Dead Famous by Ben Elton

Confession time-I enjoy reality TV. Not all reality TV but a hefty chunk of it. Any show that has a strong focus on people interacting with each other (so think Love Island, not X Factor)  really appeals to me. Blame the psychology degrees. Anyway, this is a murder mystery based around a reality TV show which meant I HAD to pick it up, and I'm so glad I did.

Dead Famous is a pretty unique mystery in that you get about halfway through before you find out whose been murdered. Rather than being annoying, it's actually quite fun to try and work out who is dead and why. It adds another layer to the mystery which is a good thing given that I found the actual ending pretty easy to predict. However, despite the predictability I enjoyed every second.

Ben Elton's writing style is phenomenal. Every character in this is written perfectly. All of the reality stars are familiar caricatures but they have the depth necessary to prevent them from being uninteresting. The police characters take the back seat but in the way that they should. Every character has their own motivations and these are both clear to the reader and usually sympathetic or at the very least, understandable. The general pacing and other writing elements are similarly well done. This is fairly long for your average mystery but it certainly doesn't feel that way when reading it. The fact that everyone has a motive for the murder is also done well and it's no easy feat to pull off.

Sadly, this wasn't quite perfect enough to make it into the 5-star read category. The ending was very predictable and while it didn't exactly drag, there was a long time before you found out the identity of the murder victim and it may have been slightly too long. I would still strongly recommend this book if you enjoy mysteries or humorous social commentary. I don't hear enough people talking about it and it's a shame.

Overall Rating:

The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson

Ooh boy. So when I first saw this book, it was on Amazon and I presumed it was self-published. You see that little sticker on the cover that says 'The Hunger Games meets Jurassic Park'? Yeah, this book is literally a rip-off of the Hunger Games premise only stupider and now there are dinosaurs. Imagine my utter surprise when I walk into Waterstones and see this being promoted. It's a real book alright.

Of course I had to read it. The main character is called STORMCHASER KNOX. She has PURPLE EYES. There are DINOSAURS. So I picked up this book expecting a good laugh. I certainly got that but to my surprise, it was much better written than I was expecting.

There are many elements that make up a book. Let me be clear-the writing style of this book is actually pretty good. Everything else varies from just kind of silly to genuinely bad, but this got a much higher rating overall than I was expecting and so the author deserves some credit for that. They deserve absolutely no credit whatsoever for the nonsensical worldbuilding however. The plot of this book makes zero sense and it just goes downhill from there. So Stormchaser is our main character. She is a firm loner without a family and only one best friend to speak of. You remember how Katniss had to enter the Hunger Games to save her sister? Well, Stormchaser chooses to go to an island of dinosaurs entirely voluntarily. Her friends/competitors on the island all have better motivations than her, and yet she's still desperate to win and steal the prize from them. That sure is one likable protagonist!

This fictional world is so confusing as well. I think it's maybe meant to be set in the future but that makes no sense. Even being kind and assuming it takes place in an alternate timeline doesn't help much. In this universe, there are only two continents-one for people and one for dinosaurs. The people continent is running out of space so they want to conquer the dinosaur continent using the mystical power of...DNA. Apparently the only way to get DNA is to steal a dinosaur egg. Not a single character in this book goes into any detail about DNA and I can only assume the author has no idea what it is or how it works. Anyway, the whole premise of the Extinction Trials is that people volunteer to go to the dinosaur continent and then undergo some physical and mental tests to determine their suitability. The top 100 then go to the island, the majority die every year and then the survivors get free food for them and their families. That is the only incentive for applying, and while that is a good incentive if you have hundreds of siblings, it is not a good motivation for Stormchaser.

The ending is the dumbest part of all and I'm going to need to spoil some things.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So as mentioned, Stormchaser has no reason to enter beyond her desire to see the world of dinosaurs. Her surviving teammates on the island include her love interest who has a sick sister, and this other guy who has his own family to feed, plus the families of several dead teammates that he's promised to pretend are his own. When they return from the island, they are the only people with an egg (they actually have two which is important). The evil scientists in charge then change the prize so that all three of them can't win; instead, two of them must claim an egg and those two will get a prize. For some reason love interest claims both eggs, then Storm claims both eggs and then other guy claims one and says Storm got the other. To sort this out, they make everyone compete in further challenges (which are nowhere near as intense as the narrative implies they're going to be). Storm takes part in these and WINS. She voluntarily beats out two guys with legitimate reasons to win because...she wants to?

END OF SPOILERS

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Granted that isn't saying much given that my expectations were rock bottom, but it's enjoyable enough and I can see kids liking this quite a lot. If you want a genuinely good dystopian novel though you will have to look elsewhere. For a 'so good it's bad' read however, this could be great.

Overall Rating:

.5

First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy

God, this book was such a disappointment. I have so many books by Alexandra Sirowy on my to-read list and now I'm finding it hard to muster up enthusiasm for any of them. I just could not get into the writing style of this book and it got to the point where I almost didn't finish reading it, which is a Huge Deal for me. But the narrative style is off-putting, rambly and faux-poetic in  a way which creates a kind of pretentious, dreamy atmosphere. In short, it is the exact kind of style I can't stand. And this is mostly due to personal taste but to be honest, even excluding that I don't think this book has a lot to offer.

Plotwise, I found it very difficult to follow what was going on. This was mostly due to the writing style as I mentioned above but it was also because no one was really acting like a real person or making sense within their motivations. The basic plot is that these four outcasts decide to form a psuedo-cult to get the town to pay attention to the murder of a girl which happened years ago. Everyone at school, particularly the popular kids who have been bullying them for years, becomes desperate to join this cult and will do crazy things to get into it. This already requires too much suspension of disbelief on my part. There is no natural transition between the popular kids hating them to idolising their weird club. It happens mostly because of a semi-naked bonfire dance and what??? That is not the kind of thing that will get the popular people clamoring to take part in something. If anything, it should ostracise them even more as weirdos.

Characterisation was another big problem. Are we meant to hate the bully characters? Conner is despicable but when he starts to want to join the club, I get the impression that the narration wants us to think he's maybe not so bad? Viv is just the worst and has nothing relatable or sympathetic about her. Graham made me so uncomfortable in his attraction and attitude towards Izzie and gave off serious 'nice guy entitlement' vibes. I actually did like Harry right up until an incredibly nonsensical and stupid decision he makes near the end. Finally, Izzie would have been okay if she'd been written more clearly. I know ambiguity is meant to be a part of it but I couldn't really understand how she felt about Graham or Conner or several other important things. That's not ambiguity, that's bad writing. I should understand the main character's motivations, even if they're not clarified until the end. Instead they just don't get clarified at all.

Overall, I just don't get what people like about this book. I guess if you're a fan of the overly-descriptive and poetic writing style, you might get something out of this. It had some potentially good plot elements and the core idea could have worked with some tweaking. Sadly this was not a book for me.

Overall Rating:

.5

This Is How It Ends by Jen Nadol

So I appear to be in the middle of a trend with the things I'm reading at the moment where the stories I'm getting are not what I expected based on the blurb. It happened with Last Seen Leaving and it's happened again with This Is How It Ends. The blurb of this book definitely makes it sound a lot darker than it is and even like it might have elements of horror in it. Instead we get a mostly contemporary book with a slight sci-fi element thrown in.

The bulk of this book is kind of a murder mystery, although you aren't given any clues and it's more like a character journey I guess. The magical binoculars that kick off the plot are pushed to one side fairly quickly and (while still talked about) everyone just sort of takes them in their stride. I found it frustrating that no one seemed to care enough about them when it's confirmed early on that they do indeed tell the future. The 'disturbing visions' mentioned in the blurb are also pretty tame for all but one of the characters. I guess they are emotionally disturbing for each person but again, it wasn't quite what I expected.

The characters are all decent enough I suppose. I didn't really 'get' Sarah, and the more we learn about her, the more confusing her motivations and feelings are. I dislike the trend in books of having someone have a crush on their best friend's partner and that partner never being weirded out by it or uncomfortable around them despite knowing. I know teenage friendships/relationships aren't as serious as those made after high school but it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Riley was fairly compelling but again, the lack of interest surrounding the binoculars made everyone seem a bit hollow. Tripp was irritating, Tannis was downright infuriating and again, her motivations could have used much more explanation.

The ending...without spoiling anything, I found it to be the weakest part. The murder mystery aspect is not satisfactory. The final binoculars bit makes very little sense and is a bit out there. I was surprised by one thing and I really liked that particular element but it wasn't enough to save the ending. Overall, it is a nice conclusion to the character exploration I suppose but it doesn't do much plot-wise.

Despite this book not being what I had hoped for, I still did really enjoy it. It's a quick read and worth checking out if you know beforehand what kind of story to expect. My opinion of it might improve the more I reflect on it but for now, it's slightly better than average.

Overall Rating:

.5

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

Let me start by saying that I think this blurb is pretty misleading. That isn't necessarily a bad thing-the 'secret' that Flynn is keeping is fairly obvious to guess and when I started this book, I was quite worried that it would be expected to carry the whole thing. Thankfully that doesn't happen and it gets revealed relatively quickly. This led to a much stronger book than I was expecting from the first few chapters but I can also see some people potentially being disappointed or annoyed that the story isn't exactly what the blurb implies. This isn't a 'doubt the narrator' kind of thriller.

What Last Seen Leaving is is a fantastic and engaging story with a vibrant plot that keeps you on your toes. I must say that I found the book to be incredibly well-paced. Excluding my little niggle with the beginning, the author weaves in nuggets of information precisely where they should go to keep the story flowing. There is plenty going on in this story and while it could easily have come across as unrealistic and childishly dramatic, the mature tone and the characters keep it grounded in reality.

Speaking of the characters, they're all pretty strong here. There is quite a bit of the frustrating 'why don't they just tell the police' thing going on but on the whole, people behave realistically and understandably given their respective personalities. Flynn is average but likeable, and the more you learn about January, the more your heart breaks for her. January's parents were very well done and they made for interesting characters. Her stepbrother I felt could have been developed more and I would have liked some more information about him than what we got. There is one thing in particular with him which never gets explained, which I will mention below in my spoiler section.

Spoiler section here (highlight to read): Okay, so I did not like the fact that January survived at the end. The stuff with her family made sense (kind of) but it was too contrived and convenient for me. Also it kind of turns her into a bitch because it makes her responsible for Reiko's death (as Reiko wouldn't have confronted the drama guy and gotten killed without January running away). Speaking of which, I had absolutely no idea who the drama guy was when he was initially revealed as being the suspect. I'm sure he appeared earlier in the story but I wasn't so much surprised as confused because he was such a non-entity to me. Finally, what was the deal with the banana scene her stepbrother described? Did that really happen or not? I assume he was just a creep but some confirmation would have been nice.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I haven't had much luck with YA thrillers as they tend to be over-dramatic and unrealistic, but Last Seen Leaving stands out from the crowd. If you want to read an intriguing and well-paced mystery with a bit of a lighter tone than most adult thrillers, then this is the book for you.

Overall Rating:

The Date by Louise Jensen

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

Despite owning every single book Louise Jensen has ever released, I have yet to actually read any of them so far. Thankfully this pattern has been broken by The Date. Jensen has exactly the kind of writing style I look for in a thriller-straightforward, engaging and dynamic enough to keep you turning the pages. From the very first page I knew I hadn't made a mistake in picking this. Sadly it is the 'thriller twist' aspect which is a let down.

In addition to the great writing style, the characters in this book were also extremely well-written. Our protagonist is likeable and has a fair bit of depth to her, and indeed all the side characters are similarly fleshed-out. Her friends maybe suffer a little bit in terms of depth and Alison does make some frustratingly-bad decisions but these are somewhat justified by her backstory and the plot. Overall, none of them felt like flimsy stand-ins or excuses to have more suspects which is very good.

As mentioned, my one major flaw with this book is I found it very easy to predict. I must admit that reading about a protagonist with prosopagnosia (face-blindness) was a nice gimmick for a thriller. I've read hundreds that have a main character with amnesia but this added a new layer to the whole 'can't recognise your attacker' aspect. As a psychology student, it was also portrayed fairly accurately as well. But even with this plot device, I still guessed the ending and I wasn't really surprised about anything along the way. There was maybe one twist I didn't guess but only because I had forgotten the character involved was in the story.

Overall, I would still recommend The Date as a nice, enjoyable thriller. It offers enough new things to be worth the read and I will definitely be seeking out more from the author. Hopefully next time I will be surprised.

Overall Rating:

.5

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys: A Short Story Anthology

This is it, the impossible has been achieved. I have actually found a 5 star anthology!

I had hoped I would love this book. One of my favourite Booktubers gave it high praise and everyone knows I love my short stories, especially horror. What I didn't expect it to actually love it as much as I hoped I would. I honestly didn't think it was possible but here we are. Slasher Girls & Monster Boys is a wonderful collection of horror short stories and every single one ended up being something I enjoyed.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to overhype it. A realistic review is probably 4 or 4.5 stars but this was catered so well to my personal tastes that I felt like I had to give it 5. I read it entirely in one day and the variety in it is astounding. The overall tone of the anthology manages to be remarkably consistent though which is so nice to see. Usually with anthologies every writer has a different voice, and while I think each author probably has different strengths, in this book you could tell me they were all written by one person and I would believe it.

Onto the stories themselves-I think almost every (if not every) story is supernatural in some way which normally isn't my jam but it definitely works here. It's YA horror so it manages to be incredibly creepy without any weird sexual horror. There is sadly a bit of vagueness or ambiguity in some of the stories which I am not a fan of. For some reason authors seem to think they can get away with being confusing in horror short stories and it very rarely works for me in a positive way. However, I did genuinely enjoy every story and none of them felt dramatically weaker than the others, even if I ended up liking them less. If I had to pick some favourites, I would have to go with 'The Girl Without a Face', The Flicker, The Fingers, The Beat, The Sigh' and 'Hide and Seek'. The weakest were probably 'Fat Girl with a Knife' and 'Emmeline'. Even then, there were no stories I actively disliked.

Honestly I would definitely recommend checking this anthology out. If you like horror, there is so much creativity and talent to be found here. I will be checking out books from every single one of these authors (to be fair, most are on my TBR list anyway) and I wish there could somehow be a sequel to this anthology.

Overall Rating:

This I Would Kill For by Annie Buist

I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Legend Press in exchange for an honest review.

I am so pleased I requested this book! I don't think I have ever read a book similar to this and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't realise it is the third in a series and while it is one of those detective-type series where you don't have to read the ones before it, there were still some rocky elements at the start which it took me a while to adjust to. However, after that I was completely hooked.

This I Would Kill For is a book about a forensic psychiatrist who is asked to determine whether or not a child is being abused by their stepdad. The child's parents are separating and both of them want custody, even though neither is an ideal parent. This premise is handled brilliantly with the plot swerving you so at first you side with one parent, then you begin to doubt them and then even more doubt is introduced until you feel as uncertain as the main character. It really did keep me invested in the story and I read it very quickly to try and find out what was going on.

Speaking of our main character, I adored Natalie. She is one of the most fleshed-out protagonists I have read about in a while and I loved that her personal life actually made up a fair bit of the plot. She was very likeable and her attitude towards the case went a long way in adding to the tension of what decision she would make. You really felt for her as a character. It was also nice to read about someone who isn't a police detective for once (and I don't just say that as a Psychology student).

There were unfortunately just a few niggles which stopped me giving this 5 stars. As mentioned, the opening was a bit clunky for me and it took me a few chapters to work out what was going on. The ending also wasn't the best and it let the story down a little bit. Finally, I'm not sure the author understood how Twitter works? It seemed like everyone Natalie interacted with on Twitter turned out to be someone she knew in real life which...yeah no, the internet is a big place.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book and I am planning on seeking out the others in the series. If you want an engaging thriller which is a little different from the typical abduction/murder/domestic breeds, then you should definitely give this a try. I can't wait to read more from this author.

Overall Rating:

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips

I listened to this as an audiobook rather than reading the physical copy.

In an attempt to reduce my ever-growing TBR list, I joined my local library and got some audiobooks to listen to. Fierce Kingdom is the first audiobook I have listened to for years and so my opinion of this book is very much shaped by the audiobook experience, so bear that in mind.

Firstly, I would not actually recommend this as an audiobook. The narrator is quite a prolific one it seems but while her normal voice was fine, the voices she gave many of the characters were unbearable. Fierce Kingdom is the story of a mother and her son who get trapped in the zoo when some shooters come. The little boy voice that this narrator does is honestly one of the most irritating things to listen to. Half of my listening experience was just me getting unbelievably frustrated by how stupid and annoying the child was being. I think if I had read this myself, I would still have been as frustrated by the character but the voice certainly didn't help.

Almost all of the tension from this book comes from the child character messing everything up. I know he is a young child and to be fair, maybe he is acting exactly how a real child would. However, I did not enjoy the fact that he refused to be quiet or do anything his mother said. Honestly it made me want the character to die and no book should have me wishing a child would do that.

The narrator also does extremely annoying voices for the two gunmen. I tried reading some of their dialogue in the book and it came across as far more menacing in the written form compared to her inexplicable decision to use whiny teenage voices for everything they said in the audiobook. Again, I know they were meant to be whiny teenagers. But they weren't scary for even one minute due to the fact that every time they opened their mouths, I wanted to punch one of them.

I can't judge the pacing particularly well from the audiobook (it was over 8 hours long and I read at a much faster rate than that myself) but it did seem that not much was going on, particularly early on. The plot itself is pretty gripping though and it definitely gets more interesting later on. I really liked the main character and I cared about her enough that it balanced out my hatred of her son. The other side characters were also really likeable and compelling. The dynamic between Mrs. Powell and Robbie was great, particularly the way that Joan wants Mrs. Powell to suck up to him and then is disgusted when she does. I feel that overall, the author handled a lot of complex emotions and reactions to such a terrifying situation with a great deal of depth and understanding. Nothing the characters did felt particularly unlikely or unrealistic, even if they didn't exactly always act in the best possible way.

As other people have noted, there are quite a few loose ends. If you're the kind of person that needs definite answers, I would probably avoid this book just because it will frustrate you. For everyone else though, I would still say this is worth a read if you like the sound of the premise. Just avoid the audiobook unless you have a high tolerance for annoying children.

Overall Rating:

The Trap by Melanie Raabe

The Trap has the kind of intriguing, meta premise that drew me right in. Unfortunately, it was a little like being trapped into reading it. It is a book about an author writing a book to trap the killer of her sister. The main character is a reclusive author and when she thinks she sees her sister's killer reporting the news on TV, she decides to write a crime book and get that reporter to interview her, hoping that reading a book about the murder he committed will get him to confess.

First of all, I feel I should say that this book is pretty weird at points. It has a strange false-start thing early on where you think something is happening (and something that goes on for quite some time) only to suddenly be told by the narrator that they were imagining how something would play out. This felt like a complete waste of my time and instantly made me wary when I was reading anything else that was going on, in case that also turned out to be not real.

The book unfortunately drags a lot too which is very weird given how relatively short it is. It really doesn't have much meat to the story at all and the pacing suffers massively because of it. I thought I would breeze through it due to the length but it turned out to take me longer than usual because there just isn't much going on. Half the wordcount is taken up by the in-story book that the main character is writing and to be honest, I skipped almost all of those sections. Maybe it would have added some extra depth to the story if I'd done more than skim them but from what I did read, it really didn't seem like it.

Overall, I think this book had the potential to be really great but the author didn't know what to do with the premise beyond the basic idea. There is a throwaway line at the end about how the main character hasn't really written a crime story but a different kind of story (not revealed because no spoiler review) and this was clearly meant to be some clever meta commentary on the actual book. However, it just falls flat because really this book isn't any kind of genre particularly. For a thriller, there aren't enough twists or tense moments. The crime aspect is not focused on, nor are any of the relationships particularly developed.  Even for its short wordcount, this book doesn't deliver on the story and for that reason I can't recommend it.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

A new Ruth Ware book? Don't mind if I do!

It is no secret that I love Ruth Ware's writing and I'm pleased to say The Death of Mrs. Westaway is no exception. This book has a very different tone to her other ones but it is no less compelling because of it. There are very strong Rebecca vibes going on here but the thing it reminded me the most of is Agatha Christie.

Don't get me wrong-this is not a first class mystery by any standards. There are some twists in here but the focus is on the atmosphere and characters rather than the mystery itself. If you want to be on the edge of your seat and shocked by the ending, then this is not the book for you. But what I mean by the Agatha Christie comparison is the atmosphere of having a creepy old house, a closed set of characters who are a family and that focus on how each person fills a role within that family, secrets included. It reminds me most strongly of Five Little Pigs-there is that atmosphere of tragedy and everyone knowing the truth but no one speaking it.

While I did love this book, there were a few flaws that stopped it being a 4 star. Like I said, the thriller/mystery aspect is fairly easy to predict past a certain point and I wasn't particularly surprised by anything that happened. I also found the opening fairly slow in terms of getting our protagonist to the house. I understand needing to set up the context but it seemed to pile on a lot of detail that wasn't relevant later on. Finally, I would have liked a little more focus on Mrs. Westaway herself. I didn't need her to play more of a role in the story (being dead and all) but you don't get any detail about her character and it seems weird for everyone in the family to make vague generic statements about her not being nice, then say absolutely nothing else at all.

Rest assured, these are all minor niggles though. I still really enjoyed reading this book and I got through it very quickly (a good sign in a thriller). If you love atmospheric, character-focused tales with brilliant writing and an intriguing setting, you should definitely give this a try.

Overall Rating:

.5

I Never Lie by Jody Sabral

I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Canelo in exchange for an honest review.

I am literally so baffled. I genuinely loved reading this book. It is extremely well-written, the characters are interesting and I was definitely invested in the story. So why am I only giving it three stars? Because the only 'twist' of the book is mentioned on the cover and the blurb.

Let me make this clear-I am not going to spoil anything about the plot of this. But both the blurb and the cover hint strongly that Alex (the protagonist) might be the one behind the serial killings. The very possibility of this is not mentioned until well over 80% of the way through the book and I am dumbfounded. Again, I am not saying for definite whether Alex is behind it or not and therefore am not going to spoil the ending. But the fact that she may be behind it is treated as a twist in the plot and it's so stupid when it's mentioned on the cover and in the blurb!

If it weren't for this one major flaw, I would absolutely be giving this book 4 stars. Alex is a developed and fascinating protagonist, the side characters all feel like they could be real people and the general plot is very good. I've read thrillers about journalists and I've read thrillers about alcoholics before but Sabral's writing style means that it all feels pretty fresh and new.

There's also a pretty major editing mistake in one of the 'Dear Diary' chapters. The mystery POV character describes crushing a mouse and then a few sentences later, talks about squashing a fly instead. This was very distracting as it was clearly a fly in the original draft and was changed to make it more dramatic.

Overall, I would still recommend this book for a good read but don't expect to be surprised by anything. It's not the kind of thriller with a lot of twists (or any twists really) which is such a shame because it could have been so much better.

Overall Rating: