This is one of my favourite 2022 releases. Meredith hasn’t left her home for over 1000 days. She works from home and lives with her cat Fred, and loves to read, bake, and do jigsaw puzzles in her free time. She has a best friend named Sadie, an online friend Celeste, and Tom, someone sent from a charity organization to be her ‘friend.’ The more we get to know Meredith, the more we peel back the layers of why she doesn’t want to go outside.

This book has the most unreliable narrator I’ve read and I’m here for it. There’s something about a narrator telling you she’s lying but you still end up shocked at certain turns of events. Now that’s some storytelling!

The Cloisters had me at ‘gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination’ but I’m afraid it stopped there. The book wasn’t bad, there were parts I liked, but unfortunately this was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ kind of situation. I think fans of dark academia will enjoy this one because it’s certainly that, but I wanted more of the gothic, sinister, and atmospheric story I was promised and feel didn’t get.

I devoured this in two days. I was absolutely captivated by S.T. Gibson’s writing and the voice of Constanta, Dracula’s first bride.

“You did not let me keep my name, so I will strip you of yours. In this world you are what I say you are, and I say you are a ghost, a long night’s fever dream that I have finally woken up from.”

– A Dowry of Blood, S.T. Gibson

I love it when books have a mix of genres. The Monsters We Defy is such a great mix of historical fiction and fantasy. Set in the 1920s in Washington DC, some characters and events in the book were actually inspired by real life. I’m not at all familiar with what happened in DC around this time, and while a fictional book isn’t the best source, learning about it was still really cool!