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Mini Reviews: Reading Library Personal Recommendations

Am I currently getting many of my post ideas from BookTubers? Yes, I am, you know why? Because they have fantastic ideas and I follow some amazing BookTubers. So, today’s blog post is inspired by Meg from megwithbooks and Riley from RileyMarie — they’re not the only BookTubers to do this trend, but they’re two that I’ve recently seen do this/something like this and inspired me to try it myself. 

I’ve never gotten personalized recommendations from anyone aside from friends who know my reading taste well (aka Cossette and Helena, let’s be real), so I’m really curious to see what the librarian recommends and if I’ll like the books!

Meg and Riley both used TBR (Tailored Book Recommendations) and Riley also got personal recommendations from the library. I considered using TBR for this post in addition to the librarian recs, but Meg and Riley didn’t have a fantastic time with the books they were recommended from TBR, so I decided to stick with just the library recommendations. Especially because I love utilizing the library — for real, we are so lucky to have libraries, and if you’re able to I highly highly recommend donating to and supporting your local library.

You know the drill by now, get comfy and cozy and join me on this library recommendations journey!

Part 1: Library Recs Form

My main library didn’t have a personalized recommendation online form, but I did a quick search for “libraries near me that give book recommendations” and it led me to a branch that’s closer to me, so that worked out well. This branch had a great survey where you could tell them exactly what kind of things you’re looking for and what you do/don’t enjoy. Originally, I planned to post screenshots of my answers, but surprise, surprise, my answers got so long that you can’t see them all in a final scroll (on the update that means that they allowed you to be very specific and make sure that they’re recommending things that you’re very likely to be interested in/excited for).

First, they ask what age demographic recommendations you’re looking for and if you prefer to read fiction, non-fiction, or both. I decided to ask for options that were both young adult and adult, since I like to read both and I have noticed that I tend to rate young adult thrillers higher than I do adult thrillers. While I love non-fiction, since that’s not what I’m in the mood for, I only selected fiction.

Then they ask if you have a favorite theme or a topic of interest. Specifically, this time around I’m looking for mystery/thriller and horror recs, so that’s what I listed. I also included some of my favorite themes/subgenres to read, so I included: mixed media stories, speculative/paranormal elements, haunted house stories, campy/psychological/gothic horror, witches, cults, strong female characters (“unlikable” female characters), revenge stories, cold cases, small towns. I also listed some mystery/thriller and horror authors that I’ve read a lot of and enjoyed, so some of the authors I included were: Simone St. James, Kate Alice Marshall, Holly Jackson, (most) Riley Sager, Stacy Willingham, Benjamin Stevenson. I feel like all of those authors have some things in common with their writing and storytelling style, but are also different enough that I could get a fairly wide range of recs.

There was a fairly good selection of genres to choose from for the question of which genres you’re interested in reading now, and I put mystery and horror for the genres I’m looking for. I liked that they asked for books or authors you’ve read recently and enjoyed and why, and for some books or authors you haven’t liked and why. This was the one where it seemed like there was no character limit so my answers got long, but for books/authors I enjoyed I put:

  • The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
  • The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
  • That’s Not My Name by Megan Lally
  • The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
  • Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
  • Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

All of those books were 4.5 – 5 stars, and cover most of the things that I look for in mystery/thriller and horror. For the ones that I didn’t enjoy I put:

  • My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
  • The One That Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy
  • The Guest List by Lucy Foley

I appreciated that they asked if there was any content or themes that should be avoided in the selections. I mentioned that I don’t love domestic thrillers and that I enjoy reading from female authors more than male authors most of the time, but neither of those are total deal breakers for me, and I mentioned that as well. 

Finally, they asked if you have a preferred format, and they gave quite a few options which was nice. I’m always down for physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks, but this time around I just selected physical books. The website says that it’ll take 5-10 days to get the recommendations and that they’ll pick 5 different books for me to choose from. I submitted my form on Friday, May 10th, so I’ll check back in once I’ve gotten my recs!

Part 2: Their Recommendations

Hello, hello! It’s now Thursday, May 16th and I’ve just gotten my book recommendations from the library! My librarian ended up sending me 9 recs — they went above and beyond! They recommended:

I’ve read Sadie before and loved it (Courtney Summers is so good), three of these books were already on my TBR, four others I had heard of and one of them I’d never heard of. Of the 8 books that I haven’t read on this list, I decided to pick 4 to read and the books I’m going to read from their recommendations are Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (I own this one!), Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed, What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell and The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward.

It took a little while to get to the library with my schedule, but I ended up going to the library on Friday, May 24th and I picked up physical copies of Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed and What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell. My library didn’t have a physical copy of The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward but I do have access to the audiobook and ebook, so I’ll be reading that one either via ebook or audiobook.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Reading this book was quite a journey! I started the book the weekend before an insanely busy week, which really, was not my best idea because I couldn’t read it for a few days and all I wanted to do was read this book. The second I started Firekeeper’s Daughter I was hooked, and when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. Angeline Boulley’s writing is so beautiful — there’s a richness to her language and it was so easy to lose myself in her story and writing.

I felt so immersed in this story; Boulley writes so descriptively, that it was easy to visualize everything that was happening in the story. The culture of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) was so beautiful. Oftentimes, I would just cry reading about the tribe because of the community and love that they have for one another, and the way that they all look out for one another was beautiful. You could really feel the love and care that Boulley has for her culture and traditions and I loved every second of it. 

Firekeeper’s Daughter really hit me emotionally; I cried multiple times while reading. I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t read it and want to read it, but there’s something that happens early on in the book that is the catalyst for the main plot, and it had me sobbing. I loved these characters and empathized with Daunis, especially when there would be discussions of Daunis feeling a disconnect between certain parts of her identity — not feeling like she was enough for either side of her family, in addition to people saying that about her and treating her as such — even within her own family. It was something that I could relate to, to a certain extent, and helped me feel more connected to her.

I thought this book was wonderful. It was emotional and heartfelt with just the right touch of humor. I couldn’t recommend this book more highly! Additionally, I was thrilled to, upon finishing Firekeeper’s Daughter, look up what other books Boulley has published and see that her 2023 novel Warrior Girl Unearthed, is set in the same universe and focuses on Daunis’ nieces, Perry and Pauline. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy, I’m sure I’m going to love it!

What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

What Stalks Among Us is like Groundhog Day but make it horror with a time loop corn maze and I thought it was great! Right away we’re dropped into the action and I thought that was the perfect way to start the book. 

I love time loop stories (god the idea of a time loop is so interesting on its own…), but I do worry about them becoming repetitive. That easily could’ve been the case here, but it was not. I thought that Hollowell did a great job of keeping things different and interesting each time Sadie and Logan had to restart the maze. Additionally, their only remembering bits and pieces of their last trips throughout the maze helped keep the intrigue high.

The friendship between Sadie and Logan was absolutely beautiful! I feel like nowadays it’s so rare to find a book that primarily focuses on platonic friendship, and I loved that it was the focus of What Stalks Among Us. Sadie and Logan were a team and I loved how deeply the two cared for one another; I just adored reading about their friendship. 

The real horror of What Stalks Among Us to me, wasn’t the fact that Sadie and Logan were trapped in this unending maze with danger around every corner or even the fact that they kept dying in every attempt to escape. The real horror was the abuse that Sadie (and another character, but I don’t want to spoil anything) had gone through and how she was working through that trauma. Society likes to use the term “gaslighting” for just about everything right now and I think that has, unfortunately, somewhat desensitized us to it, but it is a serious thing, and gosh, when Sadie would recount her experiences with her abuser I wanted to give her the biggest hug and tell her that it wasn’t her fault. So much of What Stalks Among Us is about how we overcome our trauma and how it doesn’t have to define us and I thought it was wonderful.

This is the first book that I’ve read from Sarah Hollowell, and I’m looking forward to reading from her again!

Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

Hollow Fires was the third book I’ve read by Samira Ahmed and once again, I am loving her work. Hollow Fires gave me similar vibes to Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and This Place is Still Beautiful by Xixi Tian with a little touch of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson and I was so invested. 

Before reading this book, I didn’t realize that this was loosely inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case from Chicago in 1924 (which you can read about here if you don’t know it) but once I heard that, I realized why I felt an odd sense of deja vu while reading Hollow Fires. I thought it was great that, while Hollow Fires was inspired by Leopold and Loeb, it didn’t feel like a carbon copy. However, I do think that made it all the more heartbreaking because you couldn’t pinpoint one thing that this story resembled; it resembled so many stories of racism, prejudice, and hate that we hear.

Ahmed has a captivating writing style! While it’s been a long time since I last read her books No Filter and Other Lies and Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, I remember not being able to put down those books and Hollow Fires was no different. I find her writing to be so intriguing — her writing draws you in and it’s easy to get lost in the story she’s telling

I loved the dual POV of Hollow Fires and I loved that one of the perspectives we got to read from was Jawad’s; his POV was particularly heartbreaking. I read Hollow Fires via audiobook, and the narrator for Jawad did an incredible job of showing emotion in his voice — I found myself crying during many of Jawad’s chapters, especially the ones where he would be pleading for someone to help him. The dual POVs added so much to the story and I loved the court transcripts and interviews that were included as well. 

With another success from Samira Ahmed, I’m planning on going through her backlist and adding some books to my TBR. If the three I’ve already read from her are any indication, I’m sure I’m going to love them.

Originally, I had planned on also reading The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward, but the end of May and June have been jam-packed, I barely had time to get these books read, so we’re wrapping up the post here!

I loved getting personalized recommendations from a librarian, and my librarian honestly killed it! I gave Firekeeper’s Daughter and Hollow Fires 4.5 stars and What Stalks Among Us 4 stars. All three of these authors I will continue to read from, and I know I’ll be thinking about these stories for a long time!

With this experiment being so successful, I may try this again with a different genre — maybe some fantasy and/or magical realism? Romance? We’ll have to wait and see, but I would love to do this again.

Have you ever gotten personalized recommendations from a librarian? If so, how did it go for you? If not, would you ever try it? Let me know in the comments!

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