Welcome to Litsy!

First finish for March is this story of Cassandra Tipp - is she a victim of trauma-induced psychosis who killed her husband, father and brother, or is her tale of faeries true?
This superbly written novel is my favourite read of this year so far.

CW: implied child abuse/rape

#17 for #ReadAway2024
@Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES

This was a strange but also strangely compelling novel about a reclusive romance writer who disappears and leaves a tale for her niece and nephew to explain her life and some family secrets. Is the story she tells the truth or is it the tale of a mind twisted by trauma?

I‘ve been in such a reading slump this year…Plucked this old #arc off my bookshelf this morning to read with my coffee.

#WyrdAndWonder day 4: woodland creatures

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce is a dark tale of the Fae (or is it), where the woods represent an escape (or do they) from the family dramas of a lonely, imaginative girl. It‘s absolutely brilliant; not least for hewing to it‘s central theme of finding your own truth. And maybe murdering people who deserve it. Maybe.

When a popular novelist is presumed dead, her estate passes to her niece and nephew - if they will first submit to hearing her version of the bloodsoaked events that split the family. Expect an unreliable narrator and an ambiguous tale that leaves the reader to decide what truth to embrace.

Not what I expected, but this excellent debut is a particularly disturbing take on fairies and a thorny family history of abuse.

Oh hell yes I can‘t resist a teasing unreliable narrator with secrets to reveal and stories to spin

I‘ve never read anything like this before. I have a feeling I‘ll be thinking about this book for some time. It took me a little while to get into it, but it did really grab me and hold my attention once I was in. I was creeped out, but I couldn‘t look away.
It has an old-style fairytale, pagan, folkloric vibe combined with a modern-day take on mental illness. Was it the Faeries? or psychosis?

One of my top 3 books of the year! Recommended to me by a librarian, which led me recommend it to another coworker librarian. Three out of three librarians loved this book 💜 There‘s more than one major twist, and each one changes your whole interpretation of the story. A must-read for Shirley Jackson fans!

Power is still out here and data is spotty. My mom and I took a day trip to Dubuque to enjoy some cooked food and WiFi and then took a spin around Books A Million (for the books and the air conditioning).#bookhaul #abriefmomentofdata #wtf2020

Power is still out here and data is spotty. My mom and I took a day trip to Dubuque to enjoy some cooked food and WiFi and then took a spin around Books A Million (for the books and the air conditioning). April had to check out my #bookhaul once I got home. #catsoflitsy #abriefmomentofdata #wtf2020

Cassandra Thorn has a dark past but is it bound up with cruel faerie or is it something all too human? In her old age Cassie is missing and has left an unpublished manuscript of her life for her nephew and niece. They know of her links to violent family deaths, of her reputed madness but what is Cassie's version? Bruce weaves a dark, twisted tale that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, sanity and delusion ▼

The UK cover is what drew me to this. I didn‘t even know what it was about! If you like a different take on fairies (ie. they‘re not very nice AT ALL!), you‘ll like this. You‘re never quite sure if the main protagonist is telling the truth or completely mad. Either way, it was a good story!

A dark and disturbing story which is definitely away with the faeries! I‘m not sure how I feel about it, really. It‘s beautifully written and the descriptions are very vivid, I could picture it all quite well in my mind‘s eye. There are some interesting characters, fascinating in fact. I read it via #Pigeonhole. I wasn‘t eager to read each stave but felt compelled to do so!

#Pigeonhole

First off, thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Once I started reading, this was not what I expected it to be.At first, I wasn't really into it, but as the mystery of Cassandra and her life began to unfold I realized that I was invested and wanted to know how it would end. I actually did enjoy the author's writing and story progression. Is Cassandra dead and are the fairies real?

"The night is vast and very dark and something lives in the closet."