Meg Dowell Writes

Not everyone is lucky enough to escape their bad situations. Those who do usually can never escape their scars.

Zam and Cheta may be sisters, but their parents are about the only thing they have in common. Not only do they look and act like opposites, but Cheta, the older daughter, bears the worst of her mother’s violence. And she resents Zam, the younger, for being their mother’s favorite.

Everything changes when Zam leaves the village to stay with their Aunt and Uncle. Not long after, Cheta realizes she’s been putting up with her mother’s wrath for too long. And nothing will ever be the same again.

Continue reading “Rimma Onoseta’s ‘How You Grow Wings’ Showcases the Change That Comes With Leaving Everything Behind” →

Imagine showing up to prom in a dress you technically got on sale prepared for the best night of your life … only to end up fleeing desperately from a possible murder.

Yeah, Mischa isn’t going to have the night of her dreams after all. It doesn’t help that her dreams lately have been more like nightmares, a faceless boy, terror and all.

And then there’s Casey. There’s just something about him, something that seems to be pulling her toward him as if she’s not actually in control of anything at all.

Continue reading “Jaime Winn’s ‘Pull’ Is the Intense Beginning of a Dark, Mysterious Series” →

I’ll never forget the day my grandfather died. But even more vividly, I remember my grandmother’s face the first time I saw her after he was gone.

As I’m writing this, it was eight years ago to the day. I woke up; got dressed to go for a run. My dad stopped me on the way out and told me grandpa was gone. I went running anyway, but half a mile in, I turned back. It all sank in. I physically couldn’t push myself forward anymore. And he wasn’t even my husband, or my dad.

Continue reading “THE MISSING SCOTT CHRONICLES Will Remind You That Grief Always Hurts” →

No one likes being scammed. But what if she isn’t who she says she is because she’s trying to get revenge?

I can only speak for myself here. But for years, I’ve judged the quality of a book based on how long it stays in the forefront of my mind after I’ve finished the last page. This system has never failed me. One of my favorite books of all time, Tell the Wolves I’m Home, still enters my mind for a brief moment at least weekly. And it’s been years since I last visited the story.

The Lies I Tell came to me because of a book roundup I wrote for my day job. This is my first Julie Clark novel, but I included The Last Flight in one of my book lists and happily agreed to review this one too.

I didn’t expect to still be thinking about it now. But here we are.

Continue reading “Hello, I Read THE LIES I TELL in One Sitting (and You Should Too)” →

It’s not very often that I sit down to write a book review immediately after finishing a book — unless I’m on some sort of deadline, and by “on” I probably mean “procrastinated on.” I’ve had Slip on my NetGalley shelf for months, so I guess you could say I procrastinated. The book came out this week, and now that I’m back from traveling and assorted major life events, I thought I would spend some time on my day off catching up on my to-reads.

I did not expect to start and finish Slip in a matter of hours, and certainly did not expect to be reaching for my laptop with a literal hunger to write about it after the fact. But here we are.

I’ve developed a format and style for these reviews in an effort to make this review half of the blog stick, but I guess that’s all out the window for this one, because I have emotions, and I have to put them into words or I won’t get a single other thing done today.

Anyway. Book. Graphic novel. Slip. Where do I begin?

Continue reading “SLIP Is a Graphic Novel That Will Make You Fall in Love with Graphic Novels” →

Everyone has already made up their mind about how Desiree Pierce died. But Lena isn’t convinced the story about her sister’s suspicious death is true.

Even though Lena and her sister Desiree don’t have much of anything in common, that hasn’t stopped Lena from caring about the reality TV star everyone thinks they know. In fact, she must know Desiree better than anyone! At least … that’s what she thought before Desiree was found dead.

The police and the public are quick to rule the tragedy as an accidental overdose and close the case. But Lena isn’t convinced that’s what really happened — and she’s going to do whatever it takes to figure out the truth.

Continue reading “Like a Sister Will Keep You Guessing Until the Final Chapter” →

Your best friend is gone. But you have the ability to bring her back — sort of — with the power of AI. Very Black Mirror, sure. But there’s so much you never got to tell her. There’s so much she never had the chance to tell you. Do you bring her back? Just for a little while?

Bailey is smart enough to capture the essence of Vanessa forever thanks to years of text messages and Instagram posts. Her best friend may be gone, but she could live on forever thanks to machine learning.

Although … that Black Mirror reference wasn’t just for jokes. Things could go very, very wrong. Very, very fast.

Continue reading “‘Message Not Found’ Will Make You Feel Better About Being a Messy Human Being” →

We all long to be understood. Not on a surface level, but in that in-depth way that creates unbreakable bonds between people. Imagine feeling like no one will ever know you, and then finding the one person who might know you better than yourself.

Bastián and Lore aren’t your average teenagers — and that’s a good thing. At least, it should be. But the world isn’t as accepting of “different” as it should be. Which is why these two friends are the only ones who have ever seen the world beneath the lake.

It’s hard enough growing up as it is. But being non-binary and living with ADHD sure doesn’t help. Perhaps the universe brought Bastián and Lore together because it knew they both needed a friend who understood what it was like to be everything the world said they couldn’t be.

Continue reading “Our World Needs More Books Like ‘Lakelore’” →

When your mother goes missing, the last thing you’d expect would be to blame your father for her possible murder. But that’s exactly what happens to the Delaney children when their mother walks out of the house and doesn’t return.

An investigation into Joy’s whereabouts forces the Delaney family to look back not just on the past year but at their whole past as siblings, sons, daughters, and spouses.

But there’s nothing more suspicious than a mysterious woman who has also disappeared after appearing at their mother’s doorstep, wrecking everything, and leaving a shattered mess behind.

Continue reading “‘Apples Never Fall’ Offers the Best Kind of Twist at the End of a Mystery” →

I used to tell myself I hated happy endings. That I, like April, would be better off walking away before I knew the turnout of a would-have-been chapter of my own life.

Of course, my life isn’t a book and my story doesn’t have a conclusion the way April’s does. But I suppose books like The People We Keep are, among so many other wonders, a reminder that even though our lives take sharp turns and the world often crashes down around us and it seems nothing could ever turn out right, eventually at least one thing always does.

But Allison Larkin’s novel is more than a reminder: It’s a promise. Perhaps you haven’t been through everything April has. I haven’t. But we all have something. We all want better, even when we deprive ourselves of everything that could get us there.

Continue reading “The People We Keep Is Allison Larkin’s Case for the Necessity of Happy Endings” →