 We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of those books that sticks to your ribs in the worst possible way. It’s not just a story about a kid who grows up to do something horrific, it’s about parenting, blame, and that uncomfortable question: what if you just don’t like your own child?
The whole thing is told through letters from Eva, Kevin’s mom, to her estranged husband. She’s brutally honest about how motherhood never felt natural to her. She didn’t want to give up her career, she didn’t feel that rush of unconditional love everyone talks about, and from the very beginning Kevin seemed… off. Cold, manipulative, like he was always two steps ahead of everyone else. And that’s where the book gets under your skin. Did Kevin turn out the way he did because Eva never bonded with him? Or was he born this way and nothing could have changed it? Shriver never gives you an easy answer, and that’s what makes the story so unsettling. The writing is sharp and unsparing. You go into the book already knowing Kevin is going to commit a massacre, so the whole time you’re reading with this sense of dread. But the scariest parts aren’t the violence. They’re the little family moments where Kevin seems to know exactly how to twist the knife in his mom, and she can’t get anyone else to see it. It’s not a light read, and honestly it’s not one I’d hand to just anyone. But if you want a book that will mess with you and leave you thinking long after you finish, this one delivers. The movie with Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly is good, but the book? Way darker, way smarter, and way harder to shake off. Download the eBook or audiobook with your SPL card. If you prefer a physical copy, ask about interlibrary loan. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian
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 In We Do Not Part, Han Kang, now crowned with the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, continues to unravel the raw sinews of the human spirit with her trademark elegance, restraint, and haunting brutality. If you’ve read The Vegetarian or Human Acts, you already know that she is not here to comfort you. She is here to disarm you, to offer silence as indictment of past sins, and pain as a kind of testimony.
This latest novel is perhaps her most distilled expression of sorrow and connection yet. It is a story soaked in grief, not just personal grief, but historical and national grief, a grief that simmers beneath the skin, unnamed and yet entirely felt. Her language is stripped down to the bone, almost surgical in its precision, leaving vast, aching white space between sentences like unspoken truths hanging in the air. At its core, We Do Not Part is about the relationship between two friends. But it’s also about war, memory, intimacy, and the ways violence echoes through generations like a haunting melody. The lines between presence and absence, love and loss, flesh and memory blur. Han Kang does not offer resolution. She never has. But what she does offer is something far more rare: an invitation to sit in discomfort, to witness the beauty in fracture, and to confront the quiet devastation of history without blinking. It is no surprise that the Nobel committee recognized her. Han writes not with ink but with absence, making you feel the ghosts between the words. We Do Not Part is not just a novel, it is a requiem for everything we cannot hold on to, and a prayer for what lingers anyway. A devastating, masterful work. Read it, but don’t expect to emerge unchanged. Her books are always a favorite of mine even though they leave me devastated, and this did not disappoint. Check it out at the library. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian  Blood Meridian throws you headfirst into a brutal and beautiful world where violence is the law of the land, a far cry from the usual Western stories. The Kid's journey with a group of scalp hunters is nothing compared to the terrifying Judge Holden, a figure of pure, chilling chaos, whose presence hangs over the story like a dark cloud. McCarthy's writing, epic and mesmerizing, turns the landscape into a nightmarish vision, a desolate and unforgiving place where good and evil lose all meaning. This is a story without heroes or redemption, a raw and uncompromising experience that, despite its darkness, stays with you long after you finish it, forcing you to face the darkest parts of human nature and the brutal truth of history.
Get the book at the library or get the eBook or audiobook with your SPL card. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian |
The SPL StaffWe work here at the library, and we’re into all kinds of books! How Do I Get These Books?See our Quickstart Guides page for information on how to use the online catalog and how to get eBooks and audiobooks for your specific device. You can also contact us there if you need more help!
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