The Cursed Friend - Beatrice Salvioni (HarperVia, 2024) This ARC had been languishing in a pile for a couple of years now (the book came out in May 2024). It had sounded interesting enough for me to grab a copy in the first place but somehow it never came to the top of my pile… Continue reading Book Review: The Cursed Friend by Beatrice Salvioni
I'll be honest, what initially caught my eye about this book was that the author has the same name as me, spelled the same and everything! I have enough books to read though that this alone isn't enough to make me pick up a book. I was drawn in by the setting - from Shanghai… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Katabasis - R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager, 2025) Alice Law is a focused, hard-working, and super intelligent student of Analytic Magic at Cambridge University. She has worked hard to reach her current position, working with advisor Jacob Grimes. Professor Grimes is brilliant, respected, and insanely difficult. Alice will do anything to please him, to make sure… Continue reading Book Review: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
The Doll Factory - Elizabeth MacNeal (Simon & Schuster, 2019) The Doll Factory is set in London in the 1850s, around the time of the construction of the Crystal Palace. Our main character is Iris, a young woman who, along with her twin sister, Rose, works at a doll manufacturer. Iris is artistic but the… Continue reading Book Review: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacNeal
Nesting - Roisin O'Donnell (Hachette Audio, 2025) Ciara's husband, Ryan, has never hit her. So when she decides, on the spur of the moment, to leave with her two young daughters, grabbing the laundry off the line and loading up the van, she isn't sure that she's made the right decision. Her mother and sister… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
The Man Born to be King - Dorothy Sayers When I added this to my TBR back in 2019, I don't think I realized that it was written as a play and not a book. Not until I saw it available on Spotify and looked into it a little further did I realize this was… Continue reading (Audio) Review: The Man Born to be King by Dorothy Sayers
I Hold a Wolf by the Ears - Laura van den Berg (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) A short story collection was just the kind of palette cleanser I needed in the midst of my Goliath reads. Reading Laura van den Berg's collection reminded me a lot of the sort of short stories we would… Continue reading Book Review: I Hold A Wolf by the Ears by Laura van den Berg
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, 2022) Damon Fields is born to a single mother in the bathroom of a trailer. He is born into poverty in a small, Appalachian community. His childhood is unsteady but not necessarily unhappy. He quickly becomes known as Demon Copperhead instead of his legal name (just as his best… Continue reading Book Review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Seascraper - Benjamin Wood (Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025) I received an Advance Listening copy of this book thanks to the publisher and Libro.FM. All opinions are my own. I began listening to Seascraper just before the winter holiday and so even though it is a short novel - just over five hours listening time… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Hello and welcome back! The vast majority of the reading that I do is fiction. This is a hard category for me to narrow down because it's the closest I'll get to picking a favourite book of the year. But the year is long and the reading is varied and how do you choose? I… Continue reading The 2025 Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards (Best Fiction)
Karissa Reads Books 