Carys's January '26 Book Reviews

This year’s holiday break allowed me a much needed respite from constant history and math assignments, and presented me with the rare opportunity to read for more than 20 minutes a day. As somebody who is an extremely fast—and honestly obsessive—reader, I struggle with reading books bit-by-bit, which is what my current course load and extracurricular schedule enforces. However, while vacationing this year I was able to read the way I like: 1-2 books per day, every day, for a week straight. Situated on the beach or under palm trees swaying softly in the breeze, I read three of Ira Levin’s most popular novels and finished off with two of R.F Kuang’s works, all in the span of four days. Unfortunately, upon returning from break, I felt my schedule tighten again, and have not yet finished Beautiful World Where are You by Sally Rooney, or started my two anticipated reads, Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green, or Babel, another book by R.F Kuang, so watch out for those in the February review. 

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin ⭐⭐⭐⭐(+½)

Starting off, I began reading Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin, in late December, however I didn't truly settle into the book until early January, as I had been attempting to annotate it. I gave up on this after dropping it in a puddle, so my reading time got a lot quicker.

Rosemary’s Baby is horror done right; it draws the reader into the story so that their heart races in time with Rosemary’s. Levin’s prose throughout the book is spectacularly decadent and enjoyable and despite being a classic, the book holds up under the majority of modern scrutiny. As someone who had been tainted by Daniel Valentine’s attempted retelling in Delicate Condition via the adaptation in American Horror Story’s twelfth season, realizing Rosemary’s Baby is actually incredible was highly exciting. Rosemary is shockingly relatable—even when she makes frustratingly stupid decisions—because unlike many modern authors, Levin successfully connects you to his protagonists in a personal way that makes you defend them as if they were a close friend. 

Levin also performed the feat of actually making a male character break my heart. Normally, when a female protagonist suffers a betrayal at the hands of a male counterpart, I can predict it, or at the very least I’m not shocked or upset when it occurs. To avoid spoiling this book, or The Stepford Wives too much, all I will say is that Levin writes extremely likeable male characters and then uses that likeability to not only pull the rug on his female protagonists, but his readers as well.

 Despite my heartbreak at the betrayal, I like actually being surprised for once. Overall this was an amazing read, and while it was occasionally outdated, earning a ½ star deduction, Rosemary’s Baby is the book I would recommend the most of those on this list. 

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Despite being lower rated than Rosemary’s Baby, I enjoyed the actual process of reading this book the most out of the three Levin novels. The Stepford Wives, despite only being around 150 pages, should, and often is, the blueprint for the psychological thriller. If you enjoyed Don't Worry Darling (2022), I recommend reading this, and if you didn't—the gossip-surrounded Style-starring TikTok sensation wasn’t for me either—I would still recommend this novel given its similar suburban setting and plot twist (The Stepford Wives, however, lacks the interference of bad acting and press-tour drama that Don't Worry Darling suffered from).

This is the perfect Feminine Mystic reactionary novel, and similar to how I felt while reading Rosemary’s Baby, I was honestly shocked this was written by a man. Not to say that men cannot write women well, but Levin demonstrated an understanding of the experience of being a woman that I typically only see executed by other women. From the first page on, I immediately fell in love with the main character, Joanna, and her husband, Walter. Their dynamic, as well as Joanna's overall characterization, was my favorite part of the book, and that made the ending all the more tragic to me. Like Rosemary’s Baby, this book left me heartbroken alongside the female protagonist, and Joanna's ending devastated me. My only criticism is that the ending felt very predictable to me personally, but I'm not sure that this was detrimental to the story. I think the experience of knowing what was going to happen, and not being able to prevent Joanna, who I felt a connection to, from walking into her demise was a terrifying experience within itself. 

The book holds up extremely well under the scrutiny of time, and over 50 years later, it still has very real-world applications. The suburban-housewife aesthetic that initially interested me in Don't Worry Darling was breathed into every page of The Stepford Wives, in a way that kept me turning page after page. I would recommend this book as a one-sitting read, not only because of my preferred reading pace, but because the book is short, and compelling enough that the message feels even more impactful if digested quickly.

The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin ⭐⭐⭐ (+½)

Unfortunately, this was by far my least favorite Levin read. I think it primarily has to do with the fact that Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives were far more similar to each other, and The Boys from Brazil is the real outlier of the three. The book follows Nazi-hunter Ezra Lieberman, who begins investigating a Nazi fugitive group, the Kameraden and their plot to kill 94 civil servants, after receiving a call from an aspiring Nazi-hunter who is presumably killed by the group while on the phone with Lieberman. 

Obviously, the plot of this book is very different from the other two on this list, and while compelling, was by far the slowest read out of the three as well. One problem I encountered while reading this was keeping everyone’s names straight, which was partially my own fault as an inattentive, fast-paced reader, however, I do attribute part of this issue to Levin’s incorporation of many characters that had seemingly little-to-no impact on the overall story. The book did give me a little bit more context into the post-WW2 struggle to actually identify and arrest Nazis. While I was vaguely aware of their presence in South-American countries and the continuation of war criminal trials into the late 20th century, I did not realize how active some Nazis remained, nor did I know the importance of actual historical figures (and novel characters) such as Dr. Mengele. 

Out of the more vintage books I read over break, I walked away from this one feeling like it was a book my 80-year-old grandfather would enjoy, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but gives you a sense for the prose and plot that the book had. Despite being the youngest of the three Levin books, it is the one I would say held up the least, not because of any specific details, but more so the overall manner in which it was written, and my perception of its ability to capture a modern audience. Of course, some fault lies with me, a reader who has ruined their own attention span with dopamine hits on social media. I would recommend this book very specifically to people currently in IB 20th Century World History, as I think it provides excellent context for the activities of Nazi’s and Germany as a country post-WW2. 

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang ⭐⭐(+½)

This book is where I feel like people’s toes might get stepped on. The Poppy War Trilogy, and honestly all of R.F Kuang’s books seem to be very, very controversial, especially on social media spaces like “BookTok” and “BookTube,” which made me hesitant to read this in the first place, because “BookTok” recommendations are probably what I trust the least in this world. Regardless, I am a fantasy lover at heart, it was my very first love as a young reader and continues to be my favorite genre, so I thought I'd give The Poppy War a try, especially after hearing glowing reviews of Kuang’s world-building in the series. I really wanted to love this book, and at first, I did. 

The first half was immaculate, I loved the university system and the chapters where the main character, Rin, was at the elite military academy Sinegard, were some of my favorite fantasy chapters ever written. They were so good I could excuse the occasional pages-long world-building lore dump that often didn't actually inform me of the crucial information I would need to know later. For the first half I was riding high, I finished it in one night, staying up far too long to get to that half-way point. That is when, in all honesty, shit hit the fan. What I have determined from the cataclysmic decline from the first half to the second half of the book is that Kuang thrives in an ordered environment, but the second her character leaves that well organized setting, she struggles to maintain a coherent storyline. The pacing, which was odd, but excusable in the first half of the book got wildly confusing, and the battle scenes, which became much more frequent, were downright incoherent. This was the one criticism I had heard going in, however nothing could have prepared me for how confusing the ending of this book would be. Additionally the world-building, which at first felt creative and refreshing, started to reveal more and more of an East Asian historical influence, that at times was so obvious it felt like R.F Kuang was just ripping pages out of a history textbook. 

This is one of the only books I've ever read that I seriously considered just putting down without finishing. I did manage to crawl my way through it, but it was so bad I was scheduling myself breaks and forcing myself to meet page-number quotas just to keep reading. I am very firm in my opinion that this should have been two books, and that somebody needed to sit down with Kuang and have her explain exactly what was happening in every scene from the second half of the book. I have heard from a trusted source (Bee) that the series goes downhill, and I don't plan to continue. I am sorry if you liked this book, I did think it had a lot of positive aspects, but I cannot bring myself to put myself through this reading experience twice more to finish the trilogy. 

Katabasis by RF Kuang ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Having just written that absolutely scathing review of The Poppy War, I'm aware most people will be shocked I gave R.F Kuang a second chance, but the premise of Katabasis was too tempting for me to not at least attempt to read it. I did give myself permission not to finish this book if it had a Poppy War-esque downfall, however I am happy to report I thoroughly enjoyed Katabasis. I admittedly had a perception of this book going in, as I had watched a YouTube review that absolutely despised the book, however, the reviewer liked The Poppy War, and after reading that book I no longer trusted her opinion. 

Katabasis follows two Cambridge graduate students, Alice and Peter, studying magic (a universally accepted facet of the world of Katabasis) who travel to Hell to revive their advisor, who has died in an unfortunate accident. Unlike Rin from The Poppy War, who seems to be hated by even the most dedicated fans, Alice and Peter were likeable, funny characters with a very interesting interpersonal dynamic. I will say that I've noticed Kuang often brushes over the majority of her character’s backstory— unlike Sally Rooney novels where this feels acceptable and nearly inevitable—I find that Kuang’s work suffers from it. However, I would say the deep exploration of the power-dynamics between graduate students and their advisors, and between female students and male professors made up for this oversight. 

I found this book to be like a grown-up version of Percy Jackson and the Olympians with its incorporation of mythology, however it had the added bonus of the relatability of extremely academically motivated main characters, and the pretentious Cambridge aesthetic that I found surprisingly enjoyable. My main criticism in this book was its stagnancy in the later half. Peter and Alice’s relationship was one of the most compelling parts of the first section of the book, and when this was removed, the book became much less enjoyable, especially with the addition of the Kuang–special: an extremely confusing and incoherent action scene. I found the ending of this book very satisfying, however, I have seen accusations of a potential plot hole in the ending that does annoy me but didn't really hinder my reading experience in any way. I would recommend this book to anybody who was similarly Percy Jackson obsessed in elementary school, because this scratched the same itch for me as that series did years ago. 

Alright, that was my long ramble about these books. I again reiterate that my opinions are my own, and if you disagree with any of my assessments I completely respect that. I hope that this was helpful to anybody hoping to get back into reading, or simply searching for a book to add to their TBR list. Stay tuned for February's review, where I hope to have (finally) finished Beautiful World Where Are You, by Sally Rooney, so Ms. Lewis can stop mocking me for reading it with my eyes shielded by fringe bangs.