Elle

I have to be honest: when I picked up this book at the library (because of its amazing title), flipped through it and saw there was a list of the books in the back, I considered simply taking a picture of the list and placing 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered back on the shelf. 

I am SO GLAD I didn't do that because this book is so much more than a list. There is a short spoiler-free summary/review (including general themes, tone, style, and setting) for each book that is so thoughtful and well-written I can just feel Sadie Hartmann (aka Mother Horror)'s excitement and love for every story through her writing. It made me excited to read the books, even the ones I probably wouldn't usually be interested in. Quick note: when the setting was noted, it would say something like “Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” or “New England,” or something. But one of the featured books takes place in a single room of a house and so the setting said “Bathroom,” and it made me laugh haha

The list is actually 91 specific books and 10 author spotlights. In the author spotlight pages, Hartmann introduces the author and her favorite books they've written, then details several of their books for you to choose from.

There are also thought-provoking essays by various horror writers peppered in throughout the book which I really enjoyed, especially the ones about queer representation in horror and what horror means to the queer community. 

Also! Hartmann included a good bit of independently published horror, which I'm thankful for. I'm in getting into indie stuff but there's so much of it I didn't know where to start. Now I do!

This was described to me by a friend as a stoner comedy type of thing, and I thought “sure, why not?” A comic about a perpetually stoned witch named Megg who goes on adventures with her cat (and maybe boyfriend?) Mogg, their roommate Owl, and their friend Werewolf Jones (all of which are also perpetually stoned and/or drunk) sounds alright.

It's silly and nonsensical at times (fine), gross and derogatory at others (meh). The objectionable bits felt a lot like a teenager trying to be super edgy and they weren't funny at all. They just didn't feel necessary. At best, they make some people chuckle and at worst, they seriously offend others. And the rest, like me, don't care. What's the point?

I'm not a person who tends to dislike unloveable characters as long as they are well-written or important to the story or whatever but the characters of Megahex were horrible. Except Owl. He who had some nice development and it was actually interesting to watch him grow.

I picked this up on a whim thinking it sounded interesting and I was not at all disappointed. It was different from anything else I typically read and I really enjoyed it. 

When I read a book (or watch a movie/tv show) about a stalker, it tends to be about sexual attraction, ex lovers, etc. This one was just about The (lonely) Woman in the Yellow Cardigan obsessing over how much she wanted to be The Woman in the Purple Skirt's friend. It was kind of sweet in that way. Well, as sweet as a story about a stalker can be. Although, the book wasn't really about The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. We don't even get many details about her, we mostly get information about The Woman in the Purple Skirt, as if the book is just about her and The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan is simply a subjective narrator. A great quick read!

The story was quite good, but how could it not be? Everyone in a small town collapses into a deep sleep, some kind of invisible force field prevents anyone outside of the town from entering, and then when the force field lifts, every woman in town is pregnant. Yeah, that's gonna be good. And it was made even better by the audiobook, which was actually made for radio. Instead of just a normal narration, there was an actor for every character, there were sound effects, there was music. It was really cool and it definitely made me want to look into more radio productions.

A really good read, very encouraging for anyone who has dealt with depression and anxiety. I think it could be encouraging for anyone who has recently become an adult out in the world, honestly. I wish it was required reading for new adults.

As others have said, it does start to get a little platitude-heavy, but if you think of it as a book you can return to when things are tough, those things might be helpful when you need to see them. 

The Starless Sea is the most beautifully written book I've read in a long time. An instant favorite. I read a library copy but I'm going to buy my own because I loved it too much and I feel like I could read it again and pick up on new things I missed the first time.

It was a lovely ode to stories and story telling. At first I didn't want each chapter of Zachary's story to be broken up by a small story, not because I didn't love the little story, but because I was so interested in what was going on with Zachary. But that didn't last long as I pretty quickly started looking forward to those chapter breaks and the intriguing stories I'd get to read. Everything was so engrossing that I could almost forget the “main story” while reading those “side stories”, and then I could almost forget the side stories while reading the main. 

And on that note, I love that I went in thinking the book was mostly about Zachary and his adventures but it ended up being about so, so much more. I guess it could be argued that a great many books are about more than their main character, but by the end, Zachary didn't feel as much like the MC as he did in the beginning. Everything was the MC, I cared about everything as much as I cared about him. In a lot of stories, side characters and side stories aren't as important but I love that EVERYTHING is important in The Starless Sea.

Oh! and I liked all the video game references. I understood all of them, and I could tell Erin Morganstern played video games too so that was fun.

Oliver and Nathan live together and are practically married, but Oliver, who has a traumatic past, still isn't used to (and perhaps he's a little bored of!) the comfort and predictability of his life with Nathan, so he seeks a bit of chaos in the form of infidelity. When his would-be affair partner attempts to kill him, Oliver escapes with his life, but it might end up destroyed anyway. 

Though Oliver is the main character, the POV switches back and forth between he and Nathan, which I liked because it gives us a bit of insight into what Nathan is thinking as Oliver spirals.

I loved Oliver a whole lot. He was an extremely flawed character, but he wasn't a wholly bad person, and it made him feel real. There were times I wanted to reach into the book and hug him, or slap some sense into him, or walk into the book and give him some much needed advice. The story itself was a good one, very entertaining, a little scary, and I didn't figure everything out immediately, so yay to that. 

I found Wild Spaces randomly in the new fiction section at the library and the first sentence grabbed me right away. It included ominous foreshadowing of things to come and I just had to know what they were.

A Lovecraftian coming-of-age tale about a boy whose life is completely upended when his mysterious grandfather comes for a visit and refuses to leave, I finished this quick read at the library. It was (of course) very strange and I loved the eerie build-up to the boy's eventual important discovery of the truth about his family and himself.

I would like everyone to know that when I bought this book it came with Sam Pink's phone number and we sexted. 

To be fair, that was part of the deal and he sexted with anyone who got his number from this special purchase, but the fact still remains. Sexted.

There was nothing wrong, I just couldn't get into it. I may have been to excited about my other library books or something, I don't know. Whatever my problem was, I couldn't finish it before it was due back at the library. Maybe I'll check it out again some other time. 

DNF. Yep, I Shouldn't Have Gone There. The book's description says that it's a thriller in which the two main characters quickly fall for each other but then some weird stuff is going on or whatever and they started to have reason to suspect each other and maybe the guy becomes too obsessed with the girl. 

I understand that when people fall in love in a book, it has to be illustrated. But I've read plenty of books where people fall in love and this felt different, like I was reading a romance novel. And no shade to the romance genre, but I picked up a thriller. I decided to read a couple reviews to see if this over-the-top romancey bit ever slowed down and many reviews said it felt like a romance novel for 75-90% of the book. I don't like strictly romance so I noped out of there!