Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Annalisa Crawford GENRE: Story Collection, Dark Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 24, 2026 RATING: 4.25 stars In a Nutshell: An indie collection comprising one novella and three short stories. Excellent atmosphere and lyrical writing. Dark and haunting. Much recommended. I've been a fan of this author ever since I read her story collection titled "The Clock in My Mother's House and Other Stories."  Since then, I've read three more of her works and enjoyed all of them. Safe to say that I now pick up an Annalisa Crawford work without even reading the blurb. A risky strategy, but with the right author, the reward is almost always assured. This latest book justifies my faith in her writing. The collection comprises one novella and three short stories. The novella takes up about 65% of the book. The mood in all four entries is somewhat similar: melancholic and haunting. The stories circulate around the same core topics of personal loss, grief, mental hea...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Melani Sie GENRE: Graphic Novel Comic SERIES: Milk & Mocha, #2 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A comics collection featuring the adorable duo Milk and Mocha. Cute and light, but also repetitive and somewhat bland. The second book featuring Milk and Mocha. While this isn't bad, it also isn't memorable. I liked the first one better. Milk and Mocha are the creations of Indonesian comic artist Melani Sie. This duo is quite popular on social media and are recognisable faces in several memes. However, reading a single comic is one thing and reading an entire comic collection is another. The first book of the Milk & Mocha collection had the tagline “Our Little Happiness”. As such, it had a happier vibe, highlighting how little joys enhance our life. This book focusses on “Our Little Moments”. While the introductory note about the significance of little moments is amazing, the change in focus also means that the comics in this book are a little unde...

AUTHOR: Gayle Forman GENRE: YA Contemporary Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: January 7, 2025 RATING: 1 star. In a Nutshell: A YA contemporary fiction with mild fantasy elements. Could have been awesome but the FMC is too YA, if you know what I mean. 😬 Basic writing, annoying characters, convenient developments. Minimal and ad hoc fantasy content. The only thing I liked was the plot structuring. Can’t recommend this, sorry. Plot Preview: When Amber cycles home one spring afternoon, the last thing she expects is her mother to scream on seeing her walk in. The reason is horrifying even to Amber. It seems she has been dead for seven years, having lost her life in a hit-and-run accident while riding the very same bicycle she just rode home. But Amber doesn’t feel dead! The return affects not just Amber but her family and other acquaintances who were active in her life when she was alive. A lot has changed in the last seven years and Amber needs to be prepared to face those developments bas well....

AUTHOR: Bruce Holsinger NARRATORS: Stacy Carolan and January LaVoy GENRE: Contemporary Dystopian Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 8, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary drama about a family whose life changes after an accident. Interesting representation of technology (specifically AI) and its impact on real-life issues. Goes overboard on subplots and secrets. I expected to like it better given my antipathy towards excessive AI reliance, but the OTT drama and the annoying lead character were a turnoff. This is an outlier review. Plot Preview: The Cassidy-Shaw’s self-driving minivan gets into an accident when seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, his father Noah is next to him working on his laptop, and his mother Lorelei (a renowned expert on AI ethics) and tween sisters Alice and Izzy are in the backseat busy with their own phones. The accident results in the deaths of the two people in the other car. Who is to blame for their deaths? The situation gets fur...

AUTHOR: Maria Tureaud GENRE: Historical Horror PUBLICATION DATE: January 27, 2026 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A historical Gothic paranormal mystery set during the Irish potato famine. A lead character who’s compelling as well as naïve. Slow-paced plot. More horrifying in its historical content than in its supernatural inclusions. Fantastical content based slightly in Irish mythology, which might get confusing to outsiders. Some details left vague till the end. Recommended but with caution. Plot Preview: 1848. Ireland. Twenty-two-year-old Maggie once had a large happy family, but she is now all alone in the world, having lost all her loved ones to the potato famine. So when an eccentric wealthy lady approaches her with a strange proposal - to pose as her daughter Wilhelmina and convince solicitors to release her inheritance in exchange for a house and land after the completion of the task, Maggie sees it as the best chance of defeating her destiny and honouring the memory of her...

AUTHOR: Lari Don ILLUSTRATOR: Elise Carmichael GENRE: Folktale Collection PUBLICATION DATE: June 16, 2026 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of ten magical Celtic stories . Simply awesome tales! Only the illustrations didn't work too well for me. A great book for children (and adults) who love fairy tales. This book contains magical stories from the Celtic isles. There is a wonderful map of the isles right at the start. I have long known the word “Celtic” but only when I saw this map did I realise how the Celtic Isles are places. The introductory note offers a little insight into Celtic geography and its significance. The collection has ten stories, which is a bit disappointing to be honest. Each story was so delightful in its tone and content that I couldn’t help long for more. The stories come from varied Celtic Isles: : Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Each location contributes one-two stories. The text retains the original Celtic s...

AUTHOR: Rachel Khong GENRE: Speculative Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: April 7, 2026 RATING: 3.45 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of (mostly) speculative fiction stories. Excellent in creativity. Diverse in humans yet unified in emotions. Good writing and pacing. A bit too much of back-and-forth in a few stories. Recommended to SFF lovers. This collection contains ten stories, mostly from the speculative fiction genre. There is no introductory note or foreword, but the publisher’s note called this a set of stories "about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it's so easy to be someone else." It sounds almost abstract, but oddly, it fits the stories well. The stories cover a wide range of emotions and timelines. Each story feels innovative, with no repetition of themes. The blurb says that they are stories about love, and it is right. But they aren’t about romance, which makes all the difference. The writing and the character development ar...

AUTHOR: Annalee Newitz GENRE: Dystopian Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: August 5, 2025 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A sci-fi dystopian novella set in the near future. Quirky robot characters. A whimsical storyline that is dark and cosy in turn. Goes overboard on the preachy themes and agenda. Lopsided in its allegory. Contains a subtle equivalence between robots and immigrants/enslaved people – weird. Suspension of disbelief and doubts necessary to enjoy the book better. Plot Preview: 2064. San Francisco, Independent California. A group of food service robots find themselves abandoned in a ghost kitchen. With no human around and with a desperate need to keep things going, they decide to take over their delivery app account, rebrand their food service, and serve the best authentic hand-pulled noodles in town. Just when it seems like they will be successful in their endeavour, someone starts review-bombing them, and worse, not all the one-star reviews are exactly false. Can the robots s...

AUTHOR: Andy Weir NARRATOR: Ray Porter GENRE: Science Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: May 4, 2021 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A space drama about an astronaut trying to save Earth. Way more comical than I expected. Just as much of “Yay, USA” as I had anticipated.” Offers quite a geek fest with plenty of STEM topics. Racist and stereotypical at times. Somewhat dragged in between. Portrayal of woman characters annoying. Quite an entertaining read  despite the flaws . Plot Preview: Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up in a strange location, only to learn that he is in a space ship light years away from earth, that he is the only human alive on the ship, and that he is on a mission to save his home planet. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember all the details from his mission, thanks to the induced coma he had been put in for the journey. Can he actually succeed when he can't even recollect the exact nature of his assignment? The story comes to us in Ryland’s perspective from two timelines: present ...

AUTHOR: Susan Verde ILLUSTRATOR: Peter H. Reynolds GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 27, 2022 RATING: 5 sparkly stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 In a Nutshell: A beautiful picture book with a very important message for little ones. Awesome content, awesome illustrations. Much recommended! I was just exploring some picture books at my library when my glance fell on this adorable cover. Though not a big fan of self-help/inspirational books, I don’t mind picture books using inspiration and affirmations to help children. And this turned out to be one of the very best! In a world that encourages uniformity and conformity, here’s a book that advocates individuality, that tells you to be yourself, loudly and proudly. At the same time, it also stresses on the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people who accept you as you are. The book is written in first person, so it is very easy for little readers to put themselves in the shoes of the narrator. The content is wr...

AUTHOR: Susan Verde ILLUSTRATOR: Peter H. Reynolds GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 13, 2016 RATING: 5 unhesitant stars! In a Nutshell: A touching picture book about the water scarcity issue affecting so many children around the world but especially in Africa and Asia. Excellent writing, message, and illustrations. Informative back matter. A must-read. Plot Preview: “Princess Gie Gie”, our young lead character, knows she rules over the wide African sky and the vast land. But the one thing that doesn’t listen to this princess is water. No matter how much she tries commanding water to come closer to her home, it doesn’t. So she is forced to wake up early every morning and walk many miles along with her mother to carry a pot of water back home. Sadly, this water lasts just a day, so the cycle has to repeat every day. Gie Gie dreams of the time when water will finally listen to her and be more accessible from home, but can such a dream come true? This story is...

AUTHOR: Robert E. Barry GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1963 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A comically sweet Christmas picture book. Lovely story, lovely characters, lovely illustrations. A classic for a reason. Definitely recommended. Plot Preview: Mr. Willowby is quite excited that his Christmas tree delivery has finally arrived. Unfortunately, the tree is just a tad too tall for his parlour. He gets his butler to cut off the top so that it fits just right. The butler knows just the right person who would be happy to decorate the tree top in their room, so he passes it to his friend, the maid. She is very excited but the top is just a tad too tall for her room. So she snips off a bit from the top, discards it, and decorates the rest. The broken piece is found by…. Read the book to find out! I didn’t intend to read a Christmas book beyond the festive season, but c’est la vie. 😁 We all know that Christmas trees are *trimmed* with plenty of wonderful...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Peter H. Reynolds SERIES: Creatrilogy GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 28, 2012 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A beautiful picture book about thinking beyond the box. Cute story and gorgeous illustrations. Recommended! Plot Preview: A little girl named Marisol loves to share her art with the world. So when the opportunity comes to paint a mural for the school library, she is an enthusiastic volunteer. She has chosen the paint the sky for the mural, but she soon realises that the colour box has no blue paint. How can she colour the sky without blue? This is a lovely story that is delightful to the mind and the heart. Mirasol is a wonderful lead in so many ways. I love how the book establishes her personality first by showing how she shares her art with others. And later, when she learns about the missing blue paint, we also learn how calm she is in the face of uncertainty. She doesn’t cry or throw a tantrum or yell or accuse. She ...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Peter H. Reynolds SERIES: Creatrilogy GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 15, 2003 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A cute little picture book about taking the first step. Lovely story, morals, and illustrations. Recommended! Plot Preview: Vashti believes she can't draw, but a teacher puts a blank page in front of her and says, ‘Just make a mark and see where it takes you.’ The resultant dot from the jab Vashti makes on the paper begins Vashti’s journey of exploring and perfect art through dots. I initially thought Vashti would be annoying, but she develops really well as the story progresses. I loved her imagination, enthusiasm, and determination. And as someone who adores polka dots, I also loved her artwork. As with all great picture books, the moral is simple yet practical and essential. The story is successful in making the point without going over the top. The ending enhances the effect. The illustrations are perfect for ...

AUTHOR: Russell Kane ILLUSTRATOR: Erica Salcedo GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: May 5, 2026 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A picture book about a cat whose cosy life is upturned with the arrival of a new pet. Great comic potential with a cute dog and a nefarious cat. Too many scatological inclusions for my taste. More focus on the problem than on the solution, which is a major negative. This plot doesn’t capitalise fully on its potential, but it might work better for kids. Plot Preview: Terry is a Burmese cat who lives the purrfect life with his three human servants: Minna and her parents. Terry loves being worshipped (his words, not mine), and as the other cat in the house is asleep almost the whole time, Terry gets his way with his humans. Everything changes when they bring home a chihuahua pup named Brian, who is Terry’s opposite in every way. He immediately captivates everyone with his laser-love heart eyes. But Terry is immune to the pup’s devious attempt...

AUTHOR: Samantha Mills GENRE: Speculative Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: April 21, 2026 RATING: 3.65 stars. In a Nutshell: A speculative fiction collection containing some truly imaginative stories. Introspective and dystopian – a strangely effective combination. I love the creativity but the random back-and-forth in some stories was a bit challenging. A great option for those who enjoy speculative SFF tales. This story collection contains thirteen stories from the speculative genre. The stories come from varied speculative set-ups such as dystopian, fantasy, science fiction and paranormal. The collection begins with an enthusiastic introduction by Meg Elison. I had no clue who she was, but her writing in this foreword impressed me so much! It's one of the most lyrical and heartfelt introductions I've read. I was happy to discover that she too is an author because it means that this single collection has given me the names of two talented writers I need to keep an eye...