Tommy

Grim, gross, and utterly gratuitous. It made my skin crawl!

Pretty good! Lays a solid foundation for a series I hope to continue reading. The plot was a little predictable and the villain quite undercooked, but I really liked the protagonists and all the worldbuilding. I have a feeling this series will only improve as it goes on.

Bradbury's mastery of the English language is on display here as always, but the story itself just wasn't what I hoped it would be and that really hampered my experience. Still, it got me out of a lengthy reading slump, so it deserves kudos for that!

A few years back I listened to some random podcast's interview with R.L. Stine. He came across really well and it made me appreciate him more as an author, but the main thing that stuck with me was the way he described this book. He felt that it was a bit too scary for its target audience, and mentioned an intentional choice to reign that in a bit as he began work on the rest of the Goosebumps series. Honestly? I wish he hadn't! I don't remember reading this one as a kid, but now that I have I'll say that it compares very favorably to the ones I did read. More nuanced and less gimmicky, with a creepy ending that I would've loved back in the day... and honestly quite liked today! A whole slew of Goosebumps books more like this would've been great!

Probably the best of all the wrestling books I've read. Chris Jericho's voice translates from the microphone to the page perfectly, resulting in a memoir that's both engaging and humorous. Nothing to complain about here - the book is exactly what you want it to be.