Mother Knows Best by Kira Peikoff

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

Oh what a delicious find this was! I really don't know how to categorise this book because I haven't read anything like it before. It's mostly a thriller but it reads very differently to the majority of thrillers I've read and it has a loose sci-fi element to it too. Mother Knows Best is the story of several different characters and it focuses on a simple scientific concept-what if you could genetically engineer a child with three parents? The plot itself is very much rooted in the real-world and it explores the legal and ethical ramifications of such research and what might happen to those involved in it. At its core though, this is a story about a very unusual family, a desperate mother and a driven scientist who won't stop until she gets what she wants.

I am genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I requested it after reading a sample and this is one of the most unique and interesting thrillers I've ever read. The characters were all brilliant and nuanced (Abby perhaps was a little flat but she read as a realistic child at least) and they provide the different facets and dimensions to the plot. Every character is valid to some extent in their point of view and that creates interesting dilemmas. You can also tell that the author has certainly done her research with regards to the scientific stuff. She has a degree in bioethics and she's put it to good use here, making the story all the stronger for it.

On the whole, this is definitely worth checking out if you are a thriller fan. It has a more unique premise than most thrillers and it is written and executed fantastically. It isn't the darkest or most suspenseful of stories, but it makes up for it with strong characters and a plot that keeps you guessing where it will go next. I look forward to seeing more books from this author.

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The Years After You by Emma Woolf

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

This book is absolutely not my usual genre but I read an excerpt of it in the Buzz Books of 2019: Fall/Winter edition and I was intrigued enough to request the full ARC. The Years After You is a book about two women linked by one man: his wife and the woman he is having an affair with. That is in essence the entire plot and I can't really say much more without giving stuff away. It is told in dual perspectives from both women's POV, though the bulk of the focus is on Lily's POV who is the mistress in this scenario.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this story. Lily as a character was very well-written and I liked and identified with her a lot. Pippa's (the wife) part of the story was less important and while I could see why it was included, her passages almost peter out entirely towards the end. I do think there was a missed opportunity in (highlight for spoilers) not having the two meet and have a conversation about Harry. The ending was poignant but also it would have added a bit more depth if they had been able to share their grief. Instead this moment was done silently which resulted in less of an impact in my opinion.Harry was a bit of an unusual character and I think again, the story would have benefited from Pippa's sections being expanded upon as then we would have got more of a detailed idea of who he was as a person seeing more of him from a different perspective.

Overall, this was a very solid slice of life contemporary story. It has a bit more depth than your usual fluffy contemporary and the pacing and characterisation are all done very well. There could be a little more expansion in certain areas but this is worth checking out if you like more serious contemporary romances.

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Skin by Liam Brown

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

Oh boy, if all sci-fi had as well-developed characters as this one, I would read a whole lot more of it. Skin initially caught my eye because of the striking cover and I thought the general premise sounding interesting enough. It is set in the near-future where a disease has broken out among humanity which makes them allergic to each other. The result of this is that people have to live in isolation, communicating with others only through screens and essentially never venturing outside (certainly never without a hazmat suit). The focus is on a single family and our main character is Angela, the mother of the household.

If you couldn't tell from my intro, my favourite thing by far about this book was the characters. Angela was a fantastic portrayal of a modern jaded woman-someone who doesn't have high expectations but gets on with things. She read so true to me and it added a lot of strength to the story. Her kids felt like people who had grown up in this world and they managed to be compelling characters without distracting from the plot. Her husband was maybe the weakest but even then, you got the impression of hidden depth that the story just wasn't exploring. Brown can definitely write three dimensional people.

The plot itself was fairly strong and it certainly lives up to the premise promised. It's more of a world-building based plot than anything else so be aware of that going in. My main issue was the ending of the book which (no spoilers) was very abrupt and didn't quite feel complete and satisfactory. This could have easily been a 4 star read had the ending had a little more meat to it.

Overall, this is a solid sci-fi book and definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre. It uses the concept to explore humanity and people's behaviour which, in my opinion, is the best kind of sci-fi book. It could have maybe done with a little more of a story in the second half but it does decently enough and I'm very happy I decided to read it.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Joseph Stanza

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

On the surface, I guess this was a weird request for me. I have not actually seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and have no intention to. Why did I request this? Because I have a strong love of horror movies and am very much interested in how culture influences horror and vice versa. This book seemed right up my street as it promised to provide cultural context to a very iconic horror movie. Sadly it didn't quite deliver.

The best way I can describe this book is poor execution of some great ideas and content. My main issue was that the organisation is all over the place. Rather than linking together the context and the film, you instead get long paragraphs about the politics at the time followed by some vaguely related statement about the movie. Sometimes it's not even vaguely related. For example, there is tons of information about real-life serial killers from around the same time period but this is very loosely linked to the content of the film. It just makes for a confusing time and I found the book very hard to engage with because of this.

I also found that not much background was given to the cultural context in itself. This might sound weird as the context should be the background but I didn't feel enough detail was given so that someone unfamiliar with America's culture from the 70s could fully understand what the author was talking about. This is linked to the overall problems with cohesion but I also found the cultural aspects jumped around a lot. One minute it would focus on serial killers, then move onto something else, then go back to serial killers. The chapters did kind of group things but they also could have done with a little subheading under the chapter title to actually explain what that chapter was focusing on (all the chapters were titled with quotes/references).

Overall, this book did have some neat information in it and some interesting facts about the film. However, I just found the lack of structure and detail too much of an obstacle to enjoying the content. I will say, this is definitely not related to me not having seen the film. I know the plot very well and that wasn't what I was having issues with as the film sections were detailed enough. I just wish the cultural context had been linked better to the movie as this could have been a really great book.

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Exploiting Fandom by Mel Stanfill

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

This was such an interesting read to me! When I requested it, I wasn't sure what to expect. I have minor academic experience of media studies and essentially no background in business, sports or any of the topics this book could come under (apart from a personal interest in demographics). The introduction was very dull for me as it is essentially just a list of the methodology. This was probably necessary as this seems to have been adapted from a dissertation or some other academic paper, but it wasn't really a great start to the book. Thankfully it was uphill from there.

By far my favourite sections were the first two chapters which focus on how sports and the media identify and view their fans in terms of demographics. Some fascinating points were made about how the industries assume default fan is a white male and how this influences both their marketing and reaction to fan behaviour. The author uses a wide range of sources and examples which creates a very in-depth and insightful look at fandom as a whole. I loved this section and thought it was excellently written.

The next bit was about the legality and fan's knowledge of the law. I must admit, I did skip most of this section. Law has never been interesting to me and while I was curious about fanfiction and the laws surrounding that, most of the focus was on fan's perception of the law without clarifying what the actual law was. I can see this being interesting to some but sadly it was not for me.

The final chapters are what I suppose the book is mainly about-that is, how fans engage in free labour due to their love of a work/sports team and how industries exploit this. These parts were fairly interesting and again, made some very good points. I would have liked to see this section expanded more with specific examples though. Every other section has lots of examples which illustrate the arguments well but there weren't many to be found in this bit. I know fandom's mere existence is a form of free labour in itself (promoting etc) but it still could have been interesting to find anecdotes of fans' work being used professionally or something similar.

Overall, I think this book's topic wasn't actually as for me as I thought it would be but I still enjoyed it immensely. It has well-written, thoroughly researched content and a cohesive narrative that brings everything together beautifully. There are some well-argued points to be made here and I think it raises some interesting questions. I would definitely recommend this book if you have any interest in fandom and how the industries treat their fans. Just be aware that it is an academic work and so some parts might be a bit dry or less compelling than others.

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Dream Woods by Patrick Lacey

Horror is one of those genres that never really feels mainstream. More than any other book genre, I struggle to hear about horror and most recommendations that I do hear about are not big sellers. Dream Woods is the perfect example of the kind of gems that you can find simply by browsing through Kindle books and I am so glad I stumbled across it.

Dream Woods is a story about Vincent, an ageing rock star who sees a billboard advertising a theme park from his childhood. Dream Woods is a kind of Disneyland knockoff and though it closed down mysteriously several years ago, it appears to have reopened. He decides it is the perfect way to save his crumbling family as his wife is on the brink of leaving him and one of his kids struggles from life-threatening diabetes which puts a strain on all of them. When they arrive at the park, weird stuff starts happening and it becomes pure horror from there.

I LOVED the writing style of this book. Lacey perfectly sews the horror into the story, beginning with subtle, creepy images before developing it into full-blown horror. The park works by targeting each of the family members separately in different ways which leads to some really great moments of psychological creepiness. Too often horror can be over the top or comical and there is true skill here in the way it builds up an atmosphere. Even the overt stuff is done incredibly well and I was completely hypnotised and drawn in. It morphed into a kind of horror that I am not normally a fan of but in this instance, it was done so well and fit with the story that I enjoyed every minute of it.

I was also very impressed with the characters. These tend to be weak in most horror stories since they don't have to be strong for the plot or scary elements to work. Lacey manages to create a whole family of interesting people who actually feel like real people and who I became invested in. The husband/wife relationship was done excellently and fueled the horror rather than distracted from it. The sibling dynamic was similarly believable and a key part of the plot. It's so refreshing to read in the horror genre and it helped the subtle, psychological elements of the book along well.

Overall, this is a brilliant read for fans of old school horror. Horror things set at theme parks are a particular favourite of mine and I'm pleased the setting was used so well here. My only criticism was that I wanted more of this book, more of the creepy mascot and the lore behind it. I would genuinely read multiple books set in this world and I wanted to know every creepy thing that had ever happened here. If you like atmospheric horror with strong characters and interesting story, I could not recommend this more. It definitely deserves more attention.

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Sinner's Retreat by Victoria Ellis

So I got asked by the author if I would consider reviewing an ARC of this book. This is the first time I've been sought out rather than me requesting it and I was pretty nervous. What if I hated the book? How honest could I be without hurting their feelings? Thankfully my fears were unfounded because I absolutely loved Sinner's Retreat.

This book was described to me as 'Saw meets And Then There Were None' which got me pretty excited about the premise and was the main reason I agreed to read it. This is a story about five couples who get invited to a mysterious weekend retreat only to find upon arrival that they are being held captive by a killer intent on punishing them for their 'sins'. One half of each couple represents one of the sins and they are forced to confront their spouse one by one. Their spouse must then make a life or death decision-kill them or themselves. It borrows heavily from the basic premise of And Then There Were None but apart from that this stands as its own story and was all the better for it. There's not a whole lot of Saw in it to be honest and the violence is on the milder side but that wasn't a bad thing at all. The resulting tone is a mix of horror and thriller which works really well.

In terms of length, this book is pretty short and I read it entirely in a day because of that. The pace is great and it results in a fantastic binging experience. I will say that you can tell it is a debut novel. Certain details could have been expanded upon and I would have liked more of the book in general.The characters are strong but a longer book would allow for them to be explored in more depth. However, I am someone who loves a lot of character focus and so this is probably down to personal taste. As it stands, the characters work really well for the kind of story it is and they're a lot more solid than the kind you usually find in horror novels.

Maybe the weakest element of the plot is the sins themselves? Again, this is another element which was still very strong overall but it felt odd that there were seven sins and five couples. The seven deadly sins are kind of hard to define in terms of acts people can commit to embody them and the connections between sins chosen and the acts committed didn't always translate well to me. Ellis does a fantastic job considering how hard a task that is and it does result in a very cool premise for a book. I understand it's the hook but even without the sins, I think the book would have stood strong.

Overall, I was very impressed by this debut novel. It's a great read for anyone who likes thrillers, horror or both and it absolutely delivers on the kind of story you'd expect from the blurb. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for Ellis's future work.

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