Welcome to Litsy!

After the 1st read thru I was left wondering, WHAT?

Take the title seriously because I‘ve never met a more unreliable narrator. I doubt the publisher‘s summary will help you. Possibly understand this is translated so take into account when it was written, where & by who.

2 very different moms with young children. A ghost child who needs answers from one of them with an unspecified time constraint. I had to listen twice.

Confusion X10!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚📚📚📚📚🎧: Hillary Huber; transl. Megan McDowell. Orig. Spanish
A total WTF did I just listen to story about a mother and child, possible body snatching, and poisonous hallucinations. Multi-POV with simultaneous narration. Gripping and twisty. Loved it!

A super short and quick read, could have done in one sitting. I didn't really get it though.

I feel like I‘m missing something or this went over my head. It had a bit of a creep factor at times but not as much as some people seemed to think.

The format of it was interesting. It honestly feels like a fever dream reading it because there are no chapters or scene breaks or anything. So if you read it, doing it in one sitting would be best. I split it over two lunch hours and it took me some time to recall that stream of thought from ⬇️

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. I will provide no description and no reason for wanting to read it. I just do. Some will be old, and some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookaDay2023

This book was strange. Maybe I didn‘t really understand it. But too much going on

Read this a few months ago, but I‘m waaay behind on my reviews. This book was astonishing. The reader is just thrown into the story and, at first, things make very little sense. But as the narrative develops, what emerges is a strange and haunting story about the environment, illness, and our relationship with the planet. Really loved this one!

#AlphabetGame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Letter F

A taut novella full of suspense and dread. This book rattled me to the core. The title is so apt and the horror story feels increasingly like reality.

Other Fs I think fondly about are Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater, and Margaret Laurence's The Fire-Dwellers.

A suspenseful, disturbing, non-stop nightmare of a novella. Read it in one sitting (well, from the bathtub to the bed). A good one to go in knowing little about.

I read two books for the February prompt of #Argentina in #foodandlit #foodandlit2022. Fever Dream and Ficciones. Tonight I made Empanadas. I googled a bunch of filling recipes and just made my own combination. I was very pleased with the result. Now I want to go to Buenos Aires.

This was not the psychological thriller that the coverlet reviews made it out to be. No “mood”.

What a ride! Such a weird and unsettling but addicting book.

Full review: https://www.instagram.com/p/CXqwYLKFwdW/?utm_medium=copy_link

A short novel where the tension and dread keep increasing. A woman is in the hospital with an unknown illness, and a young boy who is not her son guides her through her recent memories, trying to figure out what happened.

"Why do mothers do that?

What?

Try to get out in front of anything that could happen---the rescue distance.

It's because sooner or later something terrible will happen. My grandmother used to tell my mother that, all through her childhood, and my mother would tell me, throughout mine. And now I have to take care of Nina.

But you always miss the important thing."

I find this the most terrifying passage in this book. Literal goosebumps.

Whoa, was this good! I listened to the audiobook then went back and read most of the hardcover, all in just a couple of hours. Schweblin captures parental fear terrifyingly well, this feeling that something's wrong but we can't see it because we're distracted by something else, something that seems vitally important but that's just holding our attention while the story plays out. It's a simple, bizarre story with no clear moral.

Question of the Day: What book kept you up late? #QotD⁣
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Whether it was "one more chapter please" or "can't sleep, clown will eat me" - I want to know.⁣
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Tag me in your responses!
#OneMoreChapter #HorrorBooks⁣
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[ID: top down view of the daily question text over a cup of black coffee on a yellow background.]

This is a 150 page book that does horror very well. You are left with an unsettled feeling. I had to keep turning the pages to find out what happened. A woman is in hospital with a boy by her side asking her to recount what happened, so they can find the part with the ‘worms‘. He determines what is important to the story. 4/5 stars

It starts near the end with young David guiding Amanda through events that end with her lying in hospital bed, dying, asking for her daughter. But the actual plot is inexplicable. There are two story lines, both of which are frightening, told by unreliable narrators, and nonlinear. Neither is logical. I reread it immediately and had more questions. A day later, I can barely remember the stories or the questions, just the sense of growing dread.

Is there a better time to review one of my favorite books of the year than Christmas day? Well, possibly, but I think this qualifies as a Christmas post in a year like 2020...
This one is best to go in knowing as little as possible, so I won't spoil anything. Although it's definitely a strange book, I thought from the title it might be completely nonsensical, without any clear narrative, but that's not the case 👇

Thank you @WriterAtHeart for this amazing package for #HauntedHollowSwap! I have not read any of these yet and the sour gummies are one of my faves! Everything smells amazing. Also I did not have space to include a photo of the wrapping paper but it also looked great!

@wanderinglynn thanks for organizing! 🎃🖤📚

A living ghost story, so strange. Confusing from the start but comes together I'm the end. Eco horror is very much fitting for this one.

#Scarathlon2020 #Teamharkness

@StayCurious

Wow that was not what I was expecting as an ending. This was right up my alley. I wish I would not have waited to read it.

Think I found a pretty good spot to read.

Diamond Point, West Virginia.

An eerie sickness immediately settled in and from that moment I couldn‘t stop turning the page of this eco thriller. Such a perfect way to kick of the fall season. I suspect people with kids will find this read even more anxiety inducing.

Not sure I've as many translated works from the Americas as other parts of the world but one of my fave authors, translated or otherwise, is Argentine author Samantha Schweblin. She's an auto-read for me; I loved her latest Little Eyes and found it absolutely haunting. The tagged book is a wild ride; I started reading it in bed one night and stayed up for hours reading it in one sitting. Her work is dark and fascinating.

#integrateyourshelf

The post tag is for my most anticipated, not yet read, acquisition. The read and recommended Women-of-the-Americas-in-Translation are tagged in the comments.

#IntegrateYourShelf @ChasingOm @Emilymdxn

Bit late to this, but fun prompt, so decided to post! #ThankfulThursday @Cosmos_Moon
The tagged book was extremely surreal, and fascinating ,in a supremely weird way.
1. I would love to visit Peru! No plans to travel for at least ...2 more years though, till a proven vaccine is invented!
2. I'm grateful just to get through each week!

This is short, under two hundred pages, but it packs such a punch. The opening line had me acutely aware of how ominous this book would be: "They're like worms." It had me so on edge in the best way and I didn't know what was going to happen next until it was hitting me in the face. The writing was brief but powerful and evocative. It was disturbing and I loved it deeply. An instant favourite.

A creepy book that will stay with me for a very long time. The reader suspects what is going on but oh it can't possibly be true.

This is important. Those words will always carry a chill.

This slim volume, winner of the 2018 Tournament of Books, is intense, mesmerizing and strange. Reading it is an experience! You finish it unsure what happened and how on earth the writer pulled it off.
#fever #MOvember @cinfhen

Have you ever read a book that was beautifully written but obscure? So many questions and the sum isn't satisfying but instead of feeling frustrated, I was more intrigued. I may need to read this again.

Here are the books #LitsyATXReadersSociety chose for this month‘s theme of “something spooky”. We had a little bit of everything from horror to suspense to bizarre and nonfiction haunting debunking. Fun topic!

Okay...

It‘s mostly plot driven—(you are NOT gonna tell me it‘s character driven)—and yeah it‘s creepy but there aren‘t many ideas being expressed.

I did read up on the background, and the issue she‘s writing about is major, is necessary, but still this book needed more.

The story might‘ve gone nutso crazy, in a good way, but she didn‘t ramp it up enough.

1. So weird and good!
2. Black
3. Saw a production of Cats the musical, by a British theatre company, in Haikou, China (it was in English with Chinese subtitles on screens beside the stage and it was fantastic!)
4. Yes, not super well but can whistle a tune and snap my fingers
5. #friyayintro

Happy #WomenInTranslationMonth! 🥰 See some of our top (mostly fiction) picks at the link: https://www.strandbooks.com/strand-blog#/entry/entry234-18-mu...

August is Women in Translation Month! I‘m going to attempt to post about a different book each day. 📚
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This book knocked me down, went through my pockets, took my phone, and texted my exes. I have read it seven times, and I still don‘t understand it, but I am obsessed with it. It simultaneously makes me so happy and makes my brain want to throw up, which also makes me so happy. #womenintranslationmonth🖤📚🖤

Really weird book and does read like a fever dream but kind of hard to understand what is going on and the point of the book.

Nerve racking but I felt the payoff at the end could have been better.

This book is so wild and disconcerting. The structure of the narrative kept me off-kilter, blurring the past and present and placing my understanding of events in the hands of two narrators who are ... poisoned? dying? already dead? All the while, horrifying things have happened, are happening, are going to happen any moment. It really is like a fever dream. #LitsyAtoZ

My third book finished for #24B4Monday.

I‘ve no idea how to rate this book. That probably has something to do with that I‘ve no idea what I just read. Amanda is telling David a story, and David is interested in hearing about the worms (?)

This book was a dream! Highly recommend it. I finished in a day 💫🌌
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#bookstagrammer #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #readingseries #bookstagram #writingcommunity #amwriting #amreading #books #booksmatter

Just read this book in one sitting and I am left feeling so unsettled. I don't know how Samanta did it, but each and every page had me getting more and more tightly wound. If you are looking for a read that is confusing and unsettling - this is definitely the one!

#TimbitTunes Day 22: This is a fairly short book that can be finished in one reading. It is a tightly-wound thriller that builds up, gradually in the beginning, then unspooling mercilessly in the end, until the reader feels a choking sensation in her throat, unable to breathe with anxiety. There is Amanda, a woman lying in a hospital bed, ostensibly dying. #MonsterHospital indeed. My full review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-iUU

This book is wild & electric & dreamy 🖤
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#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #amwriting #amreading #booksmatter #feverdream

This is purely, perfectly lynchian, ominous as heck, and a tug on maternal instinct I'm sure...if you like your reading dark, with abundant dream logic, and full of slowly creeping menace, this is most def worth your time

This eerie novella is one of the creepiest things I‘ve ever read. I finished it in one sitting, trying to force myself to slow down and savor each line. I don‘t want to say what “Fever Dream” is about (could I even describe what “Fever Dream” is about?) but the book envelops you in a gradual sense of dread. I was unsettled the whole time I read this books, even when I wasn‘t sure what was going on.

Actually going to listen to this short audiobook before I dive into the new short story collection by the same author...

I read this haunting book in one sitting. It is at once horror story and allegory. If you need your books to be straightforward and clear, this is not the book for you. It is compelling and frightening and filled with a vague evil. Is this how the world ends? Is it too late to reverse course? #pageonebooks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Car line read time!

I just started this eerie read by Samantha Schweblin & translated by Megan McDowell. It's my second non-English language book in a row (I finished The Vegetarian last night) & I've been thinking about the challenges of translating fiction, particularly the difficulty of choosing between literal translation & a more creative translation that attempts to capture the tone & spirit of the original.

Are there any translations you strongly recommend?