: 2/5

Imaginary Friend / Stephen Chbosky
After escaping from an abusive boyfriend, seven-year-old Christopher and his mother settle in a quiet small town to build a home where the ex-boyfriend will never be able to find them. Just as their new lives are beginning, Christopher disappears one day after school. When he returns six days later, he is uncannily smart and mysteriously compelled to build a tree house in the woods where he was discovered. He also has a new imaginary friend, “the nice man,” who is determined to train Christopher in the use of new powers to prepare him for an upcoming battle that will determine the fate of the world.

OK, so this book really goes places! It felt like the plot I originally expected came to a close about ⅔ of the way through the book, and then things just kept escalating. There are over 700 pages in this book (whew!) – at times I wasn’t vibing with Chbosky’s writing style, but the twists and turns satisfyingly tie together by the end. When I was reading, I got a little bit of that spooky satisfaction I would get from reading Stephen King novels as a kid. 

Rating: 4/5

What’s next on my TBR:

Magpie Murders / Anthony Horowitz
I heard about this mystery-within-a-mystery on the What Should I Read Next podcast, and just found out that it’s also recently been made into a series! After hearing Anne’s glowing review, I decided to pick it up from the library.

The Book of Cold Cases / Simone St. James
I loved Simone St. James’ last book, The Sundown Motel, and I’m also a sucker for true crime, so when this was one of the Book of the Month picks for March, I knew I had to read it.

Cultish / Amanda Montell
I’ve been fascinated with cults since I was a teen, and I’ve seen so many rave reviews of this book. I picked it up last fall, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Plus, how great is that cover?