Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm sharing my second update for the r/Fantasy 2026 Book Bingo Challenge. The challenge officially started on April 1st, 2026 and it will run through March 31st, 2027. I'm hoping to complete the full board of 25 squares for the challenge. In July, I read 4 books for a total of 6 read out of 25 books on my original tbr. Keep reading to see the books I've read so far for this challenge:
8. Vacation Spot - Story takes place somewhere you’d want to visit (either fictional or non-fictional). This is subjective, as everyone has different tastes. A cozy cottage at the edge of the sea, a mansion in the fantasy Alps, a cruise ship in the stars - anything can count, as long as you think you would enjoy visiting this world. HARD MODE: No hard mode. You deserve a break.
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With Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister, I think I was hoping for something more like a horror take on Fallout than this. The summary sounded great and it certainly had its moments here and there, but otherwise I preferred the idea of the story to what we got. My favorite thing about this was the setting and the atmosphere. I wouldn't mind trying more from this author in the future though since there was quite a bit of potential.
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House of Secrets (House of Shadows #2) by Darcy Coates is the second half of a gothic horror duology from a favorite author. I definitely preferred this finale to the first half. It really takes off and doesn't let up. I feel like I really flew through it!
My review is also on Goodreads, The StoryGraph, and my Summer of Horror 2026 - Sunday Funday: July Week 3 Update post.
4. Small Press or Self Published - Read a book published by a small press (NOT a Big 5 publisher or Bloomsbury) or self-published. If a formerly self-published book gets picked up by a publisher, you can only count it for this square if you read it before it was traditionally published. HARD MODE: The book has under 100 ratings on Goodreads OR is by an author from a marginalized group.
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Head Cleaner by David James Keaton is a novel that sounded like it could be a lot of fun and right up my alley. Unfortunately, it was more irritating than anything else. I love movies, but I wasn't looking for a book where the first 50 pages were primarily movie references. Some stories have made that work, but this isn't one of them. I wasn't interested in sticking around for another 350 pages.
My review is also on Goodreads, The StoryGraph, and my Summer of Horror 2026 - Sunday Funday: July Week 3 Update post.
22. Feast Your Eyes on This - Food or a meal is significant to the story’s plot. HARD MODE: Attempt making a dish from the story for yourself. We understand faithful replication may be impossible for any number of reasons (the ingredients may be fictional, unobtainable, or too expensive). Just get as close as you reasonably can.
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Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran is a book I was really looking forward to and while some elements really worked for me, others didn't. The atmosphere and setting are great and are probably the strongest part of the story for me, and I liked the writing style of the author as well. As for the characters, it was bit tough to keep track of the who's who and some of them were a little too irritating to get fully invested in them. It's not bad, but I also wish the plot of the novel was tighter. All that said, I wouldn't mind seeing what this author does in the future.
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