Oh no. Oh no no no no no! Oh maaan. This one just wasn’t for me. I made it about 100 pages in before I had to tap out.
I’ve adored Stephen’s past work—Oh no. Oh no no no no no! Oh maaan. This one just wasn’t for me. I made it about 100 pages in before I had to tap out.
I’ve adored Stephen’s past work—Braineater Jones and The Perfectly Fine House are both absolute gems, and I recommend them to anyone who’ll listen. But this one? It felt like it got body-snatched. Was it the co-author? A cursed manuscript? Some unholy genre mash that defies the natural order? I don’t know. The voice felt off, like it had been diluted or pulled in too many directions.
I kept thinking, “I can’t do this for 300 more pages" and eventually I just noped out.
And it pains me to say it because I adore Stephen and love featuring him on my blog. I had such high hopes—Roger Rabbit meets horror? Yes, please. But it just didn’t click for me.
I wanted to love it. I really did. And the publisher even sent me a pretty print copy for review. I feel like I owe someone an apology fruit basket. Instead, I’m crawling into my little reader's remorse cave for some quiet reflection (and maybe snacks).
This was a total impulse buy—the cover and jacket copy caught my attention instantly. I had a feeling it might not deliver, especially after skimming This was a total impulse buy—the cover and jacket copy caught my attention instantly. I had a feeling it might not deliver, especially after skimming a few reviews beforehand, but I took the plunge anyway.
Three generations of women live together in the so-called "blind house," named for its windowless front-facing wall. Twelve-year-old Valentina longs for a normal childhood, but normal isn’t in the cards—especially when, on the night of her first period, a crack in her bedroom wall begins to bleed. Their home is a magnet for bizarre phenomena: overrun by infestations of frogs, flies, and locusts. The neighbors whisper about witches, while Valentina’s grandmother insists it's the weight of an old family curse.
Either way, Valentina refuses to heed her grandmother’s pleas for prayer. Instead, she nurses a growing resentment toward her mother—trapped in a relationship where neither seems able to reach the other. Her solace comes in fleeting escapes: the steady presence of her best friend Ilaria, the tentative spark with Marco, and the few, stolen moments with her estranged father.
The Empire of Dirt spends most of its time on the shifting insecurities of adolescence and the complexities of familial bonds, while barely skimming the surface of the paranormal intrigue that made its synopsis so compelling.
It was fine, and I’m fine with that. If you’re more drawn to the coming-of-age elements than the eerie undertones, this might be exactly what you’re looking for....more
I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to them. Sirens? A boardwalk attraction? The premise had so much potential. I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to them. Sirens? A boardwalk attraction? The premise had so much potential. I wasn't expecting extreme body horror or super gory violence—Red Hen Press doesn’t lean that way—but I was hoping for something more than what this book ultimately delivered.
Ceto was a siren, luring fishermen to their doom alongside her sisters, always ravenous, never satisfied—until she decides she’s done. She severs her tail, steps onto land, and marries the first man she meets. After bearing his child, she abandons that life too, eventually finding herself back by the ocean, breathing new life into a fading roadside attraction on the boardwalk.
The novel explores themes of feminism, trauma, bodily autonomy, and the lasting effects of harsh mothering. It has all the right ingredients for a compelling mermaid story, but the execution falters. The descriptions of Sirenland—the space where the sirens performed and lived—were difficult to visualize, and the flashbacks to Ceto’s past were scattered throughout the story in a way that disrupted the flow. Despite its intriguing premise, the story never fully came together for me.
I'm loving the mermaid fiction wave we're riding right now, but I wouldn’t be in a hurry to add this one to your collection. But who knows, maybe it will resonate with you!...more
Who are all of y'all giving this thing 4 and 5 stars? C'mon. You read what I just read, right?! It was awful. And not in a 'omg body horror got Nope.
Who are all of y'all giving this thing 4 and 5 stars? C'mon. You read what I just read, right?! It was awful. And not in a 'omg body horror got me all cranked up' awful, either. And I was soooo hoping for some good, gross body horror. Sigh.
This was 270 pages of a disgustingly selfish woman treating everyone around her, including her disabled son, like they were all pieces of shit or just a means to an end. She was loathsome and preachy and such a spoiled bitch that I wished with all my heart that things would end horribly for her.
Don't read it. Let me spoil it for you. (view spoiler)[ It doesn't. It doesn't end horribly for her. And that is the true horror here. (hide spoiler)]
My apologies to the author, who kindly offered me a review copy. I wanted to like it. I really did. ...more
I’d been circling this book for ages in bookstores and finally snatched it up when I stumbled across a used copy. Something about it made me hesitate I’d been circling this book for ages in bookstores and finally snatched it up when I stumbled across a used copy. Something about it made me hesitate to pay full price, and in hindsight, I’m glad I trusted that instinct.
The concept is really compelling: Earth has been decimated by a mysterious cataclysm known as the Green Winter, and only the elite in the Upper Settlement—a sleek, man-made ring orbiting the planet—enjoy any semblance of comfort. Below, the surface-dwellers claw out a brutal existence amid an ecosystem that’s turned vicious. Forests don’t just grow—they hunt, encroaching on isolated settlements and swallowing them whole. The resentment between those grounded on Earth and those floating above bubbles beneath the surface and when Pearl—our main character—is matched with a ringer, she starts digging into the polished myths and quiet omissions that shield the Upper Settlement.
While the setup had serious potential, the execution felt like someone dropped the ball, kicked it into a ravine, and then forgot why they were playing. The story threw around labels like swimmers, beanies, techies, and storytellers and I kept thinking, any minute now they’ll explain things but—nope. Nothing. Just vibes and confusion. By the end, I was half-convinced the author hoped we’d just nod along like it all made perfect sense.
The pacing wobbled, and the story never quite lived up to its ambitious worldbuilding. It dragged, even as I tried to power through the pages. Then again, maybe the real problem was me—trying to focus on a mediocre dystopia while surrounded by sun, surf, and boardwalk ice cream. So sure, ok maybe the book had some stiff competition.
If you are on the fence with this one like I was... go ahead and pass. You're not missing anything, I promise....more
I received this as an unsolicited review copy from the publisher and while it's not something I think I would have picked up on my own, I decided to gI received this as an unsolicited review copy from the publisher and while it's not something I think I would have picked up on my own, I decided to give it a read because I'm being more intentional with knocking out the arcs I have and saw no reason to slow that roll right now.
It's a quick read for two reasons: (1) it's barely over 100 pages and (2) it's all surface, no substance. If you're looking for something to check a box on a reading list, or you want something light that you can power through in a few hours, this would be a good choice.
Ultimately, it's monster vs man but with a monster we've never encountered before. Oh, and there's a little monster-rom com sprinkled in there too, I guess, for funsies.
So basically, the girl is a monster who can pass as human but with magic powers and millions of teeth who, by nature and necessity, is compelled to devour men of violence, which they dub Alexanders. Her ill and aging mom teaches her to hunt so she can be self sufficient. On their first hunt together, girl and mom kill a guy who beats his family, then wipes the wife and son's memories and charms them into letting them crash at their place. The girl and the son hit it off, bff style, reading penny dreadful books in his mom's shop while her mom sleeps off the hunt and heals, because hunting and using magic drains you, and soon the girl decides she has to hunt on her own to allow her mom to conserve her energy, and to bring back the bad guys she kills so her mom can eat, because eating Alexanders replenishes their powers and strength.
Meanwhile, a bad priest and even badder cop are aware that these monsters exist and are keeping an eye out for them, and while trying to avoid being caught by them but still needing to prowl the town for Alexanders to eat, the girl befriends another of her kind, and then all kinds of hell breaks loose.
That's the book in a nutshell. Am I giving too much away? I mean, much of this is on the back cover and it's a novelette and I'm aware that I'm probably making it sound more exciting and interesting than it really was. The writing wasn't doing it for me and the whole thing was just kind of meh. The characters are flat as pancakes and so is the world they are navigating. I nearly DNFd it a few pages in but stuck with it because it wasn't like it was a huge time commitment. That sounds horrible doesn't it? But you guuuuuuys, DNFing is so haaaaard!...more
This book was cute but kind of bland. It was like snacking on the left overs of a charcuterie board... it tasted ok bCool concept, strange execution.
This book was cute but kind of bland. It was like snacking on the left overs of a charcuterie board... it tasted ok but wasn't really as satisfying as you had hoped.
The moon turns to cheese and the world is completely baffled. And we are riding the wave of confusion through a 300 paged collection of mostly isolated, individual reactions and experiences as everyone begins to deal with the reality of it.
There's a story for each day of the lunar cycle. And within those stories, we are treated to the perspectives of the President, NASA and some of its astronauts, a jerky billionaire, some old retired dudes in a diner, an author whose flopped book release is now front and center and selling like hotcakes, a priest and his congregants, two feuding brothers who own cheese shops on the same street, and more. Soooo many more.
I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. A tongue-in-cheek sci-fi story of a catastrophic astrological event that left me wanting.
Something tells me this was probably not the best book for a first time Scalzi reader to pick up. Maybe it can only go up from here? ...more
This book arrived as a total surprise on my doorstep from the publisher and it sounded right up my alley - a space novelette in which a group of salvaThis book arrived as a total surprise on my doorstep from the publisher and it sounded right up my alley - a space novelette in which a group of salvagers discover a strange and beautiful anomaly in a cave on a deserted planet. It looks like a stained glass work of art, with intricate vines, flowers, and insects depicted over a bioluminescent wall. Lissy, the crew's captain, believes this will make them all rich and feels pressured to move quickly on disassembling it. Her sister, an anthropologist, wants them to take their time with this, to learn as much as possible about the planet, the wildlife, and this terrifyingly wonderful find.
As the book progresses, the 'garden' wall seems to call to some of the crew while the others are determined to understand what happened to the previous settlers, who seem to have simply vanished into thin air. The more they explore, the more questions they have. There are no signs of a rushed evacuation, and yet no bodies.
It's creepy and atmospheric and definitely has that claustrophobic feel that's basically a requirement for this type of fiction. It's a quick and unique read. It has none of the clunky techy sci-fi terms and all of the anticipation and anxiety that comes with being out of your element on extraterrestrial soil.
My only complaint... it felt a little too rushed at the end. And no wonder, with it clocking in just over 130 pages. ...more
All of these horror books sounding pretty dang good but not fully delivering is starting to harsh my mellow you guys.
An old friend rings up, back in All of these horror books sounding pretty dang good but not fully delivering is starting to harsh my mellow you guys.
An old friend rings up, back in the area again, and invites you to hang with them at a secluded rental house in the middle of the everglades. You were too young to know it then, but they were a bad influence on you but you're aware of that now and worry that you might not find each other likeable now. But you go, reluctantly, and are surprised at how easily you pick things back up.
They forgot to tell you that their boyfriend is there, which was a little weird at first. And then they share that it's not actually a rental but a house the boyfriend inherited from his family, and it's kind of mazelike trying to find your way around inside but you're feeling at ease and kind of peaceful, the stress of real life slipping off your shoulders and you start to lose track of time and then... well... there's a lot of flashbacks, I mean A LOT of flashbacks and then there's this journal under the bed of the room you're in, which you start to read and which makes no sense until it kind of does and then everything just seems to sort of stop making sense.
The weird doesn't hit until we're almost at the end of the book, so the whole time I'm like yeah, ok, where's the horror, and even when it does finally shows itself, it's like meh, THAT's what I was sticking around waiting for? Nah. Not ok. That was crap.
The 'horror' probably comes from the horribly long wait for the criminally horrible payoff. ...more
Yeah. No. This wasn't for me. I thought about DNFing a few times before the weirdness fully kicked in and then once it did, I figured I was too far inYeah. No. This wasn't for me. I thought about DNFing a few times before the weirdness fully kicked in and then once it did, I figured I was too far in at that point so I just sucked it up and muscled through.
Was it me or did the writing seem... off? Things flowed really strangely and it felt kind of disjointed at times. It definitely had the rougher edges of a debut novel.
For those of you who haven't read it yet and are expecting a creepy cabin the woods horror novel, this is not quite that. Part childhood trauma, part sibling survival story, and a huge heaping serving of oldest sister trying to hold everyone's shit together, this is more psychological horror than anything else. And it's weird. I mentioned it being weird, right?
I bought this on kindle for cheap after letting #bookstagram influence me once again. Yes, I know. The last time I let bookstagram convince me to buy I bought this on kindle for cheap after letting #bookstagram influence me once again. Yes, I know. The last time I let bookstagram convince me to buy a book, it was baaaad, and I said I wasn't going to fall for it again. And yet... here we are.
Book #FOMO is such a thing you guys.
Ok, so here we have a ninety year old millionaire named Monty who is just done with laying around waiting to die, and so he injects himself with a mysterious, liquid filled needle he bought at auction for a ridiculous amount of money. He rises out of his grave shortly afterwards to discover it's Christmas Eve and he's a hungry vampire, and so he goes on an all night blood slurping binge in NYC.
A Christmas Carol this ain't.
This one was strange for me. The writing was ... missing something. Even though the first half of the book dove into Monty's past as he reflected on his life before taking the plunge, it felt like we never really got beneath the surface of things which stunted my ability to connect with him. Likewise, when he turned, his desires and the animalistic urge to feed felt flat, more hollow and functional than anything. So if you're looking for something deeper... this isn't it.
But it was fun if you're reading it for what it is and are just looking for some lightweight seasonal horror to pass the time. And it'll scratch your gore itch for sure.
It explores the fear of death, asking the age old question - if you could, would you make the choice to live forever? But then again, life after death is still a form of death, isn't it?
Nope. I just can't do it. I know I requested this one and I appreciate the opportunity but I DNFd at 11%. Not digging the writing or the characters atNope. I just can't do it. I know I requested this one and I appreciate the opportunity but I DNFd at 11%. Not digging the writing or the characters at all. And such a shame because I thought it sounded good!
I mean... the ending is in the title, so no surprises with this one, and it's more about the journey than the destination, anyway. And oh what a depraI mean... the ending is in the title, so no surprises with this one, and it's more about the journey than the destination, anyway. And oh what a depraved and raunchy journey it was.
It's what I would expect from a musician-turned-writer writing about a coked out, liquor loving dude who masquerades as a beauty product salesman but really's just in it for the pussy. And good lord does he get a lot of it, never mind that he's got a wife and kid at home that he doesn't really seem to give two shits about, until his wife takes herself out and then all the walls come crumbling down around him, don't they?
It's a book that makes you feel bad for the bad guy. You really don't want to because he's just such a scumbag, and that poor kid of his, who looks up to him and adores the shit out of him, but fuck it, there you are feeling like you want to reach on into those pages and give him a good shake, and a slap across the face, and then hug the heck out of him because he needs it. And his kid needs a better dad. And you need him to stop being such a god damn fuck up.
That hot pink on black cover is quite hot too. ...more
This was a gifted copy from a reader friend I typically vibe very closely with but sadly I think we're on opposite ends of the rating scale with this This was a gifted copy from a reader friend I typically vibe very closely with but sadly I think we're on opposite ends of the rating scale with this one. And if I'm being honest, it looks like I'm on the opposite end of the rating scale from everyone else who's read and reviewed this book too. (Welp. Can't love 'em all!)
I don't usually go in for books about fictional art / artists / art critics, so I was admittedly a little scared of this one and it's not totally surprising that I didn't fall in love with it, though I think a bigger part of it was the fact that the entire book was hinged around this snarky abusive male friendship that came out of a mutual obsession with an obscure painting. It also didn't help that the narrator just kept rehashing the same things over and over again for a hundred and forty pages:
- my ex bff defriended me because I said a horrible thing
- my ex bff also hated my first wife and my second wife because they both thought he was a joke
- my ex bff always tried to one up me over who was more obsessed with the painting and it was tiresome but I was happy to be his doormat because even though he was a complete ass he totally got me and here let me share all the mean things he's said and done to me while I jump on this plane to go visit him on his deathbed after he stopped speaking to me ten years ago after I said that horrible thing.
The ending ended exactly the way it needed to, though, didn't it?...more
I think I've let #bookstagram entice me one too many times into reading something I otherwise might not have picked up. In this case, I should have leI think I've let #bookstagram entice me one too many times into reading something I otherwise might not have picked up. In this case, I should have left this particular book on the damn shelf where I found it.
First, praise where praise is due. The first 100 some pages were actually quite good. Our MC Josh discovers his wife has cheated on him and he takes to the woods to clear his head. A good long hike on the PCT may be just what he needs, enjoying nature and making small talk with the few odd folk on the path. That is, until he stumbles on a dead body, and takes a quick detour into the small town of Belam to file a report. But help does not come easy there, and he can tell he's not exactly welcome, so he hightails it back to the trail just as night is falling ... and... cue the Woodkin and all kinds of weird ass shit, which marked the beginning of the end of this book for me.
What crap. What absolute crap this book became. Almost none of it made sense and it just felt so uneven and sloppy. I think the author watched one too many woodsy horror movies and tried to evoke the same creepy you-can-try-and-run-away-but-you'll-never-leave vibes but it just didn't work.
The death of her aunt causes Liz and her younger sister Mary to return to the house they were raised in. The ancestral mansion appears to have been seThe death of her aunt causes Liz and her younger sister Mary to return to the house they were raised in. The ancestral mansion appears to have been severely neglected even though there's a groundskeeper still employed on property, and when Liz runs into her childhood neighbor and friend Julian, she quickly begins to realize something dark and evil has taken root there.
The book is steeped in Mexican and Indigenous culture and folklore, leaning heavily into the ancient gods, ghosts, and cryptids like El Coco, Chupacabra, La Muerte, and Xolotl who are tied to that unforgiving desert landscape, which was a cool space to world-build in. Who doesn't like dark, calamitous, and ruinous fiction, amirite??
That said, Sundown in San Ojuela is a fairly uneven debut which suffers from pacing issues. It's told from multiple characters' viewpoints, each written in a different POV - Liz and Mary's are told in third person; Julian is in second person; the Sheriff is in first. While initially off putting, it ended up working out for the best because once each character's chapter is first introduced, Olivas doesn't really bother to let us know whose chapter it is anymore. And in most instances, the plot is driven forward by revisiting the past in the form of flashbacks.
A few things to note: Liz developed the skill of clairvoyance as the result of a traumatic car accident when she was younger which plays heavily into the storyline and I'd recommend you play close attention to the prologue, which acts more as an opening chapter, since the events that take place in it are happening nearly simultaneously to the rest of the storyline and is not, as I had originally thought, something that has happened in the distant past...
I think I was left more confused with the way the story was told than with the actual story itself, although towards the end it feels like things just became overly and unnecessarily complicated with its many moving parts....more
The cover and title are *chef's kiss*. The vignettes themselves? A bit of a hot mess.
The publisher, who I love and adore, gives us this description -The cover and title are *chef's kiss*. The vignettes themselves? A bit of a hot mess.
The publisher, who I love and adore, gives us this description - "With no real plot to speak of, Hope and Wild Panic defies categorization and concise, catchy jacket copy. It's a collection of microfiction, or it's a novel-in-stories, or it's something else. Neither. Both. Doesn't matter."
But it kind of does matter. It's like flash but not. It's kind of all tied together but not. While the overarching focus is on the narrator's wife and son, there's really nothing connecting one sentence to the next or one story to another. It's one of the most scattered and strange things I've read in a while. The only 'story' I loved was the title story. It was the longest by far in the book, and it read and flowed incredibly smoothly.
I keep saying that I typically like experimental fiction but I don't think I like it as much as I think I do. Because even though I keep saying I like it, when I run across it, more times than not, I don't....more
This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024 (even though it doesn't come out till March 2025). I tried so hard to land an advanced copy. And maThis was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024 (even though it doesn't come out till March 2025). I tried so hard to land an advanced copy. And maybe that should have been a sign? Because holy hell, once I had it my hands, it took me forEVer to finish it! I think it's partially because I was reading it on my kindle app and not in actual print format, but also because the damn thing is just so frick'n meaty and chewy.
The writing is much heavier than I'm used to from SGJ and the story seemed to take ages to fully unfold. Even after you got the gist of where it was headed, it felt like it just kept rehashing the same things over and over again. It's like ok, honestly, I get it, I promise. Let's move on already. And then when you get to the last section, all of a sudden the damned thing just moved at warp speed. So the pacing felt all thrown off. Like, it literally took me two weeks to read the first 80% and then the final 20% of the book was over in the blink of an eye.
In true SGJ fashion, there is so much death. Gory, horrific, necessary death. There are monsters, in every sense of the word. It's a book within a book within a book and its pages drip with bloody, generational, Indigenous history. It's a revenge story with an empathetic bad guy. And when it finally ends, you don't feel as though that's the end of things, you know?
So don't get me wrong. I one hundred percent appreciate the book for what it is and how he's breathing new life into this genre. SGJ is a masterclass in revamping classic horror tropes. But good loooord my legs are tired from slogging through it all!!...more
I thought this book sounded wild and requested a review copy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mid way check in: this book is breaking my brain.
~~~~~~~~~I thought this book sounded wild and requested a review copy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mid way check in: this book is breaking my brain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Honestly, I am not sure what I just read. I believe this is taking place in a near-future post eco-collapse environment where a government agency referred to as RSCH took advantage of the chaos and began instituting extreme new social, educational, and gender rules and norms for its Citizens. Individuals are fitted with permanent AR contacts that record and upload memories directly to RSCHs infrastructure and are used as a means to monitor conformity. Any deviation to the social or dietary regimens is met with strict retraining, amputations slash body modifications, or axeing (which I think is a form of kidnapping) in the hopes of rehabilitating the person. Though, depending on the level of deviance, I think some people are just disappeared.
It's written in a highly experimental format that plays with language and structure A LOT. Part fragmented novel, part poetry, part found footage/transcripts/government postings, it was really difficult to follow. I mean, Cavar makes you WORK for it, you guys. And I don't even know if I got it. I could be really far off base here. My head was literally SPINNING throughout the entire thing.
Early reviews are all glowing, so this could totally be a me-not-you thing, but as someone who tends to dig experimental fiction, I'd be really surprised if I'm the only one who will struggle with this.
Pick this one up if you have an appreciation for sci fi authoritarian dystopia with trans and disability representation. For a vibe check, if you like the concepts in Darin Bradley's Dystopian Cluster series (Chimpanzee, Totem, and Noise), or the writing style of Blake Butler, this may also be for you too.
If you do end up checking it out, I'd love to know what you think! ...more
I saw this at a used bookstore for 4 bucks and when I realized it was an end of the world plaguey kind of book, which is right up my alley, I figured,I saw this at a used bookstore for 4 bucks and when I realized it was an end of the world plaguey kind of book, which is right up my alley, I figured, yes, let's do this.
The premise of Black Moon is a simple one. Suddenly, almost everyone is infected with incurable insomnia. It only takes a few days for people to start hallucinating and struggle to communicate clearly. A few days more and they are outside wandering around, lost and babbling nonsense, but they can start to sniff out a sleeper. The longer they go without sleep, the more aggressively they go after the sleepers when they stumble upon one actually sleeping. Kind of like zombies, only they aren't dead and they won't eat your brains, they will just beat you to death in an attempt to release your sleep.
Through a series of alternating chapters, we follow a few of those who haven't been affected, and one who is but is in a place that believes it can help the sleepless begin to sleep again, and travel with them on their individual journeys as they try to find their families, or attempt to leave them behind, in this new hellscape.
While I liked it overall, it felt too much like of a knock-off of Nod. And the length of time in which the people appeared to still be alive and functioning, if you could call it that, without sleep seemed a little unbelievable. I'm no expert but I would think that no one would be alive after nearly a month of no sleep. I mean, ok, yes, I googled how long a human body can go without sleep so you won't have to, ha, and the longest recorded length of time was 11 days, so there's no way to know for sure, but a MONTH? To still be alive and walking around, even if you're completely out of it and zombie-like? Eh. I mean, I'll give Calhoun some credit, because towards the end of the book, the sleepers were seeing more and more dead bodies laying around, but even still, I couldn't suspend belief and buy into it, and that kept pulling me out of the book.
A decent read if you're into pandy fiction and don't mind if you never learn what triggered the pandemic or whether society is able to recover from it...
Q: What's your favorite pandemic/end of world novel(s)?...more