Reading Log: TBR List

a curated list of things on my to-be-read list

I was trying to figure out what to write about this Sunday since I’ve been busy finishing our current book club pick (Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead). The club meets on Monday, though—so you’ll have to wait one more week to hear my thoughts on that one. I also didn’t publish a post last Sunday because I wanted to give my DOXA article a bit more time spotlighted on the front page.

In the meantime, I thought I’d talk about some of the books on my TBR. There are so many, and I’m sure at least one will catch your interest. This is just a sneak peek of some of the ones sitting at the top of the list (it barely makes a dent in the list as a whole). Just a heads-up—these summaries are adapted from what I’ve found online, so take them with a grain of salt since I haven’t read these books yet! I hope they still capture the essence and inspire you to get reading.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

Ah yes, one of my true loves, Julia Armfield, has done it again. I’ve read her short story collection Saltslow and her debut novel Our Wives Under the Sea, and I’m so curious about this new book. Like me, Julia seems to have a particular fixation with salt and deep bodies of water.

summary: A speculative reimagining of King Lear, Private Rites is set in a world slowly drowning under endless rain. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes haven’t spoken in years when their cruel, revered father dies, offering a chance for them to reconnect. In the grand glass house he built, they begin to unravel the secrets he left behind, only for a devastating revelation in his will to tear them apart all over again. As their lives spiral—Irene’s relationship on the brink, Isla’s ex-wife persistent, and Agnes falling in love for the first time—dark forces begin to stir. Something linked to their mother’s disappearance years ago, and the strange, ever-watchful strangers who seem obsessed with their lives.

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk

Recommended by someone in my writing group, this is the book I’m most excited about right now! It's currently sitting on my bedside table, practically begging to be read. Lesbians, vampires, bacchanals, and murder—what’s not to love?

summary: Thirst weaves through two timelines: in nineteenth-century Buenos Aires, a vampire watches the world around her shift—from villages to a fever-ravaged city—forced to adapt and blend in with humans once more. In the present, another woman finds herself on the edge, grappling with her mother's terminal illness and the heavy weight of motherhood. When their paths cross in a cemetery, something ancient and undeniable stirs between them, pulling them into a web they cannot escape.

The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor

I had the pleasure of meeting Loghan at a writing event that my mentor Carrie Mac organized. We had a wonderful chat about Cicely Mary Barker and the illustrated flower faerie books from 1923. This has nothing to do with their novel, but is a sweet memory. Loghan’s first novel, The Cure for Drowning, was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2024. I am very excited to read it. Also an alumni of The Writer’s Studio!

summary: The Cure for Drowning is a gorgeously strange, magic-tinged historical novel set in southern Ontario, centring a queer love triangle on the cusp of war. Kit McNair—born to an immigrant Irish family and pulled half-back from the dead by Celtic magic after nearly drowning at the age of ten—moves through the world like a misfired spell, chafing against the confines of farm-girl life and the names others try to pin to them. Then Rebekah Kromer arrives: sharp, elegant, and unsettlingly sure of who Kit really is.

The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee

I’ve been seeing this one everywhere—on Instagram and through author recommendations—but no matter how much I dream, it’s not out yet. It’s expected to publish in September, so stay tuned.

summary: The Hunger We Pass Down is a creeping, uncanny intergenerational horror that starts with a single mother and a mysteriously clean kitchen. Alice Chow is barely holding it together—until something starts doing her chores for her, and the space that opens up forces her to confront the ghosts that shaped her, from her WWII-survivor great-grandmother to the daughter already slipping through her fingers.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

If you’re into vampires, you might already recognize this title. Carmilla has earned its place in gothic canon—whether through the original novella, one of its many film adaptations, or the cult-favourite 2014 YouTube web series. It’s a story that keeps resurfacing, seductive and strange as ever. While I watched the web series in university, I am ashamed to say that I still haven’t read the book.

summary: In a crumbling castle tucked deep in the Austrian woods, Laura lives a quiet, haunted life—until a moonlit accident delivers Carmilla to her doorstep. What begins as an intoxicating friendship spirals into fever dreams, obsession, and something far more ancient; Carmilla is the original vampire tale (pre-dating Dracula by 26 years), drenched in gothic romance and queer longing.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson is a name that’s come up again and again in my life—always with the promise that I’d adore her work. I recently gifted this book to a friend for her birthday, though I haven’t read it myself. I believe this book is her debut, first published in 1985. While it is fiction, it’s also semi auto-biographical, with the protagonist sharing the author’s name. The Night Side of the River, her ghost story collection, has also been haunting my TBR for ages.

summary: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit follows Jeanette, raised by her fierce, God-fearing mother to be one of the chosen—destined for a life of sermons and salvation. But when she falls for a girl in her church, everything begins to crack. Strange, tender, and biting, this is a queer coming-of-age wrapped in holy fire and devotion gone feral.

*Fun fact~ when the book was published, Jeanette Winterson got a very angry letter from her mother. Oops!*

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

I stumbled on this book through a Goodreads fantasy list and was immediately enraptured. It sounds like a blend of medieval horror and dark fantasy, laced with religious fervour—and maybe even a hint of cannibalism? All delicious themes that I can’t wait to sink my teeth into.

summary: Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Supplies are gone, hope is rotting—until salvation arrives in the form of the Constant Lady and her Saints. Divine, otherworldly, impossible. They heal the sick, fill the pantries, and ask only for devotion. But as feasts grow more grotesque and worship turns feral, three women begin to question the miracle. Ser Voyne, a war hero; Phosyne, a half-mad sorceress nun; and Treila, a servant with vengeance in her heart. All tangled in faith, desire, and the slow unraveling of what salvation really costs.

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin

N.K. Jemisin has quickly cemented herself as my favourite author after The Broken Earth trilogy (a phenomenal recommendation, by the way). Her voice, her command of language—unmatched, in my opinion. So when I stumbled across The Killing Moon at Iron Dog Books, I snatched it up immediately. How could I not? A fantasy novel centred around sleep, dreams, and death? Say less. And of course, as every writer knows: acquiring books is an essential part of the craft, even if they sit on your dresser waiting to be read. It’s basically a rule.

summary: In the city-state of Gujaareh, peace is sacred—upheld not by warriors, but by Gatherers: priests who steal into your dreams to heal you, guide you, or end you. Death, in service of harmony. Ehiru is one of the most devout, but when a rot begins to spread through the temple—innocents turning up dead in the name of the goddess he serves—he's forced to question the faith that shaped him. To stop the rising tide of blood and magic, he must ally with the very woman he was meant to kill. This is a lush, cerebral fantasy about corruption, belief, and the terrible cost of peace.

Grey Dog by Elliott Gish

This book is written by a Writer’s Studio alum! I always get a jolt of inspiration when I come across books by folks who went through the same program—it makes the whole dream feel that much more reachable. And truly, what better kind of alum to stumble upon than one writing weird, subversive, literary horror? You already know that is very much my thing. Perhaps I should put my own fantasy novel down and start writing a horror one too.

summary: Set in 1901, Grey Dog follows Ada Byrd—spinster, teacher, and amateur naturalist—as she flees to the remote village of Lowry Bridge, hoping to outrun her past. At first, it seems like the perfect reset: quiet community, woods to explore, students to guide. But something feral is stirring. Swarms of crickets start dying. Self mutilating rabbits. A faun so malformed that it should not exist. Ada begins to sense a presence in the woods—an ancient, gnashing thing she names the grey dog—and with it, her own grip on reality starts to slip. Grief, shame, delusion, and rage twist through the narrative in this subversive, feral horror novel about the monstrous, beautiful violence of female transformation.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

I could not think of a better book to end this list with than one so timely and acclaimed. I recently read an article that described science fiction writers as future tellers—they pick an issue of their time, something they suspect will remain unresolved, and imagine where it might lead. That is exactly what Octavia Butler did. Parable of the Sower predicts that 2025 will open with L.A. in flames, a fascist president on the rise, escalating racial violence, and the worsening of climate collapse. Butler saw, with terrifying clarity, the fractures in American society—its wealth disparity, its social inequality—and envisioned what might happen if those wounds were left to fester. This novel is a prophetic warning that was left neatly packaged with a bow in our hands and still we fell prey to it.

summary: Set in a terrifyingly familiar 2024, Parable of the Sower follows Lauren Olamina, a teen girl with hyperempathy—she feels other people’s pain as if it were her own—as she’s forced to navigate a brutal, collapsing world. Her walled-in community on the outskirts of L.A. offers brief safety from the chaos outside, but everything falls apart after a fire guts the compound and takes her family with it. Alone but determined, Lauren travels north through the wreckage of society, gathering other lost souls along the way and building something radically new from the ashes: Earthseed, a belief system rooted in change. This is dystopian horror that feels far too close to home.

Thanks for reading!

xx,

Ciara