Tag: New Book Release

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Introducing the Write on the World YouTube channel: Literary analysis you can take anywhere

Mandy Webster

In a world that feels increasingly busy, finding time to sit down with a book or an in-depth essay isn’t always easy—even for people who genuinely love reading. The days get filled with work, errands, commutes, workouts, and all the small in-between moments that rarely leave space for sitting quietly with a novel or a long-form analysis.

But listening is often still possible.

Graphic: Introducing the Write on the World YouTube channel: Literary analysis you can take anywhere
New on Write on the World: You can now take my literary analysis with you wherever you go. Check out the new YouTube channel and subscribe for book reviews, writing videos, and more.

You can listen in the car. You can listen while walking the dog, cooking dinner, or working out. You can even listen while you’re sitting back at the end of a long day, letting your mind settle without needing to focus your eyes on a screen or a page. That’s exactly why I’ve started the Write on the World YouTube channel.

Continue reading “Introducing the Write on the World YouTube channel: Literary analysis you can take anywhere” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Famous Men by Julie Buntin review: A sharp examination of ambition, power, and literary gatekeeping

Mandy Webster

Some people change your life by opening doors. Others change it by convincing you that you can never walk through those doors without them. Julie Buntin’s Famous Men is an incisive and unsettling literary novel about ambition, mentorship, class, and the complicated ways young women are often forced to navigate systems built by powerful men. Following Will Miles from a struggling Michigan teenager to an aspiring writer entangled with a celebrated author, Buntin crafts a story that is as much about artistic aspiration as it is about the dangers of mistaking access for opportunity.

Get your copy of Famous Men today!
listen to this blog post on youtube

Will lives in Greening, Michigan, where a damaging rumor has left her isolated and desperate for a future beyond her small town. When she discovers the work of Nathaniel Fellow, a famous writer who also grew up in Greening, she becomes convinced that he may be the father she has never known. That possibility sends her to New York City, where she manages to gain entry into Nathaniel’s world and eventually becomes his assistant. What follows is a complicated relationship built on admiration, dependence, power imbalance, and mutual need.

Continue reading “Famous Men by Julie Buntin review: A sharp examination of ambition, power, and literary gatekeeping” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Season of Sinking by Daphne Woolsoncroft: A haunting thriller about obsession, secrets, and the dangers lurking close to home

Mandy Webster

What if someone knew everything about you—but you had no idea they even existed? Daphne Woolsoncroft’s The Season of Sinking is the kind of psychological thriller that feeds on that unsettling possibility. Equal parts mystery, suspense, and creeping dread, this debut novel from the popular true crime podcaster transforms an idyllic lakeside town into a place where every glance feels suspicious and every memory hides something dangerous beneath the surface.

Get your copy of The Season of Sinking today!

Set against the backdrop of a picturesque Washington community, The Season of Sinking follows Imogen Bly as she returns to her hometown of Lake Blair after her mother’s sudden death. Accompanied by her twin sister Amelia, Imogen expects a painful but straightforward task: sorting through their mother’s belongings and preparing the family home for sale. Instead, she finds herself confronted by old fears, strange occurrences, and the lingering sense that something has always been deeply wrong about the place she once called home.

Continue reading “The Season of Sinking by Daphne Woolsoncroft: A haunting thriller about obsession, secrets, and the dangers lurking close to home” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Brides by Charlotte Cross: A haunting feminist reimagining of Dracula’s forgotten women

Mandy Webster

The women history remembers as Dracula’s brides have always been little more than shadows lurking at the edges of someone else’s story. In The Brides, Charlotte Cross drags them into the light and gives them voices of their own, crafting a Gothic horror novel that is as interested in the dangers facing women as it is in the dangers lurking within Castle Dracula itself.

Get your copy of The Brides today!
listen to this book review on youtube

Releasing July 7, 2026, The Brides is a feminist Gothic horror novel that reimagines the origins of Dracula’s infamous brides through the perspectives of the women who fell under his influence—and the one who escaped.

Continue reading “The Brides by Charlotte Cross: A haunting feminist reimagining of Dracula’s forgotten women” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Good Morning Means I Love You by Kendra Allen: A powerful novel about family, freedom, and choosing your own life

Mandy Webster

Some novels ask readers to reconsider what they think they know about love and family. Good Morning Means I Love You by Kendra Allen does something even more challenging—it asks us to examine the assumptions we carry about motherhood, responsibility, and the roles society expects women to play. Releasing July 7, 2026, Allen’s debut novel is a deeply layered, emotionally rich exploration of one unconventional family and the many forms that love can take.

Get your copy of Good Morning Means I Love You today!
Listen to this book review on YouTube

On the surface, Good Morning Means I Love You tells the story of Rae, Micah, and Noon, three adults who fall in love and intentionally build a life together. Their relationship is unusual by conventional standards, but Allen wisely refuses to make that the central conflict of the novel. The story spends very little time explaining how the trio came together or justifying their relationship. It simply exists.

Continue reading “Good Morning Means I Love You by Kendra Allen: A powerful novel about family, freedom, and choosing your own life” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Queenie Is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams: Growing older doesn’t always mean growing up

Mandy Webster

Some characters are easy to love even when they’re making terrible decisions. Queenie Jenkins has always been one of those characters. But while I adored watching her stumble through her twenties in Queenie, I found myself sharing her friends’ frustration in Queenie Is Working on It, Candice Carty-Williams’ highly anticipated sequel releasing July 2, 2026.

Get your copy of Queenie is Working on It today!

Nearly ten years after readers first met her, Queenie is thirty-three and appears to have her life together. She’s the editorial director of a successful media network dedicated to amplifying Black women’s voices, she’s completed years of therapy, and she’s spent time intentionally stepping away from dating while she worked on herself. Compared to the woman readers met in Queenie, she’s come a long way. Or at least that’s what it looks like on the surface.

Continue reading “Queenie Is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams: Growing older doesn’t always mean growing up” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Summer of the Serpent by Cecilia Eudave review: A haunting novel that needed more room to breathe

Mandy Webster

Some novels leave you wanting more because they are so immersive you never want them to end. Others leave you wanting more because they feel unfinished. Unfortunately, The Summer of the Serpent by Cecilia Eudave falls somewhere between those two experiences.

Get your copy of The Summer of the Serpent today!

Set in Guadalajara during the sweltering summer of 1977, The Summer of the Serpent unfolds through a series of interconnected vignettes narrated by children, adults, ghosts, and even a snake. The result is a fragmented portrait of a neighborhood haunted by disappointments, strange encounters, and the lingering weight of memory. Drawing heavily from myth, folklore, and surrealism, Eudave crafts a work that feels less like a traditional novel and more like a collection of stories circling a common emotional center.

Continue reading “The Summer of the Serpent by Cecilia Eudave review: A haunting novel that needed more room to breathe” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Death Do Us by Ruthy Mason: A haunting body horror novel about marriage, identity, and the slow death of a dream

Mandy Webster

What if the most terrifying thing lurking beneath your skin isn’t a curse at all, but the possibility that you’re becoming the person society always expected you to be? Ruthy Mason’s Death Do Us is one of those horror novels that works on multiple levels at once. On the surface, it’s a deeply unsettling story about a woman who begins physically deteriorating after accepting a marriage proposal. Underneath the body horror, however, lies a sharp examination of marriage, patriarchy, identity, and the ways women can slowly lose themselves while trying to fit into roles that were chosen for them long before they ever had a say.

Get your copy of Death Do Us today!

Bea is a promising archaeologist whose future seems bright. She has a loving boyfriend, Jake, and a clear vision for her academic career. She’s preparing to pursue a PhD and dreams of participating in archaeological digs around the world. Marriage has never been her primary goal. In fact, she has spent much of her life resisting expectations that she should settle down, define herself through a relationship, and prioritize a man’s ambitions over her own.

Continue reading “Death Do Us by Ruthy Mason: A haunting body horror novel about marriage, identity, and the slow death of a dream” →