Rhiannon

An excellent follow up to Puzzle House, this second installment ramps up the action as Henry must make his way across a god-and-demon filled post-apocalyptic Los Angeles to get to his wife and exact revenge on those responsible for the carnage in the first book. As soon as I finished that one I had to head straight back in, and I’m so glad I didn’t wait. And yes, you have to read the first one to truly understand what’s happening in this one.

Ralston amps up the momentum as well as the stakes as Henry discovers that Puzzle House was just the beginning. He’s involved in a sweeping coup as ancient gods appear all over the city along with demonic creatures, and the decay of humanity and morality is fast-tracked in the chaos. What transpired in Puzzle House was just the beginning and now he’s after the evil corporate entity who are running the show.

The action moves along at a brisk pace but this book spends more time on characterization – and I appreciated that as I really like Henry Hall – he’s done some bad sh*t but he’s a good guy and that dichotomy plays out well in this new hellscape. Henry hooks up with some new associates who I also love (the Major is my unsung hero now and reminds me a bit of the Russell Casse character in Independence Day but better. And I fear for his future.) There’s humour and humanity in our core cast. And to paraphrase Ivy: Duncan, did you really write a book series from a cosmic sixty-nine joke? 😏

Fair warning – although there’s some shocking scenes at the start of this novel, and really no one is immune from the havoc and bloodshed – it’s not extreme horror. It’s effective at conveying the swift decay of morality without being sensationalist.

Another heads up: this one ends on another cliffhanger, much like the first. The natural separation of the novels serves the evolving plot as the stakes get bigger and deadlier and much more personal for our dogged heroes.

The next book can’t come fast enough!

I mean, I wouldn’t do it for any amount of money because I absolutely suck at these kinds of puzzles and I’d be done for before I finished walking in the front door, but reading about them is absolutely my jam!

This is kinda like a mashup of elements of the movies Saw and Cabin In The Woods and Cube and Agatha Christie locked-room whodunnits (but where you already kinda know the murderer) all set in a crazy escape room - no HOUSE - with a big fat reward at the end of it all – if you survive.

It’s a load of fun and I was thoroughly entertained by the fast-paced action and creativeness of the house and I really liked a lot of the main characters – although I’d have been happier with more detail and backstories from some of the other Six. I enjoyed what the plot evolved into as well, and so I'm thoroughly invested in where this is going.

I’d already bought the second book before I even started this one, so convinced I was that Duncan wouldn’t disappoint, and he didn’t let me down. I’m heading straight into the next one right away, which looks to amp up the action even more (why am I getting Hardcore Henry vibes now?)

Go Henry GO!

A decent collection of 10 short horror stories. I’d say these lean more to a moderate level of horror, so if you’re not into anything too squeamish then these stories should be right up your alley. A lot of the themes seem to centre around comeuppance and karma. There are a few stories involving animals that might worry you — I’m an animal person and this had me worried a few times but overall, they weren’t over the top or cause for concern. A couple of other stories edging on taboo topics but again, nothing extreme.

There’s some botanical horror in The Sprouting (whose only two characters were horrible so I wasn’t really invested in them as people but karma and all that…), a bit of ancient almost cosmic horror in Dead Trees; some childhood trauma horror (watch your triggers here) in Battel The Monstur with an imaginative and tragic boy who fights back (this one was quite emotional and effective)…

I think it was a respectable mix of horror topics with nothing pushing boundaries 𝙩𝙤𝙤 much – reminding me a bit of the style of Stephen King’s early short collections that edged around horror without overt explicitness while still having characters that were despicable doing despicable things. As a collection of horror, I would have preferred the shorts to have a bit more punch/intensity to them, but I can also see this author probably doing well with a longer form expansion of some of these stories as there are some great, imaginative ideas here that cry out for more exploration.

𝑴𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 A.F. Cosentino 𝒂𝒏𝒅 BookSirens 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝑹𝑪. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏.