Until the Sun by Chandler Morrison REVIEW

Summary:

On a hot August night, a troubled fifteen-year-old boy with a tragic past wakes to find his tyrannical foster parents murdered by a trio of nocturnal, blood-drinking heathens. The killers give him the opportunity for a new life, one where he can be relieved of traditional hardships, vanquish his enemies, and attain a sense of true belonging . . . at the cost of what little remains of his humanity. The life he is offered is one of eternal darkness, but the promise of undying acceptance, freedom, and power gives it an appeal that his current dreaded existence is lacking.

Fraught with resentment over his catastrophic adolescence and confronted by ambiguous notions of good and evil, he is forced to explore a dark world on the fringe between bliss and oblivion. As he edges ever closer to a climactic encounter with the demons that plague his soul, he discovers just how dangerous it is to be young and alienated in modern society.

My Thoughts:

 This book follows a teenage boy who wakes up to the sound of his foster family being murdered. Those who committed the crime seem to also be teenagers, but they dress oddly and drink his family's blood. Instead of killing him, they whisk him away to where they live - an old mansion. They tell him that he needs to pass some tests before he can become immortal vampires like they are. The novel goes back and forth between present and past, which at first is jarring but then I got used to it. Our main character's real parents were murdered by an infamous serial killer a year prior, and was living with his aunt, uncle, and cousin before being put into foster care. His aunt and uncle were barely home due to their work, and he had a major infatuation with his cousin, who had bad habits with a dangerous drug. Eventually, she gets into a bad batch, turning her insane and murderous. Our main character had to stab her in order to save himself and everyone else.

In many ways, this is a standard Chandler Morrison novel. People are soulless, selfish, and at times murder-happy. That being said, it does stand out from his other novels and novellas that I have read so far in that the main character a younger teenager. His other works revolve around adults and soon-to-be adults. I did really enjoy the book, and the twist at the end is not one I saw coming and was heart-breaking. I would recommend this, but be sure to check any triggers you may have before picking it up.

My Rating: 4 stars

Mary by Nat Cassidy REVIEW

Summary:

Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable, invisible. Unknown, even to herself. 

But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can't look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.

Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity, and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer.

Then the killings begin again.

Mary's definitely going to find herself.

My Thoughts:

Wow. This book did not go how I expected it to. Mary gets let go from her job at a bookstore in New York, leaving her only option: go back to her hometown and take care of her supposedly ailing aunt. But when she moves in, she starts seeing ghosts. Mary gets a part time job working at the hospital sorting through files, and begins a friendship with Eleanor, a young lady obsessed with true crime. The ghosts she's been seeing are victims of Damon Cross - a serial killer that was shot dead the day she was born. With all this, Mary realizes that she doesn't really remember anything about growing up or the town, and then the killings start beginning again.

I really love the character of Mary. She is a the invisible, middle-aged woman who is in perimenopause. Despite her not knowing much about her past, we do get a good glimpse of who she is and can easily sympathize with her struggles. I loved this book, but there were a couple of things that I wish were done better. The second opening scene of the woman at the museum did not seem to connect or correlate with the story at all, which left me confused after I finished the book. The second is that we don't know much about the characters in the town. Even after things are revealed in the end, we barely know any of the townspeople or their motivations.

My Rating: 4 stars

The Story Eaters of Yamm by Kevin Hincker REVIEW

Summary:

An irreverent, suspenseful, profoundly original novel about a group of science fiction writers hired to gameplan an alien invasion, led by Larry Palczewski - a struggling writer who can't perceive time.

What starts for Larry as desperately needed source of free lunches turns sinister and inconvenient when the alien snails the group is fictionalizing actually do begin invading - by taking over humanity's novels. After that, it is up to Larry, unlikeliest of protagonists, to author a new ending before humankind is eaten by the ultimate bad story - his own.

My Thoughts:

This was a very odd and original story. Larry is unable to tell time and is on his 27th rewrite of his novel when he goes to a job interview. The job? Creating a story with other writers and putting it together with the help of an AI. He is deeply suspicious of these people and the AI, trying to quit at every inconvenience but ends up staying. Then the aliens start invading - and Larry finds out that the story they are writing is actually the truth, and humanity needs his help to be protected from the invasion.

Larry is a very insufferable character. He is rude to everyone, is always late, and doesn't seem to care about anyone other than himself. I deeply sympathize with Tanya, the woman who hired him and the other writers, for having to deal with him on a daily basis. That being said, he is occasionally funny, and he does grow to care about his fellow writers. The book was written in a confusing way, with the chapter numbers out of order and sometimes repeated, as well as sentences not always being finished at the end of the chapters. It did take me quite a bit before I started liking the story and the characters. Most of the characters were underdeveloped, and the invasion portion seemed rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the novel.

My Rating: 2 stars

Cash and Gravity by Perrin Pring REVIEW

Summary:

Chevy Cole left her conservative family behind to work for Launch Tech, one of the six mega corporations that has supplanted the American government and constantly competes for resources, market position, and the ultimate long-game prize of colonizing the stars. Chevy is proud of her role as first-into-the-fire grunt marine, even if she is well below the revered female super soldiers known as Aces.

After the catastrophic failed siege of a Nevada mine leaves most of her comrades dead, Chevy encounters an injured Ace in possession of a mysterious package, a long-sought-after fusion device that would change the world. A surprise, this Ace is a man. Joined by an off-the-grid "phantom" sent by Launch Tech to transport the device to a safehouse, the three must form an uneasy alliance as they try to outrun a rival corporation's ruthless agents. Whoever controls the device, controls the future, and when greed is the only rule of law, who can be trusted?

My Thoughts:

This was such a fun read! Chevy is a space marine who gets sent on a mission to siege a Nevada mine, and there are whispers that they are going in order to take control of a fusion device. When a crash leaves Chevy injured and her comrades mostly dead, she stumbles upon a male Ace holding onto the device. With the help of Dolon, the three race to get to the safehouse and dodge other agents who want to get their hands on the device.

The story was written in a way for those of us who aren't well-versed in science to understand, which is great. I loved Chevy - she's a fearless marine who came from an unlikely upbringing with a passion for her work. Dolon is also a great character - a widower who stays off the grid and is tasked by Launch Tech to make sure the device gets to the safehouse. The Ace, however, was not very well developed to make me care about him, and I wish we got to learn more about the Aces and what makes them so special. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope for a sequel.

My Rating: 4 stars

I Am Cleopatra by Natasha Solomons REVIEW

Summary:

The favored daughter of the Pharaoh, Egyptian Princess Cleopatra spent her childhood hiding amid the scrolls in the great library of Alexandria, dreaming of one day writing her own story.

When her father dies, naming both Cleopatra and her selfish brother Ptolemy as his successors to the throne, danger arises. While the young queen sails the Nile to greet her people, her brother plots to eliminate her and rule the empire alone.

But while Ptolemy has the power of the kingdom behind him, Cleopatra has her cunning wits. When the great Caesar arrives from Rome, she realizes he could be the key to her salvation - though courting this powerful man could cost her everything.

Can Cleopatra save her life, her throne, and her beloved Egypt and finally write her own history?

My Thoughts:

This book is told in dual narratives of Cleopatra and Servilla, Caesar's mistress in Rome. We follow her childhood, as her father appeals to Rome to help Egypt before he dies, making Cleopatra Queen. But her brother is twisted by the words of his advisors, and plans to kill her so that he alone rules. When word of Caesar arriving in Egypt comes, Cleopatra decides to infiltrate her own palace to meet him - and hopefully get him on her side to save her life. The book follows her affair with Caesar up to and briefly after his assassination.

While I do like that this book shone a light on her relationship with Caesar, I can't help but wonder why most books about Cleopatra only focus on her affairs and never just herself. It gets old real fast. However, the dual narrative serves a bit of a purpose of letting the reader know the events going on in Rome at the time, as well as to see Caesar in a different perspective than just how Cleopatra sees him. I do like the inclusion of this, as it does help set the scene for the issues within Rome's politics, relationships in Rome, and who Caesar is outside of being a powerful man. One issue I do have with the novel is that it uses some modern language/slang even though the real historical figures would not say things like that, which took me out of enjoying it as much.

My Rating: 4 stars