"I have spent my entire life fighting to be seen, and I am not sure if I can continue much longer without anything to show for it."

GENRE: Historical Romantic Fantasy
RATING: 4.5/5
FORMAT: eBook & physical ARC
Tropes: Women in STEM, Bickering co-workers, falling in lover over letters, inspired by the 1900s Chicago

Overall Impression: Overall, I think this debut did an amazing job of blending all the different elements of the book, while keeping it light-hearted and a fun read. We somehow get to enjoy a journey of getting to know Josie & Reid, while understanding their standing in the world and how who they are as BIPOC individuals shaped them.

Review:
Letters from the Last Apothecary is for the people who enjoy epistolary novels, like Divine Rivals combined with the element of Academics that we see in Emily Wilde's books! I knew when I first heard of these two comp title, I'd need to read Letters from the Last Apothecary because I'm a HUGE fan of letters, footnotes and academics in Fiction books 🤭

And I wasn't wrong to be excited for it! I FLEW through this book. It's a Historical Romantic Fantasy with a little bit of Mystery and discussion of the different difficulties both of our MCs face as two BIPOC individuals. We also get to see how Josie faces being a women in the STEM field throughout the book and the barriers she faces overall. I think that is one of my favourite aspect to Letters from the Last Apothecary: the way we dive into a lot of social construct that are inspired by the 1900s Chicago setting and at the same time, we get to know both Reid and Josie through their POVs.

Bita manages to deliver all the different elements without overwhelming us as readers and we get to know both Reid and Josie, understand each of their own dreams and wants while also learning about the barriers they faced in society individually and painting a picture of the world they are in.

And, in terms of their Romance, I enjoyed their dynamic and thought it was a well done Slow-burn with them knowing each other through letters AND meeting in the apothecary, which then becomes a place that brings them together and keeps them there.

While I really enjoyed this book, the main reason it didn't get a full 5 star was because I did want to see a bit of development from the dynamic that Josie and Reid shared as co-workers to realising who they each were. I felt we got to spend more time with Josie on this than Reid and that impacted the flow of the Romance aspect for me.

I am so excited to read more by Bita and just adding here that I have seen Letters from the Last Apothecary described as cozy and I wouldn't call it cozy to me personally but more Charming (as Bita describes it) or Light Academia. This book is definitely slower paced but not cozy as it's got a lot of adventures and focuses on a lot of things that you wouldn't expect in a Cozy Fantasy book (it is definitely light-hearted with a few heavy topics).

I was provided a free advance reader copy and I’m sharing my honest thoughts.

Happy Friday! Ready for another round of faves? Be sure to share your faves in my Discord server as well.

My favorite book I read this week was One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller. Grace is a newly out trans girl in her senior year of high school. She had been on track to be recruited as a kicker for college football, but stopped playing to begin her transition. However, after her school's team has a rough start, the captains and coach ask her to return to the team, and she does.

My favorite kind of YA novel is the kind with big, messy feelings, and this book delivers. Friend feelings, romantic feelings, football feelings, family feelings.

I liked that Grace encountered people who were supportive, antagonistic, and even indifferent about her transition. Some parts were tough to read - there is quite a bit of verbal and physical transphobia. However, it felt very real to me. This book isn't set in a perfect world, it's set in a world where people have complex and even nonsensical feelings.

If you like football, you can tell that Zeller knows her stuff when it comes to the nuts and bolts of the game. If you don't, it's fine and you'll still know what's happening (this is me, lol).

I feel like this book went kind of under the radar when it should have been big on YA/queer bookstagram. I hope you'll pick it up!

My non-bookish fave this week is that it's pool season! Last year, my spouse installed a stock tank pool in our backyard and it's possibly the best money we've ever spent. It's looking like we're on track for a very hot summer, and I plan to be in the pool for as much of it as possible.

I don't hate it yet, but I'm getting there.

I’ve been referring to the deliberately silly style of writing I feel pressured to adopt (so as to be above accusations of AI) as rococo because it’s stylized for the sake of being stylized. I’m using italics and underline and strikethrough and Capitalizing For Emphasis like never before. (Tons of parentheticals.) 

I’ve seen other people using double commas instead of em dashes. A comment on my IG post said, “I’m using commas instead of periods” (!!) Another referred to using “3 layers of nested parentheses”. Someone else wrote, “Sometimes if I find a typo, I just leave it.”

It's about respect

If I were writing for a major publication that was paying me $1/word, I wouldn’t turn in rococo writing because it would be disrespectful to my editor (it'd look like I didn't even do a cursory revision). But in the age of AI, I’m concerned about how AI usage is disrespectful to the reader. This comes down to my priorities: what would I rather risk? Seeming too polished and possibly AI? Or sound a little silly (sloppy) and ensure my readers’ trust? I choose the latter.

Who gets to call themselves a good writer these days?

Pre-AI, being a good writer was much less accessible because it required so much time. You had to read a ton and train for many years before you could call yourself a good writer. Being a good writer was a status that you earned. Now, get a Claude subscription and you can pass as a “good writer”. 

To understand how insane this is, extrapolate to piano. Imagine there's a way that I can simulate being a piano virtuoso even though I haven't learned to read music or spent even an hour practicing. All the suckers who devoted decades of their life studying their piano craft feel pretty dumb now, huh?

"Good" becomes bad when "good" is too easy

There used to be gatekeeping when it came to “good writing” but now it's within reach for any schmuck with internet access. It's a numbers+perception problem that is mangling writing: Too many people are “good writers”, and this is why the definition of “good” is warping before our eyes (or, we’re seeing what "good" really means).

Bourdieu discusses this phenomenon in Distinction: as soon as the lower classes get access to something, they essentially “ruin” it for the upper classes. This is what we’re seeing in the rejection of AI writing. 

It all comes back to TO HAVE AND HAVE MORE

Status and class and elitism are my favorite topics so this angle on AI is fascinating to me because we’re discovering that what was previously considered “quality writing” had less to do with the writing itself being ~*inherently*~ excellent than the fact that the average person could not produce it.

Writers think of themselves as talented and special because they can create something that a layman cannot. Now that laymen can generate polished and concise “good” prose with the click of a button, the definition of “good” must change.

Who will adapt and overcome?

(And who will go extinct?)I think some writers will hold on to the version of writing that they were taught and conditioned to believe was “good” (the kind of prose that AI was trained on, which it now replicates and has devalued in doing so) and reject pressure to write “weird” and “unpolished” because it feels like succumbing to bullying (from the forces of AI). To suddenly switch up your style (which you honed for years) and artificially inject weirdness into it might feel like a betrayal of your craft and education.

I bet a lot of writers feel as I do: It’s frustrating to consider “does this sound like AI?” every time I write a sentence. And it feels iNaUtHeNtiC to toss in some funky punctuation or an archaic word choice just to pre-empt AI accusations.

I find myself making flashy choices that (likely) distract from what I’m trying to say, but it’s a trade-off I make because it’s critical (to me) to be above suspicion. Especially in my writing here -- these essays on INTERROGATE-- because newsletters/substacks are plagued rife overrun disgustingggg with with AI slop.

(In contrast, when I'm working on a novel, I do not make this trade-off. I write with much less concern about AI.)

The Dilemma

The problem is in having 2 goals that are at odds 1) I don’t want to be accused of AI 2) I want to write as clearly and concisely as possible. But given the current landscape, I can’t always accomplish goal 2 when I am working towards goal 1. 

Watch: we'll stop calling it "sloppy" and start calling it "authentic"

And eventually it will be called “good”. 

We’re moving the goal posts on “good writing” just as we do with all things that are embodiments of so-called quality and taste. When something becomes available to the masses, it's replaced by something inaccessible. Take fast fashion: Once the hoi polloi can buy knock-offs at Zara, the elite trendsetters declare the trend over and create something new that the underclasses will chase. And the cycle goes on forever. 

What’s historically been considered “good writing” isn’t some objective truth. It’s the cultural elite giving their stamp of approval to a certain type of writing. Now that AI writing has been deemed bad (aka common), writers must scramble to distinguish their writing from AI. Whoever does this will be rewarded with the title of “good writing”.

Tastemakers define what’s “good” in opposition to what they disdain

(They disdain anything commonplace and accessible). We’ve operated under the illusion that great writing, truly literary writing, exists when, really, it's a construct (it's just a matter of taste). And now, thanks to AI, it's been revealed as a construct. How else could it be that AI writing, which was trained on stolen copies of the very best writing, is “bad”? Exclusivity and gatekeeping is a huge part of what deems something artistically (and culturally) respected. 

There hasn’t been a shake-up like this in literature before: where we have to examine what makes writing “literary” and high-brow. The fact that AI does a convincing job replicating “literary” writing is discomfiting to the writing world because it’s basically rendered the old guard of literary writing slop. This is an existential crisis as much as it is a writing crisis.

We (writers) thought a certain type of “literary” writing was untouchable but now that it’s the default writing style of Average Joes, we have to confront that, perhaps, what makes writing “good” is simply that it can’t be easily copied by normies. Good is not an intrinsic quality–it's something that can only be defined in relation to regular-people writing.

How to strategically alienate and be superior

My latest theory is that we’re going to see a lot of allusions soon: to the bible, to greek myth, to canonical poets. Part of the perception of good writing, we’re seeing, is exclusivity. There’s undeniably a snobbishness and elitism associated with “good” writing. Now that AI has taken away exclusivity from clean, pithy prose, people will look for other ways to be exclusive.

What’s more exclusive and human than allusions to Homer?

Allusions are peak-human because they draw on the author’s existing knowledge and apply something that is seemingly irrelevant to a totally different context. I don’t think AI can produce this (for now). For example, instead of saying that someone is on the verge of death, I’ll say he has an "imminent appointment with Charon". Even if I haven’t referenced anything mythological up to this point, I can count on (some) people to recognize the significance and understand what I mean. 

This type of allusion used to be ubiquitous until Ancient Greek enrollment dropped off in the 1920s, and Latin in the 1970s (in the US). Using allusions is akin to speaking in code that only a certain type of reader can understand. I flipped through Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel and saw this line: “In that month when Proserpine comes back, and Ceres’ dead heart rekindles” – do you know what month that is? Or what season?

I don’t think AI can write like this, which is motivation enough for me to start writing like this. 

I don't want to be accessible or relatable

Allusions necessarily make writing less accessible (unless you have the exact same cultural touchpoints as the writer). But I think anti-AI sentiment is forcing writing to head in a direction that is purposefully less accessible for stupid reasons. If I include an allusion to the Procne myth, I want it to be because that's my choice as an author. I don't want to feel compelled to include an allusion as some "prove you're human" checkbox in my own book.

Tastemakers gonna tastemake

I’d compare what’s shifting in writing to the evolution of fine dining. It used to be that European cuisine was considered bar none the best “quality” (which meant they could charge the highest prices). But over time, tastes (and prejudices) have evolved and there’s more respect for cuisines from other parts of the world that didn’t get the time of day, say, 20 years ago. 

There are so many examples of art that was dismissed as low-brow when it first arrived on the scene, later being apotheosized. My favorite book is an example: Henry Miller was considered obscene (and banned for 30ish yrs) when he pubbed Tropic of Cancer in 1934. Now it’s canon. 

Artists react to the world: Dada came out of WWI in a very clear cause-and-effect way. And in this AI age, we’re being forced to react to (and defend ourselves from?) technology that is infringing on the concept of art.

You can ask GPT to write you an essay about how awful AI is. It has no POV, beliefs, morals, or principles. It could gobble up this very essay and regurgitate it and someone else could take credit for my ideas. Being ripped off and exploited is fundamentally what it means to be an artist and it's looking grimmer than ever.

Have you ever finished a chapter and immediately flipped back because you weren't sure if what you just read actually happened?

Not because you missed something, but because the book made you doubt your own understanding of the story.

Maybe the narrator left out an important detail. Maybe a character wasn't telling the truth. Maybe everyone involved is manipulating someone else. Or maybe reality itself isn't as straightforward as it first appeared.

That's the feeling psychological thrillers are built around.

These books don't just create suspense. They create uncertainty. They force readers to constantly question what they're seeing, who they can trust, and whether what they're seeing is actually the truth at all.

🧠 What Is a Psychological Thriller?

Most thrillers focus on an external threat.

• A killer.

• A kidnapping.

• A conspiracy.

• A ticking clock.

Psychological thrillers are different because the greatest danger is often inside someone's mind. The conflict is driven by obsession, manipulation, paranoia, deception, memory, perception, or some combination of all five.

Readers aren't simply trying to figure out what happens next. They're trying to figure out what's actually happening, and those are very different questions.

🖤 Why Readers Love Them

I think psychological thrillers appeal to readers who enjoy feeling slightly off-balance.

A great psychological thriller creates the sense that something isn't quite right long before you understand why. Every conversation feels loaded with hidden meaning. Every detail feels important. Every character seems capable of keeping dangerous secrets.

The tension comes from uncertainty: you aren't racing toward answers; you're questioning whether the answers you've already been given are even real.

That's what makes the best psychological thrillers so hard to put down.

🪞 The Power of Unreliable Narrators

If conspiracy thrillers are built around hidden information, psychological thrillers are built around unreliable information.

• The narrator may be lying.

• A witness may be mistaken.

• A character may be manipulating everyone around them.

Sometimes the reader is given all the pieces but arranged in a way that leads them toward the wrong conclusion. That's why so many psychological thrillers become impossible to stop reading once the twists begin unfolding. Suddenly every scene takes on a different meaning.

You aren't learning new information; you're realizing the information was there all along.

📚 What Makes Them Different From Other Thrillers?

A conspiracy thriller makes readers question information. A domestic thriller makes readers question relationships. A police procedural focuses on solving a crime. But, a psychological thriller makes readers question reality itself.

• What happened?

• Who can be trusted?

• What is being hidden?

• What if the story you've been telling yourself is wrong?

Those questions sit at the heart of almost every great psychological thriller.

📖 If You Usually Read Other Genres...

One of the reasons psychological thrillers are so popular is that they naturally overlap with a lot of other genres.

❤️ Romance Readers

Start with: Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

A troubled marriage, hidden resentments, and long-buried secrets collide during a secluded anniversary getaway. The relationship dynamics are every bit as important as the mystery.

🏠 Domestic Thriller Readers

Start with: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Marriage, obsession, manipulation, and deception come together in a twist-filled story that constantly shifts your perspective.

😱 Horror Readers

Start with: The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Part psychological thriller, part horror, and completely impossible to predict. This is for readers who enjoy feeling deeply unsettled.

📚 Literary Fiction Readers

Start with: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Atmospheric, character-driven, and psychologically fascinating. The suspense comes almost entirely from what is happening beneath the surface.

🎧 Audiobook Readers

Start with: None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

This is one of the rare books where the audiobook may actually be the best way to experience the story. The podcast-style format adds another layer to the uncertainty.

📚 Beginner Pick

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A missing wife case spirals into a story about manipulation, media narratives, marriage, and perception.

Why it works:

• iconic twists
• highly accessible
• defines many modern thriller conventions
• impossible to stop talking about afterward

This is one of the books that introduced countless readers to psychological thrillers.

📚 Advanced Pick

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

A seemingly simple road trip becomes increasingly strange, unsettling, and difficult to interpret.

Why it works:

• deeply psychological
• highly atmospheric
• rewards close reading
• leaves readers thinking long after the final page

This is the kind of book where the experience matters just as much as the plot.

🌙 Final Thoughts

The scariest thing about psychological thrillers isn't the possibility that someone is lying; it's the possibility that everyone is.

The best psychological thrillers make readers question what they know, what they believe, and what they've assumed all along. They remind us that perception can be manipulated, memories can be flawed, and the truth is often much harder to find than we'd like to believe.

Happy Pride Month! To celebrate, I wanted to share some stories I love written by and/or featuring queer authors and characters:

• No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe - An exhilarating thriller with cinematic adventure and a delightful sapphic romance.

• The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder - An action-packed and heartfelt YA retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” perfect for fans of Indiana Jones.

• A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar - A simultaneously heartwarming and heart-wrenching YA historical novel set on the Titanic with a riveting heist and sapphic love.

• Anderson in Bloom by Jennifer Dugan - A fun, sexy second-chance sapphic romance with a hilarious cast and vivid small-town setting.

• The Incandescent by Emily Tesh - An atmospheric, enchanting dark academia fantasy with an addictive sapphic romance and captivating magic system.

• Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall - A creative, strange (complementary), and fever dream-esque sci-fi retelling of Moby-Dick.

• The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap - A gripping, gothic historical fiction novel with murder and a dark academia atmosphere set in Scotland, 1828.

• To the Bone by Alena Bruzas - A heartbreaking and unsettling YA historical fiction novel with a tender sapphic romance and powerful portrayal of Colonial America.

• An Arcane Study of Stars by Sydney J. Shields - A sweeping, irresistible dark academia fantasy set in a queer-normative world.

• No Better Than Beasts by Z.R. Ellor - A vicious, darkly mesmerizing retelling of "The Nutcracker."

• Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood - An achingly beautiful and wildly entertaining fantasy infused with Greek mythology, love, and tragedy.

• This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings - A sumptuous yet gritty YA historical fantasy set in Jazz Age Harlem with vampires, sapphic romance, and female rage.

• The Marble Queen by Anna Kopp; illustrated by Gabrielle Kari - A swoony, stunning YA fantasy graphic novel with gorgeous illustrations and sapphic romance.

• Girl, Goddess, Queen by Bea Fitzgerald - An empowering, romantic, and fierce YA retelling of Hades and Persephone.

What are you reading this Pride Month? 🫶

🍄Happy Humpday my froomies and friends 🍄

It is Wednesday and we are halfway through the week! I hope things are going well for you lovelies!!!

I open up a recent package and SCREAMED the moment I received it. After falling in love with Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado, I am so excited to be gifted the sequel, The Call of Crowns!

Ahhhhhh!

10/10
Spice - 7.5/10

I was so looking forward to read this book and it surely did not disappoint. ✨ The Rebel Seeks a Wife by Sophia Travers, is the story of Tristan Prince, the second child of the Prince family of Crownhaven. In order to become the CEO of their family company, he has to get a wife. But what happens when the dynamics between him and his best friend/bodyguard Katie, start to change?

The way Travers writes her characters is really good - they have some positives, some flaws and some insecurities - all born from their past experiences. That really helps to understand the character and relate to them. Small details are paid attention to. For example - a nickname used in chapter 5 will be recalled in chapter 30, giving a very coherent and humane touch to the characters.

And the spice! So good 👀. I don’t know if it is just me, but when the chemistry is present, the spice gives.

Two-thirds into the book, it does feel a little slow, but it picks up pace soon enough.

The banter of the side characters adds a humor element. Overall, a good read

Author - @sophiatraversauthor

Blurb: He’s the country’s most eligible bachelor. She’s the bodyguard he’s secretly teaching how to date…and the best friend he wants for himself.
Tristan Prince is trouble. He’s charming, devious, and too handsome for his own good. I’m the bodyguard in the background, and the best friend who spent the last three years swearing she’d never let her feelings for Tristan grow.
He might be looking for a wife, but I’m the last woman he’d ever marry.
My plan? Learn to date, and get over my best friend.
Until Tristan offers to teach me himself.
Coaching becomes practice. Practice flames into jealousy.
I don’t belong in Tristan’s world…
And Tristan? He belongs to someone else.

Genres
Friends To Lovers
Romance
Contemporary Romance
Forced Proximity
Contemporary
Billionaire Romance
Workplace Romance

Non-fiction

• "Before We Were Trans" by Kit Heyam

A portion of this book focuses on Angola. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories.

Fiction

• "A General Theory of Oblivion" by Jose Eduardo Angualusa

On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years.

• "That Hair" by Djaimilia Pereira De Almeida

That Hair is a family album of sorts that touches upon the universal subjects of racism, feminism, colonialism, immigration, identity and memory.

Poetry

• "Broken Halves of a Milky Sun" by Aaiún Nin

A powerful poetry debut exploring the effects of racism, war and colonialism, queer love and desire.

🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.

And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!