Emily May's Updates en-US Tue, 25 Aug 2026 03:32:42 -0700 60 Emily May's Updates 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review8693617074 Tue, 25 Aug 2026 03:32:42 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Furious Violet']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8693617074 Furious Violet by Sarai Walker Emily May gave 4 stars to Furious Violet (Hardcover) by Sarai Walker
bookshelves: mystery-thriller, 2026, recent
True crime is about what happens to other people.
But when it happens to you? That’s a different kind of story. That’s horror.


It's rare these days that I find a thriller doing something fresh and interesting, but Walker manages it with Furious Violet. It combines true crime obsession and celebrity culture with a meditation on motherhood and childlessness.

The protagonist, Violet, is a true crime writer approaching fifty, and just a cat short of being a "childless cat lady". Violet, herself, has no issue with this, but she is well aware of the judgement of others. The silent disapproval; the comments about the fulfilment of motherhood, implying, intentionally or not, that she remains incomplete. Then she starts to receive threatening messages from a stalker who addresses her as "Mother".

But there's another layer to the story as well. A bit of a historical mystery surrounding Violet's own mother— a respected poet and a feminist icon who died by suicide when Violet was a baby. The relationship between Violet's mother and father is modelled on that of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, which is to say it was tumultuous and plagued by mental health issues. When Violet acquires a stalker, the most likely explanation is that one of her mother's diehard fans has gone off the rails.

It is interesting the way the book handles celebrity cults. How odd it is that some people feel ownership over a person and their private lives because they have purchased and felt connected to their art. What an odd form of entitlement to assume a famous person owes you their soul in exchange for your devotion. The story is fictional, but that phenomenon is most definitely observable in our world.

This also intersects with the entitlement we feel towards women's bodies. The two mirror each other in a number of ways; the judgement towards Violet for not being a mother is similar to the ways people judge celebrities for not living in a way they would like. And all the threads are tied together to say: these are real people. Behind the fame, the public persona, the juicy details of the crime... there are real people.

It's one of those books that balances a dynamic plot and reflective commentary really well. Things keep moving, and there are some genuinely creepy and unsettling moments, but there's a lot of introspection too. Violet is funny, irreverent and self-aware, which makes it enjoyable to be inside her mind.

I really enjoyed it and it won't be my last by Walker. ]]> Review8875728385 Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:30:03 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Valley of the Dolls']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8875728385 Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann Emily May gave 5 stars to Valley of the Dolls (Paperback) by Jacqueline Susann
bookshelves: 2026, classics
People parted, years passed, they met again- and the meeting proved no reunion, offered no warm memories, only the acid knowledge that time had passed and things weren't as bright or attractive as they had been.


I put off reading this book for years because every mention of it gave me the completely wrong idea. I was under the impression this was a trashy soap opera of a novel— a piece of light, fluffy entertainment about sex, drugs and Hollywood. I didn't, for one second, think this was going to be one of the most depressing books I've ever read.

Having now finished it, I find something inherently sexist in the cultural image this book has. Had this been a book by a male author about men's issues in the Hollywood/NYC rat race, about their substance abuse and mental health, I am certain this would not have been written off as a bit of trash. This horrible, painful books deserves a place as a true classic.

Susann draws us three incredible and deeply flawed characters— Anne, Neely and Jennifer. Each of them is just trying to carve out a bit of success for herself, make enough money to live on or make it big, and maybe find love along the way. I came to love and care for each of them in different ways.

I have to say: in literature, it is rarely depicted as easy to be a woman, but parts of this make me think one should take their chances on the Middle Ages over mid-20th century Hollywood. There’s a resignation amongst the women that all they have is their youth and beauty, and that they’d better capitalise on it before it fades and whatever man or opportunity they are pursuing loses interest.

It is fucking horrific what we did to women, what we still do to women: reducing them to their bodies and beauty and discarding them once they age. But it's more than that, too. It's that, at every step, their agency doesn't matter, they don't matter. They are treated as always replaceable, by managers, directors, film studios and lovers.

Unlike many of the men in this book, Susann is deeply sympathetic towards her characters, which is what makes the story so poignant. Even as they break down, even as they become something monstrous, Anne, Neely and Jennifer completely stole my heart. Ripped it right out of my chest.

Susann has expertly captured a very specific era— one where spirited young women were starting to want a life that did not exist yet. Ideas and ambitions were changing, but many of the old barriers still existed. Women were expected to give up their careers for marriage; men often did not take no for an answer; men's infidelities were par for the course, and shrugged off.

But it also, surprisingly, does not feel overly dated. The characters talk frankly and openly about sex and are mostly accepting of gay men and women— though characters frequently use the f-word for gay men. Non-white characters are conspicuously absent to a modern reader, though I also expect that was reflective of the industry itself at this time.

Honestly, this book gave me one of those balls of anxiety in the pit of my stomach. I sat, hooked, feeling so sad, angry, frustrated and humiliated for these characters. I did not enjoy reading this book but I will never forget it. ]]> Review8469229204 Thu, 20 Aug 2026 03:38:56 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'City of Widows']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8469229204 City of Widows by Nadia Hashimi Emily May gave 2 stars to City of Widows (Hardcover) by Nadia Hashimi
bookshelves: historical, 2026, recent
I really wish I could say I liked this more than I did. For a while, I almost talked myself into giving it 3 stars because of how invested I am already in the appalling situation in Afghanistan, particularly the gender apartheid, which makes me feel sick every time I think about it.

I went into it super psyched to care about the characters and have my heart ripped out, but I don't think it ever really delivered. It managed to be distant, slow and even boring, especially in the past chapters, elements of which (like the romance) felt like nothing more than filler. There was no real reason to include them as there was no mystery surrounding the past, nothing we were wondering about. I had this sense that they only existed because there was not enough material in the 2021 chapters to fill a novel.

The story follows several women before and after the 2020 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that triggered the almost immediate takeover by the Taliban. In a nightmare reality that seems ripped straight from the pages of The Handmaid's Tale, educated career women in business, journalism, medicine, academia and even the armed forces found themselves forced from their professions. One after another, their rights were stripped away.

Unfortunately, though, I think too much of City of Widows wasn't about that at all. Instead, it zoomed in on Marjan and her escape from an abusive warlord husband. Much of the story feels centred on her evading him and trying to keep him from ever discovering their daughter's existence. The threat of the Taliban acts as more of a backdrop.

The 2021 chapters are more engaging, because at least there are some real and active threats, but even they lost steam after a while. I think a really strong connection to the characters was what was missing throughout, so that even the most dynamic scenes remained fairly distant. I do not think it necessary for every writer to have actually lived through their material, but here it seemed very obvious that the author had no lived experience of this tragedy (thank goodness) and the effect is that I, as the reader, felt firmly an outsider looking in on the story.

My favourite part was discovering that some of the characters were based on the Female Tactical Platoon, a unique and covert special forces unit trained by U.S. Special Operations.

And one last thing:
Marjan liked that the Quran spoke of God creating Hawa, albeit from a rib of Adam.


Really sorry to be pedantic, but it's actually the hadith that mention woman being created from a rib of Adam. This isn't stated in the Quran itself. ]]> Review8681265192 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 02:13:16 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Famous Men']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8681265192 Famous Men by Julie Buntin Emily May gave 4 stars to Famous Men (Hardcover) by Julie Buntin
bookshelves: modern-lit, 2026, recent
I was open, is what I’m trying to say. I was bored. I was a teenage girl from a small town, desperate for something to happen to me.


I read this book because I liked Buntin's Marlena, even though the premise of Famous Men felt extremely familiar. How many books have I read about this same thing— a young woman getting caught up in a relationship with an older man and the ensuing power imbalance? Yet, the more I read, the more I felt like Buntin had done something different here.

The writing, for one thing, is very strong and readable. It is easy to get caught up in this book, to think "just one more chapter". Will is telling her story in the past tense, casting back a rueful eye over her youth, foreshadowing the fallout with red flags that seem to be glaring with the benefit of hindsight. The more mature lens adds a tinge of irony or bitterness to the past events.

It's a great novel because the reader can experience both sides of it— frustration at Will, and understanding. I experienced a visceral desire to scream at the page when she justifies:

Nathaniel and I were different. Like everything special and rare, we couldn’t quite be described. Getting the good parts of him meant getting the bad, too.


But, at the same time, it magnificently captures how someone with few prospects and no support network can ignore all the warning signs and lead themselves right into the shark's mouth. Nathaniel opens doors to Will that would have remained shut to her otherwise. She deliberately seeks him out; puts herself in positions where she knows their paths will cross. Is it possible for someone to be not just a victim, but savvy also? To give themselves willingly to a predator in a trade-off that they understand?

I liked this complexity. It is not about blaming Will, or victims in general, but understanding all the dynamics at play. After reading so many books about gullible women being manipulated, it was extremely interesting to explore a character like Will. She is young and vulnerable, but she is not stupid. She understands what Nathaniel is asking for from the very start. Her own insistent denial of her victimhood will eventually come back to haunt her.

A fantastic character-driven work. The span of the novel— and the perspective of the older, wiser Will —add poignancy and suspense, but there is also something deeply sad about how much of her life this relationship and its aftermath have consumed. ]]> Review8722756880 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 01:38:52 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Servant of the Empire']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8722756880 Servant of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist Emily May gave 5 stars to Servant of the Empire (The Empire Trilogy, #2) by Raymond E. Feist
bookshelves: fantasy, 2026
I am so obsessed with this series that I've been eyeing up everything else written by Feist and Wurts, but I don't think there's anything quite like the Empire Trilogy. I don't have a review other than to say this was 827 pages but felt like a breeze because the characters and political machinations are so compelling.

I actually lost sleep and had dreams about chapter 9. What an absolute thrill-ride. ]]> Review8805763119 Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:08:17 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Great Granny Webster']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8805763119 Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood Emily May gave 4 stars to Great Granny Webster (Paperback) by Caroline Blackwood
bookshelves: arc, classics, 2026
When Great Granny Webster used the word 'nowadays, she always stressed and separated each syllable and managed to make it sound like some lethal poison which was responsible for destroying everything in the universe that she had once found a little good.


3.5 stars. One of my reading whims paid off. I requested this randomly on netgalley, mostly because I'm always curious when relatively unknown books are reissued— what prompted the publishers to rescue this one from obscurity? (Just FYI, Parrott's Ex-Wife and many Persephone books are great examples of this)

Great Granny Webster is a character study, and the title is slightly misleading as we spend only a small portion of the story with the titular character. She offers, however, an engaging and fitting opening: the depressing scenes of this compelling figure of austerity and abstinence, alone in her house in Hove, somehow seeming to both hate everything and kind of enjoy her existence as a curmudgeon.

The other main character portrait is of Great Granny Webster's granddaughter and the narrator's aunt, Lavinia. It is very interesting what Blackwood has done here by juxtaposing such opposite personalities. Lavinia is a bright, bubbly, and extroverted person, yet she is given to suicidal ideation and attempts to end her own life. She is a direct contrast to the dire figure of Granny Webster, but she is not well either.

We get backstory filled in on this family and their upbringing which borders on gothic horror, complete with a decrepit house, old maiden aunts, and no small amount of madness. The only slight downside is that the first section with the unforgettable Great Granny Webster is the best bit of the book, and the rest, while good, never quite reaches that height again. ]]> Review7382991239 Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:02:34 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'A Trade of Blood']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7382991239 A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett Emily May gave 5 stars to A Trade of Blood (Shadow of the Leviathan, #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett
bookshelves: fantasy, arc, 2026, recent
“Easier to wish for ignorance than to burden yourself with the rot in all our hearts."


It's hard to know what to add at this point when these books are so consistently good. If you liked the first two, you will almost certainly like this one. Ana is her normal, brilliant, hilarious self, and the twists and turns of the mystery are incredibly fun.

In this one, Ana and Din have been called to investigate the murder of a daughter from a powerful family— allegedly by the scion of yet another powerful rival family. Some things about the scene of the crime don't quite add up though, and naturally everything gets much bigger and more curious before we head toward some answers.

This particular crime looks set to affect the whole food industry of the Empire if they can't get to the bottom of it. I really enjoyed how Bennett drew parallels with our own world, GMOs, and the voraciousness of the meat industry. Incorporating very real and relevant human issues into this world is something the author does very well.

The mystery, as always, is constructed well, with multiple layers and lots of details to discover. Bennett introduces new characters with each book and develops them well alongside the shining stars that are Ana and Din. But I feel like I am repeating myself in my reviews for this series. They are all good! Go read them!

I am pleased the ending teased lots more still to discover about Ana and this world! Now to wait impatiently for book 4. ]]> Review8530065389 Mon, 03 Aug 2026 01:40:09 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'American Hagwon']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8530065389 American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee Emily May gave 4 stars to American Hagwon (Hardcover) by Min Jin Lee
bookshelves: historical, arc, 2026, recent
“Nothing exerts a stronger psychic effect upon the human environment, and especially upon children, than the life which the parents have not lived.” - Carl Jung


American Hagwon is a true epic— a sizeable novel, spanning decades, with incredible scope and a large cast of characters. As with all books that introduce this many characters and cover this much ground, there were parts and perspectives I enjoyed more than others. But I was never once bored in all its 650 pages.

At the heart of American Hagwon is the theme of how best to raise and educate our next generation. Moving from South Korea to America, with a stopover in Australia, it looks at many different approaches to education, reflected in different countries, different cultures, different generations, different parenting styles.

A hagwon— unbeknownst to me before reading this —is a kind of private tutoring cram school, ubiquitous in South Korea and common in Korean-American enclaves like Orange County. This is an extension of the intense educational pressure Korean children find themselves under, and Lee casts a scrutinising eye on educational systems that reward stress, anxiety, passing exams, and scoring a place at a top university.

As a character says at one point:

"If you make your child into the perfect object that these schools want to purchase, then you might make the sale. However, will you get what you want?
[..]
"There is a crisis in this country and in the country where many of you were born. The crisis is in our education and what it is meant to do. Having a degree from the Big Three or any of the SKY universities will not protect our children from harm. You know of many stories of people who graduated from these schools who did not have a safe and perfect life. I am asking you to consider at least the anecdotal evidence each of you has to disprove the theory that an elite education will create a successful life."


The story of Helen and John Koh and their three children explores this. Many other family members, colleagues and fellow students become part of their story as the Kohs try to do the best for each other.

Despite not being Korean, or even knowing what a hagwon was prior to reading this, I found the book's message poignant and increasingly relatable. Even in the UK, we are putting ever more pressure on kids to pass exams and compete for Russell Group universities. One thing that has always bothered me is that an absolutely brilliant student can have one bad day, flunk an exam, and have their entire future prospects limited because of a single poor performance. And lots of kids spend their youth working their asses off to get into these prestigious institutions, unable to see beyond that, and then find out they have no idea what to do with their lives once they reach the "top".

But while the message is important, what drives the narrative and keeps the pages turning are the lovable characters. The Kohs are genuinely likeable, as are several other supporting characters. If I were to critique anything, I’d say the Kohs were almost a little too perfect. They were very decent, moral people, always generous and self-sacrificing toward one another. I wouldn’t say the characters are lacking in complexity, necessarily, but they are lacking in flaws. Hardship comes from external forces, almost never from their own mistakes. I would have liked to see one of the family err in some way after this much time. Though despicable, the antagonist is arguably the more interesting character.

Overall, another fantastic book by Min Jin Lee. There are messages, but no easy or neat ones. The author knows this is a complex issue. My main takeaway was that even though parents and teachers may care about exam results and university acceptance, they should care more about the kids themselves. This fact seems almost like a truism until you look at how seldom it is applied. ]]> Review8671870069 Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:25:01 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Outside']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8671870069 Outside by Charlotte Levin Emily May gave 4 stars to Outside (Kindle Edition) by Charlotte Levin
bookshelves: contemporary, arc, 2026, recent
'What's this about a gardener?'
'Oh, just that I pretended I wanted a quote, then feigned dizziness to get him to move the bins back. Anxiety makes you evil. They don't publicise that on mental health awareness week. God knows what I'll do next time.'


Outside was quite an experience— equal parts funny and devastating. I'm not sure I've read a book about agoraphobia before, and certainly not any as effective as this one.

It works especially well, I think, because of the many darkly humorous moments peppered amongst the story of Beatrice's mental health struggles. Levin balances the light with the dark, allowing us to laugh at a ridiculous scenario at the same time as feeling deeply sorry for Beatrice. Having a parakeet say "wanker" at perfectly (or terribly) timed moments was hilarious.

The story alternates between the present, where Beatrice cannot leave her house, and the past, in which she is an actress following in her mother's footsteps. There is also a third "Before" that looks at Beatrice's early childhood primarily from her mother's perspective. Throughout, mysterious events where bad things happened are teased, and discovering exactly what occurred drives the novel.

While I was reading this book, it so happens that I adopted a new cat. If you don't know, often when cats are rehomed, when their whole world is turned upside down and nothing smells familiar... they hide. They find a small place to make secure and hole up there until the outside world becomes bearable again. I say this because the parallels struck me, and because it has a certain logic. When your world is destabilised, when it becomes unpredictable and maybe unsafe, creating a small, enclosed environment that you can control actually makes sense.

That's what Beatrice does when her world falls apart. I really liked her as a character, and I found her poor decision-making realistic and understandable given the circumstances. Her bond with Matisse (the parakeet) was wonderful and moving.

There is a love story, but the author handles this carefully and refuses to offer a neat solution in Beatrice's healing. I really appreciate not selling romance as a cure-all, which too many authors are tempted to do, and Levin's resistance to giving Beatrice a magical way out strengthens the story.

My two minor complaints are related. 1) I think it went on a little too long, and 2) Some of the subplots seemed unnecessary. I wasn't totally sold on the mystery of Beatrice's father's identity, and I'm not sure why we got to see her therapist's romance.

Still, I thought it was very good. Going in, I was a bit worried it would be like other books in which a female protagonist lives in her head/room and the whole point seems to be to bore the reader senseless (*cough*My Year of Rest and Relaxation*cough*) but it is closer to Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Sorrow and Bliss, both of which I loved.

And the author's note is a must-read. ]]> Review8775288559 Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:43:46 -0700 <![CDATA[Emily May added 'Lost Lambs']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8775288559 Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash Emily May gave 2 stars to Lost Lambs (Hardcover) by Madeline Cash
bookshelves: 2026, contemporary, recent
All heads on the beach turned as Abigail Flynn removed her shorts and T-shirt, revealing a wispy bikini about a size too small. She was magnificent and Bud's role in her production gave him a perverse pride. How she once swam from his scrotal caves and evolved into this perfect specimen, the stuff of magazine covers and male fantasy. Though other men would inevitably enter into her life, only one had made her.


This is the male protagonist thinking about his teen daughter 😐

I opened with that quote because it repulsed me, but my issues with the whole book are about a lot more than just one gross paragraph.

Lost Lambs sits in that weird niche of heightened realism that I just don’t think I like. Somewhere right between realistic and outright weird, so that it’s just offbeat enough for me to wonder if it’s satirical. Is this a character drama about dysfunctional marriages and generational trauma? Or a satire in which the characters have weird sex fantasies, fall in love with online extremists, and conspiracies abound?

Obviously, it’s both, and therein lies my problem.

Much of the novel feels oddly theatrical, with everyone acting just a little too strange and stylised. I spent a lot of time wondering if it was intended as parody or whether these interactions were meant to be taken at face value. The dialogue and characterisation came across as just implausible, and therefore impossible for me to believe in.

Oftentimes, I wondered if the author wanted to be funny and it just didn't land. I see it is tagged as "humour" so maybe the jokes just weren't my thing. A lot of things that happened felt exaggerated, weird and random, with a coherent explanation for motivations missing.

I never gelled with the characters, writing style, or wacky plot. ]]>