Hello friends. Happy Monday for those of you not in the future. In the United States, today is Labor Day, so it’s been a three-day weekend for some people. It’s a three day weekend for me, so today is my final day at home before I go back to work. Today is also the 6th day of my chest hurting with no relief, and I haven’t been able to call my doctor to make an appointment so I’m hoping that I can somehow get through this time? We will see.

Thanks to Dini @ Dini Panda Reads, I’m adding Goodreads Monday to my weekly meme schedule, and I’m excited to do this one. This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it.

So I tried to do a random number generator like Dini does, but for some reason there are so many books with the same position number on my list, and I have no freaking idea how to fix it. So I really just chose something hella random while I was looking through my 85 pages of books on my Goodreads TBR list, and picked this book.

The Torres sisters dream of escape. Escape from their needy and despotic widowed father, and from their San Antonio neighborhood, full of old San Antonio families and all the traditions and expectations that go along with them. In the summer after her senior year of high school, Ana, the oldest sister, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, her three younger sisters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by their sister’s memory. Their dream of leaving Southtown now seems out of reach. But then strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. The sisters begin to wonder if Ana really is haunting them, trying to send them a message—and what exactly she’s trying to say.
 
In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award–longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story.

This was one of the books that I was able to get an audiobook copy of from Libro.fm and while I’m still trying to catch up on all of my copies from them, this is one that I really need to prioritize. There’s something about this story that really appealed to me, and I know that the cover pulled my attention from the beginning. I know, I know. We aren’t supposed to judge books by their cover, but I didn’t. I just wanted to read it because the cover appealed to me visually.

That’s why so much money goes into cover art.

Also, I think I was really sad to see that the oldest sister ended up dying because she fell from her bedroom window, something that for some reason has been one of my fears for a long time now. It’s odd, but every time I look out a window on the second floor or higher, that’s all I can see. And I couldn’t imagine losing a loved one that way. Having three sisters learn how to deal with that grief in addition to the loss of their mother before the start of this book sounds like a story that will be heartbreaking, emotional, and somehow one that may show why it’s so important to stick together even when there are dreams of escape from this life.

This book is still fairly new, and I haven’t seen most of my Goodreads friends have this as “read” on their list. Maybe one person I know so far? I’m curious to see if anyone else has had a chance to read this yet, and what you thought about it. Feel free to let me know in the comments.

As always, stay thirsty friends.