The Forever House by Tim Waggoner

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

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked up this book. What I got was an inventive, intriguing and all-round solid horror book. The Forever House tells the story of the 'Eldreds', a group of aptly-named eldritch beings who like to disguise themselves as humans and feed off the pain of others. They are just moving into a neighbourhood where a horrific massacre took place and they're getting ready to mess with their latest victims.

The pacing of this book is pretty solid. You get chapters written in third person but focusing on each of the different people living in the neighbourhood, and this is done extremely well as there are many characters but it didn't become exhausting. The people themselves are a fairly mixed bunch. You have Neal and Kandice, a married couple who are struggling due to Kandice revealing she is bi. There is Cora, Martin and their daughter Vivienne, a family dealing with the pressure of Martin's gambling addiction. Perhaps the hardest character to read about is Spencer, a man struggling with his pedophilic urges and attraction to Vivienne. There are more characters than this but I considered these the main ones.

So yes, one of the main characters of this book is a pedophile and honestly, his sections get very graphic. I want to commend Waggoner for tackling this topic and actually pulling it off pretty well. Spencer is sympathetic in a way that might make some readers uncomfortable but his desires are never condoned. Having said that, the child character is described in an extremely graphic and sexual way throughout his chapters and this was very tough to stomach. I suspect a lot of people won't enjoy the book because of this and I think that is a valid reason to avoid picking it up.

Even without the sexualisation of children, the rest of this book has a large focus on sex. It felt a bit gratuitous a lot of the time and I honestly feel it didn't need to be there. Horror suffers a lot from unnecessary sex scenes and sexual assault (looking at you Stephen King) so it was a shame to see that at play here. At one point, a sex scene should have a fairly large emotional fallout but this is simply never discussed or dealt with by the narrative, a choice which is odd given the fantastic characterisation the rest of the time.

Sexual content aside, everything else about this book was spot on. I've already mentioned the characters but the way the horror was manifested into the story was done very creatively and I honestly had no idea how it would turn out. I would definitely recommend this to fans of eldritch-type horror who can stomach the graphic content and like a slightly light-hearted tone to their narration.

Overall Rating:

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Voracious/Little, Brown and Company  in exchange for an honest review.

So fun fact: I am on a PhD program currently with 9 other students and about 5 of those students are doing hardcore AI projects. Personally I know nothing about AI and whenever they would talk about their research, I would automatically switch off. However, this doesn't build the best working relationship so I thought I would try reading around the area so I could at least carry a conversation with them.

This book is AMAZING. Honestly, it is written in such an engaging and accessible way that me, the anti AI queen, could not put it down. Firstly I should clarify what this book is not. It is not a deep guide to how to create or work with AI systems. Instead what it is is essentially an overview of what AI means, how it functions (on a very accessible level) and the wonderful mistakes the systems make. One of my favourite parts of this book is all the examples it gives of things generated by real life AI systems and they are hilarious! I was laughing so loud on the bus that people were giving me weird looks.

In terms of the layout, each chapter flows very naturally into the next one. I've already mentioned that I think it's accessible but things really are broken down very clearly. Shane has a fantastic style of prose which is informative but engaging, and I didn't even zone out once which is impressive for even the most interesting of nonfiction books. The text is also peppered with frankly adorable drawings (see the one on the cover) which really helped bring the information to life and added to the overall feel.

Overall, I am blown away by this book. I thought it would help with my PhD but I had no idea how much I would enjoy reading it. I have already bought a copy for a friend as a birthday present and I would recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in the topic. It really does teach you more about how the world works and I feel like I will definitely read more about AI in the future because of it.

Overall Rating:

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Macmillan-Tor/Forge in exchange for an honest review.

VERY LIGHT SPOILERS FOR EVERY HEART A DOORWAY & BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY.

I am unbelievably happy I got an ARC of this book. I love this series with every fiber of my being and so far, I have yet to be disappointed by a single book. Come Tumbling Down picks up a little while after Beneath the Sugar Sky with the return of my personal favourite character, Jack. She has come back to the school to seek help because her sister has stolen her body and the very existence of her own doorway world is in danger.

There isn't much else I can say about the plot without spoilers but this book brings back a lot of characters I had missed and with them, all that fantastic representation. It makes me so happy reading about everyone in this series because every single bit of representation seems so well-handled (obviously I cannot comment on the groups I am not part of but there are no obvious red flags to me) and every character is so fully-fleshed out and interesting in their own way. The storyline continues to be creative and just a joy to read about. As much as I enjoy the one-off explorations of the doorway worlds, every new book seems to add to the growing overall storyline and this is just the perfect way to continue on with Jack in her world. The only potential downside is some people might be sad that their other favourites aren't in the spotlight but I'm sure future books will address this and give them their turn.

Honestly, there's not much more to say. If you're a fan of this series, this next installment will not disappoint. If you've not started this series yet, I highly recommend it. McGuire creates a magical world with magical characters and who could ask for more?

Overall Rating:

.5

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison

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

YA thrillers get a bad rep and to be fair, most of them don't live up to their synopses. Thankfully Good Girls Lie manages to be the exception to this rule and delivers an intriguing, well-paced and engaging story.

British Ash has just arrived at The Goode School, an american boarding school for teenage girls of the highest caliber. She has a troubled past but she's determined to keep her head down...that is, until she accidentally gets involved in one of the school's secret societies and catches the attention of the Head Girl. When her roommate is found dead, Ash must fight harder than ever to keep her secrets to herself. Even from the reader...

I will admit, it took me a little while to get into this book. It is primarily told from Ash's POV but there are a few chapters told from an unknown POV and occasionally it will focus on the Dean of the school, with these being told in third person. None of these changes in POV are indicated so it was quite jarring to suddenly find you had switched perspective without realising. However, once I got to grips with that, I became very invested in the story. One thing I really liked was you were unsure what direction the plot would take for most of the book. Once certain things are revealed it does become very easy to guess, but before that you don't get much to work with which means you can't predict what will happen (in a good way).

Ash herself was a breath of fresh air. I found her a very compelling character, even with the narrative deliberately keeping a lot of information about her back from the reader. Similarly all the other main/side characters were pretty interesting and none of them were stereotypes which is where YA thrillers usually suffer. I liked that the Dean got such a lot of focus as that rarely happens in these kinds of books.

Overall, this is a solid YA thriller to pick up. It gives you so little to work with plotwise in the synopsis but that only strengthens the style of storytelling and the way the narrative slowly unfolds. It's not the fastest paced thriller but if you crave YA thrillers with well-crafted characters and a neat little story, this is definitely worth a try.

Overall Rating:

.5

Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough

I received a free copy of this book for review thanks to publisher William Morrow and Edelweiss.

I've been very lucky with the thrillers I've read recently but even so, it has been a while since I've been truly surprised by one. As a result, I'm going to be very vague about this book because I thoroughly enjoyed Dead to Her and I don't want to give any hints as to why I liked it so much. This is a book about four very wealthy people living in an intense socialite circle. You have Marcie, one of our protagonists and the second wife of Jason. She convinced him to leave his wife for her some years ago and now, in her mid thirties, she is beginning to worry she is no longer a trophy in his eyes. Enter Keisha, the new young twenty-something wife of Jason's boss William. Marcie starts to worry that sparks are flying between Keisha and Jason and she doesn't want to lose her meal ticket, nor her husband.

Pinborough is a new author to me (although I've heard fantastic things about her other books) and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The writing here is phenomenal. Honestly it's a little longer than I usually like my thrillers but I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't mind. The ending gets a little repetitive and ultimately it's not the best resolution but I still really loved the majority of the plot. The side characters are also well-written and very fleshed out compared to most thrillers, which I appreciated. The story is told from both Marcie and Keisha's POV and, in a nice touch, it doesn't swap every chapter but more when it feels right for the story. This seems simple but I've read a lot of books where arbitrarily swapping every chapter can interfere with the plot and it's refreshing to see someone prioritise flow over convention.

Overall, this book was such a fantastic way to start the year. I would fully recommend going in blind and, while it won't be everyone's cup of tea, hopefully you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. It admittedly wasn't perfect but I am very picky with the ratings I give thrillers and this is definitely one of my new favourites.

Overall Rating:

.5

Midwinter Mysteries by Assorted Authors

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

I really really love the idea behind this anthology. As far as I can tell, the publishing house behind this book has gotten a bunch of mystery/crime authors to write some short stories showcasing their characters in order to promote the series they write. This is a very cool idea and I think it's a great way to potentially find a new series you might really enjoy. Sadly most of these stories ended up not being for me.

I would say loosely that almost all of these are either a) police procedurals, b) historical mysteries or a c) a combination of both. With the exception of the very first story, I probably enjoyed the historical ones slightly more since I tend to lean towards historical crime fiction (unlike thrillers where I like modern day). My main problem with these is they were all incredibly short. This made it very difficult to get into the stories and also to get a taste of what the authors' true styles were. It felt like a story was just getting going and then it would end abruptly, sometimes without a sense that there had been an actual mystery involved.

Perhaps because of these stories using pre-established characters, there was also a lack of introduction of most of the cast and/or plot elements surrounding the stories themselves. This didn't help with getting into the stories either (again, the first story actually did introduce people fairly well and was one of my favourites for this reason).

Overall, this is a decent but all too brief collection of stories. They all fall a little short in various ways but the anthology was still moderately enjoyable and I do really like the idea behind it. I just wish everything was a little bit longer.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Secret Santa by Trish Harnetiaux

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Random House UK, Cornerstone in exchange for an honest review.

Tis the season for grizzly murder! Christmas-themed thrillers are becoming increasingly prevalent it seems and this is definitely a trend I support. I love reading seasonal books and while the odd contemporary romance is enjoyable, if I can read holiday books in the genres I love then it's even better. I was very excited when I got my e-ARC of The Secret Santa because the premise sounded great. At a Christmas party, the guests have a White Elephant exchange and someone gets more than they bargained for when a gift relating to someone's dark past is unwrapped.

Sadly this book ended up being a huge disappointment. The writing style itself is pretty good. It flows well and the important characters are set up nicely. My only problem with that is that there are three POV characters and two of them are told in the third person and one is told in the first which is a bit of an odd choice.

The HUGE problem with this book is that characters are still unwrapping their presents 80% of the way through. The sinister gift from the blurb is only revealed at this point and then the ending is incredibly pedestrian following that event since there are very few pages left to deal with the fallout. I feel this would have been a much stronger story if the present opening had happened earlier and we really got a sense of tension and paranoia building between characters. Instead it all falls a bit flat which is such a shame.

Overall, I can't really recommend this book beyond a short read to kill some time around the holiday season. I would actually potentially pick up more by this author because there are some really good elements here but the plot is lacking almost entirely and that is too big an issue to overlook.

Overall Rating:

.5

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

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

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't blown away by Girls of Paper and Fire. I did really enjoy the book and I thought it had a lot of potential but there were some little niggles that kept getting in the way of me loving it. I was hoping the sequel would fix these niggles and bring more of what I loved, and it did to some extent.

Girls of Storm and Shadow is a very different book to the first one in the series. The plot focuses mainly on the growing threat of war and our band of heroes travelling round, trying to recruit others to their cause. I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of plots which probably tainted my opinion a bit. What I did enjoy was the characterisation present here and the direction the characters were taken in. One of my main niggles with the first book was the relationship between the protagonist and her love interest, which was a little flat and had an unpleasant 'victim blaming' angle to it. Thankfully this is fixed in this book, and while there are other reasons I found it hard to root for the couple, I do at least find it interesting the direction Ngan has chosen to take it.

The writing in general is strong and I think there is enough happening in this book to keep you engaged. As much as I thought the relationship of Wren and Lei took a step in the right direction, there are still some very prominent issues. In this book Lei is waaaay too forgiving of Wren, to the point where it is sort of unbelievable. Lei doesn't tend to react the way one typically would to finding out certain things about her lover, and the plot suffers for it. Lei herself has somewhat questionable morals as well. At one point she refuses to kill a known enemy who is attacking her but a few chapters later, she slaughters a much more innocent person in self-defense and barely bats an eyelid.

Sadly this book did not convince me to continue on with the series, though I am still a little intrigued to see where it's all going. I wish the plot of the first book had tied in more closely to the plot of this one, and it seems the third one will have to jump a fair bit if it is going to be the last in the series. I did think the sexual assault aspects that were handled poorly in the first book are handled well in this one (although still treated as a minor plot thread) which is an improvement. Try as I might, I just can't get sucked into this world though.

Overall Rating:

Violet by Scott Thomas

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

So Kill Creek was one of the first books I read this year and I absolutely adored it. When I heard Scott Thomas was coming out with a new horror book, I knew I wanted to read it regardless of what it was about. Then I found out the plot and got very excited.

Violet is the story of Kris, a woman with a troubled past who is dealing with the grief of her husband's recent death. In an attempt to help her young daughter Sadie, she relocates them both to her old childhood summer home. Unfortunately the house is derelict and Sadie starts to behave in a very troubling way. Soon Kris realises that something beyond decay is very wrong with the house.

I'd heard this book was a slow-burn and I definitely think that's accurate, especially when compared to something like Kill Creek. This is a fairly different style of horror but once again I was utterly absorbed by Thomas' incredible writing style. Though the horror elements don't really appear until quite late in the story, I was so invested in Kris and learning more about her that it never felt like it was dragging or moving at a slow pace. In fact I almost read the whole book in a day because I was so absorbed.

There are only really two main characters in this story and both Kris and Sadie felt very real. Kris in particular gets explored through the narrative and I loved the heart and the extra emotional investment this added to the horror element. By the time the creepy stuff starts to happen, you really feel for her and her situation. At the same time, there is almost a barrier between the reader and Kris which is just enough to make you feel slightly unsettled and adds another nuanced layer, particularly to the climax.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend giving this book a chance. It is similar in setup to Imaginary Friends by Stephen Chbosky but in my opinion this is the far superior book. Thomas is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors and I know I will read Violet and Kill Creek for years to come.

Overall Rating:

.5

Slash by Hunter Shea

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

I've heard a lot of buzz in the horror world about Hunter Shea and I was very excited to finally pick up one of his books. Slash is the story of Todd, a man whose fiance kills herself after surviving a horrific massacre five years ago. Fueled by her suicide, he is driven to return to the resort where the massacre took place in order to find out what really happened there once and for all. He is joined by several friends and soon they discover that the horror is far from over.

I wasn't 100% sure what to expect from this book in terms of the horror element. It is billed as a slasher and it definitely is that but there is a supernatural element to be aware of as well. The first thing that stands out about Slash is how fantastically written it is. I've read a lot of bad horror in my time but Shea has a great style which is very readable, and the book overall is well-paced and well-plotted. Even though I am not usually a fan of supernatural horror, I found myself devouring this due to the strong writing.

Another strength is the uniqueness of the horror element. I am not going to spoil anything but the book takes a direction with its horror that I definitely didn't expect and I don't think I've seen done anywhere else (undoubtedly it has been done but it felt very fresh). Again, it isn't the type of horror I usually enjoy and that is probably the only reason I am not personally rating this book higher. I was absorbed by the story and I think someone who is into more supernatural horror will really love this book. It was especially nice to see such creativity in what can be an often cliched genre.

My only minor quibble/warning is that there is a side character who is a stripper and she is constantly referred to as such by one of the other side characters in a way that is pretty misogynistic. It is intentional I think but the character who does it is still meant to be likeable and I just found it very unnecessary and distracting from the story.

Overall, I would definitely recommend checking this book out if you are a fan of horror. I would love to read more of Shea's work and it's very impressive to see someone take the slasher genre and breathe new life into it. This is a fantastic example of how to do a unique spin on horror whilst still keeping the old favourite tones and tropes.

Overall Rating:

.5

Queerbaiting and Fandom edited by Joseph Brennan

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

This book was everything I could have wanted and more. I was extremely excited when I got an ARC of this as the subject matter is right up my street and I was really intrigued to learn more about it in general. Part of me was concerned though because I have requested similar books before and been disappointed by how dry they are. Thankfully this was not the case with this book.

Queerbaiting and Fandom is an incredibly comprehensive, insightful and all-round entertaining read. It is a collection of academic essays so be aware that it is written in that style rather than written for the purposes of entertaining the general public. However, I was very impressed by how readable and easy to follow all of the essays were. The essays themselves cover a wide range of fandoms and topic areas, some of which I wasn't expecting and ended up being a pleasant surprise. The obvious offenders are here-Supernatural, Sherlock and Harry Potter all have chapters to themselves. But there are also essays about Nick Jonas deliberately marketing himself to gay fans, the One Direction fandom shipping real-life celebrities and the Eurovision song contest encouraging queer flirting with its hosts. These were all surprising to me and I found them the most insightful essays in terms of introducing me to new knowledge and making me think about things I hadn't considered before.

The only minor niggle I had was a completely understandable one. Every essay must take the time to define queerbaiting and other terms that it refers to, but this was very repetitive when reading the whole collection. The first two chapters were dedicated to defining the term anyway so I feel that the essays could have been edited to remove the definitions for the purposes of this collection, especially since every author used the term in the same way.

Overall, I really recommend this book for anyone interested in the topic. I genuinely wish it was more widely available as I found it very entertaining and I have several friends I know would love to read it. If you can get your hands on a copy, then definitely take the opportunity to do so. I feel this is a book I will revisit several times in the future again.

Overall Rating:

The Family by Louise Jensen

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

The Family is a thriller about a cult, a subject I've not read a lot about in my fiction but I've really enjoyed when I have. I was expecting this thriller to have a different tone than it did and I think that affected my enjoyment of it quite a lot. This book is off to a slow start, focusing on Laura and her daughter Tilly who are recently bereaved of their husband/father. Laura is in a tough position financially until she is offered help from the mysterious group of people who live on the outskirts of her town. But to what extent can she trust them?

Parts of this book were really badly written which shocks me as Louise Jensen has always had such strong writing in the past. The main reason I couldn't gel with it was the plot though. It seemed to have an odd pace with a dragging beginning and end section. I won't spoil anything that happens as this is a thriller, but particularly at the end the reveals got a little ridiculous. A lot of coincidences are crucial to specific things that happen which might leave a sour taste in some readers' mouths.

Overall, I sadly can't really recommend this book. It has alright characters and some decent moments but there were too many things which prevented me from getting into the story. If you're going to read a Jensen book, I recommend one of her other ones.

Overall Rating:

.5