A blogger friend recommended The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires to me during one of my reading slumps. I jumped on it since I’m a big fan of author Grady Hendrix’s previous novel, Horrorstor. Also, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight enthusiast (don’t judge), I have a thing for vampires. So, I figured this Hendrix story was worth a shot.
What is The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires about? This...
Heads up, Tartlets: I tore through the The Maidens in about three days. I haven't read author Alex Michaelides' previous novel, the mega-bestseller The Silent Patient. But when an unrequested ARC of The Maidens showed up in my mailbox, I was like, Hey, a free book. Let’s try it. What's The Maidens about? The Maidens is a twisty, edgy psychological thriller bound together with threads of Greek mythology and tragedy, deception...
The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters is a pretty morbid book title. Naturally, I was immediately drawn to it. The synopsis promised a mix of psychological thriller and supernatural suspense, so I was all "Yup, yup, that's my kind of book!" What's The Dead Girls Club about? The Dead Girls Club is told across two timelines: "Now" and "Then." The "Now" follows adult Heather, who's an anxious, nervous, borderline personality...
Dixie Wheeler, the main character of Theme Music, is a little odd. She gets a pass, though. You would, too, if your whole family was brutally slaughtered in front of your eyes. YEAH. You heard me. What's Theme Music about? The prologue of Theme Music is an incredibly graphic replay of when Dixie Wheeler's father pulled a Lizzie Borden on his family, taking an axe and chopping them into pieces one Thanksgiving morning....
First of all, can we all just take a moment to acknowledge how much the cover for The Girl in the Mirror looks like the cover for Desperate Girls? Second of all...is it weird that I called the entire story, from beginning to end? Nothing about The Girl in the Mirror surprised me. Like, NOTHING. And I don't think it's because I'm just that brilliant (I'm not). It's because author Rose Carlyle dropped a lot of super-obvious clues throughout the...
I devoured The Whisper Man by Alex North in one weekend. I started on a Friday night, and then I just didn't want to stop. When I finally did, I had to take several deep breaths, then shake my head to clear away the intense, mesmerizing world I'd gladly lost myself in for hours on end. The Whisper Man eff'd me up Every cliché you hear about a good thriller should be applied to The Whisper Man-- because it actually deserves these...
I never wanted The Turn of the Key to end. I’ve read all of author Ruth Ware’s previous novels, save The Death of Mrs. Westaway. I liked In a Dark, Dark Wood. I really liked The Woman in Cabin 10 (though, admittedly, it did nothing to assuage my deep-seated fears of cruise ships… and/or small, confined spaces). I was pretty “meh” about The Lying Game, but I think we all were since no one really seems to talk about that one. The...
This hardly ever happens to me, but...I have no idea what to write as a book review for Lock Every Door. As I read a book, I'm usually furiously scribbling notes in my little journal; I know I won't remember bookish thoughts later on that come to me in the moment, so I make sure to jot them down as reference points for when I write my reviews. But, I didn't make any notes for Lock Every Door. Not a single one. I was too busy reading. I was...
Little Darlings by Melanie Golding is So. Freakin’. GOOD. I’m not usually a fan of stories that blur the line between supernatural and psychotic – is there really something otherworldly going on, or is the main character just crazy? – but Little Darlings may be one of the best exceptions I’ve ever come cross. Fair warning: don’t read this book if you have an intense fear of child abduction. This book made me sleepless, and I don’t...
I can't remember if I requested an ARC of Saint X. I was pretty surprised when it showed up on my doorstep last fall, so I'm guessing that I didn't actually seek this one out. However, it's possible I just forgot. Book bloggers tend to say yes to any offers of free books that come their way, and, while I limit the ARCS I request to only a few per year, there's a good chance I read a synopsis of Saint X before my self-imposed ARC restrictions and...
