Perry
Sloane, you need to remove your head from your sphincter, sweetheart. I went from feeling bad for her to wanting to throttle her. But in the end, no matter how hot the hot guy is, her best friend is her favorite person and greatest love.
As always, a good, fun Rachel read about best friends, vampires, and quarter-life/midlife crises; about staying in limp or awful relationships and finding yourself, even when you are a grown adult. About found family and love, and how frustrating it can be to be a woman in the world; and how nice it can be to scare awful, sexist men.
I adore Naomi and Ilie.
So, major TW/CW for delicate animal lovers and crazy cat ladies like me: There is a brutal pet murder scene 65% or so through the book that was gratuitous and very upsetting. There are multiple small animal murders, but the cat is the only one that goes into any depth. Like, why does Nightbeyotch hate her cat? The cat sounds adorable! That is not a thing I needed to read, and I wish I'd known about it beforehand.
On the whole, I found this book generally fast-paced and entertaining. There really are some lovely sentences in it, though it can get repetitive. And, honestly, not much really happens. It also enhances my suspicions that white suburbanites are just...really bizarre? And I'm white, but decidedly NOT suburban. I know people that are involved in MLM schemes, and I'm always flummoxed by them.
As others have noted, this should have been a novella. And whilst I did enjoy reading most of it, I was also flummoxed by the ending. If Jen & Co. were the other dogs, how is it that Nightbeyotch seemed to be the greatest of these suburban dogwomen? How is it that her issues with her husband were solved so easily? And how in the world is her kid going to grow up with any empathy, when he's basically treated like a weird little dogprince who gets whatever he wants?
Though there are some great moments, the ending sort of craps out for me, and the animal cruelty was too much. And her kid...I'd be worried. All that said, Ms. Yoder never bored me, and the premise wasn't too weird for me, since I usually read genre fiction, and transformation is just...a thing sometimes.
Suburban white housewife lit is a whole subgenre now. The dog transformation isn't the weird part.
3 stars only because I wasn't bored. Very Greek history of the author to have a Turkish woman be terrible.
Started out with some quite nice prose, but nice prose can't mask a typical silly thriller plot. I found myself agreeing completely with all the 1 and 2 star reviews. Bit I've decided to round up to 3 because, whilst this was nonsensical typical thriller nonsense with some added good grief WTF, I was neither bored nor quite certain where the twist would be.
That being said, I've read books where the nonlinear was handled much better.
So, in conclusion: not great but sufficiently entertaining, which is really all i can hope for with thrillers.
Just finished at work. Good fun. It's sort of like a YA/new adult book. I wouldn't even say that it's got stronger language or more gore or sex. It really doesn't. It does have a delightfully psycho main character who just...gets fed up. Yes, there are plot holes and things that strain credulity. However, I had a good time. It was a fast, fun read.
I was sufficiently entertained. I'm flummoxed by Anna's family. They're awful, except for the two little girls. The prose was fine, if nothing special. There were some good moments, but nothing outstandingly scary. One particular disappearance in the middle–the circumstances around it–intrigued me; Anna's discovery of the incident was a positive for the book, honestly. It was certainly one of the better spectral parts of it. Other bits were less interesting and more trite. Nothing particularly inventive with the hauntings. I honestly could have used more folk magic moments to tie things together better.
The family drama–honestly, it was stressful. I'm sure it's over-the-top, but I didn't find it to be completely unrealistic. Anna's family are terrible. They blame her for everything. They almost make her a self-fulfilling prophecy: There are moments later in the book during which she's actually a truly terrible person. Between the ghost haunting and the family haunting, she's between a rock and a hard place.
I also thought there might be some lesbian themes here, but those fizzled out, sadly. Ms. Thorne should have leaned heavier into those. Especially since the only other queer characters are actually unbearable, one of whom being her own brother.
So, a fun way to spend some time. The audio book was decent. There's snark for those who like it. And, in the end, Anna makes the right choice for herself. That was something I did appreciate. If you're entire family except two little girls are awful, screw ‘em.
Fun enough, not amazing, but not horrible. More uncomfortable because of family stuff that might hit close to home for some. But the ghosty bits needed more.
Yes, I understand some of the criticisms. And, okay, he's an evangelical. But no gods were mentioned in the making of this book, so I didn't know that until I just read about him a few minutes ago. I just assumed it was a nice book about a boy and his animal friends who love him. That's really the point. Found family. Which is not an intrinsically evangelical concept. It's a sweet little book that wants to make people feel loved. I dare say it's less evangelical than it is humanist. Three animals taking care of a little boy. Three animals who wouldn't necessarily be friends in real life. But with the boy included, they become a family. The sketchy drawings illustrate the beauty of this in just a few lines. The font is difficult, sure, but it's still legible.
In all, a beautiful little nugget of found family sweetness. And furbuddies count as family. Just as my cats.
I'm so sad to be done. I was not ready to leave. That hasn't happened in a long time for me with books, even though I love books and reading. Even though I've loved some of the books I've read in the last few years. But, man, being done nearly broke my heart. So did some of the stuff in this book.
Jade Daniels forever. Thank YOU, Mr. Jones, for giving us the gift of Jade. Or, maybe more accurately, for letting us meet her. She is legit one of my favorite characters ever in anything.
I went into this hoping for cathartic vengeance against a**holes. It doesn't really fulfill that. However, there are some absolutely beautiful sentences and nuanced characters that I enjoyed reading about. Especially Alma. And Ricky. I loved how they loved each other. And how, honestly, I'm not sure Daniel will ever really be able to change, judging by the epilogue.
Brutal, tragic, and so good. Like, don't go into this without knowing what you're getting into. I knew what I was getting into, but there was a part that I ended up reading in a coffee shop, and I sort of wish I'd been at home, because it was hard not to start crying. If something makes me want to start crying whilst I'm on Zoloft and Focalin, that's a good sign. For the book, I mean. Not for the poor, precious character or my mental state.
My favorite character too. sobs
Gabby and Trudy are great. Starks little comics at the end are great. This weird little nugget was sure a surprise to me. Some grue, lots of weird, and then a surprise twist toward the end. I need to read it all in one go now that I have all the single issues. But I utterly enjoyed the quirky characters, the WTF?!, the side characters. I could use more of all of it.
Fun and Fast
I bought this on sale on Amazon, because i didn't feel like waiting for the library. It's self-aware for the most part regarding its thriller absurdities. There were a couple twists I didn't see coming, and I started to second guess myself a couple times, but I did figure out something major early on. That's not too say this is predictable, not at all. It probably would have gotten a higher score, were it not for using the old mental illness trope–always a very thriller thing to do–and unnecessary fatphobia. Same character. Can we please get past the constant treatment of fat being a moral failing? And mental illness as murderous? This book was fun, until we got to those parts, and then I was frustrated and annoyed. On the whole though, this was, for me, the rare truly enjoyable thriller.
And the dog does not die.
It's been ages since I've read Nick Cutter, and I especially loved The Troop. So I was looking forward to some grotty, gooey, gore. There is some of that. TW: There is a turtle in peril, which is upsetting.
Basically, Trent and Rita–along with their small son Milo and his aforementioned turtle Morty–move to a new housing development. It's so new, there's only, like, one house, and there is no lawn. Trent is annoyed at this. There is also a giant crack in his bedroom closet. So he does what any man with something to prove to himself does–he looks it up on Youtube, buys his supplies, and follows the instructions of Handyman Hank.
Naturally (supernaturally), strange things start to occur. Trent finds weird baubles and pink worms. Milo starts building weird creations from junk around the house. There are weird convex nests on the property, and weird voices coming from Milo's weird creations. Milo also seems to have his own Handyman Hank helping him create his little inventions. Meanwhile, Rita doesn't necessarily explicitly experience too many of the incidences, unless she's with her son. But she knows something is lurking there, something dark and awful, something that makes her fear for her son.
Cuz, let's face it. There's some backstory here, and Trent and Rita don't have the greatest relationship. And the house is making it worse and worse.
There was definitely some good grue. You can rely on our authors for that. There were a few things I didn't expect, which made me very happy also. This is easily a bit of a critique on toxic masculinity. A solid, fun read.
Thank you to the authors and publisher for giving me an ARC in a giveaway on line for an honest review.