Book Review | Return to Dyatlov Pass by J.H. Moncrieff

Return to Dyatlov Pass is a horror novel by J.H. Moncrieff.

In 1959, nine Russian students set off on a skiing expedition in the Ural Mountains. Their mutilated bodies were discovered weeks later. Their bizarre and unexplained deaths are one of the most enduring true mysteries of our time.

Nearly sixty years later, podcast host Nat McPherson ventures into the same mountains with her team, determined to finally solve the mystery of the Dyatlov Pass incident. Her plans are thwarted on the first night, when two trackers from her group are brutally slaughtered.

The team’s guide, a superstitious man from a neighboring village, blames the killings on yetis, but no one believes him. As members of Nat’s team die one by one, she must figure out if there’s a murderer in their midst—or something even worse—before history repeats itself and her group becomes another casualty of the infamous Dead Mountain.

Return to Dyatlov Pass follows a podcaster and a team of people trying to learn what really happened to students who died up in the mountains.

I'm pretty unfamiliar with the true events of Dyatlov Pass. I feel like I'm missing out a bit by not having my own theories to compare against what happened in Return to Dyatlov Pass. This was a fun read, though. Any which way you look at it, I enjoy a good monster story, and I had fun reading this one.

My only complaint regarding Return to Dyatlov Pass was toward the characters and the odd interactions/relationships. I wasn't able to connect to anyone, but I still had a good time.

⭐⭐⭐

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | November 25

I hope everyone had a wonderful week (and a wonderful Thanksgiving if you were celebrating!) Our Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch. I woke up sick on Black Friday, and I'm not even complaining because reading in bed is exactly what I needed.

Finished Reading

Return to Dyatlov Pass by J.H. Moncrieff ⭐⭐⭐ - This was a fun monster read.

Lyra's Oxford (His Dark Materials #3.5) by Philip Pullman ⭐⭐⭐ - This made me miss Lyra and Will.

The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere #1) by Jacqueline West ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I loved this middle grade read.

Currently Reading

Coraline by Neil Gaimen - Coraline is a weekend buddy read this weekend with Emily and Tracy. I'm enjoying finally getting to read it.

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - You guys were right about Illuminae. This is a fun read so far! It was a random library grab, and now I'm hoping they have the rest!

Recent Acquisitions

Some of my Black Friday purchases were The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, The Good House by Tananarive Due, and Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. Have you read any of these?

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | November 18

I don't know what is going on to make it so cold where I live. I get worried for people who live in places where it's actually supposed to be cold this early. I hope you guys are OK!

This week is going to be hectic with Thanksgiving on the way. I have to work Monday through Wednesday and then host my family for Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. Cooking the turkey always full on stresses me out.

Posted Last Week

Another week of posting reviews! Can I keep it up?

Last week I posted reviews for A Primer to Steve Rasnic Tem edited by Eric J. Guignard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur ⭐⭐⭐.

Finished Reading

Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal by J.K. Rowling, Alicia Dellepiane Rawson (Translator) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I finally finished my Spanish edition of Harry Potter. I highly recommend reading through Harry Potter if you are trying to improve your reading skills in a foreign language. It helped so much to already be familiar with the text.

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur ⭐⭐⭐ - You can read my full review here.

Currently Reading

A Primer to Kaaron Warren edited by Eric J. Guignard - This is the second book in the Exploring Dark Short Fiction series.

Harry Potter y la cámara secreta by J.K. Rowling, Adolfo Muñoz García (Translator) - I plan to carry on through the series and read them all in Spanish.

Recent Acquisitions

La sombra del viento (El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - This is Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind. I've been wanting to read The Shadow of the Wind for a long time now. I think I'm going to give the original a try.

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - Someone posted about this one on Instagram not too long ago so I grabbed this one, too.

El amor en los tiempos del cólera by Gabriel García Márquez - Have you read Love in the Time of Cholera? I'm a little nervous about this one, but if I wind up loving One Hundred Years of Solitude, I know I'll want to read this one, too. It's highly rated among my GR friends so we'll see!

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

The Sun and Her Flowers is a poetry collection by Rupi Kaur.

From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.

Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as i wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom

The Sun and Her Flowers is the followup to Rupi Kaur's amazing poetry collection Milk and Honey. (You can read my review of Milk and Honey here.)

Unfortunately, I didn't love The Sun and Her Flowers as much as I loved Milk and Honey. There were several poems in The Sun and Her Flowers that I did love very much, but as a whole, the collection fell more toward the middle for me.

The Sun and Her Flowers felt like an extension of Milk and Honey, and I highly recommend reading Milk and Honey first. I think I enjoyed The Sun and Her Flowers much more having read it on the heels of Milk and Honey. Rupi Kaur has a unique style, and I think it was presented best in her previous collection.

Even though The Sun and Her Flowers didn't wind up as a favorite collection, I do still recommend it. I look forward to picking up more poetry by Rupi Kaur in the future.

⭐⭐⭐

On My Wishlist {16}

I'm way over due for posting a wishlist post! I've read so many amazing reviews and have been recommended a lot of books lately. This post could really get out of hand. I've decided to try my best at narrowing down my list to just three books I'm currently wishing or waiting for.

The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

Something’s happening to the girls on Denton Street.

It’s the summer of 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio, and Phoebe Shaw and her best friend Jacqueline have just graduated high school, only to confront an ugly, uncertain future. Across the city, abandoned factories populate the skyline; meanwhile at the shore, one strong spark, and the Cuyahoga River might catch fire. But none of that compares to what’s happening in their own west side neighborhood. The girls Phoebe and Jacqueline have grown up with are changing. It starts with footprints of dark water on the sidewalk. Then, one by one, the girls’ bodies wither away, their fingernails turning to broken glass, and their bones exposed like corroded metal beneath their flesh.

As rumors spread about the grotesque transformations, soon everyone from nosy tourists to clinic doctors and government men start arriving on Denton Street, eager to catch sight of “the Rust Maidens” in metamorphosis. But even with all the onlookers, nobody can explain what’s happening or why—except perhaps the Rust Maidens themselves. Whispering in secret, they know more than they’re telling, and Phoebe realizes her former friends are quietly preparing for something that will tear their neighborhood apart.

Alternating between past and present, Phoebe struggles to unravel the mystery of the Rust Maidens—and her own unwitting role in the transformations—before she loses everything she’s held dear: her home, her best friend, and even perhaps her own body.

The first book comes out later this week, and that is The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste. Several members of the Ladies of Horror Fiction team have already read it, and they are raving about it. It sounds like a must buy horror book for this year.

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Love For Slaughter by Sara Tantlinger

This debut collection of poetry from Sara Tantlinger takes a dark look at all the horrors of love, the pleasures of flesh, and the lust for blood. For discerning fans of romance and the macabre, look no further than Love For Slaughter.

Love for Slaughter is another wishlist book I'm blaming on the Ladies of Horror Fiction team. Both Emily and Toni have been reading a lot of poetry with me this year, and they are raving on Love for Slaughter. It's quickly heading to the top of my must buy list.

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The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky by John Hornor Jacobs

Having lost both her home and family to a brutal dictatorship, Isabel has fled to Spain, where she watches young, bronzed beauties and tries to forget the horrors that lie in her homeland.

Shadowing her always, attired in rumpled linen suits and an eyepatch, is “The Eye,” a fellow ex-pat and poet with a notorious reputation. An unlikely friendship blossoms, a kinship of shared grief. Then The Eye receives a mysterious note and suddenly returns home, his fate uncertain.

Left with the keys to The Eye’s apartment, Isabel finds two of his secret manuscripts: a halting translation of an ancient, profane work, and an evocative testament of his capture during the revolution. Both texts bear disturbing images of blood and torture, and the more Isabel reads the more she feels the inexplicable compulsion to go home.

It means a journey deep into a country torn by war, still ruled by a violent regime, but the idea of finding The Eye becomes ineluctable. Isabel feels the manuscripts pushing her to go. Her country is lost, and now her only friend is lost, too. What must she give to get them back? In the end, she has only herself left to sacrifice.

THE SEA DREAMS IT IS THE SKY asks:

How does someone simply give up their home...especially when their home won’t let them?

The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is a Lovecraftian tale from John Hornor Jacobs. If I'm not mistaken, it's set in the same world as Southern Gods. I was hoping to get a paperback, but I've only seen an ebook release so far.

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Have you read or are you planning to read any of these? What books have recently made it onto your wishlist?