On Bee's Bookshelf

Meet Barri Brown. Respected teacher. Upstanding citizen of Guernsey. Down for a bit of law-breaking. Barri is preparing for a year’s paid maternity leave but there’s a catch:  She isn’t pregnant. With seven foam bumps, a wardrobe full of smock dresses and a great pregnancy heist planned, all Barri has to do is blag it until she can disappear for good, without getting caught and being sent to prison for fraud. Child’s play. But can she  really  get away with telling the mother of all lies? "It's good for the soul to jump aboard a hare-brained scheme every now and again." It's time for the mother of all lies in this tumultuous, messy comedy drama as one woman risks everything to just have a god damn break. Meet Barri, our eccentric main character who doesn't look like she'd commit maternity fraud but … that's the plan.  Did she mean to? not exactly.  Is that a bit shady? absolutely.  Is this some kind of breakdown? probably.  But do I find myself not onl...

Natalie chose James carefully, because he's different from all the men she'd loved before. Calm. Competent. Kind. And there are three very good reasons she needs to be so careful. Their names are Marc, Luca and George. Natalie prefers not to think about what they did to her. Let alone what she had to do to them. Except now, on a night they are meant to be celebrating how happy they are together, Natalie and James are lying in separate bedrooms. She is asking herself how she could have been foolish enough to let yet another man hurt her like this. Slowly, Natalie realises she’s already holding a knife. But she's not going to do anything with it.  She’s not . "I want to know why my childhood fucked me up so much more than everyone else's fucked them; I want to know where the blackouts come from; I want to know if James will be my next victim; I want to feel confident that he's definitely not." Well damn, looks like the competition is heating up for our favou...

What are ghosts, really? Are they the souls of the dearly departed, a warning from the great beyond, a manifestation of our subconscious desires and fears - or something entirely unexplainable? In this mesmerising collection of eight newly translated short stories, we meet brand new ghost stories with lives (or deaths) of their own. They're full of wonder and whimsy, playing with the concepts of ghosts to explore different aspects of life from self-reflection, loss, love and identity. Each story has it's own style, but the same contemplative, warm voice flows through every one. These tales are strange, with beautifully vivid writing and lyrical, poetic wording that were a pleasure to read. Sunwoo paints each story in rich detail, whether the setting is ordinary or extraordinary, keeping each tale short but their core ideas still shining through without having to interpret or think too hard (although you may anyway) Some of the tales bordered on the longer side of what you'd...

Dutiful and hard-working, Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, if mundane, life with her pet parrot in small-town Alabama. Sure, she may not love her desk job working for an insurance agency. And her on-again-off-again relationship with the local mechanic may not have the fiery passion she’s read about in her favourite books. Still, things are stable, which is more than she can say about the two hopelessly immature younger sisters who rely on her. But when Rhea’s estranged grandmother dies, leaving her everything—including a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carried—she finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear to avoid at all costs. While the defunct video store she’s also inherited needs a serious upgrade, Rhea’s lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to help—and more than easy on the eyes. If only he wasn’t the grandson of her grandmother’s sworn enemy in witchcraft. Yet as Rhea makes plans for the bookstore of her dreams, sh...

  Hold onto your darkest fears and prepare to walk through the fog to explore the history of the Silent Hill franchise. Since 1999 when the first video game was released, Silent Hill has been a cult icon in the horror world - its games and subsequent movies crafting a terrifying, complex lore that I’ve been obsessed with since I first discovered it.  After starting off with a little reflection on the psychology of fear and why we love all things terrifying, this bible explores the six games in detail, delving into the characters and their journeys, the different stories players can discover — everything is laid out in a clear structure, full of amazing stories not only about the rich lore, but interesting insights into game design and development from behind the scenes too. At points there was a little too much text, if you’re a big fan you might find yourself skipping sections where the plot of the games are practically explained - at times the lengthy explanations weren’t th...

The day Ruth Foster’s life changes begins the same way as many others—with a walk through her North Carolina hometown toward the diner where she works. But on this day, Ruth is stopped by the local sheriff, who insists that she accompany him to a health clinic. Women like Ruth—young, unmarried, living alone—must undergo testing in order to preserve decency and prevent the spread of sexual disease. Though Ruth has never shared more than a chaste kiss with a man, by day’s end she is one of dozens of women held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Some, like 15-year-old Stella Temple, are brought in at their family’s request. For Stella, even the Colony’s hardships seem like a respite from her nightmarish home life. Superintendent Dorothy Baker, convinced that she’s transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society, oversees the women’s medical treatment and “training” until they’re deemed ready for parole. Sooner or later, everyone at the Colony learns to abide b...

It's a new year! Time for reading challenges to be reset and brand new stories to discover. Start out your 2026 with some of these fabulous books that are releasing early this year and come Bee-recommended.  January Releases:  Women of a Promiscuous Nature by Donna Everhart  This is not an enjoyable story. It's not fun to read. But it is important and undeniably compelling. Following the story of three women and girls whose lives have been forever changed by 'The Colony' - an institute where men could send any woman they didn't agree with. It explores the violent misogyny that happened, and still happens from the systemic control to the society-approved abuse. Well-researched, impeccably written and unforgettable. Galentines Day by Rebecca Anderson   Three girls, one tradition that spans years. Galentines Day follows three friends as they grow up together and apart, navigating adult life and all the difficulties it brings. It's a beautiful snapshot of life in al...