Hannah

I read a hefty chunk of this during a three-day migraine. Day one I could barely read at all, day two I was just so desperate for something to do that wasn't a screen. ???? So that was a new experience for me (I've only been having migraines for a couple years, if that). 

I enjoyed The Invocations a lot. At first I worried the purple prose was going to fall on the wrong side for me but quickly fell in love with the way Sutherland describes everything and paints pictures with words. And the three girls: Jude, Emer, and Zara, felt pretty 3-dimensional to me, to the point that Jude in my mind looked quite different to the Jude on the cover art, the other 2 as well, actually - I struggle to visualise characters at all, usually. I also just adore dark witchy stories. This one has gore, and demons, and dark power, and women who are angry. It really really hit the spot. 

There were a few points that bothered me, however, though they were small niggles rather than outright problems. For one... quite a few typos. I maybe noticed 7 or 8 throughout the book? Which isn't great for a traditionally published book. Not the end of the world though, they don't make it unreadable. Also without spoilers, one character has a magical injury, you learn about it right away when they are introduced, and the extent of the injury and the pain it causes... it really bothered me that they could walk around and do things. Like, yes there were times if they were running or doing manual labour they'd be visibly struggled or just bow out completely, but it's never made into much. I experience some minor pain at times and can't walk when it gets really bad, and there are others who need to constantly use crutches or a wheelchair. Pain like that isn't something that you grin and bear, get used to, magical or not. It wipes you out. I would have at least liked for them to have a walking stick, you know? Would have felt more real. Also: disabled representation, we could always use more.

Aside from that, the rest really are just small things here and there. Perhaps a person feels too much like a walking clich??, something feels a little too convenient, that kind of thing. These are generally things I notice when I read young adult fiction, however, and I tend to just brush them off. The instances in this book where they came up just didn't affect what I was reading. The overall writing and excitement of the story and what was happening to these characters was solid enough that it more than made up for any issues I had. 

If you don't mind a little gore and enjoy dark stories about witches and the occult, with queer leading ladies, nonetheless, you might really get a kick out of The Invocations. And if you do, I definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings, as it is horror. 

 This book was great. We follow a lovely old Scottish lady called Muriel who is being harrassed by the Grant Organisation, a company own by an American billionaire who has bought out most of Muriel's little home village by the sea to destroy the landscape and build a golf course. He's your basic Trump/Musk/Murdoch guy who thinks money can buy him everything. Nasty piece of work. All Muriel wants to do is live out the rest of her life in peace, but the machines changing her landscape run day and night and it seems every day, another friend takes the money and leaves. Muriel refuses. And then one day she makes an odd discovery that set the wheels of change into motion...

The Haar is a beautiful story with a lot of gore. It's intense, wondrous, and the perfect length. I will have to check out who of Sodergren's stuff! 

Beautifully written, fascinating concept, just not sure it's for me. Maybe I'll give it another go someday.

 Took much too long to get going though King's writing has a way of making nothing seem readable. There were pages that simply detailed what different families were having for dinner. While I can respect this was to effectively show the slow death of the town, some of it was just boring. Also would be remiss not to mention the sheer amount of homophobic slurs in the book. And this was clearly written when King had a very bleak outlook of the world.

That all said, I did enjoy reading it. The writing was enjoyable, the story compelling, and the dread creeping. A nice dark vampire horror story of a town's slow, sleepy, bloodcurdling death. 

Great worldbuilding, magic and lore, plot, and prose sadly let down by poor execution of tension, character actions, and a couple odd writing devices.

What a great book. The attention to detail is astounding, the storybeats perfectly satisfying. It is deliciously dark with the heart of rebellion. Definitely an author I need to explore further.

Wow, I could not put this book down. How to Sell a Haunted House follows Louise as she returns home following the sudden death of her parents, only to find herself feeling frustrated by her brother Mark who has already taken control of all of the funeral arrangements and she's not happy. The entire book is about grief and family, and just happens to include a haunted house as its backdrop, although this one is not exactly as you would expect. And I will say no more because the way this story unwinds is so good. As I said, could not put it down. All this did was remind me that I need to pick up his other books because this is the second time I have fallen in love with his writing! 

The characters were wooden, the narrator was boring, and while I was mildly intrigued by the Watchers themselves, I didn't care what was going on, why, or how. Just bored.

 I was utterly transfixed by this book. I'd put it off for so long because “house invasion thriller” isn't my favourite subgenre but Cabin has a twist to it that makes the story so fascinating, the characters are incredible, the way it's written is fantastic... and the way he plays with ambiguity, holy hell. Chef's kiss. I still don't know what happened and I'm GLAD about it!! There were a few lines I highlighted just because they had me going, “Wow... what a line.” Sheesh. Well now I need to obtain more Tremblay books, I guess. I've certainly got Horror Movie, his 2024 release, on preorder already. 

 Hmm... I really like the way this was written. Presented as an autobiographical audiobook of a man who was in a movie in the early 90s that was never released due to something tragic happening on set, but clips of the movie and the script have since been released online and drummed up a lot of interest, and so the movie is being made in the modern day. We get chapters from the distant past, recent past, present, and the script itself, and it flips between these things to create a comprehensive story. It's fascinating and I loved reading it. 

I just didn't personally feel like this one is “horror”. Not to say that it isn't! Just didn't work for me. And it got... pretty dang weird and it's taken me a few days to work out if that's good weird or bad weird and I.. think, it's not good weird but not quite bad weird, if that makes any sense. 

So 2 stars because the journey is great, but the ending really let it down for me. 

I do recommend this one to people who find the concept of movie making, particularly indie movie making, interesting. I think you'd probably get some joy out of this one.