• Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalis (2022) ★ ★ ★ ★
  • Notes: A "weird monster-fucker" story to some, with a "bad soap opera" ending to others, whereas it left me profoundly warmed, depressed and heartbroken all in one day...

• The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle (2022) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  • Notes: May just have the most beautiful prose ever penned.

• The Woman in the Dunes - Kōbō Abe (2023) ★ ★ ★ ★
  • Notes: Gave off an atmosphere unlike anything else, it hypnotized me like a moth to a flame-

• In The Miso Soup - Ryu Murakami (2024) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
  • Notes: I don't think I've ever felt such pure terror, horror, and disgust all at once, yet I liked(?) it. What the hell—unforgettable...
  • (Edit November 2026:) A sleazy, putrid novel depicting the haunting horrors of culture meeting culture. It was unlike anything I had ever read before at the time, and unlike anything I ever will read again. I fell in love with Ryū's writing ever since reading this as a starter into his world. I've dipped in and out of it since, never quite getting the chance to fully sit back down and immerse myself into the grime-slicked worlds of his books again. But now I know I will have to find the moment to drown myself in it all again very, very soon. Ryū, you were something darkly special. This world is a whole lot shittier without your presence to still shed a blacklight on it all.