Andrea Ward
The house is the best part of this book! The descriptions of the fading glamour was well done. I liked the little glimpses we would get of Dr. Faraday around town and talking with people not associated with the estate. The ending seemed fitting for the family and the estate, but I wanted more from Dr Faraday. I wanted him to interrogate himself and his actions more. So I was left feeling like there could have been a whole different read on the story based on Dr Faraday. I think I would have preferred the story that was happening in my head.
I loved the family aspect of this book. I liked the ranch and that Brianna was the capable one. I was frustrated a couple times with how thick headed they both were, but that didn't last too long. Cash's dad is ridiculous and needs to be put in his place. I'm guessing that will happen more in later books in the series. Brianna's baby goals were not really believable it seemed to be just for story dramatics. And it did make for some good lines and scenes in the book, so I didn't mind it.
I thought I knew what was going on, but I was shocked by the twists, so I was obviously wrong. I am so glad I was surprised. The twists were well done and looking back on it, there were hints I missed. Meg is obviously an unreliable narrator and we can't completely trust the other patients. That led me to doubting the workers as well. However the author does a great job of making these people potentially unreliable without making them bad people. I really liked the way she humanized the addicts and presented the problems with rehab. She helped us understand it while keeping up the tension and the humanity of people. I am so glad that I read it.
Tiffany D Jackson, Storm, Black Panther, and an African journey?! Take my money! The X-Men are my favorite superhero's in both movies and comics. I am not an avid reader/watcher, but when I am in the mood that is what I reach for. So I was excited to hear about this book. This book did not let me down. Storm, or Ororo, doesn't know about her heritage and isn't quite sure who she is. She has trauma to deal with before her powers manifest and the bad guy shows up. So she has to take a journey to get answers about her powers and keep everyone safe from the bad guy. Along the way, she has to deal with her past and start figuring out her future. I really loved seeing her develop from someone who is just getting by to someone who is empowered make decisions for her life. I love novels like this that give me a new way to look at these characters.
I liked the way this book was laid out. The chapters are named by the time they take place. That helps to remind us that this is all taking place in 24 hours. We are not immediately told about why they are sequestered away in this house. We know the word explosion and that's it for a while. We aren't told because all of the characters know what happened and there is no reason to info dump right away. We eventually learn why in a natural way. I'm sure that will bother some people, but I liked that.
The roommates are all awful, but we don't know exactly why and how far they will go. So there is a creeping horror in the background. There is also a bit of gore towards the end, but it isn't very horrific. I think it is more of a thriller as we follow Case trying to figure out what happened to Drea. It is obvious that the roommates did something and are lying, but what are they lying about? Thats the main focus of the book. The ending was tense and enjoyable. There really aren't any explanations at the end, but in the same way that we don't get an info dump on the world, we don't get an info dump about why they do what they do. I appreciate the way the author reveals things while making it feel natural.
The negatives? It doesn't feel like much happens. It was a quick read and it only took place in one day, but not much happens.
The family in this is complicated and so are their goals. The family history and the house history are complicated. It is hard to know who to trust including Jade sometimes. I liked that part well enough, but the body horror and bug horror really set this book apart. Once I even had to read a part aloud because I had to let someone else know how gross that part was.
I LOVE this book! Dodd did an amazing job writing an older Romeo and Juliet and leaving a lot of humor in there. The Montague family is enchanting. Rosie is hilarious and headstrong. There are so many political machinations that she has to work through to keep her reputation and find love, not to mention the murders. I was surprised by the murderer, but thinking back over the book the hints were there and I just missed them. The twist at the end with the romance was kind of expected, but I was still sitting there with my mouth hanging open. I can't wait to read the next book and see how Rosie deals with everything. Who knew I love Romeo and Juliet stories so much?
I LOVE that Mary Dowling Hahn books are being made into graphic novels! There were so many good creepy books when I was a kid and now they are being rereleased in a new format for a new generation to experience. I had not read this one when it was first released, so the story was new to me. It still had that cozy horror feel of kids horror books. I was pretty sure I knew where the story was going, but I enjoyed the process of getting there. This is a wonderful graphic novel for any kid or adult who wants a slightly creepy a ghost story.
There were so many times I wanted to throw things at these people. They know their secrets are actively harming people, but they won't open up! And the author managed to make these characters feel like people who are making these decisions and not just authorial machinations. This is the first Mary Roberts Reinhart novel I have read and it won't be the last.
This novella felt like the old school ghost stories from when I was a kid. Weird family secrets and ghosts that are just barely there. I liked the explanation of what was happening and the ending. The way that Tara reacted when the worst of it was over was a good creepy touch. Quick, creepy ghost story.
This woman is amazing. She wrote an excellent book about a very difficult life and had so much compassion for those she loves in the process. It would have been easy to give up on those loved ones, but she didn't. She also has no problem pointing out the racism and colorism that exists in acting, but even then it doesn't feel vindictive. I am so glad that she is being recognized as an amazing actress as well as an amazing person.
I really loved the way the audience finds out exactly what is going along as Temple does. I also like that Temple has flaws to work on. She is not perfect or extremely capable and she finds people who will call her on that. At about halfway through, I was not sure about where the story was going because it definitely did not go the way I expected. I was tempted to skip to the end, but I kept with it and I am SO glad I did!
I really had no clue what was going to happen next.
And it was a great ride. Now that I have finished it, there is really no other way for the story to have developed. Each step had to be where it was in order to tell the story the right way.
This was good in so many unexpected ways!
People are way scarier than any fantastical creature or paranormal entity. This story proves that.
Shanice and Estelle both have battles to fight and obstacles to overcome to find a safe place for themselves and their work. I liked those challenges and I was glad to be right about a couple of the twists. I was also glad that there were a couple that surprised me. One of the ways that Shanice found out important information made me roll my eyes, but one convenient plot point with all of the complicated relationships and motives is pretty good. The strongest part was definitely the characters and the fight they had in them. That will stick with me for a long while.
I love the setting and the characters. The tattoo magic is creative and useful. The solution to the problem felt a little like the author had written herself into a corner. However, the setting and characters were so enchanting that I didn't care about the convenience of the solution. This feels like a young YA book and we need more of those. I will be recommending this book often.
Tiwa and Said are wonderful characters. Tiwa is working so hard to make her community better, but also has many personal things she is running from. Said is blissfully unaware of many things. As the story unfolds, Said learns and begins to think beyond himself. Tiwa starts to make peace with some of her personal issues. I wanted to see more of her dealing with that, but that would have changed the story significantly. So I don't really know how that could have worked out.
The romance was there, but lightly done. I liked how YA this book feels. I can see a lot of teens, especially younger teens falling in love with these characters.
Wow! I am going to keep thinking about this book. Sunny, Eli, and Malcom are complicated, but I love them. They each make questionable decisions and significant mistakes, but they don't give up on each other. There are so many secrets and some of them are not uncovered. I would love to read more from these characters. I would generally not like having these questions left up in the air, but this book is written so well that it makes sense for this story to be left with questions. So I am left pondering these characters and their lives. I want to know about what comes next and what has happened before this story.
I was a little skeptical at the beginning, but I just got so absorbed in the world that I kept going. And that was the right decision! The best parts: the writing in dialect, the suspicious people, the twists and the magical school tropes.
I love the way he wrote in dialect. A few times I had to stop and reread the line out loud to hear it, but I liked that because it really made this world come alive. It reminded me of Wuthering Heights with the level of dialect. It is hard to know who to trust because there are so many people with so many of their own goals. That lack of trustworthiness helped connect me to Malik. There were a few twists that I saw coming and some that I didn't. By the end of the book, those twists all came together logically. Several of them are painful, but Malik is determined, so I am excited to see what happens next in book two.
There were several places in the book that reminded me of pieces of Harry Potter and then the author turned that piece into something special in his world. So I really enjoyed recognizing a trope or characteristic and then seeing how Williams used that creatively in his book. He doesn't overdo it and it isn't obvious to the point of campy. So it is a perfect balance in my opinion.
I enjoyed the various languages that show up and the history moments that we see as well. That was another thing that helped create the world. It gave me a hint that there was more to come and we were only seeing a snippet.
The romance parts of the book were not well done. The friendships got better by the end of the book. I am hoping to see some of the interpersonal relationships improve in the next book.
So great world building, characters with strong motivations, and lots of interesting moments to create the overall plot. I can't wait for book 2.
I did not expect this level of planning in this group. So that was interesting and it was a good review/ explanation of what is going on. I might be losing interest in this one. It is moving slow with the parts I am interested in, but I really love the dialect that it is written in. So I enjoy reading the words even if the plot and characters aren't really interesting me now. But maybe it gets better?