HOT AIR
Marcy Dermansky
The cover of HOT AIR is indicative of what you’ll find inside.
HOT AIR stars (don’t make me list all of their names, please) Joannie. Joannie is a date. He’s an auto-generated character, and his name doesn’t matter. Just know he has a pool. And he’s a bad kisser. So they’re on a date, and some other couple lands in a hot air balloon in his pool.
Joannie thinks this other guy who landed in the pool might be a better kisser. Although he is married, and his wife landed in the pool in the hot air balloon with him, everything and everyone is on the table tonight.
This is very confusing to the man we’ll call Man #1. Who cares what Man #2 thinks? The wife is well, that’s the book.
HOT AIR is possibly the worst book I’ve read in 2025. Out of 65 books, this is the worst.
The character names are purposefully confusing. That was just annoying. I did not care about one single character, one single storyline, or one single aspect.
There is nothing in this book.
The cover is magnificent. Just look at it. That’s all. It’s not meant for reading. It’s not meant to give thought, it’s not meant for discussion, it’s not even meant for book reviews.
The book is full of HOT AIR.
Thanks to Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the advanced copy!
HOT AIR…⭐️⭐️
JULIE CHAN IS DEAD
Liann Zhang
JULIE CHAN IS DEAD is about Julie. Well, it’s about Chloe. Chloe and Julie are twins. Julie works at the local grocery store, subsisting on reality TV and meal breaks. Chloe is an influencer with a massive following, an impressive bank account, and contracts to die for.
One day, she gets a call from her twin Chloe, which worries her. She decides to go over there and see what is going on, only to find Chloe dead on the bathroom floor. There really is only one thing to do. Julie will take over Chloe’s influential life. She will step into her sister’s comped shoes and become a person she’s always hated but secretly wanted to be.
That is not a spoiler. I double-checked.
My Audiobook: “There was once a girl who met a boy. She thought her dreams had come true in him, and in her, he thought he could become a man.”
My brain: “JULIE CHAN IS DEAD!”
My Audiobook: …”and then one day…”
My Brain: “Hey, did you know JULIE CHAN IS DEAD.
I picked up JULIE CHAN IS DEAD, thinking I could add it to my rotation. I was reading GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE and SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME. I thought, felt, I needed a change-up. I was disappointed in GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE and let down by SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME. I needed a palate cleanser, and I needed it fast.
Julie Chan has entered the chat.
Plans are spoiled, but before I know it, I’m 50 pages in, and I’m hooked. I tried to go back to buttholes and belly buttons, but Julie kept calling to me.
So, I put the other two down and read the entirety of JULIE CHAN IS DEAD in one sitting. It was the best time in a long time that I’ve had with a book. It was over before I knew it, and boy, was it too fast.
Can’t wait to read Zhang’s next book!
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy!
JULIE CHAN IS DEAD…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
DREAM COUNT
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In DREAM COUNT, we are following four Nigerian women.
Each of them is as different as the days that pass, as similar as the sun that shines on all of them.
It is set during the pandemic.
We follow along as each of them experiences the confines of the pandemic, while being Nigerian and a woman.
Adichie walks us through the pandemic, giving words to feelings, sentences to moods, and paragraphs to days gone by.
Some would ask if we need a pandemic novel? We are still living it.
We do.
A written existence is the opposite of erasure of self.
When we write about our experiences, we affirm them.
I am thankful that there are troves of great writers who will articulate for me what I felt during those dark days.
Days of uncertainty and worry, of not knowing.
The loneliness, the suffocation I felt.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of those great writers.
I gave DREAM COUNT five stars.
Thanks to Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the advanced copies!
DREAM COUNT…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
