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Small Favors

Title: Small Favors

Author: Erin A. Craig

Genre: YA fantasy

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

What a delightful story. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and it kept me guessing until the very end. I’m not a big fantasy fan, but this one was much more like a fairy tale- creatures in the woods, mysterious silver eyes peering back at you, unexplained accidents, and struggles to survive. The main character, Ellerie, is a great lead. She’s resilient and strong but has her weaknesses and faults….. much like any person. But, writing teenage girls can be tricky. A lot of times they come off as annoying, but I loved Ellerie and was rooting for her the whole time.

From Goodreads: Ellerie Downing lives in the quiet town of Amity Falls in the Blackspire Mountain range–five narrow peaks stretching into the sky like a grasping hand, bordered by a nearly impenetrable forest from which the early townsfolk fought off the devils in the woods. To this day, visitors are few and rare. But when a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned.

As fall turns to winter, more strange activities plague the town. They point to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures who promise to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires, however grand and impossible, for just a small favor. But their true intentions are much more sinister, and Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.

I will say I thought the book could have been about 50 pages shorter. The town is being torn apart, and it seemed like that topic went on a bit longer than necessary. I got the point, but the fighting just continued. But my thoughts also could be simply because I was so excited to get to the end and see how it all worked out that I didn’t want to keep reading about the turmoil. In any case, that’s just a personal stance and is no reason for other people not to read. This book was great and is definitely one I would recommend to people who like this kind of story.

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Behind Her Eyes

Title: Behind Her Eyes

Author: Sarah Pinborough

Genre: thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: book with a black and white cover

W. T. F. did I just read? That was the craziest book! But I loved it. Verity was pretty insane. But, unlike the characters in that one, I loved all these. Even though the characters here were pretty bonkers, they were so much fun. I just don’t even know where to begin with this one. Mostly, it’s about a love triangle, who knows what, who is tricking whom, but it’s more clever than that.

From Goodreads: Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.

So, the love triangle between David, Louise, and Adele is crazy. Louise befriends Adele, keeps the affair a secret, but keeps seeing David (her boss), things escalate, and secrets abound. Normally, this type of book wouldn’t be my thing. But it’s so much more than just a crazy love story. It’s still a thriller with the craziest ending to a book I’ve read in ages. I’m telling everyone I know to read this one, just so they can experience the ride of it.

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Full Throttle

Title: Full Throttle

Author: Joe Hill

Genre: horror short story

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: an author who shares your Zodiac sign

I’ve read a lot by Joe Hill. The Fireman was my favorite, but I also enjoyed Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2. I’m not a big short story fan, but I’m trying to read more. My strategy is to pick a book and read one a day, while I’m also reading other novels. It actually works well for me, and I’m definitely going to use this for my Stephen King story collections that I haven’t gone through yet.

From Goodreads: A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” In “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain,” two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water’s edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality . . . and other horrors that lurk in the water’s shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King.

There are some memorable stories in this collection. One is told entirely through tweets, which was excellent. One was formatted in a stair step fashion to mimic the plot. Another was told about an event from multiple perspectives of people on an airplane. “In the Tall Grass” was also co-written by Stephen King, and I know it’s also a Netflix movie, but I definitely will not be watching that. This story is so horrific, but great, but it’s one I know I won’t be able to stomach actually seeing. Overall, this was a great collection with some really creative stories, some really gruesome stories, and some really heartfelt stories. So far, Joe Hill hasn’t let me down.

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Transcendent Kingdom

Title: Transcendent Kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Genre: Black and African-American Literature

I read Homegoing earlier this year and just loved it. The story was so interesting, and the book was just beautifully written. I was just blown away at how captivating it was. And, although I didn’t love this one as much, it was still just such an excellent book. I had no trouble relating to Gifty and her struggles, even though I haven’t experienced them myself. Such is the talent of Gyasi, that even though I’m white, have parents who are still together, born in America, no family members with substance abuse issues, literally Gifty’s polar opposite, I could still get into her psyche because that’s what talented authors do. They create characters that anyone can inhabit, just for a few days. And Gifty will stick with me.

From Goodreads: Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.

What was most fascinating to me was Gifty’s struggle with her faith. I’m not religious at all and never have been. So seeing Gifty in a tug-of-war with her beliefs was interesting. Her soul is laid bare in this book, and at an early age, she’s forced to grow up. I flew through this book, but not necessarily to see how the plot unfolds, like with most books. But, I just wanted to keep spending time with Gifty and seeing her evolve. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Gyasi’s next book. Count me as a fan.

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The Whisper Man

Title: The Whisper Man

Author: Alex North

Genre: thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: book published anonymously

For the reading challenge, I needed to read a book published anonymously. After scrolling through several lists, none sounded all that interesting. So, I fudged a bit and went with a book that is technically published anonymously but has a pseudonym attached. Alex North’s real identity is unknown. So, good enough for me. I read The Shadows last year and thought it was pretty good, so I figured why not just use this one for the challenge. And I’m so glad I did. This one was excellent.

From Goodreads: After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town: Featherbank.

But Featherbank has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed “The Whisper Man,” for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.

Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter’s crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window. 

This book was just great in every department: characters, plot, writing, etc. I fully understood character motivations, plot points made sense, and it was tightly written. Jake and Tom are struggling, but your heart goes out to them both. They are trying as best they can, but adjusting has been difficult. The story is told sometimes in 3rd person and sometimes 1st. It’s a bit tricky, but once you get the idea, it’s not too bad. But I definitely appreciated North’s ability to write both in the same book. Overall, this one was a lot better than The Shadows. But because both were really well done, I’ll be looking for more of North’s books.

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The Wife Upstairs

Title: The Wife Upstairs

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Genre: thriller

Ugh, this book. It’s supposed to be a modern re-telling of Jane Eyre, which is a book I love. But every single character in this book was awful. Not one redeeming quality between them. And the fact that the title is a spoiler, what in the world? You know there’s a wife upstairs from the very beginning, which is ridiculous. Finding that out as a plot twist would have been so much better.

From Goodreads: Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates—a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.

But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie—not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.

Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past—or his—catches up to her?

With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending?

I disliked every character: Jane, Eddie, the wife upstairs, all the minor characters, etc. Every one of them was vapid and useless. The fact that Jane desperately wants into their wealthy world tells you what kind of person she is. She is escaping her past, but when you find out what it is, it’s quite a disappointment. This book was a Book of the Month club selection back in Dec 2020. And it’s not one I’ll be recommending. What a disappointment.

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Any Way the Wind Blows

Title: Any Way the Wind Blows

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: LGBTQ+ Ya fiction, fantasy

I have read and loved every single book Rainbow Rowell has written. My favorite is Fangirl, which is where Simon Snow got his start, but her others (Attachments (and Rainbow Rowell in general), Carry On) are just lovely. (minor spoilers for the series) Simon and Baz are just so fantastic together, so Wayward Son bummed me out. Simon was so grumpy (with good reason, but I still was disappointed), but THANK GOODNESS he has figured things out in this book.

From Goodreads: In Carry On, Simon Snow and his friends realized that everything they thought they understood about the world might be wrong. And in Wayward Son, they wondered whether everything they understood a bout themselves might be wrong.In Any Way the Wind Blows, Simon and Baz and Penelope and Agatha have to decide how to move forward.

For Simon, that means deciding whether he still wants to be part of the World of Mages — and if he doesn’t, what does that mean for his relationship with Baz? Meanwhile Baz is bouncing between two family crises and not finding any time to talk to anyone about his newfound vampire knowledge. Penelope would love to help, but she’s smuggled an American Normal into London, and now she isn’t sure what to do with him. And Agatha? Well, Agatha Wellbelove has had enough.

Any Way the Wind Blows takes the gang back to England, back to Watford, and back to their families for their longest and most emotionally wrenching adventure yet.

This book is a finale. It tells secrets and answers questions and lays ghosts to rest.

I loved this book and finished it in just a couple of days. And then I had book hangover. The next book I tried to read wasn’t about Simon and Baz, and I just kept looking at it rather than wanting to read it. Glossing over most of the plot, I will say that I loved each character’s storyline, but having Simon and Baz together again (it’s not perfect, but man is it so much better than the last book) was fantastic. This book was an excellent ending to a fun trilogy. I will miss Simon’s adventures, but I know I’ll be reading these books again one day.

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Chasing the Boogeyman

Title: Chasing the Boogeyman

Author: Richard Chizmar

Genre: thriller, mystery

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

I was introduced to Richard Chizmar because of his collaboration with Stephen King on Gwendy’s Button Box, which was great. I’ve also read his sequel, Gwendy’s Magic Feather, and am really excited for the next Gwendy book. I follow him on Twitter, but haven’t read much else of his. But when I saw that Netgalley was offering this one, I jumped at the chance to read more of his work. And, my gosh, did I love this one.

From Goodreads: In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman—and he’s playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end.

Recent college graduate Richard Chizmar returns to his hometown just as a curfew is enacted and a neighborhood watch is formed. In the midst of preparing for his wedding and embarking on a writing career, he soon finds himself thrust into the real-life horror story. Inspired by the terrifying events, Richard writes a personal account of the serial killer’s reign of terror, unaware that these events will continue to haunt him for years to come.

This book is amazing. One of the best I’ve read this year, honestly. Even though it’s a work of fiction, Chizmar’s family, parents, siblings, wife, kids, etc that he mentions in the book are all real. The town eh grew up in and the streets, locations, etc are real. But the events are not. He says at the end (no spoilers here) that as he was thinking about this book, he knew that his younger self just had to be the narrator. And it works. Who better to tell a story of your hometown? The plot is great, with Richard and his journalist pal, Carly, trying to solve the murders of these girls. The story isn’t true, but it reads exactly like a true crime book. There are even photos of the “victims” and other people involved. Chizmar, I think, writes horror, but this one isn’t horror at all. It’s just a good old-fashioned mystery. Sure, girls being killed is pretty awful, but this book is not graphic at all. I’ll definitely be recommending it to my true crime/thriller fellow readers.

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Survive the Night

Title: Survive the Night

Author: Riley Sager

Genre: thriller

I’ve read all of Riley Sager’s books. Lock Every Door was my favorite. It was just so bonkers. But the rest have been really good and compelling. This book, though. Ugh. From the get-go, it was preposterous. I was so disappointed. The plot was fine, a girl trying to get through the night with this “mystery” guy, but the details were so ridiculous and unbelievable. Bummer because I was really looking forward to this.

From Goodreads: Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there’s nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing–survive the night.

First of all, there is NO WAY Charlie would have gotten a ride from a stranger after what she’s been through. It was wholly unbelievable. The reason she couldn’t have waited two days for her boyfriend to give her a ride was absurd. Charlie also sees movies in her mind. Like she blacks out to the real world and goes into a sort of hallucination and sees a movie, based on real events, playing out. W. T. F. Just ridiculous and unbelievable. It’s like Sager said, how can I make this movie-loving girl more vulnerable… oh I know, let’s give her some mental instability that will play right in to my plot. If you want to read a good road trip thriller, check out No Exit or I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Both do this fabulously and have their own interesting take on the situation. I gave this one three stars because I did finish it and want to see what became of Charlie, but it was just too stupid to give it anything more.

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X

Title: X

Authors: Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon

Genre: YA fiction/historical fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A book whose title starts with Q X or Z

Back when I was teaching middle school, I handed my students two excerpts of pieces of writing: “The Ballot or the Bullet” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” I didn’t tell the kids the authors of either. After they read them, we had a discussion about which was more powerful, better written, more persuasive, etc. Hands-down, they selected “Ballot or the Bullet” as the piece they gravitated toward. Then, I played an audio recording of both authors. I can’t remember if it was the same pieces of writing or not, but the kids immediately switched sides. As powerful of a writer as Malcolm X was, Dr. King’s speaking ability was second to none. The lesson was a really great way to compare the written word vs. spoken word, not to mention how different Malcolm X’s and Dr. King’s beliefs were.

I bought this book on my kindle ages ago but never got around to reading it….story of my life. And I had completely forgotten what it was even about. But since it fit the prompt and was one I already had, it was an easy decision to select this one. I’m so glad I did. Co-written by Malcolm X’s daughter, this book is a fictionalized (based on facts, of course) account of Malcolm’s childhood and teenage years. He’s arrested and incarcerated toward the end of the book, and his prison time is briefly described. At the end of the book, he abandons his last name and changes to X.

From Goodreads: Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s nothing but a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer.

X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever.

This book is fantastic. I don’t know much about Malcolm X’s background, let alone details of his childhood. I’ve never read his autobiography (for no particular reason…just never have). As much as I try to educate myself of important Black authors and activists, I am seriously lacking. I’ve never read James Baldwin, Richard Wright, or WEB DuBois. I am making a point to read more current Black authors, learning their stories, listening to their voices, but the formative authors are ones I need to investigate. And this book is an excellent way for young people, as well as for me, to do that.