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’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.
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.
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.
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've strayed a little from my love sci-fi lately and figured I'd give Adrian Tchaikovsky a try since he always gets great reviews. And boy he did not disappoint.
This book was so close to perfect in every aspect from characters to plot to pacing to language that I had to read it slowly because I didn't want it to end. It's bleak but not too bleak, uses just enough levity to make the characters relatable, doesn't overly rely on action, science or tech-speak to carry the plot. And it is probably one or the most original, in depth, accessible and interesting birth of a planetary species I've yet read (I've always loved jumping spiders so that may just be a bias...)
I absolutely get what the fuss over Adrian Tchaikovsky is all about now. I'm definitely on the bandwagon and I'll follow him anywhere he wants to take me.
Saying Lillian is despicable is an understatement. She's selfish. She's intensely delusional about everything. She's the self proclaimed main character in everyone else's biography. She's sloppily impulsive in all the worst ways, usually with the help of a few bottles of wine. She's the personification of the devil on your shoulder with raging narcissism and zero self awareness.
And I enjoyed the hell out of just about every second of her journey. I really do love a book that can make me feel incredibly well adjusted.
I'm currently under the influence of cough medicine so I hope this makes sense 😅
I thought for sure I was going to absolutely love this book. I mean cannibalism? yes please, “bacchanalian madness”? tell me more, creepy saints? let's do this. But somehow Caitlin Starling managed to turn all of that lovely potential into a jumbled, almost nonsensical, mess.
It seems to me that this book had a problem with telling rather than showing in its relating of events as I never really could empathize or relate to any of the characters. At times I felt like I must have missed some back story or prior explanation somehow because the author didn't seem to much care for going very deep into the why of character actions. I guess I just wanted more.
It really just didn't work for me at all which is so disappointing 🫤. I'm not the type of person to give up after just one bad experience and since all of Caitlin Starling's books' premises seem so very interesting, I'll still try her other ones, but this one has given me pause in expecting very much.
Possible spoilers but nothing specific to the story itself
I think I enjoyed this mainly because I could relate to Anna. She's a social misfit, black sheep, misunderstood and just wants to be left alone to be able to do her own thing. And she's pretty forgiving, at least in the first quarter of the book...
Besides escaping toxic relationships (whether they be of a familial, professional, romantic, or spiritual nature), I felt like the crux of the book was finally choosing yourself instead of waiting/wanting to be chosen, which is something I've had to learn. I guess I took this one a little more personally than I usually do and that's a bit unusual for me.
Overall though the story was fairly predictable. It wasn't anything new or surprising. That being said it still very much held my attention, so I'd recommend it for a semi-scary uplifting read.
I read this on a recommendation and I'm glad I did. After the last horror novel I read was a clunker it was nice to sit down with a successfully sinister one. The book follows two desperate documentary filmmakers as they investigate a murderous defunct cult from the 1970s and things quickly unravel and get weird for them.
Adam Neville definitely knows how to creep a reader out without gratuity. Simply with noises, shadows, smells and glimpses he builds great tension. I never got bored and I needed to know what happened to the characters which is all I really ask for in a horror story (any book at all, really).
I can't say I genuinely liked the characters but I'm not mad at that, it's not always a good idea to get attached to them in horror novels after all. And the dialog was a little bit cringey, especially the American characters. Every single one of them, regardless of where they came from, sounded like they stepped straight out of a ‘Young Guns' movie, which I found pretty distracting and a little aggravating.
Other than that I'd absolutely recommend it as a proper, creepy, entertaining ride.
I was really excited for this one, the premise seemed really interesting and somewhat creative. It's about mysteriously immortal siblings separately come back home after hundreds of years to find the source of their immortality. But it ended up feeling like a surface level beach read.
I found I didn't feel much of anything for the characters (positive or negative) nor care about the plot development. Of course a romance side story had to be plugged in which cheapened the whole thing for me since it was so predictable and romance novel level realistic.
The whole book just seemed rushed, shallow and forced. At least it was a quick read...
Horror is one of those really difficult genres because it's very subjective, so I always give it a little leeway. Unfortunately this book really didn't work for me even with that wiggle room. It was touted as “deeply disturbing” and likened to ‘The Terror' which left me wondering if I read the same book. Maybe it was my fault for going in with high expectations? I honestly thought it was going to be a no brainer mixing the Donner party with an evil supernatural force(s) but wow, talk about a swing and a miss.
What I read felt more like a muddled, messy pioneer melodrama than a doomed Oregon Trail. Katsu knows how to develop a character, I'll give her that, but it was at the expense of the story in my opinion. Jumping back and forth in time made no sense for the plot and I caught myself skimming in those chapters toward the end.
The geographical movement of certain characters was inconsistent and hard to follow at times, though that may have admittedly been my fault as I was a little bit bored sometimes (the death knell of any horror novel). The “horror” itself just seemed like bullet points with no build up. Things just randomly happened, but interpersonal drama was always more important for some reason. I just thought there would be some sinister dread or at least the feeling that they were actually in dire straits at all. Anyway, I'll just stick with ‘The Terror', tried and true and a safe bet.
This one did not work for me unfortunately. I really, really wanted to like it. Sarah Gailey is such a gifted writer, they have such an effortless way of helping the reader visualize setting, action, feeling, characters, everything really. That's the only reason I managed not to DNF.
I love a good cult-y book as much as the next girl. But this wasn't fun cult-y in the sinister, wtf kinda way. This was more a predictable almost boring cult-y. It was borderline trauma-p*rn, I felt like, which became so repetitive that it lost a lot of its power.
I still love Sarah Gailey but, thank you, next
Cry Havoc was a breath of fresh air for me, like brain bleach to battle the darkness of the other books I'm reading at the moment.
I actually only picked it up because it filled the ‘escape' requirement of the Goodreads challenge but I'm glad I did! It was surprisingly funny, wry, tender and atmospheric. It's possible I enjoyed simply because it's what I needed at the time but maybe that's what all our preferences are based on 🤔
Anyway, it's not a perfect book by any means. It could have delved a little deeper in some areas and the fact it was set in the 80's I had hoped would have made more of an impact.
Even so, I went ahead and ordered Rebecca Wait's previous book ‘I'm Sorry You Feel That Way' 🤞🏻🤞🏻
It's not going to be a book for everyone, there's not really a clear tidy plot and some have been critical about that. But, I'm not sure if I was supposed to, I found it delightful. The main character is so unapologetically self-deluded and strange yet somehow self aware of it that I couldn't help but like her despite her inner tangents of self pity and fixation on ‘Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin'.
The language and turns of phrase that Avigayl Sharp uses are wonderful. At times hilarious, evocative and irreverent. If I ever do any blackout poetry I'd definitely use this book (photocopied, of course). I'm excited to see what she'll do next