The Fifth Guest by Jenny Knight

 

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

The Fifth Guest tells the story of a group of old friends from Oxford university, reunited for a dinner as adults. The dinner party atmosphere soon turns sour as it becomes clear their bonds are not so much of friendship as having scores to settle with each other. The chapters alternate between the present day dinner party and the past days of university life, with both revealing secrets and dark happenings.

This book has one of the most generic thriller premises ever (although admittedly a good one) but boy does it execute it well! A book like this lives and dies by its characters, and all of them are fantastic here. They really do feel like real people, with their own flaws and lives going on. I particularly enjoyed the chapters set in the past-I almost wish there had been more of them, or less of a large time skip since they take place over all three years. I wanted to see how they all grew and changed throughout university life. Having said that, those sections are still very enjoyable and it does help the book to keep a good pace.

I also loved how this book didn't always go with the 'obvious' past tragedies/secrets. It took some really interesting directions and kept me on my toes as a reader, which I really appreciated. Again, it helped it feel fresh from its typical premise and really breathed some life into the book.

Overall, I definitely recommend giving this a try. It's a perfect example of how to take a classic thriller premise and create a solid story from it, as well as to have characters who are flawed but still enjoyable to read about

Overall Rating:

The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review.

The Inugami Curse is the story of a wealthy family who gets thrown into disarray when the contents of the patriarch's will get revealed. To the family's shock, the money gets left to a seemingly unrelated female guest of the house, with additional caveats that she must marry one of the grandsons within a set time period. The only way to escape this clause is if all three grandsons die, or if the woman herself dies.

The setup to this book is a lot more complicated than the Honjin Murders, though this also allows for a lot more interpersonal conflict and character interactions. It is an intriguing mystery once you get into the swing of it, with lots going on and plenty of dramatic reveals throughout. I particularly enjoyed the sense of threat throughout. It's like an Agatha Christie with more bite, with the rich family members all treating each other with suspicion and gruesome deaths round every corner.

Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying these translated mysteries and I really hope for more in the future. They're a great way to branch out your murder mystery tastes, and it's always good to read more detective fiction from the golden age

Overall Rating:

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first Japanese murder mystery I'd ever read, and I wasn't sure how I would feel about it. I tend to be a 'married to Agatha Christie' girl in terms of my mysteries, but I am so glad I branched out here.

The Honjin Murders is a fascinating tale of a newly-wed husband and wife, who both die violently on the night of their wedding. Just days before, a mysterious man was seen outside the house. The Ichiyanagi family are rich and proud, and adding to the mystery is the fact that the room the deaths occurred in appears to be locked with no way for a murderer to escape.

This book was an absolute joy to read. The writing/translation is fantastic and very entertaining. I loved the characters, particularly the detective Kosuke Kindaichi. The chapters are short and quick to read, which means it has a similar pacing to a Christie book. The mystery itself is very intriguing, with the surrounding characters and clues making for an enjoyable time.

I absolutely recommend this book if you are a fan of the genre. I have subsequently read almost all the translated books by this author, and they are all brilliant reads. I am so glad this book has been chosen for translation, and I can only hope more will follow.

Overall Rating:

The Binge Watcher's Guide to Supernatural by Jessica Mason

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Riverdale Avenue Books in exchange for an honest review.

The timing of this book was fortuitous. I have just started bingewatching Supernatural for the first time ever with my friend, and it seemed like the perfect time to read this book alongside it. Unfortunately, this was not the fun experience I was hoping for.

This book is written by a megafan which would be a good thing if it wasn't so cringey to read. It's very rare that I'll use that word but this book is just full of bad vibes. The author constantly drools over and sexualises the main actors in a very 'Tumblr' way. The blurb states 'Think of this as John Winchester's journal, guiding you through trivia and tribulations to enrich watching this incredible show'. I don't think John Winchester would describe his sons in this way, despite the tendency for the show to include some incestuous vibes.

Bafflingly, she praises the amazing acting skills at several points whilst berating the campier episodes of the show. I may be in the minority here but I feel like Supernatural is the kind of show to be enjoyed for its campiness. The acting is very bad, especially during earlier seasons. That is part of the fun and the charm, and it makes the watching experience for me.

I am willing to accept this part is down to personal taste. If you love the show unironically and think it is a fantastic piece of drama, maybe you will enjoy this book more. Having said that, there are still many flaws to be found here. Despite being a watcher's guide, there are spoilers throughout for later episodes. These are marked but if you avoid them, you miss out on a lot of content. You honestly don't gain much insight or clever commentary for any episode. You might as well read someone's blog on Tumblr for the depth and extra trivia you acquire. Certainly the blog might be less uncomfortably thirsty.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. I wanted so much more and it barely scratches the surface. I have enjoyed other books in this series so it won't put me off reading those, it's just a shame this one was such a miss.

Overall Rating:

Liar's Beach by Katie Cotugno

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Random House Children’s UK in exchange for an honest review.

Liar's Beach is the story of Linden, a poor college boy who gets invited to his rich friend's beach house for the summer. Things are going reasonably well when one night, after a party, the local bully is found with his head cracked in on the side of the pool. Linden's childhood friend Holiday happens to be there and she seems to think that it wasn't an accident, so they start investigating together.

There was a lot to like about this book. It was light, entertaining without needing to pay too much attention to it and full of some interesting characters. As is too often the case for YA thrillers, the thriller aspect lets it down though. It was incredibly obvious to me who the culprit was from the start, and there were almost no surprises along the way to keep that side of it interesting.

Having said that, this is an enjoyable beach/holiday read. The characters are a step above some YA ones and this kept things ticking along nicely. The writing style is decent enough and it kept me entertained whilst waiting for an incredibly delayed flight, so I can't complain too much. It didn't blow me away but it was good summer fun.

Overall Rating:

The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review.

I am loving this recent boost in translating Japanese murder mysteries, and The Mill House Murders is no exception. I read and loved The Decagon House Murders last year, and this book had a similar setup but with a completely different mystery and feel, which I really appreciated.

The Mill House Murders is the story of a strange group of people who gather every year in the same house to view a collection of prestigious paintings. One year though, a horrible string of events results in two people dead. The following year, people gather as usual but are joined by a detective who wants to solve the mystery of what really happened a year ago.

This book is told across two time points, the past and the present. The main character linking these together is Fujinuma Kiichi, a man who hides his face behind a rubber mask due to an accident which left him disfigured long ago. This style of narration/structure works quite well. I found I didn't often get confused about what time period it was, something which the distinct characters also helped a lot with. It was interesting seeing the mystery unfold in 'real time' whilst also getting the investigation of the present day.

In terms of tone, this book excellently captures that kind of Christie-esque vibe. I was surprised (perhaps naively so) how culturally accessible it was from that standpoint. I thoroughly enjoyed the creepiness of the mystery, the intrigue of the characters and the overall premise and solution.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book if you enjoy traditional murder mysteries. The plot is captivating, the characters intriguing and the writing/translation is very entertaining. An enjoyable read all round!

Overall Rating:

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HarperCollins UK in exchange for an honest review.

I wish I liked this book more.

The Paris Apartment is the story of a woman who shows up to stay with her brother in Paris, only to find he is missing. Having nowhere else to go, she decides to stay in his apartment in the hopes he'll show up. The longer she stays though, the more ominous the situation seems. The other residents of the apartment building all seem to be hiding something, but is it related to her brother?

This book has a reasonable set up and plot but it suffers almost immediately from too many POV characters. I found it difficult to keep track of who was who, and in particular it was hard to remember how different characters were related. This kind of book relies heavily on being able to remember characters (it features a lot of people discussing other people, which doesn't work so well if you don't remember the names) but I found the characters either weren't established strongly or their initial relations to each other weren't emphasised enough for me to be able to fully appreciate the story.

That aside, this is quite a mediocre mystery. It never felt like the stakes were particularly high or meaningful. I wasn't really surprised by anything that happened, nor did I care strongly about any of the other characters. I think the other books by this author are much better

Overall Rating:

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason I thought this was a zombie book but I was wrong. At the End of Everything is a book about a group of young offenders who get abandoned and forgotten once a deadly plague breaks out. They must fight for their own survival and navigate their new situation, which leads to a lot of drama and unpleasant situations.

If I'd known this was just a plague book and not a zombie book, I honestly wouldn't have requested it. This book hangs uncomfortably in the shadow of the pandemic and that made it a very difficult read. The deadly disease is a cough that kills people, and much of the book is just reading about teenagers slowly dying. There is not much outside of death and interpersonal struggles happening, and even the latter is a little sparse. There are a lot of narrating characters at first, and that made it difficult to get to grips with everyone. I understand that you need a lot of characters because most of them will die in a book like this, but I would have rather met them more slowly and had more time to get to grips with each one. The beginning was hard to get into for this reason.

Having said that, the characters are probably the strongest part of this book. I think the plot could have been more strongly emotion-driven as everything is a little distant, as unpleasant as the events which happen are. This is something I've experienced from this author before with previous books, so I guess it's more of a feature than a bug. I also wish we'd gotten a split narrative as one group goes out to try their luck in the outside world, and I think it would have been more interesting to see what happened to them as well rather than just the sad monotony of the institute.

Overall, I think if you enjoy other works by this author and like the sound of the premise, then you should give this a try. For me, there were too many factors which prevented me from enjoying it. It's a very bleak read and a potentially triggering one, so be aware of that too

Overall Rating:

Love, Unscripted by Owen Nicholls

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Headline Review in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy. I can't believe Holly Bourne's name is right there on the cover promoting this book.

Love, Unscripted is the story of Nick, one of the most insufferable protagonists that I've read about for a while. Nick is a projectionist at a local movie theatre and also a self-destructive, unaware moron.

The blurb of this book frames this as a 'boy gets left by girl and re-evaluates his life' kind of story, but this is actually a massive lie. In fact, it is a 'boy dumps his long-suffering girlfriend because he's too much of an ass to realise that he is dumping her, then mopes about and tells everyone she dumped him' kind of story.

I get that the point of this book is Nick is meant to go through personal growth and realise the error of his ways, but Nick is not a teenage boy. He's a grown man who should know better at his age than making his girlfriend do all his emotional work for him. He is so self-focused that it becomes deeply unpleasant reading about every other character trying to patiently accommodate him and his self-made problems. He is so unaware of their feelings that it makes him completely irredeemable as a protagonist.#

I cannot recommend this book even a little bit. I adore romance books of many shapes and sizes, but I have no patience for the lack of awareness this book seems to have about its own main character

Overall Rating:

Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Mariner Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am not normally a memoir reader but something about this book caught my eye, and I am so glad I took the chance and requested it. Wild Game is a fascinating examination of a mother-daughter relationship in all its complexities. It is a heartbreaking read and one that is quite difficult at times, but I was utterly sucked in.

It feels weird to review the things that happen in someone's life, so I will focus on things other than the content. The writing is brilliant, distant enough to make for a well-told story but close enough that the emotions are still there. There is just as much in what is not said in this book as there is on the page, and that creates a really powerful tone throughout. The mother-daughter dynamic is intriguing and intense, and that's really what powers the story moreso than the mother's affair.

Overall, if you like the sound of this book you should give it a try. It is thoughtfully written, deeply engaging and poignant, which is everything a good memoir should be.

Overall Rating:

Don't Swipe Right by L.M. Chilton

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Head of Zeus in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic surprise this book was!

Don't Swipe Right is the story of Gwen, a woman who gets caught up in a string of murders when it turns out the men she keeps dating keep on dying. She naturally becomes a suspect and decides to investigate in an attempt to clear her name.

On the surface, I was already sold by the premise. It's a little hard to judge what kind of book this is from the cover, but it is much more cosy mystery/humorous thriller than the typical psychological thrillers. I suspect this might lead to a few disappointed readers, but if you know what you are in for then this book is a breath of life.

For starters, it's actually funny! It's so rare that I laugh at books and this one was genuinely entertaining in a very engaging way. The mystery aspects are fairly weak but the writing and characterisations are so good that I was hooked. I had an absolute blast reading it and I didn't want to put it down as a result.

If you want a tense, intricate thriller then this book isn't for you. But if you want a decent plot with great writing and great characters, then I strongly recommend this book. It is a very fun time and the perfect enjoyable read.

Overall Rating:

.5