Welcome to Litsy!

Repost for @Catsandbooks

#RiseUpReads September 2025

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

Read at your own pace. There will be a discussion posted on Litsy at the end of the month.

Please tag me in your posts & use #riseupreads
If you're not currently tagged & would like to be, let me know.

Content warnings: death, violence, grief, dysphoria, colonization, gun violence, slavery, transphobia, alcoholism

#RiseUpReads September 2025

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

Read at your own pace. There will be a discussion posted on Litsy at the end of the month.

Please tag me in your posts & use #riseupreads
If you're not currently tagged & would like to be, let me know.

Content warnings: death, violence, grief, dysphoria, colonization, gun violence, slavery, transphobia, alcoholism

I enjoy Elisabeth Wheatley‘s videos and decided I should try her books. This is the first book of a complete series and available on Hoopla, so I thought it would be a better choice than her new series. It has some interesting world building, but it‘s also very much a first book that sets up a series. I‘m giving it a light pick, and I may or may not pick up the next books when I‘m looking for another light fantasy listen.

#audiobook

⭐️⭐️⭐️ not anything spectacular, either in the spooks or the mystery. Writing was all right

I liked this a lot. Humorous, spooky, adventurous. I love the interactions between Laszlo, Maggie & Lump. I saw where this was headed, but as the ending neared I really wondered how it would come together -a bunch of extra stuff seemed thrown in at the end… but on the whole it was good and I was quite entertained.

Set during a time when Black Americans were empowered to correct centuries of wrongs, This Cursed House is as much about empowerment and self-discovery as it is about the ugliest form of intra-race hatred—colorism. Featuring a host of fair-skinned antagonists too shallow to realize segregation begins at home, it offers a glimpse into why the South is as gothic and horrific as the intergenerational trauma it breeds.

Best described as social commentary disguised as fiction, readers experiencing personal and cultural disruption will find themselves fiercely grounded in place.

Unexpected! This quirky romance between a curse breaker and an archeologist was charming and different and I really enjoyed it! Danan always surprises me with the way she approaches a story and it is always a great time.

There aren‘t many surprises in this ghost story. Pretty early on, we know what happened in the past, and how it has affected a family‘s lives whose ancestors committed unspeakable crimes. In Ms Sandeen‘s capable hands, I didn‘t care; she writes so well, and creates such deep characters!

With her Chicago life in ruins, Jermaine Barker accepts job offer from the Duchovny family that seems too good to be true and of course it is — breaking a curse.

But sometimes things must break before they can be made whole again, so that they can be forged into something stronger.

“When you said my name... the stone within me suffered a crack. And I don't regret that it did, because I had forgotten how vital it is to be known for who you are, and not for who you pretend to be. I had forgotten how good it is to be seen, even with flaws and scars. I wanted you to see me.”