My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was blown away by Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a short story collection of Edogawa Ranpo’s best short stories. His uniquely grotesque and suspenseful mysteries quickly made him one of my favorite authors and made me hungry for more. So naturally, I became very excited when I found more of his work translated into English, and without hesitation, laid my hands on it. Despite how famous Akechi Kogoro stories are in Japanese Mystery fiction, I’ve found myself enjoying other works by Edogawa Ranpo more. Of the two stories in this book, I personally preferred Beast in the Shadows.

My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Nearly Normal Family is a very unique mystery novel told in a three-part structure—each part told from the perspective of each character of a family of three after the daughter becomes a murder suspect. Told through an unfiltered lens, the family dynamics exhibited in this story are very relatable to any parent or teenager and question the role of “love.” What is the glue that holds families together? The author, M. T. Edvardsson, gives an alternative answer to that question—lies.

My Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I was first introduced to Stephen King earlier this year when I read one of his best books, Misery, which instantly made me a fan. I went on to read more of King’s work—On Writing, The Mist, and Mr. Mercedes, all of which I would highly recommend. I enjoyed reading the first two-thirds of The Outsider, but the last third was like a lukewarm burger that had been sitting for hours in a bucket of grease—disappointingly mediocre and hard to finish.