Welcome to Litsy!

The first book from Gillian Flynn‘s imprint? And it‘s about a queer, tattooed, chain-smoking nun?

SOLD!

The protagonist in this is a heavily tattooed lesbian nun. It's not the best story and it's highly repetitive but if you enjoy cozy mysteries it's fine. Narrator on the #audiobook is Mara Wilson.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I really liked this one! While it spends a lot of time flashing to Sister Holiday‘s back story, I felt the character development was necessary and helped make sense of a character who may otherwise seem unbelievable. I liked the secondary characters as well. This is bleak in places and not something to pick up if you are looking for a Sister Boniface type mystery. “Cozy murder” this ain‘t.

Sister Holiday, fleeing the wreckage wrought by her life choices, is a novitiate with The Sisters of the Sublime Blood, teaching guitar licks to Catholic School students in New Orleans and hiding her tats under black serge. Someone is lighting fires, people are dying, and Holiday investigates.

The first third is beautifully written, language and plot in the middle are muddy but the end is surprising. I hope this is the start of a new series!

This debut mystery starring a lesbian punk nun didn‘t live up to its promise (nor justify its long spot on my hold list). Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#scorched-grace

I can fully admit this was simply a misjudgment on my part. I'm really not down for books that focus this much on religion/faith, or people deeply in need of therapy not getting it, or traumatized people becoming violent/murderers. ⚠️ Big warning for SA, homophobia, but I can't give more adequate cautions than that because I skim read the second half just so I could get the whodunnit out of my head. Just too much ugliness for me.

Going to be thinking about that one for a while...

A noir in which a formerly punk nun (lots of tattoos and cigarettes) sets out to solve a series of crimes, including arson and murder, that happen at her convent.

Wow!!! That was intense!

This is a noir book with a noir voice, and I ultimately bounced off of that. I found the idea compelling: a detective who is a punk musician…and a nun! She has a complicated relationship to her past, to the idea of grace, and to religion. Unfortunately, I found the ending unsatisfying-it undercut those themes of religion and conflict that I most enjoyed while reading. Mostly meh, but still compelling enough to make me late for work one day. :D

Mysteries aren‘t typically my thing & I noticed that @TheKidUpstairs wasn‘t a fan of this one, which doesn‘t bode well…but I just learned about the book‘s existence and can‘t help but feel excited! A punk rock nun? OKAY!

@JamieArc Had you heard of it? Seems like something we should both make note of!

📸: Hayley Rabe, PangoBooks

I so wanted to love this one. And it started out so strong, with a wonderfully punk rock nun of an MC and a strong noir tone and atmosphere. But it just fizzled and flailed from there.

Not for me 😒

I discovered that if you pressed your face to Mary's face in the Nativity glass, you could peer right through her translucent eye and see New Orleans shimmering below like a moth wing....I saw Faubourg Delassize and Livaudais unfold to the left, Tchoupitoulas Street and the hypnotic ribbon of the Mississippi River to the right....

at dawn, I was astonished by the wattage of color that vibrated in the silken light.

This book was my freakin' CATNIP. Sister Holiday had a great voice and so many interesting layers, and I had no idea who the arsonist was. If and when this becomes a whole series, I'm in. And I appreciated that Sister Holiday had a sincere belief in God without being preachy or losing sight of the gray areas in life. #mystery

An exciting premise - a lesbian, former punk rocker, tattooed, chain smoking novice nun turned amateur investigator in New Orleans! But she‘s a poor investigator and a even poorer judge of character! Her back story gives her interest and intrigue - but the ‘mystery‘ element is a let down. I believe in her - and maybe book two she‘ll find her stride for that reason I made it a ‘pick‘!

I really enjoyed Sister Holiday‘s story. I was a little foggy on how Sister Augustine was “sticking it to the man” beyond just destruction, but that made for a fun twist.

I am super excited to read this book! I‘ve known Margot for years and am so proud that her book has been published.

This was okay enough… The writing was really full and descriptive, which I liked at first but then wore on me when I just wanted the story to move forward or give me a bit more to work with in terms of suspects & clued. And I didn‘t really like how there would be a flashback with no visual marker besides a standard paragraph break, I found that jarring and confusing.

DNF at 25% in. My interest in this just kept waning, I'm not entirely sure why, but I have too many books on my TBR to continue with one that isn't really doing it for me! I think maybe too much of this book was weighing on the novelty of the protagonist being a queer, tattooed, smoking nun and once that wore off, I didn't find much to actually keep my interest. Gorgeous cover though!

#QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks

“Like beauty evil is in the eye of the beholder.”

“We are like stained glass. Beautiful and complicated and fragile as fuck. We all need care and some of us don‘t get what we deserve. “

“If we can‘t make our own choices we are nothing more than marionettes.”

😌

My kid's abuela is visiting while my partner is away for work, so I'm getting some much deserved bath and book time after my first week back at work at the library after maternity leave!

"If the Lord cherishes us, why are we so fragile and fire so grand? Pointless debate. We are the fire, and the fire is us. We were born with electricity in our hearts, the divine flame."

“Revenge is a stupid way to feel in control. Like all drugs it doesn‘t last but, it sure is fun in the moment.”

I‘m participating in #NunLit hosted by @jhammer and when I saw @Mitch post this newly published book about a current-day gay (with feelings for former gf), smoking, tattooed, faithful, sleuthing nun in a progressive order in New Orleans I had to go there. I liked it! The mystery itself is fine enough, but it‘s Sr Holiday‘s story that drew me in. Kudos to the author for writing this without getting bogged down in current day politics.

“Everybody‘s got secrets, especially nuns.”

Happy Sunday 😃

A couple of great sounding ones this week! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

https://crimereads.com/10-new-books-coming-out-this-week-february-21-2023/

Faith, fire & female rage - Sister Holiday is a young woman with a harrowing past who is clinging onto her second chance at a Catholic school in New Orleans - when she finds herself fighting to clear her name when there are a spate of arson attacks at the school she teaches at, the first of which kills a janitor and hospitalises 2 students.

I love a debut, I love a amateur sleuth, and I‘m also very partial to Murder, She Wrote references👌🏼

Hey, I read a thing!
I was awarded this #ARC through the Publisher's Weekly Grab-A-Galley giveaway and accessed it thru #Netgalley.

This description--“Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test.“--grabbed my attention immediately. This is a first-in-a-series title for Gillian Flynn Books at Zando Projects Publishing so you know it's going to go to some dark places, and it does. ⬇ ⬇