Ghost
What if the zombie apocalypse started while you were working at the zoo? And what if some of the animals could also catch the virus? These are the questions After Dark asks and it makes for a fast-paced and brutal little tale.
The characters were great, the settings were well utilized as was the animal aspect.
Points for Bob Ross references.
This one was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, so the expectations were really high, I'm happy to report that it did in fact live up to my expectations.
Our main character is somewhat of a terminally online Redditor (the forums are never said to be Reddit but it's all very Reddit coded) complete with the low level apathy and faux intellectual edginess but he's not entirely devoid of charm (he's not entirely lacking self awareness). His characterization was really consistent which I loved.
I also enjoyed that the city was almost a character of its own.
The body horror aspect was great and didn't rely on torture much to my delight. The balance between character exposition/building and action. There's a certain sense of humor to the whole thing which was added to rather than detracted from the story.
The ending punched me in the gut, violently too.
Disclosure: I received an eARC of this book (I bullied the author into giving me one)! It comes out on April 23 on godless and on the 30 on the Zon.
From absurdist horror to horror poetry this anthology offers a great example of just how large the scope of extreme horror can be. Yes, these tales are vile and gross but they're not JUST that.
If you have the sense of humor for it there's a handful of stories in there that are absolutely hilarious but there are some stories that have a lot more emotional impact.
This one deals in small inner journeys during a larger but somehow almost less significant journey as well as in the small indignities and degradations of dealing with things that are both cruel and somehow absurd. If you're not looking for grandiose revelations and adventures but for the horror in the details this one might work for you. I know that it'll stick with me for a while.
If a decade ago you had told me that Mr. Binders full of women would come across as a voice of reason in his party I would have chuckled because from my Canadian perspective he was something of a clown, things certainly have changed, haven't they? So, yeah, you can imagine my surprise when I saw this biography come across my feed with a mention of how relatable Romney was (thank you ♥Milica♥) which immediately piqued my interest since I'm an absolute sucker for a good biography.
Coppins certainly seems to like Romney and we get a general sense that he is a man who does his best to do what's right (in his mind at least) while also being willing to compromise when necessary and who cares a lot about his legacy. One would hope that after interviewing the man 45 times and reading piles of his personal notes even a sympathetic portrayal would also be an honest one. Yes, it's a very compelling portrait of the man even for someone who doesn't share his politics (though he is pretty moderate by the current GOP's standard) and it makes for a generally very pleasant read.
I really liked the beginning of the book and I thought it was heading to an easy 4+ stars, the journal format worked and things moved along at a snappy but not rushed pace. Unfortunately at around the 50% mark the entries started getting more like chapters in a novel than like journal entries.
Then the main character proceeded to become rather annoying with his constant repetition of where other characters were from (it's ok, we know that Prit is Ukrainian and we know that there were Pakistanis in the boat's crew, you can stop padding the word count). After that he managed to become gross too, with multiple mentions of perky breasts and sexy adult body on a teenage girl (the MC is 30 the girl is 17), that's going to be a no from me bro.
I went in blind assuming it would be a zombie apocalypse story since it was on my recommendations based on a few zombpoc books, I'm pleased to report that it wasn't actually a zombie story.
I liked the main character well enough because she came across as a realistic rather ordinary person faced with extraordinary circumstances. I thought the pacing was pretty good too. Looking forward to reading the next installment.
I love urban decay, I don't know why but I do, this book suited this particular sensibility of mine very well. The characters were generally pretty endearing, I really liked Gen and his air of just along for the ride in most circumstances. There were a few instances of the characters being inconsistent and parts where it was a little hard to follow for me but the imagery and general pleasantly weird air around it all made up for it.
This is the kind of multi-author work I can really get behind, the stories are long enough and there aren't too many of them so they really get the space to shine and don't get muddled. The 3 authors assembled here also have quite distinctive literary voices and they managed to deliver impressively diverse stories using the same prompt.
I finished this book weeks ago, somehow I haven't figured out how to write a semi-decent review for it.
Noah was a pretty compelling character, so it was easy to root for him but I wish the start of his story had been a little more fleshed out.
I really liked that Kern explored the feelings that come with being ostensibly in possession of a certain identity but not in possession of the culture that should have come with it. Here it was done through the lens of Noah's Jewish identity but I think the feelings are relevant to the non-jewish as well.
Real talk, this one wasn't for me. I can recognize that the story was well written and that Due really did her homework with that one but I never really got into it. I'm not a fan of ghost stories in general or of lengthy stories so I knew going in the the odds were stacked against it. It's a good book I was just really not the audience for it.
Solid little collection of stories that take you from Kara's childhood to her early adulthood. I liked the way Kara evolved and how nuanced everything was. By the end I was really loathe to part way with her.
The characters often use Patois (though it's easy enough to understand what they say), if you're the kind of reader who gets upset about that stuff this one might not be for you.
I feel like this is the 600th review where I say that I like decaying urban settings, but here we go again, another book with a decrepit city, much to my delight.¸
Out of Curiosity and Hunger was a rather simple story, but quite an engaging one. The characters came across as realistic even in their moments of naivety. The imagery was pretty cool and the ending pretty satisfying.
More of a 4.25 than a 4.
Another one that's been in my “I should write a review for this, but my brain isn't braining” pile for weeks.
This one was a quick read that packed a lot of story in not very many pages. The imagery was great, the characters were interesting, and the pacing was pretty solid. I wanted more from the year that never was side of thing but not because it was needed for the story, just because I'm greedy and the world that Kidd built had me curious.
4.5 rounded up.
I well and truly did not realize this book was about 350 pages long. There really wasn't a point where I felt like something should have been edited out. The story remained engaging from beginning to end.
The characters were pretty solid and I thought Lurid also did a pretty good job at presenting the overrepresentation of indigenous populations in the carceral system and the way imprisonment often leads to further criminalization without being ham-fisted about it.
Ok I have to preface my review with the caveat that I didn't realize who the author was before picking up this book and that I was very predisposed to agree with her given my habit of being critical and suspicious of psychology and psychiatry as industries thanks to both my personal and professional experiences. Even with that in mind it was an underwhelming read, to put it politely.
I have several pages of notes detailing minor issues I had with this book which I am far too lazy to organize in a proper review and this book is, frankly, not worth the effort since it's both lazy and disingenuous.
Shrier puts research (which she always bring up free of actual citations) on the same standing as anecdotes which often sound entirely made up in their excess. Even when I agreed with her (after all a lot of her takes validate certain aspects of my parenting style which I now have to question) I had to cringe at how poorly supported her opinions were. The few times she provides sources to support her assertions they range from dubious (why would The New Yorker be your source regarding the prevalence of teen suicide?) and questionable (let's not talk about considering Peterson as a valid source) to passable but uncited.
She seems to have a strange fixation on Israel and inserting the fact that someone is Jewish in the conversation even when seemingly irrelevant.
Even when she comes close to recognizing that hyper-individualism and the lack of community are a big part of why both parents and children seem to be so miserable, she remains determined to ignore what incentivizes these situations and why individualized action are unlikely to solve them. She also appears to be entirely oblivious to the many ways in which she affirms one thing and its opposite whenever convenient for her arguments.
Ultimately my conclusion regarding this book, in a move that will surprise exactly no one who knows me, is: Citation needed!
