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...
House of Salt and Sorrows is aptly named: there's a heck of a lot of Salt, and there's way more sorrow than necessary plaguing the Thaumas family. The more you read, the more you're like, Sheesh, hasn't this family been through enough??? What's House of Salt and Sorrows about? House of Salt and Sorrows is author Erin A. Craig's reimagining of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. We...
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 feel like Blanky is a cautionary tale about trusting people who can't spell. I mean, would you buy something from a shopkeeper advertising "BABY CLOSE" (i.e., "clothes") for sale? Nope. I sure as hell wouldn't. If for no other reason than on the principle of being a proud (and snobbish) English major who mastered second grade spelling. Unfortunately, main character Steve and his wife weren't as bothered about this obvious portent of...
I didn't think I was spooked by The Graveyard Apartment. I really didn’t. Then I had a dream that I was trying to herd my Japanese family (which I don't have) out of our high-rise apartment building (which I don't live in) that's teeming with ghosts. THAT'S when I knew this intensely creepy, Japanese horror story had really gotten to me. What's The Graveyard Apartment about? The premise of The Graveyard Apartment is admittedly...
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...
