Lia Anshar's Honest Pages

  Title:  The Strange House (Manga) Vol. 1 by Uketsu, Kyo Ayano (Illustrator) Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Horror Published: August 6, 2024 Rating: 5.0 ⭐ Blurb: Based on the hit novel, this series follows a chilling mystery about a house designed for murder—which is now a live-action movie! I’ve always had a fascination with the occult; you might even call it my specialty. I’ve been brought in as a consultant on many supernatural and strange mysteries. But nothing could have prepared me for this house. It seemed so ordinary at first, except for that one room. It had no doors, no windows, and was tucked away, leaving anyone to think it was just a wall. I knew that there was something more to it. It shouldn’t be there, it shouldn’t exist, and yet… Just what is this house, and what dark secrets does it hold? This is the manga adaptation of Uketsu's novel, Strange Houses. As far as I know, the manga has 7 volumes. In Volume 1, the story focuses on the first strange house case, with n...

  Title: Laplace's Witch by Keigo Higashino Genre: Mystery, Japanese Literature Published: October 13, 2026 Rating: 4.0 ⭐ Thank you to Avocado House and NetGalley for this gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review. I didn’t expect this book to be so science-heavy! It’s built around Laplace’s Demon theory by Pierre-Simon de Laplace: if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every particle in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed and can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics. In other words, the person can predict the future in a scientific way. So, basically, this is what this book is about. The story starts with a body found in a hot-spring town, dead from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Geochemist Shusuke Aoe gets called in to look into it. Everyone writes it off as an accident, but something just doesn’t sit right. While he’s there, he meets a young woman looking for her missing friend, and she calls he...

  Title: The Murder Party by Cindy R.X. He Genre: YA Mystery, Thriller Published: October 13, 2026 Rating: 4.5 ⭐ Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Colored Pages Book Tours for allowing me to be part of this book tour.  After her older sister, Lily, is killed at a secret party that connects to a Murder Club that Lily was in, June isn't convinced it was just an accident. The police close the case, and the school shuts down the club, but June still has too many questions about her sister's death. Determined to find out what really happened, she starts digging into the lives of its members. And when she discovers secrets the club members would rather keep hidden, she decides to bring the Murder Club back. Only this time, she's playing to catch a killer.  I really liked the Murder Club concept! It's such an interesting setup for a murder mystery, and I loved how June used the games as part of her investigation. The mystery was definitely my favorite part. There were so many ...

  Title: Sincerely, Your Murderer by Ravena Guron Genre: YA Mystery, Thriller Published: October 13, 2026 Rating: 4.5 ⭐ Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Colored Pages Book Tours for allowing me to be part of this book tour. Kay is seventeen when she leaves her hometown behind after her friend Ivy passes away. When her parents go on holiday without her, she suddenly has to move back in with her cousin. Her homecoming doesn’t go smoothly at all, though. The very first thing she finds waiting on her bed is a strange, anonymous letter. It lays out a scary countdown. Something bad will happen each day, from Tuesday to Monday. Now Kay has just one week to work out who’s threatening her before time runs out. I honestly didn’t have big expectations when I picked this book up, but I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, and I found myself getting more and more invested the further I read. It quite reminded me of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder with its small-town atmosphere and fe...

  Title: Confessions by Kanae Minato Genre: Psychological Thriller Published: August 19, 2014 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) Synopsis: Her pupils killed her daughter. Now, she will have her revenge. After calling off her engagement in wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge. Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions explores the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way aga...

  Genre: Horror, Mystery, YA Fiction Published: June 28, 2026 by The Book Guild Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) Set in 1952, the Winston family are all back at Timerton Rectory for great-aunt Geraldine’s funeral and will reading. For widower Professor Winston and his two daughters Margaret and Clara, this place is full of hard memories. They’re still hurting from losing their mum and grandparents in the Blitz. The girls are curious kids craving a bit of adventure, and things get interesting when they find out Geraldine had a twin sister who vanished without a trace years ago. Then weird things start happening, there’s a ghostly presence hanging around, and they get pulled into all kinds of old secrets. They dig up clues linking to mysteries that have been swept under the rug for generations. First off, the setting is great, so dark and spooky; it really feels like Timerton is hiding something the whole time. I was hooked right from the start, wanting to know what really went on there. The chara...

  Genre: Mystery, Thriller Published: March 30, 2026 by Ellery Kane Publishing Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) In 1997, Sweetbriar High’s seniors buried a time capsule at graduation. That same night, their homecoming queen, Blair Lennox, vanished without a single trace. Fast forward to now, and Juniper Pickett is driving all the way from San Francisco straight back to that tiny town. She left her career as a psychologist and a whole mess of trouble behind her. The time capsule is getting dug up tomorrow, and if that happens, her worst secret is out for everyone to see, and she can't let that happen. I was hooked the second I read the premise: a time capsule reveal turns into unearthing a cold case; it sounded promising! I spent the whole book leaning forward like “what is she hiding? Did she actually do it??” I love the small town vibe here. Thrillers hit different when everyone knows everyone’s business, and also everyone’s hiding something. Kane captures the essence of a close-knit community ...

  Genre:  Middle Grade, Mystery Publishing date:  July 28, 2026 Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  IndieBound Synopsis: An eerie middle grade mystery debut that follows a young girl who returns home to find the people of her little town, including her best friend, chillingly changed after the arrival of the prim and proper Gingham family. “A rip-roaring adventure, but more importantly, a kids’ power ballad to the importance of being yourself.” —New York Times-bestselling author Gordon Korman When 12-year-old Joni Bird returns home from summer camp, it’s clear something strange is afoot in Olive Springs. May, her usually head-banging best friend, now wears her hair in a tight bun and calls playing the drums “unladylike.” The ice cream shop only serves vanilla ice cream. The women and girls of the neighborhood all sport big pearl earrings and crisp cotton dresses. At the heart of it all? The creepy new family in the neighborhood wi...

  Genre:  Mystery, Psychological Thriller Published:  July 21, 2026 Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) "He never left my side. Not in jail. Not during my first chemo or surgery. Not during long nights when the pain felt endless."  At 4 AM, Nicole gets the news that her daughter Lacey was found barely alive in the woods, covered in blood, next to her friend’s husband who’d been stabbed 44 times. And ever since that night, Lacey hasn’t said a single word. Not to cops, not to her husband, not even to her own mother.  Now Lacey’s locked up, her three children are stuck with an unreliable father, but Nicole knows her daughter. She’s no killer. That silence isn’t guilt; it’s pure fear. Whatever went down in those woods scared her more than prison ever could. So Nicole starts digging and quickly learns some secrets that destroy everything. If you’re only here for a straight-up "whodunit", this might surprise you. The mystery bits are totally addictive, creepy, and page-turning,...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) "Feeling his words like something tightening around me, I take a deep breath. 'I haven’t killed her yet.'" What would you do if you couldn’t stop thinking about killing someone? That’s exactly what Jemma Stelling is dealing with in The Opposite of Murder. She’s so scared she might actually kill her stepmother, Marianne, that she does something totally unexpected: she walks into a police station and confesses, "before" she ever does anything. She plans that if her dark thoughts are officially on record, she’ll never go through with it because she’d get caught right away. But things get wild fast: while she’s still talking to the cops, Marianne is found dead, stabbed exactly the way Jemma described. Now Jemma has a perfect alibi, but she knows way too much about the crime. Is she an innocent woman trying to do the right thing, or a mastermind who planned every detail? It’s such a clever idea that immediately pulls you in, though this isn’t...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) "There is no possible way you could know the truth. There’s no way you could ever guess that the killer is actually Steve. Wait. Oh, crap." Alice's husband, Grant, is dead. She's literally standing at her husband’s funeral, watching his casket being lowered into the ground. So, why does she keep seeing his face everywhere she goes? What exactly was Grant hiding, and is he really as gone as everyone believes? This is the most absurd thriller I have ever read, and I loved every second of it! Freida McFadden doesn’t follow the usual thriller formula here. Yes, this book is packed with plot twists, but not the kind you expect from thriller books. Instead, the surprises come with a sharp, satirical edge. You’ll find yourself pausing and thinking, “Wait, is this actually happening?” It keeps you off-balance in the best way possible. And here’s the thing, I’ve heard of musicians writing songs for their haters, and I honestly feel like this author wrote...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5) "‘It’s not true!’ I say again. It may not be completely true, but it is a little true." Just One Bite by Miranda Rijks is a story about celebrity chef Brittany Cole who seems to have the perfect life: fame, success, and a lovely family. But everything falls apart when a clip of her shouting at her four‑year‑old goes viral. Before long, more “proof” surfaces showing her mistreating her daughter, and #bitchmom is everywhere. Brittany knows those videos aren’t real at all. Then someone close to her gets murdered, she suddenly has to navigate tough questions from the police.  Even though I hadn't read Miranda Rijks' books before, I realized she's a famous thriller author, so I was excited when I got the ARC. Maybe I got my expectations too high, but this book didn't impress me.  First, I think the story is dragging on too much because of the deepfake videos. I think it would be much better if the author played with this more and made the reader...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) “'You see,' he went on, 'I have something to discuss with you – something that may seem… well, it may seem like fate.'" The Clock House Murder by Yukito Ayatsuji is set in the eerie, isolated Clock House, packed full of rare and valuable clocks from all over the globe. Locals say it’s haunted by the ghost of a young girl who died there, so a group of ghost hunters decides to visit it. But their investigation takes a deadly turn almost immediately when one of them is killed and they’re trapped inside with a murderer on the loose. As the body count rises one by one, it’s up to Detective Shimada Kiyoshi to untangle the secrets of the house before everyone meets the same fate. When the cover says "the classic Japanese locked room mystery", I thought it would just have the same theme or same vibe, but it turned out to be exactly that kind of story. I spent my childhood watching Detective Conan, and that was exactly how every episode was go...