Review | In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

Source: review copy provided by publisher. This is a review of my reading experience.

In the Lives of Puppets is the latest fantasy novel from T.J. Klune.

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.

My three star rating for In the Lives of Puppets hurts a bit. This really is a wonderful book, but my overall feelings land me somewhere in the middle.

I'll start off with some of the great things about In the Lives of Puppets. I love T.J. Klune's writing, and I love his messages on hope and kindness and just seeing the world through a Klune lens. In the Lives of Puppets reminded me of the Rampart trilogy (Book of Koli) by M.R. Carey in many ways. They are both about humanity, the destruction of humanity, Artificial Intelligence, and the world after AI. I loved and cared for the characters in In the Lives of Puppets - both human and AI. The world Klune created was fascinating, and I was in love with the first half of the book.

Now for the parts that didn't work as well for me. At the halfway part, In the Lives of Puppets went the way of Fairy Tale by Stephen King. To this day, I still haven't finished reading Fairy Tale. I have such a hard time reorienting myself when there is a complete change of setting and plot. It really bogs the book down and makes it a slog for me. I did eventually get 100% reinvested, but then I had to suffer my least favorite trope of all tropes. So this was a mixed reading experience for me.

Even when In the Lives of Puppets wasn't working for me, the beauty of it all was still there. I can see why people are head over heels for this story. I loved these characters. I won't forget any of them. I also loved Klune's thoughts on AI. There were just too many times I felt like I was having to push through.

⭐⭐⭐★★

3/5 stars

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Review | Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down is the fifth book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister—whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice—back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.

Again.

Oof. I'm trying to get back into the habit of reviewing everything I read - including rereads. When I started rereading Come Tumbling Down, I couldn't remember what it was about, but I knew I've liked every book I've read of the series.

Come Tumbling Down was a very mid read. I refrained from reading my original review until after I finished my reread, and I'm just going to post it here:

It's not that I didn't like Come Tumbling Down, I just didn't particularly care for it, either.

Come Tumbling Down can't stand on its own the way the other books in the series can, yet half of the book is spent explaining the characters and the worlds.

I still wholeheartedly recommend this series and I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment... I just don't feel like Come Tumbling Down really added anything new.

Honestly, that still sums it up for me. It's quite forgettable.  

3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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Review | Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Source: personal purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

Shards of Earth is the first book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Final Architecture series.

The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.

The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . .

Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.

After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete.

Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.

Do you ever like a book and have nothing to say about it? My book club read Shards of Earth as our February book selection. We had book club today, and no one really had anything to say. The few of us that showed up and read it liked it (which was a little surprising to be honest), but we struggled to find things to talk about.

I annotate when I'm reading and I had a lot of tabs in this book, but I think pretty much every one of them dealt with unspace and the Architects. For me, unspace and the Architects were everything in this book. I feel like either my mind kind of glossed over everything else or it was just too much for me to grasp right now (highly possible). There were a lot of characters and politics and places.

So - I enjoyed parts of this book very much, but it's also not a favorite of mine outside of the fact that this book gave me the wonderful creeps and it's not even a horror book. I'm starting to realize how many frightening things are in scifi books. I need to start reading more each year than I normally do.

Having read Children of Time, I really thought Shards of Earth would stand on its own outside of the series its in, but that was not the case. The way it ended made it feel like this book was really just the beginning. At 500+ pages, that's a chunky beginning. But I'll be reading more! I need to know more about the Architects and what is going to happen.

I recommend Shards of Earth but not as a first Tchaikovsky book. Read some of his other stuff first so you will trust him enough to read through this one.

3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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Review | The Family Game by Catherine Steadman

The Family Game is a mystery/thriller by Catherine Steadman.

A rich, eccentric family. A time-honored tradition. Or a lethal game of survival? One woman finds out what it really takes to join the 1% in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act.

Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society's strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . .

After all, even though he's long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion.

What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks' savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.

The Family Game is a holiday themed thriller that I read with the Horror Spotlight discord group. I want to say straightaway that I liked this book because I'm probably gonna spend this review doing a whole lot of complaining.

First off, for those of you who hate prologues because it usually means the book is boring for a while, I hate to inform you that there is a prologue and the book is, in fact, boring for a while. The Family Game starts out with a man and a woman enjoying the holidays in New York. It feels very much like a super messed up holiday romcom. It's romantic and it's over the top and it's in the big city, but you know from the prologue the female main character is going to wind up bloody and scared for her life on the floor of his family's holiday home.

There is a lot to not believe in this novel, but there's also a lot to keep you reading and guessing and griping out loud.

My biggest fear when I started reading the holiday game was that I would not care whether this woman survived by the end of the book because she's not very likable. But somehow even though I didn't like a soul in this novel, I still wanted to know what was really happening. I'm not usually the type of reader who tries to guess who did it, what the twist is, who's lying, but I was guessing and wondering in The Family Game.

There is so much to unpack now that I have finished reading this novel, but I don't have it in me to do the unpacking that's necessary to make it all makes sense. This book is being billed as a psychological thriller, but it's not what it had hoped to be.

So while I could sit around the kitchen table and gripe about the characters and the plot all day long, I still would not tell you not to read it. If you have The Family Game on your TBR, you should definitely read it. There is something to be said about a book that can make you gripe this much. Read it and then let me know what you think. We can scratch our heads about it together.

3/5 Stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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Review | The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Source: personal purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Golden Couple is a mystery/thriller from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

The next electrifying novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind The Wife Between Us.

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

Most of my friends have given The Golden Couple four or five stars. I'm not sure why The Golden Couple didn't wow me as much as it seems to have wowed other readers. It may just be when I chose to give it a read.

I've only read one other book by the writing duo of Hendricks and Pekkanen, but I enjoyed it. I was looking forward to reading The Golden Couple. While I wasn't disappointed and I did enjoy The Golden Couple, it was mostly just okay for me..

The characters were all unlikable for me which I really enjoyed in the beginning, but the book seemed to lose its focus and honestly so did I. This is a hard review to write because I did enjoy it, but I don't have much to say about it. The Golden Couple did keep me guessing, but for some reason I just wasn't very invested. It could simply be the fact that I was in a book hangover from the five-star read that I read just before this one that had me guessing but was not predictable whatsoever. The Golden Couple may have just fallen prey to having to follow a very unexpected book that worked for me on a level that The Golden Couple just didn't meet.

If you've read and enjoyed other books by Hendricks and Pekkanen, I would definitely recommend you check this one out as well. I have another book on my shelf by Hendricks and Pekkanen that I would still like to go back and read. This one just didn't wow me outside of being a well-written thriller with unlikable characters.

I listened to the audio, and I thought the narrators did a great job. The Golden Couple won't make it onto my list of favorite thrillers for the year, but I enjoyed the time that I spent with it.

 

3/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐★ ★

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Review | The Clackity by Lora Senf

Source: preordered purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Clackity is a middle grade horror novel by Lora Senf.

Reminiscent of Doll Bones and Small Spaces, this “delightfully eerie” (Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows) middle grade novel tells the story of a girl who must rescue her aunt by entering a world of ghosts, witches, and monsters to play a game with deadly consequences.

Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.

There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls. Will she ever find Des, or is The Clackity planning something far more sinister?

I bought The Clackity because it's a middle grade horror novel and the synopsis sounded awesome. In The Clackity, Evie's aunt has disappeared and Evie must enter a supernatural world filled with challenges to get her back.

I had managed to talk myself into thinking The Clackity had something to do with Halloween. I guess because it has the perfect Halloween cover with orange and black and greys and a wonderfully spooky illustration. The Clackity can definitely be read at any time, though. It's not set at Halloween, it just has a wonderful vibe to the book that does make it perfect for spooky season.

The illustration isn't limited to just the cover. The entire book has those awesome spooky illustrations sprinkled throughout the chapters. It really is a beautiful book.

As for the story, The Clackity is creepy and imaginative. In fact, The Clackity is so imaginative, I think it would appeal to fans of Catherine M. Valente. In the world that Evie enters, she has to go through all of these different settings and encounter different ghosts and monsters. It reminded me quite a bit of Coraline as well.

In the end, my rating for The Clackity is entirely subjective. I feel like I need to offer up some bigger explanation for why I'm only giving this three stars, but the truth is I loved getting to enter Senf's imaginative world and I loved the relationship between Evie and her aunt. Three stars means I liked it, and it just fits for me here.

 

3/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐★ ★ 

 

 

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Book Review | Upgrade by Blake Crouch

The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

So. Much. Science. That was all I asked for, and that's what I got!

Upgrade is Blake Crouch's latest science thriller. I enjoyed Dark Matter and I loved Recursion so I was really excited to read Upgrade.

All I knew going into Upgrade was it dealt with genetic engineering. This was correct, but it was quite different than I was expecting! I loved all of the science in Upgrade. One could argue there was too much science, but I love the way Crouch introduces all of the science in his books. He makes it so accessible. He can make the most complicated science understandable.

My biggest complaint with Upgrade is I just didn't care about the characters. There were high stakes and there was a lot of action - I just didn't have that connection with anyone that would have made the action and the stakes so much more suspenseful for me. Even with the entire world at stake, I kind of feel like I've already been living that since 2020. It's not Blake Crouch's fault, but I don't even want to read about viruses or pandemics anymore. I'm over it.

Overall, I enjoyed Upgrade. I got just what I was asking for, but it's not going on my list of favorites for the year. I need more character development so I can root for someone. I will still be standing in line for the next Blake Crouch science thriller, though. The science is certainly something I will continue to want more of. 

⭐⭐⭐★★
3/5 stars

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Book Review | Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Source: Preordered purchase. This is a review of my personal reading experience.

Comfort Me With Apples is a new horror novella by Catherynne M. Valente.

Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.

It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

I anticipate this review being a struggle to write. I loved this book but was also underwhelmed by this book. I highly recommend it - and - I don't.

I love Catherynne M. Valente. Her writing is so wonderful and her imagination is perfection. I love entering her worlds and reading her words. Comfort Me with Apples was no exception to this. The reading experience - consuming Valente's words - was a wonderful way to spend my afternoon. 

However - this type of allegorical whimsy is hard for me to fully embrace in an adult book. Overall, I enjoyed the writing very much, but I just never connected to the story.

3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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Mini Middle Grade Horror Reviews

I am behind on my reviews and have some catching up to do! Here are a few of the middle grade books I've read recently!

Crater Lake by Jennifer Killick

Who is the mysterious bloodstained man who stops their coach? Why is no one around when Lance and the rest of Year Six arrive at the brand new Crater Lake activity centre? But this is just the beginning of the school trip from hell; a fight for survival that sees five pupils band together to save their classmates from an alien fate far worse than death. But whatever happens, they must Never. Ever. Fall asleep!

I cannot get enough of middle grade horror, and Crater Lake is scifi horror! This book was a lot of fun, and I adored that it had a big scifi element to it. I need more of that in my life.

I already have a copy of the sequel. (It was a must read preorder for me.) I can't wait to check it out.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★
4/5 stars

---

The Stitchers (Fright Watch #1) by Lorien Lawrence

The start of a spine-chilling new horror series about the eerie happenings in a small town
 
Something strange is happening on Goodie Lane . . .
 
Thirteen-year-old Quinn Parker knows that there’s something off about her neighbors. She calls them “the Oldies” because they’ve lived on Goodie Lane for as long as anyone can remember, but they never seem to age. Are they vampires? Or aliens? Or getting secret experimental surgeries? Or is Quinn’s imagination just running wild again?

If her dad were still around, he’d believe her. When he was alive, they’d come up with all sorts of theories about the Oldies. Now, Quinn’s determined to keep the investigation going with the help of Mike, her neighbor and maybe-crush. They’ll have to search for clues and follow the mystery wherever it leads—even if it’s to the eerie pond at the end of the street that’s said to have its own sinister secrets. But the Oldies are on to them. And the closer Quinn and Mike get to uncovering the answers, the more they realize just how terrifying the truth may be.

I'm excited about this series! The Stitchers is a fun - what is going on with the old people in this neighborhood - spooky delight.

I can't wait to see what spooky adventure comes next for these kids. I'll be there!

⭐⭐⭐⭐★
4/5 stars 

---

The Nefarious Necklace by K.A. Evans

Ghosts are pesky things, and ten year old Gaby Brown would like to get rid of hers. After Gaby touches an old necklace at her local museum, the menacing spirit of an ancient Egyptian girl named Kesi appears. The ghost wants something. And she wants it now! When Kesi threatens Gaby’s family, Gaby knows she must do something. But what? How can she stop a ghost? Gaby and her friend, Jacob, delve into Egypt’s past and realise there’s more to the necklace than they thought. Can they unravel the clues and help Kesi before the ghost gets REALLY angry?

The Nefarious Necklace reminds me of Magic Treehouse books! When Gaby touches an ancient Egyptian necklace, she is transported to ancient Egypt and must help a restless spirit. I think kids that have grown up reading Magic Treehouse would love to graduate into reading The Nefarious Necklace.

The horror is slow to emerge in this one, but it does definitely show up by the end. I would follow Gaby on more quests.

⭐⭐⭐★★
3/5 stars 

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Book Review | Alone by Megan E. Freeman

  Alone is middle grade survival story by Megan E. Freeman.

When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten. As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

I'm back with some more middle grade horror today! I was really excited when I discovered Alone because it sounded dystopian to me, and I couldn't remember having read anything like it. I instantly preordered because I was so intrigued! I didn't realize at the time that Alone was written in verse. To be perfectly honest, I was worried when I found out. I have DNF'ed several middle grade books over the years that were written in verse, but I had absolutely no problems with the writing or the structure of Alone. I think that format enhanced Alone!

I was also excited that the main character had a dog as her companion. (This is one of the reasons that I read Alone this month - Barb is hosting her annual puppy love challenge to read a book in February featuring a dog.)

Overall I really enjoyed Alone. I felt like I was on this survival adventure right along with Maddie. I loved her as a character, and I loved her rottweiler George. The premise is Maddie wakes up to find herself entirely alone in her world. She has to figure out how to gather supplies and survive on her own. I think kids who like survival stories would enjoy this and find it to be quite unique. The first night I started reading Alone, I had nightmares about my youngest child being left behind to survive on his own.

I could really feel Maddie's loneliness while reading Alone. I think being written in verse, it was a perfect vehicle to express a lot of Maddie's emotions. There's a section at the end that includes one of my favorite poems of all times - The Summer Day by Mary Oliver. I think that section is just so beautiful.

As much I did enjoy Alone - I have some complaints. Everyone left in the middle of just one night. Not just in Maddie's town but in the surrounding towns, too. Everyone left their cell phones and all of their pets behind. The only reason was convenience to the plot. I know a lot of my followers have trouble with animal death. These pets were left behind in cages and in homes. There is also a bad guy in Alone, and this is proven via a kitten. Any reason the author could have given for everyone to leave especially without their cell phones or their pets would have been better than the one we got.

When it comes to middle grade horror, I pass any books that I like on to my kids, and I donate the rest. Despite my complaints, I will pass this one on to them. I have no doubts they will have the same issues, but it's still a book that really sucks you in and makes you care. If you have kids in your life or in your class who love survival stories, I still say add this to your collection. They will fall for Maddie and George, and they will likely enjoy the unique way this story is presented through verse.

 

⭐⭐⭐★★
3/5 stars

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