Hi, friends! January was a BUSY month for reading. I no longer allow myself to have my phone in bed, so that forces me to read much more and I absolutely love it! It’s amazing how much time is wasted on those rectangles.
Garden of Shadows by VC Andrews — The prequel to my beloved Dollangangers. Cathy is still my favorite narrator of the series, but it was very interesting to get Olivia’s backstory. This book is, of course, certifiably insane, as I now know to expect from the mind of VC Andrews (or Andrew Neiderman posing as Andrews). For anybody who is curious about this series, I’d recommend reading it in the order they were written. Though this is the prequel, I do feel as though something would be lost by reading this first. I’ve seen some posts talking about the discrepancies between the prequel and the original four books and admittedly I didn’t even notice until I read about it online! But if that’s something that may deter you… be warned! On an unrelated, but related note, I watched the Flowers in the Attic: Family of Origin TV show and it was also wild, but in a way that was not really book accurate. I still enjoyed it, though it was very, very over-the-top. I certainly preferred the book. It didn’t have the full magic of VC Andrews, because I believe she died as she was writing it, but still was thoroughly enjoyable. Now to decide if I read the books that Neiderman did for the Dollanganger series… I’m conflicted. 3.5/5 stars.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn — This is perhaps my third or fourth time reading this and it is a hit every single time. I love Flynn’s writing and have read everything she’s published. (Which lead me to google if she’s working on anything new, and as of May 2025, she’s working on a new novel). This book, even when you know what happens, is so engaging and captivating. She just gets people in a way that feels so genuine and realistic. You’ve met guys like Nick, you’ve met girls like Amy. They feel so real, so even though what happens in Gone Girl is absolutely bonkers, you still find yourself thinking “Of course this could happen! That’s so Nick and Amy”. Thrillers can often feel as though you’re pushing through the more mundane things to get to the action, but in Gone Girl, I find myself wanting to know even more about the characters and their lives before all the chaos began. I love being in both Nick and Amy’s heads and I would read hundreds more pages of their inner dialogue. Thinking about it, I think it may be my favorite fiction book.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten — It always feels strange to me to rate people’s memoirs, so I will choose not to rate this, but instead I will say that I enjoyed reading it! I remember my mom watching Barefoot Contessa when I was younger and even as a young girl, I was fascinated by Ina. She had this sure way about her that I was so intrigued by. And her life seemed so glamorous! While Ida has lived an exciting and unique life, we learn throughout her memoir that it has not been a life without pain and hardship. It’s so heartbreaking the damage that can be done so early on in life by those closest to us and this unfortunately is the case for Ina. She has overcome so much and has created such a beautiful and creative life for herself that is such an inspiration and makes me excited for life!!! How exciting and privileged are we to grow older and learn more and more every single day??? An uplifting read for sure.
The Dark Half by Stephen King — This book I started a few months ago and it was pushed aside as I fell down the Dollanganger rabbit hole… And this is a problem of my own, but the font in my copy is so small and I’m in desperate need of a new pair of glasses, so whenever I tried to sit down and make some headway, it seemed as though I got a headache each time! This book has such an interesting concept — a writer’s creation comes to life and begins to wreak havoc on the real world. And I did enjoy it, but perhaps it’s because I read this book in spurts, it felt as though it was dragging! It seemed a little repetitive, too. I think it could’ve been shorter. I don’t really have much to say about this one. I love Stephen King’s writing style, but for me, this book was not a homerun. I recently bought Carrie from Thriftbooks, and I’m excited to start it! 3/5 stars.
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas — I bought this book years ago and when I finally got around to reading it in January, I found it to be a disappointment. The book centers around an elite, highly secretive school and while this premise is intriguing, the book was quite mundane and meandering. I am a fan of meandering when done well, but I felt nothing for any of the characters of this book, going so far as to get confused about which character was which many times throughout, the stakes felt non-existent, and it just dragged. I’d give it a 2/5. Definitely will be donating my copy.
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten — For me, this book did not begin to get interesting until about 100 pages in. Then, it started to get really exciting and then as it went on I became bored once more. The premise of this book was amazing — an abandoned village in Sweden being revisited by novice filmmakers, one of which is the granddaughter of someone who once lived there? Amazing! There was one night where I was reading and was genuinely getting freaked out! However, with discoveries made later in the book… I became pretty disillusioned with the whole premise. I did enjoy that the book was told in both “then” and “now”. I found myself more interested in the “then” section where we learned more about the village and its people pre-disappearance. I think that if more time was spent in the past, it would have rounded out the story more. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but if they had fleshed out the past more, the ‘why’ of the disappearance would’ve made much more sense. Overall, the book did not feel believable to me. I would give this book 2.5/5. Will be donating my copy.
And that’s that, my friend! Let’s hope February is a productive month of reading! If you have any suggestions for what to read, I’m all ears!
XOXO,
Mattie Mae
Midwest Mattie 