☀️ Sunday Sharies: February 2024

a Madame Web review, a decadent chocolate cake recipe, a wedding-guest appropriate purse, and more

It’s the last Sunday of the month, and you know what that means. There’s a lot of stuff we’d like to share that won’t fit in our usual Thursday TV newsletter. Some of that stuff is here. Read on for a special monthly peek into what your trusty Double Take duo has been watching, reading, listening to, and more.

— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll

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Jenni:

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman — This one surprised me. It’s like someone shoehorned a Hunger Games or Battle Royale plot into an urban fantasy (i.e. kids must fight to the death to claim a limited supply of high magic for their families), and I expected it to be pretty mediocre at best. There were some slow bits, but halfway in, I wound up loving a lot of the twists and character arcs and now I may need to read the rest of the series. (3.5/5)

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt — I went in not really knowing what to expect for this novel and found myself swept along in a cute story (mainly realistic fiction with a sprinkle of magical realism) with commendable prose. I loved the octopus chapters and wish there had been more of them. (4/5)

Even though it’s not technically a February read because I haven’t finished yet, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is well worth a mention. It’s a Game of Thrones meets Lord of the Rings-style fantasy with a more feminist energy that I am loving. The writing is better than that of any recent fantasy novel I’ve read as well. It is incredibly long (848 pages), but somehow I haven’t yet lost steam. I’ll save my official rating until I finish, obviously, but the first 450 pages are two thumbs up.

Jess:

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue — This book came up as a “Skip the Line” selection on Libby, and I’d never heard of it or its author, but I’m a sucker for whatever’s popular. It’s more vibes than story, but I was enamored with O’Donoghue’s writing style. She has a very distinctive voice— genuinely funny, vivid, and astute. I will absolutely read whatever she writes next. (3/5)

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin — Book club girls, look away! (We haven’t met to discuss this one yet). This dystopian sci-fi mystery is complex and gripping, but a little overstuffed. I could’ve done with one or two fewer twists and a bit more character development. If you’re a big fan of sci-fi puzzle box shows (Lost, Westworld, etc), you’ll have a good enough time with this one. (3.5/5)

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross — Why did I read the sequel to Divine Rivals after being so disappointed by it? I guess I hoped, misguidedly, that the second might focus less on the romance and more on the otherworldly war between Gods. Well, it did, and it was messy, bland, and lacking stakes. I probably would’ve liked it better if it had focused on the romance after all. (2/5)

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang — This hooked me with its premise — a chef escapes the deadly smog that’s killing our world when she takes a job at a wealthy mountaintop colony — but it turned out to be a very different book from what I was expecting. It’s neither dystopian nor sci-fi, despite its marketing and its setting. It reads more like a long poem about gourmet food and the selfishly indulgent upper class. Zhang’s writing is beautiful, but I was disappointed by how surface level she kept her commentary on the climate crisis and classism. (3/5)

Jess: February has been the month of going to the movie theater alone, and unfortunately, it’s also been the month of solitarily sitting through mediocre-to-terrible films.

The best of the bunch was Drive-Away Dolls, an 84-minute long Ethan Coen lesbian road trip comedy. It’s raunchy, unapologetically queer, and often funny, but also a bit disappointing. It’s hard not to feel like it’s just a less-interesting knock-off of a Coen Brothers movie. (3/5)