• The Ending of In Five Years

    The Ending of In Five Years

    In Five Years is a contemporary romance by Rebecca Searle, printed in March 2020. Home from her engagement dinner, Dannie falls asleep. There, in the only element of magical realism in the book, she has a dream. In that dream, it’s five years later, which she knows from seeing the news on TV. She wakes…

  • The Ending of Parable of the Sower

    The Ending of Parable of the Sower

    Parable of the Sower was first published in 1993 by Octavia Butler. The year is 2024 and the world is in chaos. There are few jobs, no social welfare system. The police are as likely to be thugs as to help you, and you have to pay them for help. Those who can afford to…

  • The Ending of The Year of The Witching

    The Ending of The Year of The Witching

    The Year of the Witching is a dark fantasy and horror novel by Alexis Henderson. The story is set in a secluded village called Bethel. The society is polygamous, and people’s lives are tightly controlled by religious leaders. Superstition is one of the tools of domination. Immanuelle, the protagonist of the story, is biracial, born…

  • The Ending of Beach Read by Emily Henry

    The Ending of Beach Read by Emily Henry

    After knowing each other in university, Gus and January meet again 6 years later. They are both heartbroken and grieving but that old spark still exists between them. The question isn’t whether or not they will fall in love, but only how it will happen. The process is delightfully entertaining with great banter and interesting…

  • The Ending of His Only Wife

    The Ending of His Only Wife

    His Only Wife is a novel by Peace Adzo Medie. Afi is a young woman living in Ho, outside Accra. It’s been 10 years since her father died and she and her mother have been on their own. After Afi’s father’s death, they had to move out of their home, which was provided by her…

  • The Ending of When No One is Watching

    The Ending of When No One is Watching

    When No One is Watching is a fictional novel by Alyssa Cole. My cousin told me this genre is called existential horror. That seems right, as the book reminded me of the movie Get Out. The story is set in Gifford Place in Brooklyn (a fictional place) and told from two perspectives, Theo’s and Sydney’s.…

  • The Ending of The Vanishing Half

    The Ending of The Vanishing Half

    The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett is a multigenerational story of an African American family. Desiree and Stella are identical twin girls born in the 1950s in Mallard, a small town in Louisiana. All the people in Mallard are black but light-skinned. They are distrustful of dark-skinned people, considering themselves better because of the proximity…

  • The Ending of Mexican Gothic

    The Ending of Mexican Gothic

    Mexican Gothic is a gothic horror novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that tells a story of the twisted search for immortality. It mixes horror, mystery, and romance. Noemí is a young socialite in Mexico City. She was summoned home one evening by her father, who wanted her to go to the remote estate, High Place, to…

  • The Ending of Catherine House

    The Ending of Catherine House

    Catherine House is a psychological thriller by Elisabeth Thomas. It tells the story of a private college of the same name. The college has been surrounded by controversy due to some of its research publications. There, students are taken in, fed, and clothed, all for free. Students are all provided access to the same things,…

  • The Ending of The Shadow King

    The Ending of The Shadow King

    The Shadow King is a historical fiction novel by Maaza Mengiste. When I describe it to friends, I say that the beautiful writing sits in stark contrast to the atrocities in the story. I don’t generally read books for the writing, but it was the writing as well as the story that captivated me in…