HOBBIES OVER COFFEE

Now that things have been settling down, I have been catching up to all my Netgalley reads that have been waiting for me.

Here are the four that I have caught up to. *Slight spoilers ahead beware*

UP FIRST:

Title :  Of Beasts
Author : M. Jane Worma
Genre:  Horror | Queer| Adult
Pages:  120
Own/Borrowed/ARC:  eARC
Publication Date:  February 10, 2026 
Synopsis : In this queer horror novel debut, a priest falls in love with the antichrist and even God can’t stop the horror it will bring.

Dante, a protestant young man, and Jude, a sadistic pastor of a small Texas church, harbor a terrible secret from the world; they’re together. The two share a taboo and passionate relationship in hidden peace, until the dreams start.

God speaks to them in visions of smoke and fire, night after night, until the two of them come to a truth they cannot ignore; Dante is the Antichrist, sent by God and urged to start off the apocalypse.

Dante refuses to participate in the end of the world and the damnation of souls. But Jude is a loyal pastor, indifferent to the suffering of others, and is compelled to do what God tells him; even if it means killing the love of his life.

This queer horror love story hones in on the humanity of the Antichrist, a half-human entity as flawed, complex, and doomed as any other soul. With lyrical prose reminiscent of Clive Barker, blasphemy is redefined and love is tested. In Of Beasts, Worma explores if love is enough for someone born to be evil.

I really wanted to like this one given the premise. It just fell short for me.

I unfortunately did not enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. The premise of a queer story where a paster falls in love with the antichrist pulled me in but ultimately it fell short to me.

I also didn’t like that Dante, the antichrist, is a 16-17 year old and the pastor, Jude, is in the mid-late twenty’s. I felt like we spent more times in their dreams and describing how their sex life was ( which was pretty explicit, again Dante is 16-17 years old ) than really exploring the madness that Jude was falling into given the expectations placed upon him. Or Dante’s feeling of never being able to fully be himself in this town where people already regard his mom as a crazy person.

Once I learned Dante’s age, I wanted to stop, but the curiosity of the antichrist/pastor dynamic kept me going. Though it was mostly only explored in dreams and once it came the real world, it ended real fast in an anticlimactic way.

Thank you to Netgalley, M.Jane Worma and Clash books for the e-arc.

NEXT :

Title : Ecstasy
Author : Ivy Pochoda
Genre:  Horror | Adult | Retelling | Fantasy
Pages:  224 
Own/Borrowed/ARC:  eARC
Publication Date:  June 17, 2025
Synopsis : A deliciously dark horror reimagining of a Greek tragedy, by Ivy Pochoda, winner of the LA Times Book Prize.

Lena wants her life back. Her wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. Lena lands in Naxos with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son's, pet project--the luxurious Agape Villas.

Years of marriage amongst the wealthy elite has whittled Lena's spirit into rope and sinew, smothered by tasteful cocktail dresses and unending small talk. On Naxos she yearns to rediscover her true nature, remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was, but Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the hotel, demanding that she fall in line.

Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the Agape. She can feel their drums at night, hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she'll find that an ancient God stirs on the beach, awakening dark desires of women across the island. The only questions left will be whether Lena will join them, and what it will cost her.

Ecstasy is a riveting, darkly poetic, one-sitting read about empowerment, desire, and what happens when women reject the roles set out for them.

Right off the top, I didn’t like this one.

It felt less like a retelling and more of a chaotic dream with Greek mythology references.

The summary made me believe that I would only be following Lena through her journey. I wanted to watch her break through the mold she was forced to life in after her wealthy and very controlling husband dies but finds herself under the thumb of her equally controlling son, Drew.

Instead, it goes back and forth from multiple point of views. Lena’s, her best friend (who is going blind) Hedy, her daughter in Law Jordan, Luz and Drew on occasion. What I thought would be a story about these women banding together to overcome the oppression forced upon them by Drew, just became a story about how they too were manipulated by another woman, Luz.

Luz is a drug dealer who ended up in prison after her own son turned her into the police for a deal on his own crimes. Once out she returns to her old habits and runs into a DJ she becomes envious of. This DJ ends up to be Dionysus and she sets forth to trap him to be able to harness his blood to have women under her thumb. Luz sets camp up on the beach outside of the hotel that Drew’s father had been in the middle of finishing, which now falls to him when he’s dead, because she has him chained in a cave nearby. Here she lures in Lena and Hedy with wine, which is Dionysus’s blood, along with a group of women she already has under her thumb to do what she wants. Later Jordan herself joins in after also admitting herself that she feels trapped under Drew.

These women end up going from under Drew’s control to being under Luz’s control.

It didn’t feel empowering at all, especially with how it ended.

It was a quick read and beautiful, I just didn’t feel satisfied in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley, Ivy Pochoda and G.P. Putnam’s Sons books for the e-arc.

NEXT:

Title : Book Club Kit: Mexican Gothic
Author : Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction | Sci Fi & Fantasy
Pages:  14
Own/Borrowed/ARC:  eARC
Publication Date:   Feb 11 2021 
Synopsis : This download is a book club resource, and does not contain the actual book.

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

This book club kit is the perfect thing for your book club meet up once reading this book.

Not only does it have questions to present and discuss, it also include a playlist the author curated herself for the book, a lot of history and setting about Mexico and towns like the one in the book during this time period. Including a lot more to be discussed about the themes in the books and the history of it.

There is a also a cute Noemí cut out doll at the end with interchangeable ‘clothing’ and of course some history about what the clothing/fashion in this time period was like.

Thank you to Netgalley, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Penguin Random House books for the e-arc.

AND LAST :

Title : The Night Guest
Author : Hildur Knútsdóttir
Genre: Adult Fiction | Horror
Pages:  208
Own/Borrowed/ARC:  eARC
Publication Date:   Sep 03 2024
Synopsis : Hildur Knútsdóttir's The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that’s sure to keep you awake at night.

Iðunn is in yet another doctor's office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something's not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven't revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same — have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

What is there to say about The Night Guest, except that I loved the atmosphere of it all.

I was on edge trying to figure out what was happening with Iðunn. We’re thrown directly into her dilemma as the book begins. Iðunn is waking up feeling tired and as if she had ran a marathon. She seeks medical care but doesn’t feel listened to by her male provider and finds a female provider that listens to her concerns and helps run tests, which come back normal.

Her friends and family tell her to exercise, to sleep better, to try this or that vitamin. Even goes out to buy a watch to help count steps and make sure that she exercises more. Which leads her to find out that she is, what she believes to be, sleepwalking but to the same location at the harbor.

Thinking that she just needs sleeping pills, she has her provider prescribe some, and it seems to work. She wakes up feeling rested. Renewed.
Though there is a lot going on her life, from meeting a man who believes her to look just like her sister who passed away, her ex (a married man that she works with), to her mothers exceptions of her filling in the dreams that her dead sister had compile on her, her life is spiraling out of control. Despite her thinking the sleeping pills are helping, her nights become more restless and even wakes up with a black eye one night.

The story ends in a ending that half satisfied me and half wanted a straight up answer.

But I still enjoyed every moment of this thrilling ride.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hildur Knútsdóttir and Tor Nightfire for the e-arc.

Thank you again to Netgalley, the authors and publishers !

Let’s keep the conversation going below! Have you heard of any of these books? Have you read them? Do you have any on your TBR ?