shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Author Brigid Kemmerer and her latest book, A Curse So Dark and Lonely

    Interview With an Author: Brigid Kemmerer

    Brigid Kemmerer is the New York Times bestselling author of More Than We Can Tell, Letters to the Lost, and the Elementals series. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, though her parents quickly moved her…

  • Mallory O’Meara and her debut book, The Lady from The Black Lagoon

    Interview With an Author: Mallory O'Meara

    Mallory O’Meara is a film producer and the co-host of the “Reading Glasses” podcast. She is also a lifelong fan of classic horror. In her debut as an author, O’Meara reveals the long and purposefully…

  • French novelist Amanda Sthers

    Interview With an Author: Amanda Sthers

    Amanda Sthers was born in Paris and now lives in Los Angeles. She is the bestselling author of ten novels, and her debut English-language film, Madame, was released in America in 2018. The French…

  • Author Marie Benedict and her latest novel, The Only Women in the Room

    Interview With an Author: Marie Benedict

    Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years’ experience as a litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in History…

  • Author Arwen Elys Dayton and her latest book Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful

    Interview With an Author: Arwen Elys Dayton

    Arwen Elys Dayton is the best-selling author of the Egyptian sci-fi thriller Resurrection and the near-future Seeker Series, set in Scotland and Hong Kong. She spends months doing research for her…

  • Author Stuart Turton and his debut novel, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

    Interview With an Author: Stuart Turton

    Stuart Turton is a freelance journalist who lives in West London with his wife and daughter. Stuart is not to be trusted—in the nicest possible way.The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is his debut…

  • Collage of Shaun Barger and his first novel, Mage Against the Machine

    Interview With an Author: Shaun Barger

    Shaun Barger is a Los Angeles-based novelist who detests cold weather, idiot plotting, and fascism. He splits his days between writing, resisting the siren’s call of Hollywood’s eternally mild summer…

  • Robert Masello and his current novel The Night Crossing

    Interview With an Author: Robert Masello

    Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, television writer, and bestselling author. His guide to composition, Robert’s Rules of Writing, has been adopted for many college classrooms, and he has…

  • Author V.E. Schwab and her latest book, Vengeful

    Interview With an Author: V.E. Schwab

    Victoria "V.E." Schwab V.E. Schwab has been called “the heir to Diana Wynne Jones.” She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Shades of Magic series, as well as a number of middle grade and…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan

    Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan

    • By: Michalski, Liz
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    We all know the story of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up. J.M. Barrie wrote and published a play and two books about Peter and his adventures in the early 20th century, recounting how Peter visited the Darling children: Wendy, John, and Michael, and spirited them away...
  • Cover image for Acts of Violet

    Acts of Violet

    • By: Montimore, Margarita
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In early 2020, Margarita Montimore published her debut novel, Oona Out of Order. It followed a woman who awakes every January 1st at a different point in her life. She lives in that year, and in that body, until December 31st, only to awaken the following morning beginning a different...
  • Cover image for Hawk Mountain

    Hawk Mountain

    • By: Habib, Conner
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In the late afternoon, Todd sits on the beach watching 6-year-old Anthony, his son, play in the surf. A man approaches Todd, and, after a minute, he recognizes him. It is Jack, who bullied Todd relentlessly during their senior year in high school. In spite of their shared history, Jack...
  • Cover image for The Kaiju Preservation Society

    The Kaiju Preservation Society

    • By: Scalzi, John
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In early March of 2020, Jamie Gray is unceremoniously demoted from marketing executive to “deliverator” at füdmüd, an internet startup company in New York City. As the COVID pandemic worsens, Jamie struggles to get by until a chance delivery happens to be to Tom Stevens. Tom tells Jamie that he...
  • Cover image for A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

    A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

    • By: Chambers, Becky
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 2021, Becky Chambers introduced readers to the moon of Panga, where, centuries ago, the civilization’s robots gained consciousness and, en masse, walked off into the surrounding wilderness and were never heard from again. Until the day a robot named Splendid Speckled Mosscap walked up to Sibling Dex, a tea...
  • Cover image for Remarkably Bright Creatures

    Remarkably Bright Creatures

    • By: Van Pelt, Shelby
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    After her husband’s death, Tova Sullivan took a job cleaning the Sowell Bay Aquarium. She works evenings after the aquarium has closed to the public, mopping the floors, clearing the trash cans, and cleaning the glass walls of the exhibition tanks until they shine. As she works her way around...
  • Cover image for The Children on the Hill

    The Children on the Hill

    • By: McMahon, Jennifer
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Monster. The word brings to mind ugly, misshapen creatures wreaking havoc wherever they go. Perhaps the most famous monster is Frankenstein’s monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s been over 200 years since the teenaged Shelley created one of the most enduring tales of all time. And over the last two...
  • Cover image for Siren Queen

    Siren Queen

    On a whim, a young Chinese-American girl pays with an inch of her hair so that she and he sister can see Romeo and Juliet at the new nickelodeon in their neighborhood. From that moment on, she has a single desire: to be a motion picture star. Not simply an...
  • Cover image for Never Been Kissed

    Never Been Kissed

    • By: Janovsky, Timothy
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    As Wren Roland celebrates his 22nd birthday with his best friends and roommates, Mateo and Avery, he begins to lament the fact that he has never been kissed. He’s been close, but has yet to experience what his degree in film studies has convinced him will be a life-altering and...
  • Cover image for Only a Monster

    Only a Monster

    • By: Len, Vanessa
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Joan believes herself to be a typical teenager. She spends her summers in London visiting her maternal grandmother, while her father visits his family in Malaysia. During this visit, she has been volunteering at Holland House, a historic home and museum in Kensington. Holland House is where she met Nick...