Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Favorite Books
25
items I'm a librarian (MS and all) and here are a handful of books I love to recommend! Always shifting and changing. Always happy to recommend something new!
Sections
4
General
Graphic Novels
Horror
Romance
General
One of my all-time favorite authors and series'. The worldbuilding is phenomenal. And I love the way it expands with the books.
From Bookshop:
Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It's a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the str...
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her--but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventu...
Safiya and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and privateer) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emper...
From Bookshop:
Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It's a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the str...
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her--but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventu...
Safiya and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and privateer) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emper...
Truthwitch (Witchlands, #1)
I knew from the first chapter that I would love this book. The aesthetic was absolutely phenomenal. Immaculate. For anyone who likes fae/goblins, secrets, or dark fairytales. I really loved the relationship between the sisters, especially from the po...
From Bookshop:
Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow i...
But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missi...
They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be cal...
From Bookshop:
Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow i...
But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missi...
They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be cal...
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Very good! Very strong and powerful. I was weirded out at first by the fictional memoir writing-style, but I eventually got into it and loved the storytelling. A fascinating coming-of-age novel set during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
Graphic Novels
I used to read this series on Webtoon, and was so happy to find out it was being published!!! This comic features some of my fave characterizations of my fave family. I love the details like Damian's Arabic coloring, Dick’s love of Superman and Babs’...
From Bookshop:
Batman needs a break. But with new vigilante Duke Thomas moving into Wayne Manor and an endless supply of adopted, fostered, and biological superhero children to manage, Bruce Wayne is going to have his hands full. Being a father can't be harder than...
From Bookshop:
Batman needs a break. But with new vigilante Duke Thomas moving into Wayne Manor and an endless supply of adopted, fostered, and biological superhero children to manage, Bruce Wayne is going to have his hands full. Being a father can't be harder than...
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Vol. 1 by CRC Payne and Starbite
This book ruined my life (complimentary). I haven't stopped thinking about it since I first read it. The story is so well told and the mystery of what's going on shifts between characters in such a fascinating way! I really loved the art style too. I...
From Bookshop:
Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter – well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter's always been a little...off.
But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter's invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake. It's beautiful, it's opulent, it's private--so a week of putting up wi...
From Bookshop:
Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter – well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter's always been a little...off.
But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter's invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake. It's beautiful, it's opulent, it's private--so a week of putting up wi...
The Nice House on the Lake, Vol. 1 by James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno
So so good. A great analogy for the weight of secrets. Feeling like you can’t show others your true self because it’s ugly or bad. The length was intimidating when I first picked the book up, but I’m so glad it had all that page time to tell this sto...
The Deep Dark: A Graphic Novel by Molly Knox Ostertag
This series isn’t perfect (is any?) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Okura says in the afterword that they want this story “to be something that could only have been written right now. And in the future, I want people to think…[quote bubble from fictiona...
The main character of this series is not Hiroki, but his mother, Tomoko. She was always openhearted and open-minded, but she needed to figure things out to get it. I loved that she dealt with a lot of homophobia and questions and awfulness but she sh...
This series made me tear up many times. I wish every parent of a queer teenager (every parent period tbh) questioned things as Tomo did. I wish every queer child had a parent like Tomo working alongside them to support, protect, and understand them.
The main character of this series is not Hiroki, but his mother, Tomoko. She was always openhearted and open-minded, but she needed to figure things out to get it. I loved that she dealt with a lot of homophobia and questions and awfulness but she sh...
This series made me tear up many times. I wish every parent of a queer teenager (every parent period tbh) questioned things as Tomo did. I wish every queer child had a parent like Tomo working alongside them to support, protect, and understand them.
I Think Our Son Is Gay, Vol. 1 by Okura
Horror
I could not stop thinking about this book until I finished it. Stephen Graham Jones is JUST as insanely good an author as they say he is. His stories are so fantastically original and horror-filled in a way that never stops. Until the last second and...
From Bookshop:
When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms does...
From Bookshop:
When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms does...
The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
This book took me by surprise. I don't remember what I expected going in but I came out OBSESSED. The tension hangs heavy over the entire book. It's near-impossible to put down, even between chapters!
From Bookshop:
The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.
The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win – to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past – Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.
It's the reason she's alive and her family isn't.
But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.
Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run. Come out, come out, wherever you are.
From Bookshop:
The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.
The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win – to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past – Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.
It's the reason she's alive and her family isn't.
But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.
Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run. Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Hide by Kiersten White
I read this two years ago and plan to reread it soon cause I've foisted it upon my book club for October/November. But I LOVED this book. I still think about it often. I fully headcanon Jade as autistic cause she, like me, knows everything about her ...
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
This is slow burn horror done right. I couldn’t stop thinking about this story whenever I set the book down. The pacing worked really well for the slow building of suspense, and it ticked enough trope boxes without over-saturating the story. I apprec...
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne
I don’t think words would do this book justice. It says so much without saying anything. Engrossing. I was forced to disassociate from my body to read the details.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (translated by Sarah Moses)
When I was ten pages from the finale, I thought: I’m not going to cry. I finished the last page and burst into tears. What a JOKE I am!!!!! ‘How can Kiersten White top Hide? She can’t!’ thought Olivia a few weeks ago when she borrowed Mister Magic fr...
Mister Magic isn’t Hide, but it has the same magic, the same horror. The horror that is reality, rules, arbitrary laws and systems and governments. The horror of previous generations and the lies they foist onto us. White survived Covid-19 and Trump ...
Mister Magic is a recovery. It’s closure. It’s acceptance and the peace of the After. We cannot accept reality if we’re living in the past. If we cannot move on. And neither can Val or anyone else. We need to open the doors.
Mister Magic isn’t Hide, but it has the same magic, the same horror. The horror that is reality, rules, arbitrary laws and systems and governments. The horror of previous generations and the lies they foist onto us. White survived Covid-19 and Trump ...
Mister Magic is a recovery. It’s closure. It’s acceptance and the peace of the After. We cannot accept reality if we’re living in the past. If we cannot move on. And neither can Val or anyone else. We need to open the doors.
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Deeply haunting and excruciatingly feminist (excruciating because of the depth of the misogyny included; a quote from Machado herself in a Vulture interview best describes it: “The problem is that people talk about misogyny like it’s a grand, siniste...
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
I really enjoyed this! Margaret is the best sort of Final Girl. Moral of the story? Don’t involve the cops.
The September House by Carissa Orlando
I didn’t know what to expect cause I’d not heard much about this before I borrowed the audiobook but I really liked it! I enjoyed learning about Cree culture and how important family is. I also appreciated that Jolee’s pronouns (they/them) weren’t ev...
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Really funny in ways I didn’t expect! Sam was a great protagonist. Her logical scientist brain struggled so hard to process the bizarre reality of a haunted house. I think the insanity of it all was what made this story more cohesive. If the protag h...
A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Initially, I was worried this was going to be another ableist story about mental illness. But it’s not that simple. It’s twisty in an unpredictable way. There’s too much happening to ever predict anything! I’m typically ahead of the twist and find my...
This was a very long book, and I wasn’t interested at turns. I put Baby Teeth down for the very reasons I didn’t enjoy the start of Sundial. But this story swerved past the easy ‘mom and daughter dislike each other’ trope. It kept going and going and...
This was a very long book, and I wasn’t interested at turns. I put Baby Teeth down for the very reasons I didn’t enjoy the start of Sundial. But this story swerved past the easy ‘mom and daughter dislike each other’ trope. It kept going and going and...
Sundial by Catriona Ward
I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS SERIES!!! It's important to read the entire trilogy (and Absolution if you enjoyed it) because each book further adds to the world which is NOT complete at all after Annihilation. In this first novel, you get one perspective b...
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Romance
Full disclosure: I love villains. And I sometimes want them to win. This is that book. It's a villain romance with an unapologetic, confident female lead.
From Bookshop:
Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:
1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.
No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King's power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what s...
From Bookshop:
Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:
1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.
No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King's power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what s...
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
I had a hell of a time reading this one. Big fun. Perfect stakes. Just a great time overall.
From Bookshop:
After years of living as London's brightest scandal, Lady Sesily Talbot has embraced the reputation and the freedom that comes with the title.
No one looks twice when she lures a gentleman into the dark gardens beyond a Mayfair ballroom...and no one realizes those trysts are not what they seem. No one, that is, but Caleb Calhoun, who has spent years trying not to notice his best friend's be...
Except someone has to keep Sesily from tumbling into trouble during her dangerous late-night escapades, and maybe close proximity is exactly what Caleb needs to get this infuriating, outrageous woman out of his system. But now Caleb is the one in tro...
From Bookshop:
After years of living as London's brightest scandal, Lady Sesily Talbot has embraced the reputation and the freedom that comes with the title.
No one looks twice when she lures a gentleman into the dark gardens beyond a Mayfair ballroom...and no one realizes those trysts are not what they seem. No one, that is, but Caleb Calhoun, who has spent years trying not to notice his best friend's be...
Except someone has to keep Sesily from tumbling into trouble during her dangerous late-night escapades, and maybe close proximity is exactly what Caleb needs to get this infuriating, outrageous woman out of his system. But now Caleb is the one in tro...
Bombshell, (Hell's Belles, #1) by Sarah MacLean
I have a quote from this novel tattooed just below my clavicle. To remind me of my own strength. To remind me that I'm more than others think of me. This story is about mental health and it beautifully tells the story of a young girl struggling with her own mind.
From Bookshop:
All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They've enraptured her mind, her spirit, and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family's inn, Liesl can't help but feel that her musical ...
But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds--and the mysterious man who rules it--she soon faces an impossible decision. And...
Rich with music and magic, S. Jae-Jones's Wintersong will sweep you away into a world you won't soon forget.
From Bookshop:
All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They've enraptured her mind, her spirit, and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family's inn, Liesl can't help but feel that her musical ...
But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds--and the mysterious man who rules it--she soon faces an impossible decision. And...
Rich with music and magic, S. Jae-Jones's Wintersong will sweep you away into a world you won't soon forget.
Wintersong, (Wintersong, #1) by S. Jae-Jones
I bought this awhile back when the digital edition was on sale, and didn’t expect much of it. Imagine my surprise when I started reading and quickly became enthralled! I very much enjoyed this book. Especially how much the plot was about Ralston beco...
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
I am too much Dora not to have given this five stars. Very sweet. Very romantic. Very real. A great story about accepting yourself however you are, even if everyone else finds you uncanny.
Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
*4.5 Stars! This was a rollercoaster journey for me. I began by loving it - I read the first book a week prior and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it; this one started much the same. After an inciting event, I set the book (ipad) down for a few d...
This book was so fun and when you've read so many straight regency novels, characters willing to flout the rules are a breath of fresh air. I also appreciated the dalliance into the racism of the time (uncommon for a majority white genre). I'm VERY m...
This book was so fun and when you've read so many straight regency novels, characters willing to flout the rules are a breath of fresh air. I also appreciated the dalliance into the racism of the time (uncommon for a majority white genre). I'm VERY m...
A Lady's Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin