ICaptureTheCastle

Liann Zhang Julie Chan is Dead a Novel. Book cover image of 17 blonde white women with pink phones, eyes closed. In the third row in the middle, an Asian women holds up her white phone as if taking a photo and her eyes and eyebrows show through the phone.

Julie Chan is Dead

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JULIE CHAN IS DEAD rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. The grass is always greener on the richer side–or so retail worker Julie Chan supposes in the psychological thriller JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang (Simon & Schuster, April 29, 2025). Identical twins Julie and Chloe were orphaned and adopted by different families and separated at […]

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Text says: "The Madstone a Novel Elizabeth Cook Author of The Which Way Tree." Cover image shows a woman on horseback with two children on horseback, a boy and a girl. They are on a dirt road that stretches into the foreground with trees on other side. In the background is a huge sky with a sunset. The cover blurb says, "'The Madstone is a treasure: a brilliant, beautiful page-turner . . . Both a poignant love story and a riveting road novel–I devoured it.'–Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Double Bind."

The Madstone

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THE MADSTONE rating: 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. I’ve fallen for another western: THE MADSTONE by Elizabeth Crook (Little, Brown and Company/Hachette, November 7, 2023). The madstone of the novel’s title is not just a talisman with reputed healing power: it is a symbol of found family, a mother’s determination to protect her children at all costs,

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