Shannon

while i could've done without a lot of the repetition and some of the odd syntax, i do NOT understand why the end is so disliked........it's realistic! not every ghost story has to end the same way (i.e. in some big supernatural showdown with the heroes winning 100% or in them losing completely)! sometimes they can just End and that's okay!

i am however fondly wishing the heteros well for once

unfortunately loses points for just...being the back half of the movie and having none of the emotional pull of the front half but the original play does predate the film by a year so

if mimi weren't so goddam insufferable i would've liked this a lot better :/ it had everything else that i could've wanted but...well. have to have a protagonist that doesn't understand human emotion until the last 2 pages, i guess

you could read this book, small and easy as it is with some nice art choices, or you could follow the grandiloquent word of the day facebook page and get more bang for your buck (like a longer etymology of the word or phrase in question)

certainly an interesting lens on the titular crime (woman looking back on her reminiscences as a child) but the fact remains that there's...very little that actually goes on and not much at all about the crime aside from it happening and some discussion of the procedure. sometimes that can work but in this case i don't think it did entirely; there's also absolutely no resolution but that in my opinion doesn't hurt it because these cases sometimes don't HAVE a resolution, sad as it is

(also i couldn't stand the audiobook after hearing the narrator lick her lips and swallow like every .5 seconds. as someone with misophonia, no thank you)

was this completely inane? absolutely. did i have a great time? oh god yes. big ol bara titties as far as the eye can see

i wanted so much to like this more than i did :/ the characters being terrible people is something i can handle but there was just Something about how this teetered between overwritten and not written well enough that's really offputting

fencing is a fine ‘game' and all but stabbing your buddy? NOT it

you FOOLS. that isn't his partner, that's his HUSBAND.

thinking about the radio adaptation of this today and how vincent price and claude rains sound MARRIED married in it <3

gorgeously illustrated but i do sorely wish that the “traditional airs” mentioned in the foreword as being the tunes for the ballads were easier to find :( that way i could attempt to find recordings

a poor adaptation but the colorist did an incredible job

the blurb calls this “fast-paced” but it was WAY too quick and i couldn't tell many of the characters apart :/

love how every meathead soldier was outwitted by the local Rich Idiot with No Day Job™

more like 3.75 stars, but only because i wish that there was more information to some entries

a book about spooky stuff in my state written by a history buff?? be still my heart! i'm so used to illinois ghost books having so much erroneous information and hauntings only based on ~vibes~ so this was a lovely read

feels a bit weird to rate a cookbook so i'm...not going to do that

instead i will say that this was a goddamn delight to read and the photos at the end are simultaneously horrifying (mentally i was running some james lileks-style narration) and adorable (the cucumber crocodile!! precious!!)

reread: feel like pure shit just want vincent price back x

4.5 stars - i'm emotionally devastated now so that's fun!

this felt a bit like a monster calls, but i just didn't like it quite as much :/ still, a decent little companion if you want a similar-feeling tale

the best fact in this whole book: nick lea? uncertain about how he feels about werewolves or vampires. i have no choice but to stan

now THIS is the folk horror stuff i LIKE. bog mummy take the wheel

i'm emotionally compromised at 11 am and kent is the Best Boy

this was a resounding “meh” for me; the potential is there but on the whole i was more interested in the alien society set up than i was about the boys themselves. that and i'd REALLY like to know what was shown in the bedroom that made the narrator's friend act like that

man, usually anthologies are a bit hit-or-miss for me, but this was solid

4.75

look, sometimes you just have to keep rereading a particular book because you're feeling stinky, it's okay

this...might have unseated the ghost writer as my favorite book, but it's a very VERY close thing