Quicks Reviews | What I've Been Reading Lately

This is quick catch up of the books I've been reading lately.

Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson

Truly Devious is a new YA mystery series. I realized about halfway through Truly Devious that it was the start of a series. I wish I had known that before reading it. I probably would have skipped the series altogether. As soon as I realized, I became petrified I was reading a mystery with no resolution. I was mostly right. Thankfully, I did get a mystery that had a resolution, but Truly Devious was not a good fit for my reading style. If you love YA books that arc over the length of a series, this could be a fun mystery for you. I probably won't continue on.

6/10: Good Read

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The Listener by Robert McCammon

Is there anything better than a favorite book by a favorite author? I loved The Listener. The characters were awesome, and McCammon's writing was as great as ever. If you’ve never read McCammon before, I am absolutely OK with The Listener being your first experience.

9/10: Highly Recommended

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Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Mapping the Interior will likely be my favorite novella of the year. It packed a huge emotional punch for me, and I had trouble getting it off of my mind. It's about a 15 year old boy who begins seeing the ghost of his father. It just won the Bram Stoker for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction, and it was a well deserved win.

8/10: Great Read

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Bird Box by Josh Malerman

I can't imagine any book for the rest of the year topping the experience I had with Bird Box. I put off reading it for so long because the premise didn't sound like a book that would be a big hit with me. With the upcoming release of Unbury Carol (which sounds amazing!) and the upcoming movie release of Bird Box, I knew the time had come to see what Bird Box was all about. I'm calling it right now - Bird Box will be my favorite book of the year.

10/10: Awesome Read

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Summer of Night by Dan Simmons

Summer of Night is a must read for fans of coming of age horror. If you are a fan of Stephen King's IT, you will probably love Summer of Night, too. I found there to be a lot of similarities between the two. I highly recommend going with the audiobook for this one. It's a chunky read, and the narrator does a great job.

8/10: Great Read

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I think that covers most of what I read last month. It was an amazing run of books!

Book Review | Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Annihilation is the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's scifi/horror trilogy Southern Reach.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.

Seeing the trailer for the Annihilation movie has jumped started me into finally reading this trilogy.

Annihilation follows the twelfth expedition into Area X. I can't really explain Area X to you because even though I've now read Annihilation, I still don't understand it. (I don't think I'm supposed to understand it, either.) The previous expeditions in Area X all ended in some form of death so we don't have very high hopes for the folks setting out on expedition twelve. There are four women heading out on this expedition - the biologist, the psychologist, the surveyor, and the anthropologist.

The characters are referred to by their profession instead of by their names. The lack of names bothered me at first. I felt like the author thought I was too dumb to remember both the names and the occupations of the characters. This aspect of only calling the characters by their profession grew on me, though. It made more and more sense as the story went on, and even became helpful when we started diving into what happened on the previous expeditions.

Another complaint that got better as the story went on was the backstory of the narrator and her husband. I didn't like the chemistry there so it was hard for me to get on board with their relationship or find any interest in that part of the story. It's something I was able to overcome by the end.

This isn't to say Annihilation started out weak. It was quite the opposite. I was really hooked to the story in the beginning. It was so creepy and so imaginative. As the book went on, though, the focus continued to change. Toward the end I wished I was reading a detailed summary of the book instead of trying to wrap my head around what I was actually reading. I think the combination of the writing and the unreliable narrator kept me pretty distant from the story. I wanted some sort of book translator to explain it all to me. I definitely had more questions than answers.

Despite my lack of interest in certain aspects of this book, I really, really liked what was going on with the ending. It has given me extra incentive to move forward with this series. I hope to dive in while I still have a bit of that strangely intriguing feeling happening.

As you can tell, I had mixed reactions to Annihilation through the entire book. I'm uncertain how I feel about it overall. There are aspects of Annihilation I can see growing in my mind and in my memory over time, but I also have a sense of wishing more had taken place and wishing the second half of the book had offered more of what I found in the first half.

I would recommend Annihilation to folks who like weird tales. I think it goes without saying that I would also recommend it to anyone considering watching the movie. I'm anxious to see how the movie makers handle bringing this strange story to the screen. The book feels incomplete (as series books tend to do these days) so I'm nervous that's going to carry over to movie going experience as well.

Any which way you look at it, though, I'm looking forward to watching the movie, and I'm curious to see how the rest of the series plays out in the next two books.

6/10: Good Read

Book Review | The Trust by Ronald Balson

The Trust is a mystery novel from Ronald H. Balson. It's the fourth book in the Liam and Catherine series.

When his uncle dies, Liam Taggart reluctantly returns to his childhood home in Northern Ireland for the funeral—a home he left years ago after a bitter confrontation with his family, never to look back. But when he arrives, Liam learns that not only was his uncle shot to death, but that he’d anticipated his own murder: In an astonishing last will and testament, Uncle Fergus has left his entire estate to a secret trust, directing that no distributions be made to any person until the killer is found. Did Fergus know, but refuse to name, his killer? Was this a crime of revenge, a vendetta leftover from Northern Ireland’s bloody sectarian war? After all, the Taggarts were deeply involved in the IRA. Or is it possible that the killer is a family member seeking Fergus’s estate? Otherwise, why postpone distributions to the heirs? Most menacingly, does the killer now have his sights on other family members?

As his investigation draws Liam farther and farther into the past he has abandoned, he realizes he is forced to reopen doors long ago shut and locked. Now, accepting the appointment as sole trustee of the Fergus Taggart Trust, Liam realizes he has stepped into the center of a firestorm.

This was my first Liam and Catherine book. It's the fourth in the series, but the Trust can definitely be read as a stand alone novel.

I really liked the characters of Liam and Catherine. Their happy marriage/family life was refreshing. I also enjoyed the not-so-happy dynamics between Liam and the family he left behind in Ireland. Liam was shunned from his family 16 years ago after they discovered he was a spy for the CIA. His uncle has now passed away, and Liam must return to the family as the trustee to his uncle's estate.

Liam's uncle basically knew he was going to be murdered, and he set up his trust so that his assets wouldn't be distributed to the family until the murder was solved. Answer me this: why do dead people always leave behind the most vague letter possible? Trust no one. I'm no expert, but I feel pretty strongly that it would help solve a lot of mysteries if they included some details in their departing letters.

Liam - who happens to also be a private investigator - must uphold his uncle's estate wishes (and withhold the estate from the family) while simultaneously working to solve his murder.

While I enjoyed the writing and I was interested in what was happening, I didn't really have a reason to care who the murderer was. I realized during the reveal that I had stopped guessing pretty early on.

In the end, The Trust delivered on its promises and I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't particularly stand out from the crowd.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Final Girls by Riley Sager

Final Girls is a psychological thriller from Riley Sager.

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

Why did I read Final Girls?

Stephen King put Final Girls on my radar. I may not always like his recommendations, but I do pay attention to them.

“The first great thriller of 2017 is here: Final Girls, by Riley Sager. If you liked Gone Girl, you’ll like this.”—Stephen King

I've been waffling for weeks about reading Final Girls. The hype has been so strong, but readers I trust haven't had a positive reaction to it. I decided I needed to read it for myself. I think my curiosity won out with this one.

The Strengths

I was able to read Final Girls in pretty much one sitting. It was an easy read which was exactly the kind of book I needed to pick up.

I had a lot of interest in the premise and the backstory of these "final girls". I wanted to know what happened to them, and I was anxious for some twists and turns (whether or not I actually got them).

I enjoyed Riley Sager (aka Todd Ritter's) writing. I will read more books by him in the future.

The Weaknesses

Too many implausible things happened in Final Girls. I feel like I can usually go with the flow in a lot of what I read, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief with this one. I'm just not buying it.

Most of the psychological thrillers I've read the last few years have had really unlikable characters. Final Girls is no exception to this trend.

At this point, I don't even want to see grape soda in the store. Seriously, how much grape soda did the main character have in her house? I would mention the Xanax, but I think a Xanax would come in handy after suffering through the repetition of Final Girls.

Would I recommend Final Girls to others?

Yes, I would recommend Final Girls to others. I have a love/hate relationship with psychological thrillers, and my reaction to Final Girls was keeping in line with my previous experiences. If you typically love them, though, I would say yes, pick this one up.

6/10: Good Read

Have you read Final Girls? What did you think? Are you a fan of psychological thrillers or do you run the other way when a book gets compared to Gone Girl?

Book Review | No Mercy by Alessandro Manzetti

No Mercy is a collection of horror poetry from Alessandro Manzetti.

From the Bram Stoker Award-winning poet that brought you Eden Underground...

The Lady in Black shows no mercy to anyone; she has cold skin, a job to do, and many lovers on Earth: Despair, Loneliness, Madness, and their soldiers and killers of daily life, armed with blades, hammers, teeth, and illusions. There are strange and bloody stories that tell all about it, if you want to hear them…

Are you sure? Well, you’ve found the right place, but consider that in turning these pages you’ll be thrown forward through time, until you reach the Apocalypse—the last stop.

So, like the Lady in Black, show yourself no mercy—sit down and read these stories, listening to Janis Joplin with a bottle of Southern Comfort cradled in your arm.

Don’t worry, you’ll find both of them inside this book, along with so many other dark pleasures.

No Mercy is dedicated to the late, great Janis Joplin. Some of these poems placed me right into Port Arthur, Texas and "the smell of river and summer". I had to look up where Alessandro Manzetti is from to find out if he is simply that big of a Janis Joplin fan or if he is actually from my part of the world. It turns out he lives in Italy.

I cannot claim to be an authority on poetry. I love reading it when I come across it, but I've never really made an effort to seek out modern poetry. I used to subscribe to a lot of fiction magazines (mostly horror) and that's where I've been exposed to most of the modern poetry that I have read save for a few anthologies that have included them. My personal feeling toward poetry is that it should evoke some sort of emotion from the reader. Perhaps I only feel that way because all of my favorite poems have done that, and as I stated, I'm not any kind of an authority on what poetry should or should not do.

For me, No Mercy was very successful in evoking emotion. For that, I think it is a wonderful collection. Unfortunately, the emotions it evoked for me were not pleasant. I feel like No Mercy did it's job, but I wasn't the perfect audience.

No Mercy is a perfect title, I suppose; it's a very bleak collection.

I have no doubt there is an audience that will connect with all of the poems in No Mercy, and it will be a solid collection for those readers. If you look at the ugliness of horror and see beauty, you might be the right fit. I look at horror as something to overcome. I see horror as a balance to the light. It's more of a source of entertainment for me than something I try to internalize. I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading this collection, though, because your mileage certainly could vary.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley

Beautiful Sorrows is a short story collection from Mercedes M. Yardley.

There is a place where sorrows pile up like snow and rest in your hair like cherry blossoms. Boys have wings, monsters fall in love, women fade into nothingness, and the bones of small children snap like twigs. Darkness will surely devour you—but it will be exquisitely lovely while doing so.

Mercedes M. Yardley’s Beautiful Sorrows is an ephemeral collection encompassing twenty-seven short tales full of devastation, death, longing, and the shining ribbon of hope that binds them all together.

Beautiful Sorrows is a collection of short stories and flash fiction from Mercedes Yardley. The stories in Beautiful Sorrows are the kind of short stories that capture moments in people's lives. They aren't the kind of stories that contain an unfolding plot, they are more like moments plucked out of time.

Beautiful Sorrows is carried by Yardley's writing. This is the first book I've read by Yardley, and her writing has a quality I really love.

I have to admit I almost dnf'ed Beautiful Sorrows. I try my best to avoid books with child abuse, and the first two stories had too much for me. After marking it on Goodreads, it dawned on me I was reading an anthology. I decided to skip ahead in the collection and give it another try. I'm glad that I did.

Overall, I enjoyed Beautiful Sorrows. I don't think I have a single friend on Goodreads that gave it less than five stars.  The writing was beautiful, and there was so much imagination to the stories. If I could have one wish right now it would be a middle grade dark fantasy written by Mercedes Yardley. The fact that this isn't getting a higher rating from me is purely subjective. I don't feel like I require plot in my short stories, but over the length of an entire book I probably do.

6/10: Good Read

Reviews | Homegoing, Lowriders in Space, Gertie's Leap to Greatness

These three books are all outside of my usual genres/reviewing norm so I decided to showcase them together in one post.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The unforgettable New York Times best seller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indeliably drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.

Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

I took a leap out of my comfort zone reading Homegoing.

Homegoing is Yaa Gyasi's debut novel. It follows the lineage of two sisters from Ghana. Homegoing is basically a book of short stories with each story focusing on a different family member. The timeline of the book spans hundreds of years, but there is a familial thread connecting all of the stories.

Homegoing has received tremendous praise and has been nominated for several book awards. As for my personal taste, I can liken reading Homegoing to watching most Academy Award winning films - I can see what all of the fuss is about, but it's not really my thing.

6/10: Good Read

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Lowriders in Space by Cathy Camper

Lupe Impala, El Chavo Flapjack, and Elirio Malaria love working with cars. You name it, they can fix it. But the team's favorite cars of all are lowriders—cars that hip and hop, dip and drop, go low and slow, bajito y suavecito. The stars align when a contest for the best car around offers a prize of a trunkful of cash—just what the team needs to open their own shop! ¡Ay chihuahua! What will it take to transform a junker into the best car in the universe? Striking, unparalleled art from debut illustrator Raul the Third recalls ballpoint-pen-and-Sharpie desk-drawn doodles, while the story is sketched with Spanish, inked with science facts, and colored with true friendship. With a glossary at the back to provide definitions for Spanish and science terms, this delightful book will educate and entertain in equal measure.

I found Lowriders in Space in the Texas Bluebonnet Award section of my library. I recognized it from other awards lists and knew I had to scoop it up. This was such a fun graphic novel. The first thing that struck me about Lowriders in Space was the colors used in the graphics. I didn't realize until reading the artist's note at the end that the drawings were all done with red, black, and blue ball point pens. I'm going to have a hard time in the office tomorrow not spending time creating Raul the Third style doodles.

My 10 year old thought Lowriders in Space was weird and confusing. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the humor and the creative depiction of the lowriding culture. I look forward to seeing what they do in the next installment.

7/10: Recommended Read

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Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

Gertie Reece Foy is 100% Not-From-Concentrate awesome. She has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: becoming the best fifth grader in the universe to show her mother exactly what she'll be leaving behind. There's just one problem: Seat-stealing new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too. And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them.

Oh, Gertie. This book broke my heart into a million wee pieces. It's really a wonderful book, though.

Gertie wants to be the best fifth grader that ever lived. We begin the book with Gertie creating her "what I did on my summer vacation" story. By her fifth grade year she was well aware that these stories were a competition, and Gertie needed to be the best! Gertie didn't count on there being a new girl in class this year - a new girl from California who knows movie stars.

Gertie's Leap to Greatness follows Gertie's fifth grade year and her struggle to be the best.

This book is adorable and horrible all at the same time. Kids can be so cruel to one another, and growing up is such a struggle. By the time I learned why Gertie needed to be so great, I was just a mess of broken pieces.

This is the type of children's literature that stands the test of time. I saw elements of my own childhood in the pages. I saw some of the struggles my own children are going through in school with their teachers and their peers. If you are looking for an excellent book for your kids or you happen to be like me and you've never outgrown reading kid lit, there's a lot to experience in this one little book.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy of Gertie's Leap to Greatness provided by publisher

Book Review | Frostblood by Elly Blake

Frostblood is a young adult fantasy from Elly Blake. It's the first book in the Frostblood Saga series.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a fireblood who must hide her powers of heat and flame from the cruel frostblood ruling class that wants to destroy all that are left of her kind. So when her mother is killed for protecting her and rebel frostbloods demand her help to kill their rampaging king, she agrees. But Ruby's powers are unpredictable, and she's not sure she's willing to let the rebels and an infuriating (yet irresistible) young man called Arcus use her as their weapon.

All she wants is revenge, but before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to take part in the king's tournaments that pit fireblood prisoners against frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her and from the icy young man she has come to love.

Fast-paced and compelling, Frostblood is the first in a page-turning new young adult three-book series about a world where flame and ice are mortal enemies—but together create a power that could change everything.

There are two things I noticed right away while reading Frostblood. One, it jumped straight into the action and two, the story was very typical for a YA fantasy. This was both good and bad throughout Frostblood.

On the plus side, I never lost interest in what I was reading. I enjoyed the writing, and I liked the characters. (Ruby's love interest was probably the only thing I found unique to Frostblood.) I loved that we were given a full story within Frostblood. I was so petrified by the end that I was approaching a cliffhanger, but all was well with the ending!

On the down side, there wasn't much there in terms of plot that I hadn't already read and experienced in other books. It was certainly well crafted and I enjoyed it, but I felt like I had already been there before.

I'm curious why it's firebloods and frostbloods. It couldn't have been firebloods and icebloods? (Too obvious?) Or frostbloods and emberbloods? I'd be pissed if I was a frostblood. This is ICE, bitches.

At the end of the day, I wasn't quite the target audience for Frostblood. I expected more fantasy and less romance which was entirely my fault. I enjoyed it, but I think readers interested in YA romance will probably enjoy it much more than I did. Even though part of me feels like this wasn't a good fit for me, the other part of me feels pretty sure I'll read book two.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

March 7 | Currently Reading

Last week I posted my review of Fiona Barton's The Widow. I also posted the new releases I want to read in March and the new March horror releases if you want to check those out.

It was another slow reading week for me; I played too many video games. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Books Read Last Week

The Immortals (Olympus Bound #1) by Jordanna Max Brodsky

I thought The Immortals was going to be much more of a fantasy read, but it fit squarely into the thriller/mystery genre. I may have enjoyed it more if I had been expecting the typical mystery formula going into it (and I likely wouldn't have read it just after reading The Widow). A great amount of research went into writing The Immortals and I loved reading characters based on Greek gods, but I never felt connected to what I was reading. It was an enjoyable read, but I probably won't continue on with the series.

6/10: Good Read

Books Currently Reading

Escape from Lucien (Amulet #6) by Kazu Kibuishi

What about you? What are you reading this week? Be sure to let me know in the comments or leave me a link!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

February 29 | Currently Reading

Happy Leap Year!

If you missed it last week, the final nominees were announced for the Bram Stoker awards. You can check out my post here.

Books Read Last Week

I will have a full review up toward the end of the week for Fiona Barton's The Widow, but I really enjoyed it. I think there will be a lot of talk about this one.

The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two (Fairyland #3) by Catherynne M. Valente

I really love these Fairyland books. The excellent writing and the beautiful imagery are still present in this third installment, but I don't think the story can stand on its own.

6/10: Good Read

Books Currently Reading

I just started reading Jordanna Max Brodsky's The Immortals. All of the reviews I've seen so far have been positive.

What about you? What are you reading this week? Be sure to let me know in the comments or leave me a link!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

The Box Jumper by Lisa Mannetti | Book Review

The Box Jumper is a horror novella from Lisa Mannetti.

In this wonderfully disturbing novella, we meet Leona Derwatt, Houdini's assistant on and off stage, and one of his mistresses. Houdini not only takes her into his confidence, teaching her the intricacies of his magic, but teams with her as they confront and expose fraudulent psychics and mediums of their day. The tension in the story involves Houdini's conflicts with fake mediums (who may have been complicit in his death) and Leona's love for him and her troubled life after Houdini’s death. Is Leona actually visited by Houdini's spirit ... or is there something more dark and sinister?

My favorite thing about The Box Jumper is Lisa Mannetti's writing. I'm thinking this must be the first thing I've read from Lisa Mannetti because I would surely remember her writing.

The Box Jumper is a work of fiction, but it is based around the life of Harry Houdini. All of the "facts" about Houdini are fascinating so I'm anxious to do some more reading about his life.

The Box Jumper is told through the viewpoint of Houdini's assistant Leona. I don't want to say much about her or the story as it is a novella length book, but the progression of Leona is skillfully handled. I look forward to checking out more of Mannetti's work.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

January 19 | Currently Reading

I'm posting my update late this week; it was a really hectic weekend.

Books Read Last Week(s)

I've been in such a reading slump! The only book I finished since my last update was Truthwitch by Susan Dennard.

I'm glad I didn't know how hyped this book was going into it; my expectations would have been too high. I read Truthwitch based on the book description, and it was probably the promised friendship of the witches that appealed to me the most.

There were a lot of "witches" in this book. Truthwitch, Bloodwitch, Threadwitch, Wordwitch, Earthwitch, Soilwitch, Firewitch, Airwitch, Voicewitch, Tidewitch, Windwitch, Voidwitch, Poisonwitch, Cursewitch, Glamourwitch... There were so many of them I was kind of "so what" about all of them.

Truthwitch was a fun book, though. There was a lot of action, and I was never bored. I will probably pick up the sequel, but I don't think I'll be suggesting the series to anyone else just yet.

6/10: Good Read

Books Currently Reading

I started reading Best of Apex Magazine edited by Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner.

The first story in the anthology (Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon) was AMAZING, but I started bouncing off the other stories so I'm stepping back a bit to give each story the proper attention.

I'm also reading the first Hap and Leonard book Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale.

Savage Season is helping to bring me out of my reading slump.

What about you? What are you reading this week? Be sure to let me know in the comments or leave me a link!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Book Review | The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner is a YA dystopian novel by James Dashner. It is also the first book in the Maze Runner series.

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

Take this review with a grain of salt.

I tried to read The Maze Runner back in January with no luck. I couldn't get into it at all, and I decided it wasn't for me.

This past month, however, my hubs wanted to watch the movie. I have strict rules against watching a movie before I read the book, but since I had no intentions of reading the book, I thought what the hey. It's not often hubs is requesting one of "my" movies so I went with it.

Here's the kicker - I really liked the movie. So much so that I wanted to read the book.

The book was much easier for me to get into this time around because it was more like a reread. I was also listening to it on audio with a good narrator so it was altogether a nice read for me.

I can't say what my original rating would have been if I had forced my way through it, but I do know my interest in this series is high right now. I just need to decide if I'm going to read The Scorch Trials now or stick with watching the movies.

6/10: Good Read

Have you read The Maze Runner? What about the movie - have you seen it? I'm really looking forward to The Scorch Trials. I'm leaning more toward doing the movie again, though.

Book Review | Darkness Rising by Brian Moreland

Darkness Rising is a horror novel by Brian Moreland.

It’s all fun and games until...

Marty Weaver, an emotionally scarred poet, has been bullied his entire life. When he drives out to the lake to tell an old friend that he’s fallen in love with a girl named Jennifer, Marty encounters three sadistic killers who have some twisted games in store for him. But Marty has dark secrets of his own buried deep inside him. And tonight, when all the pain from the past is triggered, when those secrets are revealed, blood will flow and hell will rise.

Why did I read Darkness Rising?

The reviews. It's hard to pass up a new horror release that is getting great reviews.

The Strengths

I love imaginative horror. Now, there is a lot of gory slasher horror in Darkness Rising, too, but there is also some of that coveted original horror I don't find very often.

The main character becomes something awesome.

Love and light. I love when light is well placed in a horror novel. Light reminds us of how dark the darkness can be, and darkness reminds us of how much we need the light.

The Weaknesses

The characters were very immature. The college setting felt far more like grade school. It wasn't just the young adults, though, it was everyone. The killers, the victims, the bystanders, the coworkers. Unfortunately this spilled over into the horror, too, and it made a lot of the shock gore and drug use come off as annoying.

The exposition. The dialog in this book killed me. There is no way the characters (especially in the circumstances they were in) would have spent that much time telling each other information they would already know.

There was also a lot of inconsistency regarding the main character and the dark entity Cerulean.

Would I recommend Darkness Rising to others?

Yes. In the end, the good outweighed the bad in Darkness Rising. There were flaws for me, but some of the good was so good I'd recommend it to horror fans.

6/10 Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord

When We Were Animals is Joshua Gaylord's latest novel.

A small, quiet Midwestern town, which is unremarkable save for one fact: when the teenagers reach a certain age, they run wild.

When Lumen Fowler looks back on her childhood, she wouldn't have guessed she would become a kind suburban wife, a devoted mother. In fact, she never thought she would escape her small and peculiar hometown. When We Were Animals is Lumen's confessional: as a well-behaved and over-achieving teenager, she fell beneath the sway of her community's darkest, strangest secret. For one year, beginning at puberty, every resident "breaches" during the full moon. On these nights, adolescents run wild, destroying everything in their path.

Lumen resists. Promising her father she will never breach, she investigates the mystery of her community's traditions and the stories erased from the town record. But the more we learn about the town's past, the more we realize that Lumen's memories are harboring secrets of their own.
A gothic coming-of-age tale for modern times, When We Were Animals is a dark, provocative journey into the American heartland.

When We Were Animals is getting a lot of high praise, and it’s all true. Every bit of it.

And then there was me.

The writing in When We Were Animals is fantastic. I must read all the things by Joshua Gaylord. I’m happy to hear Alden Bell is a pseudonym for Joshua Gaylord because I have a copy of The Reapers are the Angels and I will be tearing into that soon.

I was hooked by When We Were Animals right away. Lumen grew up in a very strange town, and I loved the alternating timelines between her childhood and the present day. Somewhere in the middle, though, the book got stuck for me. There was no shift in time, no forward movement of the story, so much so that I almost didn’t finish reading it. I imagine readers with strong skills in literary analysis will have a field day with all of the allegory present in Lumen’s teenager years, but I’m not that reader.

I am glad I persevered and didn’t miss out on the ending of When We Were Animals. This is a special book that I won’t easily forget.

Like I said, this book is getting high praise and it is well deserved. For me, I just can’t get past the fact that I wanted to put it down.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

The Fire Sermon is the first book in a dystopian trilogy from Francesca Haig.

Book Description

When Zach and I were born our parents must have counted and recounted: limbs, fingers, toes. We were perfect. They would have been disbelieving: nobody dodged the split between Alpha and Omega.

Nobody.

They were born together and they will die together.

One strong Alpha twin and one mutated Omega; the only thing they share is the moment of their death.

The Omegas live in segregation, cast out by their families as soon as their mutation becomes clear. Forced to live apart, they are ruthlessly oppressed by their Alpha counterparts.

The Alphas are the elite. Once their weaker twin has been cast aside, they're free to live in privilege and safety, their Omega twin far from their thoughts.

Cass and Zach are both perfect on the outside: no missing limbs, no visible Omega mutation. But Cass has a secret: one that Zach will stop at nothing to expose.

The potential to change the world lies in both their hands. One will have to defeat the other to see their vision of the future come to pass, but if they're not careful both will die in the struggle for power.

Book Review

The Fire Sermon was an enjoyable read despite the fact I'm a bit burned out on the dystopian genre.

The dystopian hook with The Fire Sermon revolves around twins. In each pair of twins there is an Alpha and an Omega. The Omega always has a genetic defect and is split off from their family and their twin. The twins are still linked, however, and when one twin dies, so does the other. It's an intriguing concept. I'll be honest - I didn't grasp how some of the twin phenomenons in The Fire Sermon could realistically occur, but it was easy for me to "go with it".

Since Cass and Zach were both seemingly born with no defects, their story goes far beyond the typical Alpha and Omega twin existence.

I'm not sure if The Fire Sermon is classified as a YA novel or not, but it is probably best suited for YA readers. It's unfortunate The Fire Sermon is being released into an oversaturated market. I can imagine it would have been extremely popular about four years ago, but it's going to have a tough time standing out against the crowd. The Fire Sermon is the first book of a planned trilogy so hopefully it can pick up traction and find a good audience.

Like most series books - especially of the YA flavor - my rating for the series will likely be higher than my rating for the individual books. As it stands now, The Fire Sermon is a solid 3-stars, with plans to read book two.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Astrotwins by Mark Kelly

Astrotwins: Project Blast Off is a middle grade book by astronaut Mark Kelly.

A team of middle schoolers prepares for blastoff in this adventure from the author of the New York Times bestselling Mousetronaut, based on the childhoods of real-life astronauts Mark Kelly and his twin brother Scott.

It’s a long, hot summer and Scott and Mark are in big trouble for taking apart (aka destroying) their dad’s calculator. As a punishment, they’re sent to their grandfather’s house, where there’s no TV and they have to do chores. And Grandpa is less tolerant of the twins’ constant bickering. “Why don’t you two work together on something constructive. What if you built a go-kart or something?” Grandpa suggests.

But it’s not a go-kart the twins are interested in. They want to build a rocket. With the help of Jenny, nicknamed Egg, and a crew of can-do kids, they set out to build a real rocket that will blast off and orbit the Earth. The question soon becomes: which twin will get to be the astronaut?

Written by a NASA astronaut with four space flights under his belt, this exciting story includes extensive back matter on the space program with fantastic facts and details.

Astrotwins is a cute book. Mark and Scott are adventurous twins who love to take things apart and put them back together. Their grandfather suggests they spend their summer working on a project. The twins and their friend Jenny ("Egg") decide to make a spaceship for Jenny's next science fair project.

There are many things I love about Astrotwins. It's science heavy, which is cool, and it is presented in a way that educates the reader. There's also a lot of information on astronauts and the space program. Astrotwins is set somewhere around 1974 (I think), and the women and girls are strong, capable characters. I also love that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

That being said, I did find issue with the lack of incredulity and excitement over accomplishing the impossible. I have no problems suspending my disbelief of kids being able to build a spaceship and launch into orbit. I'm a big fan of the movie Explorers. I do, however, think building a functioning spacecraft would be a huge deal. I want my kids to believe they can do the impossible, but I also want them to understand and acknowledge their accomplishments. I want them to be excited when they reach their goals. Intrinsic rewards, for the win. There was an emotional disconnect for me, and it made it hard for me to celebrate the impossible the way I did while watching Explorers (or Space Camp! I loved that movie, too.)

Despite the emotional disconnect, I did enjoy reading Astrotwins. I'm adding it to my kids' bookcase because I think they will enjoy reading it, as well.

6/10: Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Revival by Stephen King

Revival is the latest horror novel from Stephen King.

A dark and electrifying novel about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs -- including Jamie's mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family's horrific loss. In his mid-thirties -- addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate -- Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It's a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Frank Norris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Revival was book molasses for me. It took me forever to get through it. It was a good read, but mostly because it was written by Stephen King. There is something about his writing that just feels so darn right. It's a place I love to be.

Unfortunately, my expectations stemmed entirely from this blurb:

This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written.

I spent the entire book longing for the end which is never a good sign no matter how you look at it.

But like I said, it was a good read overall. There were some great moments, and I did enjoy the ending once I finally got there. Revival was a better read than Mr. Mercedes, too, so there's that if you were wondering.

If you are behind on your Stephen King catalog, this probably isn't one you need to pick up right away, but I think any Stephen King fan will read this for the obvious reason.

6/10: Good Read

What are your thoughts on Revival? Have you read it? Are you a Stephen King or a horror fan? I think I would have been better off not having read the blurb on this one.

Book Review | Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl is a mystery novel from Gillian Flynn.

Book Description

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

I'm not sure I've had another reading experience quite like this book.

On one hand, I hated the characters. All of them. The entire time. When I met Amy on the pages, I thought "Please let this be the girl who is gone".

On the other hand, I couldn't stop compulsively reading the thing. I've never been so glued to a book I hated so much.

Gillian Flynn is a fantastic writer.

I've been going back and forth on how I want to rate Gone Girl, and the ending is my deciding factor. If the ending had lived up to my compulsive reading to get there, I'd be all over recommending this book to the page turning masses, but in the end I'm going with a solid 3 stars.

Gone Girl is a good pick if you are in the mood for some compulsive reading or have a deep love for twisty plots. It will keep you guessing (and guessing). You'll hate it, but you might also really love it.

6/10: Good Read

Book Review | Snowblind by Christopher Golden

Snowblind is a stand alone horror novel from Christopher Golden.

Book Description

The small New England town of Coventry had weathered a thousand blizzards...but never one like this. Icy figures danced in the wind and gazed through children's windows with soul-chilling eyes. People wandered into the whiteout and were never seen again. Families were torn apart, and the town would never be the same.

Now, as a new storm approaches twelve years later, the folks of Coventry are haunted by the memories of that dreadful blizzard and those who were lost in the snow. Photographer Jake Schapiro mourns his little brother, Isaac, even as---tonight---another little boy is missing. Mechanic and part-time thief Doug Manning's life has been forever scarred by the mysterious death of his wife, Cherie, and now he’s starting over with another woman and more ambitious crimes. Police detective Joe Keenan has never been the same since that night, when he failed to save the life of a young boy . . . and the boy’s father vanished in the storm only feet away. And all the way on the other side of the country, Miri Ristani receives a phone call . . . from a man who died twelve years ago.

As old ghosts trickle back, this new storm will prove to be even more terrifying than the last.

I was highly anticipating reading Snowblind this year. I've been a fan of Christopher Golden for a long time, and it has been a while since he's released a new horror book. When I heard Snowblind was going to be released, I immediately placed it on my must read list.

I absolutely loved the ominous build up in the beginning of Snowblind. A blizzard is blowing in to a small town in New England, and something is waiting out in the snow. It reminded me of Stephen King's The Mist. You know some bad shit is happening, but you don't know exactly what is out there.

Once all of the foreboding came to a head and we started seeing the horrors of the blizzard, the timeline jumped ahead 12 years. The real story of Snowblind lies in what happened 12 years after the original events, but the jump in time forced the middle to lag for me. I spent most of Snowblind longing for the awesome that got left behind.

Even though the end of Snowblind didn't live up to the promise of the beginning, it was still a good snow thriller. If you are looking for a book to give you the snow creeps, Snowblind will definitely fit that bill. I'm glad I read it on one of the only almost snowy days we had here this winter. If I ever find myself out in real snow, this book is certain to be on my mind.

6/10: Good Read