The Stacks

All book reviews

773 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.

Showing 193-216 of 773

A Clash of Kings

by George R. R. Martin

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin 1998 review. Five claimants vie for the Iron Throne while a comet crosses the sky over Westeros. The middle volume of A Song of Ice and Fire and the one most committed Martin readers consider his peak.

The Late Show

by Michael Connelly

The Late Show by Michael Connelly 2017 review. Renee Ballard works the LAPD late shift in Hollywood after being banished from the elite Robbery-Homicide Division. The novel that launched the strongest new Connelly series in twenty years.

Tress of the Emerald Sea

by Brandon Sanderson

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson 2023 review. A young woman from a remote island sets out across treacherous spore seas to rescue the boy she loves from a sorceress. A standalone Cosmere novel that reads like a Princess Bride homage.

Mistborn: The Final Empire

by Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson 2006 review. A street urchin named Vin discovers she can use magic by ingesting and burning metals, and a crew of thieves recruits her for the impossible: kill the immortal Lord Ruler.

James

by Percival Everett

James by Percival Everett 2024 review. A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved man Jim, in his own voice. The most important American novel of 2024 and the right Everett entry point.

Normal People

by Sally Rooney

Normal People by Sally Rooney 2018 review. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Sligo town, attend Trinity College Dublin together, and orbit each other across four years of intermittent intimacy. The literary-fiction novel that defined the Rooney moment.

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison 1987 review. Sethe, a former slave living in Reconstruction-era Ohio, is haunted by the daughter she killed to save from slavery. Pulitzer Prize 1988 and one of the canonical American novels of the late twentieth century.

Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 2021 review. Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches the children passing by the storefront and waits to be chosen. Late-career Ishiguro at his most patient and most strange.

The Secret History

by Donna Tartt

The Secret History by Donna Tartt 1992 review. A new student at a Vermont college is drawn into an exclusive Greek-studies seminar and the murder that the small clique conceals. The novel that defined the dark-academia register before it had a name.

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman 2001 review. An ex-convict named Shadow takes a job as bodyguard to a strange man named Wednesday and learns the old gods of immigration are still here, dying slow. The defining American urban fantasy of the 2000s.

The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2006 review. A father and son walk south across a burned-out post-apocalyptic America toward an uncertain coast. Pulitzer Prize 2007 and one of the great American novels of the twenty-first century.

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 1985 review. In the near-future Republic of Gilead, women have been stripped of their rights, and the handmaid Offred remembers the world before. The most-cited dystopian novel of the late twentieth century.

A Game of Thrones

by George R. R. Martin

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 1996 review. The book that rewrote what epic fantasy was allowed to do. Westeros, the Iron Throne, the deaths nobody saw coming. Required reading.

The Way of Kings

by Brandon Sanderson

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson 2010 review. On the storm-blasted continent of Roshar, an enslaved bridgeman, a disgraced scholar, and a young prince converge as the world races toward a forgotten war. The most ambitious epic fantasy debut since A Game of Thrones.

The Lincoln Lawyer

by Michael Connelly

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 2005 review. Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a case that pulls him into something larger. The novel that launched a series and a film franchise.

It

by Stephen King

It by Stephen King 1986 review. Seven friends return to Derry, Maine, to face the shape-shifting evil they fought as children. One of the great American novels about childhood and the past.

The Stand

by Stephen King

The Stand by Stephen King 1978 (and 1990 Complete & Uncut) review. A weaponized plague kills 99 percent of humanity. The survivors are pulled toward Boulder or toward Las Vegas, and the novel that follows is one of the great American epics of its decade.

Fairy Tale

by Stephen King

Fairy Tale by Stephen King 2022 review. Charlie Reade inherits a Maine estate and discovers a portal to a fairy-tale world that has gone seriously wrong. Late-career King at his most generously narrative.

11/22/63

by Stephen King

11/22/63 by Stephen King 2011 review. An English teacher discovers a portal to 1958 and decides to stop the Kennedy assassination. The single best late-King novel and the rare time-travel book that earns its 849 pages.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 2015 review. A human huntress is taken to the faerie kingdom of Prythian after killing a wolf in the woods. The first ACOTAR book and the romantasy series that set the table for the genre's BookTok-era explosion.

Mexican Gothic

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 review. Noemi Taboada is summoned to the remote Mexican mountain town of El Triunfo to rescue her cousin from her new husband's family. The canonical contemporary Latin American gothic horror novel and the 2020 Bram Stoker winner.

The Silent Patient

by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 2019 review. A forensic psychotherapist works with an artist who has not spoken since the night she shot her husband. The thriller debut that topped the New York Times bestseller list for over a year and became the most-discussed contemporary psychological thriller of its decade.

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 2018 review. Kya Clark raises herself in the North Carolina marshlands and becomes the suspect in a murder. The best-selling adult novel of 2019 and the 2022 Reese Witherspoon-produced film.

Circe

by Madeline Miller

Circe by Madeline Miller 2018 review. The witch-goddess of the Odyssey narrates her own life. Miller's second novel and the canonical contemporary feminist mythic re-telling.