Wytwavedarling Tries Again in 2022

Here I am!

Well, I did a good job of keeping up with my challenge plans for the first part of 2021. And then, around May, I discovered an online horror bookclub (Howl Society) that upturned many of my reading plans because I wanted to join in for so many of the discussions. On top of that, I spent much of the year drafting a new novel (I'm about 75k in), working with my agent to do a bit of sprucing up for the one currently on submission (wish us luck), and editing, editing, editing. Add in health issues among family and a new-to-us puppy who we adopted September 11th, and it's been a busy year!

This, by the way, is Charlie. Our best guess is that she's a mix of Black-Mouthed Cur and white German Shepherd. She was loosely 10 months old when we found her at the shelter, and she landed there after being found along the side of a major intersection in the next town over from ours. Already house-trained, and trained to fetch and sit, she's also a huge licker, and just loves to love--she's so happy to be part of the family, I don't know what we did without her. Our best guess is that a family adopted her as a baby puppy for their kids for Christmas last year while kids were being homeshooled, and then when kids went back to school in August and she had more and more size & energy, they abandoned her. There were so many puppies her age at the shelter, it happened to a lot of dogs, but in this case, that family's loss has been our gain.

My categories are going to be pretty simple again this year, knowing I want to read along with particular challenges and also keep up with HOWL, so my pictures are just going to be themed by introducing you all to our Charlie--especially since we've had her for a few months now, and I've been horribly neglectful in posting pictures!

I'll use the next post to keep track of current reads/plans/challenges, and again keep track of what years I'm reading since that's been interesting. I'll try again to read through the alphabet, too, though I didn't quite make it last year. But meanwhile, here's Charlie to start us off!

This year's plans, looking out from the depths of 2021...

I'm going to try to read along with the ScaredyCat, RandomCat, SFFKit, and AlphaKit challenges, as well as read a bunch of books alongside my newly discovered horror group, the HOWL Society.



Plans:

CURRENTLY READING: A Discovery of Witches, First Thrills, Burning Girls and Other Stories

Alphabet by Title:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Alphabet by Author:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Years Read in 2022:

1951 (1)
1963 (1)
1973 (1), 1977 (2), 1979 (1),
1980 (1), 1983 (1), 1986 (1), 1987 (1), 1988 (2)
1991 (1), 1992 (1), 1994 (1), 1996 (2), 1999 (1)
2003 (1), 2004 (2), 2006 (4), 2008 (2), 2009 (3)
2011 (2), 2012 (2), 2013 (1), 2014 (4), 2015 (6), 2016 (2), 2017 (5), 2018 (5), 2019 (9)
2020 (5), 2021 (19), 2022 (11)

Category A. HOWL Reads: This will be all horror or horror-adjascent. The HOWL group organizes four group-reads per month, and I'll aim to participate in at least two each month.

Here are our hounds, Arthur and Charlie, who do indeed howl, protect us from the nefarious mail deliverers, and generally just provide tons of entertainment and love--when they're not sleeping.



1. Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (2.5*)
2. The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez (5*)
3. The Amulet by Michael McDowell (2*)
4. When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen (4*)
5. The Lost Village by Camilla Sten (3*)
6. Mad Women's Ball by Victoria mas (2*)
7. Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (2*)
8. Weaveworld by Clive Barker (5*)
9. Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2*)
10. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (4*)
11. Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (4*)
12. Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories (3.5*)
13. The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (3*)
14. Blindsight by Peter Watts (3*)
15. Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (4.5*)
16. Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote (5*)
17. The Hacienda by Isabel Canas (2*)
18. Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill (5*)
19. Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall (3*)
20. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (4*)
21. From Hell by Alan Moore (3*)
22. The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson (3.5*)
23. The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters (2*)
24. The Devourers by Indra Das (4*)
25. Red X by David Demchuk (5*)
26. We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III (4.5*)
27. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (2*)
28. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (5*)
29. Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt (4*)

Category B. RandomCat: This is always my favorite challenge, and to introduce it in my thread, here are three most present cats--my troublemaker Hart, front and center, with Quinn immediately behind him, and then my lap-kitty Ziva.



1. The Homecoming by Andrew Pyper (4*)
2. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (4*)
3. Buffalo Yoga by Charles Wright (3.5*)
4. The Rain in the Trees by M.S. Merwin (3.5*)
5. The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara gran (2*)
6. Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor (4.5*)
7. Howls from Hell: A Horror Anthology (5*)
8. In Between Dreams by Iman Verjee (4.5*)
9. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle (4*)
10. Beulah by Christi Nogle (5*)
11. Jade City by Fonda Lee (4*)
12. Real Sugar is Hard to Find by Sim Kern (5*)

Category C. AlphaKit: I've tried in the past to read through the full alphabet according to both title and author, and meeting the alphakit challenge really helps with that. I've succeeded before, but not last year, so we'll see how it goes.

In honor of the two letters per month, I give you Charlie and Ziva. Ziva wants to take care of her and has endless patience (most of the time), whereas Charlie wants a playmate. They generally get along best when lounging in front of the tv together.



1. Black Order by James Rollins (R) (4*)
2. The Homecoming by Andrew Pyper (H) (4*)
3. The Time Traveler's Magic by Anna Applegate (A) (2*)
4. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman (B) (2.5*)
5. The Spirit by Thomas Page (P & S) (3*)
6. Signals: Poems by Ed Madden (S) (3.5*)
7. Love Stories in This Town by Amanda Eyre Ward (L) (2.5*)
8. Rules of the Road by C.B. Jones (J) (5*)
9. The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (D) (3*)
10. Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz (O) (3.5*)
11. The Cypress House by Michael Koryta (C) (4.5*)
12. The Story of B by Daniel Quinn (Q) (4*)
13. The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer (E) (3.5*)
14. Love for Slaughter by Sara Tantlinger (T) (3*)
15. The Memory Thief by Bryce Moore (M) (4*)
16. Flesh by Kylie Scott (F) (4.5*)
17. Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik (M) (5*)
18. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (I) (4*)
19. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (K) (4.5*)
20. Vamps and the City by Kerrelyn Sparks (V) (4*)
21. Going Dark by James W. Hall (G) (4.5*)
22. Beulah by Christi Nogle (N) (5*)
23. Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories (U) (3*)
24. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (W) (5*)
25. Edge of the Moon by Rebecca York (Y) (3*)
26. Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt (W) (4*)

Category D. ScaredyCat: I do so love scary books.

Here's Charlie, asking for a bellyrub while showing off her fangs.



1. The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (4.5*)
2. The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas (2.5*)
3. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (4.5*)
4. The Butcher's Theater by Jonathan Kellerman (3*)
5. Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (4*)
6. Devolution by Max Brooks (3.5*)
7. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (2.5*)
8. The Memory Thief by Bryce Moore (4*)
9. The Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge (4.5*)
10. The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson (3.5*)
11. The Institute by Stephen King (4*)
12. The Spy Who Came for Christmas by David Morrell (4*)

Category E. SFFKit: SFF is most of what I edit, so it's sometimes hard to turn to it for pleasure-reading, as well, but I'm doing my best to read more new releases, so that'll be my focus here.

Here's our Gypsy--our oldest, who mostly just likes to sleep and eat these days, but is still our ball of fluff who we adore. She sometimes gives the feeling that she's rather otherworldly and all-knowing, so here she is representing SFF.



1. We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen (5 stars)
2. The Time Traveler's Magic by Anna Applegate (2 stars)
3. A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark (3.5*)
4. Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson (4*)
5. No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (5*)
6. The Yanti by Christopher Pike (2.5*)
7. Light Years From Home by Mike Chen (5*)
8. Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik (5*)
9. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (4.5*)
10. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (3*)
11. Jade City by Fonda Lee (4*)
12. Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt (4*)

Category F. Favorite Authors: It seems like I forget to make time for my favorite authors amidst focusing on so many group reads and challenges, so last but not least, I want to make sure to read at least twelve favorites this year in an effort to correct that.

And in honor of all of our varied favorite things, here's Charlie with her very, very, very favorite toys--her beloved flamingo. (Don't tell her, but we have a spare hidden in the closet for this one ultimately falls apart.) She carries him everywhere!



1. Black Order by James Rollins
2. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
3. Weaveworld by Clive Barker
4. Love Stories in This Town by Amanda Eyre Ward
5. Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz
6. The Cypress House by Michael Koryta
7. The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer
8. Flesh by Kylie Scott
9. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
10. Vamps and the City by Kerrelyn Sparks
11. Going Dark by James W. Hall
12. The Spy Who Came for Christmas by David Morrell

Welcome back! I love seeing all your animal pics. Charlie is beautiful!

Beautiful dogs! Good luck with your reading in 2022.

I really enjoyed your furry family photos--thanks for sharing, and good luck with your reading this coming year.

Love the family photos! Have a great reading year :)

Thanks for sharing your pictures and your pets with us. Charlie is gorgeous and I would love to be able to supply that belly rub! I also loved the >4 whitewavedarling: picture. Hart doesn't look pleased that you have outed him as the trouble-maker!

That's a lovely family! Happy reading and good luck with the challenges.

Thanks for stopping by, everyone :) And yes, >13 DeltaQueen50:, he does like to stay under the radar lol! Visitors to the house always think he's the sweetest one of the bunch, when in reality he's our only one to pick fights! I blame it on my husband for naming him after a wrestler lol

Best wishes! I'm fond of the cats in >4 whitewavedarling: and >7 whitewavedarling:!

These are wonderful pictures.

Thanks for dropping by, >16 thornton37814: and >17 mnleona:. I adore sharing my creatures with everyone, and I can't wait for 2022's reading to start! Here's wishing all of us a good finish to this year :)

Have a great New Year. And more cat and dog pictures to share!

Loved all the photos of your gorgeous fur family. So glad that you and Charlie have found each other - she looks all settled in and very happy. Looking forward to following your reading in 2022.

Thanks for sharing the photos of your pets. They are great photos and look like lovable animals too. Guess I am a sucker for pet photos!

That HOWL online book group sounds very interesting--I may have to check it out. I'm also looking forward to reading lots of scary books this year, for ScaredyKIT and beyond. I'll definitely be checking out your reads. Happy new year!

Great dog & kitty photos, and congrats on both your new Charlie and on your publishing efforts! I'm looking forward to seeing you in the ScaredyKits, and I may have to look at HOWL myself.

Fur babies are the best babies. Good luck with your 2022 reading.

Thanks for dropping by, everyone!

And >22 sturlington: and >23 mstrust:, I'll hope to see you around HOWL! If you take a look at the website, I think it already shows the planned reads for January (I'm planning to participate in 2 of 4: Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay and The Gilda Stories by Jewell Gomez), but it's just a great horror community regardless. I think we've got a few writers who rarely participate in any groupreads at all lol, but I've enjoyed them and everything else about it. I keep slowly converting folks there to LibraryThing, too!

I'm settling in here, mostly for pictures of your wonderful pets.

Welcome, >26 RidgewayGirl:!

And Happy New Year, everyone!

I just took a last(?) look at my 2021 reading, and while I definitely didn't meet my self-imposed alphabet challenge this year, I definitely managed to read many more recent books than usual. Here's how my reading publication dates ended up playing out by decade:

1800s: 1 book
1970s: 1 book
1980s: 4 books
1990s: 8 books
2000s: 14 books
2010s: 24 books
2020s: 28 books

Currently, I'm reading only Wicked Ride by Rebecca Zanetti and, very slowly, The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. This weekend, though, I also plan to dive into Head Full of Ghosts and Black Order, so I'm aiming to start off fast....

Good luck with your reading this year, as well as with your writing plans!

Thanks, >28 mathgirl40:! First book down, but I'm afraid it wasn't a standout...

1. Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

All told, this ended up being a fairly underwhelming read, and although Tremblay's clearly a talented writer, I wanted a lot more from the story/concept.

It's worth noting that the back cover blurb led me to expect an untangling of present memory and known fact from remembered events, suggesting we'd potentially have an unreliable narrator, but certainly looking at something of a past/present mystery unfolding; yet, that simply never panned out (I guess it was just a marketing choice that ended up being misleading?). The problem is, without that angle, the story here is a simple one--too simple. Beyond the misleading angle on the back cover, the book's execution delivers a lot of ambiguities--and ambiguity is great if it's productive ambiguity, leading to a way of understanding the whole of a book at the end. Instead, here, I felt like all of the ambiguities were simply there to add complication, and none of them were really sorted out at the end. None of those questions which we'd been developing through the course of the book could truly be answered, in other words, leading me to wonder if the writer even felt sure of the answers. To me, that means the book fails to deliver on all of the promises and story it sets up to begin with, as I'd say that a reader should at least have the tools to be able to figure out the whole of the plot and characters by the end of a book, once they've put all the pieces together. You don't want to get to the end of a mystery and still be unsure of who the killer is (assuming there's no sequel coming), and these ambiguities amount to the same thing for me--more frustration than anything.

Perhaps the book was just meant to be an exploration of pop culture and exorcisms, especially given all of the (annoyingly long) blog posts and references and stereotypes. Or perhaps it was just meant to be a character study. One person in my writing group suggested it was an exploration of how characters are carried off by and controlled by ideas, which is the explanation I love most of all, although I'm not sure it's fully supported by the novel when all is said and done. But regardless, in the end, I simply needed more from this book in order to really enjoy it. And when you add in plot/believability issues that point either to lazy writing or lazy editing (but which I won't get into, for fear of spoilers), I end up at a point where I really can't recommend the book.

I'd say where we end up here is with something of an ambiguous puzzle wrapped up in an enigma...that mostly boils down to exploring stereotypes by the end.

2. Black Order by James Rollins

I fell in love with Rollins' work way back when I was in high school, and although I don't quite get sucked into his Sigma Force novels in the way I did his stand-alones, I'm still enjoying the series and characters. There are pieces of this book, in particular, that feel a little bit more over-the-top and Hollywood-ized than necessary, but in terms of it being a book that sucked me in and kept me engaged, it's as strong as most of Rollins' work and I really can't complain. I'd still recommend his stand-alones first, this was a fun, Indiana-Jones type romp through action and science and history.

>30 whitewavedarling: I'm a big James Rollins fan also, and yes, got sucked into Sigma Force. I'm caught up - or nearly - on that series.

>31 majkia:, Good to hear! I am looking forward to reading the next when I get a chance :)

3. We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen -- 5 stars

As someone who's fascinated by the sometimes permeability of memories, and what they mean to us, I couldn't help but be drawn to the concept of this book. "Superhero" books and movies are hit and miss for me, but the idea of two sometime villains/heroes struggling with memory loss as the baseline of a plot, with the story unwinding from there, felt somehow real almost from the moment I stumbled upon a write-up of the novel. It felt, I suppose, like a superhero book for someone like me who's not always such a fan of superheroes and their movies...and maybe it's for folks who love the big blockbuster movies to, but no matter what, I'm glad I followed my instincts and fell into it.

Chen's storytelling is dynamic and sweet, and even as this book ripped my heart out and sewed it back together a few times, I couldn't stop turning the pages. I loved the flavor of simplicity that Chen brought to the fantastic, and I think his villain/hero bankrobber of a protagonist is going to live in my heart a little bit forever. It's rare that a book feels perfect, and timely--and maybe almost never do I feel like I can say that as well as that a book is powerful and fun and gorgeously written. But I can say all of that about this book.

I'm so glad I came across this one, and it's made me a fan of Mike Chen's stories for life.

Absolutely recommended.

>33 whitewavedarling: I've taken a BB for that one!

>34 christina_reads:, I'm glad! And maybe this next one, too...finished last night, but I've finally gotten my thoughts together for a review....

4. The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez -- 5 stars

(and if you read it, I encourage you to seek out the 25th anniversary edition)

In the Afterword for the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Gilda Stories, Alexis Pauline Gumbs calls the book: "A precise and prophetic work. A neo-slavery escape narrative. An Afro-futuristic projection." And before that, in the introduction to the work, Gomez speaks of how she was spurred into writing the book, and the 'pent-up fury' that went into it. The passion in all of this language, and the way it carefully bleeds through this long-form narrative of vampires and personal history, is absolute--and while the book may disappoint readers coming to it from a horror perspective for a tale of vampires and violence, I would answer that it is an important, worthwhile work that takes influence from classic slave narratives, classic novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Giovanni's Room, and moves the narratives into a contemporary space that is at once a coming-of-age tale for a slave-turned-vampire and an examination of growth, love, and hope.

If you're reading this review, and curious about the book, I'm hope you'll read it. It feels like one which should have found its way to my hands much sooner, and one which should be far more widely known, read, and spoken of.

I'd absolutely recommend it.

5. The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (4.5*)

This is a fantastic horror novel, so beautifully told and with such believable characters that it's all the more horrifying. I also love the way the novel unfolds with ambiguity as well as character depth, and this is one of those rare cases where I don't mind so much that the author doesn't necessarily work to show us whether we're talking about a bad place or a haunted place; the situation is so real, so terrifying, that that distinction becomes less powerful and important because we're so engaged with the danger involved.

All told, this is an original work of horror that I absolutely adored, and I can't wait to read more from the author.

6. Wicked Ride by Rebecca Zanetti (4*)

This was an easy escape-read with engaging characters and interesting world-building, with a story that kept me turning pages. As much as I don't like that Zanetti's couples tend toward insta-lust and insta-love, from what I've seen, her worlds and writing suck me in well enough that I can get past that one complaint. There were some moments here that were over-the-top, but as a paranormal romance to fall into and escape with for a bit, it was just what the moment called for, and in general, I do enjoy Zanetti's writing style.

As the start to a paranormal romance series, I'd say it's above average, at least, and should appeal to readers of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and MC romance since it brings the three subgenres together pretty darn smoothly.

7. The Homecoming by Andrew Pyper

Pyper's writing sucked me in yet again, and I found it hard to put down this book for the duration of it. I'm not sure it lived up to the other novel I read by him (The Demonologist), but the eerie concept, setting, and build of this book was entrancing. It did feel a bit rushed in some of the scenes/beats leading up to the final climax, but then again, that might have partly been my urge to keep turning pages as fast as I could so that I could figure out what was coming. Regardless, this is a fascinating novel that I'd say lands on the horror side of thrillers, and I can't wait to read more by him.

Absolutely recommended.

8. The Amulet by Michael McDowell

I had high hopes for this one, but I'm afraid it ended up turning me off from reading anything else the author wrote. The writing itself isn't too bad, but the book's story itself feels loose and messy--more an excuse to offer a reader horrific scenes than anything with structure or a story that I could truly engage with. A number of folks in my horror book group have really enjoyed it, but I really just needed more. The story was played out fast-and-loose, without any real build-up of tension once things got going, and although the gossipy/horrid characters were entertaining and there was a certain wry humor to sometimes be enjoyed, that wasn't nearly enough to make me feel engaged. With the end being just as fast-and-loose as the rest of the book, with some resolution to the characters but none of the explanation I'd hoped for, I can't say that I was all that impressed (or even happy I'd finished). It's also worth noting that although the book is somewhat dated and placed in the Vietnam era, the author's writing of race and constant remarks on weight/fat made for some regularly uncomfortable reading (for me, at least), which would have itself given me second thoughts about reading more of the author's work.

I should note that I read this with a horror book club, and many of the other readers enjoyed it or were, at the least, entertained enough to feel it was an 'okay' read they were happy enough to have stumbled on. It seems the hallmarks (from what I've heard) in McDowell's writing are gossipy, great scene-setting, bad people and over-the-top events, all of which this book delivers on. And aside from a ton of scene-setting that made for a slow beginning, there's nothing wrong with the writing here except for what I'd call some underdeveloped/stereotyped characters and an uncomfortable way of dealing with race and weight both. So, I'm sure McDowell will be worth picking up for some readers...just not this one in the future.

9. Reunion Special by Carson Winter

Clever and timely, this is one of those books that begins on an eerie note, and becomes more and more uncanny as it unfolds. Winter's use of POV and the range of structures make for what feels almost like a collage at first, and then builds itself into a novella where the tension only mounts with each page turned, even as horrific images compound the tension and make for a fast-paced read. On one hand, I wish the book were longer because it was such a fantastic reading experience to fall into, but on the other hand, it's rather perfect as it is--you should binge this book just like you'd binge a guilty escape on the television, and I'd say the horror will be even more present for devouring it in that fashion.

Just don't plan on going to bed right after you read it, and perhaps second-guess whether or not you're ready for the book if you can't handle snakes. I adore snakes, and as a result, that aspect of the book made it all the more wonderful for me. (I imagine it will make scarier for others, too.)

I kind of slid into February without being aware of it, partly due to having been sick in January and now playing catch-up with work. But here are my loose reading plans for the month...

I'm currently about halfway through The Time Traveler's Magic, about a third of the way through White Smoke (which I picked up because I needed a break from the aforementioned book), and taking my time wandering through two separate short story collections that'll probably be side-reads through most of February: All We Want is Everything and Blackbird House. I *think* I'm going to finish the time-travel book since it's for a challenge, but not really sure.

Also on deck for this month:
When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen (top priority since my online book club, HOWL, has got her scheduled for a Q-and-A--if the book's on your radar and you've been thinking about checking HOWL out, now's a good time!)
The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

and, if I can fit it in, The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling.

>42 whitewavedarling: Looks like some good books on deck. I'm going to check out The Lost Village--that one looks very interesting.

I will be interested in your opinion on The Death of Jane Lawrence. I just got it from the library, but the reviews were not encouraging. I may let it go back for now and try it again later.

>42 whitewavedarling: Hope you're feeling better soon! And I can't believe it's February already either. What even is time these days?

>43 sturlington:, We're sharing the same brain again lol. I'm excited about The Lost Village, but have some of the same fears re. Death of Jane Lawrence. I bought it way back when it was on preorder, though, so it's been waiting. A bunch of my discord friends are reading it now because of its listing for the Stoker awards, so I figure it's a good time for me to dive in if I can.

>44 rabbitprincess:, I am, thank you! But yeah, I'm no longer sure what 'time' means lol.

10. The Time Traveler's Magic by Anna Applegate

This book is full of the otherworldly--time travel, shifters, vampires, and totally unrelated magic. It works to blend urban fantasy with time travel romance and more, moving at a fast pace encompassing various centuries and locations. Add in family drama, and...well, it's a *lot*. Too much, in this reader's opinion. Because although there was a clear depth to the background of the characters, and there were plenty of attempted twists/turns (most of them either predictable or of 'jump the shark' out-of-the-blue territory, hence the 'attempted'), there was no real depth to the story. Where this showed most of all was in the plotting and the somewhat contrived battles.

Battles would suddenly end--conveniently for the heroes, because they'd be lost/dead otherwise--with no real reason other than that the 'big bad' seemed to change his mind. When a reader wanted more depth to a part of the lore/magic, what would instead come would be either an additional magical element/mystery, or else a fast turn in the plot. Things generally happened perfectly conveniently, or perfectly inconveniently, with no real rhyme or reason (lots of showing up exactly one where needed to be if you were the hero, with the villain showing up exactly where the hero didn't want them, of course), and motivations were generally left totally unexplored. In other words, there was a lot happening, but the plotting was so fast and loose that, on the whole, the book felt more messy than finished.

I'd compare the book to a fast-paced surface-level action movie that moves so fast, it doesn't leave you time to question what's happening. If you can make yourself get swept up in the world and action, you might enjoy yourself, but if you stop to question any one thing or character for a moment, a lot of the story will start unraveling. And with fairly stereotypical characters, and a lack of depth in general, that was a real problem here, especially when the characters started acting unbelievably toward the end.

I can't see myself continuing with this series or trying out the author again in the future, I'm afraid. This isn't one I'd recommend.

11. White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

This is such a tough review to write, partly because this was probably a 5-star read for me...up until the very end.

I think part of the power of this novel comes in the way Jackson tackles a horrific story without focusing on it being a horror story. What do I mean by that? The family feels real, in a tough situation that has nothing to do with the horror, and that situation is given serious attention--it's not just offered as backstory, as happens in so many novels, because we see the very real and almost-constant repercussions as they come across in the family dynamics, interpersonal relations, and, most of all, anxiety. I'm so impressed by the way that Jackson blended all this together, made for believable characters, and wrote anxiety, in particular. All of this was incredibly important, and allowed the book to feel real and timely in a way that most YA Horror simply doesn't.

There is probably an argument to be made that Jackson tried to pull too much together in this one novel, and that there was some clutter in the way she tried to make all of it meaningful, from inclusions of family issues to anxiety to drug use/controversy to the local politics and community history--not to mention the actual plot that pulled all this together. For me, though, it worked really well, and I felt like I was being immersed in what a story like this would actually look like, vs. one perfectly formed for fiction. In other words, that clutter and messiness that I know will annoy some readers really worked for me.

So, why did this end up being a three-star read for me? The end. And it's hard to say more than that without giving spoilers away, so I think I just have to say that I was very dismayed with how/where the book ended, and I can't understand the choice, to the extent that I closed the book with an out-loud curse and sat there staring at it, wondering if I'd ever pick up another book by the author (which, till maybe two minutes before, hadn't even been a question, I'd been so engaged with the book).

So, I don't know. There are some odd choices made with the ending (the very, very, very ending), and while I won't say they ruined the book for me, they worked hard to do it.

12. When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

The structure of the early part of this book made it a slow ride in terms of my becoming engaged with the characters and story, but as I kept going on got past the first third or so of the book, it became harder and harder to put the book down. McQueen's writing is sometimes a bit heavy-handed in terms of storytelling, and I'd love for more time to have gone into character development vs. theme development (where theme was already clear), but on the whole, I enjoyed this book. In its themes and blend of past with present, it was somewhat reminiscent of some of my favorite Morrison works, and I'm certain I'll pick up the next book McQueen writes. That said, I do think this might have been a better work if some real cuts had been made to the beginning chapters and to the more heavy-handed writing moments, as the book was at its best when engaged in description/atmosphere and present scenes/moments. I'll be curious to see what her next book is like.

13. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman has long been one of my favorite authors, but I'm afraid this collection fell short for me. As gorgeous as Hoffman's language is--and it is worth falling into in this collection, just as it always is--the stories here didn't, for the most part, pull me in or make me glad to have picked up the book. My favorite stories were the first and the last, and although I suppose the (tenuous) thread connecting all of these stories was meant to provide some additional elevation to the work, the overwhelming feeling I got from the collection was one of despair and struggle. The drama was tough to wade through, to be honest, because without the depth Hoffman normally brings to her characters, the stories relied on plot and theme to pull a reader a long, and there just wasn't enough nuance or tension to anything but the language for that.

As ever, Hoffman's characters and language are brilliant, but I think what I so love about her work is lost when it comes to short-form writing. I'm still a devoted fan, but I may skip any other short story collections she produces.

14. The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

I had such high hopes for this book, and in the end, I'm left not knowing quite how I feel about it. On one hand, the book is compulsively readable, and I really enjoyed Sten's prose as well as the structure. On the other hand...there are some serious flaws. As great as the concept in it, there are some cracks in the foundation when it comes to the characters and that concept, with mixed messages coming through in terms of who they are, their preparedness, and the needs/goals being faced. Some of the situations are also fairly contrived, which is made worse with a lack of explanation. I'm also not comfortable with the way mental illness was depicted and treated in the book, which bothered me more and more as I kept going, as did a seeming lack of (story) editing.

I suppose, in the end, the book just felt a bit messy in terms of story and character. The prose was lovely, and the concept was great, and the spooky bits were fantastic...but there were a lot of problems, and the more I paused to think about the smaller threads/problems bothering me, the more others became apparent. Especially with the characters being somewhat oblivious and acting/thinking in ways that didn't quite make sense, and some pieces of the plot being fairly contrived, I have to say that I'm not sure I'll pick up another book by the author.

>50 whitewavedarling: Aw, that's a disappointment!

>51 sturlington:, It really was. The book was a fast read, though. I might actually have enjoyed it more if I'd not been reading it with a book club, as we were all discussing it and pointing out the flaws rather than speeding through it. It doesn't particularly make things better that speed-reading through it as I sometimes do would have been the thing to make me overlook the problems, though, and I think they still would have bothered me by the end :(

15. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

This is one of those books that shifts and changes its way through a reader's experience, becoming something else and something more each time a reader lets their guard down. In so many ways, it felt like a bleeding together of the styles and stories of Neil Gaiman and Tana French, and I mean that in the best way possible. Ward's writing is immersive and powerful, and I've no doubt that a second read would bring even more detail and appreciation to the surface. The book consistently surprised me, and it says much that even when I didn't like what those surprises/twists were, I believed in them and appreciated them for the story they told.

It's difficult to talk about this book without offering spoilers, so I'll only finish by saying that it's made me a long-term fan of Catriona Ward, and while I'm not sure whether I'd label this horror or suspense or something else entirely, I'm thankful to have found it and I'd absolutely recommend it. I've already preordered the author's next book.

>53 whitewavedarling: Great review! I loved it too. I'm looking forward to reading more by her as well.

>53 whitewavedarling: I've never read anything by Catriona Ward but I've taken a BB from your review and I've added this novel to my library wishlist.

I'm so glad, >54 sturlington: and >55 mathgirl40:! Her new book comes out next week, and I'm already anxious for it. I heard from a friend who got an ARC that it's just as good :)

16. The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas

The science and the way Douglas writes insects are (or should be) the primary reason for picking this book up. It's got a lot of fantastically interesting info about bugs, incredibly creepy scenes, and the sort of extended passages of gore that make one understand why it was picked out for the republished "Paperbacks of Hell" series. That said...the book has quite a few issues, not least of all the way women are written. Despite being published in the late 70s, the book reads as if it takes place in the 40s or 50s, and I can only imagine that the author wanted to use science from later decades or would have been better off placing it earlier. If anyone wants an example of how to NOT write women and romance, this is a good one.

That said, if you like gore with your horror and can handle some comically cringe-worthy moments involving the writing of women/romance, you might enjoy this one. I had a hard time with it, admittedly, though I'm not sure I've ever been more creeped out or impressed with the writing of insects, and I may come back to this for inspiration the next time I need to write a gory, extended death scene.

>56 whitewavedarling: Do you know the title? Her book Little Eve won a Shirley Jackson award. I follow that award but I have had a hard time getting a copy of that book.

>58 sturlington:, Her new one is called Sundial--I'm surprised it's showing up as a touchstone option, but apparently so! Release date is tomorrow :)

I looked at Little Eve, but like you, I've at least temporarily given up on getting a copy. I don't normally read e-books at all, and it looks like the only really affordable option is the $14.00 kindle copy which would be a pre-order for next October. I'm not willing to pay that kind of money for an e-book, pre-order or otherwise! Maybe it's a signal they're working toward a new release, though?

Now that my planned February reads are complete, here's my list for March!

I've already started The Spirit by Thomas Page and A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark.

I also plan on reading:

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas
and Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell (assuming it reaches me in time since I pre-ordered this one, but don't yet have it in hand).

If time permits, I really hope to get to Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson also, but we'll see what happens....

Congrats on completing all of your planned February reads! I always plan to read way too much every month :D

Taking a BB for >53 whitewavedarling:. You got me!

>62 mstrust:, I hope you enjoy it!

>61 rabbitprincess:, Well, I have a habit of doing really well with my plans in the first half of a year, and then falling off in the second half of the year, so we'll see what happens later in 2022 lol. Thanks for the congrats here, though--I hope your plans go well also!

17. The Spirit by Thomas Page

Even though this was a fairly predictable read in terms of how the story played out (though with a few twists that I really enjoyed), Page's talent for description and the fast pace of the book made me glad to have picked it up. I do wish there'd been more depth to characterization, and there's no doubt that this book is a product of the '70s, but on the whole, it was a fun, fast read with some great action a considered portrayal of bigfoot that I really appreciated.

Recommended for classic horror fans, readers who want bigfoot in their stories, and followers of the Paperbacks from Hell series. (Note that the Grady Hendrix intro has some light spoilers, but is worth reading after-the-fact or once you're well into the reading.)

18. Signals: Poems by Ed Madden

Much of this collection is devoted to nature and place-based poetry that has a quiet power, complete with some gorgeous images. It's not the sort of poetry I normally seek out, and although I can appreciate it for the images it evokes and the South Carolina it brings to mind for me, it doesn't quite have an emotional impact for me. The more powerful poems are those which marry the poet's sense of place with a quiet examination of race/race relations/racism--these poems being few and far between, but intensely quiet and thoughtful in a way that makes them resonate on a deeper level. Between those and the lovely language throughout this collection, and the images that bring to mind South Carolina (where I lived for five years and hope to eventually get back to), I'm glad to have come across this collection. I'm sure I'll revisit some of the poems in the future.

19. A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

I read Clark's novella, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and absolutely fell in love with his writing style, world, and characters. My only complaint about the novella, in fact, was that I wished it were a full novel so that it would last longer. So, I was thrilled to dive into a full novel set in the same world, and even happier about the novel focusing on some of the same characters. Yet, I can't quite say that the novel lived up to what I hoped. As expected, Clark's world-building, writing, and story were utterly entrancing, and I loved the reality brought to such a magical story. At the same time, things fell a little bit flat for me when it came to character. Simply put, I just wanted more--more development in the characters, more depth to who they were, more indication and belief that they were real. Instead, probably by around halfway through the book, I found myself feeling like plot and world-building had completely overtaken the characters, who felt like set-pieces more than people (or djinn) who I could engage with and believe in and feel sympathy for.

I did enjoy the book, and I'm glad to have read it, but obviously, I wish it had been a bit more on the character front. No doubt, I'll read more of Clark's work.

20. Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas

This book disappointed me on a number of levels, to the extent that I probably won't pick up another book by Mas in the future.

The big issue here is story vs. history/world-building. The story is so light in content/plot, and told with so little depth, it's often hard to feel that this is a novel so much as a thought experiment related to what could have come of the history, location, and persons involved. What makes that more frustrating is that there's really not much depth given to the specifics of the hospital, title ball, or history--if I'd learned something about treatments or the history, I might be more forgiving of the story being so simple, but as is, I really didn't learn anything, and ended up feeling like I might just as well have read a history book. The characters are given some depth, but in such obvious fashion that, again, I felt like I might as well have read a history book or nonfiction related to any of the subjects involved.

Simply put, the themes were obvious, the resolution was obvious, and the characters were exactly what you would expect based on the simplest communications of concept--with the exactly expected growth/non-growth coming over the course of the book.

I did love the concept of this book, and I expected to be fascinated with it. Unfortunately, that wasn't at all the case. A disconnected style and head-hopping also made it that much more difficult for me to really engage with the book, to the extent that even the material which should have been disturbing came across as fairly heavy-handed and unaffecting. If the author had done a lot more work around the bones of this story, I think it could have been a fantastic book. As is...well...it just wasn't.

Not recommended. Even if you're fascinated by the subject, I can't really imagine you'll learn/gain anything from reading this one.

21. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Okorafor's Akata Witch is everything one could want in a YA Fantasy--or Fantasy in general, in many ways. The fantastic detail and world-building Okorafor offers make for a story that feels grounded in our reality while at the same time being incredibly magical. Add to that characters who are unique and believable, with flaws of their own that only add to the reality, and you have an absolutely engrossing read. My one tiny complaint here was the pacing at the end of the book felt a little bit rushed, right around the climax, but then again, maybe it's just that I couldn't bring myself to tear my eyes away from the book and was speeding through....

Truly, I'm sorry it took me so long to discover this series, but at the same time, I'm excited the follow-up books are already published so that I won't have to wait :) I can't wait to dive into the follow-up!

22. The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac by Sharma Shields

This was...not what I was expecting, and I think my reading experience suffered as a result.

Shields has written a clearly literary work that, though it does bring in the fantastical, remains firmly rooted in reality. But while the back cover copy starts with a mention of sasquatch, and finishes with "The magical world Sharma Shields has created is one of unicorns and lake monsters, ghosts and reincarnations, tricksters and hexes....and pushes the boundaries of the imagination"... the truth is that the 'magic' of the world is barely present. One could argue over whether the maybe-sasquatch seems less magical only because he's presented in such realistic terms, but the end result is the same--the magic of the world takes up a total of perhaps a dozen pages in a book that comes close to being 400 pages long. At least for me, this just wasn't what I expected, and even re-reading the back cover copy now, I have to say I feel like it's misleading.

As a literary take on a man obsessed with sasquatch, this is an interesting read in the stylings of slice-of-life & dismay writers like Jonathan Franzen and Richard Russo, and Shields is clearly a talented writer. At the same time, I admit I wonded more magic, and hoped for something more like the magical realism of Alice Hoffman, or even something far weirder like the work of VanderMeer or Link. Instead, what I got felt like it worked to bring magic down to a pedestrian, domestic level with characters who were believable, but not particularly enjoyable to read about.

Would I recommend this one? I'm not sure--in a particular situation, certainly. In general, though, I fear I found it kind of boring and predictable, and as fascinated as I was by the premise and the magical elements, it felt like they were there to sell the book more so than to make the book.

23. Buffalo Yoga by Charles Wright

Wright's poems are the kind which you might read through once, fairly easily, and then read through again for another level of meaning. In this collection, the ones I got the most out of were the longer sequences and those more focused on images than on story-telling, which isn't necessarily the norm for me. Here, though, the sequences progressed in such a way as to feel like slowly blooming flowers and films, and I adored them, whereas many images were offered with such simple flavor that I couldn't help but enjoy them and re-read immediately.

Wright will probably never be one of my favorite poets, but this little book is certainly my favorite collection from him so far, and I think I'll probably return to a number of the poems here.

24. Weaveworld by Clive Barker

There is such a sweet power to this story and the world created here. Barker's storytelling creates such a compelling cast of characters, weaving together the real with what can barely be imagined and yet is brought to life here so beautifully, that this becomes a book to sink into and live with. I read it first in high school, and it stuck with me all these years, but journeying into the experience again over the last few weeks was still so refreshing. Barker manages to bring together elements of horror and fantasy in an epic unweaving and reweaving of another world, and his gorgeous prose is immersive.

I'd recommend this book to readers of any genre who want to be immersed in a world of the fantastic.

With March in the books, it's time to talk about April!

As of now, I'm currently more than halfway through Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes, which I may or may not finish--it's been decidedly underwhelming. I'm also halfway through All We Want is Everything by Andrew F. Sullivan, but only because the stories are so heavy that I'm simply taking my time rather than reading the collection straight through. Based on current impressions, I absolutely recommend the collection by Sullivan, but not Barnes' new work.

Meanwhile, for the rest of April, here are my plans:

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (HOWL Read #1)
Woman in Black by Susan Hill (HOWL Read #2)
Rain in the Trees by M.S. Merwin (RandomKit)
Rules of the Road by C.B. Jones (AlphaKit 'J')
The Butcher's Theater by Jonathan Kellerman (ScaredyKit),
Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (SFFKit)
Love Stories in this Town by Amanda Eyre Ward (Favorite Author & AlphaKit 'L')

A number of these are pretty short, so we'll see how things go, but I'm also hoping to fit in Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson. One way or another, I'll get a good head-start tonight/tomorrow night since my husband plans on watching WrestleMania, which means I'll be sitting on the couch and reading for both nights :)

25. Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

This book sounded fantastic, and it was a fast-enough read, but I also came very close to DNFing, which speaks to just how many problems there are.

On one hand, there are some fantastic ideas and images here, some of the visuals being wonderfully creepy, and there are moments when the author's writing really shines. The problems, though, are larger-level. In a lot of ways, this feels more like a YA sci-fi that was 'aged up' and forced into the Adults space, and the reasons I say that are at the heart of my critique. This book has all of the tropes that burned me out on YA sci-fi--characters put into leadership roles and responsibilities that they don't seem to deserve or be capable of fulfilling, a mysteriously mean corporation, high stakes that aren't entirely explained (this is important for this reason, but why that would be the outcome, who knows?), an overly voice-y protagonist who cycles on endlessly between thinking of a past trauma and second-guessing herself ad nauseum even when she should be focused on the present (to the point that, yes, it becomes very repetitive), and an awkward, shoe-horned-in romance that the book would be better off without. All of those things are things I expect to see in a YA dystopian or YA sci-fi, and when you add in the VERY young-feeling narrator here, I really wonder if this wasn't originally written as YA and then aged up either because of the horror-level images/scenes (few as they are) or the market. One way or another, it didn't make for a satisfying read.

The ending, though I won't get into spoilers, reinforces the feel that this was meant for younger readers, and to put it bluntly, it just ends up being kind of predictable and easy. On top of that, the book can't seem to decide what genre it wants to sit within, and when it comes right down to it, the book doesn't live up to the blurbs or the cover copy--it's certainly not 'the ultimate haunted house story, in space' as the Katsu blurb on the cover promises. There's also a complete lack of explanation for some elements which are central to how the story unfolds, and some serious plot holes. Things that were just forgotten or left out.

It's a fast read, as I said, so I imagine a lot of readers will speed through this, appreciate it for what it is, and move on, but in all honesty, it felt like a fairly sloppy story to me, and as I said, it didn't really feel like it was meant to be in the adult space at all. Since I'm personally burned out on YA sci-fi and YA dystopians, I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it were listed as YA with teen characters, but maybe that's the point.

I'd probably recommend this one to adults who like YA sci-fi (not horror, because this might be dark sci-fi, but it is not something I'd consider horror). Just don't get sucked in by the 'ghost ship' and 'haunted house in space' references on the cover, or you'll be disappointed.

>25 whitewavedarling: Good review. I've been having this same issue with many books I've been picking up lately, particularly SF/F. I don't know if this is a "trend" in or just reflects the heavy influence YA has had over the past few years on genre writing in particular, but it's really turned me off on the whole genre.

By the way, I think your touchstone is going to the wrong book.

>74 sturlington:, Ah, thank you for telling me about the touchstone--fixed!

I'm glad you enjoyed the review--the book was a real disappointment, but maybe the review will at least help some folks lol. With YA, someone in my book club actually noted that Barnes wrote YA prior to this book. I've been reading a lot of Adult SFF and Horror this year, but this is the first, I admit, that felt like a retooled YA to me. What you said might be right, though--YA has gotten so big with adult audiences, it wouldn't surprise me a bit, though it is disappointing.

26. Love Stories in This Town by Amanda Eyre Ward

I absolutely adore Ward's novels, but I admit I struggled with this collection--especially in the first half, where both tone and theme feel overly repetitive, the focus placed so much on pregnancy/getting pregnant as it is. In fact, that's a theme throughout the whole of the collection, far more so than motherhood, and I might not have picked up the collection if that had been made more clear on the cover copy. Still, I did finish the work, and there are some stand-out stories. "The Way the Sky Changed" is especially powerful, and there's also a lot to admire in the linked stories making up the second half of the collection. That said, I'm not sure I'd pick up another collection by Ward. Her prose brings characters to life beautifully, but the depth she brings to novels adds more than slice-of-life, she brings so much depth to even the simplest stories, and that depth just didn't translate into her short stories. Perhaps part of that is how repetitive the tone and themes felt from story to story, but as it stands, I just didn't enjoy this collection all that much.

If you want to give Ward a try, pick up one of her novels and it might well make you a fan of her for life, but unless you specifically want pregnancy-themed women's fiction short stories that all strike loosely the same note, I have to recommend leaving this collection on the shelf, lovely as Ward's prose may be.

Just dropping by to say hello. I love your pet photos and I know we're not supposed to have favourites but I have to say Charlie and her flamingo has to be mine.

>77 VivienneR:, Thanks for coming around! I take SO many pictures of Charlie lol. I don't know if it's because she's the newest to our family, or is just always begging for attention and right at hand, but she is such a sweetheart. And she does adore that flamingo lol--we've even got a spare for the day when it's no longer holding together for her!

27. Rules of the Road by C.B. Jones

Nearly from the moment I opened the book, Rules of the Road sucked me into its journey and refused exit. In another author's hands, I think the sometimes episodic nature of the book could have been disastrous, but Jones' deft weaving of story upon story--rule upon rule--made for such a fantastic sequence and build-up that I had difficulty looking away, and essentially ended up reading the book in two lengthy sittings. More than anything, the book was alive with different voices, and it's so rare that I've seen an author offer up such clearly distinct voices in a fashion like this, to where the voices felt as real as they were distinctive, and thus added reality to the book rather than only offering distraction. Keith Lee Morris' Dart Board King comes to mind in this regard, and again, the various voices are one of those things that I think could have gone tragically wrong (by sounding over-done or all the same) in some other author's hands, but here were treated with such nuance and natural forward motion that they worked beautifully. And then, even aside from the writing, there's such a unique creativity and craft to the story as a whole, the horror of the tale(s) feels all the more real.

I imagine most any reader or writer of horror will devour this book, and justifiably so. I'm so glad to have discovered it, and I'm anxious to read more of Jones' work.

Absolutely recommended.

28. The Rain in the Trees by M.S. Merwin

Merwin's poems have a simplicity of respect and language that echoes from the page, and I found the sequences here to be especially powerful poems that I look forward to revisiting. The shorter poems often had lovely language, but not the level of emotional impact the longer ones achieved. Merwin is a poet I'll read and re-read, though, and gladly recommend.

29. The Butcher's Theater by Jonathan Kellerman

I've read and loved a number of Kellerman's Alex Delaware novels, among other works he's written, so the first thing I must say here is that I'm simply glad this wasn't my introduction to his work. If it had been, early novel or not, I don't think I'd be seeking out more. So, starting with that....

This is probably what I would consider to be the definition of a pulp novel. Heavy on action and needless heat; over the top in so many scenes and moments, over and over again; twisty-turny (sometimes for the better, sometimes not); full of stock characters with just enough quirks to keep them interesting; overwritten; rife with moments that feel like they were included for shock value... there were so many moments when it occurred to me that I could simply not finish the book, but I kept going mostly because of the fast pace and because I've so enjoyed Kellerman's work in the past.

If some of the shock-value passages and moments were removed, and some of the 'butchery' taken down from the level of grotesque gore to a level that was slightly more believable in a given moment, I probably would have enjoyed this quite a bit more. As it was, I too often cringed away from what felt like needless gore and shock-value offense--and I saw this as someone who really enjoys slashers and horror novels, too. On top of that, the book is so full of needless sexism and offensive language (much of which would have been offensive even when the book was published in the 80s), the book felt as if it were begging to be labeled as pulp literature in a way that I've rarely seen happen.

Maybe Kellerman just wanted to go as over the top as possible, or maybe his early writing was, in general, just this overboard in terms of language and horror, but one way or another, I can't say I enjoyed this. Was the plotting smart? Sure. Were the characters sympathetic? Mostly. Did the writing move fast and keep me engaged? Yes. But did I enjoy it or feel like the book deserved nearly as many pages as it took up? Not remotely.

I can't recommend this one unless you want a pulpy, over-the-top thriller that delivers plenty of shock value as a thriller written in the spirit of a slasher horror film.

30. Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Full disclosure to start this review: I've decided to DNF after reading about 35% of the book, just having finished the fourth story in the collection, "Lark Street", which I personally read as being blatantly anti-abortion, whether or not that is the message intended. If I'd absolutely loved the stories leading up to it, I might have stuck with the collection as a whole, but since that wasn't the case and I was able to chat about what was coming with a few other folks, I decided to move on.

I'll get back to "Lark Street" in a minute, but I first want to mention that I know a number of folks who've read the collection, and most agree that the first story--"The Finkelstein 5"--is by far the strongest. Of the ones I read, it was certainly the strongest, and I think it succeeded in so many ways. The one failing was potentially in gender representation, as the book has an undeniably male focus/eye, which gets problematic in later stories, and which I've heard becomes even more of an issue in the second half of the book, where the book simply lacks positive portrayals of characters who aren't men (this is what I've heard vs read for myself, but it did influence my decision to DNF at this point since it seems like I've already read the best and the worst of the book, with folks feeling much more so-so about the rest of the collection). Conceptually and structurally, though, the opener of the collection is smart and powerful, as well as being well-written (even though I'd say the prose in what I read overall feels too MFA-styled for my taste).

The next story in the collection, "Things My Mother Said", was sort of a non-entity for me. As in, I felt like I'd read similar enough before that it didn't strike me in any fashion, but it was short enough that that didn't particularly bother me after the first story's strength. The next story, "The Era", was far stronger...but it also dragged on and on, and this was also the point where I started to get uncomfortable with gender presentation, wondering if the author would ever write a positive woman or girl into the mix of the story in a way that made them feel real or more than just a stereotype. I read the story, and was glad to have read it...but it certainly didn't blow me away. I think the concept was capable of that power, but the story was just too long to deliver the impact that the concept might have been capable of, and some of the characterization issues brought it down further. It also felt fairly heavy-handed, though I took that to be the author's style.

And that's when I got to "Lark Street."

Here's the thing. Authorial intention only matters so much. I just finished reading another book where the author started out his Afterword by saying that he hated explaining his stories because his intentions didn't particularly matter--what mattered was what readers took from the story, and if he had to explain them, he'd already failed on some level. Some readers may see this story as satire, but I would argue that if it is satire, it is simply badly done and failed in its execution. I say this because I and many others in my book club did not read it as satire, and could find no good-faith argument for how someone would see it as anything but anti-abortion. And in this climate, in 2022 in the U.S., where I (and many others) am living in a state where my right to get an abortion has been curtailed, if not all but eliminated, it is extremely difficult to bend over backwards to try to read a story like this as anything but anti-abortion. I don't owe the author that time, or the mental health involved, or an acknowledgement that he might not have meant it that way (even though that's exactly what I'm saying here). The point is, it doesn't really matter if he 'meant it that way' once the story is in print and has the potential to do harm.

Why do I say it has the potential to do harm? CWs aside, the story rehashes and essentially celebrates all of the anti-abortion arguments which are posted upon billboards, posters, and in videos whenever someone aims to make an anti-abortion argument. It could quite literally be offered to a reader by a conservative anti-abortion activist who would say, "Here. Read this. It'll help you see why abortion is wrong. Why it only leads to sadness and regret." The fact that the story could be used in that manner, and that passages could be taken out of context to argue against a woman's right to have an abortion for any reason, means that it's very difficult for me to see beyond the messaging which seems so incredibly blatant. And, again, I don't owe the author or anyone else that time, because to me this is a harmful story, particularly in the political climate we're in now. Ten-fifteen years ago, it might have been edgy and a conversation-starter and something I could respect from a male writer...but to be honest, in a collection that's just come out a few years ago and would have been finalized far more recently than ten years ago, I can't in good conscience understand the reasoning behind including the story unless the author either doesn't care about a woman's right to choose OR is truly anti-abortion. And in either case, especially given the lack of positive female representation in the book, I see no need to continue reading.

>82 whitewavedarling: Good review. I appreciate perspectives like this that really do a good job of explaining how and why they found the text problematic.

>83 sturlington:, Thank you! I admit, it was a tough one to write.

31. Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

There's a lot to love about this work, and the concept and characters sucked me in immediately. Some of Thompson's scenes and images are also so viscerally compelling, it's impossible to look away, and journeying through the story was a fascinating experience that bridged genres and sped me through a world I fell in love with learning about. I will say that the pacing felt rushed toward the end, partly because it suddenly felt like a bunch of POVs were fighting for attention, and some of what I'd loved about the book got left behind in the chaos. I do think this story and the characters could easily have been two books, and been better for the extra time/content involved. I also found that I wished Thompson would focus on different details of world-building than the ones I would have loved to hear about--BUT, when I read his Afterword post-story, that shed a lot of light and context on his choices, and added to the reading experience in general.

Much as I have small quibbles with the book, including the cover feeling a bit like false advertising, the read was a fun one, and I'm looking forward to trying more of Thompon's work sometime in the future.

32. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Styled as a nineteenth-century ghost story, Susan Hill's The Woman in Black is a slow-burning enjoyable ghost story that ramps up towards the end and retains momentum through to the very last page. In so many ways, it feels like a book which was written a hundred years ago rather than only a few decades ago, and the trip back in time is an interesting one. This did read fairly slowly for me through the first two thirds, but I think much of that had to do with the fact that I'd seen the movie previously, and as each chapter got started, I remembered just enough to keep me from being all that surprised or compelled by the plot on the page. As a result, I enjoyed the read as a sort of novelty in style, and I'd certainly read more of Hill's work, but I'd probably only recommend this work to readers who haven't seen the movie at all recently.

Now that I've completed my goals (and reviews!) for my April challenges, here are my May plans! We'll see how they go...I'm already getting distracted by books not on the list, and I'm also attending StokerCon, so this might be the first month where I can't quite keep up with what I've got planned.

I'm already reading and 'in progress' on, with plans to finish in early May: The Mao Case by Xiaolong Qiu, Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo, and (just barely into:) Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts by Erika Lewis.

Theoretically, I plan to start and finish:

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (HOWL Read #1 & ScaredyKit)
Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories (HOWL Read #2 & ScaredyKit)
The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran (RandomKit)
Darkest Whisper by Gena Showalter OR? Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (AlphaKit 'D')
No Gods. No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (SFFKit)
Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz (Favorite Author & AlphaKit 'O')

I'd originally planned on reading Bloodlines: Four Tales of Familial Fear anthology of novellas for the ScaredyKit before I realized that other books that came onto my May list later would also fill the novella/short story role. I still want to get to this one sooner than later, but at least for now, it'll probably be my last priority this month.

33. Nothing but Blackened Teet by Cassandra Khaw

Khaw's Nothing but Blackened Teeth celebrates horror's ability to drop readers into a voice and situation, and compel them forward from what seems like reality into something far more dangerous and surreal. And...I loved it.

The style of the novel keeps a fast pace, and if a reader can allow themselves to sink into the voice of the MC and run with her through the experience of the book, Nothing but Blackened Teeth becomes an experience just so much as a story. Highlighted by some gorgeous language, too-real characters and drama, and an immersion in Japanese folklore, the book begs to be read and then re-read. There's an argument to be made that it could have been longer, and there are also moments when 'big word syndrome' gets out of hand and obscures Khaw's meaning, but those small flaws are nothing in comparison to the experience of the book.

I'm sure I'll be re-reading it, and I'll absolutely be diving into more of Khaw's work.

34. All We Want is Everything by Andrew F. Sullivan

Built with weighted language that all but drips with emotion, All We Want is Everything isn't a collection that can easily be sped through or digested in a few days, but with each story packed with power and images as well as situations that might easily break a few hearts, the book is absolutely worth sinking into and spending some time with. Sullivan's language and themes are so careful, and the stories' situations and characters so realistic, it's difficult to remember that you're reading fiction. Everything simply feels too real, too vibrant...and just slightly absurd, in the way of those real-life stories that we're horrified by and yet can't help relating to others, whether to self-sooth or share the everyday horrors people experience every day.

It's also worth noting that this is an extremely varied collection. So often, a single-author collection gets so bogged down in similar characters, themes, or situations that it becomes repetitive by the end. Sullivan's short stories never allow that feeling to set in, and with so many of the stories being on the short side, that's all the more impressive.

For readers like myself, I have to offer a warning that there are a lot of images and moments related to dead/dying animals, and I admit those made it especially tough for me to get through some of the stories. BUT--and this is a big 'but' that I don't think I've ever felt such a need for--those images and moments serve a purpose. So much of the collection is built around a need and desire to escape what is inescapable, whether what can't be escaped is a situation, person, event, or even a feeling. There's a feeling of entrapment that comes on if you read through the stories too quickly, because the collection is just that real, and while Sullivan never goes overboard or reaches for the shock value that so many writers would be tempted to employ, his careful use of graphic imagery and death aid those feelings of entrapment and escapism, highlighting how much humans are, at least in his stories, just so trapped as a helpless animal left to deal with a situation it cannot or will not be allowed to understand.

In another writers' hands, these images would have chased me away from a collection. In Sullivan's hands, the images were so pointed, so careful and respectful, that they only made me push forward--even if I did sometimes need a break between stories.

Some of my favorites in the collection included "In a Car in a River Outside Peoria, Illinois," "Thaw," and "Mutations."

I'd absolutely recommend this short story collection. Take your time with it, sink into the stories one by one, and you'll be a better writer and reader for it. I know I am.

>88 whitewavedarling: Well, you've convinced me to give this one a try. And it is short!

>90 sturlington:, I'm glad! My writing group (and reviews in general) seemed to have pretty mixed feelings on it, but I loved it. I think the folks who enjoyed poetic language and were willing to sink into the voice of it enjoyed it most, but overall, impressions were positive, so I hope you enjoy it!

I really loved The Woman in Black and didn't like Nothing But Blackened Teeth. But I like haunted house stories a lot so not a surprise that I'd find some that don't work for me.
Hope your week is starting out well!

>92 mstrust:, Thanks for dropping by! And yep, I'm the same...I love bad and haunted house books so much, I can't resist them, so there are always bound to be a few duds. I did enjoy NBBT, though!

Meanwhile....

35. The Mao Case: An Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong

Another great book in the Inspector Chen series, this installment is steeped in the recent history of Chinese politics as well as the culture, and it's one of the more powerful books I've read in the series. Perhaps more than any other, it blends in cultural elements of poetry and food beautifully so that there are no seams showing, whereas poetry has felt somewhat more forced in a few of the books, much as I always enjoy it. This brought me back to the reasons I fell in love with this series, and the gorgeous nuance that Xiaolong brings to each of his works. I do wish the ending had been allowed to breathe just a bit more, as it felt somewhat rushed for my taste, but otherwise, I loved this book and I look forward to the next in the series.

36. Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts by Erika Lewis

This was a fun, fast middle-grade romp, and I did enjoy it. The characters, descriptions, and magic were fantastic, and although there were some moments where I wished for a bit more depth, I think the depth/detail was probably pretty perfect for the genre. My only real complaint is that the characters who I found most interesting early on mostly disappeared by about halfway through the book, and really didn't come back into play. The characters who remained the focus felt far more 'stock' for the genre, one of them being more voice than fully developed, and I think that's where I was simply somewhat let down.

I'm honestly not sure if I'll go on to the next book in the series or not. I could see recommending the book/series to young readers and others, but as much as I found it entertaining, some pacing choices and character choices left me really wishing for more. If the next book looks like it might re-focus on some of those characters I wished hadn't disappeared, I'll probably pick it up. If not, I'll probably move on at least for now.

37. Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories edited by Neil Christopher

This was a somewhat up-and-down read for me, but the stories that struck me as the stars of the collection were fantastic, and it's absolutely introduced me to some new authors who I look forward to following in the future. Full of atmosphere, fantastic writing, and concepts that kept me guessing/involved, the stars here absolutely made me glad I'd picked up the anthology. Some favorites included: "Iqsinaqtutalik Piqtuq: The Haunted Blizzard", "The Door" by Ann R. Loverock, "The Wildest Game" by Jay Bulckaert, and "Strays" by Repo Kempt.

38. Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell

I ended up reading Refuse to be Done in one sitting, and found it wonderfully inspiring. As someone who's completed writing quite a few novels, I still found Bell's discussions to be interesting and worthwhile, and I can see this being a fantastic read for experienced and beginning writers alike. I'll certainly adopt some of the techniques he suggests in my own drafting process, and I've written down a number of the books he referenced to look up when I get a chance. I'd absolutely recommend this work to any writer who's either thinking about or already in the process of writing novels.

Two BBs in a row for me! Thanks for the reviews!

I'm so glad, >97 mstrust:!

39. The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

I'd heard good things about Gran's work, and this book sounded like a fun one, so I went ahead and pre-ordered. Rarely do I regret pre-orders, but this is one of those times.

Let's start with the story and the writing. This is a hard book to pin down in terms of genre, and that doesn't always bother me, but here it feels like a rather chaotic mish-mash. Some fifty pages in, the drama/women's fiction side of the story, for lack of a better way of putting it, was so much the focus, and so depressing, that I sincerely considered putting the book down--it just wasn't what I'd signed up for in picking up a book that sounded like part mystery and part horror. I decided to give it another fifty pages, and that part of the plot slipped to the wayside, but the book didn't particularly get better. Just easier to read. And as for the occult element...well, it's not so much occult as sexual, with the elements that might appeal to a horror lover brought down to the simplest possible elements. And really, I'm not sure how to describe the sexual element of the book beyond to say that it often feels more tawdry than anything--like the author wanted to include sex in the least-sexiest way possible on some level. There are a lot of erotic passages, it's true, but when there's actually sex on the page, it's more pornographic than erotic. I sometimes enjoy reading erotic fiction...but I didn't remotely enjoy this book. The fact that the whole thing was endlessly predictable didn't help. And while the writing is fine and have some lovely moments, that doesn't really excuse the messiness of the story or predictable nature of it.

Now, let's get to my frustration with the author and the marketing of this book. Books on preorder generally come from publishers, and I knew this was a traditionally published author. The book was priced at 18.95, which is on the normal (even low) side for a nice hardback on pre-order or on the slightly high side for a nice paperback on pre-order. The publisher wasn't one I recognized, but I figured it was a new imprint. And then the book showed up. Not a great cover, and with paper quality and formatting that scream 'self-published'...which would be fine if I hadn't pre-ordered the book for 18.95 from a publisher. For the moment, I brushed off that impression.

Then, about 100 pages into the book when it was feeling messier and messier, I looked up the publisher. Turns out, the author started a publisher with the explicit aim of publishing herself and her friends. Not accepting submissions, and this is the only book on their website. The only thing I can take from that is that the author either couldn't sell this book, or didn't think she'd be able to, and so she decided to self-publish...but she didn't want the book to look self-published, and she wanted to be able to charge the cost of a big-5 published book. That's a less than charitable view, but I don't know how else to look at it, other than that the author wanted to hide that the book was self-published and was greedy for as much money as she could bring in from it.

Maybe, if I'd loved the book, I'd have a more charitable view, but I doubt it. I love and respect many self-published authors, and it's difficult for me to respect an author who wants to self-publish, but hide that's what they're doing and charge more than most successful self-publishers could ever get away with charging their readers. And with the book being less than great?

I'm afraid there's not a chance I'll read another book by Gran, no matter how it's published, and I can't imagine picking up another book from the "publisher" listed here, 'Dreamland Books", which is apparently just a pseudonym for Sara Gran herself.

>99 whitewavedarling: That is all really disappointing because I have enjoyed Gran's work in the past but I think you helped me dodge a bullet here. I wonder if the problems you noticed were due to a lack of editing. I don't think people really appreciate what editors do because their work is largely invisible.

>100 sturlington:, It very well could be. The book was clean--as in there were few to no errors of grammar/typo type--but the story and pacing were rough in a way that a good editor could really have helped with. And as I mentioned, the marketing really didn't sit well with me, in terms of how the author went about publishing. I didn't hesitate to preorder because I know so many readers who've loved some of her early work, but this one left a bad taste in my mouth.

40. The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan

A stream-of-conscious fever dream, there's no doubt that this book won't be for everyone. I struggled with it, though I think I might have fallen in love with it at a different time and if reading at a different pace. The first half especially reads more as a memoir than a novel, and as the book spirals inward upon references and then pulls back into memoir mode, it often feels like the language overtakes meaning--to the extent that I do suspect this might have been a more powerful read if tightened up and shortened, or if expanded to offer a fuller story (that, admittedly, might have taken it somewhat out of memoir mode). In the end, I can appreciate much of the language here, and I wouldn't mind trying Kiernan again, but I'm still not really sure how I feel about this book. I doubt I'll have the patience to revisit it, though I suspect this is one of those books that will make its deepest impression if sat with and reread.

>102 whitewavedarling: I remember trying to read this shortly after I read The Red Tree and I ended up putting it down because I just found them too similar to read so closely together. However, TRT is more of a straightforward horror story, so if you feel like picking up another book by her, you might try that one.

>103 sturlington:, Thanks! I might do that--I've heard good things about The Red Tree from others, as well. I think I need a break first, but I'll work up to it!

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to work on a review of Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo--I absolutely adored it, to where I kind of wish everyone would read it, and those are always hard reviews to write. It's coming, though!

41. Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Mandelo's Summer Sons has such a swampy angst to it, and I adored everything about it. In a lot of ways, the book reads like a queer lovechild of Poppy Z. Brite and Flanner O'Connor, with some flavoring that feels more like it came from Shirley Jackson. Haunting and smart, the author's prose makes for characters who aren't just believable--as much as they're sometimes infuriating--but nuanced and carefully drawn in such a way as to make the book ever more powerful. And that's what so much of this book comes down to...powerful storytelling. Mandelo has managed to build a story which is so beautifully written, and so powerful, that I only allowed myself to sink into it when I had time without any distraction, just to devote to reading and living in this book. Summer Sons has made me a fan of Mandelo for life, and I know I'll be re-reading this one, as well.

I don't want to give anything about this horror novel away. I just want you to read it.

>105 whitewavedarling: That's definitely going on the wishlist!

>106 sturlington:, I'm glad! It is fantastic. The only problem is that it's the author's debut, so I can't immediately go off to find more books by them!

I'll probably have to make a new thread at the end of this month, but I'm holding out for now... meanwhile, though, with May behind me, it's time to talk about June!

Right now, I'm midway through two novels, both of which I'm really enjoying: Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor and Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz.

Also on deck for June:
Cyclonopedia by Reza Negarestani (HOWL Read #1)
Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (HOWL Read #2)
The Story of B by Daniel Quinn (AlphaKit 'Q')
Devolution by Max Brooks (ScaredyKit)
The Yanti by Christopher Pike (SFFKit)
and Cypress House by Michael Koryta (Favorite Author & AlphaKit 'C')

We'll see how it goes....

42. Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz

Oz's writing always manages to suck me in, and this book was no different. The way he made 'gossip' and the larger identity of the kibbutz community characters in and of themselves was fascinating, right from the beginning. As the book went on, I did find it more difficult to stay engaged with the characters, compared to Oz's other works--something about the larger focus here took away some of the intimacy I normally so love in his novels. But as a departure from that, this was a fantastic story to delve into, and written masterfully.

I'd absolutely recommend it, though for readers new to Oz's writing, I'd probably suggest they start with some of his other novels rather than this one.

43. No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

There's an element of power to this book that seeps onto the page almost from the first few paragraphs--a sort of build-up of tension and nearly overpowering reality that bridges fantasy and realism in a gorgeous display of craftsmanship. In so many moments, I had no idea where the book or story could be heading, but there was no question of putting it down or feeling dismayed by the various threads weaving in and out upon one another; that's the sort of careful power this book wields over readers.

Turnbull is, without question, a fantastic storyteller, and I know I'll be recommending this book over and over again; I'm already a lifelong fan after reading this one. My one caution to readers: Aim to read quickly, immersing yourselves in the story. There are many POV characters here, and the story is better for it, but I can easily imagine readers getting confused if they put the book down for a week or two in between reading sessions, and I'm glad I picked it up at a point when I could sit down and sink into it via three long sittings vs shorter bursts.

Absolutely recommended.

44. Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor

Naylor's writing has such gorgeous life to it, and this book is no different. A tapestry of characters and worlds all brought together into one, the book's claim to being "nothing less than a blues tapestry of America" is heartbreakingly true, and showcases Naylor at her best. This is a difficult one to talk about without giving away the novel's secrets, but in a blend of short stories, character sketches, and novel-form told through a multitude of voices, it is utterly worth reading and rereading, an experience all its own.

Absolutely recommended.

45. Devolution by Max Brooks

The early chapters of this one were a slog for me, just because of the main character's voice, which seemed fairly forced when dealing with casual material/subjects early on. Once I got out of that stage, though, things started picking up and the voice felt more natural. In the end, this wasn't a stand-out read for me--and it was fairly predictable, more so than I might have hoped--but it was a fast, entertaining journey that got better as it moved, even if the ending was a little rushed.

Recommended for folks interested in a 'bigfoot novel', at least.

46. The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan

With gorgeous illustrations bringing the story to life even beyond the wonderful words on the page, The Land of Roar is the most engrossing and fun middle-grade book I've read in ages. McLachlan's characters and world have such a reality and quirkiness to them that the book demands a reader keep going, with the illustrations bringing on just the right sort of emphasis and humor. I just preordered the sequels, and I can't wait for them to arrive.

I'd absolutely recommend this to any middle grade readers, especially if they adore fantasy.

Officially DNFing Cyclonopedia. I didn't get past the halfway point or past page 100, so I'm not counting it in my year's list, but here are my thoughts:

I fear I had to DNF this about a third through. I was attempting it with my book group, but generally feeling like I was reading overly jargony academic-speak in a niche discipline I had zero familiarity with. A few moments of language were lovely, but in terms of meaning, this feels more like an experiment than a complete work of fiction to me, and I just don't have the energy to try to parse my way through it. I may try again some time, but for now, I'm calling it a DNF.

47. The Cypress House by Michael Koryta

Michael Koryta hasn't disappointed me yet, and although this was my first foray into his supernaturally flavored work, that still holds true. A blend of historical horror, suspense, and even somewhat western-y, The Cypress House isn't remotely what I expected, but by the end, I was hooked.

First, I should mention the reasons I was surprised, because the book's back cover set me up for some expectations that ended up making the read not quite what it should have been. If I'd known more about the book (and by 'more' I mean fairly basic elements), I might have read it at a different time, but I probably would have enjoyed it more. First is timing and the historical element. From the back cover of my paperback copy, there's no way to know that the book--in its entirety--is set in the 1930s. We're not talking a few flashbacks, but the whole story, and that timing definitely flavors the story. I also picked up the book in this moment partly because I was in the mood to read a very 'Florida' book, and the idea of a thriller set against the background of a hurricane sounded ideal for the moment. Based on the back cover copy, I expected a hurricane to play a fairly large role in the story and for a lot of the story to be set against the hurricane. While it certainly affects the story, however, it's relatively fast in the timespan of the novel, and not at all what I was expecting.

As a result of the mismatched expectations I had--I really have to be in the mood for historical work, but wasn't, and I'd gone looking for a story set against a storm that was already over--I got taken out of the book pretty early, feeling some disappointment with elements that had absolutely nothing to do with the masterful story, Koryta's gorgeous writing, and the book as it is.

Because the book itself is fantastic. With the flavoring of old movies like Key Largo and fascinating, flawed characters, along with a twisting story that repeatedly surprised me, I had a hard time putting the book down at all once I reached the halfway point. I couldn't sit down with it and not read 70-80 pages at a stretch, even when time wasn't exactly something I had to spare. I loved the nuance of the supernatural element and how carefully Koryta built it into the story, as well, and I'm already anxious to pick up one of the other works he's written in this vein.

I don't think this ranks higher for me among his novels than the more recent ones I've read, but I did adore it. If you're a fan of suspense and historical fiction both, you'll absolutely want to pick this one up (even if you normally don't read the supernatural, I'd say).

48. Blindsight by Peter Watts

This was a tough read, and although personal matters definitely interfered with my concentration, I think it would have been tough regardless. I don't read much hard sci-fi, and there were a lot of points (especially early on) where I wished the author were giving readers just a little bit more help putting the pieces together and offering connections. The read became more engaging as I got into the second part of the book and characters became a bit more familiar, to the point that I ended up reading the second half of the book basically in one sitting as the momentum picked up more and more.

This is one of those rare books I may try to read again someday, but I doubt I'll go on to the sequel. Some of Watts' writing is so fantastic that it alone is worth the ride here, and there were scenes/discussions/themes that truly drew me in, but on the whole, I'm left with more of a general feeling for the novel than a true understanding of what I just read, and reading the book was a bit more work than pleasure.

49. Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

Flowers for the Sea is not an easy read--the story itself, the prose, and the progression all make for a journey that a reader must embrace and travel through in a fashion that (at least for this reader) might well involve working for meaning as well as cringing away from some of those very same meanings. And yet, this is a gorgeous book worth appreciating in all its facets, and I'm glad to have read it, just as I'll be glad to pick up anything else Rocklyn writes.

The power of this tale is so timely, the immediacy of the content is almost crushing if you allow yourself to think about it. In many ways, I felt "seen" by this book in a way that I've rarely, if ever, experienced when the topic of pregnancy comes up, and the pure focus Rocklyn brings to bear on the protagonist's situation here is as artful as it is terrifying from moment to moment. If this book had been a novel, I'm actually not sure I could have made it through the tale, but as a novella, the length and focus on topic are just enough to be painful without being too much. I will say that there's some backstory and drama which clutters up the story a bit more than I think might have been necessary, but then again, since it also gives some breadth to the story and gives the reader a break from the immediacy of the present moment we're focused on, I can see it was included.

All told, this is a fantastic book, and a short, powerful read with gorgeous prose. It won't be for everyone--I'm still not sure whether I enjoyed it so much as appreciated it, myself--but at the same time, I can't wait to pick up Rocklyn's next book.

50. The Yanti by Christopher Pike

I think I kept going with this series mostly because I've so loved Pike's horror, and love fantasy in general. Unfortunately, this finale of the "trilogy" (more on these quotation marks later) goes downhill from the earlier books, and when/if the series continues, I don't see myself continuing with it. The characters and concept of the series are enjoyable, but unfortunately, the execution falls flat--and I hate saying that, given how much I adore Pike's other work.

The first issue is a lack of editing; simply put, the book is overwritten/wordy, and would probably be quite a bit stronger if the author or an editor had cut loosely 50 pages of wordiness and needless backstory, if not more. The beginning is so incredibly weighted down with backstory (as are some parts after it), that it feels like the writer/editor expected everyone would have completely forgotten what happened in earlier books. There's no nuance to how the backstory is presented, either. If they really did feel that such a refresher was needed, I would have loved to see them offer one of those 'what happened before/up to this point' early sections/prologues that some fantasy books do, to great effect.

The second issue is a lack of centering...technically, the book is YA Fantasy, but even though the concept fits YA Fantasy, it's more of an Adult genre fantasy than not, especially once the main character (a teenager) begins acting more and more like an adult, and less and less like a teenager. There are reasons why, and I won't go into them for fear of spoilers, but the effect is that the book feels torn between YA and Adult, and it simply doesn't work. Especially in this book, when we stay with the MC for the first half and then start bouncing around between POVs...to be honest, it feels as if the book is just sloppy/unedited.

I'd love to have more good to say about this work, but the truth is that it was a slog to get through, and I don't think I would have picked it up at all (since I felt only lukewarm about the series' beginning books) if not for Pike's name and feeling like he'd present a grand finale. Story-wise, I think it was on one hand. On the other hand...the reader should know that this isn't a proper trilogy.

The book finishes up with a promise of another book/continuation in the series to follow the main character further in her adventure (which is necessary--the conclusion gave us a conclusion to plot, but no resolution to character struggle)...but as of now, 14 years after the publication of The Yanti, that fourth work has still not been published.

I'd recommend Christopher Pike's horror. I would not recommend this series.

51. The Story of B by Daniel Quinn

I truly don't know why/how I didn't come across these books in high school--I wish I had. It's a series (so far) that I'd say deserves to have been widely read, and yet the folks I come across who've read these books seem to be few and far between. And even though those I speak to about them rave about them...the books simply aren't well-known.

I get it. They're not plot-heavy and full of blockbuster action. But the intelligent and careful presentation of character and ideas, the way they lay out what it seems clear we should have been taught in schools (but weren't) in a landscape of fiction...well, exciting or not, it feels rather they like they ought to be required reading, to be quite honest. I wish they were, and maybe we'd live in a better world.

This is the second book in the series, beginning with Ishmael, and I look forward to picking up the third.

If you've not yet read Ishmael, I hope you will.

>118 whitewavedarling: Too bad it wasn't better, but those seem like good reasons to skip it even though I love Pike's Spooksville series.

Catching up on Reviews today...

52. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

I've been meaning to read this one for a while, and somehow it just kept sliding down my TBR. Now that I've finally gotten around to it, though, I have to admit I found it pretty underwhelming.

The story is solid, and Maberry is clearly a master at writing action/fight scenes. And yet, the book still didn't work for me--on multiple levels. The biggest problem (for me) was the characters...or, rather, the lack of character. The characters here are little more than stereotypes, with the protagonist Joe Ledger being the biggest offender. Plenty of books survive fantastically with tough-guy protagonists of this make-up, whether you're looking at books by Lee Child or James Rollins or plenty of other authors who I really enjoy, but tough guys still have to be written as being real. As being more than stereotypes so that a reader can believe in them. In this book, Joe Ledger felt more like a video game protagonist than a character I could engage with, partly because we never saw any change or growth or development to him. I could see the author seeming to hint at it, or at least trying to, in a few moments, but it was too little too late, and never really believable because such development or individuality was given little more than lip service.

The characters who come closest to overcoming their base formula are actually the terrorists whose POVs make occasional appearances, though I still wouldn't go so far as to say that they've got real depth or have the development needed to bring emotion into the book.

Because, truly, it's emotion that's missing. I love a good action-thriller or action-horror novel, but especially when a story's end is predictable (and let's face it, most books in this genre have predictable ends, as does this one), it takes personal stakes and sympathetic, well-developed characters to make a reader engage with a story. Without well-developed characters, we at least need scenes that have enough nuance to carry emotion and build in personal stakes to engage readers. Here, I didn't come close to getting that. When main characters were in danger, I was just reading and waiting for the fight to end--Maberry never gave me reason to care who survived or how, and the fight scenes went on long enough that they overtook the book entirely. So, on top of lacking emotion, the narrative and plot were fairly one note, dashing from fight to fight. Meanwhile, when the author did attempt to bring in emotion, it ended up coming off as heavy-handed and or preachy simply because the characters were too stereotypical, and too flat, to feel real or engaging.

With a plot that had only the barest of twists, and few real-feeling characters, something more than strong fight scenes was needed to carry it through into being a successful read for me, and that just didn't happen.

There were moments of this book which I enjoyed, and I may actually recommend it for readers/writers who want examples of some great, clear, detailed fight scenes. But in terms of an emotionally engaging read that carried impact and kept me wanting to turn pages, this one fell flat for me, and I suspect I would have gotten more out of watching a movie even though this genre is right up my alley. I'm afraid I don't see myself picking up another Maberry book.

53. The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer

I go into Brad Meltzer books with high expectations, and I think that was part of my problem here. Was it good? Absolutely. The Escape Artist is a fast, twisty read with great characters, a fast-moving plot, and perfect pacing. It's a fantastic thriller. ... ... ... And yet. The truth is that it didn't (for me) live up to the other books I've read from Meltzer. Something about the way it moved between the two main characters, and the disjointedness in connection there, just didn't keep me as invested as I have been in his other works. I was entertained, definitely, but something about the structure of the book and the relationship of the characters left me feeling like I wanted more of an emotional impact and connection that was always just barely out of reach. I suspect I would have enjoyed the book more if it had focused entirely on either of the main characters here, though I certainly understand why that would have been a different book. As is, I think readers who come to this work for a twisty suspense read will enjoy it, but I'm not sure if long-time Meltzer fans will be so thrilled as others.

54. Glimmerglass Girl by Holly Lyn Walrath

In her opening remarks, Walrath calls her chapbook Glimmerglass Girl "a fantastical account of womanhood", noting its personal nature in an ultra-brief introduction that already makes her nuanced language shine. From that short paragraph on, it is virtually impossible to put this gorgeous chapbook down.

From the opening of a butterfly -- "...grasp the thin chitin / of her butterfly wings / like / holding onto the surface of water..." -- through looking glasses and hearts and memories of Dr. Peppers and jello shots, this little collection is a reminder of just how real speculative poetry can become when given a moment to resonate, and an argument that a short chapbook of poems can be just so powerful a work of art as any painting or novel.

A snippet from one of my favorites in the collection, "Premise of the Heart":

"...my heart wants for pain. I suspect
it may never trust me again, expecting me to
squander its beauty, pin it up in weird places like a
glittering beetle--green-winged and blind to taste
its copper backbone like a mouthful of nails--
heartless."

I adored this chapbook, and I look forward to recommending it to others and re-reading it. The one quick caveat I'll give is that some of the images are played over the text in a way that makes a handful of the poems difficult to read, so I do wish formatting had been given a bit more thought and attention, but that's certainly on the press and not the author. I'll pick up any further collection or book that Holly Lyn Walrath writes.

Absolutely recommended.

55. Light Years from Home by Mike Chen

Because I so loved Chen's We Could Be Heroes, I picked up this latest novel even though, from the blurb, I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea. And yet, I LOVED it. Even when I could objectively look at it and observe that the themes in another writer's hands would have sent me running, I simply couldn't stop turning the pages. And because of that, Chen's made me a fan of his work for life.

Light Years From Home is a genre blend that spirals from a base of messy sibling dynamics and adulthood, but against a science fiction background that controls forward momentum. Somehow, this meshing of genres not only defies categorization, but also makes for a book that feels all the more real as a result. Chen perfectly balances reality against the speculative, and hard truths against comedy, with wonderfully flawed characters and exceptional nuance.

I'm quite sure that this won't be every reader's cup of tea--someone who only loves sci-fi would probably hate it, just as a person who only reads women's fiction would likely love it without the sci-fi element and not give it a chance in its current form. But for readers like me who want a little bit of everything thrown into a good story, this is very simply a fantastic read.

Absolutely, I recommend it.

56. If Only A Heart by Caleb Stephens

I had the thrill of reading the stories in this collection early, but I suspect some of the horror stories here will remain long-time favorites going forward. Stephens' talent for crafting powerful, nuanced horror shines through in every story here, with powerful and gorgeously written imagery bringing the horror as well as the humanity in each tale to full life. I'm rarely surprised when reading horror shorts, but with this collection, even some of the shorter stories shocked me with their turns. But in the good way--where, looking back as a reader, you're surprised you didn't see the reveal coming even as you find that you're still shocked. In other words, Stephens earns the reveals and twists in each story, and he does so with an attention to detail that cannot be understated. I'm a sucker for gorgeous prose and images done right, and that's what broadcasts from the page with every story here.

Worth noting also is the fact that although the collection holds together thematically, the themes and the stories never get old or repetitive. Like a great music album, the collection uses each piece to tweak a slightly different note on what's being explored, in an ever more unique fashion, and the collection is that much stronger for it.

If you're a lover of horror stories, this is a collection to pick up, and an author to watch.

Absolutely recommended.

57. Howls from the Dark Ages: An Anthology of Medieval Horror edited by P.L. McMillan

Anthologies are often hit or miss for me. So often, I find the themes or short stories become repetitive--fast--or showcase only a few standouts among a host of stories that clearly don't live up to the standards set by those few among the many. As a result, I'm often reluctant to pick them up, and that might have been especially true here, where I knew a number of the authors and feared what I'd say if I didn't at least enjoy the collection as a whole. And yet...

I loved it. In fact, page for page, this is probably the best horror anthology--no, the best short story anthology, if not anthology period--that I've ever come across. (This is fudging things only slightly because there is one gorgeous poem in the collection.) On top of being full of original stories that carry the reader back to the middle ages to experience a wide brand of horrors, the writing in the anthology is unquestionably impressive. From story to story, page to page and image to image and character to character, the talent here shines forth from every story, whether coming from a well-known name or one with only a few publications on their resume.

Knowing how heavy such a setting as the dark ages can become, I wondered if the book would become too heavy, or too one-note. Simply put, I was wrong. There's such variety in this anthology that I feel sure there's something for everyone, and although I've got my favorites (because of course I do), I feel confident in believing that every story/poem here is deserving of being some reader's favorite, and I'm not sure when I've been able to say that for any anthology I've come across. There's also no doubt that this is a collection of horror--you won't find any quiet, shifty stories that don't quite fit the darkness you're hoping for. In fact, some may well leave you without an appetite or wondering if you'll ever sleep again.

But isn't that the lovely thing about horror collections? So, drink some coffee or some whiskey to keep you awake, and pull open this collection. Be ready to mark down some new horror names you'll want to follow, as well.

Absolutely recommended.

58. Love for Slaughter by Sara Tantlinger

I've got some admittedly mixed feelings about this collection. On one hand, there are some gorgeous dark poems that made me glad to have picked up the collection, and when I first started reading the collection, I couldn't put it down, I enjoyed the work so much. As the collection kept unfolding, however, a few things became clear. First, there are definitely some poems here which don't hold their own weight, and while you could argue they belong in the collection thematically, it also doesn't feel as if they contribute anything not already offered by plenty of other poems in the collection, so losing those more dead-weight poems would have made for a stronger collection. Second, this is such a tightly themed collection, the images and ideas get repetitive, and I fear there's no other way to say it. If this had been a chapbook-length collection featuring perhaps a third of the poems here, chosen from among the best, I'd be in love with this work and shouting its praise to anyone who'd listen. As is, though...even though I could recognize the power in some of the images and language when it came to poems from around the mid-point on, a lot of the power was lost because they were striking the exact same notes and meanings as earlier poems.

I'm not sure I've ever appreciated poems by an author in a way that left me not so keen to check out their future full collections, but more interested in seeing what they'd have pop up in batches of 1-3 poems in journals, but that's how I feel here. I wish this collection had been pared down so that the whole would have had more impact, without the repetition that does get monotonous, or that some of these poems had been changed out for others which might have offered more breadth to the collection.

There are some gems here, but in terms of the collection as a whole, things felt a bit repetitive and unfinished, with a lot of the weaker poems being so simple and repetitive in meaning that they might as well have been a stanza taken from others.

59. Howls from Hell: A Horror Anthology

The HOWL Society's first anthology is, without exaggeration, the best unthemed anthology I've yet read, and among the top horror anthologies I've read right alongside the HOWL Society's more recent anthology, Howls from the Dark Ages. Howls from Hell is itself a carnival ride of talented new horror voices, with stories that are so unique and memorable that each one reads as a world in and of itself.

But let me back up. To hear about HOWL Society and its anthologies, one might not expect much--because, really, it sounds too fantastical the way all this came together. A bunch of horror lovers met on Reddit, and spearheaded by a few, began a horror book club together on discord. Among the horror readers and lovers were a number of talented, mostly unknown writers, and as the book club quickly grew into being the most active online horror book club, those writers connected and began learning from each other just as quickly. And when the talent in the circle became clear, the idea of an anthology was born. (Now, they're working on anthology #3...)

From hearing all that, you might expect the anthologies to be somewhat slapshod or unprofessional, but even this first anthology is anything but. The stories are powerful, smart stories that are well-written and polished. The writing is itself gripping and impactful, from story to story. And what's more, the stories are fresh--I was never once tempted to put down the anthology in favor of something else rather than continuing right on to the next story. And as with the other HOWL anthology, I have my favorites, but most of these stories (if not all of them) are strong enough for me to feel like some reader out there will list them as a favorite.

If you're a horror lover, and especially if you care for horror short stories, you should be picking up the HOWL anthologies as soon as they come out. Just like the follow-up, this first anthology was a fantastic read.

Absolutely recommended.

60. Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote

Infidel takes full advantage of graphic novel form to deliver a horror story that, put simply, could not be told with nearly so much impact in a novel. The pervasiveness of hate leak in at every edge of the text, illustrating the terror and stress of living with xenophobia, racism, and islamophobia--and in a way that displays just how unthinking and casual such hatred can be for those displaying it. And all of that terror is before the supernatural comes into play.

This isn't an easy book to read, and it shouldn't be. It is, however, powerful and clever, with gorgeous art, smart turns and twists, and even some jump scares, believe it or not. It's shot to the top of my favorites list when it comes to graphic novels, and if you haven't already looked it up, I hope you well.

Absolutely recommended.

With July books finished, it's time to look forward to August!

Currently, I'm reading: Lies My Memory Told Me by Sacha Wunsch, The Summer of Black Widows by Sherman Alexie, and The Quick by Lauren Owen.

Those first two may actually be finished by August, but the last one will travel into the month with me. This month, I'm also planning on reading:

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill
The Hacienda by Isabel Canas
The Memory Thief by Bryce Moore
Midnight Doorways by Usman T. Malik
and Flesh by Kylie Scott

A number of these are short, which means I'm sure there'll be some additional ones thrown in.

Also, Lies My Memory Told Me was supposed to be my randomcat book for August...with it looking like I'll finish it before August starts, that likely means I'll be picking up another book to fill its spot.

61. The Summer of Black Widows by Sherman Alexie

The poems here are varied and powerful, with the ones carrying the most impact (for me) being the ones that either marry the sacred and the profane/contemporary, or else bring Alexie's personal history to bear on the world around him. The sequences in the first half of the book are especially striking, moving from image to image with a sort of tragic momentum that can't be ignored. For me, many of the last poems in the collection felt less successful and inspired than the poems that came in the first two thirds of the collection, but if so, that's only because the incredibly high standards that early poems in the collection set.

On the whole, I'd recommend this collection, and there are certainly poems here which I'll revisit in the future.

62. Lies My Memory Told Me by Sacha Wunsch

Once I got loosely a third of the way into this book, I simply couldn't put it down. Something about the theme of memory and lived experiences alongside the characters Wunsch built here kept me turning pages even when my eyes were too tired to go on and the clock kept ticking later. There's a nuance to the mix of genres here that isn't often seen in young adult work, and it made the story all the more powerful, as well. Whether this might be called a dystopian or a near-future sci-fi or a mystery, it's a clever, careful story of identity and memory, and I ended up adoring it.

I do wish the ending had gone slower, and the beginning a bit faster--I admit--but at the same time, that pacing allows a reader to be caught off-guard in so many wonderful ways, there's an art even to those choices in pacing that I can understand.

On the whole, I look forward to reading more of Wunsch's work. Recommended.

>126 whitewavedarling: >128 whitewavedarling: I'll see if my library has these. I'm not a reddit user, but I do like the Full Body Chills podcast, which seems to have come out of reddit too.

>133 mstrust: I'm not a reddit user, either--honestly, every time I've ended up there, the format and whole thing has just given me a headache lol. But this society coming out of it is definitely a good thing. If nothing else, I hope you can request these collections through your library! I know a couple of other folks who've gotten their libraries to order them :)

And, as I catch up on books read while traveling, another memory book to start things off...

63. The Memory Thief by Bryce Moore

I'm a sucker for speculative stories that feature concepts related to memory, and this book didn't disappoint. Moore's storytelling and worldbuilding here were fun, fast-paced, and so shot through with moments of horror and reality that I couldn't help being addicted to the story nearly from start to finish.

There are very adult themes and concerns here, though, and in a lot of ways, the story choices left me somewhat unsurprised that I've barely heard or seen anything about this book, much as I enjoyed it. It was stuck in some land between middle grade and adult in a lot of ways (no, I'm not saying it was YA at all, but that it employed a somewhat adult mindset and story told through a MG lens), and I could see it being too much for some middle schoolers, while leaving others unengaged. That said, the magic and mystery here were fantastic.

Perhaps the one flaw was that only the main character and the villains felt as fleshed out as I really wanted the characters to be. That said, there is an argument to be made that the parents, based on the very nature of the story, were necessarily made flat when they were on the page (I can't explain this without spoiling the story, I fear, but I think you'll see what I mean if you read the book). That being the case, this review is tougher to write than some would be, but I do think the proof is in my end feelings: I'd pick up another MG by Bryce Moore in a heartbeat.

Recommended.

64. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Although I found Mandel's Station Eleven underwhelming in terms of story, I enjoyed her prose enough that I was more than willing to give her another shot--particularly when I read the blurb for this one and it sounded far more up my alley. Unfortunately, the end result is that I now believe I likely won't pick up another book by this author in the future, as this story was even more underwhelming, albeit told in often gorgeous prose.

As best I can tell, Mandel must be getting such attention both because of her prose and because she's bringing something of an MFA sensibility to SFF genre tropes--in this case, time travel. And while I guess I can appreciate that, I read widely enough in both literary fiction and SFF that just adding a MFA sensibility to well-worn tropes isn't enough for me to be satisfied with a story. That's especially the case when it comes to a book like this, where the structure itself is so off-putting as to make engagement with particular characters and storylines more difficult than necessary. Perhaps I'd have been more impressed if I hadn't already seen similar structures employed elsewhere, but since the structure itself wasn't all that fresh, I instead found it predictable and underwhelming.

All told, I have to say that the book is more clever than enjoyable, and while the second half read far more smoothly than the first half, once it finally found its footing and stopped playing games with the reader, I simply didn't enjoy it, and was more bored than anything. No matter how much a blurb appeals to me, I don't see myself picking up another work by this author in the future.

65. The Bayou by Arden Powell

This was a fast, fun horror novel that in many ways restored my faith in the idea that dual timelines can really work in a horror novel without destroying the pacing. Too many times lately, I've gotten immersed in horror novels with dual timelines that left me feeling more annoyed with the structure than not, but here the strategy worked perfectly. And what's more, Powell blends tropes of horror and even romance so seamlessly together in a manner that I find difficult to describe. At some moments campy and at others nothing short than 'literary', the story maneuvers past reader expectations and offers up so many moments and sentences that are truly striking, it's very simply a fun, surprising read.

On one hand, I wish it had been longer, but on the other, it was pretty much perfect. Maybe I wished sometimes for a little more depth, and really did want something to sink into for a longer period, but at closer to novella length, it worked pretty darn well.

Recommended.

66. In Between Dreams by Iman Verjee

This is a tough book to review, and in all honesty, I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked it up. Because while the inside cover-copy hints at what the book actually contains, it doesn't offer up the secret clearly enough that a reader will clearly get the warning. And, full disclosure, I'm not sure how to write this review without mostly giving away that secret, but it's worth noting that reading the book gives away the same secret within a chapter or so pretty clearly. I can only suspect they didn't put it more clearly in the blurb because they knew how many readers it would scare off if offered bluntly.

BUT...to not offer it does a disservice to readers. Because, gorgeous as the writing is, the topic this book confronts is difficult, and although Verjee's treatment of the story and characters is nuanced, smart, and beautifully accomplished, that doesn't change the facts that a content/trigger warning should absolutely have been placed in the book if they weren't going to make the blurb far more clear.

So, to be clear: what lies at the center of this book is akin to what you find in Lolita, but darker and built of a deeper, more intimate betrayal. It is also more explicit in terms of emotion and background, while being less explicit in terms of lust. Either way, however, this book isn't an easy read.

That said...Verjee's writing is utterly gorgeous, and the psychology is so carefully presented that even as I was disgusted by elements of the characters and story, I simply couldn't stop reading. I didn't necessarily *want* to keep reading, but I couldn't put the book down. The story has an inertia that builds more and more with each chapter if not each page, and the subtlety to the characters and various moments in the story bring it to life in a way that is not just utterly realistic and terrifying, but insidious--you realize exactly how what happens does happen, and how easily, which makes it all the more terrifying. You also understand why society's checks and balances don't stop it from happening, and just how the secret is kept. There's a terror to that, and to slowly the secrets unfold and build in the story, which makes it far more difficult to read even as it becomes easier to accept (which is, itself, part of the cumulative effect and also part of the horror).

It's difficult to read this book, and it's difficult to write about this book. I'm not surprised there are so few reviews. But if you love gorgeous writing, painfully realistic stories, and can deal with the subject matter, it is a book worth reading.

Recommended.

67. Flesh by Kylie Scott

I'm incredibly picky when it comes to romance of any sub-genre, but as a sometimes-lover of romance and an always-lover of horror, I had high hopes for this one. And, really, it didn't disappoint. Flesh is definitely heavier on romance than post-apocalypse/horror, but I think Scott did a fantastic job with balancing everything and examining how romance might play out differently in a post-apoc world. In fact, that might be my favorite thing about this book--it doesn't flinch away from the fact that a changed world would necessarily change the way people treat romance/romantic relationships, and I have endless respect for that. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen it confronted so directly, with this level of nuance, in the past. Sure, some things are simplified because in the end this is a stand-alone romance book that requires a happy ending, but for what it is, the book works beautifully, and Kylie Scott's brand of romance is just as well-written and steamy as ever.

If heated romance happening in a world where zombies are on the attack in a post-apoc world all sounds like you're thing, I'd absolutely recommend this one.

68. The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

Much as I looked forward to this book, I can't say I enjoyed it. Based on plot/description, it should have been just up my alley, but the overwrought style and odd pacing more often left me alternating between being frustrated and bored. In general, it seemed as if the author slowed down to focus on overdoing description when it just wasn't needed--for instance, giving us a paragraph of telling us how nervous a character was when we could already tell from her actions--and then speeding through actual action and/or creepiness that would have sucked me in. Particularly when the two main characters were together, the focus on building up and following through on the romantic element of the text felt incredibly awkward, whereas I would have loved more focus on the more haunting/horror-related aspects of the plot.

Perhaps it's just the style of the book that wasn't for me, but it felt so uneven, I simply couldn't enjoy it. I even sometimes found myself wishing that we had the same story told from a different character's POV, I found the main characters so unsympathetic, and their overwrought emotions so tiresome (probably because we were told so much about them, even when they were already shown). But then, a different character's POV would have made for a different book.

I'm not sure if I'd try another work by the author. I suspect I'd be more inclined to try any publication of short fiction since there were lovely moments in terms of language and I do think I could have loved the story, but the characters and the drawn-out nature of the emotions/telling just killed it for me.

Catching up on reviews...

69. A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

Almost from the moment I began reading, I had trouble putting this one down. Something about Hamill's style and storytelling drew me in deeper and deeper, with even the more mundane passages feeling like they held a real tension. As the book built towards it's conclusion and everything began coming together, I couldn't help wishing that Hamill had dozens of books I could rush out to buy immediately, and I can't wait to experience more of his storytelling. I'd absolutely recommend this one--it had all of the speculative darkness I could ask for, gorgeous writing, and enough turns to keep me guessing, as well as an ending with real heft.

I loved it.

>141 whitewavedarling: Glad you liked that one. It was a nice discovery for me too. Hard to believe it's a first novel.

>142 sturlington: I felt the same! He's got another on the way from Pantheon Books, though! Scheduled for early 2023, I think?

>143 whitewavedarling: Oh, great, something to look forward to!

I'm so behind on reviews, but working to catch up...

70. Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

Be warned: This is a dark book. And I love dark books...but there's a reality to the horror experienced by the children in this book which goes somewhat beyond the page, and there were times when reading it simply became too much for me. As a child, I'm honestly not sure whether I would have loved the book or felt tortured by it. As an adult reading it, the gravity of how traumatic these experiences would be for a child--and the way even the fantastical horrors could be seen as translating into real life trauma--added an extra layer of horror to the story, which was already fairly dark.

But, all that said, Hardinge is an extraordinary writer. Her ability to bring life to historical characters and settings for middle grade readers of adventurous horror is unmatched as far as I'm concerned, and although I had to take my time in reading this book, I'm so glad I did. It's difficult to talk about without giving away some of the power of the book, but if you like creepy reads about children and want a dark read, I'd absolutely recommend it.

71. Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

I've got fairly mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it was a fun, fast read, and the plot pulled me along throughout. The middle of the book was fantastically creepy, and I loved every page. On the other hand...I wish there'd been more character development and that the voices of the different characters hadn't felt so interchangeable. This partly because there were so many (maybe more than the book needed), and partly because the plot moved so fast and they were so indistinct from each other in many ways. I also didn't particularly care about them as a result of the lack of character development, and normally that's the sort of thing that will make me lose interest in a book completely. Here, though, that didn't happen because the plot was so compelling.

The end did lessen the experience of the book for me, though. It's tough to talk about without giving it away, but I saw (one of) the major twist(s) coming, and the end in general was incredibly rushed. I also didn't like the way the author extended it in a way that made it feel like she was just aiming to drag new readers into her next book instead of just focusing on this one, which was essentially a stand-alone. So...I don't know. Mixed feelings, as I said.

72. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

In the first part of this book, I simply couldn't put it down. The creepiness of it and the gorgeous writing had me sucked in completely. Then, when Part 2 started near the halfway mark of the book, the turn the book took just didn't keep me engaged like the earlier part had. The writing was still fantastic, the story still interesting, but there was enough of a let-down in tension and creepiness that it absolutely changed the read for me. Toward the end, some of the feelings from the beginning were coming back, but in the end, I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. I am anxious to read something else by the author, though, so that alone says something.

73. The Quick by Lauren Owen

If Anne Rice had gone back in time to collaborate on a novel with William Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair, I think the result might have turned out something like this. The lush writing and creepy turns of the novel fascinated me from the beginning, and Owen's nuance with characterization, setting, and hints that offered just enough foreshadowing without going too far...all of it came together for me beautifully. It wasn't quite the book I expected (somehow), but it was kind of a wonderful journey. I will say that the pacing occasionally threw me off, but all told, I rather adored this strange historical horror novel, and I look forward to more of Owen's work.

74. Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik

After hearing the author speak at StokerCon this year, I couldn't resist ordering his collection. And although you'll likely have to go to the trouble of ordering it directly from the author's own website, I hope you will...because this collection is one of the best single-author collections of speculative fiction (horror or otherwise) that I've ever read. Many of the stories felt Le Guin-esque, and I adored the fact that plenty of them were long enough to really fall into and live with for a while. My favorite was actually one of the longer stories in the collection--"Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung"--but every one of these stories sucked me in, and it's rare for me to be able to say that.

Malik's talent for creating whole worlds in only a few characters and pages is incredible, and the heartbreak involved in some of these monstrous tales is nothing short of breathtaking. I'll read anything he writes from here on out.

Absolutely recommended.

75. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro's writing is filled with such nuance in the way it reflects personality and history, books like this one come to life with their own odd echo of the past. In many ways, reading this one reminded me of first encountering his Remains of the Day, though I think I appreciated this more after having read the other. Ishiguro's shifts in structure and memory within this one are ever more careful and aware as the book goes on, and although I cannot say I enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed Ishiguro's other works, I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

We've had a rough couple weeks, having had to evacuate for Hurricane Ian. Our house survived okay (our fence is gone, and there's some damage to our roof and lanai, but we were luckier than so many), but we just got power back Friday, and internet only came back yesterday, so there's some catch-up to do in terms of reviews...

76. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

I'm still not sure how to feel about this series. On one hand, I like the story and there's a cleverness to the delivery. On the other hand, this novella feels a bit more like an installment in a television series than a fully built story, and I remember feeling the same about the first. Neither has left me as satisfied as a full novel, or even as fully satisfied as I'd normally expect from a novella. It's more day-in-the-life sci-fi written with a compelling manner than complete in terms of plot/story, and I can't quite justify the cost of the books (hardback???) for that. I've got the third book, having bought the first three together when they were on sale and I'd kept hearing so many good things about them, but I don't see myself continuing beyond that point in the series unless book 3 is something really special compared to the first two.

It was okay. If they were quite a bit cheaper and a little bit shorter, or the same price and longer/more complete, I might well feel differently, but as is, I've just got mixed reactions that leave me feeling like they're not worth the cost of admission for readers like me who prefer print copy. And honestly, even the idea of getting them from the library just isn't that appealing since I still don't feel like I've been offered a complete story.

77. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

This book was such fantastic fun from beginning to end, full of comedy and action as well as heart. I fell in love with the characters immediately, and Eames writing is compulsively readable. Despite the length, I devoured the last half of the book in two long sittings over two days, and only wished there were more--I've already ordered the sequel. For readers who like action-heavy fantasy packed with great character, humor, and just enough real-life drama to keep it interesting, this is a must-read. I loved it.

Absolutely recommended. Eames is going on my list as a must-buy author.

78. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

This book sucked me in almost from the moment I picked it up, and for the first half of it, I couldn't stop reading it. I was in love with the voice, the style, the compulsively readable plot--pretty much everything. Though the voice was sometimes exhausting, it was exhausting in a good way, pulling me along and taking me back to the days of being a teenager with all of the angst/doubt/wonder/imagination/outsiderness involved. (Make no mistake, though, this is not a YA book--it's an Adult book with a teenaager protagonist, and there is a big difference.)

So, why did it take me so long to finish, and why did I call such attention to the first half being so readable? That's more complicated, and to be fair, I'm not sure how much is related to the book and how much to me. I was reading this with my book club, and at a certain point, I stopped being able to keep up simply because I didn't have quite enough time. And then I was on to reading another book with them, and this one got left in the dust for a week or so. And then when I did get back to it, the adrenaline rush of the last third of the book especially was just...well, a lot. Kind of like an action movie where the action just never stops, so there's not enough of an emotional ride or enough of a break from the action to really appreciate what's unfolding. I understand why the book unfolded as it did, and I enjoyed the whole of it in a lot of ways...but the last third is one long adrenaline ride, and that part wore on me a bit. At the same time, I was dealing with a lot of stress (including a hurricane evacuation and lack of electricity), so maybe that exhaustion was partly on me? It's hard to tell, but what it comes down to is that for much of the read this was a five-star book for me, and then it dropped a star by the end simply because the last third was so break-neck that I was being rushed along more than engaged for a lot of it.

Still, I'd recommend the book to horror lovers, and I'm absolutely looking forward to reading more of Jones' work.

Glad that you came through the hurricane in relatively good shape!

>151 whitewavedarling: OMG! Glad you're OK and that you didn't have too much damage!

>154 DeltaQueen50: & >155 rabbitprincess:, Thank you! We got incredibly lucky, all things considered.

79. From Hell by Alan Moore

I had admittedly high expectations for this graphic novel, having heard so much about it over the years. I don't often pick up graphic novels because they tend to mess with my eyes, so I'm fairly picky, but I've enjoyed other horror GNs this year so much that I thought it was time to give it a try, despite the length. And yet...in the end, I'm glad to have read it, but mostly because it's so well-known and so often referenced. It's not the sort of book one 'enjoys', but even as someone who loves dark work, I found myself so overwhelmed as to be wishing I were taking the reading slower...even while knowing I'd probably not finish it if I did.

Part of my problem was a lack of character development. On one hand, it's the plot/story/society that comes across as the main character, but when there's no mystery involved in who's doing what or what's happening, that makes engagement only through plot/story a tough sell. There were also plenty of spots where the novel digressed into pages of what felt like tangents, and other parts that came off as far more misogynist than anything--even where it felt like the authors might be trying to critique society, the story was told through such a male-centered gaze that any such critique was pretty much lost via the story choices that were made.

Some little bit of character development happened late, but at least for this reader, it was too little too late. And while I could appreciate some of the story choices and art, that appreciation wasn't nearly enough to make me feel that the length was warranted.

Glad to hear you're alright! Also that your property is still standing and you have your power back. I'm sure you've had some really scary days.

>158 mstrust:, Yeah...the scariest I've had in a long while. It's good to be home!

80. Vamps and the City by Kerrelyn Sparks

Kerrelyn Sparks is one of my favorites when it comes to lighthearted paranormal romance. And while it's taking me a little longer to really get into this Love at Stake series (compared to her more recent Embraced series), this book grew on me as it kept going. She does such a fantastic job of balancing angsty romance against humor and real life/undead concerns, there's just no way not to get sucked into the story here. And while the heroine put me off just a bit in the beginning of this book, she grew on me pretty fast. We also got more justification for the insta-lust than a lot of paranormal romances offer, which I appreciated.

All in all, there's no question that I'll continue with the series, and the escape this book offered was a welcome one.

81. The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson

I loved the vibes and writing of this novel, which in some ways felt like a marriage of Carson McCullers and Cormac McCarthy, with just a touch of Joe Hill. Sinking into the scenes and the setting as things unfolded was a pleasure, and as the book kept going, the reading got faster and faster.

The issue for me, though, became clarity. So often, it felt like I needed just a bit more connective tissue and narrative to help be sure of how the characters related to each other, how their pasts connected, and exactly what was happening on the page. Especially in the middle of the book, there were moments where I loved what I was reading, but still wasn't quite sure of what was going on in that moment. At a certain point, all of those moments of confusion added up, and I was reading for vibes as much as meaning, letting the language and individual scenes pull me on even when I wasn't quite sure of the larger canvas and how it was coming together. Probably, this is a book that would benefit from multiple reads...but when it comes down to it, I never quite connected to the characters well enough that I'm tempted to re-read. In some ways, that makes me feel like this is a plot-driven novel which is written more in the style of a literary or character-driven novel. Not to say that all those things can't come together at once, but in this case, I'm not sure they did.

I look forward to trying more of Andy Davidson's work since I loved so many elements of this. I'm not sure I'd recommend this specific book, but it was immersive enough that I think I'm glad to have come across it.

82. Xanth #1: A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony

In a lot of ways, this book has aged so badly that it's almost impossible to write a review without mentioning its initial publication. And yet...all things considered...part of me is shocked that it was published even in the 70s as it is now, only to become the beginning of such a long-running series. With that in mind, the book having aged badly is only part of the equation, because while the story itself may not be sexist by design, there's no doubt that the characters and a number of the themes are so sexist as to require either offense or laughter, one or the other.

Because that is the thing...the main character, Bink, is so laughably sexist that it's difficult to be offended in some ways, and hard to know how much of what Anthony put to paper is meant to be tongue in cheek--if offered with the immature sensibility of a middle school boy's humor at too many moments. The end of the book also manages to double-down on sexist impulses in a lot of ways, consistently coming back to emphasize that the male characters are not only more admirable and well-developed than the female characters (who come down to stereotypes outside of their magic, and are judged on appearances throughout), but also more worthy of agency.

Of course, from the vantage of 2022, this is a different book than it was in the '70s, and a different book than the ones that made me fall in love with Anthony's writing in the 90s (though I never tried Xanth books, for some reason I couldn't say). And there is the creativity to be enjoyed--for all its sexism and dated and humor, the creativity of the world-building in this book IS something that can still be enjoyed for a reader who can put the other offenses aside. And, the book and story are engaging, if a bit long-winded and eye-rolling at various points.

Will I read the next one? I'm honestly not sure. It's tempting, if only to see how much of the sexism here was elevated by the main character's judgement vs. part of the world, especially since I feel sure I would have rolled my eyes at this book even 25 years ago when I was in high school, but enjoying Anthony's other works. Would I recommend this one? Well...no.

And, planning for November...

I'm currently reading A Discovery of Witches (left over from the ScaredyCat challenge for October) and Going Dark by James W. Hall. I'm also nearly through with The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters.

If all goes as planned this month, I'll also read:

Red X by David Demchuk (HOWL Read #1)
The Devourers by Indrapramit Das (HOWL Read #2)
Exodus by Leon Uris (AlphaKit 'U')
The Institute by Stephen King (ScaredyKit)
Jade City by Fonda Lee (RandomKit & SFFKit--world fantasy award winner 2018)

This might well be overly ambitious, especially since I'm still wandering through A Discovery of Witches, but we'll see what happens...

>161 whitewavedarling: I read most of the Xanth novels in the late '80s. I picked up A Spell For Chameleon at a library sale, based on your comments I think a reread is in order to see if I still want the series in my collection.

>163 lowelibrary:, One of my friends responded to my review on goodreads with disbelief that I'd even made it through the book lol. He said he loved the series in middle school, because it very much appealed to his humor as a middle school boy, but that he could never recommend them as an adult even though there are some good, creative elements to the stories. Based on his follow-up comments, it sounds like the sexual overtones and sexism get more pronounced and odder as the series goes on, so I'm feeling more and more inclined to not continue with it. I've already got book 2, so I may read that one at some point...but I also may just take it back to the used bookstore. I seriously doubt I'll buy more.

83. The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters

Once I got into it, this was a fast read, but I'm afraid it's not one I can recommend. In fact, I'll probably avoid the author's work in the future after this read.

I have to note here, first of all, that some of the blurbs are misleading. It's impossible to say exactly how without making this initial point a spoiler, but suffice to say that one of the subgenre types listed in a number of the blurbs on Amazon is, very simply, not accurate. And since that descriptor is one of the reasons I bought the book...well, yeah, there's disappointment number one.

That said, I enjoy many, many genres of books, suspense being one of them. So, as much as I'm annoyed that the blurbs were misleading, that alone isn't cause enough for me to feel annoyed with a book. But add to that a drawn out story that feels predictable and gets bogged down over and over again in the same types of scene/repetitive action, and one storyline of two mostly lacking suspense, and there are real problems. The fact that the final reveal came completely out of left field was another issue. I'd be more forgiving of that if this were horror (though not completely), but with this being more along the lines of suspense/mystery, I'd say that a reader should be able to be surprised at the final twist, but look back and understand how they could have seen it coming...here, that's just not possible. The final reveal is, literally, out of the blue and impossible to predict, but not in a good way. More in the-author-wants-to-play-a-trick-on-the-reader-and-didn't-remotely-earn-this-ending way.

All told, obviously, I was underwhelmed. The writing was fine, but the best moments in the book ended up not mattering all that much in general, and the way the book kept circling back in its 'now' storyline was nothing less than frustrating/boring. I loved the concept of this, but the magic of that idea got lost along the way for me.

84. Going Dark by James W. Hall

I fell in love with James W. Hall's Thorn series way back in high school, and revisiting them only reminds me why. The way he mixes suspense and page-turning action with the writing of Florida--in all its weird, natural beauty and chaos--hooks me every time, and this book is no different. It's not my favorite of the series--the end feels a little rushed, and there are moments where I desperately want either more or less--but considering how high a bar some of the books in this series set, there are bound to be a few which are fantastic, but not quite AS fantastic. I'd still recommend it whole-heartedly, though not as a start to the series. Start closer to the beginning, and you'll do yourself a favor.

85. Beulah by Christi Nogle

The fascinating thing about Beulah is how Nogle manages to make ghosts unremarkable--and I mean that in the best way possible.

In another author's hands, 18-year-old Georgie's ability to see ghosts would be the centerpiece of everything, the keystone on which the rest of the story hinged. Instead, Georgie's struggle to simply exist, while being part of her family and taking care of her little sister, are the focus, and the ghosts and hauntings which torment her just as much as they keep her going are, in their own way, simply a part of her reality (and thus the reader's). There's no mistaking this for a coming-of-age story or a family drama, however, because the paranormal aspects of the story live in the cracks of each memory, in Georgie's every hesitation, and in every corner of Beulah that means such different things for the various characters in this book.

From the moment I fell into Nogle's novel, I was stolen into her world and her voice. It's hypnotizing, powerful, and the carrier of a reality that feels deeper than the story she's built. It is, simply put, pretty wonderful, and I hope you'll look it up. Just be ready for the darkness of it, and prepared to lose some days to its pull.

Absolutely recommended.

86. The Devourers by Indra Das

This is a tough one to review. There's so much here to love--the language, the world-building, the characters--and at the same time, I'm finding it hard to pull together my final feelings. The pacing was, for me, the big difficulty. There were passages and chapters where I couldn't stop turning pages, and was absolutely in love with this book. But there were also whole passages and chapters--some long--where I was simply reading to read, having trouble engaging with the story and words on any level, as if all inertia had been sucked out of the read.

Someone in my book group suggested that they were looking at the book as being about story-telling, which I think makes the most sense to me. Thinking about it like that, and especially when I focus on the best moments and the writing itself, I find myself a little bit in love with the book. Especially when I extend that theme to thinking about memory-making (purposefully) and the purposeful building of identity, there's a lot to think about here, and a lot to admire.

87. Red X by David Demchuk

There are some books which can only be described as 'being an experience'...and this is one of them. For me, reading this book felt more like living through something than sinking into a book, and I mean that in the best way possible, as well as the darkest.

I remember seeing the cover of this book and thinking it felt like a warning--kind of like the poison stickers you see on dangerous substances one might find around the average house, warning children/people away from being too careless. Now, having read the book, I'd say that's an apt impression, and one not to take too lightly. There's real trauma in this book--both lived and remembered, out of history as well as imagined--and it is, very simply, not an easy read. From the images, to the themes, to the very real attention to the trauma and difficulties endured by the LGBTQA community (especially during the HIV/AIDS crisis), Demchuk doesn't hesitate to explore the darkest corners of recent related history while weaving this tale, and the results are impressive. His integration of his own history/memoir into the work makes it all the more powerful and other-worldly, and is one of the key elements that elevates this book into an experience that has the power to affect a reader on a level which, at least for me, isn't often achieved. Not, at least, quite like this.

To Demchuk's credit, there's no shock value here, shocking as some of the events are. There's no wallowing in trauma, mystery, horror, or even the darkest images. All of these things simply *are*, existing as they must in the world of the book. As a result, the book has a certain reality to it--gorgeous as the writing it is, it often doesn't feel like fiction. And again, I mean that in the best, darkest way possible.

This isn't going to be a book for all readers, but all readers who are even remotely tempted by it should absolutely pick it up. I'll be reading everything Demchuk writes from here on out.

88. Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

This is such an eclectic collection, I have to believe there'll be something for every poetry lover here. Filled with gorgeous images, thoughtful connections, and an appreciation of nature, the collection as a whole is one to simmer in and enjoy. My favorites here were the ones that centered on the ocean or played with structure, and I can see myself returning to a number of the poems in the future. A few had lines that were true kicks in the gut, where others felt like simple moments captured from the artist's own life, and the talent virtually bleeds from every page. I'm sure I'll be looking up more of the author's work.

89. We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III

I often struggle with novellas, feeling like they're either too long or too short, but this one was so much fun, and exactly what it needed to be. As a horror novel straddling the real and the cosmic, the comic and the almost-too-dark-to-take, I can't imagine this work as having been so successful at any other length. By the end, I *needed* it to be done without particularly wanting to be done, I was so unsettled, and even the most fantastic turns were presented in such a simply horrific way that I couldn't help believing in them. I don't know if I can take another Max Booth III book right away, but I do know I'll be reading them.

Recommended for horror lovers.

90. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

I had a hard time with this book early on, and the element that made me take a break for a while is still the element that bothered me the most--that although we have a ton of very distinct characters, they all mostly speak/think with the same style/voice. So although we're in close third POV for the whole book, it feels as if all of the characters are thinking/talking in the same style and with the same distinct mannerisms/voice, which was a constant distraction for me early on. The other character issue that led me to put the book down and take a long break was the fact that the character who I found most engaging early on, and was most interested in, got so little page time. That's always a danger with multi-POV books that don't give each character equal time, and in this particular case, I was one of those readers put off by it and left less interested as a result.

That said, the middle of the book read fast for me once I came back to it and worked to ignore the similarity of the characters' voices. The problem is, most of my reading inertia came simply because it was easy to keep reading, and when it came to finishing the book, I was finishing to finish.

The simple truth is, this book is incredibly cluttered. There are tons of interesting moments and threads and ideas and characters, but Beukes packed so much into this book, and split the narrative focus in so many directions, that the book didn't pack as much power as some of the ideas certainly warranted. The gore of the bodies was fantastic, as was some of Beukes writing, but so many threads were left unconnected (some of them important), with certain turns coming out of the blue and some of the plot threads (that took up a lot of time) being fairly unimportant in the end... well, I'm afraid I'm not inclined either to recommend the book or to try another work by Beukes.

This was interesting, but ultimately too cluttered to feel finished or fully worth the time.

91. Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories by John Updike

This is the first complete collection I've read from Updike, though I've read his novels and a few of his stories in the past. "A & P"--one of the stories in this collection--was one of the first stories of his I encountered, and although I appreciated the language, it didn't particularly strike me as memorable or so powerful as his reputation would suggest. And, in general, that's where a lot of these stories land for me.

The mid-sized ones of around 10-15 pages are, for me, generally the most powerful and worthwhile ones here. Often centered around a character whose particular fatal flaw becomes clearer and clearer over the course of a story, and ultimately affects the ending of the story, these were the ones that carried me along with the most engagement. In the longest and shortest of the stories, Updike's language shone just as much as always, but I was reading to read. The last few stories in the book felt especially autobiographical and wandering, without the heft of many of the shorter stories.

I may very well read another of his collections and more of his novels, but it will be for language and his intricately built characters, fascinating as they are, as much as a want for story.

92. The Institute by Stephen King

This book could only have been written by King. From the themes to the characters to the twists and the way they came about, The Institute in some ways felt like an amalgamation of so many of my favorite King books--particularly It, The Shining, and The Stand. I'm honestly not sure whether this was a good or a bad thing--King has a lane that is undeniable enjoyable, and most of the time, I didn't mind that I could feel flavors from those earlier books creeping into this one. At the same time, the book was so 'undeniably King' that it didn't feel quite so fresh in idea or character as what I'm used to reading from him. Funny enough, it was the middle of this book which had me turning page after page, unwilling to put the book down, whereas the beginning and ending didn't have the same inertia for me (comparatively, anyway).

The thing which stood out, though, and which I can't help warning others about...as much as this felt like a King book, there was also a heavier weight with it. Particularly in the first half, some of the material was so sad--sad, not simply dark--that reading was an act of determination. More than any other King book I've read, or any book at all I've read recently, there were whole chapters where a sense of hopelessness pervaded--where I couldn't even say I was enjoying the book, it was so sad, but also couldn't stop reading. And while children experiencing violence in fiction doesn't often get to me, the violence here was so direct and intentional, and so continuous, the book as a whole felt darker than many King books I've read.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely, but with those caveats above in mind. I can't see myself re-reading this one, though.

93. Big Dark Hole by Jeffrey Ford

Weird, uncanny, and with hefty doses of wry humor and images to haunt your dreams, this is a fantastic collection of speculative fiction. Each story slips the weird into reality without apology, pummeling the characters with actions, images, and turns of fate that can be ignored no more easily than they can be understood--and it is wonderful. Additionally, even though the stories are unconnected in terms of story/plot, the continuation and progression of themes offers a cohesiveness that seems rare in collections that don't themselves become repetitive, and there's no way to consider this collection repetitive. True, the locale and the MCs sometimes feel overly similar, but not in a way that really affects the stories or experiences left for the reader, and I ended up speeding through this collection without being able to put it down.

One caveat I will give...for me, the weakest story by far was the last in the collection, which seemed to simply fizzle away into nothing after building and building forward. That took me out of the collection on a somewhat sour note, and I wish I'd read that story earlier so that I could end on a higher note. Some of my favorites in the collection included "The Match", "The Bookcase Expedition", "Big Dark Hole", and "Thanksgiving".

Recommended for all lovers of weird fiction. I can't wait to read more of Ford's work.

94. Real Sugar is Hard to Find by Sim Kern

Bleeding with intelligence and trauma, Kern's stories are ones to read, enjoy, and live with to share and re-read. Each story is more unique and fresh than the one that came before it, and while Kern's sensibility for social justice and ecological awareness come through in every one, the lives and worlds of their characters are so real that everything works in tandem. Some of these stories will live with me for ages, and this is the first book in a long time that's made me wish I were still teaching so that I could share this work with my students. Kern's language and creativity show what it means to be an author in tune not only with their art, but the world around them, and the results are magnificent.

Among my favorites in the collection are "The Listener", "Unwhole", and "What Can't Be Undone"--and I would recommend all of them, along with the rest of the stories in the collection.

Note that there are some extremely sensitive themes and subjects discussed in the book, and that detailed content warnings can be found at the end of the book, organized by story. (On a side note, I really appreciate Kern's choice to make a note in the beginning that this is the case, alerting readers up front that content warnings are in place, and where to find them, but not putting them at the forefront for readers who may want to go in 'blind'.)

Really, though, there are no words to write an adequate review here. This is a fantastic collection, and it deserves to be read.

95. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

I'm glad to have finally read this, if only because it's crossed my radar so many times over the years. That said...I can't really say I ended up being a fan of the book. The further into the book I got, the more dated it felt--and while that's somewhat to be expected, given that it was published in 1951, the datedness in this work overshadowed concept and character to such an extent that I found it hard to enjoy the book, especially as things worked to wrap up. I will say that the last third read quickly, and I ended up being more satisfied with the read than I'd expected while pushing through the middle, but the execution of the book didn't live up to the great weirdness of the concept for me personally.

96. Edge of the Moon by Rebecca York

I didn't enjoy this installment in the series quite as much as I enjoyed the first, but it did pick up as it kept on going after a somewhat slow start. I can't remember if the first book in the series hinged on insta-love, but this one did, and I think that was part of the problem. If a book's romance is built in that fashion, then the plot/action/story needs to be strong enough--from the start--to offer real tension and stakes and excitement, simply because the 'romance' give-and-take tension is swallowed up by that insta-love. Here, the action/tension in the first part of the book just felt a little forced/awkward, like the author was having to work to build up excitement, so while the book came together in the end, I think going the route of a more traditional romantic attraction would have made for a much better book and taken some of the pressure off of fast plot movements that just didn't always work early on.

Still, this wasn't a bad escape, and even if it didn't live up to the first book in the series, I enjoyed it well enough for the most part and will (eventually) get around to the third.

97. Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt

Wehunt's brand of horror sneaks up on you in a fashion that feels almost languid, lush with gorgeous prose and striking images, and then when the uncanny truly slips in--or hits you over the head in some few cases--the shift is all the more powerful. That's not to say that the moves into the uncanny are unearned or unwelcome; whether they come early or late in any given story, sneaking up on the reader or feeding themselves out as the fabric of a story little piece by little piece, the little drifts of horror are the very backbone of this collection. A few of the stories kept me up later than I should have stayed up, just because I knew what a bad idea it might be to fall asleep with them in my head.

The stand-outs here, for me, were "Greener Pastures" (the title story), "Onanon", "October Film Haunt: Under the House", and "A Thousand Hundred Years". At a different time, I think I'd have listed "Beside me Singing in the Wilderness" as another favorite. And while some few of the stories didn't land quite so well for me, or felt a little too ambiguous/abstract in their wrap-up for me to ultimately want to revisit them, the stand-outs more than made up for those few.

Absolutely recommended.

98. Jade City by Fonda Lee

It took me some time to get into this one and get comfortable with the various characters, but once I did, I was completely swept away by the world and the conflict. Lee's writing pulled me in and kept me turning pages long into the night, and I adored how real the SFF elements felt, as if this were just another piece of the world we live in. After 500 pages, I admit I feel like I should be a bit more attached to the characters--action took over so much of the book in the last third, I didn't always feel as close to them or as if we were getting enough development from them--but I still can't wait to dive into the next book in the series.

99. The Spy Who Came for Christmas

I've loved Morrell's storytelling every since I discovered him, and although it took me some time to get into this particular book...the further I got into it, the more I couldn't stop. And, as usual, Morrell surprised me with where he took the story and characters, and I loved every moment.

I'm not much for holiday-themed fiction, so I'm not surprised it took me a bit of time to be sold on this one. The fact that I *was* sold on it by midway through means that much more.

Absolutely recommended.

100. The Zoo Where You're Fed to God by Michael Ventura

There's a quiet sort of power about this book. And more than just being clever in the way the book explores that power, there's an undeniable fun to the unfolding of the story as well. And when all that--along with the animals and the quirks and the unique polish and the careful pacing--is put together, this book grows into something quite a bit greater than what it appears. An exploration of self-actualization and the difficulties of being human, and being social while wanting to be oneself, and allowing oneself to figure out how you, individually, must be in order to survive. (And did I mention the animals? All the animals? And the gorgeous writing? Well, there you go.)

Simply put, this book snuck up on me. The title drew me in, and the author's language brought me forward, and suddenly I couldn't stop. I'll be thinking about this one for quite a while, and I think I may be re-reading it sooner than later, despite not even quite being able to tell you why.

So, yes...I recommend it. To you.