What starts out as a coming of age running away from home novel with a wholesome old simpleton man who can talk to cats quickly turns into a wha84/100
What starts out as a coming of age running away from home novel with a wholesome old simpleton man who can talk to cats quickly turns into a what the fuck metaphysical magical realism banger full of sex (albeit sometimes extremely questionable), philosophy, and mysteries with no real answers. Definitely some Stephen King vibes at times, as well. Good book...more
Bobby Mac does it again. This book bangs from start to finish. Tim Powers needs to take some notes--THIS is how you do 1700s/1800s London, not w88/100
Bobby Mac does it again. This book bangs from start to finish. Tim Powers needs to take some notes--THIS is how you do 1700s/1800s London, not whatever the hell he was doing in Anubis Gates. I can't say much because spoilers, but I will say the end was absolute heat and perfectly sets up the next book, and also introduces perhaps some occult elements (or at least, our characters think it's supernatural) in the exploration of some Satanic stuff, which should be really cool in the subsequent books....more
A solid entry in the Matthew Corbett series, but this one feels like a filler, side quest kinda book for the most part. That being said, it’s st80/100
A solid entry in the Matthew Corbett series, but this one feels like a filler, side quest kinda book for the most part. That being said, it’s still a pretty damn good side quest. The atmosphere in this book is just next level, but I’m biased because I love swamp settings. There’s a brand new character that has a solid arc in just 250ish pages, which is impressive in its own right. And by the end McCammon gets us back on track with Matthew’s larger adventure and leads directly into Freedom of the Mask. So this gets a well deserved thumbs up, despite being a bit off the beaten path for where this series should be heading in volume five....more
Probably the *best* Osten Ard book so far, but Dragonbone Chair remains my *favorite.* Tad’s writing is always exceptional, and it was so nice b90/100
Probably the *best* Osten Ard book so far, but Dragonbone Chair remains my *favorite.* Tad’s writing is always exceptional, and it was so nice being back with many characters I know and love, and then Tad gave us even more fantastic characters to get to know. Such a great book...more
A Mike Lupica basketball story masquerading as a Native American horror. Part one was good, then everything after was downhill, cul44/100 (sorry Evie)
A Mike Lupica basketball story masquerading as a Native American horror. Part one was good, then everything after was downhill, culminating in the dumbest, goofiest climax I’ve ever read outside of *The Tommyknockers.*...more
This is another really solid Greg Iles book, but once again, he writes about some stuff that is both hard to read and hard to recommend.
I liked 84/100
This is another really solid Greg Iles book, but once again, he writes about some stuff that is both hard to read and hard to recommend.
I liked that Iles switched things up a little bit in this one. Instead of giving us only Penn’s first person POV, we also get chapters in third person following other characters every so often. This allowed the story to expand more and was nice to see now in book three.
The two main bad guys in this book are *bad* guys. Big time criminals with no remorse for anyone else, and it shows in their words and actions. Unfortunately though, that leads to some pretty gruesome stuff. Dogfighting is a decent part of this book and it gets pretty descriptive at times, so if you have a strong aversion to animal violence, steer way clear of this one. There’s also drug usage, abduction, some pretty bad sexual assault scenes, suicide. A lot of trigger warnings that are important to know about before going into this one.
Even so, this book was still pretty good. Penn Cage continues to be a great character (even if his morals slipped a little bit in Turning Angel but we don’t talk about that one...more
93/100 Another five star banger from Billy Krueger.
A body found in the river, with seemingly little to no evidence as to what happened. Oh, but it mus93/100 Another five star banger from Billy Krueger.
A body found in the river, with seemingly little to no evidence as to what happened. Oh, but it must be the Indian that killed him! As with other Krueger books, the racial divide between the Sioux and the whites in Minnesota is heavily featured in this "murder mystery," and once again, he handles it well. But this book isn't so much about the mystery as it is the characters and the town of Jewel. This is the first time I've seen Krueger go pretty in-depth with his characters' backstories and relationships and working a whole bunch of them into the book. There's also some coming-of-age stuff in here, but not as much as there was in Ordinary Grace or This Tender Land. But the book rips.
It's beautiful, it's gutwrenching, it's full of nostalgia for the 50s. But all of this stuff hits with me almost every single time. Highly recommend if you vibe with that stuff....more
It was fine. Beautiful, wonderful, amazing writing, cool worldbuilding, but overall a little aimless and meandering. I understand the battle of 62/100
It was fine. Beautiful, wonderful, amazing writing, cool worldbuilding, but overall a little aimless and meandering. I understand the battle of light and dark is there, but it’s more in the background as Ged goes around to these different places and does different things. I’m also not a huge fan of the “oral legend” storytelling style present here. The end was pretty cool, though. I’ll continue on to Tombs of Atuan and hope I like it a little more ...more
I liked this quite a bit more than Ship of Destiny. In the first book I struggled with liking/caring about most of the characters, but I came ar82/100
I liked this quite a bit more than Ship of Destiny. In the first book I struggled with liking/caring about most of the characters, but I came around on quite a few in this one. I really liked the last 300 pages, and the first 550 were good, too, but my main complaint with Hobb remains that she takes too damn long to get to the point. This book is 30, if not 40, percent longer than it needed to be, and it's keeping it from a full on five stars. One more big ass book to go and then I get to be back with ol Fitzy...more
Bobby Mac you sweet bastard, you did it again. As where Mister Slaughter was almost more of a chase thriller, we're back to some slower paced re87/100
Bobby Mac you sweet bastard, you did it again. As where Mister Slaughter was almost more of a chase thriller, we're back to some slower paced real mystery stuff here and I loved it. The atmosphere of Pendulum is awesome, the character work for new and returning characters is maybe the best so far, and this book just slaps. McCammon keeps movin up my list of fav authors...more
This book is fast paced, crazy, dark, brutal, horny, all things I like. My only real complaints were that I personally didn't connect with the characters very well, and that's something that will always knock some points off for me. But this book still real good...more
This was a fine book. Good mystery, still well paced and thought out, mostly good characters. I cannot in good conscience rate it any higher tho74/100
This was a fine book. Good mystery, still well paced and thought out, mostly good characters. I cannot in good conscience rate it any higher though, because it's quite uncomfortable with age gap relationships (40 and uhhh.... 17). And while on one hand this is a real thing that happens, especially in smaller towns such as Natchez in the book, I feel like this book almost kinda tried to excuse it and that was uh, not cool. The main character, Penn Cage, who I quite liked in book one, even finds himself falling into that trap with an 18 year old high school student, and that's gross too. Hopefully book three gets away from that cuz yikez...more