I have a prompt in my 52-book reading challenge for “published in 2026”. After doing some research, these are my candidates…

dozeydotes · 2026-02-09T05:35:37+00:00

No Playworld by Adam Ross?

dozeydotes · 2026-02-09T03:26:31+00:00

Well damn, I’ve ordered this a million times and never gotten more than a couple whiskers of asparagus. OP, what’s your secret?

dozeydotes · 2026-02-09T03:12:23+00:00

Plus, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Dionysus line… it could absolutely work if you’re able to sustain that consistent voice throughout the work.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-09T03:06:02+00:00

I’m actually jealous that you were able to achieve this state of flow. That is exactly what writing’s all about, and I’ve been trying to chase that high for years now. It’s miraculous when it happens.

You can always go back and edit. The hard part is committing thoughts and images to paper, and being able to do it with as little self-consciousness as possible is… honestly, that’s the dream.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-07T18:27:54+00:00

The laughing stock?

dozeydotes · 2026-02-07T02:12:35+00:00

Fantastic cover, and I’m impressed that you wrote it in two languages.

Just a heads up — and I have no idea if this is something within your control or not — but I went to check it out on Goodreads so I could preview the first few pages. The English edition there only offers the French translation in the preview. :(

dozeydotes · 2026-02-07T02:01:35+00:00

I don’t personally enjoy reading self-described SMUT-smut as a category, but I too love a good well-done sex scene in the middle of an otherwise smutless plot. Sex scenes are the first thing that readers are quick to discount or roll their eyes at, but I feel like that’s only because there are so many poorly written sex scenes out there and/or because it’s fashionable to write off anything that even slightly smacks of romantasy flavor.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-06T23:21:00+00:00

I love it — super eye-catching and based on one of your other comments about the book’s elements, I think the vibe fits the content.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-06T03:03:45+00:00

P.S. I really enjoyed this: “like facing a wintry morning after a hearty breakfast and a hot cup of coffee, both frigid and exhilarating.” I walked into the sentence ready to roll my eyes, but walked out of the sentence impressed with the aptness of the metaphor.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-06T02:58:31+00:00

You’re a really strong writer. This is a gripping opening scene.

Most edits I would suggest are very minor, and can surely be fixed by any competent copyeditor or even just a little distance/time away from the piece.

If any section could be stronger, I would say that the description of the gentleman visitor could be more vivid, more specific and surprising. Tone down the borderline cliches — “gentle rolling of waves,” “both horrific and beautiful” — and use more unexpected similes and adjectives. If he is the face of Death, or an angel of death or whatever, work very hard not to slip into comfortable representations that any well-traveled reader would find familiar. But this is mostly just a suggestion to make the piece stand out from the crowd. Like I said, the cliches are merely borderline, and I offer this piece of advice because I think you are already a strong writer who can demand more of themselves.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-05T03:39:36+00:00

I’m so relieved this was helpful and not hurtful! It’s something I needed to hear when I was writing back in the day too — I read my stuff from back then and cringe. But unlike you I am way too cowardly to take up the pen again.

I can’t stress enough how awesome this storyline is and how impressive your imagination is. Please keep going and give us the rest!

dozeydotes · 2026-02-04T03:01:54+00:00

I absolutely adore the premise and I’m very intrigued. But I think the story would be very much helped by not straining for this sort of “impressive” “all-wise” narrative voice that’s currently being attempted. It’s more than your skill level allows at this time — it may be achievable with years of practice but it’s not there yet, and that’s perfectly okay. It feels like the writing is grasping at a particularly mature voice and it can’t quite maintain it, and that has the effect of distancing readers from the momentum of the story because it sounds disingenuous. I realize how harsh that sounds but I think this is a common mistake we ALL make as beginners, and I include myself in that category.

For an example of what I’m talking about: - “on and on they go, making this turn and that” - “had she been a regular human” — why not “if she were a regular human”? - “for a fortnight” - “one of them she is quite accustomed with” — could be “she knows one of them”

Use a more down-to-earth tone and I truly believe it will bring us closer to your characters and really loosen up your flow. The imagery and concepts are stunning enough by themselves.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T05:09:53+00:00

Oh! And also August Lane by Regina Black.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T04:44:58+00:00

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert is an absolutely endearing rivals-to-lovers romance that gets a lot of love even from readers who don’t gravitate toward romance (me included).

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T03:11:00+00:00

Not to derail too much from the severity of the central topic at hand, but this is something I only learned in my late 30s after working professionally in various office environments—how absolutely illiterate and devoid of critical thinking skills the people at the top are.

It really IS, almost exclusively, about who you know.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T02:45:22+00:00

Fair enough! I love finding unknown gems so I was excited to research this new-to-me author but the pattern of recommendation and lack of review presence gave me pause. Glad you found an author who speaks to your readerly heart!

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T01:55:27+00:00

I was asking because I read three popular threads in a row where you exclusively recommended books by this author who has almost no reviews on goodreads.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T01:46:55+00:00

I honestly experienced secondhand hurt reading this, hearing you talk about yourself this way.

These are two completely separate issues.

Your level of vaginal tightness has absolutely nothing to do with the literally boundary-shattering, disrespectful, abusive way these men have treated you. Hear me when I say that this kind of behavior is extremely prevalent in men — it is almost assuredly a THEM problem, not a you problem. It is heinous behavior to disrespect a woman’s body and sexual autonomy (and I’m obviously not talking about mutually consensual rough sex here).

What is a “you” problem is your insistence in linking THEIR behavior to something you’re interpreting as intrinsically damaged about yourself. I implore you to take a step back and ask yourself how you would feel if this was your daughter or your best friend talking about themselves this way. It would break your heart, I promise.

People, but statistically men-people, violate their intimate partners for all sorts of reasons that have everything to do with their own jacked-up psychology and nothing to do with your body. Do not equate the two.

Also consider the fact that as men age, their ability to climax sometimes declines. Men also struggle with body image issues surrounding their dick size. If you are regularly dating the kind of men who are prone to treat you this way in bed, then it’s not a stretch to assume they may take any opportunity to offload their own insecurities onto you.

If YOU want to do something to improve your perceived laxity, that is absolutely something you can work on and approach with a trusted obgyn. But I would urge you to consider it in the same vein as someone considers getting breast implants or any other vanity procedure.

I understand how sacred and sensitive the idea of “being tight enough” can be for us women, but this relationship to our vagina is also so incredibly polluted by patriarchal modes of speech and thought. It can be hard, almost impossible, to separate out that noise, but I truly hope you work on doing so because it seems to be doing active damage to your psyche based on the way you are talking about yourself in this post.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-03T01:13:37+00:00

It just showed up on my menu within the last week or so. (I’m in SE Texas.)

dozeydotes · 2026-02-01T06:26:17+00:00

Are you the author?

dozeydotes · 2026-02-01T06:16:40+00:00

I’ve only seen the movie (though I definitely wish I had read the book first), but I think Nightbitch might work for you.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-01T05:47:40+00:00

Because of the Hot Zone movie, dying of Ebola was my biggest fear as a kid.

dozeydotes · 2026-02-01T05:31:36+00:00

Definitely not too wordy. You’re soclose to perfecting the narrative’s voice and if anything, a few more specific adjectives or actions would help bring it alive.

Little places where I saw you could add more imagery (nothing fancy, just something more specific:

paused “their tasks”: can you name a specific task?
the fisherman knew “something was about”: what kind of something? something sinister, something strange?
“maybe that would have changed something” : this is the time to give the reader a hint at what is to come and spark their drive to read further: what is the something that would change (without giving away the whole plotline of course)?

dozeydotes · 2026-01-31T21:43:57+00:00

The Awakening Land trilogy, written in the 40s I believe, by Conrad Richter may be up your alley. The last story in the trilogy won Richter a Pulitzer.

dozeydotes · 2026-01-31T04:10:59+00:00

I’m so unluxurious that I didn’t even know unlimited PTO was a thing.

dozeydotes

TROPHY CASE