Nick

Something I absolutely loved about this book is the way that there's a tense uneasiness in the air that never goes away. In fact, it gets worse as the stakes get raised higher and higher.

The eponymous auctioneer is a cult of personality. He's nice. He's charming. Everybody loves him. So, what's the catch? Well...the catch is everything one could expect about this sort of character.

The first half of this book flies by, but the second half kind of drags in spots. The ending is also a bit unsatisfying, but it was a hell of a ride nonetheless.

I love Shirley Jackson's writing. The reader never quite knows what the expect. My only criticism is that the ending is a bit quick and not super climactic, but with all of her stories it's more about the journey than the destination.

I loved this book. It was both eerie and tense without relying on cheap scares or amplified violence. It was kind of slow-paced and the ending was a tad anticlimactic, but I couldn't put it down. Creepy twins, grief, parenthood, family dynamics, and supernatural beliefs are front and center. Would love to read more from this author.

Michael Crichton is the smartest guy in the room and he knows it. In fact, he'll tell you he's the smartest one in the room. Several times. Whereas someone like Dan Brown is of (maybe?) above average intelligence pretending to be a genius, Crichton truly was one. Keep that in mind when reading his books.

This book was kind of a mess, honestly. It starts off with a fairly intriguing hook, starts to get interesting, and then kind of hits a wall. From that wall, the novel sort of devolves into nonsense. I gotta say, though, Crichton really tied up nearly every single plot point and loose end except the ones pointed out by the protagonist. That was a welcome change.

Part sci-fi, part gov't thriller, this book was a roller coaster to say the least. Each chapter I would rate differently but all things considered I'd say maybe a 3-3.25 is fair.

I feel a bit misled by the premise of this one. I've heard of an unreliable narrator, but never an unreliable synopsis. While it's heavily implied that there's some huge locked-room history afoot, it's more of a town-with-a-dirty-secret story. And that's fine. It just wasn't what I expected.

There were things about the story I enjoyed. The characters were mostly pretty well thought out. The twist involving Nell was great. I can't get into details without spoiler tagging this, so I won't. The other twists I didn't love. And while it made me laugh, it was pretty weird that every death was set up like “Oh no, we found a body!” “My goodness, I do say” almost to parody status. Rachel was one of the weakest characters in my opinion, too.

My verdict is a solid 2.5 out of 5 rounded up. Which brings me to the next mystery...

How is this book carrying such a mediocre rating but all of the top comments are 4 and 5 stars? A little delving into the situtation and I, not quite Rachel Savernake, have found something interesting. All of the top comments are by people who received advanced copies. My goodness, I do say! I've heard of this, but this is one of the first time I've actually seen this happen on GR. Guess I'll try to stay away from the viral BookTok-y stuff for my own sanity's sake.

This book scared the crap out of me when I was young. Still loved it though.

What an absolute mess of a book. Crichton is usually on point about accounting for and explaining every plausible scenario to a fault, but he did himself no favors. Events that should've taken chapters to draw out happened in paragraphs. Unnecessary scientific commentary interrupted plot. I know people will watch a crappy movie and say “oh, the book was better,” but at least the movie was b-movie funny.

I love Matt Ruff's style and the beginning was super compelling but the ending was a total clusterfuck to be completely honest. I was torn between giving this is 3 or 4, so for the sake of being nice I'll round up. Super quick read if you're looking to burn through something on a weekend.

This book was written as an alternate timeline to King's other book [b:Desperation 10584 Desperation Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1395764566l/10584.SY75.jpg 14015]. There are many parallels in characters and locations between the two. However, they are different stories and the characters have different lives. One person might be a good guy in one book and a bad guy in another.This is a cool concept, right? I like the idea that King was able to take an outline and diverge from that with two universes in which the arc happens and the way things turn out. Now, I had read Desperation several years ago and have been looking at this one on my shelf for just as long. I don't perfectly remember everything from the other, but I do believe I liked this one a bit more. They are both pretty solid 3/5 reads, I'd say.So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, and this doesn't affect my rating: Man, the more one reads SK the more the reader realizes that he really just doesn't have many original ideas. Sometimes he does and those stories take us places we've never been before. Other times, I feel like I could have just re-read a different book. In this case, I read [b:The Outsider 36124936 The Outsider Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524596540l/36124936.SY75.jpg 57566471] not too long ago. It feels, in hindsight, that that book was more a Desperation/Regulators spinoff than a Hodges/Holly spinoff. I hate to be negative about this, but how many “evil supernatural entity comes to ruin a small town” novels can this guy write? So, really, I won't blame this one for being super unoriginal because it was published back in 1996, but it did lower the level of enjoyment for me. Please, sir, between you and your son Joe, I think we can be done with this trope.

This short story was very ironic. A little...too ironic?

No, but seriously nice Twilight Zone-esque tale here. Just enough amount of humor and pain. The epilogue was icing on the cake.

It took me a long time to read this. The premise is interesting and the characters are great, but it's just so bloated. I feel like 2/3 of the book could be cut out and it would be the same story. Big Jim Rennie is an all-time SK villain. Ending is silly. Blah blah, I won't go on...

Believe it or not, I really did want to like this. The story really had me up until about 2/3 of the way through. Then it just falls into a convoluted mess where its biggest downfall is that it tries too hard to explain every single little thing in a sort of Chekov’s universe. Sheesh!

While the end certainly ruined everything for me, I have to give credit where credit is due. I did quite enjoy most of the characters and felt like they were pretty realistic. And the main character’s reactions to how things unfolded cracked me up. It was very self-aware. Much like with Sager’s other work, Final Girls, the author toyed with the reader quite a bit and even poked fun at the genre and its fans’ expectations.

But was the ending really that bad? Absolutely. At first it was like “oh” and then “oh!” and further with “I can see that” and even a little “wtf?!” Sager just didn’t know when to quit though. Just when I thought I’d read it all, the twists and the callbacks and all that jazz just kept coming and coming with no sight in end. As if all of that wasn’t enough, there’s one more shocker thrown in and, to be quite honest, it was beyond dumb. At that point, the book went from dumb fun pulp territory to just straight up insultingly bad. Avoid at all costs.

Another trip to Eighth Block, another howling good time. So far, two of the series have been novellas and two have been collections. I liked this novella a lot more than I liked White Fuzz. Plenty of humor, plenty of body horror.

The thing William Pauley III is that the reader never knows what's coming next. One minute you're safe at home, the next you're trapped within the walls of the Eighth Block Tower with no escape.

I really like that Urquhart brought her insider knowledge to the story. Being an autopsy tech probably helped quite a bit. Beyond that, I wasn't too impressed. Having that knowledge, I would have hoped she'd maybe described certain situations better. Honestly, I'm OK with the clinical writing that some did not enjoy, but maybe setting up scenes could have been done better.

I could write a laundry list of complaints, but the only thing I really want to touch on is how badly Urquhart relied on cliches and tropes. For someone who runs a true crime podcast, I had hoped she hadn't used so many as a crutch. For instance, the myth of the genius serial killer is used here. He's smarter than everyone, he always has a plan (until he doesn't), he somehow kills dozens of people in a short amount of time without being caught, etc. Everyone else is one-dimensional and, honestly, pretty bad at their jobs. And that culminates into a poorly done sequel hook for no reason. I'm not tagging that as a spoiler because the book is already titled as “The Butcher and the Wren, #1) on Goodreads. I won't give away details, but another one of the most-used tropes of all time here.

This sort of book reflects poorly on the true crime fandom to be perfectly honest. It turns fascination of the human mind and a wish for victims to be brought to justice into cheap torture porn and exploitation.

The author really shot himself in the foot when his character said that not all stories need a point, that being shocking can be enough. This book failed in both regards. Not terribly written prose, but everything involving characters and plot fell extremely flat. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone, unfortunately.

This book was bad. Like really bad. Like, The Room bad. Giving it a 2 instead of a 1 because it was so bad that it was entertaining.

Before I dive into the actual book, let's start with the author. David Bell, according to the bio blurb, has an MA in creative writing, a PhD in American literature and creative writing, and is currently an English professor. OK, good credentials... We'll revisit them shortly.

The premise here is that six students are vying for an academic scholarship. This is no ordinary scholarship, mind you. It is the most prestigious scholarship for the school with the caveat being total secrecy and seclusion during the selection process. The reason? Rich people can do whatever they want. Because of this, the author is able to get six students, the vice president, and the wealthy Hyde family's sole heir and donor into a locked room mystery.

If these seems convoluted, bear with me, because it get a whole lot worse. See: part of this selection process involves every single person in the house having to give up their phones and other personal affects until the end of the process. This is enforced by the head of campus police as stated by the Hyde family's bylaws. Maybe now is a good time to mention that these bylaws can be changed once a year, so essentially the rules get changed as is convenient. Waiting staff is allowed into the house before the games begin, and no one is allowed in or out until the end, lest the entire scholarship is dissolved. Ah, so the stakes are high...I guess. And for some reason they're so high that there are no contingency measures for emergencies. Makes sense for a measly scholarship. Oh, and there are protests happening because dad gum liberals or whatever.

So, who is dumb enough to partake in this, you ask? We'll I'd love to tell you!

1) Milo - The Front Runner - This guy has it all! He's smart, everyone likes him, he's got a great personality, but everyone in this room has a jealousy problem with him. Whoa, hope nothing bad happens to him!

2) Natalia - The Brain - She's as smart as Milo, but she's undocumented. Ooooooooh.

3) James - The Rule Follower - He's not just a "rule follower." He's an old military guy. Not a single emotion in this guy, just logic. Real Data from Star Trek type stuff.

4) Sydney - The Athlete - Maybe not as smart as the others, but she really can play volleyball. Has some skeletons in her closet...but who doesn't, amirite?

5) Duffy - The Cowboy - Starts off with a cowboy hat, ends up just being a guy.

6) Emily - The Social Justice Warrior - All of these are directly from the back of the book. Someone actually wrote that down, not me. Yeah, she's a rude dude with a 'tude, but her intentions are good, I hope.

7) Vice President Troy Gaines - The university's go-between for the students and the Hyde family. He wants to keep both sides happy because he's just that good of a guy.

8) Nicholas Hyde - The sole heir to the Hyde Family fortune, this guy is a dickhead...or is he?

Every single one of these characters fucking sucked. They're all terrible, terrible caricatures written by a guy who's never ran into a single smart person, undocumented student and/or Latina, soldier and/or black person, athlete, cowboy, social justice warrior, or rich person in his life. Every single one of these doofuses is the direct reflection of how someone like the Vice Principal would see them. Going back to the author's role in academia: wow, who could've seen that coming? The vice principal's actions are hilariously dumb. He has no street smarts, barely any book smarts, and can't do simple things like opening a window or door.

From the moment the door locks, the plot points and mysteries just pile up like a huge stack of triceratops poo filled with sick. So, the college is simultaneously dirt poor but also extremely expensive and prestigious? The Hyde Family is soooooo rich that they can just pay for bazillions of dollars for students and their businesses but can't afford simple fixes on the one thing that keeps them in the public eye? Puh-lease. This book is just teeming with shit like this. It never gets better, only worse. Nobody makes any decisions that make sense whether or not you see the people as real characters or dumb stereotypes. They just kind of float through the book without direction, even Mr Logic. And then the book ends.

It's really hard to point out how ridiculous all of this is without giving spoilers, so yeah, I can't give this 1 star because I do think people should read it. Unlike most mysteries that will make you wonder what's going to happen next or who is responsible, you'll most likely be laughing and scratching your head.

And then the cherry on top? I don't know if it was the author or the publisher's doing, but there is a fucking Book Club Discussion at the end of this? Like, what the fuuuuuuuuuuck? Who needs to discuss this god damn book that was written by and adult for adults that reads like YA drivel? I literally laughed the hardest when I was reading the discussion points. Here are a couple:

- "While everyone waits outisde Hyde House, we are introduced to the students who will participate in the exam. Does the group seem like a typical cross section of today's college students?" All due respect, Mr Bell, but this is something you should've asked yourself BEFORE writing this nonsense.

- "Two characters behave heroically at the end. Did the behavior of either of those characters surprise you?" Well, one was you writing yourself into the book, so is this a question for your ex-girlfriends?

- "What do you think of Troy's character arc in the novel? Why and how has he changed?" Without spoilers, this is a hilarious question, but also, OK Mrs Jones-Keller, my 7th grade English teacher.

So yeah, nobody ever talks about how laughably bad writing can be. This one really opened my eyes.

For White Fuzz, we return to 8th Block for part 2. While the first was a collection of short stories, this one is a novella. I thoroughly enjoy William Pauley III's style and subversive humor but the plot and subject matter just wasn't for me.

This had been on my TBR for quite a long time, and I gotta say: Wow, I'm glad I finally took the time. I'm sure Quiet on Set pushed this book back into the spotlight and it is the perfect companion piece for those who want to know more about what was really going on at Nickelodeon behind the scenes.

If we're going to compare this book and the documentary, I feel like QOS was a lot more sensationalized and skewed. Here, she not only brings up the big bad of QOS (who was only the third worst person IMO), but also brings into question the entire child acting industry. From her first foray into acting and the lengths her mom would go to “help her succeed,” I think it's something we all should look a lot deeper into. Not only should we be asking “Do these people have our children's best interests in mind?” but also “Do we have our children's best interests in mind?”

Jennette's career as a child actor doesn't begin and end with Nickelodeon and it doesn't start or stop on set. She delves into the routine she must endure, the constant nitpicking of her weight to the point of developing an eating disorder, distrust in future relationships, alcohol abuse, sketchy people at home and away. She makes no qualms with stating that this was someone else's dream and that her upbringing should serve as a warning for others thinking about getting their selves or children into Hollywood. Not to say that everything is a bummer. She recounts high highs with the low lows, and even states that some of her lows might be others' highs. However, knowledge is power in this situation, so it's good to know what one is getting into.

This truly was an eye-opening memoir and I'm glad that Jennette had the courage to share with us.

Note to self: if a book has a ton of hype, please look up how many GR top reviews are 5-star and paid.

This book sincerely sucked. Bad. My 2-star review is super generous.

- was it original? No. It was a retelling of Poe that did absolutely nothing to add to the original. However, it did take away immensely.

- world building? There was a weird attempt to invent a fictional country and language... Unnecessarily boring and ended up going nowhere.

- humor? Fell flat in all attempts

- suspense? None at all

- atmosphere? Absolutely none

- characters? Couldn't care less about a single one

- horror? Still a no

There were glimpses of the author being an ok writer as far as dialogue and lexicon, but overall this book frickin sucks and y'all that gave it rave reviews should be ashamed of yourselves.

Of Flynn's three, I read this one last. It was quite different than her others, but I liked it quite a bit. Kinda turns true crime obsession on its head.

Very neat novella. Lots of every sci-fi trope I love: cosmic horror, rips in space, kaiju, physics, creepy kids. All this stuffed into a fairly short story. Only things I'd change are a little more world building and a little more length.

The opening page was strange and made me not want to read the rest, but I figured: eh, it's short. Let's roll with it.

Ahh! Ok, I get it now.

It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't very good either. Tbh it was pretty generic. I'm struggling to think of anything exceptional that would catapult it to award-winning status. I'm at a loss.

So, right off the bat, one of the main characters has a random sexual encounter. This small diversion pretty much sums up my feelings for the rest of the book. Not only was it kind of weird to introduce the character with, but it had no impact on anything after nor did it explain the particular character's personality or motives.

From that point on, the plot and characters just sort of spider-web out until eventually converging at the end. However, some of those seem highly unnecessary by the ending. Entire characters and subplots could have been completely erased and had no bearing on the ending.

Around the halfway point, I kind of felt like some strange exquisite corpse writing was going on or something. I can't quite pinpoint it, but something changed. I didn't feel like I was reading the same book I started. I dunno if anyone else felt that way.

As for the ending, I felt like the red herrings and twists were a bit much. It seemed to me that the author was hoping for that to be talked about moreso than the writing. However, I felt like everything was a bit telegraphed and pretty much confirmed for me at one of the twists.

Was this book any good? Yeah, it was ok, I guess. Was it worth any hype? Nah. Should it have been a teleplay for a forgettable Law & Order clone's mid-season episode? Absolutely.

It took me a while to think of how to express my thoughts on this. What I've come to decide is that this novella feels like it was rushed to publication. The premise was good. I really enjoyed the writing. I really enjoyed what little I knew of the characters. The plot was pretty engaging. But it just felt so incomplete. We needed more of Fernanda's day to day stuff to get to know her. We needed Father Moreno developed more. We needed more mythology. What about the adults? What about Ruben? Some of the plot points kind of petered out or came in and out of existence. Much of the dialogue could have been given a second look. So yeah, I think a little more care could have brought this way higher up.