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secondhandreads.bsky.social
Secondhand Reads
@secondhandreads.bsky.social
63 followers 12 following 470 posts
I read used books 📚✨
Updates on Fridays (....usually) + Song of the Week on Wednesday
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secondhandreads.bsky.social
A Gentleman Never Keeps Score is a fun romp with real heart, but just a few too many ideas for its plot to keep up with. But I had a good time with it regardless! I give it a

✨7.5/10✨
A page from A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian. Favorite quote: "He took a sip of brandy as he watched Mr. Fox decide whether he could be trusted. Hartley wondered what it must be like to judge trustworthiness on sight. No, he wondered what it must be like to even want to. It was much easier to simply not trust people at all."
November 29, 2025 at 5:48 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
More importantly, the book makes it clear that Sam's actions are in the right! I have read way too many books where the POC partner is either a doormat or a plot device; to read a more realistic take on how healthy interracial relationships work is refreshing. Absolutely loved this!
A page from A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian. Favorite quote: "But a generation ago, Britain had promised black Americans freedom if they fought against the colonists. Sam's father had been one of them. But nobody had quite figured out with to do with an influx of former soldiers, many of whom didn't have a trade and were barred either by law or prejudice from learning one."
November 29, 2025 at 5:48 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Sam wants to track down and destroy a lewd painting of his friend Kate commissioned by Hartley's late godfather. Hartley agrees to help, seeing an opportunity for revenge- possibly even closure- if they team up...
A page from A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian. Favorite quote: "Sir Humphrey didn't leave half his estate to those whores." "Yes, well, he did leave half his estate to this whore, and there's nothing you or anyone can do about it. It's mine."
November 29, 2025 at 5:48 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
This week's book is A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian!

#books #booksky #thriftbooks #reading #queer #lgbt+ #lgbtromance #romancebooks #regencybooks
November 29, 2025 at 5:48 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
This week's book is You're The Problem, It's You by Emma R. Alban. I wasn't expecting it to be my second DNF review on this account, but here we are.

#booksky #thriftbooks #lgbtbooks #sapphic #romancebooks
A photo of You're The Problem, It's You by Emma R. Alban.
November 15, 2025 at 6:25 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
This book isn't getting a review but I NEED y'all to see its cover: Alternate Warriors by Mike Resnick.

#booksky #thriftbooks #usedbooks #vintagebooks
A photo of Alternate Warriors by Mike Resnick. The cover features an incredibly detailed painting of a muscular Mahatma Gandhi holding a rocket launcher with explosions going off in the background. The subheader says "This time they're not turning the other cheek...!"
November 12, 2025 at 6:08 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Little bonus: look at these cute details of the book itself! The endpapers have a subtle embossed snake skin pattern, and there are cute drawings of the entire cast hidden underneath the paper cover! Man, I love physical media.
A photo of the dark endpapers with a subtly embossed snakeskin pattern. A photo of the front of A Snake Falls to Earth without the paper cover and held horizontally. It is bright orange, with drawings of the main cast done in black and white linework and filled with a darker orange. A photo of the back of A Snake Falls to Earth without the paper cover and held horizontally. It is bright orange, with drawings of the animal people in their animal forms done in the same style & colors as the front.
November 8, 2025 at 3:33 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
I also loved her secondary storyline: her many attempts to translate an old story her great great grandmother told her in the Lipan Apache language. It's a very emotional arc, and I loved the payoff we get at the end.
A page from A Snake Falls to Earth. Favorite quote: "If the well went deep enough, it could be home to a hidden community of animals or- fingers crossed- a sanctuary for animal people."
November 8, 2025 at 3:33 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
The spirit world was so well done. I loved how all the different animal people had their own cultures, I loved how the magic system worked, and how Oli and his group traveled to the "real" world. Also, the coyote twins were awesome, easily my favorite side characters!
A page from A Snake Falls to Earth. Favorite quote: "I also noticed that the originator's warmth, which radiated through his stone-tough skin and coat of desert grasses, was more intense than the heat of my basking rock. Perhaps, like the Earth, his heart was a pool of molten iron."
November 8, 2025 at 3:33 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Neither of them knows the other exists, but the two cross paths as hardship befalls them: Nina's grandmother is getting harassed by a strange man who wants her to sell her house, and Oli's best friend is sick with a mysterious illness...
A page from A Snake Falls to Earth. Favorite quote: "For every species on Earth, there are animal people. A couple of truths are known. First, we're strong and plentiful when our species do well. Second, we suffer when our species suffer."
November 8, 2025 at 3:33 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
This week's book is A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcy Little Badger!

#booksky #thriftbooks #usedbooks #fantasy #YAbooks
A photo of A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcy Little Badger.
November 8, 2025 at 3:33 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Hauntings is a gem of an anthology. Chock full of supernatural menace and Gothic suspense, it is the perfect read for Halloween. I give it a

✨10/10!✨

Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!👻
A page from Hauntings featuring drawings by Edward Gorey. From top to bottom: A spooky mansion surrounded by bare trees, a man and woman staring at a chair and table with two candles on it, and two men talking in a graveyard.
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Narrowing down my favorites was hard but I think I finally got it down. In no particular order: The Lonesome Place, The Man Who Collected Poe, Where Angels Fear, The Open Door (one of the best ghost stories I have ever read), Levitation, The Ghostly Rental, The Whistling Room, and The Red Lodge.
A page from Hauntings featuring drawings by Edward Gorey. From top to bottom: Two men going into a cave, two people starting at a dark figure floating outside at night, and three people, one of whom appears to be a ghost.
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Each story is thick with Gothic dread: a slow, unrelenting build-up of suspense that's perfectly paced to invoke feelings of unease in the reader. Edward Gorey was the perfect choice for the illustrations; his work perfectly matches the literary aesthetic of this collection.
A photo of a two-page spread from Hauntings, featuring Edward Gorey's drawings and the first page of The Man Who Collected Poe by Robert Bloch. Drawings, top to bottom: a spooky house surrounded by white trees, a man writing by candlelight in the dead of night, and a ghoulish man next to two figures burning. Favorite quote: "I looked upon the scene before me- upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain- upon the bleak walls- upon the vacant eyelike windows- upon a few rank sedges- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees- with a feeling of utter confusion commingled with dismay.
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
But the artwork is only part of the book. What about the stories? Henry Mazzeo had a specific focus: supernatural horror from the Gothic literary tradition. And he absolutely nails it.
A page from Hauntings. Favorite quote: "The Gothic castle is the silent sovereign of literature casting its long shadow across time."
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Ah, another pull from my Edward Gorey Covers collection. But this one is a little more special: Gorey also did interior illustrations for each story! And they're GREAT:
A page from Hauntings with three drawings by Edward Gorey. Top to bottom: a shot of thick, dense tree branches, two menacing trees along a dark path, and two boys examining a patch on the ground.
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
This week's book is Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural edited by Henry Mazzeo!

#booksky #thriftbooks #usedbooks #vintagebooks #anthology #horror #gothic #halloween #edwardgorey
A photo of Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural edited by Henry Mazzeo.
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
I also thoroughly appreciated that his chapter on the Winchester Mystery House talked about the REAL history of Sarah Winchester. Oh my god I am so sick of reading unexamined retellings of the the bullshit medium story in otherwise perfectly fine history books.
A page from Ghostland. Favorite quote: "Mrs. Winchester is a lady of refinement and culture... If she wants to build a castle on her premises near Campbell, she should be permitted to do so without ascribing her motives to foolish superstitions."
October 25, 2025 at 4:05 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
As Dickey points out, ghost stories do not just connect us with the past; they are a way for us to reconcile with it. Devil Half Acre's lack of slave trade ghosts speaks of a city that is not willing to accept what happened in its own history.
A page from Ghostland. Favorite quote: "We typically think of ghost stories in terms of the remnants of a terrible tragedy, a past we cannot escape, or an justice unavenged. Why, then, in a place that should be so haunted by the legacy of such a terrible injustice, the scene of countless deaths, should there be nothing but white ghosts?"
October 25, 2025 at 4:05 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Given how much we humans love to tell embellished stories, it makes complete sense that some of our more tragic moments get preserved- and distorted- as ghosts.
A page from Ghostland. Favorite quote: "But, then, all hotels are haunted. You're kidding yourself if you don't see this, if you don't recognize that you sleep with ghosts."
October 25, 2025 at 4:05 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
This week's book is Ghostland by Colin Dickey!

#booksky #thriftbooks #usedbooks #history #nonfiction #ghosts #hauntings
A photo of Ghostland by Colin Dickey.
October 25, 2025 at 4:05 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
A multifaceted look at vampiric ladies, Girls' Night Out is a fine tasting board of literary vamps from across the decades. And since it's a mass-produced Barnes & Noble anthology, it is cheap to get in the used book market! I give Girls' Night Out a

✨7/10!✨
A page from Girls' Night Out. Favorite quote: "Now, for a moment, the vaguely hinted horrors of the monkish legends became immediately real in my imagination, and I paused before the black opening that was to engulf me, wondering if some satanic spell had not drawn me thither to perils of unknown terror and inconceivable gravity."
October 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
Night Laughter (LOVED this), The Girl With The Hungry Eyes, Dress of White Silk, The End of the Story, The Man Who Loved The Vampire Lady (I want this to be a series tbh), and Luella Miller.
A page from Girls' Night Out. Favorite quote: "The thing is, it's just that you start to hate the daytime. All the bad things happen during the day: rush hour, lines at bank, unwanted phone calls, junk mail, overworked people being rotten to each other."
October 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
That said... it was only five out of 29 stories, and given that FIVE YEARS passed between the two books being published, I sincerely doubt it was out of any sort of laziness or rushed schedule. I think they just liked those five stories.
A page from Girls' Night Out. Favorite quote: "Madeleine had killed on her way there, a carpet-seller in his grimy shop near the bank of the river, a man no one would miss, except perhaps his wife... and probably not her, much. So she felt indulgent with the world, as she moved through the darkness of tombs and ivy and ornamental trees towards the place."
October 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM
secondhandreads.bsky.social
I don't think there is an easy solution, to be honest. I imagine that when you're editing a 500+ page anthology that requires a lot of variety, you just have to accept that some of the transitions from one story to the next will be awkward.
A page from Girls' Night Out. Favorite quote: "One day I woke up and Ronald Reagan was president. I thought for sure it was the DTs, and maybe it was, because the next time I looked, it was some other guy, but things weren't any better."
October 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM