The stories in the first half of this book felt vague with nothing for me to latch on to, if that makes sense. The stories in the second half get better.
Continue readingEverything That’s Underneath by Kristi DeMeester
Book Reviews
Children of the Savage City by Elizabeth Heider
Children of the Savage City is the sequel to May the Wolf Die, but it reminds you of what happened before, so you can jump right in here if you haven’t read the first book or don’t remember everything that happened last time.
Continue readingI Am the Monster Under the Bed by Emily Zinnikas
As a child, Willa was friends with the monster under her bed. In the present, she’s a famous artist and she has a feud with a television psychic, which is a fun set up.
Continue readingEtidorpha, or the End of Earth by John Uri Lloyd
I got this book a while ago and don’t remember why I got it in the first place. I’d say this book is about half fiction and half philosophical musings. There are long lecture-type sections about a variety of topics including alchemy, intoxicants, and the limitations of science. He claims all food is really sunshine and only seems like it’s other things because matter is the carrier of sunshine. He claims liquid can sometimes go against the force of gravity. I kept wishing he’d just get on with the story rather than lecturing us so often and at such great length.
Continue readingWe Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel
“Most people don’t change the world, and yet, most people still matter.”
Nisha works in an abortion clinic in Chicago. The forty days leading up to Easter are the most difficult as there’s extra protesters during Lent. To make things even worse, her ex-boyfriend Aaron now works at the clinic with her. He used to be an anti-abortion protester so she doesn’t trust him.
Continue readingCarry Me to My Grave by Christopher Golden
After Malcolm’s mother dies, he’s determined to carry out her final request to bury her in the town she was born in over a thousand miles away. His sister-in-law Violet, who’s he’s in love with, comes along, as well as a pair of Irish twins hired by his mother before she died. It starts out delightfully weird with a stalker wearing a raven mask and something hiding in the roots of a tree. It quickly becomes a road trip from hell as zombie/vampire-like creatures try to stop his mother from being buried.
Continue readingThe Life and Times of William Howard Taft by Henry F. Pringle
William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati in 1857. His father Alphonso Taft was a lawyer, judge, member of President Grant’s cabinet, and minister to Vienna and St. Petersburg. William Taft was born plump and jovial and remained so his entire life.
Boys from his neighborhood feuded with boys from other neighborhoods, throwing rocks at each other and drawing blood. He enjoyed playing baseball, though they would sometimes be attacked while playing. He was nicknamed Big Lub. He covered second base and was good at bat, but a slow runner. He swam in the canal in summer and skated on it in winter.
Continue readingFavorites
This post used to be a page on my blog that I updated from time to time. But now I see the last time I updated it was three years ago. I used to listen to a lot of fiction podcasts, but now most of my podcast listening is in the realm of non-fiction with only 3 fiction podcasts in my regular rotation. So I’ve decided to retire this as a page and instead turn it into a post for archival purposes.
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The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
After surviving an attack that nearly leaves her dead, Kirby is determined to catch the man responsible. Unknown to her, the serial killer Harper can travel through time, making him particularly difficult to catch. She gets help from Dan, a sports reporter who used to cover crime.
Continue readingWretch by Eric LaRocca
“Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes, you’ll know you’re dead.”
Our narrator Simeon is a middle-aged man who is mourning the loss of his husband Jonathan. He’s also recently lost his job. He has an ex-wife and a 16-year-old son. We don’t see much of the son, but I often got the impression he was younger than 16 due to the way his parents treated him and talked about him. With references to chat rooms and webpages buffering before loading, I initially thought this took place in the 1990s, but it turns out it takes place in the present time.
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Mania Delight 