Weight || Jeanette Winterson ★★★★★ Started: 13.11.2023 Finished: 14.11.2023 The Story Of Atlas

“Love the erasure of everything else, a blinding worse even than the sun.”

— David Vann, Bright Air Black

The Bell Jar || Sylvia Plath ★★★★★ Started: 03.05.2025 Finished: 06.05.2025 Working as an intern for a New York fashion magazine in the summer of 1953, Esther Greenwood is on the brink of her future. Yet she is also on the edge of a darkness that makes her world increasingly unreal. Esther's vision of the world shimmers and shifts: day-to-day living in the sultry city, her crazed men-friends, the hot dinner dances... The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's only novel, is partially based on Plath's own life. It has been celebrated for its darkly funny and razor-sharp portrait of 1950's society and has sold millions of copies worldwide. The Bell Jar was simply sensational - I'd been interested in reading it for ages, but I never thought I'd enjoy it so much! The writing is sublime, and Esther is a little too relatable for comfort...

Men often described the girl as having hair the colour of wheat. Others called it the colour of caramel or honey. The girl wondered why men so often used food to describe women's features. There was a hunger to such men that was best avoided.

- Brandon Sanderson: Tress of the Emerald Sea

I must admit I am charmed by these little GR reading challenge bookmarks, I just wish the categories included lesser known books, and not just the current TikTok darlings (looking at the Valentines Day challenge with eligible books such as Fourth Wing and the Dark Romance of The Hour)

Blood Over Bright Haven || M.L. Wang ★★★★★ Started: 01.02.2025 Finished: 08.02.2025 An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance? Reading this line in the book description: “Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.”, I thought the Bright Haven would come under an external threat that would have to be alleviated. What really happens is much more insidious, much more sinister, and much harder to combat, let alone overcome. The result is an exceptional standalone fantasy novel in the vein of R.F. Kuang's Babel.

Cursed Bread || Sophie Mackintosh ★★★★★ Started: 07.10.2024 Finished: 30.10.2024 One of my favourite reads from last year, Cursed Bread is a short, but stunningly well-written character study of the inhabitants of the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit, the setting of a 1951 mass poisoning, suspected to be caused by pain maudit (cursed bread). Most notably, the novel follows Elodie, the baker's wife, and her unhealthy infatuation with the ambassador and his mysterious, alluring wife, Violet.

Pandora's Box || Osamu Dazai ★★★★☆ Started: 24.02.2025 Finished: 13.03.2025 The war is over. Japan is defeated. Together with his country, a young man must rebuild his life. He will begin at a sanatorium, where everyone gets a nickname, surrounded by an interesting ensemble of patients and caregivers.