Lori

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 just did not like reading this. I had heard this would be a good messed-up book, but it focused more on grossness.

The main plot line which all the short stories are told through was interesting at first, but I stopped caring what happened to these characters as time went on. Most of the short stories were disappointing as well. I did like a few: Slumming, Swan Song, and Dog Years. The rest of the stories I just sat through waiting for the next good one.

What was good about this book was not enough to carry me through the rest of it. This is one I wish I didn't finish.

I can’t stop thinking about this book. I had read Ender's Game in high school and enjoyed it ever since. Now I needed a book starting with an X for a challenge and will read Xenocide after this. Although I picked this up just to get to the next book in the series, I am happy I did.

It is beyond different from Ender's Game (which I still enjoy). This one was more mature, deeper, and thought-provoking. The story took me in, and I could not put it down. The discussion of how we study other societies and the “Piggys” as a people was engaging.

The stories of the Piggys and the people researching them were captivating and emotional. I almost felt like crying as the Piggys understood what happened with Pipo and Libo. Human (a Piggy) was such a great character!

This is a must-read for anyone.

What a weird story, I loved it.

The book gripped me from start to finish. The way it's written as if someone is telling the story of the main characters life fits this odd story. It is both very detailed about the making of perfumes and engaging in the character’s views. Each part felt necessary to the whole of the story as it built up. The main character's ability is almost God like and reading about the reckoning of others that use/fight against him brought up questions of divine nature/work.

The ending is certainly odd but still enjoyable. That’s really how I felt about the whole book. I would recommend this book to others but not everyone. I think it's a little bit of an unserious book.

It's worth a read and the film is pretty good as well.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of this book as it was all over the place. It started off well enough as we were introduced to all the characters, but this constant flipping narrative got annoying as the book went on. Often, I had to stop my audio book and go back because I could not tell who was narrating now. This clouded the story then at times we got too many perspectives on what happened that over expanded a scene.

There were just little things that that added up to make me not like this book. Forced romance subplot, too many perspectives, characters that just happened to know someone or something that helps, and a haphazard ending.

After each “twist” I just though why bother with all of this? The ending really makes me question why this was marked as a mystery novel. The mystery is barely a part of the plot as we learn about so many characters but never get to fully get into any of them.

If the book wasn’t going to focus on mystery, then it should have been better with its characters. I am not going to continue with this series.

If you don't take this book too seriously this is a fun read. It was a bit goofy and Vera's constant inserting of herself into things that are none of her business. Was at times chuckle-worthy.

On the other hand, if you want a good mystery and character development this is not for you. Vera does everything she can to hinder the murder investigation while interrogating innocent people. Telling them directly that they are a suspect. Vera was written as if she was ancient through all of her scenes and I forgot how young she actually is.

The side characters all have their own issues that seem to be solved too simplistically by Vera's motherly advice or more like forceful intrusion into their personal lives. There is a romance in the background with two of the suspects who felt unpleasant due to all the lies they told, not just to the group but to each other. Then you have a toddler who talks about inflation in a really off-putting moment.

It kind of bothered me that the suspects are only suspects because they did something petty and felt bad about it.

I read this in a pretty upbeat mood, and I did end up enjoying Vera's meddlesome ways. There is a second story coming soon that I would like to read.

I saw that this book was available on Libby to borrow and though it would be an interesting read. This does contain spoilers for some of King's major works.

Throughout the book, there are sections by other contributors that were great to read as it wasn't all one opinion. Some of the contributors were able to clearly communicate and emphasize their points. That said I found some sections repeated ideas and only some of King's works were mentioned. As you read through each section some books show up in multiple areas and it's a little annoying when I know there are other examples they could have pulled from.

I did enjoy this book as a reflection of all the work and mastery that goes into King's works.

I was excited to read this as who wouldn't want to step into the world of their favorite rom-com story? It opened well with great cozy vibes but went down from there. I liked the idea of this character pointing out the flaws of classic rom-coms and trying to make the lives of characters from her favourite books better.

Nothing much happened with her "help" and she ended up making some dumb decisions as well. The romance for her was so, so, so bad. No build up just, bam! They are super into each other. Then there was THAT ending. It was horrible! I thought for a book that brought up not accepting bad character decisions that this book would try its best not to fall into any pits. Well, the ending didn't fall but jumped head-first into one. One that no one can come back from.

To save yourself, the ending had the male lead ditch the female to be with a character that looked like his deceased partner. Then he later shows up like my bad never mind.

This was not worth it and there was not enough to redeem it.

After reading Speaker for the Dead, I thought this book would be just as captivating. It was not. It just went on for too long and over analyzed everything. I just kept waiting for the point in the book where it would take me in. The story was pulled in so many different directions that each part wasn’t given the attention it deserved. Interesting ethical debates are still apart of this book but it not enough.

Characters I had cared about before, I didn’t fee that same connection with. The emotional pull of the previous book was missing from this one. Most were unlikable and I don’t feel like that was intentional. Bad characters with no emotional gravity are what hurt the 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.

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.