Trevor

On 26 May 2011, the day after my birthday, my friend Mark took me to see The Avengers for my birthday. When I got home, I found out that my grandfather had passed away the previous day (my birthday). While we were out of town for the funeral, my grandmother was the ONLY ONE who even mentioned it. On the last day there, she pulled me aside into the guest bedroom where the bookshelf is and said, “I realized that Gene died on your birthday. Have they done anything for you?” I said no and she said, “I remember you loved this book as a kid when you would come here and read it the entire time you were here”. She held up the old copy of Strange But True. The book was very well used, and by me. I literally grew up reading this book, every time I would go to my grandparent's house as a kid. It's the book that got me into the paranormal. I hadn't seen it in over ten years, and I nearly cried when I saw it. She handed it to me and said, “I want you to have this”. After the Bible, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Misery by Stephen King, this is one of the most important books in my life, and if there was a higher rating than 5-star, I would give it that rating.

I've been a huge fan of Ashley's for years due to her podcasts, and know she's really good at storytelling. So when she announced she'd written a novel I was really excited! I figured it would be good, but it was even better than I was expecting! Also, the true crime inspiration is very obvious, but it actually makes it even better. It's not just a straight up copy and paste of the actual case that inspired it. It's like she started with the idea of the original case and tweaked it until it was an original story. And there are twists in here that leave you guessing until the very end!

I feel bad giving a Suzanne Collins book a 1 star review. But I honestly couldn't finish this one. I thought Snow would start off a decent person and stuff would happen to turn him into the awful person we know from the trilogy. But no, he starts off awful. It's hard to follow a lead you can't get behind.

I love that while this is a collection of stories about San Francisco, it's done in a way that it tells the story of San Francisco, from beginning to present. Therefore turning a series of unconnected stories into a connected narrative.

I first discovered this book in 1999 at my grandma's house. She lived outside of San Antonio and we'd visit every holiday and randomly throughout the year. Every time, I'd read from this book. It's the book that got me interested in the paranormal.

In March 2024, my grandmother gifted me the copy I read as a kid, and is probably the best gift I've ever been given.