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Showing posts from May, 2020

Review: On the Night Border: Stories by James Chambers

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This collection of dark fiction has a little bit of everything. On The Night Border by James Chambers Published September 2019 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark things stir in the night. When the world sleeps and quiet settles in, shadows assume sinister shapes, guilt and regret well up from the mind’s deepest recesses, and the lonely face their greatest fears. Darkness bares the secret truths whispered on the lips of the lost and the desperate. At night, terrors come alive. For those who journey too far into the dark, no escape remains—but there is a place from which to view these nightmares, a place…on the night border. The fifteen stories collected here come from the last edge of the light and deliver glimpses into the dreadful, the mysterious, and the strange. These stories offer readers unsettling and weird visions from across the border, visions out of history and from the world around us, visions of cosm

Book Review: Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana

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Here's a lovely little story to brighten your day. ♥  Just kidding! Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana Published June 2018 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Purchased Kim White is a very popular cheerleader. She’s pretty, healthy, and comes from a well-off family. She has everything a girl of sixteen is supposed to want. And she’s sick to death of it. In search of something to pull her out of her suicidal thoughts, she begrudgingly decides to lose her virginity, having heard it’s a life-changing event. But Kim doesn’t want to do it the same way her peers do. She seduces one of her teachers, hoping to ruin his life just for the fun of it. This starts Kim on a runaway train of sadism, and she makes every effort to destroy the lives of those around her. But soon simple backstabbing is not enough to keep her excited, and she nosedives into sabotage, violence, and even murder. When Kim finds out she’s pregnant with her teacher’s child, a new madness o

Thriller Review: The Other People by C.J. Tudor

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Even though everyone seems to adore The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor , I liked this one better. The Other People by C.J. Tudor Released January 2020 Thriller   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Loan She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room . . . Three years ago, Gabe saw his daughter taken. In the back of a rusty old car, covered in bumper stickers. He was driving behind the car. He watched her disappear. But no one believes him. Most people believe that his daughter, and wife, are dead. For a while, people believed that Gabe was responsible. Three years later and Gabe cannot give up hope. Even though he has given up everything else. His home, his job, his old life. He spends his days and nights traveling up and down the motorway, sleeping in his camper van in service stations, searching for the car that took her. Searching for his daughter. Katie spends a lot of her life in service stations, working as a waitress. She often sees Gabriel, or 'the thin man

PSA: How Not To Approach A Reviewer

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I'm back with another unasked for PSA! This time I tackle how to approach a reviewer. Or, more accurately, how not to approach a reviewer. I've been doing this for a good 85 years or so it seems like, and though people come and go, there are some mistakes things that never seem to change in bloglandia. Mistake #1: Addressing me by "Reviewer", "Mr. Bark" or "Dearest Bark" (though I admit that one warms my heart a little). This tells me that you have not taken 5 minutes to read my review policy of which I agonized over. How do I know? Because I tell you my real name in the first few lines. It's the simplest test ever and you just failed.  I know we are all busy little bees but my policy is pretty brief and to the point and it's there to help you avoid wasting your time with me. Mistake #2: Attempting to personalize an email with the wrong information: I'll never be the kind of person to tell others how to condu

TBR Thursday (7)

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It's been a little bit since I've done one of these because I have been horribly distracted but I've been doing my best to attempt to read each day and I haven't been bringing new books into the house so I don't have that guilt at least! I hope your reading lives have been better than mine. Here's what's possibly up next in my reading life (always subject to change based on mood and general flakiness):  I'm super excited to read both of these because they've received excellent reviews from people who read much faster than I ever will. Both are dark fiction and I might have to sneak something light and sexy in there as a breather - I just don't know what yet. If you have any recs let me know in the comments. Currently Reading: In Darkness Delight: Creatures of the Night is a (so far) solid collection of creepy crawly monsters with some nice surprises. It's perfect for me right now because I seem only able to read in sho

Book Review: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

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Hi everyone, I remembered I have a blog and am back with a review. My apologies for the slacking during this apocalypse but it's been hard to find structure and motivation. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling Published April 2019 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Purchased A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival. When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane. Instead, she got Em. Em sees nothing wrong with contr