Mike Calkins
Man. I was NOT expecting to be this disgustingly invested in this. I laughed frequently, really enjoyed the main characters dynamic. I found myself very tense during a few sequences, and I was muttering "wtf are you doing you absolute moron" (or some variation) as I cooked food or got water at 1 AM with soundproof headphones and listened to either person miss signals or overthink.
I had never read smut before really. Closest I ever got to it was the first ACOTAR book and that was extremely tame so this was a but of a surprising experience but one I had a really good time with, to the point that the next two books NOT being about Rowan and Sloan makes me a little less interested to read them (but I probably will anyways). I thought Weaver did a great job painting violent, sultry and delicious canvases with her words (the last one is not ironic, one of the characters works in food service). I will say that some dialogue is really cheesy, particularly early on. But for the most part the banter and such is so much fun and investing.
Did not expect to love this as much as I did!!
Definitely a top 3 Fear Street book. I adored the atmosphere in this, loved the characters, really enjoyed the way Stine guided us through the plot, the reveals (even his trademark chapter endings) and the finale was a whopper. A real barn burner, very tense and well paced.
On the topic of the characters, I really loved Terry and Niki as our leads and their relationship dynamic was adorable and investing. I also really liked the dynamic Stine struck with Terry and Alex. Their broken friendship and its viability tested. The resolution is really satisfying.
While definitely my least favorite of the three, Unmasked is still a really fun and spooky story with a great approach to adolescent anxiety and social awkwardness. Marion is a great main character that I definitely related to, especially remembering how I was at her age. I also love her family and how supportive they are, as well as just how much fun they are.
This definitely has the least impactful of the supernatural plots, and its very much something that comes about later on in the book than in the other two. But its still a really interesting take on a monster, the way they defeat the the threat is a blast and the way this book ends both warmed my heart and excited me about the potential future of the series. I really hope Fright Watch continues. Not only is this a great middle grade/YA horror series but it tackles important mental health issues that teens and tweens face and could help them navigate them. I hope Lawrence circles back to Quinn, Mike and Marion soon!
I did not think she could top The Stitchers but here we are!
So much fun, extremely cozy, spooky, and just as (if not more) emotionally resonant as the first. Lawrence does such a great job maturely handling the passing of a loved one through the eyes of a 13 year old without it feeling too “adult” or too “childish”. It feels very real and because of that, even as a near 30 year old dude, I found myself emotional on multiple occasions.
The villain is great too, and Lawrence adds a sympathetic angle to them that was absent from The Stitchers. It really made the finale extremely impactful.
I adore this series. I got the third entry queued up, cannot wait to dive in!
Well. I did not expect it to get that dark.
Great homage to the middle grade horror books of yesteryear. Fun premise, distinct villain and strong themes. Some of the imagery here stunned me, particularly a horrific scene towards the end that is much harsher than anything I have read in Goosebumps. This was a really impressive first outing!
A solid, disturbing Batman tale featuring a cult led by a charismatic madman. That longline is unfortunately very relevant today, even if its a hyperbolic comparison.
I think in isolation, this is a fascinating story for Batman, particularly in that he himself winds up inadvertently drawn into the cult. As a canon piece of the Dark Knight's canon, I think I have issues with some of Batman's characterization, particularly towards the end. I also think there are moments in this where the dark and disturbing imagery begins to feel a little gratuitous and edgy for the sake of it because it's a post-TDKR Batman tale.
The art is gorgeous and I almost always enjoy Starlin's work. An imperfect story but one certainly worth reading.
Definitely not what I was expecting.
The film barely looked at this book, beyond havjng a silver toothed bad guy. What we get here js an often melancholic and reflective story of a woman's journey througn adulthood, learning about love and intimacy through the lens of three men she sleeps with. It also features a really tense and dark hostage situation involving her that is both the avenue for Bond to appear in this novel and also to show the darkness of men.
I was conflicted a few times throughout the book. Its definitely a product of its time and it very much reads as being written by a man. There are a few descriptors and phrases that Fleming uses here rhat gave me pause, such as Fleming asserting (through Vivian's narration) that women enjoy “semi-rape”. He goes onto explain that he means a man that takes charge and is dominant in the bedroom, but the term really rubbed me the wrong way. Again, this very much feels like a man writing a woman's view on sex and such. But its weird because the rest feels oddly honest? Like men being unable to commit, using women and then casting them aside or forcing them to deal with the consequences of their mutual actions on their own. Its a weird dichotomy of writing.
All of that aside, the back half of this is fantastic. Fleming is a master at immersing you in locations with plenty of very specific descriptors and brands of various items. He is also a master of suspense and action storytelling. Watching Bond work from the perspective of a civilian is a really cool and interesting diversion from the usual Bond yarn.
Solid book! Definitely not my favorite Bond novel but a worthy entry. The audiobook was fantastic as well.
My first Sodegren book and it was a doozy. A melancholic but often sneakily funny book with the rich coming in and thinking they can freely take what is there's and get away with committing crimes and being shady. Some things never change. This is gory as hell too, with one kill involving the monster crawling inside someone in particular making me need to take a lap.
This was genuinely heading towards being a top three favorite Star Wars book of all time for me before the ending hit. Knights of the Old Republic has my all time favorite story in all of Star Wars, and I love alot of the directions they took this novel as a followup. But the ending feels like if they made Empire Strikes Back and just didn't make Return of the Jedi. Its really unsatisfying. It's a book I still recommend, especially to fans of KOTOR, but with that caveat that it does not stick the landing unfortunately.
one of the most incredible books I have ever read. I hadn't read this since I was in fifth grade, and was bewildered by how beautifully written this was and how positively modern it felt. Tolkien's prose is so whimsical but also perfectly ingranes you in the world of Middle Earth, a place that clearly had so much history and world building. its undeniably impressive and engrossing. I found myself laughing and kicking my feet while listening to the book, rarely without a smile on my face, but it also gets surprisingly emotional towards the end. banger.
reading this also kinda drove home that there was no reason for this to be three films with the adaptation. The Battle of the Five Armies was such a tiny part of this book and one without that much detail, that to made a 2+ hour film feels exceedingly egregious.
“Evil doesn't die, it just changes shape”
A killer expansion on one of the most polarizing films in the franchise. Logan expound further here on aspects of The Shape that I suspected were being hinted at in the film. Its a rewarding read for those of us that enjoyed the film, and definitely adds a few more layers to my enjoyment. I love how this (and the film) confronts the idea of a town eating itself from within, creating monsters in the absence of their tormentor, and how at the end of the day its through the work we put into ourselves and unifying as a community that we lead ourselves out of the darkness.
I will say, the ending of the book is the alternate one for the film, and i have never loved the implications of that ending, I far prefer the one we got Theatrically and I think, as a resolution to this story, the one the book chooses hurts the conclusion for me. Despite that, I encourage any Halloween Ends-heads and Corey fans to give this a go. Its great.
Tense, disturbing, and a fascinating deepening of the plot of the film. Muñoz takes his time drawing Billy as a character, getting further into the psyche of this boy than the film could have at the time.
As someone who is an admitted fan of the film, it's really fun to see Muñoz's take on certain events and the way he adds more layers of terror and depravity to certain sequences. I'll admit that I was taken aback by how he kind of turned a lot of the “good people” from the film into their own type of psycho, and I'm not sure how I feel about the changes made to Sister Margaret in particular, however as a snapshot of an alternate “cut” of the film, I found this really fascinating and really enjoyed it at the end of the day. I luckily snagged a physical copy of his Black Christmas novelization, so I'm interested to check that one out, although I'll be holding off til this Christmas season.
