May 2026

This month I read 3 ebooks from the Toronto Public Library, and 1 epub, totalling to 4 books.

The numbers as they stand as of May 30th, 2026:

Total Reading Goal: 41/100 (+4)

COMPLETED: Canada Reads Shortlist: 5/5

Canada Reads Longlist: 7/10 (+1) – Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson

Nonfiction Goal: 2/12 – nothing to add this month

TPL Reading Challenge: 13/25 (+2) – Disability Joy: Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson – Mythical Creature: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Dishonourable Mentions

Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt

Synopsis:

People have a few ideas about Death, and the worst by far is a skeleton in a black potato sack. If she’s lucky, she gets a scythe. She’s just a woman doing a job and she’s very good at it.

Until she takes time off to live as a human and everything falls apart. Someone's killing people not on her schedule (well, not yet anyway) and with no thanks to the Temp she left in charge, it’s up to her to make things right.

With the help of her oh-so-sanctimonious sister, Life, and a charming (sexy) parasitologist, Death must stop the killer before it’s too late. That’s if she can defeat her greatest challenge yet – human bureaucracy.

My thoughts:

This book wasn’t overly bad, it was just whatever. I was about 75% of the way through, it was tolerable enough that I could muddle through to the end. Then I checked my page count and I was actually only about 25% of the way through, and I felt such a wave of exhaustion at the thought of having to read literally hundreds more pages of this that I immediately DNF’d it. The Britishness, the “I’m just a quirky alien that doesn’t understand humanity,” the dealings with the Italian mob and big pharma was just passively annoying and uninteresting. And it really sucks because I had high hopes for this book; it just had no character, no voice, no nothing.

You may like this book if: you are mundane and you like mundane things

Dead First by Johnny Compton

Synopsis:

When private investigator Shyla Sinclair is invited to the looming mansion of mysterious Texan tycoon Saxton Braith, she’s more than a little suspicious. The last thing she expects to see that night is Braith’s assistant driving an iron rod straight through the back of his skull. Scratch that—the last thing she expects to see is Braith’s resurrection afterward.

Braith can’t die, it turns out, but he has no explanation for his immortality, and very few intact memories of his past. Which is why he wants to pay Shyla millions to investigate him, and bring his long-buried history to light.

Shyla can’t help but be intrigued, but she’s also trapped by the offer. Braith has made it clear that he knows she’s the only person he can trust with his secret, because he knows all about hers.

Bold, atmospheric, and utterly frightening, Johnny Compton’s Dead First is spine-chilling supernatural horror about the pursuit of power and the undying need for reckoning.

My thoughts:

I feel like this book had the potential to be good, but it had two main flaws. Firstly, it almost immediately stopped focusing on Braith, the mysterious man who can’t be killed. Shyla kept getting involved in crazy supernatural stuff but I didn’t really understand how it was connected to the main plot, and at the same time it wasn’t its own B plot. Secondly, this book was written like it was a sequel. I felt like I was dropped into the middle of Shyla and Jinh’s relationship, I had no idea what was going on, and the author kept referencing past events as if I was supposed to know what was going on.

You may like this book if: you can put up with all of the creepy and weird shit to learn wtf is actually going on

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

Synopsis:

Rainy March is a proud third-generation book witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps into and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes.

Book witches live by a strict Real people belong in the real word; fictional characters belong in works of fiction…. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don’t even think about it.

Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll be expelled from her book coven—and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.

But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there’s only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Great Gatsby, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.

My thoughts:

This book was unbelievably corny and ridiculous. I logically understand that this book is not about me or librarianship or anything but I was so sick of this “I love stories/stories are so terribly important/we must rescue this heckin book characterino” shit immediately. The only reason I read past the first chapter at all was because I thought that the love interest character actually had some depth to him. Readers will know that my lovely fiance has an aversion to whipped cream; reading this book was probably similar to Bennet’s experience eating whipped cream: drowning in something artificially saccharine that has no substance and makes you feel sick. Disgusting.

You may like this book if: you think that books “smell good.” Books do not smell good; they smell awful and are covered in germs. Disgusting.

Aubrey Wants to Die by Pip Knight

Aubrey is not what she seems. She's young, beautiful, romantic, obsessive and ... a vampire. All she wants is to be human again, and failing that, she wants to die. But the problem is, she can't. Not by stake through the heart or holy water or crucifix or garlic or fire. And she'd know, she's tried every method ... Twice.

So she's stuck here on this earth, all alone. Even the vampire who made her this way — an aristocratic douchebag called Oscar — has abandoned her.

But everything changes when one fateful night, she meets Jonathan. He's everything Aubrey's ever dreamed of, and what's more, he's her soulmate. Her Bella—Edward story. For the first time in 150 years, she has a reason to hope — eternal life might be bearable after all. So when Jonathan unexpectedly breaks up with her, she'll do anything to get him back.

But that's the exact moment Oscar swoops back into her life. And he has other plans for her. Soon, she's thrown into a world of glamour, glitter, blood and hedonism, a world that has her questioning everything she knows to be true—about life, but also about herself. A world where nothing is simple ... And no—one is safe, either.

My thoughts:

I just did not care at all about Aubrey, or her tumultuous relationship with the love of her life (they have been on two dates). Instead of being a cutting satire this was shaping up to be a fairly basic bad romance novel.

You may like this book if: you wanted a worse version of Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen

And now for the real reviews:

How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield

Synopsis: Emma Sharp knows how to stay alive. Raised by a doomsday prepper father and hardened by the startup world, she’s learned to survive, adapt, and endure. First as a successful founder, and now as the wife of Logan Grant, a charismatic tyrant who’s kept her under his thumb ever since the breakdown that nearly ended her life. To Emma, the marriage is a necessary cage—the kind that keeps you in, but also keeps you safe.

But when she forms an unexpected bond with Taylor Cognetti, Logan’s former college sweetheart and business partner, a new dream begins to take shape—and with it, a plan to help her escape her controlling husband, once and for all, on the punishing final stretch of the Appalachian Trail known as the Hundred Mile Wilderness.

After all, bad things happen in the woods all the time.

As Emma, Taylor, and Logan venture deeper into Maine’s backcountry, desire and dread curdle into something unpredictable, dark, and deadly. Someone is lying. Someone is watching. And in the remote heart of the forest, someone is about to be lost . . . or found.

My thoughts: This book actually surprised me very much. It had a really excellent atmosphere, as woods books tend to do. It was very immersive, and you could definitely feel the suffocating emptiness. The thing that actually stood out to me was the plot twists. I’m not a huge “twist” person; books that are advertised as having a great twist usually stand out to me as red flags. But this book had a really excellent genre shift: it sets you up for a classic thriller (about young women being hunted by a man) and then really turns around and ends up being about Emma’s agency, and how she is able to finally “wake up” after being smothered in an abusive relationship. I actually liked it so much that I read another book by this author (see the review below). Definitely would recommend.

Rating: 5/5 bags of trail mix that make themselves available to you when you need it most

No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield

Synopsis: On a beautiful October morning in rural Maine, a homicide investigator from the big city pulls into the hard-luck town of Copper Falls. The local junkyard is burning, and the town pariah Lizzie Oullette is dead—with her husband, Dwayne, nowhere to be found. As scandal ripples through the community, Detective Ian Bird’s inquiries unexpectedly lead him away from small-town Maine to a swank city townhouse several hours south. Adrienne Richards, blonde and fabulous social media influencer and wife of a disgraced billionaire, had been renting Lizzie’s tiny lake house as a country getaway…even though Copper Falls is anything but a resort town.

As Adrienne’s connection to the case becomes clear, so too does her connection to Lizzie, who narrates their story from beyond the grave. Each woman is desperately lonely in her own way, and they navigate a relationship that cuts across class boundaries: transactional, complicated, and, finally, deadly.

My thoughts: As I said earlier, this was my second book by this author, and while it wasn’t quite as good as How to Survive in the Woods, it was still pretty decent. Again, the author used the strategy of changing the paradigm in the middle of the story, allowing Lizzie to switch from a victim to someone with a lot more agency. Lizzie’s story then became a lot more interesting. Probably the weakest part of the book was the ability for Lizzie to take Adrienne’s place so seamlessly. Readers will know that I am unofficially face-blind, but would it really be possible for people to not to tell the difference? I think that Lizzie would have been caught pretending to be Adrienne, but that because of the town’s dislike and disinterest of Lizzie, Adrienne probably could have passed for Lizzie, which is an interesting aspect to consider. The Inspector Ian Bird was also cool, and I appreciated that it was more of a “ships passing in the night” situation than a bumbling idiot who couldn’t solve the case.

Rating: 4/5 moles that were superglued on and weren’t discovered in the autopsy.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

TPL Reading Challenge: Mythical Creature

Synopsis: Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter―like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda―because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

My thoughts:

Readers will know that I have discussed this book ad nauseum during book club, and it was not great. Was it very immature, with world building that doesn’t really make sense and FMC who is super annoying? Yes. But did I have an excellent time reading and roasting it in the bookclub? Also yes. On Spencer’s 5 to -5 scale I would have given this a -4, meaning that it was so bad it was good.

Rating: 2/5 medieval versions of thigh adductor machines and American Ninja Warrior challenges.

Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson

2026 Canada Reads Longlist TPL Reading Challenge – Disability Joy

Synopsis:

Dee, Misa, and Matt were the “three musketeers” of the psych ward. Matt is a teddy bear musician with no discernable coping mechanisms. Wildly efficient Misa is quick to take care of others while neglecting herself. And Dee is a puddle with a heart of gold, eager to convince everyone that she’s finally turning things around. A year after discharge, Matt and Misa are tying the knot in Turks and Caicos, surrounded by guests who have no idea where they met. But the secrecy isn’t sitting well with Dee, who has been hopelessly in love with Matt since before she got kicked out of the hospital.

When Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister Tilley, it’s now or never to confess how she feels about Matt. But disrupting her best friends’ nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds them all together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a girl supposed to choose between love and recovery? Introducing a sparkling new voice in commercial fiction, Never Been Better revels in the heartache and hilarity of falling in love when you haven’t quite figured out how to live with yourself.

My thoughts: I’m about to say something controversial, but I think that Fourth Wing had more redeeming value than this book, ableist as it was. Yes, this book was about mental health and healing and surviving, but Dee was also annoying as hell, to the point where I only finished it because it was on the Canada Reads Longlist. Dee obsessing over Matt was repetitive and tiring, especially because Matt’s only exceptional feature was that he was nice to her. I wasn’t particularly attached to Matt and Misa, but I thought that Dee’s attempt to break them up by sharing her true feelings with Matt was a) super disrespectful, and b) a super disingenuous way of expressing concern for Matt and Misa’s relationship. I think that if Misa didn’t want to reveal that she met Matt (and Dee) in the psych ward to her entire extended family (who were all super judgmental and obsessed with appearances), that’s her right, and that Dee took it way too personally. The worst part is that logically I am in the target audience for this book. I’m a young woman with persistent mental health issues, and I’ve spent time in inpatient psych wards (albeit a teen ward for only a week, 10+ years ago). I should be feeling more sympathy for these characters. Am I a bad person for writing them off, in part because of their inability to cope with their illnesses? My depression is definitely still active, but other parts of my life are so much better (I have a job, a liveable income, an apartment, a fiance, a group of friends, a book blog, etc etc), that my life feels so much more tolerable and liveable than Dee’s. Tbh the only good characters were Tilley and Obachan.

Rating: 1/5 public freakout pre-wedding brunches

i am, your most faithful blogger, elisa