Blood Over Bright Haven

I'd heard a lot about Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang before I started reading it, which will definitely have impacted on my response to it. And I unfortunately largely agree with those who found fault with their experience of reading it.
The opening pages are exquisitely written but incredibly horrifying - but then it settles down into the main narrative and it did feel like everything was being overexplained and hammered home a bit too hard.
I really wasn't keen on Sciona as a protagonist and the initial hints of romance felt quite forced.
There are a lot of good ideas here but the story didn't really engage my emotions and I wasn't invested enough in it to finish the book.

The Man I Think I Know

The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle was my mum's choice for family book club.

It's about James, who is struggling to assert his independence three years on from a traumatic brain injury, and Danny, who is struggling to make anything of his life fifteen years on from a family tragedy.

I really didn't like it at first, because I disliked both the protagonists intensely, and there was a particular aspect of James' narrative that I found incredibly annoying. But, about 90 minutes in, something happened that grabbed my interest, and a few minutes later, they both did things that engaged my emotions more positively towards them.

And, after that, I really enjoyed it! I'm used to this kind of dual narrative being used in romance novels, so it was interesting to see it done for a platonic friendship, and I think it worked well. I wasn't wholly on board with how things turned out, but only in the actual romantic subplots - the rest of it was great, and went to some places I wasn't expecting.