Hunting Annabelle

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

It is so hard for me to pin down how I felt about this book. On the one hand, I felt it was fairly well-written and I was definitely engaged throughout most of it. On the other hand, I absolutely hated the ending and felt like it got very rambly and repetitive about 50% of the way through.

One thing I would like to make clear is that this should definitely be considered a YA thriller. Hunting Annabelle is about a teenager named Sean with severe mental health difficulties (labelled schizophrenia but as a psychologist, I'm not entirely convinced). Sean meets a girl called Annabelle, goes on a date with her and then sees her get kidnapped in front of his eyes. He goes straight to the police but due to his mental health difficulties and some dark things from his past, they don't believe him. He then decides to take matters into his own hands and investigates her disappearance.

For the first half or so of this book, I was very engaged and intrigued by the story. I don't really enjoy reading thrillers with unreliable narrators anymore because I tend to just switch off and wait until the author reveals what really happened at the end, but Sean's potential hallucinations are sort of kept to a minimum and aren't too intrusive. The mental health rep in this is pretty shocking but then, I don't expect a lot from thrillers. There is a fair amount of accuracy in terms of treatment and that side of things but the actual details about the condition are few and far between. Maybe this was meant to add to the ambiguity aspect but it felt lacking to me. I can definitely see it angering some people.

The problems start to kick in around 50% of the way through. Firstly, the story becomes incredibly repetitive. Sean goes to meet someone from Annabelle's past, he finds out a little more about her and then he gets the name of the next person to go see. Rinse and repeat for like 100 pages. Secondly, Sean discovers something very incriminating about a person in Annabelle's life which seems like it would be important to the investigation. An intense fight happens and Sean escapes with evidence of this incriminating thing and then...nothing happens? It isn't mentioned properly until the very end and it's incredibly distracting to have this plot device just hanging there like the elephant in the corner. I initially expected this encounter to be a hallucination of Sean which would explain why it was just forgotten about but this turns out not to be the case and it's just a really baffling writing decision.

This review is spoiler free but the final and biggest problem with this book is the ending. I found it very unbelievable and frankly a bit of a cop-out, and it soured the tone of the whole book for me. Overall, I can see some people really liking this book but I'm just not convinced it brings anything new to the thriller genre. I think the writing has real potential and there are a lot of nice elements at the start of the book. I would want to read more by the author but I can't really recommend this to people, and the problems far outweigh the good points. Sadly this was not a winner.

Overall Rating:

.5

Truth and Lies by Caroline Mitchell

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and Amazon Publishing UK in exchange for an honest review.

It has been a while since I've read a police procedural thriller as engaging as this. It isn't uncommon for them to have the basic plotline of 'serial killer takes a special interest in the main detective character and plays games with them' but this is the first one I've heard of that has the added layer of the main character being related to the serial killer. I was uncertain how well this would work in execution but I am pleased to say that it did not disappoint. Truth and Lies not only delivers on its premise, it is a fantastically written and engaging thriller on the whole.

Truth and Lies is about our main character, Amy Winter, who receives a letter from an infamous female serial killer confessing that she is Amy's real mother. Once more, the serial killer is willing to reveal the locations of her last three victims if Amy plays along with her requests. What follows is a tense cat-and-mouse game where Amy is trying to keep their connection secret from her coworkers whilst also wrestling with the serial killer's demands. The stakes get raised when a young girl is kidnapped in the present day and Amy is uncertain whether it is connected to her birth mother or not.

As a main character, Amy was immensely likable and very understandable in her actions and motives. There are plenty of side characters in this and they were all well-developed and interesting to read about. Ultimately this is what drives the story, along with the trail-of-breadcrumbs reveal of what happened in Amy's past and what the serial killer is demanding in the present. The pacing is pretty much spot on, although I wasn't as invested in the modern-day kidnapping story as perhaps I should have been. The ending as well is satisfactory but not really more than that. This didn't bother me as there was plenty of other things to be invested in and I wasn't really reading for a shock ending, but I can see some people potentially being unsatisfied by the resolution of part of the plot.

Overall, Truth and Lies is an excellent example of the police procedural thriller genre done right. The writing is very skilled and there is plenty of meat in the plot to keep you interested in what's going on. I'm intrigued to see if another thriller with the same detective character could be as engaging without the 'related to a serial killer' aspect (assuming this isn't involved in the plot of a sequel) but I would definitely be interested in checking out more from the author and she has managed to capture my interest in a thriller genre that is not my favourite.

Overall Rating:

Hark! the Herald Angels Scream: A Short Story Anthology

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

Ooh boy, this was right up my street! I am one of those people who love to read seasonal books in December and so many seasonal books end up being contemporary romances. Finally I have found a book to satisfy my horror needs in the colder months. This is a wonderful collection of short winter/holiday-themed horror stories and most of them are pretty decent reads. As per usual with an anthology, I had some favourites and some least favourites so I'll go through a couple of those now:

Christmas in Barcelona-The second story and the one that let me know I was in for a good time. A man is on holiday with his wife and child when he encounters a woman selling something magical. A well-paced slow build that ends explosively. 4/5.

Snake's Tail-The only story I truly hated. This is kind of rambly horror and I couldn't work out what it was actually about. My personal least favourite of the collection. 1/5.

Doctor Velocity-This again had a really weird premise and the character names were too distracting for me. 2/5.

Yankee Swap-A woman gets kidnapped by a crazy guy who has special presents planned for his hostages. Very straightforward horror but with a seasonal twist and written excellently. 5/5.

Hiking Through-A wintery ghost story about a hiker who has recently been dumped that again, is written excellently and weaves a great atmosphere. Kind of easy to predict but that doesn't take away from its impact. 5/5.

The Hangman's Bride-My absolute favourite without a doubt. An immersive tale about a chimney sweep child who finds more than he bargained for when he goes up the chimney of the local hangman. I was utterly gripped every second of this and the collection would be worth getting for this story alone, never mind the other excellent ones, 5/5.

All of the others ranged from 2.5-3.5 ratings. My overall rating for the anthology mathematically was 3.75, which I rounded up to 4 stars for argument's sake.

Overall, I was very impressed with this anthology. It has such a great range of themes horror-wise, and I like that the stories vary from very Chrismassy to just vaguely wintery. It is definitely worth checking out 

and fills a perfect niche in the market for non-romance holiday books.

Overall Rating:

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

Those of you who have read my blog before will know that in general, I am not a big fantasy reader. I do enjoy fantasy and I have a soft spot for YA fantasy where the details and world-building tend not to be as dense. I have recently started a Booktube channel and as part of that, I wanted to take part in the Fantasy Readathon Penguin Teen were hosting. This book has sat on my TBR forever and I am so glad I finally got round to reading it.

This is described as an Asian-inspired retelling of the Evil Queen story from Snow White. I personally think that description is a little limiting. There is far more in this story that is original than from Snow White, and the elements that are taken from it (one person rising to power, occasional apples and reflection references) are so broad and scarce that it really could just be a completely original story in my eyes. Indeed, a captivating story is one of this book's greatest strengths. It was fantastically well-written and almost perfectly paced in my eyes, which was aided by the fact I couldn't put it down.

The characters in this book are pretty great too. Xifeng is a very compelling protagonist and I think her moral questionability is handled very well. You get to see her evolve from someone who is aware of her potential destiny but not of the reality of the consequences, to someone who is willing to do whatever to get what she wants. There is no sudden jump from good to bad person and she doesn't just start off as someone naive either. The weakest character is Wei I feel, but the emperor is great and I liked pretty much everyone else as well. In particular, I like that the emperor isn't some repulsive or creepy older guy. He's interesting in his own right and it adds depth to both Xifeng and the story that he isn't a stereotype.

There are only a few elements that stopped me giving this 5 stars. There is a mini twist at the end regarding one of the side characters that I was not overly keen on. I quite liked the character as they were at face value and I felt the mini twist disrupted some of their characterisation. The other thing was that the ending felt a little bit rushed. I understand that this is only a duology and so the author wanted to set up the next book, but it felt like a little more time could have been given to the final couple of events. It wasn't awful by any means and the rest of the pacing was pretty much perfect, which is why that tiny flaw stood out.

Overall, this is a wonderful fantasy story. I could hardly fault any element and I am so excited to read the sequel. My only concern for the sequel is that I loved Xifeng so much and the second book appears to focus on a different character which might be a shame. However, whether you love fantasy or typically stay away from it, this is a book worth checking out.

Overall Rating:

.5

Alice by Christina Henry

THIS BOOK HAS MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR SEXUAL ABUSE.

This was not what I was expecting at all. Even after reading and falling in love with Lost Boy last year, I was somewhat apprehensive about reading this. I adore Alice in Wonderland and I had high hopes for Henry's version of it. However, while Lost Boy is primarily a fantasy story with some slow-developing horror elements peppered in, Alice is definitely straight-up horror.

The entire premise of this book is heavily focused on sexual abuse so that is something to be aware of if you don't enjoy reading about that topic. In this universe, Alice has been sent to an insane asylum by her family after she was kidnapped by the White Rabbit, a fantasy crime lord. This world is run by various crime lords all themed around characters from Alice in Wonderland and most of them guilty of abusing girls in increasingly horrific ways. Early on, Alice escapes from the asylum with her friend 'Hatcher' and they go on a quest to defeat the Jabberwocky/avenge Alice's past.

The fantasy world itself is a blend of Victorian/steampunk elements, Wonderland, generic fantasy and magic. The worldbuilding is woven into the story excellently and I don't feel like you are missing anything super important, although certain things are left a bit sparse if they're not directly relevant to the plot. There is a lot going on in this book and it is impressive how Henry sets everything up without it cluttering the story.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how I felt about this plot for the majority of the book. Maybe it is because I am much more emotionally invested in Alice in Wonderland than Peter Pan but it felt very uncomfortable to have one of my favourite stories warped into a tale of such graphic sexual and physical violence. Ultimately though I did really enjoy the story and by the end, I was very much in love with it. I still prefer Lost Boy for its subtlety but Alice packs a powerful punch and it isn't a book I will forget for a long time.

Overall, if you think you can stomach the intensely graphic nature of this book then I would definitely suggest checking it out. It is a fascinating read and Henry remains one of my favourite authors for her superb writing style and skill in creating both characters and worlds. I just hope maybe my next read of hers isn't quite so brutal.

Overall Rating:

Method 15/33 by Shannon Kirk

Ooh boy, it has been a while since I've struggled this much to finish a book. Honestly I was so close to DNFing it that I basically skim read the last 100 pages (and it only has about 200 to begin with).

This is not really a thriller. I mean it is but there are zero thrills to be had here. The plot is exactly what the blurb says without any additional twists or surprises. I'm not necessarily someone who believes a thriller needs to have a huge twist to be good but it at least has to be interesting. This could have been an intense story about a pregnant teenage girl trying to escape from kidnappers but our main character recounts the entire thing with all the detached disinterest of someone talking about what they had for breakfast. Speaking of which, the main character of this was awful. I can't even say that I hated her because she didn't have enough of a presence to hate.

So there are two narrators in this book-a 18 year old pregnant teenager and a 30-something year old male FBI agent. Both of these characters are written with the exact same voice. Our teenage protagonist is meant to be 'emotionally gifted' in that she can switch her emotions on and off whenever she likes, and this is quite possibly the most baffling character choice I have ever encountered. All of the potential tension of the story is completely dissolved by having an emotionless main character. How am I meant to root for her? Where is the emotional core of the story? Instead of two protagonists to root for, you get two bland and uninteresting narrators. 50 pages in I already didn't care about either of them.

As mentioned above, the entire plot is very one-note.There is nothing after page 100 to keep you reading and if you're hoping for some kind of plot twist (or even a new development in a story which is over by that point), you're not going to get it. This book is not worth even glancing at to be brutally honest. There are far better stories about people being kidnapped and many, many thrillers more worthy of attention.

Overall Rating:

Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz

This book is marketed entirely wrong. Look at that cover. Look at that blurb. So this is a sexy romance about two brothers who fall for the same girl right?

Nope!

Invincible Summer is a book about family more than anything else. In particular, it's a book about a family which is falling apart. This was unlike any other contemporary I've ever read and it was so damn brutal at times. In a nutshell, this book spans four summers and tells the story of two families who meet at the same beach every year. Our main family is the McGills, with Chase being our primary protagonist. He's sort of the sensible one of the family and is the middle brother. He has an older brother Noah who is never around when he's needed, a younger sister named Claudia who is maturing at a frightening speed and finally a younger brother named Gideon who is deaf and refuses to learn how to communicate with anyone. As well as the siblings, we have two parents who are having increasing marital problems with each year.

The other family is the Hathaways with the only really important character being Melinda. She has spent years not-quite-being with Noah and is just starting to also not-quite-be with Chase. Melinda is one of the most interesting characters to me and the real tragedy of this book in my eyes. She is treated like utter crap by everyone, has to deal with something very major and gets no sympathy from either Chase or Noah despite everything she goes through. It works within the context of the story and the narrative style but I did dislike how she was handled and it is the main reason the book didn't score higher.

The other main reason is the sheer amount of quoting Camus that occurs. Every bloody character is obsessed with spewing out at least one quote every chapter and it just feels like pretentiousness. For me, it ruins the actual depth of the story since the emotionally-charged, character-driven scenes get rudely interrupted by philosophical piffle. It weakens the story as a whole and makes me wonder why the author feels like she can't rely on her own words.

Overall though, this book was such a surprise. It packs an emotional punch to rival any Courtney Summers book and I know the plot will stay with me for a long time. It is a million miles from a fun summer read but instead you get a nuanced and brilliant look at family life and the charged relationships that can come from it. When so many books fail to do gritty realism right, this one definitely deserves more attention.

Overall Rating:

.5

9 Days and 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno

SPOILERS FOR 99 DAYS AND 9 DAYS & 9 NIGHTS BELOW.

This is really impressive. So my main problem with 99 Days is that I could not understand at all why Molly would be messing around with Patrick when her relationship with Gabe was so great. And in this sequel, I have no idea why Molly would mess around with Gabe when she has a great new partner in Ian.

This book was soooo disappointing. I'm not an idiot, I knew from the start that Molly and Gabe would end up back together. I just wasn't expecting it to be something I really didn't want to happen. The Molly at the start of this book is in her first year of college, she has a new boyfriend and has grown up a lot. And at the end of the book, this is all just thrown away.

Again, all of Molly and Ian's relationship flaws are so non-existent. She gets angry that he isn't seeing the real her when apparently her new college persona is fake and she's just pretending to be someone else. Nevermind that she is no longer upsetting people and has gotten her life together. Apparently that isn't being true to herself and so she should revert back to her teenage self and continuing dating a guy that she has already cheated on once WITH HIS BROTHER.

Once again, I still enjoyed this book for what it was due to the writing style and various other elements. However, I have never been so utterly baffled by a romance series before. Clearly Cotugno and I have vastly different opinions on what constitutes a good relationship if she can make me do a complete 180 on who I ship Molly with between books. I felt sorry for Ian and disagreed completely with how Molly's character arc was handled. If you read the first one though and liked it, this one isn't really much worse. In all likelihood, you'll enjoy this one too.

Overall Rating:

99 Days by Katie Cotugno

It's been a fairly long time since I read a fluffy YA romantic contemporary. It's not my favourite genre but every once in a while (usually when I'm on holiday) I get the craving for some good old-fashioned fluff. This book however turned out to be a lot more interesting than your typical sweet romance.

The premise of 99 Days is that our main character Molly used to date a guy named Patrick until she cheated on him with his brother, Gabe. Now I don't like cheating stories which made Molly a little difficult to sympathise with, something which didn't get easier the more stupid her decisions became. Having been away from her hometown for a year, Molly must return for 99 days before she goes away to college and face the music. You see, Molly's affair was revealed when her mother wrote a best-selling book about it and as a result, everyone in the town hates her. The only person who is still nice to her is Gabe.

This is one of those books that is only fueled by poor decisions and characters behaving stupidly. Molly is the worst offender and she gets stuck in a love triangle between two brothers. I found Patrick deeply unlikable and could not understand Molly's attraction to him at all, especially when Gabe was so sweet and his 'offences' in their relationship so minor. I thought I was going to hate this book but the strong writing style pulled through and I actually quite enjoyed it.

If you can switch off your brain enough to not be bothered by the insanely poor decisions of the characters, then this is a surprisingly complex and interesting examination of the aftermath of cheating. I liked how it didn't shy away from showing what happens when teenagers make poor decisions and the exploration of Molly's relationship with her mother was also fairly interesting, albeit something which could have had more of a focus. Overall I really enjoyed it and I am interested in reading the sequel.

Overall Rating:

.5

#Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil

Now this was a pleasant surprise. I honestly didn't expect much from this book. The blurb is kind of insane-sounding and while I've enjoyed a previous book from Gretchen McNeil, I also found it pretty standard YA horror fare. There is nothing standard about #murdertrending and that's honestly why I kind of love it?

This book has one of the most unique plots I've ever seen. It takes place in a world where a reality star has become President *cough Trump dig cough* and has transformed the capital punishment system into entertainment for the masses. Now people convicted of serious crimes get put in a prison where they could be attacked by any one of eight professional murderers as they go about their daily business. Our main character Dee finds herself in this situation and is accidentally catapulted to fame when she kills one of the professional murderers in a trap meant to kill her. The rest of the book is about her trying to prove her innocence whilst escaping the clutches of the murderers.

The main reason I was so surprised by this book is that I find the blurb a little misleading. It doesn't really explain how the executions work, which is that prisoners live their daily lives and get randomly attacked/kidnapped by one of the murderers, each of which has their own niche theme. This is the most creative and fun aspect of the book (as weird as that sounds) and it's a shame it isn't pushed more on the blurb. They range from a murderous hipster, a cannibal, someone who dresses their victims up as princesses, someone who kills through crafting hobbies and several others. Almost all of them stand out in some way and it leads to some very gripping and humorous horror scenes. One of the main strengths of this book is that it handles its insane premise excellently, never becoming too serious but also not failing to bring some truly disturbing and engaging moments as well. It hits the perfect balance which is impressive considering how easily this could have become just a big joke or unaware of its own silliness.

There are some weak spots that prevent this from being perfect. The characters are entertaining enough but just shy of feeling like real people (maybe due to the insane situation they're in). The plot gets very convoluted at one point and there are some 'twists' which either fall flat or just confuse the story briefly. This all happens in the third quarter of the book, with the final quarter being the best part of all (in my opinion) so it's not enough to detract massively from the story.

Compared to the previous book I read by this author, #murdertrending is a big improvement. This is great for anyone who enjoys the camper side of horror but still appreciates that darkness and attention to detail that prevents it from being a 'so bad it's good' read. I know I'll remember this book even years from now thanks to its unique and creative tone, and I look forward to more from Gretchen McNeil in the future.

Overall Rating:

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