Lori

This sounded like a fun book so I thought why not. For the first quarter of the book, I genuinely forgot this book was supposed to contain terror as the name suggests. I was reading through this as a nice little cozy coffee shop book. The horror never really builds up, but it does have mostly non-graphic deaths in the book.

The first half of the book was a good build-up of the shop and characters. I didn’t like that the main character stays with the Finance Bro for so long but I did like that the MC learned more about the male lead before their romance starts. This was less romance and horror than I was expecting based on the description. There is also not much discussion about how the “killer(s)” chose victims and why it went on for so long.

I can’t help but like this book. It’s a nice cozy chosen family kind of book and just what I needed.

After reading The Haunting of Hill House I couldn’t stop thinking of the style of writing. It's slightly joking and darkly human. I loved the book so when I saw this one, I had to try it. Almost all of the stories in this collection are good but there are few standouts to me.

• Funeral Birds by M. Rickert
• For Sale by Owner by Elizabeth Hand
• In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There by Seanan McGuire
• Money of the Dead by Karen Heuler
• Hag by Benjamin Percy
• Skinder's Veil by Kelly Link

The four bolded stories are my favourites of the standouts. Even if you aren’t interested in Jackson’s style these are worth the read. I am a little overloaded with book holds but when I am free again, I will definitely make the effort to find books by authors in this book.

This was an odd book, and I don’t quite know what to think of it. There were parts that were great in either energy or storytelling and other parts that were dragging and distortedly written. I don’t have too much experience with Straub’s works, only Ghost Story, which gave me a high expectation for this collaboration.

And collaborated they did as you can’t tell who wrote what part and with only some classic King style in there that’s all his own. This book blended great in some parts that made this feel like an effort of great companionship by both authors. On the other hand, the parts where it doesn’t blend so well are what make this book feel off.

The whole story built up a magical other world that we don’t get to see enough of. We spend so much time on the Real/regular world with the main character getting stopped at numerous pits of despair. I just want the story to go on. The book was part childhood loss and random torture. Some trials the main character/hero is put through were unnecessarily long. Other characters like Wolf and Richard could be a little annoying and only added to the trials of the MC.

All this is not to say this is a completely bad book. Although I maybe a sucker for King’s works since I have loved so much of his other novels. The feel of the book is part fairy tale but mostly dark fantasy and dark it does well. The evil and just mean for fun characters were done well and parts of the trials were good to read. It just should have been shorter and worked more with the magic of the Territories.

I am hoping that the next book fixes some of these issues as that would turn this into a great collaboration.

I greatly enjoyed “I am Legend and other stories” and have been wanting to read more of Matheson’s works. This book was a good way to satisfy. There are some repeat stories in this one, but they are ones that I enjoyed reading again. Repeats I liked: Dress of White Silk, Dance of the Dead, and Prey.

Matheson is incredible at building short stories and many in this book prove that like Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Blood Son, Long Distance Call, The Distributor, and Crickets. The build-up of something normal to something terrifying is something I love about all these stories. The two bolded stories are my favourites of the new stories I read. These two were to me the most intense that I could not put the book down until I finished them.

These are older stories and are dated in their views at times but not so much as to make you dislike the book. There are two exceptions to that The Likeness of Julie and The Children of Noah. For the children's story if they didn’t say the People are “bad” because of an indigenous mother it would have been a good story. Julie on the other hand was just awful. Rape and the victim bringing it upon herself should not be a plot point.

This is a good children’s book that is still enjoyable to read as an adult. It is dark (but not too dark) for a kid’s book and that is what makes it good. Kids don’t always need to read books that shoot rainbows at them. The dark material would have captivated me as a kid.

I had watched the film before reading the book, so I have Keith David’s voice in mind whenever the Cat talks. Which I am 100% ok with as I love David’s voice acting. I did constantly compare the book to the film even when I tried not to. If I had read the book first, I wild have like it more, but I enjoy the film too much. The film is a good companion that gets the feeling of being a child and wanting to explore that the book does well.

I am quick to judge a book by its cover and by what I have heard about it in passing. I thought this would be a social commentary discussion and would be closer to an autobiography. I was quite wrong and happy that I was.

The story was great, and the writing was perfect for it. I loved that we had only the view of the white author as it added to the delusions of this person. THIS WOMAN! The main character is just a terrible person, and I enjoyed every moment of her terribleness. This perspective we get is well done and I liked how through this point of view we can see her justify each action to herself. The ending could rival a horror story.

Commentary on social issues brought up through out the book but not fully discussed. Which makes sense considering the point of view this story is in. I liked that the author left the questions like who can write about what in our hands. I don’t always like when points are told and repeated. This book perfectly shows us these issues and lets us make the connections. It made the book refreshing.

It was a good cozy book, but I kept waiting on the murder part of the Christmas Cake Murder. This popped up as a good seasonal read but this might have been a bad book to start with. As I heard (after reading) that this book was a story that was taking place before the main series and was a good look into the characters. Maybe I will pick up another book in the series sometimes.

I didn’t mind this book, but I didn’t quite care for it either. The formatting of the story started to get confusing and annoying as I went along. There were good parts and a few that made me chuckle but then main points the author is making are stated but not worked on.

I felt there could have been a little more to this book. By leaning more towards satire or by expanding on the social themes brought up this book could have been more focused.

The author tends to repeat issues too much in the book and the courtroom scene just put me off. Still, it’s not a bad read and not very long.

I am happy that I read this book. After reading the first one in the series I wasn’t sure about continuing, but this book is worth it.

This book is closer to what I thought the first one would be. I enjoyed the story and the kills as I read. I did find that we got introduced to a lot of characters which is fine but sometimes we spent too much time on a few that didn’t matter. Not that I don’t like world building, but some (not all) character views didn’t add anything to the story, world, or deaths. I liked that the body count starts from the beginning of the book and kept up throughout the rest of the book like a true slasher.

If someone wanted to read this book without reading the first, you could get through it with little questions. The author does explain enough of the first story to get you though, but you do miss a little relationship/character building, and I think that it’s something that made this story greater.

A few issues I have with the book are:

The twin sister switches are confusing. Nobody seems to have as many issues as possible with the janitor recording students in the high school or the teacher student relationship that is implied. It is also a little weird that in this book everyone starts quoting slashers except for Jennifer/Jade. The spirit elk did not seem to have much of a purpose in most of the story. Although I did like the spirit elk ending. I did find it weird that the book description mentions Jade getting out of jail when nothing was mentioned in the last book. I would rather they left that out for you to find out when you read.

All this is not to say I didn’t like the book. I enjoyed reading though it and would recommend others to check it out if they can. I can’t wait until I get a hold of the next one.

The mistake I have made many times is reading a book based on its cover and I have done that again here. I 100% thought this was a horror novel. Its not and that’s on me. I ended up getting into parts of the book, but this is just not one I would have read if I actually paid attention to the description.

I couldn’t help but think the author became a bit obsessive over someone that shares the same first name as her. It seemed like this book was almost an autobiography of the other Naomi. The whole book leaned toward American politics, so it felt like I wasn’t the desired audience for this.

The author would jump from thought to thought that as I listened (Audiobook) I genuinely forgot what they were talking about that brought us to here. There is a bit of repetition though out the book and despite this I can’t really tell someone what I read.

Maybe this book would be good for someone else.

This book was good. It’s as simple as that. I read another horror anthology last year by BIPOC authors but found the stories to not be that horror focused and was worried this would be a repeat. I am so happy I read this! I enjoyed most of the stories but the ones I genuinely enjoyed and kept thinking about was:

• Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller
• White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Tick Talk by Cherie Dimaline
• Snakes Are Born in the Dark by D. H. Trujillo
• Before I Go by Norris Black
• Behind Colin’s Eyes by Shane Hawk
• Scariest. Story. Ever. by Richard Van Camp
• The Longest Street in the World by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
• The Prepper by Morgan Talty
• Sundays by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
• Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala
• Limbs by Waubgeshig Rice

This is not to say the rest are not worth reading. There are some great standouts in this collection that made me search for and place holds on these authors other books. Mostly from the stories above but also from other stories in the book. Other authors I look at were Marcie R. Rendon, Nick Medina, Tiffany Morris, and Mona Susan Power.

Most of the stories are actually horror focused but there are a few that focus more on the trauma of Indigenous people which in a way is a horror story. If you have already read this then you will notice that most of the stories, I liked above have a little body horror in it but that is not what makes them so good. There is an atmosphere to these stories that just embodies dark and dangerous.

I would recommend this book to others, and it will definitely be a re-read for me.

Is this the best romance you will read? No. Is this a scathing satire ripping apart the whole genre? No. Will this be a fun read? Yes.

This was so fun to read. Its not a deep or inspiring romance novel. It’s for people who love to watch and make fun of hallmark films. Cheesy romances are my guilty pleasure, from the bad acting, over the top plots, to the questionable choices. This book is all of that in book form.

The choices are funny and some choices I just wanted to see where they went, and it was worth it. I laughed, snickered, and just enjoyed myself while reading.

My Favorite quote: “Without you, I am like a piece of generic Scotch tape and two pieces of literally anything: Barely holding it together.”

I was just looking for a book that features a POC that experiences joy and not trauma for a reading challenge. I was recommended this book. Over all it is nicely drawn and was interesting to read but found that I didn’t agree with how somethings were treated.

One character has depression and is told not to take their medication by their friend who was earlier shown smoking. Then her depression is glossed over. Another character has someone interested in her but she brushes them off like not right now but then hooks up with someone famous just because. One girl has a stalker that shows up at her show then leaves once confronted by her friends and it’s left at that.

The book leaves so much unfinished. I can understand that this is supposed to be just a glimpse in the life but each storyline brought up to much issues and left it there. The stories didn’t feel in tone with what I thought was the vibe of the book.

This is not what I thought it would be. When I read the description I thought it would be a great slasher novel. Its not quite that. It was more of a rambling narrator for most of the book before a body count finally starts to build.

At first this book opened well with great atmosphere and felt like it was building up to the start of a good slashing novel. I like the main character at first but then it just went on. You get to hear her internal monolog about her encyclopedic knowledge of slasher flics. This was interesting at first but it never stopped. Not much happened in the story during this. As you trudge on you start to get annoyed with her. Just get on with the slashing.

There is mention of trauma and the story focuses mainly on the main characters terrible home life and its affect on her mental well being. This when on for so long that I thought the book was just going to stay that this was all in her head and she’s actually really messed up and needs help. Which the book sort of did.

Finally we get to the horror/slashing stage at about the last third of the book. As the body count builds up there is more questions of who is doing this and how are they doing it. Its not worth finding out. It was actually a little disappointing but I won’t ruin this for every one else. The major trauma event in the main characters life is finally laid out and she gets a sort of revenge.

This book didn’t really seem to address anything. It just wasn’t enough for me. I kept wanting more from the each part of the book. But this is not to say it’s an absolutely terrible book. The writing style is good and easily sucks you in. There are parts of the book with actual horror elements and the author nails these sections. It felt like it could have been a better book and that the author had the ability to do it.

I did place a hold on the next book of this series. I am not ready to give up on this. I might hate myself later but I hope it will work out.

This is a romance book with out romance. The two leads develop a good friendship but not really a relationship. The was no build up to the romance. They are friends up to the point they kiss then they are just sort of together. Then parents as the secondary romance plot wasn’t great either since the focus was split. Both couples felt rushed and are together just because.

The women are too excited to be step siblings which just felt weird. Then they give up easily and somehow the last, last attempt just works out.

The friendship of the main leads was nice but I wish there was more longing, tension, or something else besides platonic friendship between the two. I wouldn’t know they are interested in each other with out the author just telling me they are.