Jess

I thought this was fun for what it was. The plot was pretty formulaic but that’s ok, I’m pretty sure that may have been part of the point. It did lack the 80’s slasher movie nostalgia that I was looking for, though, in fairness, it did mention a few of them in passing and the tropes were all there.

Just like any slasher movie I found the plot pretty predictable but I didn’t mind, it was still entertaining to see how the story unfolded for our doomed characters. I did think that E.L. Chen took the story a smidge too seriously though. I would have preferred a little more campiness over the buckets of melodrama, but that’s just my preference.

Like I said, for what it was I was certainly invested and happily went along for the ride. It’s a nice piece of escapism for slasher story fans and I call that a win.

This is a hard one to rate. I can’t say I enjoyed it per se, but it was mostly a well done story. Maggie Thrash absolutely knows how to evoke emotions through her prose, though they’re mostly of the negative variation. She doesn’t shy away from any topic; from pedophilia to homophobia to therapeutic manipulation to drug addiction. It’s not a light, feel good read to say the least. You’ll feel angry, hopeless, frustrated and everything in between. Most every character is awful (adults and kids alike) with almost all operating with a personal agenda.

I was hoping for a bit more of the Satanic Panic aspect in the story but it’s only really a minor part of it and only in the first half. Which brings me to the second half. The story kind of falls apart for me there. The main character, Lacey/Jo, is understandably angsty but reading paragraph after paragraph of her fatalistic views for 200 pages felt pretty unnecessary. I don’t think the second half was needed at all actually. I’m not sure we needed a full ending to her story, to see her in her adulthood.

I’d still recommend it for the first half alone, but this is a novel of trigger warnings so be warned, I suppose.

I am one of the outliers that really did not care for this book. Maybe it was a victim of its hype. Maybe I couldn’t not compare it to other books of the genre I’ve recently read. Maybe I just simply expected too much. Though I am a woman who cuts her own hair so maybe take my judgement with a grain of salt or two.

I found the writing to be a little bit juvenile unfortunately. It read like a cozy horror (is that a thing?) a lot like a YA novel to me, which is not bad necessarily, it’s just not my thing. From beginning to end I felt no tension nor did I at any time feel the littlest inkling of even being unsettled. And as soon as those insanely convoluted, meticulously timed rules were introduced I knew exactly what was going to happen and any hope of that tension shriveled up and died.

I found Macy and Jemma to be throughly unlikable as well. They were written as what someone thought cool girls would be like but they just came off as ‘not-like-other-girls’, overly judgmental and immature. Complete with death metal. (And yes, I recognize the bit of irony in judging someone for being judgmental). I ended up rooting for the entity which was great since I actually had something to root for!

Anyway, wouldn’t recommend. Read anything else.

I am wholly amazed and impressed that a man wrote this. I’d probably be one of the first women to say it would be impossible for a man to be able to realistically, honestly and sympathetically portray a relatable woman going through menopause. And yet, Nat Cassidy did just that.

Yes, there’s misogyny. Yes, there’s a serial murderer of women. But I think if that’s what a reader is focusing on, they’re missing the point. This story is about women going through “the change”; about wanting to be seen, to be heard, to feel useful, to be wanted in any and/or every sense of the word. And I’m not ashamed to say that I’m happy that a man could see it and portray it an empowering way. For me, there was a definite beauty under all the violence, blood and depravity.

As for the story itself, I was utterly engrossed from beginning to end. I could relate to Mary and I found her to be sympathetic even when I knew she wasn’t exactly….normal. It admittedly did get a little jumbled for me toward the end but then redeemed itself with a very satisfying finale, in my opinion.

Obviously, I loved it. I know others don’t agree and that’s ok. But it put a smile on my face, oddly enough, which doesn’t happen as much as it should.

I’m a big fan of Stephen Graham Jones and I can’t resist a good revenge story nor a tortured soul. I was pleasantly surprised in his use of language in this one. It took a little getting used to as it was colloquially accurate of late 1800s to early 1900s American/Native English. But I think that only served to make the story more atmospheric and authentic, to draw the reader further in.

Both Good Stab and Arthur Beaucarne, or Three-Persons, have such strong and distinct voices that I actually found myself sympathizing with both of them, even thought they are heavily, heavily flawed characters. And I like how their own perceptions impacted the tone and unfolding of their particular timeline.

That being said I did find some of the violence and gore to be a tad over the top and repetitive, gratuitous if you will. I appreciate that some of it was absolutely necessary for the story but to have basically the same thing happen over again got to be a bit much for me, and I’m not a squeamish person at all.

Also, the whole Etsy character was a mystery for me. Her entire presence felt like using soup nuts as buns for a big juicy double hamburger; ineffective, confusing, forgettable and ultimately useless. Which is a shame because Jones usually writes women so well.

I still think it’s worth reading even with its flaws. A good story is still a good story after all.

This book started out beautifully. Set in the frontier of the Pacific Northwest it follows a man and his nephew as he tracks a giant salamander to exact revenge for the death of his best friend as well as bring him back to life. This salamander seems to make all those who see it mad, driving many to suicide or fanaticism.

The book began with a dream-like quality, falling somewhere between magical-realism and fantasy. But it also had the added feeling of the grittiness of the early days of the settling of the west. Unfortunately, about halfway through the novel all that dreaminess abruptly fell away which left me feeling disappointed and confused. The salamander itself became a background character and the story turned into one I felt I had read a thousand times before.

Even with that sudden change I did like the book enough to carry on and finish it. And there were interesting philosophical points about life and death and religion made throughout. So I think it was a good effort for a debut novel and I’d be willing to read another by this author.