Ghost
I came across this series when the 3rd installment came up on NetGalley and the cover art (which was different from the one on here for some reason) was so strikingly beautiful that my attention was immediately piqued.
I expected the tone to be a little grittier given the cover and premise but it's often very matter of fact and I felt like parts of the book were needed another round of edits. The passage of time was also sometimes rendered rather clumsily. There are scenes where the imagery is powerful and LaMarr really finds his stride as a writer which gives me high hopes for the next installment in the series.
4.5 rounded up.
I loved Sons of Anarchy, so when I saw that this book was a biker club meets a slasher story I was immediately sold on the idea. Pike really executed the idea well, with great humor and kill scenes that will make any fan of brutal demises smile. The slasher, Craw, was fun and the ending was satisfying. The characters idiosyncrasies added a sense of rhythm to the book and the music references gave me a sense of connection with the universe, these things made for a fast paced and thoroughly entertaining read.
I had to take a break from this book at one point because it was just too horny for this sex-repulsed reader (which probably means that if you're into that kind of stuff those were good scenes), after that I skimmed those scenes a bit and I don't feel like I lost much of the story.
Cosmic horror, body horror, plant horror (it might not really be an actual type of horror but as a plant person I want it to be so here goes), tea, like lots of tea, and an Elvis impersonator, what more could you want really? A sprinkling of humor? It's there too!
This was more of a pamphlet than a book and failed to deliver on its premise. It largely just rehashes the current American political situation in an aggressively centrist looking way, something that other books offer in a more interesting and substantiated way (this book included no citations and no sources).
Its conclusion? The way to avoid fascism is to build community online, as much as I like the idea I don't think that's quite right...
I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Solid little novella (and that cover is perfection). The MC was a tad annoying to me so the ending was quite satisfying on top of being unexpected.
I didn't see time fly.
The male main character is something of a too good to be true hunky ex-military turned senator with big principles and he as a “I can fix them” complex which was both cute and unnerving. The heroine is a traumatized addict who is torn between wanting to let him in and needing to protect herself. Circumstances (zombies) “force” them together. Normally that's the kind of premise which makes me put the book right back on the shelf but here I really didn't mind it too much because things just kept moving and happening, so it never got overly sappy or boring.
I'll look forward to the next installment!
This story does a lot with very few pages.
Starts out as a possible dystopian story then takes a turn for the vampire from out of space survival story, then it turns into domestic horror (TW for repeated SA) with a sci-fi twist. I enjoyed that DeVor took the time to consider small items of “details” as tools to add to the horror of the situation (lack of clothing items per example).
Interesting and sometimes heartbreaking.
We rarely think of politics when we think of medicine even when it's forensic, there is something uncomfortable in thinking about it that way and this book offers a rather unflinching if very human approach to the question.
I particularly enjoyed the section where Baden details how the bogus diagnosis of excited delirium came to exist and to be popularized even though the “science” that was used to bring the idea forth has been thoroughly debunked. This book is well worth the read just for that part alone.
Baden is very critical of the buddy-buddy system between prosecution, law enforcement and medical examiner's office and the tendency these institutions tend to have to see themselves as colleagues but if you're critical of the police as an institution you might find yourself at odds with him because he is also a firm believer that police officers in general are good people doing a hard job.
While it's clear that Baden is someone with a lot of heart who made a lot of decisions in his life based on a strong moral code the writing in this book is sometimes a little dry and I was sometimes taken aback by it when he talked about things that should have been very poignant.
I received an eARC of this book from BenBella Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Terry found love and she is a true romantic, nothing, not even death will keep her from her special someone, oh to be young and in love, right? Life and especially love are not that simple though and things are even darker than they initially appear.
This story is basically all the songs about an undead love I've been listening to for probably way too long made into a sweet little story that covers a lot of ground in surprisingly few pages and I am here for it. I love a story that doesn't have many extra words but manages to twist and turn and if it's a bit over the top with a few ridiculous lines all the better and that's what Castle offers here.
Also, I couldn't stop humming Frankenstein by Stitched Up Heart while reading so I recommend pairing your reading with that song for and optimal reading experience.
The story isn't overly gore surprisingly but TW for SA.
I received a review copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
What a fun and delightfully bleak read this book was.
There is a good variety of stories in here and they're all pretty solid on their own, but when you look at the book as a whole they are far more than the sum of their parts and that's what made this book a true 5 stars read for me.
Great little collection. There are shorter and longer stories and they are staggered within the book to give the whole a good sense of rhythm. There is a variety of type of horror including in some stories a sense that the mundane itself is the horror which I found really interesting and uncomfortable. As someone who once walked a complete stranger home from the hospital in the middle of the night just because they asked and they seemed afraid, there was one story that hit particularly close to home (I won't say more for spoiler reasons but if you're the type who can't help helping strangers read this book at once this story will delightfully unsettle you).
Engaging from start to finish, Incel tells the story of Wayne a character you just know could have gone an entirely different way. You can tell that the author has done his research before putting the proverbial pen to the page, having watched the incel and other incel adjacent movements develop over the past several years I really feel like he captured the toxicity and appeal of it for the people that get ensnared into it really well.
I enjoyed how we kept going back and forth between moments where we could really feel for Wayne and moment where he was abject. This aspect in particular made the whole thing feel so real because people who end up messing you up for life are way too often more like that than the monsters we like to imagine.
While at heart this book is a cautionary tale about how easy it is to justify the things we do but that misery commit until we lose all sight of our humanity it's also part horror fest and there is a bit gore in there which is placed just so to make it as effective as it can be, I winced a couple of times.
Had this book been written by someone else I would have hesitated to pick it up based on the premise but having read, and loved, Duchossoy's first novella, Burden, I didn't hesitate too long when the opportunity to request an ARC of this book came up and I'm glad I didn't because it was seriously good.
This is the first installment in a series, so a lot of the book is spent building up the characters and the universe.
Fawn's relationship with her work partner, Briscoe, or BB as she calls him, appears to be pretty healthy AND he doesn't get killed by the end of the book, a refreshing thing to find in a procedural that centers on a duo.
I liked that it was a fast read with queer and mental health representation and that the universe being set up looks like it's going to be visually striking (also THAT cover!). Ultimately where this book fell a little short for me is really in the fact that it didn't feel like much happened on the procedural front except intestine hostility and attempted manipulation from the seemingly shoddy coworker whose name I have already forgotten and like there should have been one or two more chapter to it and that the “evil” corporation's exposition could have been padded a little more. I expect these things will be resolved in future installment of the series so ultimately, I'll eagerly await next installment because I really like Fawn!
I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed how the stories were sometimes intertwined and formed something more intricate but there is a couple of stories where I had to back track and reread because I wasn't sure what was going on this is the only reason it's not getting a 5 stars rating from me.
This collection exists at the intersection of something that feels both familiar and new, at least for me (I have only a very passing acquaintance with Filipino culture and folklore), like I've known these characters before, and I've known their circumstances, but I can't quite put my finger on where I've seen them before.
There are a few stories that would fit squarely into the urban fantasy genre with a Filipino twist, and I was particularly fond of these. Some of the stories left me wanting more and I would have definitely liked to spend more time in the universe Cruz has built.
Disclosure: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher through Booksirens in exchange for an honest review.
As an annoying bookish person with a plant named George which also comes with a silly story about how I had not planned to buy it, I feel personally victimized by this story. 10/10 recommend.
4.5 rounded up.
Evan is a bit naïve or rather he tends to accept what people say as true at face value and often to adopt it as gospel, he's also good at seeing patterns and growing up surrounded by toxic relationships and bullying he molds himself after a variety of people/archetypes in order to survive the bullying as well as his inner turmoil and loneliness.
The matter of fact delivery through most of the story is only broken very occasionally when Evan gets a faint glimpse of possible “love” and it really helps convey how emotionally stunted he is.
It's never said in the story if the character really is but, personally, I read the character as autistic and the whole thing came across not just as a dark coming of age narrative but also as a chilling cautionary tale of emotional neglect. If you struggle with autistic coded characters doing bad things, you might not enjoy this one.
I received a review copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Absolutely magnificent. I did not want this collection to end.
There is a solid variety of stories in there and all of them are, in my opinion, excellent. Some of the stories had me at the edge of my seat anxious (a rare feat), a couple had me vibrating with anger with the protagonist, one had me thoroughly grossed out without actually presenting anything visually gross, but none left me indifferent.
There are deeper aspects to most of the stories and if you enjoy horror that makes you think a little and that you can analyze the heck out of you'll find it here but if you just want solid entertainment you can definitely read these stories without breaking down the ideas and themes explored and just enjoy the ride.
DNF at 28%. Normally I don't rate DNFs but this one is so bad it's offensive. The narration shifts from first to third person for no apparent reason. Parts of sentences and sometimes full paragraphs are repeated. The timeline is inconsistent.
Interesting, complex, and still actual.
I really enjoyed Walcott's take on the notion that the Canadian identity is perceived inherently non-black as a form of denialism of history in favor of a foundational lie (his take is far more nuanced and complex than I am able to convey in a review).
The narrator was pleasant to listen to and it overall felt like listening to a good lecturer, I also enjoyed that the footnotes were included in the narration and not just in an attached PDF.
The cover drew me in but what's in the story is rather abysmal. The writing style is decent enough and the imagery had potential but honestly the idea of a west African deity written as subservient to the christian idea of Lucifer in order to make a pseudo point regarding the emotional legacy of slavery is appalling. It also felt largely like the author tried to rewrite parts of American Gods and didn't stop to wonder if that wasn't, perhaps, a point of view that wasn't his to write from.
The author's dedication to his wife at the end was probably the best part about this story.
Fast read with an interesting concept and compelling characters. There are plenty of memorable images in there.
There were a couple points of detail that I wasn't super keen on (aside from formatting and grammar issues which did not bother me). That being said, it was an engaging read and I hope that there will be a volume 2 at some point.
For my sex repulsed peeps: this book contains some spice and quite a bit of SA, approach with caution.
Zombies, check.
Revenge story, with chili, check.
Fun run taken to its absurd conclusion, check.
What more could you want from a collection of horror short stories? Name it, it might just be in there, Dalrymple managed to pack quite a lot in very few pages, and she made it fun!
4.5 rounded up
It's a translation and novelization of Dante's inferno and, as far as I can tell, it's a pretty good one. I enjoyed my time with it and you can't go wrong with a classic here and there right?
3.5 rounded up.
Started strong and anxiogenic but then it kinda fizzled out. There is a rather important character which is a child and that child's characterization is rather inconsistent. The main character is rather endearing and I'll most likely return to read the next instalment just to see how things end up for him.
If you've read Misery by Stephen King and thought “sheesh I wish it was a little more dystopian and trippier” it's exactly what Apnea serves. Reading Apnea is like plunging in an uncomfortable and unflinching fever dream and coming out the other side feeling sympathetic to people you spent most of the time wanting to punch in the throat.
In the story there is a virus which seemingly affects the Y chromosome and at some point the narrator states that gender stuff is just a trend and later there is a group shouting weird slogans about fascists and woke kills so it's really like watching TV on a regular day. On top of that there is a lot of potentially triggering stuff in there including but not limited to graphic SA scenes and a miscarriage so yeah approach with caution if you're not in the headspace to deal with that stuff.