Alex

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Salomé was not quite what I was expecting considering the blurb for the book. I think I was expecting more horror as well as the reclamation of the biblical Salomé considering the summary, and I feel like that came across at all. I did really enjoy Baird's writing style, but that was probably the extent of my enjoyment. I would say it was definitely more of a psychological thriller than horror. I feel like once the characters were in France, the events were very repetitive, which made the pacing drag a lot and almost felt like rambling at certain points. I also wouldn't have characterized the story as gothic, considering it was missing pretty much all of the main themes found in gothic literature. It was a very contemporary take on politics, social justice, and culture. Salomé remained elusive as a character throughout, which I'm sure was the point, but then, Courtney also felt very underdeveloped and she's meant to be the main character. Overall, it wasn't terrible, just not my plot of tea and I'm sure other people will love it.

I listened to this while coloring, and stopped coloring because I got too engrossed in it. This wasn't anything particularly new for the horror genre, but entertaining overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think that this was an interesting premise and a promising execution, but ultimately forgettable. The pacing felt very slow for the type of story being told, but I also don't think that the author knew exactly what type of story wanted to be told, whether comedy, or thrilling, or literary. I think there was the beginning of depth but nothing ended up happening with those bits. The ending was okay but not exciting or memorable. Stolen Book, Shuttered Library wasn't a waste of time, per se, but rather just a bit of fluff to fill the boredom.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love a sapphic vampire story so I was super excited to get into this. A few of the good things first, I loved the bi representation across multiple characters. I also really liked the prose and writing style. I think the yearning in the beginning of the book was well done and I really enjoyed the bits and pieces of folklore spread throughout.
The good parts of the book end there. First of all, I think this reads more like YA than adult/new adult, which isn't a bad thing, if it were just labeled correctly. Anneke reads a lot younger than her 25-28 years of age which is odd considering that Inge's age is brought up a lot. Diavola was the most interesting character despite not being part of the action most of the book. The pacing was erratic, and as much as I loved the World Fair bits, I kept wondering when we were going to get somewhere with the plot, just to see I was 20% of the way through. I really thought that the sapphic yearning would last longer, there was flirting through the letters but and some tense moments in Paris, but the romance felt pretty flat between Anneke and Diavola. I think that the book had a great premise but not great execution, but I did enjoy the book for what it was.

This was so gory and gross, I loved it.

This honestly caught my attention from the first chapter. This is a really interesting take on a ghost story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own..

Oooo this was an impressive debut. The writing style was evocative and emotional, the characters were fleshed out and provided substance to the story, and the plot itself was heartbreaking. I loved Mira as a character, her pain and fear felt so real as I was reading her parts of the story. Tahliil was similarly full of depth and his portions felt difficult to get through at an emotional level. I think that the depth and empathy for the characters did go a little bit too far, as even the antagonists were people that you felt for. I love that the subtitle was “A Love Story” because reading it, the actual on-page romance doesn't feel too important, until you think about it deeper. There were so many different types of love shown within this book, and I think the slower pace allowed for the introspection to come to that conclusion. I will definitely be reading more of Manish Chauhan's books as he releases more. This was a beautiful debut.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well, I managed not to DNF, which means the story was decently paced but that's all the good I can say about it. The plot was very sloppy and half predictable, meaning I could guess a lot but also it felt like the author wasn't sure which story she actually wanted to tell. The romance wasn't actually romance, nor enemies/rivals to lovers, just insta-lust and insta-trust. Ivy was so so dumb for a main character, despite having been the king's wraith for a decade. I really don't see the point in the fae distinction since it was mentioned maybe 2x and was only used to set up the class system and explain why the fmc wasn't injured for longer. Did I mention that Ivy was dumb as fuck? And don't get me started on Thorne. Of course he was lying about his identity and his powers and his feelings. Typical broody mmc things. I really hated the decision of making him dumb too, because what do you mean that he needed to be told that the fmc was being abused after he riled up the king, and then he kept doing it, despite always finding Ivy in pain afterwards. Also Ivy could either yell or she could sneak and that's about it. She didn't have any sort of baseline reaction, everything was exaggerated. The geography, the powers, and the faith system felt like they pulled from other romantasy books I've read, so they didn't feel super unique either. Overall, I was very unimpressed.

I really loved these stories but some felt like the ending was too abrupt

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I hate saying that there's potential in the future, but considering this was Brown's first horror novel, I do think she has the potential to be great in the future, but Mother is Watching, is just good. A few of the good things first, I love unconventional main characters, and I loved that Tilly was 39 and a mother. I feel like even within horror, if there's a female main character, they're typically in their 20's, early 30's at the latest. This was also a great example of cursed media horror, which is so easy to mess up. I also know that people who love dystopian horror are going to love this. The ending also did a great job of wrapping everything up and felt super solid.
Personally, I feel like so much more could've been fleshed out and expanded on. The reproductive control was a cool bit, if it had been expanded. The husband could've been an interesting addition to either the “good” side and supporting Tilly or the “bad” side and been part of the reproductive control, but instead he was just there. Tilly's relationship with her kids was also very one dimensional, which I found disappointing because her relationship with her mom was so complex and interesting. Like I said at the beginning, this shows Brown's promise within the horror sphere, and I'm excited to see what she does next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I will say that the prose of this story is very beautiful and flowery to the point of being purple prose, but again very beautiful. The problem was that for a satire about university, this did not feel very satirical, in fact, the story felt so meandering that it really said a whole lot of nothing. There was a lot of repetition and circulatory nature of the plot, which could have been the point but made the story feel never-ending. Also, the descriptions of the main character's boss felt very fatphobic, especially because she was set up as the antagonist of the story, and her laziness and stuffing her face just felt like ways to show another moral failing to make her the antagonist when her weight isn't important to the plot. There were also some off putting descriptions about the autistic character, and as an autistic person, the descriptions left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I can't in good faith recommend this to people due to the fatphobia and weirdness about autistic people.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I read Ward's book The Last House on Needless Street back in January or February and enjoyed it, but if you're going into Nowhere Burning expecting those vibes—don't. I was really struggling with how I wanted to rate this. It wasn't bad, per se, but I wasn't amazed or astounded by what I was reading. For as quickly as I got through it, I felt more like I was just hoping to finish the book, rather than actually enjoying what I was reading. I figured out pretty quickly what the connection between all of the POVs were, which wasn't a bad thing in and of itself, but did ruin the twists as the connections were revealed. Ward has a very distinct style of writing, which I did enjoy the whole time I was reading. There was something missing though, and everything felt super disjointed and sloppy when she did make the connections between POVs. This was definitely not a horror. I don't even really think that it was a thriller. It felt very watered down and didn't have much intensity at any part of the story. I just kept wondering when it would end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I was pleasantly surprised by this. I haven't read any of Hall's other work, but based on the acknowledgements, this was her first foray into horror. In all honesty, I didn't care much for the first half of the book or so. I couldn't find myself caring about Elouise or Wilbur nor what was happening to them in the house Elouise's uncle left to her. I typically don't find that an ending to a book can save my enjoyment, but this was certainly an exception to that rule. The last 40% of the book was a wild ride that delivered on the strange atmosphere built from the beginning. As everything fell into place, I kept reading faster and faster, searching for the conclusion to the story. I think it was really an interesting narrative choice to make Elouise actually love her husband, given the time period and age difference, but I don't think her fear would've worked as well, or been as impactful if she didn't have love for him. I don't know if satisfying was a good word for the ending but it fit the story being told really well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a miss of a dark fantasy. I think it was reaching to be like One Dark Window for a lot of aspects but it fell short on almost all fronts. I liked the prose and felt that it did build a great dark atmosphere. Addie was also such an easy main character to want to support. The romances between Addie, Ransom, and Bram felt like insta-love/insta-lust, particularly because she didn't know either man but almost instantly was feeling heart fluttery things towards them. I did love that King isn't the kind of author to spoonfeed her writing to the audience. The pacing of the story was iffy, sometimes a bit faster than expected, and other times a bit slower. I did really enjoy how complex the characters were, and the depth of emotion that they presented in the story, romance bit aside. Also random gripe that didn't influence my rating, I find it easy to fall out of a story when there's a unique religion in fantasy, yet they still rely on Christian concepts like damning or sin. Honestly, I probably would read book 2 when it eventually comes out, just to see if the writing improves over time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I wanted to love this, but in the end, I just felt ok about it. I love the exploration of grief in literature, and Eleanor's co-dependent relationship with her now dead mother was the perfect set up, but the atmosphere was so stifling that I found myself wondering when it would end. The endless rain was suffocating and Eleanor's spiraling felt like I was spiraling right with her. I went in expecting a haunted house story and came out with a grief driven book that left me emotionally drained.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This had such a strong start that I actually felt let down by the ending. I love weird horror, especially with twists, but it felt like Keane was trying to do way too much thematically that didn't work with the short length of the book. I did love Lou as a character despite how two dimensional she felt, and I think that using repressed memories felt like a very lazy plot device. Straight up calling out capitalism made me laugh but not in a funny haha way, more of a “the plot is already pointing this out, you're babying your readers by verbally saying it” way. Overall, it was a quick, interesting read, but not something I'd reread or even point other readers to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I honestly don't know which of the stories are my favorite from this collection. I do think that some of the stories were a little too abrupt to the point I wasn't just left with a feeling of wanting more, but rather, that Coxon may have just not known how​ to end the story. There were also a few continuity errors with names, but I could overlook that. I think that it was super interesting and honestly really cool to be able to thread a common theme throughout so many horror sub-genres and make it feel cohesive. This is probably my favorite short story horror collection of the year.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I didn't realize how short that this would be going into it, and I'm honestly impressed by how much was fit into about 21 pages. Songbird fits so much into such little time, adding a quick pace and atmospheric immediacy that I was pleasantly surprised by. It was so strange and abrupt and I think it was so interesting that there wasn't a solid conclusion, which added to the fever dream feeling. I'm not going to spoil the plot, but if you have the time for a weird little read, I definitely recommend this one.

This was such an interesting take on the dystopian sci-fi subgenre, especially with the added horror elements. For people who like a linear story, this one is, unfortunately, not for you. The book almost feels like a compilation of short stories that you can only tell are connected part of the way through. Tom and Pan are complex and witty and their relationship is so emotionally gratifying. Their relationship is the emotional core of the story, for sure. The doorways between worlds were the intro to each story and I think the ending tied up the different stories in a satisfying manner. This is perfect for people that like weird sci-fi books that grasp you from the moment you start reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was really excited for this but to be honest, I felt very let down by the end. I did like it, I don't want to say that I didn't, but I had several issues that I couldn't let go. It had good bones for a gothic story, but it felt too disconnected to make a good story. As much as I love a family lore dump, I think that the info dumps ruined the pacing of the story; however, I do think that it was super interesting to bring in Filipino politics with the history of the family. The cultural folklore was interesting and I thought it contributed heavily to the horror atmosphere. For a gothic novel, I truly only felt the gothicism in the isolation of the manor. The atmosphere didn't feel nearly as heavy or supernatural as I was expecting it to be. Overall, it was good, and I'd recommend it to my friends who enjoy gothic horror, but I'd also make them aware that I didn't find it great.

If you're not going to talk intersectionality then I don't really care about your feminism 

I love the way this was told, super fun podcasty vibe

This felt like a lot of nothing solid. It felt like very little research was done, it was mostly just anecdotal 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This took me forever to get through the first 20% or so, I was really struggling to be captivated at first, but once the horror elements started kicking in, I knocked this out within hours. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but the actions and story moved quickly, but the actual writing and pacing felt slow. I really enjoyed the prose and stylistically, this was very interesting. I also enjoyed the friendship dynamics between all the girls, even when it felt superficial, because it made sense for teenage girls. However, the last 25% of the book felt repetitive and fever-dreamish in a bad way. Things were happening with no explanation and sometimes with only a throwaway sentence or two which felt very limiting. I will say, things felt more and more claustrophobic and closed in as the plot went on, which was fantastic. For as much as I love an open ending, I do kind of wish that more was explored for why all the events were happening, even if it wasn't a full explanation. Then again, sometimes things just don't get explained and all you can do is move on with your life. I'd be down to read more of Curran's work going forward since this had some really good bones for storybuilding.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Found Object Society, for as interesting as the concept seems, seemed to suffer from a chronic case of telling instead of showing. Greta, as a character, felt super two dimensional for the type of story being told. The goal seemed to be a commentary on grief and the self-destructive behaviors that can occur, especially for someone with wealth, but I didn't feel any sort of connection to Greta's grief. I think Greta was set up to be a sympathetic character, but in the end, she read as self-absorbed and unlikeable. The dialogue felt very vapid and did all the work of the plot. The pacing was erratic, slow in the beginning and then faster and faster until the ending felt completely disconnected from the story. The concept was fresh, and I think with time Maryk can become a great writer. The bones for atmospheric and interesting writing are there, they just need to be honed.