Review: HEIR OF UNCERTAIN MAGIC by Charlie N. Holmberg

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed Keeper of Enchanted Rooms and excitedly picked up its sequel, Heir of Uncertain Magic, soon after finishing it.

Charlie Holmberg's writing style never fails to delight me. I love her books so much.

This series is a cozy historical fantasy with some romance and some mystery. It's the perfect combination of genres, and Charlie writes them all so well together. I particularly love that her romances are always slow-burn and always clean; I really appreciate that.

Heir of Uncertain Magic was a good follow-up to the first book in the Whimbrel House series. This book introduced multiple POVs, including one perspective from a dog, which was really fun to read. I also loved seeing the progression of Hulda and Merritt, both as individuals and as a couple. They are both really delightful.

I am having the best time reading this series and I can't wait to continue on with Boy of Chaotic Making soon! 

Review: KEEPER OF ENCHANTED ROOMS by Charlie N. Holmberg

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Charlie's books never fail to impress me. 

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms is a historical cozy fantasy with some mystery and some romance. I love the combination of all of those genres together, and it works really well in this book. 

I love that there are twelve different kinds of magic in this world. There is a handy guide at the beginning describing them all, but I thought it was super neat because most fantasy stories only have one or two kinds of magic. 

Hulda and Merritt were both wonderfully stubborn characters whose interactions I really enjoyed. I loved their slow-burn clean romance. Charlie does slow-burn clean romance so well. 

I am super excited to finish this series and see where the story takes me. I know I am going to fall more in love with these characters and this world. 

Review: HOUSE OF ROOTS AND RUIN by Erin A. Craig

 

Rating: 3/5 stars

House of Roots and Ruin is a standalone companion novel to House of Salt and Sorrow. You don’t need to read that book first to understand this book. And frankly, this one is better so just read this one instead.

Read if you like: 

• lots of plants, especially poisonous plants 
• slow-burn clean romance 
• a mysterious and potentially dangerous house with hidden rooms 
• ghosts 
• a historical-feeling setting 

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it, but I don’t know how memorable it will be. I don’t remember anything about House of Salt and Sorrows except that the ending was confusing, and I do think I will remember more about this book, but probably not many relevant details. 

Review: TWO TWISTED CROWNS by Rachel Gillig

 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Suspense, action, romance, betrayal, intrigue, magic: this book has it all. 

Two Twisted Crowns is the sequel and conclusion to One Dark Window, which follows a girl who is inhabited by the soul of a monster she calls Nightmare. I really enjoyed the first book, but I absolutely loved this second book. 

We solely followed Elspeth’s perspective in the first book, but here we interchange between Elspeth’s, Ravyn’s, and Elm’s POVs. And I loved it! I didn’t care for Elm in the first book, but I really grew to love him after reading through his eyes. By the end, I was actually looking forward the most to his chapters. I also enjoyed his and Ione’s relationship more than Elspeth and Ravyn's, although I still loved both couples. 

I do appreciate that the romance in this series is fairly clean, having only one spicy scene in the first book (even though it was unnecessary) and none in the second book. I’m always on the lookout for fantasy books with clean romance in them. I loved the character-building and character relationships that were present in this series. 

Regardless if you think the story itself is interesting or not, this book is still very well-written. Gillig set a good foundation in One Dark Window and seamlessly built on it in Two Twisted Crowns. Somehow I liked this book even more than the first, even though I was skeptical when I first picked it up. The ending here nicely wrapped up all the plot points and answered all my questions. It was a very satisfying conclusion where I didn’t fully know how everything would play out until it did. 

I would recommend this series. It’s pitched as being similar to For the Wolf and Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale, all books that I did not enjoy, yet I still ended up loving the Shepherd King duology. Each of the above books has a female protagonist, a dark forest, a castle, ancient magic, a historical setting, and a romance with a mysterious man. However, One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns handled that all in a way that I enjoyed reading about while the other books did not. I can’t really pinpoint what the difference is, other than possibly that I like Rachel Gillig’s writing style while I do not like the other books’ authors’ writing styles. Either way, I was very surprised that I ended up loving this duology so much, and I can’t wait to read future books from Rachel Gillig. 

Review: THE PROX TRANSMISSIONS by The Starset Society

 

Rating: 2.5/5 stars 

This novel is one for fans of the band Starset. They’re my favorite band, which is why I picked up this book. The Prox Transmissions, written by the singer of the band, is a prequel of sorts to their first album, Transmissions. 

If you’re not familiar with the lore of the band, Starset was “commissioned by The Starset Society to spread broad awareness of The Message through music and media. The Message contains the knowledge necessary to spare the future of humanity.” The primary objective of the Starset Society is “to shed light upon various emerging near-future technologies, investigating the potential and inevitable social, economic, political, and philosophical impacts thereof,” and one of the ways they do that is through the band Starset. The Message was received by the Society in a mysterious transmission from space, and the known details of that transmission are laid out in the book The Prox Transmissions.
(If you’re confused and want clarification, listen to the band. 🙂) 

I thought the premise of the novel was quite interesting. I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, but I was able to follow along just fine and stay engaged the whole story. The writing style is a bit amateurish, but I didn’t really have a problem with it.

The plot itself is intriguing—our protagonist Stephen receives a mysterious message leading him to obtain a mysterious transmission, and he has to decode its meaning before the enemy corporation steals the data from him. Even though Stephen receives more than one transmission from the planet Prox, this book only delves into the first transmission, leaving this book feeling incomplete in a sense, like not all the questions were answered. It does end on a cliffhanger though, and I know the Starset Society has more books planned for release in the future. 

I thought the plot was the strongest part of this book as neither the characters nor the setting were very fleshed out. There was only the tiniest bit of backstory given to Stephen, but everyone else felt rather two-dimensional to me. Unfortunately, every female in this book is described as “beautiful” in a way that is cliched and over-sexualized, not to mention that the word “sensuous” is used as a synonym for “female” in one instance. 

My biggest complaint, however, was that this novel badly needs a copyeditor. There are typos on nearly every page: incorrectly used punctuation, misspelled words, poor grammar choices, inconsistent word usage, and even some words cut off due to poor layout choices. Did I mention improper punctuation? The biggest offenders are missing quotation marks and missing hyphens, which made for a few confusing sentences as my brain was trying to figure out the intended meaning. As an editor, I could feel my eyes burning as I read this book. But if you can get past all that, then the story is actually worth reading if you’re a Starset fan. 

I would recommend this book only to hardcore fans of Starset who want to know more about the lore behind the band. There are a handful of references to lyrics and other things related to Starset lore, such as mentions of “Carnivores” and the “BMI” and the “Everything Machine,” among others. Any regular sci-fi reader would be able to understand this novel just fine, but I don’t think it would be as enjoyable or meaningful if you aren’t familiar with the band because you wouldn’t understand the references, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you aren’t a fan—and frankly, there are better sci-fi novels out there to read instead. 

Review: SWITCHED by Amanda Hocking

 

Rating: 2/5 stars

This book—in fact, this whole trilogy—has been sitting unread on my shelf for over a decade, and 2023 is finally the year I get to remove it from my TBR. 

The first thing I noticed while reading is that this book has very plain writing. It’s certainly fast-paced and entertaining, but it’s also full of overused tropes (although they probably weren’t as overused when this book was originally published). You have the girl who’s not like other girls who’s also secretly a princess soon-to-be-Queen over a whole kingdom, and let’s not forget she has a hidden special ability that’s going to help save her people. And of course, there’s also the hot guy who’s not like other guys who she falls in love with. We have all read this story many times before. The difference here is that she secretly belongs to a tribe of trolls called the Trylle. I don’t think I’ve read a troll book before. 

Switched is extremely insta-lovey. Like I’ve never read a book with more overt and quick insta-love than this one, and I’ve read a lot of books. Wendy chooses to leave her family and follow Finn, whom she hasn’t had more than three interactions with, into Trylle, and she comments how she’s happy she can spend her life with him. Like girl, get to know him first. 

I probably would have enjoyed this book a decade ago when I actually acquired the book, but now as a twenty-something adult with a lot more books under my belt, Switched just feels amateurish and cliche to me. It also doesn’t really hold up in today’s market as I encountered a handful of phrases and descriptions that would be deemed either offensive or outdated in today’s society. 

Overall, I can’t really recommend this book. It sounds like I’m bashing it pretty hard, but it’s not a bad book for its time, and I’m sure I would have loved it had I read it back in high school when it was published. However, it doesn’t hold up in 2023, nor does it align with my current reading tastes. I’m glad I at least read Switched though because I felt like I would be doing a disservice to my sixteen-year-old self if I didn’t read it after having owned it for so long; however, I will not be continuing with this series. 

Review: THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW by Adrienne Young

 

Rating: 5/5 stars

After being pleasantly surprised by Adrienne Young’s Spells for Forgetting, I wanted to give The Unmaking of June Farrow, her newest adult novel, a try. And I’m so glad I did because I liked this one even more! It was incredible. 

June is the last of the Farrow woman, an ancestral line that has been cursed with madness. June’s mother went mad and left her alone as a baby, and June just witnessed her grandmother’s death after she fully succumbed to the madness. And now June is next. She knows what’s in store for her, but that doesn’t make her any more prepared when she starts seeing objects that aren’t real and hearing people talk who were never there. 

June’s slow descent into madness makes her quite the unreliable narrator—you can never be sure if what she’s experiencing is real or not. But I still loved her. I thought the characterization in this novel was done well. 

Magical realism doesn’t usually work for me: I want something either realistic or fantastical, not somewhere in between. Yet I have loved both of Adrienne Young’s magical realism novels that I’ve read. Her writing style is really suited to this subgenre, and the small town setting with a mysterious history and some soft magic makes her stories work rather well. It also probably helps that her stories lean more toward the magical side than the realism side, which I enjoy. 

I was really drawn into this narrative and had a hard time putting the book down. I found it easy to connect to the characters and fall in love with Jasper, North Carolina as I was drawn deeper and deeper into its history. I really can’t say any more about this novel, though, as I don’t want to spoil anything, and I feel like adding any other details about the setting or the characters or the madness would be a potential spoiler. I went into this book blind, having read only the words on the cover of the book before picking it up, and that’s what I would recommend. The more you know, the less exciting the reveals in the story will be, in my opinion. 

I’m a fan of Young’s adult novels and will read any she writes in the future. The Unmaking of June Farrow is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. It’s an excellent read for a cozy autumn day, and if you enjoyed Spells for Forgetting then you will likely enjoy this one as well. 

Review: MASTERS OF DEATH by Olivie Blake

 

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Masters of Death hooked me with its very exciting synopsis: Viola is a vampire real estate agent trying to sell a haunted house. Tom, the ghost haunting the house, doesn’t want the house to sell so he scares away any potential buyers. So Viola enlists the help of a medium named Fox, who is a fraudulent medium but the real godson of Death, to help her rid the ghost from the house. However, Death has recently gone missing and the aforementioned characters must play a dangerous game to find Death and return him to the world. This mysterious game is one that only the immortals play and there is only one rule: don’t lose.

That sounds incredible, right??

Well, I found the story to be more convoluted than necessary at times and also longer than it should have been. The book really feels like a mashup of two separate plots: one where Viola is trying to sell the house, and one where the characters are playing the game. I didn’t enjoy reading anything about the game because it honestly made no sense to me. I still have no idea what the game is. The characters alluded to gambling, battling immortals, or actually having nothing to physically lose in order to win. But it is still quite unclear to me exactly what this dangerous game entails, which is why reading about it wasn’t enjoyable for me because I just felt lost.

I did enjoy the plot surrounding the house, which was more present at the beginning of the book, and I did like the characters. Olivie Blake is skilled at crafting fleshed out and likable characters in each of her novels and this one was no different.

I think Masters of Death is a novel that I will need to reread to fully grasp the whole story. I’m a little conflicted about my rating because there were parts that I really enjoyed but also parts that I didn’t enjoy at all. I definitely liked it better than Blake’s One for My Enemy, but I enjoyed The Atlas Six and Alone with You in the Ether more. Her books are really hit or miss for me and I can’t pinpoint why.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you think it sounds interesting to you with the caveat that there is a lot more going on in the story than the synopsis initially alludes to and you have to pay close attention to understand it all.

Review: THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS by R. J. JACOBS

Rating: 4.25/5 stars 

Pitched as a dark academia thriller, This Is How We End Things is a fast-paced murder mystery with lots of twists.

The story takes place at a university among a cohort of six PhD students who are studying the psychology of deception. Which means they are all very skilled at lying. And then one of them ends up murdered.

Even the most skilled liar can’t keep their darkest secrets from coming to light during the investigation, and each student has secrets they’re aiming to keep hidden.

I really enjoyed this novel, but I wouldn’t describe it as dark academia. It has an academic setting and there’s a murder, but I don’t feel like it has the right vibe to fit in with the dark academia subgenre. For one, the main POV in the novel is a detective, and I feel like in dark academia, there are no detectives right off the bat. The focus was less on the students’ POVs and actions and more on what the two detectives were discovering as they were investigating the case. We did get POVs from the six students as well as some other minor characters, but I did feel like the “main character” of this book was Detective Larson.

Overall, though, this book was a quick read that really captured my interest. I read it very quickly and had a great time trying to solve the mystery along with the characters. 

Review: EVERYDAY ANGEL by Victoria Schwab

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I’m obviously not the target audience for this series, but I decided to read it anyway because I’m trying to read everything Victoria Schwab has written. I still really enjoyed this series though, and I think it would be especially great for the target audience of 12-year-old girls.

Aria is a guardian angel, and she has to earn her wings by helping three different girls through tough moments in their lives.

Each book is a standalone story following a different girl with a different problem. In the first installment, Aria helps Gabby deal with her brother’s sickness. In the second book, Aria helps Caroline deal with bullies at school. And in the last novel, Aria helps Mikayla learn to balance her happiness with her passion for dance.

Each book discusses friendship and family and the importance of helping others and being a kind person. These books are very wholesome and fun, and I know I would have absolutely loved them as a young girl.

Book 1, New Beginnings: 4/5 stars
Book 2, Second Chances: 4/5 stars
Book 3, Last Wishes: 4.25/5 stars

Review: A STUDY IN DROWNING by Ava Reid

 

Rating: 4/5 stars

I was not prepared for how much I liked A Study in Drowning. This is my first novel by Ava Reid but it definitely won’t be my last because I absolutely loved her writing style. 

We follow Effy, an architecture student who wishes she were a literature student. She finds solace in the classic novel Angharad written by the mysterious Emrys Myrddin, and then one day she is given the opportunity to redesign the Myrddin estate and she couldn’t be happier. 

While working on her plans at the Myrddin estate, a literature scholar named Preston shows up and is determined to prove Myrddin’s works weren’t actually written by him. At first, the two butt heads over their differing opinions of Myrddin, but eventually some secrets come to light that cause them to join together against dark forces. 

A Study in Drowning is a magical and atmospheric novel with a dark setting, historical undertones, discussions of academia, old secrets buried in a crumbling house, a soft romance, and ethereal and captivating writing. I really enjoyed the novel, and I liked that it had a completely different feel from the generic YA novel format. I would absolutely recommend this book. 

Review: HAIRBALL by Matt Kindt

 

Rating: 1.25/5 stars 

I'd never heard of this graphic novel before and just happened to see it as available to download on Edelweiss. Pitched as Junji Ito meets Hayao Miyazaki, Hairball seemed like the perfect story for me because I love Hayao Miyazaki and I'm becoming more and more interested in horror stories this year. Plus, I love cats. 

Unfortunately, I did not like this book. I didn't care for the actual story, the characters, and especially not for the art style. The art was almost hard to look at, it was so bad. 

I really don't know who to recommend this book to, because it's definitely not one for Hayao Miyazaki fans. If you are interested in a cat that's a literal demon and is tearing a little girl's life apart to the point that she starts going crazy and has to go to therapy because of this cat, then you might enjoy this book. But it wasn't for me. 

Review: DEFIANT by Brandon Sanderson

 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I was extremely excited to read Defiant as it was one of my most anticipated books of this year. It both did and did not live up to the hype for me. Let me explain.

Defiant is much darker than previous installments. It’s not as lighthearted and funny. I know Spensa has grown and evolved as a character over the past three books, but that also means her personality has become more somber and she no longer is full of bravado and anger like she was in the beginning books. This book is also primarily about Spensa, and there are hardly any scenes involving M-Bot or Doomslug, my two favorite characters and the source of the majority of the comic relief. So needless to say, this book just felt different. The last twenty percent was actually quite violent, too, which felt a little out of place considering how Spensa has changed during this book. 

I did enjoy the book as a whole, though, and Defiant was still a satisfying series conclusion full of unexpected twists that we’ve all come to love from Brandon’s books, but it also just felt like it was missing something. I can’t really put my finger on what exactly, and I wasn’t necessarily disappointed by the book, but I also wanted something more. 

I think that, overall, fans will enjoy this book and enjoy the conclusion to the Skyward series. We do get tiny cameos from many characters we’ve come to know throughout the whole series, including some new POVs besides Spensa’s. This series is the first true science fiction series I’ve read since space-based sci-fi isn’t my preferred genre, but I did still enjoy the series and I enjoy Brandon’s storytelling and characters. I’m excited to see what the future holds in the Skyward Legacy series coming out sometime next year. 

Review: THE NEVER-ENDING END OF THE WORLD by Ann Christy

 

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

This book is fantastic! I would even say it’s one of the most interesting and most unique science fiction novels I’ve read.

I won a copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway, and I’m glad I did because I don’t think I would have ever picked it up otherwise, but I ended up loving it.

The Never-Ending End of the World is a science fiction dystopian novel with a slight mystery/thriller aspect to it. The world has essentially “ended” as most people and things get stuck in time loops, and those select few not stuck in the loops have to navigate the new world around them.

I loved getting to know our protagonist, Coco, and that we get to see her learn and grow across decades of her life. It’s not often I read a book that covers such a vast timeframe and I enjoyed the experience. Not only do we get to see so many characters develop in so many ways across the span of the novel, but we also get to see how the world post-apocalypse might function.

Those people stuck in loops relive the same moments over and over again, anywhere from just a few seconds up to a twenty-or-so-hour loop. And they absolutely must not be disturbed or they will react with extreme violence toward the person who broke their loop.

Coco sets off to explore the world and find other non-loopers like her, and she ends up finding a whole community. The book follows their lives as they forage for food, build homes and families, and ultimately try to figure out a way to stop the looping and learn why it happened in the first place.

The Never-Ending End of the World features a unique concept that I really loved, fun characters, and immersive worldbuilding. And it’s a standalone! I would recommend this book to any fans of dystopian science fiction who love character-focused stories.

Review: EVERYTHING THE DARKNESS EATS by Eric LaRocca

 

Rating: 3.25/5 stars 

A string of mysterious disappearances in a small town has everyone on edge as they wait to see who will be taken next. The police are doing nothing, the residents are scared, and the darkness is coming. 

This novel has the feel of a collection of short stories that are all interconnected. There is no single main character or group of protagonists, but instead there are snippets of various people’s lives throughout the novel, all of them coming up multiple times and all being related in some way. 

I enjoy Eric LaRocca’s writing style. This is my third novel by him, and even though none of his books have received five stars from me, they have still all been great reads that I would recommend to horror fans. I will continue to read whatever new books he publishes in the future. 

Even though I liked this book overall, I didn’t, however, particularly love the supernatural aspect of the story. There is a source of darkness that is said to be God incarnate in the world and it is maliciously evil, and I didn’t like seeing God being portrayed in that way. I’ve never been the biggest fan of reading about deities in fiction, even fantastical and mythological ones, but I prefer it even less when the god in question is our actual God. 

Likewise, I enjoyed the first 60% or so of this novel more than the back half. Can’t really say why’s specifically—maybe something to do with the weird rituals toward the end? Either way, I still recommend Everything the Darkness Eats. It was compelling and eerie, and the characters were fun to get to know. 

Review: FOUR FOUND DEAD by Natalie D. Richards

 

Rating: 3/5 stars

I picked up this book because the author was visiting my local bookstore and I wanted to attend the event, but I felt that I should read at least one of her books beforehand. 

I liked the premise here: seven teens are working late at the movie theater on the last night ever it will be open. But once all the customers leave, the manager essentially locks them in and starts getting a little violent. The teens escape to the attached abandoned mall as they try to outrun their manager who is killing them off one by one as they are looking for a way to ultimately escape the entire building altogether. 

I love the idea of an abandoned mall as the setting for a thriller. And the novel takes place in Sandusky, Ohio, which I have been to multiple times! So I thought that was pretty neat. It was also exciting to know from the beginning that four of the characters were going to be dead by the end of the book, so I try to guess whose untimely end was going to be next. 

I enjoyed Four Found Dead, but it was also very middle-of-the-road. The setting and the synopsis made the book sound like it was going to be better than it actually was, which is to say that the execution is what was lacking. I flew through the first 50%, but after that it wasn’t as “thrilling” as I expected it to be. The narrative felt a little repetitive at times, too. 

Overall, this was a fine thriller while I was reading it, but it will likely not be too memorable in the long run. I was able to meet Natalie Richards at the author event, and she was a delightful and fun person to chat with. I ended up grabbing two other books by her that sounded like they would be more my style as I’m definitely interested in reading more of her novels in the future. 

Review: THE TREES GREW BECAUSE I BLED THERE: COLLECTED STORIES by Eric LaRocca

 

Rating: 3.2/5 stars

“You Follow Wherever They Go”—1.5/5 stars 

Not off to a great start. This story really did nothing for me and I’m not sure what the point of it was. It was also very short, and I’ve noticed that the shorter the short story, the less likely I am to like it. 

“Bodies Are for Burning”—3/5 stars 

This story definitely has tense undertones, and the author writes it in a way where you feel kind of nervous and worried for the character the whole time. I thought it was well-written and an interesting concept. Enjoyment-wise it was middle-of-the-road for me though. 

“The Strange Thing We Become”—4/5 stars

I enjoyed the forum-post style this story was told in. It was counting down to an event, giving it that ominous air of something gone horribly wrong but you don’t know yet what happened. This story was sad but also compelling. I think I liked it. 

“The Trees Grew Because I Bled There”—4/5 stars 

Well if that wasn’t the most disturbing story I’ve ever read. It definitely goes head to head with “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,” but I really don’t know which one was more egregious. This story was creepy and unsettling, evoking feelings of imminent disgust and ominous dread lingering in the distance. Definitely worth a read for any body horror fans out there. 

“You’re Not Supposed to Be Here”—3.5/5 stars 

I didn’t particularly enjoy most of this story, but it had a very impactful ending. The ending completely threw me for a loop and made me rethink the whole of the story up to that point, which I think is the mark of a twist done well. This story will definitely stick with me. 

“Where Flames Burned Emerald as Grass”—2/5 stars 

This story ventures into some animal-themed horror. All of LaRocca’s stories that I’ve read have interesting concepts and masterful executions, but not all of them are enjoyable for me to read, and this is one of those. I don’t love reading about kidnapping as that is a truly terrifying concept to me, and this narrative bordered on that. I’m not totally sure what the point of this story was or what the title is referring to, either. 

“I’ll Be Gone by Then”—3.5/5 stars 

Starts out as a pretty normal story with a few morbid moments throughout, but then concludes with an eerie and unsettling ending that kind of turns the nature of the narrative on its head. I liked this story, but didn’t love it. 

“Please Leave or I’m Going to Hurt You”—4/5 stars 

This wasn’t horror, just kind of sad and maybe a little uncomfortable to read, but not horror by any means (as far as I can tell). I enjoyed the story, but this is one where I don’t fully understand the implications of the ending. The romantic in me also wished for a different outcome. 

Review: THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE, AND OTHER MISFORTUNES by Eric LaRocca

 

Rating: 3.75/5 stars 

“Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke”—4/5 stars 

So this was the most disturbing story I’ve ever read. I’ve heard about this book a lot without ever hearing what this book was about. I’m trying to find my niche horror genre so I’ve been reading different types of horror stories lately, and this was definitely the most disturbing of the bunch. 

“Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” is an epistolary novel that chronicles the correspondences between two people. It dives deep into manipulation in a master/slave type of relationship. That’s all I’m going to say though because I think it’s best to go in knowing little. 

I don’t really know what to rate this story as I couldn’t look away and was completely engaged as I flew through the narrative, but I also don’t know if I really enjoyed it or not. The story will stick with me as it’s definitely unforgettable, but it’s also just so disturbing. I know I’ve already used that word in this review but it really is the best way to describe this novella. It’s disturbing and gross and, at times, baffling. It’s almost like the author deliberately included scenes that were intended to have the biggest shock value with the reader. 

Even saying all that, I would recommend this to fans of horror—maybe specifically those of body horror?—and fans of fast-paced epistolary stories. 

“The Enchantment”—3.5/5 stars 

Once again, this was disturbing, but not as much as “Things Have Gotten Worse.” Maybe that’s just Eric LaRocca’s style. 

It’s about a couple who goes to live on an island all alone when weird things start happening to them. 

I thought this story started out strong and had a good middle, but I didn’t love how it ended, mostly due to the fact that the story isn’t speculative but then adds in speculative elements at the end. I think I have found that I prefer non-speculative horror, while I prefer speculative elements solely in fantasy and sci-fi instead.  

I am curious after reading the first two stories what the author’s fixation is with crucifixion as it comes up in both stories. 

“You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over”—3/5 stars 

This was the weakest story in the collection for me. Still interesting, but not as memorable and disturbing as the first two. 

A man finds a shard of bone in his backyard with his neighbor’s initials carved into it and begins to investigate it. This story is about how far one will go to maintain appearances to continue being a “good neighbor.” 

As stated in the author’s afterward, all three stories in this collection focus on the human desire to connect with someone or something else, and to what extent someone will go to find or maintain that connection. I appreciated that they all had a connecting theme to tie them together. I would recommend this collection to fans of macabre horror stories that shock you and make you think. 

Review: NIGHTFALL AND OTHER DANGERS by Jacob Steven Mohr

 

Rating: 2.4/5 stars 

My rating for this book based on an average of my ratings of all the individual stories is 2.4/5 stars.

I am fairly new to the horror genre, having really just started reading it earlier this year. I was able to meet the author of this short story collection, and he sold me on it by telling me that it contains stories from a variety of horror subgenres, so it would help me figure out which subgenres I prefer reading. 

I’ve always struggled with short stories in general because of the lack of any kind of character development, world building, or concrete plot, so do keep in mind that I’m already a little biased against them. I know short stories are meant to deliver something different than the aforementioned story traits, but it’s still hard for me to enjoy most short stories simply because they are so short. 

I will preface my reviews of each story by saying that I think Mohr is a good writer, but a lot of these stories were simply not my style preference. I rate books based solely on my enjoyment level, so while I didn’t really enjoy too many of the stories in Nightfall and Other Dangers, I think seasoned horror readers and short stories lovers will enjoy this collection more than I did as they are more used to the genre conventions and will be able to tell the difference between the various subgenres within. 

“Nostalgia”—3.5/5 stars

I love the idea of a garden of hands, but at only half a page long, this story is too short to even be called a story. At best, this is the start of an idea for a story. I wish this had been longer because I enjoyed what little there was. 

“You Are the Hero of Legend”—3/5 stars

Every sentence in this story starts with the word “you.” I love stories told in second-person perspective, but it felt a little repetitive here. I feel like that’s the point though, although we never discover who the narrator is, which I feel is one of the best mysteries in any second-person POV story. I liked the writing style, but the story was quite short again so it’s hard to form a real opinion on it. 

“Song of the Summer”—1.5/5 stars

Finally a story of a proper length, but unfortunately this did nothing for me. I saw the twist coming and I was kind of bored with this one. I also don’t prefer slasher stories. 

“The Panic”—5/5 stars

This story was great! The only one in the collection that I truly loved. I love stories that feel unsettling and eerie, that evoke a sense of impending dread. There’s something inexplicably mysterious and creepy going on and I was desperate to figure out what was happening. The only thing I didn’t prefer here was that this story had an ambiguous ending because I am someone who needs ANSWERS. But I still liked it. I need more horror like this, but I don’t know what to call this subgenre. 

“Some Bad Luck Near Bitter Downs”—2/5 stars 

Two brothers accidentally obtain a severed head. Sounds cool, except this story felt like it was a western, which I didn’t like. Guns and whiskey and guns: not my thing. I like the idea of severed heads, which may or may not still be alive, but I didn’t like the setting or characters in this one. 

“Mister Mickenzie”—3/5 stars

This was a longer story that had me simultaneously intrigued and bored. Two little girls are joined during playtime by their mysterious imaginary friend who decides the rules to all the games: Mister Mickenzie. My main problem here was once again the lack of a concrete ending. I like my stories wrapped up neat with a bow, but this one had a more ambiguous ending, alluding to something but it’s still not clear what will happen. Those who enjoy open-ended stories will likely like this better than I did. It wasn’t bad—certainly creepy and unsettling—but it was also not really my jam either. 

“1855”—1/5 stars 

I don’t have much to say about this story as it did nothing for me and I was honestly quite bored, which is unfortunate as the author states this is his favorite story in the collection. 

“A Real Likeness”—2/5 stars 

This story had a strong start but ultimately was a flop for me. A college art student notices something strange take shape in his portraits. I thought it sounded cool, but there was no real resolution, no noticeable horror aspect, and the ending didn’t make sense to me. 

“Copilot”—4/5 stars 

This is a bit of sci-fi horror, although the horror element is pretty minor to me. I like stories where other beings invade human bodies though, so this worked for me. This is my second favorite in this collection, and the only story besides “The Panic” that I genuinely enjoyed here. 

“Red Meat”—2/5 stars 

I don’t know if this is Japanese horror or just a generic gory story, but it didn’t really do anything for me either way. The gore didn’t bother me, and the ending was interesting, but I just felt nothing while I read. I think it needed to be longer. 

“Last Supper”—2.5/5 stars 

Definitely an interesting concept with a cliffhanger ending, but again, it needed to be longer. I want to know more about the world because I kind of get the sense the two characters are some of the last characters alive and I want to know why. 

“She’s New in Town”—1.5/5 stars 

A girl with weird eyes buys a pair of sunglasses at a grocery store. That’s it, that’s the whole story. What was the point? Where was the horror? 

“When It Rains”—1.5/5 stars 

Once again, what? Maybe I’m just dumb or a very unseasoned horror reader, but I’m just not seeing the point of most of these stories or what makes most of them horror stories. This story was kind of pointless to me. A sort of anti-meet-cute. 

“Sometimes You Get Two”—2/5 stars 

I’ve never cared about hunting, and this, the longest story in the collection, happens to be entirely about deer hunting. Completely just not my thing, and I could not wait for it to end. And then then end was so convoluted that it just made me angry. What the heck even happened? It made absolutely no sense to me. 

“The Machete at the End of the World”—1.5/5 stars 

I got more from the author’s description of what’s happening in this story than I did from the actual story. He said it’s a slasher meets post-apocalyptic fiction, and I wouldn’t have guessed either of those genres from actually reading it. I feel like a broken record at this point, but this was confusing and I don’t understand what it was supposed to communicate. 

Review: SALT TO THE SEA by Ruta Sepetys

 

Rating: 1.5/5 stars 

DNF at 44%. 

Ruta Sepetys has a real talent when it comes to writing historical fiction, and this book is no different. It is well written and well researched. The reason I DNFed it though is that it is very sad, and I have realized I can’t do sad World War 2 fiction anymore. I just have no desire to continue reading it. I need something happy. But if you enjoy authentic WW2 stories then I would definitely recommend this novel, and I would also recommend checking out other books by Ruta Sepetys as well, especially The Fountains of Silence, which is just as well written and researched, but it’s happier and romantic instead. 

Review: THE BOOK OF SPECULATION by Erika Swyler

 

Rating: 2/5 stars

The Book of Speculation is objectively good; it’s well-written with fleshed-out characters and an interesting plot. “A librarian vs. the sea vs. his house vs. his sister vs. a curse,” as the author describes it. It’s mysterious with lyrical writing. 

Subjectively, however, this book is simply not for me. 

My coworker described this novel as Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore plus Night Circus plus Water for Elephants, and I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description. It’s a tricky description for me though because I rated those books 5, 4, and 3 stars, respectively, so I really had no clue how The Book of Speculation was going to go. I decided to rate it 2 stars purely for my enjoyment level, but it’s not a bad book by any means, and I’d definitely recommend it if you think it sounds up your alley. 

I’ve come to realize that I do not like books that center around a circus (Night Circus being the singular exception here). I also do not care about tarot cards, and those play a pretty big role in this novel. Mermaids also play a big role in this book, and I’m pretty impartial to them as well. Subsequently, I was not really attached to any of the characters, even though they were written well, so I wasn’t very invested in them uncovering truths about their past. And lastly, this book was weirdly similar to another book I was reading at the same time that I didn’t enjoy (The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender) even though they had no right being so similar, but I think the comparison was slowly turning me off of this novel. 

In short, this is a good book but it’s not a good book for me. I hope if you read it that it’s good for you though. 

Review: BRING ME YOUR MIDNIGHT by Rachel Griffin

 

Rating: 5/5 stars 

I've been a fan of Rachel Griffin since the release of her first novel, The Nature of Witches. After reading her sophomore novel, Wild Is the Witch, and now her newest novel, Bring Me Your Midnight, I can safely say that Rachel Griffin is an auto-read author for me at this point. 

Each of her stories so far has been a cozy contemporary fantasy set in the Pacific Northwest (my favorite location on earth!) about a witch learning to use her magic while also falling in love. The books are fun, fast-paced, emotional, and heartwarming. 

Bring Me Your Midnight is Rachel's strongest book yet! I loved every minute of it and completely flew through the story. This novel contrasts the duty one has to their family, their ancestors, and their community with the desires of their heart that are completely at odds with what is expected of them. Would you let down everyone around you for your own happiness, or sacrifice your own happiness and future for the safety and happiness of those closest to you? This is the dilemma that the protagonist, Tana Fairchild, faces in this novel. 

As the coven leader's daughter, Tana has been expected since birth to marry the governor's son, Landon, to secure an alliance between the witches on the island and the non-magic humans on the mainland. Tana has always agreed to this plan, until she meets Wolfe, a member of the forbidden dark magic coven, and learns that her coven's magic is slowly killing their island and the surrounding ocean. As Tana learns the truth about her coven's history and the truth about her magic, she will have to decide on a fate that will affect not only her future but the future of everyone in her coven. Bring Me Your Midnight deals with the consequences of one's choices and how something can be both good and bad, both desirable and undesirable at the same time. 

This novel was magically ethereal and thoroughly enjoyable. If you haven't read a Rachel Griffin book yet and love cozy and romantic witchy stories, definitely check out Bring Me Your Midnight. I can't wait to see what novels she has planned for the future. 

Review: STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow

 

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

Arthur Starling is the mysterious and rarely seen Warden of Starling House, protecting the surrounding land from the Beasts of the Underland that may or may not lurk beneath the house. 

Opal will do anything for her brother, Jasper, to help him leave their small town for good and make his way in the world, including confronting Starling House and its reclusive sole resident. 

While this contemporary southern gothic fairytale is told from the dueling perspectives of both Arthur and Opal, neither is truly the main character of this novel; the house itself lies at the center of the story. 

I love stories containing a creepy, old house, and better yet if the house is a sentient character in the story. The Starling house is darkly magical, mysterious and beautiful, while also crumbling in disrepair. It’s a labyrinth that haunts people’s dreams to draw them to it. And it might also be haunted itself. 

The imagery and vivid descriptions in this story captivated me from the very beginning. I loved letting my mind get lost in Eden, Kentucky while also being glad that I wasn’t physically present in this creepy accident-prone small town.

Starling House is an ethereal and transportive novel perfect for those interested in the dark secrets of a cursed town, an old house with monsters inside, generational history that gets twisted throughout time, family ties and found family bonds stronger than steel, a pair of protagonists fighting for survival, and a swoony romance that rivals that of Howl and Sophie (from Howl’s Moving Castle, another incredible book featuring a sentient house). 

Starling House was one of my most anticipated books of 2023, and it’s definitely on my list of top books I’ve read so far this year. I love Alix Harrow’s lyrical and beautiful writing, and I will continue to read anything she publishes. This is her best novel yet, and it’s a strong recommendation from me.

Review: THE LEFT-HANDED BOOKSELLERS OF LONDON by Garth Nix

 

Rating: 1/5 stars

DNF at 48%. 

The concept of this book sounded really interesting to me: left-handed booksellers and right-handed booksellers, the fighters and the creatives. An underground secret society in London.

Unfortunately, everything about this was a letdown for me. This book is marketed as a young adult fantasy, but it reads like a middle-grade contemporary, except has swearing similar to a young adult or adult novel, so it all just feels really jarring to read. 

The entire story so far was about Susan becoming close with the booksellers as they help her try to discover who her father was. I’m sorry but that is not an exciting plotline in what was supposed to be a fantastical and mysterious novel. It was rather slow-moving as well.

Ultimately I realized that I didn’t care about a single character or what happened to them or who Susan’s father was or any implications related to that. The entire story was boring, in my opinion, and I didn’t care to spend any more time reading it when I could spend time reading a book that actually excites me.