Grave Matter

Have you ever read a story that felt like it permanently altered your brain chemistry? Grave Matter by Karina Halle is that book for me.

It's twisty, dark and spicy. The setting itself feels like it's own character. It's gothic romance meets science fiction meets psychological horror, with a splash of Shutter Island and The Last of Us vibes thrown in.

The heroine, Sydney, is embarking on a trip to start the internship of a lifetime at the prestigious Madrona Foundation. But in the isolated Foundation compound on Vancouver Island, nothing is as it seems. Everyone is keeping terrible secrets and as students disappear and ghosts and unnatural phenomena appear, Sydney begins to question her grasp on reality and sanity, because if she's not going mad, then that means all the madness surrounding her is reality.

Karina Halle manages to craft a world that is as sexy as it is haunting, with a neurodivergent heroine and the dark professor that loves her and it will live rent free in my head for ages. Also, I will NEVER look at fungi in the same way ever again!

What do you call it when the boy is the damsel in distress?

You call it Wanderer of the Wastes!

This book is what I would call a dystopian fantasy. After a cataclysm, humans are forced to live inside underground bunkers to protect themselves from wild magics that can quickly kill them.

Our protagonist, Kol, is a young man who has spent his entire life in one such bunker. He takes his chance to escape (and save his brother) after a mysterious, silver haired witch shows up.

He's thrust into a strange new world of magic and monsters and on top of that has to figure out whether the dragon slaying witch Alessi is truly friend or foe.

I loved how Kit Karlsson gender-swapped the damsel in distress and age gap tropes (because Kol, or "Hole Boy" as Alessi calls him, is painfully out of his depth and constantly needing rescue at first 😆). I can't wait to see what further adventures Kol and Alessi have as the series continues.