Blue Ninja

Just finished: The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire. This is the same story told in the previous book, Sleep No More, but from a different character’s perspective. The entire world of Faerie has been rewritten by Titania and most everyone’s memories have been overwritten as well. Toby, our hero, now believes she has always lived in her mother’s tower with her sister and has no memory of her husband Tybalt (King of Dreaming Cats), that she is pregnant, and so on. The previous book tells her story. This book is about Tybalt, who did not have his memory changed and is frantic to get his wife back. I thought both books were great, and I really liked seeing the story both ways, through Toby’s eyes and then Tybalt’s.

DNF: Intercepts by T.J. Payne. This was a little too horrific for me, I guess! It’s about people in extreme sensory deprivation as some sort of experiment or something (I didn’t get far enough to know why), and apparently that just upsets me too much. Plus, it was super gory right off the bat, and I don’t care for gore. Oh well.

Currently reading: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix.

checkoutmybookshelf:

memewhore:

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bibliotecasanvalentino:

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Just finished: rereading Watership Down by Richard Adams. I love this book so, so much. Sometimes when I reread it I skim all the description just to get to the action, but this time I read every bit, really trying to picture everything. The writing is so lovely! I love the little quotes before every chapter, too. I tear up at the very end, every time. It’s one of my all-time favorite books, and I needed this reread right now.

Currently reading: the new Seanan McGuire, The Innocent Sleep.

a-book-scarfing-goblin:

I honestly don’t know which is more gratifying: Going to a bookstore hoping for a certain book and then finding it or going to a bookstore with no plan and finding a gem

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Just finished: The Chill by Scott Carson. I don’t have much to say about it, as Life has been Happening and I just couldn’t get into it. It’s about a dam in danger of bursting and ghosts helping it along, as revenge for old wrongs. I did read the whole thing, and maybe someday I can give it another try when things are calmer, but for now I didn’t find it very scary or even all that interesting.

Currently reading: I’m tired of horror, and I can’t handle anything new right now. So I’m rereading Watership Down by Richard Adams, mostly because I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about the new graphic novel adaptation and that’s made me want to read it again!

stuckinapril:

there’s genuinely nothing as reassuring as a good book. if you’re lonely, it’s there. if you need an escape, its pages practically beckon you into their haven. if you’re at a point in your life where you can’t bear the weight of your own struggles, you always have the option of finding solace in those of a fictional character, if only momentarily. the power a scant few words can pack is nothing short of staggering.

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soberscientistlife:

“I hate reality just as much as the next guy, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal”

- Groucho Marx

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Just finished: the 6 Creature Feature short stories by various authors. There’s a haunted (cursed?) baby carriage, an actual monster under the bed, a werewolf story, and so on. I thought they were pretty fun. My favorite is probably Best of Luck by Jason Mott with its very Twilight Zone ending.

Also just finished: Tidepool by Nicole Wilson. This is a very Lovecraftian tale set in 1913. It’s the story of Sorrow Hamilton who arrives in the small seaside town of Tidepool, in search of her missing brother. It’s a town filled with unfriendly people and an ever-present stench of rotting fish, and Sorrow quickly realizes that the people know more than they will tell about her brother’s disappearance. She discovers terrible secrets and wants to leave but somehow there’s always a reason she can’t go… I really liked this one.

Currently reading: The Chill by Scott Carson.

blogbibliophilia:

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Just finished: The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard. It’s another companion novella to The Hands of the Emperor, this time about Conju, a valet/assistant to the Emperor. I love how Goddard keeps giving us these companion pieces so we can see events through different characters’ eyes! In this one, we get to see how Conju handled the Fall, how he met Kip and what he thought of him, and how he became a close helper to the Emperor. I loved it, as I have all of Goddard’s works so far!

Currently reading: Back to horror with a set of six horror short stories from six different authors. I’ve already read The Pram by Joe Hill and Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix, and just started It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman.

quirkycatsfatstacks:

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Just finished: Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig. Evil apples! EVIL APPLES! It sounds silly but Wendig makes it work, does he ever. A failing farmer revitalizes his apple orchard with grafts from…well, we find out later. The grafts take hold beautifully and produce dark, almost black apples that taste amazing, are addictive, and the people who eat them seem healthier, stronger…but meaner as well. And then things really start to change. I loved this book. It reminded me of Stephen King’s best works (and there is even a very Flagg-like character working behind the scenes, we learn). Great characters, loved the story, the horror is so well done. I will definitely reread it someday.

Currently reading: The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard. Taking a break from horror because hey, new Victoria Goddard book! I must drop everything and read it immediately!

Just finished: House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. Marion escapes her life in the slums by signing up to become a “bloodmaid”, a girl indentured to the wealthy for the purpose of giving blood for the wealthy to drink. (Not vampires in the traditional sense at all.) In this universe, drinking blood is akin to drinking wine, and has curative properties. It seems the perfect escape to Marion—be clothed and fed and pampered, get an education, get bled and bitten and stabbed with needles multiple times a day, but retire in a few years with a generous pension. But of course, it isn’t that simple. This book grabbed me from page one and I enjoyed it a lot, with the exception of all the descriptions of needles and bloodletting, ugh. It was easy enough to skim those bits, though. I liked the world-building (a world like but unlike our own), and it was nicely creepy, albeit a tad predictable.

Currently reading: Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig.