This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​A young woman walks the fine line between devotion and entitlement in Fan Club, the riveting debut novel by Erin Mayer.
The narrator is a junior member of the editorial staff at a lifestyle website, dissatisfied with her job and growing more distant from her roommate. One evening she goes out with some coworkers and is struck unexpectedly by the latest single by Adriana Argento, a pop icon whom she previously mostly ignored. She dives into the online fandom and is invited by Meghan, a new staff member, to join her in-person Adriana Argento fan club. The women hold listening parties that end with candlelit, cultish rituals, but they are upset with the direction of Argento's new music. The narrator comes to realize that the lengths to which they will go are greater than she imagined.
Fan Club is a dark, compelling thriller about the need to belong and the dark aspects of fandom. The narrator is teetering on the brink of developing friendships with some of the other editorial staff, but she remains drawn to Meghan and her friends, with whom she shares a profound experience of music. However, the devotion that the other members of the club have for Argento leads to feelings of betrayal and rage when the artist writes music that isn't what they want to hear or dates somebody of whom they don't approve. They are already hiding one dark secret, and they may drag the narrator under with the next. This deliciously dark thriller will leave readers wanting more from Mayer. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: This edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller highlights the fine line between love and hate in the world of pop culture stardom.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​A drama rooted in injustice and mental health plays out over many years in rural Arkansas in Mary Elizabeth Pope's stark debut.
In 1926, Coralee Harper returned to her family home after a failed first marriage shortly before her brother, Buddy, was killed by the sheriff. Coralee "always could see things," so at first it wasn't a surprise when she would see Buddy in the yard at night. She worked, married Earl Watkins and tried to move on. But as the years go by, Coralee begins to show other erratic behavior, in addition to seeing Buddy again. Earl comes to believe that the only way he can make sure Coralee and their son are both cared for is to have Coralee committed to a mental hospital. Her sanity hearing puts her before Judge Leroy Harrison, who, as a young lawyer, defended the sheriff who killed Coralee's brother.
The Gods of Green County is a harsh tale of people put in conflict by their searches for justice and mutual welfare. Judge Harrison wants to atone to Coralee for not giving her brother justice all those years before, but is torn over whether she would be a danger to herself and others if not committed. Stumbling across a new lead on a witness, he uses every tool he has to uncover what really happened when Buddy died, but the cost may be surprisingly high. This bleak novel about the dangers of power will grip readers from beginning to end. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: In a harsh Southern gothic, consequences of an abuse of power stretch across many years.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​An outbreak of supernatural events in late Victorian London is comedic and lightly creepy in The Peculiarities by David Liss (The Twelth Enchantment).
Thomas Thresher has enough mundane problems to worry about. His brother may be sabotaging the family bank, at which Thomas is only a junior clerk, and is also pressuring him to get married for unexplained business reasons to a woman in whom he has no interest. More absurdly, he has also started sprouting leaves. The London Fog was always dangerous, but lately it brings "Peculiarities" in the form of transformations, women giving birth to rabbits, and attackers who seem not of this world. When Thomas discovers a curious letter in the bank's records relating to the death of a childhood friend, he realizes the strange operations of the bank and the peculiarities may be related. To find out, he will have to make surprising allies and become a student in one of London's occult societies.
In spite of the disturbing and at times violent threats both to the characters and the world as we know it, the tone of The Peculiarities throughout can be best described as charming. It bears a stronger resemblance to the Regency-set fantasy The Twelfth Enchantment than to Liss's rougher-edged Benjamin Weaver series and other connected thrillers. It is the Halloween equivalent of a beach read, leaving readers more delighted than horrified, even in the face of horrific events along the way. Any fan of both light historical adventure and weird fiction will be delighted by the combination. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: David Liss's winning supernatural mystery will charm readers of fantastic Victorian fiction.