The Celebrants – Steven Rowley

Expectation: A novel that will keep you laughing through tears as you experience the “living funerals” of our five lifelong friends.

Reality: Some paper-thin characters and melodrama masquerading as legitimate emotion overshadow the few bright spots in the story.

Yellowface – R. F. Kuang

Expectation: A timely and highly literary story about plagiarism and diversity set against the backdrop of the publishing industry.

Reality: A dark, shocking and highly engrossing novel that dismantles so many hot button issues in less than 400-pages. Unfortunately the last third lost steam.

In Memoriam – Alice Winn

Expectation: A gut-punch queer love story set within the backdrop of World War I trenches.

Reality: Stilted dialogue, a ping-pong narrative structure and an unbelievable connection between the two main characters made this rather disappointing.

Like a Love Story – Abdi Nazemian

Expectation: A sweet but slight coming of age tale set amidst the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York City in the late-1980s.

Reality: While there’s a lot of melodrama and the plot is stale, it’s a great introduction to this era in queer history, and the importance of having a gay Iranian lead character cannot be understated.

The Shards – Bret Easton Ellis

Expectation: A based on true events murder mystery set in the privileged world of 1980s Los Angeles teens.

Reality: A hedonistic cat and mouse story that will have you second guessing everything the narrator (a fictionalized version of the author) has told you.

Night Shift – Stephen King

Reading this collection was a damn delight and a nostalgic serotonin boost that transported me back to high school when I devoured my first classic King novels in mass market paperbacks.  As my mini-reviews show, this was a mostly solid top-to-bottom collection that got better as the stories progressed. It showcased King at the top of his game - observant, reflective, emotional and downright scary.