Review | And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Source: library borrow. This is a review of my reading experience.

And Put Away Childish Things is a fantasy novella from Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Harry Bodie’s been called into the delightful fantasy world of his grandmother’s beloved children’s books. It’s not delightful here at all.

All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice.

Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ TV presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be nothing but an impediment.

An impediment... or worse. What if Underhill is real? What if it has been waiting decades for a promised child to visit? What if it isn’t delightful at all? And what if its denizens have run out of patience and are taking matters into their own hands?

✅ Portal fantasy (and horror and scifi)
✅ Tchaikovsky spider

And Put Away Childish Things is the third novella in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Terrible Worlds: Destinations series, but each installment is a standalone story. I've read the first novella (Walking to Aldebaran) but haven't read the second one yet. My library happened to have this available when I needed a short read.

The main character Harry's grandmother was a famous children's author who wrote stories set in Underhill, and there are quite a few people who remain obsessed with his grandmother's stories. Set during the start of the pandemic, it felt like Tchaikovsky was working through a number of things with And Put Away Childish Things.

I continue to really enjoy Tchaikovsky's writing. He has written so many things that span the breadth of speculative fiction, and I intend to read them all.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

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Book Review | The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Warning: Lackluster review ahead. Proceed with caution.
Source: personal purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Way of Kings is the first book in The Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

I'm finally hooked on The Stormlight Archives, but this book was a struggle. I tried reading this back in 2011, I think, but I wasn't ready for it. The learning curve was too steep for me, and I had no reason to have faith in Brandon Sanderson at the time.

There's a reason no one can really explain what this book is about. It's a book of world building and character introduction. It's Sanderson so it has plenty of brilliant moments. I love all of those moments so much and I'm excited to continue on with this series, but The Way of Kings can't stand on its own, and it took me an entire year to get through it.

But like I said, it's Sanderson. I have fallen in love with these characters and the magic system, and I also have 100% faith that this series is going to be incredible.

If you haven't read Sanderson, I honestly wouldn't start here unless you are used to reading epic fantasy with a steeper learning curve. I'd start with the first Mistborn trilogy and go from there. That's not to say I don't recommend The Way of Kings because I do recommend it. It's not as accessible as his other works, but I know it will be worth the effort.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

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Book Review | Cradleland of Parasites by Sara Tantlinger

Cradleland of Parasites is a horror poetry collection by Sara Tantlinger.

Bram Stoker Award-winner Sara Tantlinger delivers her CRADLELAND OF PARASITES, a harrowing and darkly gorgeous collection of poetry chronicling the death and devastation of one of history's greatest horrors: The Black Plague.

I have fallen upon a few plague novels over the course of the pandemic. It's very surreal to read about plagues, pandemics, the history of harsh and fatal diseases while living through a pandemic. It definitely heightens the works that I have been reading lately!

The poems in Cradleland of Parasites center around The Black Plague. Wow, these poems were dark and brutal and beautiful. Some of my favorites were Second Pandemic, Moral Decay, Death Knell, and An Advanced Society.

Cradleland of Parasites was my first poetry collection by Sara Tantlinger. I read and loved her novella To Be Devoured which definitely had a poetic quality to it. I look forward to checking out more from her in the future!

⭐⭐⭐💫★

3.5/5 stars

Review copy provided by author

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Book Review | Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Good Neighbors is a horror-adjacent thriller by Sarah Langan.

Celeste Ng’s enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson’s creeping dread in this propulsive literary noir, when a sudden tragedy exposes the depths of deception and damage in a Long Island suburb—pitting neighbor against neighbor and putting one family in terrible danger.

Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world.

Arlo Wilde, a gruff has-been rock star who’s got nothing to show for his fame but track marks, is always two steps behind the other dads. His wife, beautiful ex-pageant queen Gertie, feels socially ostracized and adrift. Spunky preteen Julie curses like a sailor and her kid brother Larry is called “Robot Boy” by the kids on the block.

Their next-door neighbor and Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder—a lonely community college professor repressing her own dark past—welcomes Gertie and family into the fold. Then, during one spritzer-fueled summer evening, the new best friends share too much, too soon.

As tensions mount, a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, and Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls inside. The search for Shelly brings a shocking accusation against the Wildes that spins out of control. Suddenly, it is one mom’s word against the other’s in a court of public opinion that can end only in blood.

A riveting and ruthless portrayal of American suburbia, Good Neighbors excavates the perils and betrayals of motherhood and friendships and the dangerous clash between social hierarchy, childhood trauma, and fear.

This book is bizarre in a Bentley Little sort of way. The town, the landscape, the people. Something is not right on Maple Street.

It took me a while to get into Good Neighbors. It was so far fetched, but a thread of curiosity kept making me pick it back up. Eventually I was hooked, and I was glad I didn't put it down for good.

Oddly enough I grew to care about the people of Maple Street.

Before each chapter there are news articles recalling the events that took place on Maple Street. I loved the perspective of the interviews and the journalists just as much as I enjoyed the actual story. It's easy to see how one's perspective can be skewed in a situation and how one's bias can shape what they want to believe about their neighbors.

If you enjoy domestic thrillers with neighbors pitted against neighbors, I do recommend you pick up Good Neighbors. It was quite the experience.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | The Haunting by Lindsey Duga

The Haunting is a middle grade horror novel by Lindsey Duga.

A dark family secret prompts a ghost to wreak havoc in this spooky novel in the spirit of Mary Downing Hahn.
The only life 12-year-old Emily has ever known is the cold, unloved existence of being an orphan. But everything changes when the Thorntons, a young couple from London, adopt Emily, whisking her away to a new life at their grand estate.

At first, life at Blackthorn Manor is wonderful. But as Emily explores the grounds and rooms, she stumbles upon a mysterious girl named Kat, who appears to be similar in age, and the two become fast friends.

That's when things take a turn for the worse. Kat seems to know a curious amount about the estate, and strange things happen whenever she's around. In one case, Emily narrowly avoids getting toppled by a bookcase in the library; in another, the fire erupts in the fireplace, nearly burning Emily's hands. It's almost as if someone -- or something -- wants Emily dead.

Emily must find out what happened to the Thorntons and, more important, how Kat is connected to these strange goings-on at Blackthorn Manor before it's too late!

This is exactly the kind of middle grade book I would have loved as a kid. This is going to show my age, but every time I went to the library, I'd look in the card catalog under "ghost" to see if there was anything new. The Haunting by Lindsey Duga would have been an instant favorite!

I know I'm not supposed to review middle grade for other adult readers, blah, blah, blah. Too bad because I am going to so prepare thyself. If you can't handle me saying this is a great book for kids but not so much for older readers - you've been warned.

I'm going to happily pass this book on to my boys. I think they would find it just scary enough to get creeped out by it. That's the beauty of young readers. They don't have a thousand stories in their minds and a thousand tropes that have come before when they pick up something new. The Haunting will be fresh and new and creepy.

If you are an adult reader who reads middle grade as one of your own personal genres - like I do! - The Haunting isn't going to feel particularly new. The Haunting reminded me of Little Orphan Annie - with Sandy and Miss Hannigan and Daddy Warbucks - which I enjoyed. The scares are fun, but they are also very traditional for a ghost story. The reader will know what's going on in The Haunting long before our main character Emily figures it out. This will be far more thrilling to younger readers.

This was my first time reading Lindsey Duga. She has written YA previously, but The Haunting was her middle grade debut. She has another middle grade horror coming out in March 2021 called Ghost in the Headlights so you know my inner Jen is excited to read that one next year as well.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

Book Review | Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz

Fractured Tide is a YA horror novel by Leslie Lutz.

Lost meets Stranger Things in this eerie, immersive YA thriller, thrusting seventeen-year-old Sia into a reality where the waters in front of her and the jungle behind her are as dangerous as the survivors alongside her.

Sia practically grew up in the water scuba diving, and wreck dives are run of the mill. Take the tourists out. Explore the reef. Uncover the secrets locked in the sunken craft. But this time ... the dive goes terribly wrong.

Attacked by a mysterious creature, Sia's boat is sunk, her customers are killed, and she washes up on a deserted island with no sign of rescue in sight. Waiting in the water is a seemingly unstoppable monster that is still hungry. In the jungle just off the beach are dangers best left untested. When Sia reunites with a handful of survivors, she sees it as the first sign of light.

Sia is wrong.

Between the gulf of deadly seawater in front of her and suffocating depth of the jungle behind her, even the island isn't what it seems.

Haunted by her own mistakes and an inescapable dread, Sia's best hope for finding answers may rest in the center of the island, at the bottom of a flooded sinkhole that only she has the skills to navigate. But even if the creature lurking in the depths doesn't swallow her and the other survivors, the secrets of their fractured reality on the island might.

I wish I had read Fractured Tide back in the summer time! There are so many elements that I dig in this book, and the diving, the shipwreck, the sea monster... it all screams summer reading for me. It's the perfect book for spending time down at the beach. Unfortunately, 2020 did not include much beach time for me so I squeezed Fractured Tide in here at the end of the year.

Fractured Tide has been compared to LOST a lot, and it's an accurate comparison. It definitely has LOST vibes, and it also reminded me of The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling. It's claustrophobic, and it's strange.

Fractured Tide is told through journal entries written from Sia who is shipwrecked on a bizarre deserted island to her dad who is in prison.

My only complaint with Fractured Tide is it lagged in the middle for me. I don't think I would have been as easily pulled away from the middle if I had read it in the summertime instead of just before Christmas. I'm a mood reader, and unfortunately it does affect me.

Along with fans of LOST and The Luminous Dead, I would also recommend Fractured Tide to fans of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. It's a thrilling book, and the strange setting adds a lot to the experience.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

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Book Review | Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Dread Nation is a YA historical fiction/horror novel by Justina Ireland.

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

Even though this is a zombie book, I knew going into Dread Nation that it would be light on the horror elements. I think that helped me adjust to the right expectations going into this. Thankfully there was a more to Dread Nation than the zombies.

Dread Nation was very successful at building the story over the course of the entire novel. I love when a book gets better and better and then thoroughly hooks me by the end. That doesn't always make for a quick read, and it did take me a while to get through Dread Nation. I was able to put it down and pick it back up again days later.

By the end, though, I was hooked and anxious for more. I'll be picking up Deathless Divide (the second half of this duology) soon so be on the look out for that review as well!

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

Book Review | Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland is a new crime fiction release by S.A. Cosby.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland...or die trying.

Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

Why Did I Read Blacktop Wasteland?

The early reviews have been amazing for Blacktop Wasteland! How could I not get pulled into wanting to read it? The majority of my friends have given it 5 stars and the rest a solid 4 stars.

The Strengths

I went into Blacktop Wasteland pretty blind outside of just knowing how well it was being received. Blacktop Wasteland turned out to be a really great crime novel. It was full of action and full of consequence, and I loved S.A. Cosby's voice.

Blacktop Wasteland had a lot of surprises, too. I'm certain I said "noooo" out loud more than once!

There was a lot of heart in Blacktop Wasteland. It makes me excited to see what Cosby does next.

The Weaknesses

Here is the part where I get purely subjective. Pretty early on I had Blacktop Wasteland pegged as a heist book. I am such a huge fan of heist stories, and I've been really craving them lately. I see now that Blacktop Wasteland is being billed as part Ocean's Eleven which is fair since my own mind went there (more specifically Ocean's Eight). I'm glad I didn't see the comparisons ahead of time, though, because my heist expectation would have been even higher. My mind kept expecting the plotting and the pacing of a heist novel but was being given a great crime novel that was something else altogether.

Final Thoughts

If you love a good crime story, I wholeheartedly recommend you pick up Blacktop Wasteland. I will not be surprised to see it on a lot of favorites and awards lists for this year.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

Review copy provided by the publisher

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Book Review | Origin by J.A. Konrath

It's been a while since I've read a thriller as entertaining as Origin.

When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert , he has no idea he's been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon.

He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan.

But things quickly go bad, and very soon Andy isn't just fighting for his life, but the lives of everyone on earth...

Konrath successfully combined the science of Jurassic Park with the beast of Relic. There were several elements of Origin that pulled me right out of the story at times, but the suspense and my curiosity pulled me right back in.

I got a pdf ebook from Konrath's website for free, but you can also get other formats (Kindle, Nook, etc.) for super cheap.  If you are a fan of techothrillers, horror, or suspense, I recommend you check it out.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

This was my first Konrath novel.  Have you read Origin?  Do you have a favorite Konrath book you can recommend?