What I Read ♥ July 2025

July was a very bookish month for me! I participated in a mermaid readathon, visited some bookshops, bought some physical books, read all the books in my Cancer TBR, cried more than once while reading, DNF’d two books, smashed my GoodReads reading challenge, and completed the month by reading 12 books! Even though I knew that the mermaid readathon would help me with my goal, I was still shocked because it didn’t feel like I read 12 books!

For your sake, I won’t review all 12 books, so I’ll only be discussing the non-readathon books in this post. Check out my post about the Mermaid Readathon to read my thoughts and opinions on those mermaid/ocean/island books.

I added trigger warnings to this post because I feel like a lot of the books I read this month were a kind of dark. Let me know if you would like me to continue to add trigger warnings in my future book posts. I’m never sure whether or not I should add them. I know some people find them important, whilst others don’t care. Is there a certain trigger warning that is more serious than others that you would like to be warned about? Let me know, I want to make sure I’m considerate of all my readers.

Make sure to follow me on Goodreads to be updated on what I’m reading and on StoryGraph if you’re curious about my book statistics.

My star reading scale
★★★★★/5 – Loved it! Would reread and recommend it to others.
★★★★/5 – Kept me entertained. I would reread.
★★★/5 – Didn’t love or hate but would recommend to others.
★★/5 – Did not enjoy it and probably skimmed through most of it.
★/5 – I hated it and regret wasting my time with this book.
DNF – Did not finish. This will probably be rare because I like to finish every book I start.

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this post might be affiliate links. If you make a purchase with the links I provide, I may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix DNF/5
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened

Trigger warning: teen pregnancy
I started off the month by DNF’ing Grady Hendrix’s newest release, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. I know I just read a book by Grady Hendrix a few months ago and didn’t enjoy it. However, I forgot I had placed a hold for this on Libby, and I wasn’t reading anything at the time this book became available to me, so I decided to give it a chance. Big mistake!

This is about a school in the south, where young girls who get pregnant attend to avoid being judged by their families and community. I decided to DNF this book because at 17% in because I was so bored. Where is the witchcraft?! It felt like I was reading Annie, but all the girls are knocked up and southern. I had to look up reviews to see if it gets better, but a lot of people complained about the same issues. Sadly, I don’t think Grady Hendrix’s work is for me.

You can purchase Witchcraft for Wayward Girls here

Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler ★★★★★/5
A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women.

Trigger warning: mentions of suicide, pet death
I’ve seen a few people rate memoirs 5 stars due to the author sharing their story. So going forward, I will be doing that. Who am I to judge someone’s interpretation of their own story?

I didn’t know who Anna Marie Tendler was before reading her memoir. Later, I found out she was married to a popular comedian, and there’s a whole lot of drama surrounding them if you’re curious. I didn’t want to go in with a biased mindset, plus I’m not one for celebrity gossip. At the beginning of the memoir, Anna checks herself into a mental health facility because she keeps thinking about taking her own life. The first half of the book revolves around her life in the facility and retelling parts of her life. The second half of the book is about her life after she checks herself out. I found Anna’s memoir very vulnerable, and the fact that she shared so much about her journey was very brave of her. As someone who also struggles with their mental health, I found many parts relatable.

One of the last chapters really got to me because the author had to put their dog down. I was on a trip, away from my 11-year-old Pomeranian, while I was reading this book, and this line really got to me. It made me cry.

In the kitchen, I say “This is where you watched me bake banana bread and licked spilled flour dustings from the floor.” In the dining room: “This is where we ate dinner. Remember how beautiful it looked the first night I lit all the candles?” In the living room: “This is where we watched movies.” And in my office, my favorite room, the room where my new career and life have flourished, I say “This is where we pulled tarot cards every morning. This is where you helped me sew lampshades. This is where you kept me company while I edited all the photographs.

You can purchase Men Have Called Her Crazy here

My Husband by Maud Ventura ★★★★/5
In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband–but can their marriage survive her passionate love?

Trigger warning: sexual content, infidelity
I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did! This was one of the books from my Cancer TBR. I mentioned in that post that the main character sounded like a Virgo, and it was later confirmed in the book that she is indeed a Virgo, but she must have strong Cancer placements. She even tracked the days of the week, the planets, and colors. I lowkey loved her! lol

Anyway, I didn’t know much about My Husband going in, but I thought this was going to be a thriller about a wife who goes too far, and maybe she does.My Husband was very unhinged and full of satire which is why I enjoyed it so much! If this book took itself too seriously, I probably would’ve hated it. At one point, the main character even mentions, Who would want to read a book about a wife who is obsessed with their husband? That would be boring! which made me LOL! The last chapter, though, made this book what it is! If you want a quick read that doesn’t take itself seriously, I recommend this one!

You can purchase My Husband here

Merrow by Amanda Braxton-Smith DNF/5
In this breathless and beautifully crafted tale, twelve-year-old Neen Marrey must separate town gossip from town lore to learn the truth about her mother – and herself.

I forgot to mention that I DNF’d this book in the Mermaid readathon post. This was one of the books on my mermaid readathon TBR list this year, but I just couldn’t get into it. I don’t remember how far I got into this book, maybe a chapter or two. One of my reading goals this year is to DNF more books because life is too short to be reading dull books.

You can purchase Merrow here

We Used to Live Here: A Novel by Marcus Kliewer ★★★/5
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

House horror must be a subgenre that I love because this is now my 4-5 horror book based around a house! We Used to Live Here had a very promising premise, I mean, how many of us have wanted to visit our childhood homes and wanted to go inside to see if everything is like you remember it? This isn’t the best house horror book I’ve read, but it’s not bad! Most of the story felt drawn out like it took too long to get anywhere, and I feel like I was left with more questions than answers.

You can purchase We Used to Live Here here

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib ★★★★★/5
In an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Abdurraqib’s is a voice that matters. Whether he’s attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown’s grave, or discussing public displays of affection at a Carly Rae Jepsen show, he writes with a poignancy and magnetism that resonates profoundly.

Trigger warning: mentions of suicide
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio, who writes about music, culture, and race. I had never heard of him before, but I’m so glad I found his work because he’s an amazing writer! The way he wrote and described certain songs and albums made me seek out said songs and albums. Unfortunately, his descriptions were way better than the music itself, at least to me. We may not have the same taste in music, but I loved his stories of how certain music meant to him. The Fall Out Boy essay may have made me cry.

This was his first easy collection, published in 2017. It was kind of difficult to read this in 2025, seeing the political events that are currently unfolding. I kept thinking about how Hanif must be doing now, given the state of the US and the rest of the world.

You can purchase They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us here

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen ★★/5
Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew–a reclusive, real-life gentle giant–she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Trigger warning: bullying, self-harm, mentions of suicide, teen pregnancy
This is only my second novel by Sarah Addison Allen, I loved Garden Spells! Sarah Addison Allen’s prose is very magical and dreamy, and she has a slightly witchy vibe. At the end of this book, there are a few pages dedicated to all the full moons of the year! So, why did I rate this one so low?

To put it simply, I didn’t like the story. I found it dull, predictable, and very Hallmarky. If it were any longer, I probably would’ve DNF it. The Girl Who Chased the Moon is split between two characters, Emily, who has just moved in with her grandfather in her mother’s hometown after her mother’s death. And Julia, who returns to the same hometown to bake cakes and help run her father’s restaurant. The two characters had a very similar story, so it was odd to have both of them. The only thing keeping them apart is their age gap, one is in their teens, the other was in their mid-30s. I thought, based on the description of the novel, Emily would be the main character, but Julia’s story seemed to be a bigger part of the story. They could’ve been mother and daughter, sisters, or even the same character, but with a time jump thrown in. Even their love interests were very similar!

The rest of the characters in the story and the town lacked depth. I feel like this should’ve been edited to revolve around one character and make one cohesive story instead of two similar stories. I like the idea of this story rather than the actual story.

You can purchase The Girl Who Chased the Moon here

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Vol. 02 by Tove Jansson ★★★★★/5
In the second volume of Tove Jansson’s humorous yet melancholic Moomin comic strip, we get four new stories about jealousy, competition, child rearing, and self-reinvention. The Moomins try to hibernate in the fashion of their ancestors but insomnia places them smack-dab into a winter carnival with the winter-sports-loving Mr. Brisk. The fickle and eternally lovestruck Mymble and Snorkmaiden find themselves in competition over a thrilling new man. Moominmamma meets her new neighbor, the Fillyjonk, causing her to hire the depressed and secretive Misabel as her new maid. Mymble’s mother arrives on the Moomin family’s doorstep with her seventeen new children. Finally, a prophet arrives on the scene declaring that the happy Moomins are in fact not happy at all and need to get back to nature and be free. Moomin, of course, becomes more and more miserable the freer he gets.

I ended the month of July by cozying up with the complete Moomin comic strip (volume 2). I received this book for Christmas and didn’t read it until now. This was my first introduction to the world of Moomin. I’ve seen various merchandise with the Moomin characters, but had never read a Moomin book until now! This collection of stories was cute, silly, sometimes odd, but also heartwarming. I loved how Tove Jansson wove together multiple stories into one story. There was even an Agatha Christie reference! lol

You can purchase Moomin: The Complete Strip Vol. 02 here

Have you read any of these books? What did you read in July?