Alice Archer
5/5 - Can easily see why this is considered a classic! Super eerie set up throughout as you are getting to the conclusion. The feeling of knowing something isn't quite right with everyone around you but not knowing what is going on made for an uncomfortable read. I knew very little about this book going into it, and I feel that really added to the overall creepy feel as perhaps it might have gotten slow in places waiting for the plot to move along if you knew what was coming at the end.
I was really surprised about the writing style, I always have classics pinned down as super hard and/or laborious reads for the most part, but Rosemary's Baby couldn't be further away from that. Was incredibly easy too read and flew through in about a day.
3/5 - decent physiological thriller, however far too much going on that took away from the main plot. Also felt like this relied far too much on the big twist at the end with majority of the book lacking up until that point. There was also one massive plot hole that for me makes the ending totally unrealistic and takes away from the ending as well.
3/5 - Undoubtedly beautifully written, completely devastating and harrowing story. However, definitely could have been about 100 pages shorter, aspects of the book felt repetitive and unnecessarily long. Not sure A Little Life is something I would go about recommending to everyone due to it being a heavy slog of a read, but if you think you're up for it give it a go!
5/5 - Jennette McCurdy gives a really raw and brutally honest account of her childhood on how she was exploited and abused from a young age, and the lasting effects this had on her going into adulthood.
Growing up I was a fan of iCarly and found it unsettling to think this was all going on in the background whilst everyone else was so painfully oblivous to what was going on. Makes me wonder if things in Hollywood have changed for child actors now?
I tend to air on the side of caution with books that are very hyped up but this was definitely worth reading, JM is clearly a very talented writer!
4/5 - A solid look into the language various types of cults use to attract and retain members into the ideology they are trying to promote. Although I would argue somewhat that this book was slightly more about various different types of cults more so than the language they use, but this wasn't something that necessarily bothered me.
From Heaven's Gate to Soul Cycle, Montell covers various different groups that use specific language to gain attraction and tries to aruge why this makes them “cultish”. The majority of time this is argued really well, however I was less sold on the “Exercise Cults” and more convinced it's just good marketing on the corperation's part.
Was overall a great insight into the world of cults, makes me want to be more aware of the things I buy into!
3/5 - I had such high hopes for the 2nd installment of the The Lost Lords of Pembrook series, but alas for the most part this was truly disapointing.
Again like the previous book, the start was very promising but increasingly got very lackluster. I found Tristan the most entertaining of the 3 brothers and just wished for the majority that the plot was going to turn out differently. The parts on the ship where by far the best, once on land it fell apart for me.
4.5/5 - Glad to see this was wayyyy better than what I was expecting!
Daisy was my least favourite of the Wallflowers in the rest of the series but her story in this book was really sweet.
Scenes between Daisy and Matthew were really romantic and thought they weere a strong pair together.
Lillian and Westcliff were too present in this book, I just don't fully buy that they are compatible. And Lillian just irritated me endlessly throughout.
But all in all solid read, glad to see the Wallflower series has ended on a high. Devil in Winter (to no surprise) will forever be my favourite in the series though!
5/5 - Absolutely loved this dark romance novella from start to finish, this very quick read did not let up!
The premise of the this book is what got me super hooked, thief has to marry a hangman, I was super interested to see what would be done with that. And it did not dissapoint! Some of my favourite tropes where utilised - enemies to lovers, forced proximity etc..
Really enjoyed the FMC, she was independent and funny which contrasted nicely with the MMC who was gruff and very quiet.
Would definitely recommend this to those who like dark romance novella, but would suggest looking up trigger warnings before starting.
4/5 - I have found this book really hard to rate and I feel after I sit a while thinking about it more I will probably change my rating but overall a super quick read and absolutely loved the premise of this book! But there is something about it that is stopping me from giving it a full 5 stars.
On the surface this is a devil possession story, but it's so much more than that. Tragic tale on how the Barrett family deals with Marjorie's physiological changes with devastating consequences.
Not a particularly frightening book but it handles some very heavy topics and as someone who grew up rather religious (not anymore) I found aspects of it quite triggering, in particular John Barrett's approach to Marjorie's illness.
I've seen some reviews that where critical of the blog post aspect of this book, but I rather enjoyed them. Gave a nice break to Merry's childhood persepective of what happened during the time the film crew being in the house. But I wish it was explored more into why Merry was doing this blog post about the show anonymously, unless I missing something or am I reading too much into it.
The ending was unexpected but it didn't come as big shock, I was more intrigued by the questions it left you with, was it really Marjorie that was possessed/ill or was it actually Merry? And I just can't help but feel that Merry is a super unreliable narrator.