The Curator: a new favorite series, some nordic noir, and a Catholic vampire story

everything I read in April, plus some book world drama & who is crying at work

Lately, I’ve been lamenting the lack of an addictive series in my reading life. I’ve not only been missing the bingey dopamine hit but also the nostalgia for childhood days spent devouring Babysitters Club or R.L. Stine¹. To be consumed by a fictional world is a peak experience. This month I fixed that problem.

I divide book series into two categories - the serial kind, where each novel is its own sitcom episode, best consumed in order but still easily enjoyed individually; and the sequential, a contained universe with a plot line that builds on each successive book². I read some of both this month, and while the serial is fun, the true joy lies in the sequential - in the build-up and payoff of drowning deep into a new universe.

Even though I could have been reading 100 other new things, this month I completed a new favorite fantasy series. I also tried a new Nordic Noir series, discovered a new vampire story, and made it about 150 pages through a very difficult book. Quite a range, but the one thread that ties all these stories together: people are generally good, and we are all stronger than we think.

Faceless Killers (Wallander #1) by Henning Mankell

The first in the Kurt Wallander series, this story features a typically tormented detective faced with too many unsolved crimes on top of his own interpersonal drama. For men like Wallander, the job is always the thing - the thing that ruins his marriage, his health, and his sleep, while also giving him purpose and something to wake up for. The notorious double-edged sword of the noir.

Faceless Killers is so robustly ‘90s it’s sometimes painful, but also charming. We’ve got checks, no cell phones, VCRs! But we also have the struggles of everyday men in the face of a changing world, with insight into how they might adapt or resist. While not exactly radical in its social liberalism, I was impressed by the depth of Wallander’s self-awareness.

We’re living as if we were in mourning for a lost paradise, he thought… but these days have unbelievably vanished and it’s questionable whether they were ever as idyllic as we remember them.

This was a typical mystery novel with a predictable narrative. There were two plotlines, and for a long time, it was not clear why both were in the same novel. The pacing was a little weird - there were spurts of intense activity, and then lag, which perhaps makes it more realistic but also disorienting. The mysteries felt secondary to Wallander’s personal story, and his narrative voice was at times bland. There was one moment involving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of horses that made me want to throw the book across the room, but I will resist ruining it for you here.

Perhaps some of my dislike stems from this being the first novel in a ten-book series that feels a bit old, but not old enough to be vintage. I would love to see how Mankell develops Wallander and his own narrative skill in later books. I have one Nordic noir left on my immediate list, and then I will do a massive flowchart to help you decide which (if any) of these mysteries are worth your time.

The vibes👻: a sometimes painful, sometimes charming 1990s throwback Nordic mystery

Fragile Animals by Genevieve Jagger

In my quest to read more dark literary novels, I stumbled across this debut novel from UK author Genevieve Jagger that was quite unexpected. As I continue to experience more life without mood-altering substances, I find myself awakening to some universal truths, and these truths need confirmation by other human beings. Fragile Animals is one of those manifestos, a siren call to others with deep-seated religious guilt. While you could say it is about vampires, it’s better described as the vampiricism of organized religion on a malleable mind and the pull of our inherent animalism. The novel is a confession, a physical manifestation of rejection and desperation. Themes of blasphemy, innocence, and sacrilege mix with physical annihilation. Guilt manifests in the body³. Confession alleviates this guilt, but not in the traditional manner. The prose was elegant and insightful. I loved the neurodivergence of the main character and watching her grow after only a few days of surrogate maternal love. From Jagger herself:

“Much of the novel,” Jagger adds, “hinges on the idea of the church being an unreliable narrator, like what rules and history were dictated to Noelle. There’s a lot of secrecy, omission and misdirection in the novel and maybe Noelle is trying to push through all of it to become honest. I think that is her genuine intent but it’s blocked by trauma, memory and religion as well.”

And the void! Always women and the void.

Maybe he will turn me to dust. This grip feels so different than the one that lowered me by moonlight to the face of the water, its stability and strength gently holding me above the void. Yet it is exactly the same (page 205).

The vibes👻: if you love vampires, go read this immediately

The Obelisk Gate & The Stone Sky (Broken Earth #2 & 3) by N.K. Jemisin

I read the first installment, The Fifth Season, back in January, and had no intention of finishing the series immediately. Yet when I was picking out a book for vacation, it felt like a natural choice to dive back into a world already familiar, so I picked up Obelisk. Then, after starting Solenoid, I knew I needed a treadmill/bedtime book to counterbalance and decided what the hell, let’s finish the deal with Stone Sky. I’m glad I did because it was such a pleasure to give myself over to this fictional world set thousands of years in the future, yet still dealing with the same universal human truths - violence, scarcity, environmental disaster, racism, motherhood, love, betrayal, and death.

The Fulcrum is not the first institution to have learned an eternal truth of humankind: No need for guards when you can convince people to collaborate in their own internment.

Much of what I said about the first novel directly applies to these two, as they are a continuation of the narrative, and I don’t want to ruin the first. The great news is that Obelisk does not suffer from a sophomore slump and successfully avoids the filler trap. Characters continue to develop, plot lines weave together satisfyingly, and the pacing is heroic (never a dull moment!). Like with the first, I was sometimes confused or not fully sure of the world-building, but it really didn’t matter. Some of Jemisin’s visuals felt profound and prophetic, even if imagining a world I will never live to see.

She does not see Schaffa’s face turn, like the Moon sliding into shadow, to watch her go.

The vibes👻: top-notch speculative sci-fi fantasy poetic exploration of humankind.

Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu

Remember when I laid out a great plan for tackling an intimidating book? That was cute.

My bold plan to read 40 pages a day quickly devolved into just get through ten pages to just read what you can on the weekends. Solenoid does not mix with a long day of spreadsheets and problem solving. But that’s ok!

Martha

and I are still finding it worthwhile to plod through when we find chunks of time to dedicate to the almost stream-of-consciousness detail about our narrator’s life as a high school teacher in 1970s communist Romania. So far, I’ve already encountered what might be my all-time favorite existential observation:

Why do I know I exist if I also know I will not? Why was I given access to logical space and the mathematical structure of the world? Just to lose them when my body is destroyed? Why do I wake up in the night with the thought that I will die, why do I sit up, drenched in sweat, and scream and slap myself and try to suppress the thought that I will disappear for all eternity, that I will never be again, to the end of time? Why will the world end with me?

That is some dark shit my friend. Onward we go!

---

👻Favorite read of the month: The Obelisk Gate & The Stone Sky

👻Most original: Fragile Animals

---

James won the Pulitzer amid some drama, but we couldn’t be happier (Substack)

Jane Eyre made

Books on GIF

cry at work (Substack)

Michael Estrin

explains decorative chairs to his racist neighbor (Substack)

Candice Wuehle

is so over vampire movies (except one) (Substack)

The one thing we can’t get right from

Caroline

(Substack)

I said I had one more Nordic noir to read, and then I found this list: 2025 translated mystery & thrillers to know (Book Riot)

📽️We saw Sinners last night, and it was everything promised and more. Powerful, innovative, compelling, visually stunning, AND full of Michael B. Jordan. Go see it now!

And then: Black vampire books to read after you’ve seen Sinners (Book Riot)

I just can’t. Make it stop. (NPR)

---

I’m now currently onto my last (or second to last??) Nordic noir, a novel by Lars Kepler. Also plugging away at Solenoid and considering starting a third novel because I’m craving something in between the ease of Kepler and the intensity of Solenoid, but I fear I will never finish S if I do that. Let me know what you are reading in the comments.

• Do you have a favorite adult series?

• Which do you prefer, standalone or series?

• What are you reading, and is it any good?

---

---

This newsletter contains affiliate links. If you purchase using one of the links above, I will earn a baby-sized commission at no cost to you. Comment, share, repost, upgrade to paid, or buy me a coffee to support my work. Follow me @subversereads on Instagram for pretty book pictures. Your support (monetary or not) is why I keep going, so thank you.

See you around the bookshelf!

1. in elementary school, I brought my Babysitters Club book collection to school for show and tell. I somehow still had friends.

2. I know there are actual categories because I also Googled it. There is also a third-ish category that combines the two, usually with mysteries - stories get resolved each series, but an overarching story continues throughout, like my favorite Veronica Mars.

3. The Body Keeps the Score