Piercing by Ryu Murakami REVIEW

Summary:

Kawashima Masayuki is a successful graphic designer living in Tokyo with his loving wife, Yoko, and their baby girl. Outwardly, their lives are a picture of happiness and contentment, but every night while his wife sleeps Kawashima creeps from his bed and watches over the baby's crib with an ice pick in his hand and an almost visceral desire to use it.

One particular night, as this struggle unfolds once more, Kawashima makes a decision to confront his demons, and sets into motion an uncomfortable chain of events seeming to lead inexorably to murder.

My Thoughts:

This book kind of reminds me of American Psycho. Kawashima has the intrusive thoughts to use the ice pick on his baby, but is able to refrain from doing so. In an effort to make those thoughts go away, he decides to leave town and use it on someone else. Kawashima has stabbed someone before, which is what lead him to this conclusion. However, the person he selects to be his victim is just as twisted - if not more - than himself.

The novel starts off a bit slow, and it shows the main character's descent into madness throughout. Halfway through, it does switch to the point of view of the would-be victim. I think it was a good move to make them a similar level of crazy as the main character instead of just the cookie-cutter victim. It made things a lot more interesting, and it's what sold the ending for me.

My Rating: 4 stars 

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle REVIEW

Summary:

 Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed "most effective" gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy . . .

My Thoughts:

 This book is kind of perfect. Uneasy atmosphere, body horror, spiritual horror (if that's a thing?), and good writing. This is my first Chuck Tingle book and I am extremely impressed.

Rose and her family are a part of the Kingdom of the Pine Church (*cough* cult *cough*). Her friend Isaiah is into her, but she doesn't really feel the same, and after he kisses her, she gets sick - but what comes up isn't normal. When Rose's friend dies in an inhuman way, she starts asking questions about Camp Damascus and seeing demons. But she gets nowhere until a deeply buried memory comes back to her - she had gone to the camp and was strapped to a machine. Horrified, she runs to Saul, another survivor of the camp. They figure out what's going on behind the scenes at the camp and come up with a plan to shut the place down for good.

As someone who is gay and was raised religious, this book hit me hard. While there are a lot of differences between Rose's experiences and mine, there are those scary similarities, which I think is why I loved this novel so much. I would definitely recommend giving this book a read.

My Rating: 5 stars

Saha by Cho Nam-Joo REVIEW

Summary:

In a country called Town, a doctor named Su is found dead in an abandoned car. There is only one place the police intend to look for her killer: the Saha Estates. Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least - who aren't even considered citizens - live on the Saha Estates. No one is shocked when a lowlife Saha like Do-kyung becomes the main suspect in Su's - a citizen's - murder. But then Do-kyung disappears, and his sister Jin-kyung is determined to find him. To do so, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from a mysterious janitor to a reluctant midwife and an unwitting test subject at the local clinic.

My Thoughts:

I have never read a book quite like this before. It's part murder mystery, part what is the government hiding from us. The people native to the land were not given citizenship when the country was taken over, banishing them to the outskirts to live in an abandoned building. They are treated like dirt, and most cannot get jobs because most jobs require citizenship. The city is run by the Council of Ministers, whose faces are never seen by the public, and crimes are punished often by execution.

The novel is split into narratives by many different Saha residents, which accumulates into the information Jin-kyung needs to find her brother and try to save him from a crime he didn't actually commit. But what Jin-kyung is told at the end turns everything she thought she knew on its head.

I liked the way this book was written, and I was surprised at the reveal, but it kind of left more questions than answers for me. Thus, I still don't know how to feel about it. I liked the different stories of the different characters and how they blended together to push the plot forward though. I think that was very well done.

My Rating: 3 stars

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo REVIEW

Summary:

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy "Alex" Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory - even if it endangers her future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies' most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it.

My Thoughts:

I flew through this book. After being told they were not allowed to rescue Darlington from hell, and Michelle not being willing to help either, Alex and Dawes throw themselves into researching a way to help him. After finding out how, they need to recruit two other people who have had blood on their hands - not an easy task. Turner and Tripp reluctantly agree to join them, and Mercy agrees to watch over their bodies during the attempt. But after being forced back before being able to reach Darlington, they find that demons escaped back with them. In order to send the demons back and successfully rescue their friend and mentor, the team needs to make sure their ritual isn't interrupted again.

I loved this. Maybe not as much as Ninth House, but I loved the character development and the look into the pasts of other characters that we didn't know much about in the first book. It was fast paced, entertaining, and very well written. I would definitely recommend giving this a read.

My Rating: 4 stars 

The Jasad Crown by Sara Hashem REVIEW

Summary:

Held deep in a mountain refuge, Sylvia has been captured by the Urabi, who believe the Jasad Heir can return their homeland to its former power. But after years of denying her legacy and a traitor's bargain with Jasad's greatest enemy, Sylvia must win the Urabi's trust while struggling to hide the dangerous side effects her magic is having on her mind. 

In a rival kingdom, Arin must maneuver carefully between his father's desire to put down the brewing rebellion and the sacred edicts Arin is sworn to uphold. He is determined to find Sylvia, but Arin's search unravels secrets that threaten the very core of his beliefs about his family and his kingdom.

War is inevitable, but Sylvia cannot abandon her people again. The Urabi plan to raise the Jasadi fortress, and it will either kill Sylvia or destroy the humanity she's fought so hard to protect. For the first time in her life, Sylvia doesn't just want to survive. She wants to win.

My Thoughts:

I really wanted to throw this book out the window after that ending. Sylvia is forced to face the reality of who she is after years of hiding, as well as gain the trust of her people. They want her to raise the fortress, which will either kill her or make her go mad. Arin learns the truth behind his heritage and what his father has been doing. He is actually half-Jasadi, and he has no magic due to his father magic-mining him when he was very young. His father keeps the magic in his scepter, and is also part of the reason that Jasad fell. I loved learning all of these revelations and getting the full history of what happened to Jasad piece by piece. I could not put the book down, but I hate the ending. Sylvia dies and never sees those she loves again? While I understand not having a completely happy ending, this seemed like a bit of a cop-out. I think that it would have been better if she was consumed by her magic and everyone had to try to bring her back.

My Rating: 4 stars