Review: Bent Heavens – Horrific, Depressing, and Super Compelling

Title: Bent Heavens Author: Daniel Kraus Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. Genre(s): "YA" Horror, Contemporary Subject(s): Alien abduction, torture Release Date: Feb 25th, 2020 Page Count: 304 (hardback) Rating: 8.0/10         Liv Fleming’s father went missing more than two years ago, not long after he claimed to have been abducted by aliens. …

Reviews: Contagion & Immunity by Erin Bowman – Biological Space Horror and Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Title: Contagion (Contagion 1) Author: Erin Bowman Publisher: HarperTeen Release Date: July 24th, 2018 Genre(s): YA Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror Subjects and Themes: Microbiology, LGBTQIAP+ Page Count: 432 (hardback) Rating: 7.5/10       After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to …

Review: Alice Isn’t Dead (A Novel) – A Road Trip Like No Other

Title: Alice Isn't Dead: A Novel Author: Joseph Fink Publisher: Harper Perennial Release Date: October 30th, 2018 Genre(s): Horror, Mystery Subjects and Themes: Road Trip, LGBTQIAP+ Page Count: 336 (hardback) Rating: 7/10       Keisha Taylor lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, …

September 2018 “TBR” – Procrastination, Witches, and Hard Choices

"Kathy." "Mm?" "We're pretty much in the middle of September right now." "Yep, I can see that. I have a tear-away calendar thingy on my desk." "Well, one generally writes a TBR post at the beginning of the month." "Eh, that's debatable. There's no Blog Police skulking around checking for these things, ready to clap …

Top 5 Wednesday – Favourite Summer Reads

"Top 5 Wednesday" is a weekly meme currently hosted on Goodreads by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes, where you list your top 5 for the week's chosen topic. This week's theme is: favourite summer reads. I ran into a bit of a roadblock with this one because I wasn't exactly sure what books my brain categorizes …

Top 5 Wednesday – Favourite Mentors/Teachers in Books

"Top 5 Wednesday" is a weekly meme currently hosted on Goodreads by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes, where you list your top 5 for the week's chosen topic. This week's theme is: favourite mentors/teachers. I had a lot going on this past week, so this was compiled kind of at the last minute. Which means it's …

“Champions of the Genre” – Explanation and Examples

As I write more and more reviews on this blog, you'll see a small notation/badge (that I've yet to design) sometimes appear beside the review score: "Champions of the Genre." You'll also notice an identically-named shelf on my Goodreads page. It's a designation plagiarized from inspired by video game critic Jim Sterling from the Jimquisition. …

Most Anticipated Mystery, Thriller & Horror: Feb-April 2018

Here's the second batch of the "Most Anticipated Feb-April" series! I've banished the "alternate book covers left and right" scheme into a deep, lightless pit because it was an absolute pain to format the last time (free wordpress has a terrible html editor, who knew?). Please note: some of theses straddle the line between Mystery/Thriler/Horror …