Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami, Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian, & The Mesopotamian Riddle by Joshua Hammer

 

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
Publication: March 4th, 2025
Pantheon
Hardcover. 336 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From Laila Lalami—the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a “maestra of literary fiction” (NPR)—comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. 

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are."

I feel like this book will either be hit or miss for me, but I'm really intrigued by the premise! Typically, I'm not huge on stories that focus on dreams, but I'm fascinated by our dreams and how we dream in general, so the idea of an agency that can monitor dreams and has an entire system around them sounds like something interesting to explore, so I'm in to check it out. 

Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian
Publication: March 11th, 2025
Tor Nightfire
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Red Rabbit comes a supernatural horror where ghosts and ghouls are the least of a witch’s problems in nineteenth-century New England.

Something wicked is going on in the village of Ascension. A mother wasting away from cancer is suddenly up and about. A boy trampled by a milk cart walks away from the accident. A hanged man can still speak, broken neck and all.

The dead are not dying.

When Rabbit and Sadie Grace accompany their friend Rose to Ascension to help take care of her ailing cousin, they immediately notice that their new house, Bethany Hall, is occupied by dozens of ghosts. And something is waiting for them in the attic.

The villagers of Ascension are unwelcoming and wary of their weird visitors. As the three women attempt to find out what’s happening in the town, they must be careful not to be found out. But a much larger―and more dangerous―force is galloping straight for them…."

I really enjoyed  Alex Grecian's Red Rabbit when it came out in 2023 and I've been hoping for something new from him for a while, so I'm excited for this one! I'm extra glad that it's set in the wild world of Red Rabbit and I'm so curious to see what else he does with this world. (I will admit, though, that I'm a little bummed they went in a different direction for the cover art because I really liked the original artwork for Red Rabbit.)

The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing by Joshua Hammer
Publication: March 18th, 2025
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"It was one of history’s great vanishing acts.

Around 3,400 BCE—as humans were gathering in complex urban settlements—a scribe in the mud-walled city-state of Uruk picked up a reed stylus to press tiny symbols into clay. For three millennia, wedge shape cuneiform script would record the military conquests, scientific discoveries, and epic literature of the great Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylon and of Persia’s mighty Achaemenid Empire, along with precious minutiae about everyday life in the cradle of civilization. And then…the meaning of the characters was lost.

London, 1857. In an era obsessed with human progress, mysterious palaces emerging from the desert sands had captured the Victorian public’s imagination. Yet Europe’s best philologists struggled to decipher the bizarre inscriptions excavators were digging up.

Enter a swashbuckling archaeologist, a suave British military officer turned diplomat, and a cloistered Irish rector, all vying for glory in a race to decipher this script that would enable them to peek farther back into human history than ever before.

From the ruins of Persepolis to lawless outposts of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, The Mesopotamian Riddle whisks you on a wild adventure through the golden age of archaeology in an epic quest to understand our past."

As a big fan of languages and as a history nerd-especially an ancient history nerd-this book sounds like it'll be a ton of fun to explore. I can't wait to have a chance to check it out!

Review: Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian

   

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian

Tor Nightfire

Publication Date: September 19th, 2023

Hardcover. 464 pages.

About Red Rabbit:

"Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed school teacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.

Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbit is a supernatural adventure of luck and misfortune."

I went into Red Rabbit having no idea what to really expect from this western folk horror, and I ended up having a blast traversing through this truly haunting story. This is not a fast-paced horror that is constantly throwing things at your, but rather one that builds slowly and lingers in all the most effect places. It's very unsettling and there's an uncertainty that I felt as a reader about the world that fit perfectly with the atmosphere. Also, just as a head's up, there are plenty of potentially triggering themes explored in this book and it's quite bloody, so just be aware of that going into it. 

Red Rabbit begins with a bounty for the witch Sadie Grace, and that bounty leads to a number of people on her trail, all with very different journeys to her. Sadie Grace acts as our main catalyst for bringing together just about every other character in this book as they work their way towards her. This doesn't read like a more "traditional" horror movie, but there's still some gore, some spooks, and all sorts of disturbing things within these pages, so be sure you're ready for a bit of a wild ride. 

I had so much fun following all of these characters. There's a pretty large cast of characters, and Alex Grecian crafted them all with obvious care and deftness. Red Rabbit really seems to avoid the trap of two dimensional characters in horror, and I felt like it avoided a lot of character stereotypes, which was refreshing to read. Even characters of lesser importance that we meet only briefly felt at least mildly well-developed to where it didn't feel like these were just cardboard cutouts meant to fill space and roles. There are definitely some 'good' and 'bad' characters, but there are a lot more grey and malleable ones. You learn plenty of details about each character (whether you want to or not) and this actually helped me keep track of them and maintain an interest in each characters perspective and story. That being said, there are still a lot of names and I did stumble over a couple here and there with placing them. Lots of little connections between characters. There were a few very small chapters where we would meet new characters for a brief moment and this felt a little unnecessary for me and slightly like it was too much/etc., so that's one of the main things that I didn't actually care for. 

Red Rabbit is not a short book at nearly 500 pages and there's a lot going on in those pages. Because of how many characters are present, there are a lot of different little storylines and notes to follow, which makes this feel like a bit of a 'horror epic' in the sense that there's not some quick haunts to explore and be done, but rather many different and overarching haunts to follow. Each section and storyline are fully engaging, however, and somehow work really well for the major lack of urgency in the pacing. 

I loved the western setting and style and think Grecian captured it all with ease. The writing is careful, slow, and thoughtful. Nothing is rushed, there's not race to the end, just a steady pace with our western folk as they continue on their occasionally treacherous journey to the witch Sadie Grace. The expansiveness of the writing reminds me a bit of someone like Chuck Wendig who similarly takes the time to build up and tell his story, but with an ability to convey subtle tone and atmosphere more like Stephen Graham Jones (I don't usually do so many comparisons, but they just work this time!). The entire story is told in a very cohesive and detailed manner that meanders through different scenes to really allow readers to immerse themselves in the story. 

I don't think I have too many complaints about this one. The only thing I'd maybe mention is that it sometimes seemed like we touched on so many different elements and beings (witches, spirits, demons, shapeshifters, etc.), that it sometimes felt as though the world-building was a bit surface level. It's hard to describe what I mean by this, because the world-building was also extremely expansive and I had an amazing time exploring it, but that expansive didn't always have as much depth attached. In some ways, this works because not everything needs to be explored to the furthest amount it can be in horror, but I also sort of wished there was just a bit more to explore with some of these elements. 

Overall, I've given Red Rabbit five stars! If you don't mind your horror a bit on the slower paced side and with a fantastic western-style flair, then you should absolutely add this one to your fall TBR. 

*I received a copy of Red Rabbit courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian & Rouge by Mona Awad

   

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian
Publication: September 19th, 2023
Tor Nightfire
Hardcover. 464 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed school teacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.

Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbit is a supernatural adventure of luck and misfortune."

I've been reading an ARC of this and it's fantastic. I can't wait for this to be out in the world! 

Medusa's Sisters by Lauren J.A. Bear
Publication: September 12th, 2023
Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books
Hardcover. 384 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath."

I've had Awad's Bunny on my TBR for ages and I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it, and I'm also pretty sure this sounds right up my alley too. Can't wait to have a chance to check it out!

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read(s) #12

     

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #12

This week, none of the books I'm reading have more than one edition to compare since they are all recent or not-yet-released books. However, I did notice that all of the books I'm reading have a bit of a red theme going on, so I figured why not just compare all of those and have a bit of 'battle of the red book covers'? Let's take a look at them!

          

2023 US Hardcover | 2023 US Paperback

          

2023 US Paperback | 2023 US Hardcover

My choice(s):

If we're judging based on redness, then Silver Nitrate has to take the win this week. But as far as which cover I like the most, I have to say that I'm partial to the cover for Red Rabbit, which feels rather unique and just really grabs me. I also really like that cover for The Handyman Method as well. Which cover(s) do you like best?