Abhorrent Siren by John Baltisberger

 Summary:

Something is mutating the aquatic wildlife on the South Texas border, making the animals larger, hungrier, and more vicious.

Something is mutating the people of Texas, turning them into cannibalistic monsters driven by their basest instincts to feed, nest, and reproduce.

Something approaches San Antonio, shaking the earth with each step, driving the mutating power forth and poisoning everything it comes across.

Something . . . abhorrent.

My Thoughts:

This was...an interesting experience. It is also my first time reading this author. This book is yet another example of why I love extreme horror/the splatterpunk genre. Everything from the vivid descriptions to the amount of characterization each main character is given. It is a novella, so I would have loved more characterization, but it is done so well in such a short book. Lisa, Ferdinand, Mike, and Barbara were the characters that I rooted for the most.

The imagery around the siren is breathtaking, and the creature itself is intriguing. Of course, we don't learn everything about it, but what is there is written so well.

I would definitely recommend this for fans of extreme horror and splatterpunk. This is not one for the faint of heart.

My Rating: 5 stars

Along the Path of Torment by Chandler Morrison REVIEW

Summary:

Ty Seward is a sick man. Anorexic, sexually aberrant, and haunted by a ghostly apparition residing in his closet. Living in the shadow of an in-remission cancer he fully expects to return, Ty bitterly earns his meager living by working as an assistant to his uncle, a business-and-media mogul who runs a lucrative child prostitution ring catering to the Hollywood elite. When Ty's line of work introduces him to a precocious teenage girl who seems to possess a shrewdly keen insight into his inner machinations, he is forced to confront his hidden demons and repressed trauma, embarking on a bleak and harrowing odyssey of self-discovery in the decomposing City of Angels.

My Thoughts:

One of the reasons why I love Chandler Morrison's works is his willingness to write sick and twisted characters that are generally taboo for other writers. Ty is a bad person, and Morrison doesn't mask that or try to get the reader to sympathize with him. He is just horrible, period.

Ty is complacent toward the horrors that his uncle inflicts upon minors, as he used to do the same. Now he doesn't do everything he used to, but he still does things with underage girls. The further in the book, the more we learn about Ty's childhood trauma and how the ghost is a reflection of it. When Ty was a child, he was sexually abused by his aunt and uncle, but those memories only surface when he confronts the ghost in the yellow dress. This is more of an explanation of why he did it, not an excuse.

Beatrice/Dolly is the teenager he meets while working for his uncle. She is kind towards Ty, and they slowly become friends. She is, to me, a representation of what a lot of child stars had to go through to get fame. Beatrice doesn't really want to be a star, it is her mother who pushes her to do it and is okay with her daughter being assaulted by older men in order for Beatrice to be casted as an actress.

This is a bleak novel that includes heavily realistic content about the entertainment industry. So if that is something you can't handle, skip this book. Otherwise, I would recommend it. It is not for everyone though.

My Rating: 4 stars

The Girl by Victory Witherkeigh REVIEW

 Summary:

The parents knew it had been a mistake to have a girl. At birth, the girl's long, elegant fingers wriggled and grasped forward, motioning to strangle the very air from her mother's lungs. As she grew older, she grew more like her father, whose ancestors would dream of those soon to die. She walked and talked in her sleep, and her parents warded themselves, telling the girl that she was evil, unlovable, their burden to bear only until her eighteenth birthday released them.

The average person on the streets of Los Angeles would look at the girl and see a young woman with dark chocolate eyes, curly long hair, and the tanned skin of her Filipina heritage. Her teachers praised her scholarly achievements and extracurricular activities, from academic decathlon to cheer.

The girl knew she was different, especially as she grew to accept that the other children's parents didn't despise them. Her parents whispered about their pact as odd and disturbing occurrences continued to happen around her. The girl thought being an evil demon should require the skies to bleed, the ground to tremble, an animal sacrifice to seal the bargain, or at least cause some general mayhem. Did other demons work so hard to find friends, do well on their homework, and protect their spoiled younger brother?

The demon was patient. It could afford to wait, to remind the girl when she was hurt that power was hers to take. She needed only to embrace it. It could wait. The girl's parents were doing much of its work already.

My Thoughts:

I fell in LOVE with this book. The writing was captivating and beautiful, and I wanted so badly to finish it in one sitting (but I'm a college student, so that didn't happen). 

The girl (whose name is never revealed) have parents who have hated her since she was born, and constantly remind her of it, verbally abusing her at every opportunity (basically, all the time). The novel shows the girl growing up until college age. She constantly wishes that her parents loved her, and that they would give her as much love as they did to her baby brother. The girl ends up trying hard at school, and the teachers praised her, but the reason was she hoped that her parents would acknowledge her as a human being. Of course, this doesn't happen. Her parents neglect her, and so her middle and high school years were a living hell. The girl's love life was awful, because all she wanted was to be seen and loved, making her a target for boys who want to take advantage of her. 

The demon/fantasy element of the novel is very small compared to the girl's normal life. The summary hypes up this element, but spends very little time on it. One ability that is mentioned is the one that the girl can see premonitions of those close to death, but it seems to have forgotten this plot point for most of the book. The demon is also barely in this novel, making me hope that the author will write a sequel.

I loved this read, but I also can't ignore the problem that, for a book that promises a constant presence of a demon, it is so small compared to the rest of the novel. However, since it was so good, I do recommend it. I would warn that the fantasy elements are far and few in between though.

My Rating: 4 stars 

Audition by Ryu Murakami REVIEW

 Summary:

Aoyama, a widower who has lived alone with his son since his wife died seven years ago, decides that it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that he stage auditions for a movie he never intends to produce in order to cast the perfect woman as his bride. Only one of the applicants catches Aoyama's attention: Yamasaki Asami, a striking young ballerina with a mysterious past. Blinded by his infatuation, Aoyama discovers too late that she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagined her to be.

My Thoughts:

I do know this was a film, but I wanted to read the novel it was based on first. This isn't the first Murakami book I have read; I have previously read In the Miso Soup.

Aoyama is still grieving the loss of his wife, even though it has been several years. He was not faithful to her when she was still alive, but he never wanted her to die. His son, now in high school, notices how miserable Aoyama is and suggests he remarry. Aoyama originally rejects the idea, but soon realizes that his son is right. When he tells his friend Yoshikawa about this, the friend decides to create an audition for a film that likely will not happen so that Aoyama can find his ideal type. Asami blows him away, and he falls in love with her. Unfortunately, he finds out too late about her past.

I really liked the relationship Aoyama has with his son. It is something that we don't see very often in the horror genre (or most genres really). Asami was abused growing up, and she tells Aoyama that she healed through dancing. But it turns out that she has not actually healed. Asami wants to be loved by Aoyama, but she also wants him to ONLY love her. He doesn't really understand what she means until she leaves after he tells her about his son.

I definitely loved this book, and I hope to find more compelling novels from this author.

My Rating: 5 stars

Everything Will Be All Right In the End by Paul Michael Anderson REVIEW

My Thoughts:

Short story collections, as you probably know by now, are very difficult to review/rate. But I did fall in love with Anderson's writing.

One of my favorites is "The One Thing I Wished For You". It revolves around a new father, who wants to protect his newborn child whatever the cost. His wish was for her not to feel pain, and it was granted by a mysterious man. Instead of his child feeling the pain, he would. But he learns later what a curse that is when his daughter grows up and dates an abusive man. That meant she would not feel the pain, and it ended up killing her. But the end showed that it was only a vision of what could happen.

Another favorite is "A Questionable Act of Compassion", where a girl (who seems to be artificially made) is being experimented on by two doctors, one of which is kind. She ends up escaping on her own.

Other notable favorites include "Requiem Is A Vocab Term",  "Well, You Asked For A Miracle", and "I Can Give You Life".

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book.

My Rating: 5 stars

Effects Vary by Michael Harris Cohen REVIEW

 My Thoughts:

Reviewing short story collections is pretty hard, especially when there are so many included, so I apologize in advance.

"Graduating" is probably my favorite out of this collection. It is a sort of dystopian mixed with science fiction, where these kids are basically killed and brought back so many times. When they reach a certain point, they get 'the Gift', which supposedly makes them never die again. The ending is harsh and a big blow to read, which is why I like it so much.

"Effects Vary", the story that the title is named after, was good too. It revolves around a man with medical problems going to what people might call a witch doctor against the recommendation of his current doctor, hoping it will help more than what a regular doctor can do. His hopes are too high.

My only issue with this story collection is that some stories were TOO short. Some were only one or two pages, and often completely forgettable and the ideas barely explored.

That being said, I did enjoy Cohen's writing style and several of the stories.

My Rating: 3 stars

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu REVIEW

 Summary:

On the night of the Hungry Ghost Moon, when spirits can briefly return to the living world, Jodi Wu and her best friend sneak into Portland's Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum. Kneeling before the pond where Jodi's toddler drowned one year before, they leave food offerings and burn joss paper - and Jodi prays that Ella's ghost will return for the night.

To distract Jodi from her grief, the two friends tell each other ghost stories as they explore the museum. They stop at the main display, a centuries-old pair of lotus slippers belonging to a woman whose toes were broken and bound during childhood. While reading the woman's story, Jodi hears her daughter's voice.

As Jodi desperately searches for the garden, it becomes apparent that Ella isn't the only ghost they've awakened. Something ancient with a slow shuffling step lurks in the shadows . . .

My Thoughts:

Oh my god did I love this. The novella is pretty short, but it fits so well. The ending is a perfect wrap-up, and the main characters are both well developed. 

Jodi is still grieving the loss of her daughter, so her friend Sarah, who also lost a child, takes her to a garden and museum where the child died to give offerings. Sarah doesn't believe in ghosts, but Jodi does, and has hope that she will see her daughter again.

When Jodi hears Ella's voice, she is ecstatic and tries to find her, only to discover another ghost trying to steal her away. The said ghost happens to be one from the stories that they read, but the stories were not completely accurate. Only with the realization of the true story does Jodi find out Sarah's secret . . . and find a way to get her daughter back.

This book is dark, but in a good sort of way. I like how tied to the story the Chinese culture is. Learning things about different cultures through writing is one of my favorite things. Despite the length being on the shorter side, there are a few unexpected twists and turns along the way.

Yu is such a talented writer. She kept me drawn into the plot and characters to the point of me not wanting to put it down. I am definitely going to check out more of her work, and I hope she continues to write more stories.

Definitely a recommend from me.

My Rating: 5 stars

#thighgap by Chandler Morrison REVIEW

 Summary:

Los Angeles fashion model Helen Troy wasn't always skinny. Drastic weight loss has given her everything - money, confidence, attention, respect. Being thin has legitimized her, and starvation has become an addiction.

Following an encounter with a seemingly "perfect" rival model who destabilizes Helen's shaky self-confidence and shatters her fragile allusion of control, she's sent into a tragic tailspin that will take her to the lowest depths of hell. Nightmarish versions of herself begin materializing in mirrors, and her tried-and-true coping mechanisms stop working. Reality comes apart at the seams as Helen's disease manifests in increasingly self-destructive fashions, forcing her to ask herself . . .

What does perfection look like, and how much would you sacrifice to obtain it?

My Thoughts:

Disclaimer: I have not personally struggled with an eating disorder, so I will not be talking about whether it is an accurate description or not.

The main character, Helen Troy, is the narrator. These are her thoughts and conversations from her point of view. This is as expected from Morrison's writing. It is also a very different side of the horror genre for him as well. He is known for extreme horror, and this is more horror rooted in realism.

Helen is, well, obsessed. She was bullied as a child for being "fat", which turned her to the direction of "thinspo" and eating disorders. Helen has pretty much no friends too. Most people are just acquaintances, and the closest thing to a real relationship is a fwb kind of thing with a guy named Jasper. She attends therapy, but her counselor makes the situation worse in a way. He is incapable of listening and giving good advice, which is literally his job description. He also encourages her disordered eating habits. Helen starts seeing a "slug" version of herself in the mirror as well as a "skeleton" version of herself. 

When she hits a breaking point, she goes to seek a rehab facility that specializes in eating disorders. But they don't let her in, saying that she had been there before and attacked a worker. Helen has no recollection of this, but is forced to leave. She takes this as a sort of sign that she doesn't need to get help, and lets her eating disorder slowly kill her.

I honestly wish this was longer. It is never specified, but Helen seems to also have schizophrenia. The book left me with a melancholy aftertaste. The character never gets help, but she doesn't die at the end either. We're left with the assumption she was dying, but we don't know how close she is to death. The set of characters are mostly undeveloped, which is understandable for a novella.

I'm at the point where I will probably never dislike Morrison's books. So yes, I recommend it.

My Rating: 4 stars 

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix REVIEW

 Summary:

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. Far more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette's worst fears are realized - someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

My Thoughts:

Was this hard to put down? Yes. But was it top tier? No.

Lynnette is an interesting choice for a main character. She isn't really that likeable, even though you are on her side against the killer. You would think that Julia would have been the main character. She is pretty likeable, and so is Dani. So Lynnette being the main character is different. Not bad, but just weird. 

The way the killer is handled as a big mystery so we don't know who it is was really good. The issue I had though, is that it would end up being a lot more interesting if the killer was actually the therapist and not her son, who really doesn't have a motive? It's kinda hard to believe. Scratch that, really hard to believe. And Stephanie being the "partner in crime" with him was dealt so lazily. It felt like a last minute addition to the final draft and not something that builds from the start of the character's journey. 

Parts of the book are also stagnant. I understand the need for character development (I very much love that), but it was overdone to the point of it having no bearing on the plot.

I enjoyed it, but probably won't read it again.

My Rating: 3 stars 

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones REVIEW

 My Thoughts:

I loved this book. It was a wild ride.

As a fan of the slasher genre myself, it was really cool to see Jade as the main character. Usually, a slasher only has one main character - the killer - and a final girl who is more developed than the other characters (but not by much). Jade is very much similar (and Jones recognizes this) to "Crazy Ralph" and other characters like him that warn everyone about the area but get labelled as crazy and mentally ill. Although, Jade is a teenager, not an old man. She's a bit relatable to myself - loves slasher films (and also references them a lot), a bit of an outcast, wants to die, and wishes her life was more interesting. 

Jade has had a lot of awful things in her life though. Her parents are divorced and she's living with her alcoholic father, and she hates it. Despite her initial insisting that her father never touched her, Jade admits that it happened toward the end of the book. She loves history, but she missed so much class that she is only partially graduating. There's a new girl named Letha who transferred into the school because her family moved there.

There is an eerie place on the other side of the lake that has resemblance to the history of the camp in Friday the 13th. 

Jade is never taken seriously, and when bodies do start dropping, she is accused of doing it since she is obsessed with horror.

The ending is pure chaos. I can't even describe what actually happened. Sure, in certain parts it makes sense, but a lot does not. When everyone out by the lake is dying, the killer isn't even known. It confuses me because originally, it was suspected to be Letha's father, but then it was revealed to be a ghost haunting the area from a local legend?  It's impossible to figure out if the killer is the dad, the ghost, or both of them.

Despite the ending, I did really enjoy this book.

My Rating: 4 stars

After Dark by Haruki Murakami REVIEW

 Summary:

At its center are two sisters - Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny's toward people whose lives are radically alien to her own: a jazz trombonist who claims they've met before, a burly female "love hotel" manager and her maid staff, and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These "night people" are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Eri's slumber - mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime - will either restore or annihilate her.

My Thoughts:

I stumbled upon this book randomly in my library, and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did. Murakami's writing style is so unique, and I don't think I have ever read a book written this way before. The narrator of the novel is not only telling the story from a third person perspective, but also talking directly to the reader.

Mari is such an interesting choice for a main character. She's quiet and mostly keeps to herself. Eri is quite literally sleeping her life away. Takahashi is the complete opposite of Mari; he talks a lot and often engages in conversations with people he does not know.

The mundaneness of this novel is oddly refreshing. Pretty much everything that takes place is what people deal with on a daily basis: a prostitute being abused by her own customer, a musician that no longer wants to play his instrument, running into acquaintances, etc. The only thing that was unrealistic was the odd time where Eri got transported into a TV screen? It makes absolutely zero sense and is never acknowledged but it's intriguing. 

I kind of want a sequel. The end is not tied up, sort of like real life, and it makes the reader want more. I would also like to see Guo Dongli get justice. Her employers were given a picture of the attacker and they made threatening phone calls, but nothing comes of it by the end of the novel.

I'm definitely going to read more from this author.

My Rating: 5 stars

The Troop by Nick Cutter REVIEW

 Summary:

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip - a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. The boys are a tight-knit crew. There's Kent, one of the most popular kids in school; Ephraim and Max, also well-liked and easygoing; then there's Newt the nerd and Shelley the odd duck. For the most part, they all get along and are happy to be there - which makes Scoutmaster Tim's job a little easier. But for some reason, he can't shake the feeling that something strange is in the air this year. Something waiting in the darkness. Something wicked . . .

It comes to them in the night. An unexpected intruder, stumbling upon their campsite like a wild animal. He is shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry - a man in unspeakable torment who exposes Tim and the boys to something far more frightening than any ghost story. Within his body is a bioengineered nightmare, a horror that spreads faster than fear. One by one, the boys will do things no person could ever imagine.

My Thoughts:

I decided to pick up this book due to the amount of horror fans raving about it. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype for me.

There is no one main character; everyone shares the spotlight. Tim is a doctor, so when he sees the sickly stranger on the island, he tries to help him and figure out what is wrong. The man will eat anything - literally - but is still deathly thin. And what he has is contagious, and Tim is the first to get infected. It is an engineered parasite inside of the infected that takes all of the food from their bodies. Max, Eph, and Newt are by far the most likeable characters besides Tim. For the most part, they keep to their morals, unlike the rest. Kent and Shelley are extremely polarizing characters. Kent is kind of a bully, but he's fine until he gets infected. The issue is that Kent doesn't want to isolate himself from the others when he knows that he is infected. Shelley is just downright a terrible person, both on the island and at home. At home, he gets off by killing animals, and on the island, he gets off on killing his groupmates. Max ends up being the sole survivor.

In between chapters, there are articles and interviews about the genetically modified worms. The doctor who started the experiment is on trial, and he refuses to take responsibility for his work. Then there's the army, who are quarantining the kids on the island. They don't care at all about the fact that they are pretty much killing children. The stranger on the island was part of the experiment, but he ran away, and it is hinted that someone let him escape.

Max is obviously traumatized by the events. His friends and groupmates are all dead, and there was nothing he could do about it. So it makes sense that he isn't exactly right in the head and suppresses his memories so that he can't think about it.

This book is reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, but not really memorable in any way. It's basically Lord of the Flies but with a contagious disease. It just doesn't stand out or on its own. It wasn't different enough to really land well.

My Rating: 3 stars

The Book of Demons by Kevin Moore REVIEW

 Summary:

When Mr. Philips discovers a powerful, cursed painting whose magic he can use for personal gain, he will stop at nothing to acquire it . . . including murder.

Before he can get his hands on it, the painting goes missing and its artist is found dead. Enraged, Mr. Philips vows to hunt it down. But someone else finds it first: Jack, a teenage mystic who understands the painting's tremendous power and would do anything to keep Mr. Philips from exploiting it.

Along with two unexpected allies - a nonverbal autistic child and the spirit of a dead nun - Jack battles to keep the painting away from Mr. Philips. But as the stakes rise along with the body count, their epic battle for possession of the painting may cost Jack everything and everyone he loves.

My Thoughts: 

I will preface this by saying that I have not read the first book, so a lot of my confusion may be due to that fact.

This book was an easy, enjoyable read. It is perfect for not wanting to think too much but still think (if that makes sense).

Jack is a teenage boy with psychic abilities whose friends are all basically adults. His father has no idea what things that he is capable of. Jack is good friends with Peter Cairo, who is pretty much the only person that knows about Jack's abilities. Peter has also been in the mental ward, so his dad is concerned with the odd friendship. Jack goes to a catholic school, where he has to hide his abilities even more or he'll be accused of Satanism. 

Philips is a villain that can shape-shift by eating the heart of what he wants to impersonate. That's a really interesting concept. 

Now to the confusing parts. The origin story of the painting and what exactly it can do is nowhere to be found. We only learn a couple things about it here and there with no deep exploration. There is also Jack. He is a teenager, but some parts of the book say that he is married with children? Maybe it's a time jump, but it is never really talked about.

I would definitely recommend this to readers who want to have a quick yet fun read.

My Rating: 4 stars

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo REVIEW

Summary:

"No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers." Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill - but she doesn't care. She'd rather play a monster than a maid.

But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the woman she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes - even if that means becoming the monster herself.

My Thoughts:

As soon as I saw this book, I knew I had to read it.

Luli, unlike the summery paints her to be, is actually a nice person. She stands up for her friends, even if it means risking her own film career. Luli ends up falling for another actress hoping to make it - Emmaline. They end up in a secret relationship for a short time. But when Luli risks her career by protecting her pregnant and in-love friend Greta, Emmaline leaves, not wanting to lose her own career. Luli ends up befriending Harry Long, a young and handsome actor who plays opposite her in a series of films. She also happens across a bar during an "only women" night and meets Tara, a script writer who has to pretend to be a male writer.

While on set filming one of her films, the set catches fire for an unknown reason. Most people get out. But Harry Long has disappeared, and we don't know if he escaped or simply wanted to end his life. Since he is unable to play his role in the film, it is rewritten for an actress - who turns out to be Emmaline. Luli confronts Emmaline for disappearing and not talking to her.

The ending is pretty odd. There's a time skip where Luli is an older woman who sees the beginning of the acceptance of gay people, and that she had a wife named Jane. It felt rushed, and a few important plot points were never tied up. We still don't know if Harry Long is alive or dead, and we don't really see Luli grieving over him. Emmaline was such an important person to Luli in the beginning of her career, but there is no conflict resolution. 

On one hand, I love this book. On the other hand, I can't stand how messy the ending is. The author supposedly did a lot of revisions for this book, as it was originally a novella but now it is a novel. Since she was working on this for years, you would think that there would be a satisfying ending, but there isn't.

My Rating: 3 stars 

Saving Max by Antoinette van Heugten REVIEW

 Summary:

Attorney Danielle Parkman knows her teenage son Max's behavior has been getting worse - using drugs and lashing out. But she can't accept the diagnosis she receives at a top-notch adolescent psychiatric facility that her son is deeply disturbed. Dangerous.

Until she finds Max, unconscious and bloodied, beside a patient who has been brutally stabbed to death.

Trapped in a world of doubt and fear, barred from contacting Max, Danielle clings to the belief that her son is innocent. But has she, too, lost touch with reality? Is her son really a killer?

With the justice system bearing down on them, Danielle steels herself to discover the truth, no matter what it is. She'll do whatever it takes to find the killer and to save her son from being destroyed by a system that's all too eager to convict him.

My Thoughts:

Whew, this book was a whirlwind. I could barely put it down!

Danielle is a character that I can never decide whether she's smart or not. Throughout the book, during the days leading up to the trial, she breaks so many laws and is late to said trial. Danielle is definitely a good mother, however. She doesn't just blindly believe the accusations, but she also doesn't blindly believe her son. There are definitely a few things that would not fly in actual court, such as Danielle being several hours late to the trial.

While Max isn't the main character, he is definitely important in the storyline. He isn't just sitting around in the psychiatric facility, Max is actively trying to find out any dirt on the staff of the hospital, like researching what medication they are giving him and finding out that it's all experimental and illegal. 

Ms. Morrison is such a good villain. She warms up to you portraying a kind and gentle mother, only to find out that she was the killer. Not only that, but Morrison has had a few other children that she also murdered. The book tricks you into thinking that the doctor who prescribed the illegal medication was behind this, only to knock you out when the truth is revealed.

I feel awful for Jonas (Morrison's son). He seemed like such a sweet kid, but was horribly abused by his mother.

I got so emotionally invested in this book lol. So yes, I definitely recommend it!

My Rating: 5 stars 

Deuces Are Wild by O. E. Tearmann REVIEW

 Summary:

America is waking up.

People are standing up for each other and a future worth living in. But they can't do it alone.

Now, they don't have to. The Democratic State Force is calling in favors across the nation. Members of Base 1407 and hundreds of other teams across the country are teaching the citizens how to fight back on their terms, with tactics that hit the Corporations right where it hurts - the wallet and the pride.

The seven Corporations that think they own the country are scrambling to keep control over the citizens' communications, their decisions, and their lives. Every dirty trick is coming out of their bags as they lose their grip. It's going to take a lot to beat them at this game for the country's soul.

Life's a bitch. She doesn't play fair. Out-think her with every hand, and you might just win.

My Thoughts:

I am so divided on whether I liked this book or not. It was extremely hard to get into for two reasons: the writing style and the fact that over half of the book was world-building and character development. I don't think I've ever read a book in this writing style, so it was hard to understand at the beginning. While world-building and character development are very important, so is the plot. You only saw the plot halfway to the end of the book, and many readers would be turned off by this. The details about the Corporations did not come until close to the ending. And they were not what you would expect in a dystopian novel. In my opinion, they would not be accurate. The Corporations use religion and working, as well as a sort of class system, to control the population. Maybe this would happen to smaller countries in the future, but a lot of American citizens are extremely diverse in terms of religion and politics, so while the forced labor and class system will probably come back in some way, I don't see religion being mandated or something. The ending was also underwhelming, as it did nothing to make me want to read the next book in the series.

Now, onto what I loved! If you know me, you know that I talk about character development a lot and how important it is. And it is SO GOOD HERE. The main character is not the only character who is well developed! A handful of side characters are also extremely well developed. This is important, as it helps invest you into their lives. Another thing that I loved was the LGBT characters! A lot of other books with diverse characters are given their diversity as their personality and do nothing to develop them. This was not the case here. And as a lesbian myself, I was overjoyed at this. 

However, the positives did not overtake the negatives for me personally.

My Rating: 2 stars

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson REVIEW

 Summary:

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershow compiled a list of fiction's most unsolvable murders - which he titled "Eight Perfect Murders" - chosen from among the best of the best, including Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, and Ira Levin's Deathtrap.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that appear eerily similar to the killings on Mal's old list. And the agent isn't the only one interested in the bookseller. The killer is out there, watching his every move - a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal's personal history, especially the secrets he's never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn't count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead - and the noose around Mal's neck grows so tight he might never escape.

My Thoughts:

This book was SO GOOD OMG. A great example of an unreliable narrator.

Mal owns a bookstore with his friend and author Brian Murray. On a stormy winter day, he goes to close up shop when Agent Mulvey appears to tell him about the recent murders and the possible connection to his list from an old, abandoned blog.

She enlists him to think of the murders and try to figure out what other books from the list match up. Mulvey even takes him to a crime scene from a local woman that Mal was acquainted with. However, she gets taken off of the case because there was a possible connection to her father's murder in this case. The other agents don't seem to take this case seriously, as they do absolutely nothing at all. So Mal starts to look into things.

Past secrets are revealed - his wife had cheated on him and was a drug addict. After her death he arranged an anonymous murder swap. Mal kills someone a stranger wants dead, and the stranger kills the man who supplied his wife with drugs.

Later on, it's revealed that he was responsible for his wife's death - Mal's driving was the reason she swerved off the road and crashed. He also has a year unaccounted for after the murder swap - Mal thinks he may have also killed the agent's father.

Mal was not the only one responsible though - most of the murders were done by his anonymous friend. They end up meeting when he checks up on Brian and Tess. The killer wants Mal to partner up and kill his friends, but Mal ends up shooting the killer himself.

He then calls the agent to tell her all of the story before going into hiding.

This is maybe the second book that I've read this year that blew my mind this much. So, yeah. I definitely recommend it.

My Rating: 5 stars

Vitro by Jessica Khoury REVIEW

 Summary:

On a remote island in the Pacific, scientists privately funded by the mysterious corporation Corpus have taken the test tube embryos and given them life. These beings - the Vitros - have knowledge and abilities most humans can only dream of. But they also have one enormous flaw.

Seventeen year old Sophie Crue is determined to get to Skin Island to find her mother, a scientist who left Sophie behind years ago. With the help of Jim Julien, a young charter pilot, she arrives - and discovers a terrifying secret she never imagined: she has a Vitro twin, Lux, who is the culmination of Corpus's dangerous research.

Now Sophie is torn between reuniting with the mother who betrayed her and protecting the genetically enhanced twin she never knew existed. But untangling the twisted strands of these relationships will have to wait, for Sophie and Jim are about to find out what happens when science stretches too far beyond its reach.

My Thoughts:

I read this book not knowing that it was a sequel....oops. But it does work as a stand alone as well.

Sophie's mother abandoned her as a child to move to Skin Island to continue her research. Sophie was close to her mother when she was still around, and missed her dearly for years. She gets an emergency email from her mom, telling Sophie to go to Skin Island. Sophie is worried, so she tries to find someone who will take her there. After no luck, she runs into Jim, an old childhood friend, who reluctantly agrees to take her there. 

Turns out, her mom was not the one who sent the email - it was Nicolaus, a "failed" Vitro. He gets her to trust him, and then betrays her trust. He wants to control the island and force Sophie to stay with him. 

Moira is not the the saint her daughter thinks she is. Her work revolves around creating and experimenting on lab-grown humans. And in a twist, it turns out that Sophie was a successful Vitro that Moira adopted as her own daughter.

It was so hard to put this novel down. The morality around the creation of grown humans that are experimented on has always been a really interesting topic to me.

If you like dystopian books, then I totally recommend this one.

My Rating: 5 stars

The Fig Eater by Jody Shields REVIEW

 Summary:

Vienna, 1910. The hunt for a killer begins in the darkness of a hot August night, when an eighteen year old girl named Dora (loosely inspired by Freud's famous patient) is found brutally murdered near the Imperial Palace...

My Thoughts:

When I first started reading this book, I thought that I would have to DNF it. Thankfully, I kept reading, and the further I got, the more interesting the book became.

While the characters of the Inspector and Franz are the investigators/police officers, they are not actually the main characters. There is Erszebet, the Inspector's wife, Wally, a governess, and Egon, the photographer. Erszebet gets caught up with her husband's murder case, helping him in any way possible. She also enlists Wally for help. But the case brings her and her husband apart, as Erszebet goes deeper and deeper into the investigation, leading her to lie by omission to him while searching just as hard for the murderer. Egon was enlisted by the police to photograph Dora's body, as well as possible crime scenes. There is only a small list of suspects, but the book leads the reader to believe one is the perpetrator, while it ends up being someone else entirely.

The characters were very well developed throughout the book; some characters' personalities changed with the progression of the story, which was done wonderfully.

Even though I finished and enjoyed it, there was a point where I seriously contemplated DNFing it. This may be a problem for other readers.

My Rating: 3 stars

Carmilla by Kim Turrisi REVIEW

 Summary:

Newly escaped from her stifling small town, Laura is all in for her freshman year at Silas University. But when her roommate, Betty, vanishes and a sarcastic, nocturnal philosophy student named Carmilla moves into Betty's side of the room, Laura decides to play detective. Turns out Betty isn't the first girl to go missing -- she's just the first girl not to come back.

As Laura looks for answers, her new roommate tries to shut her down. Does Carmilla know more than she's letting on about the disappearances? What if she isn't just selfish and insensitive, but completely inhuman? And what happens when Laura starts falling for her anyway?

My Thoughts:

Disclaimer: as of writing this review, I have not seen the web series.

Okay back to the review.

I was expecting to hate it based on all of the negative reviews, but I ended up really loving it.

Laura and Betty become friends pretty instantly despite Betty being the polar opposite of Laura. She's a party girl while Laura spends the nights with textbooks.

Then Betty suddenly disappears, only leaving a weird, unsettling note on the bed. The police are absolutely no help at all, and the dean doesn't seem to care. Then Laura finds out that there have been lots of missing girls throughout the years with the help of Danny.

Carmilla shows up as Laura's new roommate, but Laura suspects that something's up. The milk container in the fridge doesn't contain milk -- it contains blood. And Carmilla doesn't like going out during the day.

This makes her a prime suspect -- but it gets worse. The dean is her mother, and Will is her brother.

Carmilla used to help her mother until she decided that she had enough, and she's been messing with her mother's plans ever since.

The only way to successfully save the other students is by killing the dean and Will. But they need Carmilla, who is reluctant to take part, knowing what happens when her mother gets angry.

The reading is very easy to breeze through. It seems to be a lower reading level than what it is promoted for.

At the beginning, Laura is in love with Danny. At the end, she is in love with Carmilla.

It was so refreshing to see lesbian main characters in a fantasy novel. As a lesbian myself, it made me happy.

My Rating: 4 stars

Reception by Kenzie Jennings REVIEW

 Summary:

While her rehab counselor's advice replays in her mind, Ansley Boone takes on the role of dutiful bridesmaid in her little sister's wedding at an isolated resort in the middle of hill country, a place where the cell reception is virtually nonexistent and everyone else there seems a stranger primed to spring. Tensions are already high between the Boones and their withdrawal-suffering eldest, who's since become the family embarrassment, but when the wedding reception takes a vicious turn, Ansley and her sister must work together to fight for survival and escape the resort before the groom's cannibalistic family adds them to the post-wedding menu.

My Thoughts:

Oh my god, I loved this book. I don't even know where to start.

Ansley is the narrator, and pretty quickly, she gets you to sympathize with her. She's only in rehab because her doctor over-prescribed an addictive medication. Her parents seem awful, as they treat her like shit despite the fact that the situation was not at all her fault. Shay, Ansley's sister, is a much better person. While she often gets annoyed by her addict sister sometimes, she actually seems to care about Ansley.

The groom's family is kept mysterious until the cannibalism starts. The fight for survival is intense and vivid.

The ending is odd. We are basically told that Ansley is an unreliable narrator, and much of what happened was actually just symptoms of withdrawal. We know that her eating her sister at the end was real, but we don't know how real or fake much of the action was.

My Rating: 5 stars

Hate to Feel by Chandler Morrison REVIEW

 Summary:

Love is not patient, and it is not kind. It is envious, boastful, and proud. It dishonors others, and is self-seeking. It is easily angered, and keeps record of all wrongs. It delights in evil and recoils from the truth. It never protects, never trusts, never hopes, and, most importantly, it never perseveres.

Love always fails.

These are truths Derek Diver has yet to fully comprehend, but the time of his enlightenment is approaching. His lesson will be steeped in blood, and he will learn that love is the most violent force on Earth.

My Thoughts:

Shortly after reading Dead Inside, I decided to read all of Chandler Morrison's books. I am yet to be disappointed.

Derek is a sweet, introverted guy who struggles with intrusive thoughts. He falls for Scarlet, his co-worker, but she is married. He decides to have an affair with her anyway, thinking that she'll leave her husband for him. Derek is wrong.

Derek longs to not feel, to be numb all of the time. He finds this numbness after killing three teenagers outside with a rock, a murder that was not at all planned. But the numbness never stays, and he keeps killing in order to keep that feeling.

There is also a minor satanic subplot where Derek was directed by a friend to go to a house to get laid, but instead there is a ritual performed. A man appears out of nowhere, supposedly the devil. He makes a few appearances here and there, but the only important one is near the end, where he gets Derek to sign a contract.

A surprise appearance from the security guard in Dead Inside is there, and the connection between Derek and Helen (the nurse in Dead Inside) is revealed.

My Rating: 5 stars

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse REVIEW

Summary:

Half hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.

An imposing, isolated getaway spot in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. 

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge -- there's something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

Elin is under pressure to find Laure, but no one has yet realized that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they are all in...

My Thoughts:

I FUCKING LOVED THIS BOOK! At first, I thought it was going to be a haunted house sort of thing, but it was so much better than that.

Elin is not your typical protagonist. She hates change and cannot stop grieving over her other brother Sam's death, even though it happened when she was a child. She blocked out the memory of that day for a long time, but it is coming back to her in pieces.

Isaac is...unlikeable, to say the least. He often flaunts Elin's issues whenever she tries to talk to him.

Laure is an intriguing character. I wish we got to see more of her backstory. She knew Elin when they were kids, but Elin cut her off at one point.

Margot's motives make so much sense. One of her family members was killed back when the hotel was a sanatorium.

Lucas is deliberately set up as one of the main suspects, but he was not the killer, nor was he working with them.

Cecile's motive to killing Daniel and attempting to kill Lucas makes a lot of sense. But the others that she killed did not make any sense to her motives or the plot.

My Rating: 5 stars