The real terror is not reading a single book I definitively loved. That and my ever growing pile of books to read while I do anything but read them.
but I guess it added a mild bit of individuality. Like I want to say that this book had good ideas but didn't go anywhere with them but...did it even have any good ideas? Ehh....
October Book Reviews
Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero)
5.5/10 This book had its highs and lows for me. I liked the concept of a Scooby gang-esque group reuniting after they grow up and re-investigating an old case only to discover that there was real supernatural forces involved. The kids themselves though...didn't really grow on me. Andy especially, her whole character was built around her crush on Kerri, to the point where it was getting kind of overbearing. Like girl, you're not a teenager anymore, keep it together!! My favorite character was honestly probably the dog. The beginning took way, way too long and I really struggled to keep going. The high point was definitely the last few chapters when they returned to the house and the action really kicked in. While it had plenty of nods to Lovecraft canon, the vibe itself was nowhere near actual Lovecraft stories. I was also thrown off by the writing style changes but really loved the twists at the end. Overall, it was fine but it could've been better.Split Tooth (Tanya Tagaq)
1.5/10 Um. Let's just say I'm not a fan of this style of writing. I get that it's supposed to be poetic, but it just threw me off. The random events, the random poetry, the random New Age spiritualism, the random animal sex, listen...I just. It's just not my thing. You could call it 'a mystical journey of the relationship between man and nature, a look at the shamanistic rituals of the past' and I could call it 'a woman giving a fox a blowjob'. You could call it 'weaving a line between reality and invention, an ancient myth reborn in the present' and I could call it 'a bad acid trip'. Let's agree to disagree and never speak of this book again.The Perfect Girlfriend (Karen Hamilton)
4/10 I'm not a fan of domestic thrillers and unfortunately this book didn't change my mind. It wasn't exactly bad, it was just more of a genre I'm not particularly into. There were some parts, especially in the beginning, where I was interested in where the plot was going or what the protagonist was going to do next. But after the climax, I felt that it had less direction and the main character didn't impress me as much, instead growing more far-fetched and crazy in a mental kind of way than realistically sinister. While the ending with the 'twist' reveal was fun, I wasn't so much surprised at her final actions as I thought she would've done it sooner. It was easy to read through, I'll give it that, but it didn't do too much for me.Lovecraft Country (Mat Ruff)
7.5/10 "But even the talk of magic wasn't that peculiar, for most of them spoke of it as they would of money, or politics or any other means of bending the world to their will." It was an interesting read, and there were definitely some high points, but overall it failed to really pull me in and the story seemed vaguely disjointed. Rather than an overarching story with a clear focus, it kind of jumps around POVs (albeit with the same underlying plot), and I had a hard time really getting in and focusing on finishing the book. Still, it had some neat ideas and great moments. The Lovecraft part of the title is more of an homage to his themes than anything stylistically or tonally similar. Still, I'll give it props because it touched upon the one theme that so many other works inspired by Lovecraft have failed to address: the racism. It really added an unique quality and the setting of the American Midwest during the Jim Crowe era isn't a common location for horror which was great too. A story with its highs and 'meh's but it wasn't bad.How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings (Sarah Cooper)
7.5/10 A hilarious, fun to read, but not anything groundbreaking or fresh. It's pretty much what the internet has said and pointed out countless times, the sexism that women face in the workplace. There's multitudes of similar stuff on social media that talk about double standards and man-splaining. None of the things she says is particularly standout but it was still funny to read. The layout and formatting of the book was great, the stuff it talks about is definitely real and I like that it didn't try to go too heavy. It was light on subsistence but sometimes that what you need, just some humor to help point out the ridiculous. It's definitely a fun book and I think it'd make a fantastic present for all the HBIC.Monstress, Vol.1: Awakening (Marjorie Liu)
5/10 Monstress has some amazing art, incredibly detailed, the world is beautifully imagined and the character designs are gorgeous. I like its mix of Western and Eastern art style, so it doesn't come off as completely one or the other. However, it falls short in terms of introducing you to the setting itself. It's a pretty high fantasy world, with various factions, races and histories. But the story just throws you in media res, there's no time to fully grasp what's going on at all. There seems to be two groups fighting a war? People with animal ears? The main character has some monster thing inside her? There are two kinds of talking cats??? While mildly intriguing, it's way too confusing for me to actually be invested in the story.Alice (Christina Henry)
4.5/10 Ehhh...so this book is supposed to be dark, gritty re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. First of all, like there isn't enough of those but I'm the one who decided to read it so we'll let it pass for now. But even with that common premise, there's nothing too much to differentiate it. Like we start off with Alice in an asylum! Wow! Groundbreaking. The characters in the story are humans in this one, like okay. There's some random love interest who's older than her and she like loves him immediately with almost zero buildup? A lot of the 'darkness' feels like it comes from a need to be edgy rather than actually making it sinister. The ending was so anticlimacticbut I guess it added a mild bit of individuality. Like I want to say that this book had good ideas but didn't go anywhere with them but...did it even have any good ideas? Ehh....