Bark At The Ghouls

I purchased a copy of Bad Dolls when Audible had a very good sale a little bit ago. 80% off? Thank you very much. Anyone read this one? My 2 Cents for Free! Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison Released September 2022 Source: Audible Purchase Get it at your local library or see more @  Goodreads These stories are what I’d call “horror adjacent” so keep that in mind if you’re expecting the creepy crawlies. They’re more about complicated, messy women (Bad Dolls, I guess?) and their complicated relationships than they are about the trad horrors. But being a woman is sometimes a horror all in itself so there’s that. Reply Hazy, Try Again This is a tale about a woman who purchases a used 8 Ball and realizes her current relationship kind of sucks. Is the 8 Ball just being spicy or is it helping her out? I didn’t like any of these people and that’s ok but the story didn’t thrill me too much either. 2.5? Bachelorette This one drives home that some friendships really need to die a natural death. It...

My 2 Cents for Free! The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter Released January 1979, 162 pgs Source: Bought with my own $ Goodreads  |  Amazon Eeek I don't know how to rate it. It's probably a 2 but one of the stories was a 4 and it was the longest so I'll go with a 3 for now. I've been wanting to read this book for ages. I bought a used copy years ago, promptly buried it under other books and about a decade later forgot about it and bought a new reprint. I also somehow ended up with a copy from Audible. Ugh, why do I do this? I should've loved this dark and haunting and beautifully written book but I also should've read it when I bought it the first time. I did not love this dark and haunting and beautifully written book much at all. I don't know if it just hasn't aged well or if I've read too many dark and haunting and beautifully written fairytale retellings but I was mostly bored and annoyed. The first story, The Bloody Chamber, started things off rig...

Well, I finished. Winter's Fury by A.E. Rayne Released July 2017, 738 pgs Source: Purchased from Audible Goodreads  | Amazon IN A WORLD RULED BY MEN, ONE WOMAN WILL RISE She was their greatest warrior; the daughter of the king. But her uncle stole the throne and sent her away to marry Eadmund, the drunken son of their worst enemy. Now she must pick up her sword again to restore her family’s honour and return to the home she loves. Despite her skill with a sword, her prowess in battle, and her reputation as the greatest warrior in Brekka, without her father to protect her, Jael was merely a pawn, a woman to be married off so her uncle could forge an alliance to fulfil his own desperate ambitions. Eadmund is broken hearted, tortured by the murder of his first wife, but his father had lost patience with him. He wanted heirs for his kingdom. He wanted his son back, restored to the fierce warrior he had once been. And when his daughter has a dream about Jael, the woman who would save h...

  Recent Mini Reviews Let's face it, most of my reviews lately are what most people consider "mini" anyhow. Most of the time I'd rather be reading than writing an essay deconstructing every part of a book, so it is what it is. Here are the quick takes and the thoughtless thoughts about the recent(ish) books I've read. This week it's a mix-up of genres. Nothing rated higher than a three but sometimes that happens. When She's Shy  by  Ruby Dixon ⭐⭐⭐ I haven't read anything in the Risdaverse (unless those blue alien books are Risdaverse books? If so, I'm a dummy because I have read a few of them) but this stands all on its own pretty well and now I want to read more so I guess it did its job. I didn't have any pesky questions besides is "Risadaverse" set on Not Hoth? It's short (less than 50 pgs, I think) and the romance is super rushed because, well, it's less than 50 pages but it's a sweet and quick read. No real character...

I wanted to like this one a little more than I actually did. Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine Released August 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration & Purchased from Audible Goodreads  | Amazon The Push meets The Silent Patient in a gripping thriller that follows a woman convinced a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens—while the men in her life refuse to believe a word she says. Anna Alcott is desperate to be pregnant. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life with a grueling IVF journey, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments get swapped without her knowledge. And even when she finally manages to get pregnant, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone's playing a twisted game with her. When the increasingly cryptic threats drive her out of her Brooklyn brownstone and into hiding in th...

Here I am late to yet another party. A Court of Thorns and Roses bby Sarah J. Maas Released May 2015 Source: Purchased from Audible Goodreads  | Amazon When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world. At least, he’s not a beast all the time. As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever. From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie ...

The set up was perfect but somewhere along the way it began to lose me. The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling Released October 2021 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town. Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is d...

This guy was a bit frustrating but I'm not sorry I read it. Rules for Heiresses by Amalie  Howard Released October 2021 Source: Purchased from Read, Romance, Repeat Book Box Goodreads  | Amazon Amalie Howard whisks you away with a historical romance full of drama, true love, and the perfect happily ever after. Sometimes, finding love means flouting the rules... Born to a life of privilege, Lady Ravenna Huntley rues the day that she must marry. She's refused dozens of suitors and cried off multiple betrothals, but running away—even if brash and foolhardy—is the only option left to secure her independence. Lord Courtland Chase, grandson of the Duke of Ashton, was driven from England at the behest of his cruel stepmother. Scorned and shunned, he swore never to return to the land of his birth. But when a twist of bad luck throws a rebellious heiress into his arms, at the very moment he finds out he's the new Duke, marriage is the only alternative to massive scandal. Both are qu...

I wrote this review many moons ago. It's a bit more plot heavy than my recent reviews but it's still brutally honest. About the Book Hideaway by Dean Koontz Released January 1992 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon Strange visions plague a man after he survives a near-death experience in this chilling thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz. Surviving a car accident on a snowy mountain road is miraculous for Lindsey Harrison, but even more so for her husband, Hatch, who was clinically dead for eighty minutes.   After experimental procedures bring Hatch back to life, he awakens with the terrifying feeling that something is it out there . But it soon becomes apparent that the evil stalking Hatch is within him—a dark force of murderous rage that hides within us all... My 2 Cents for Free! I first read Hideaway when I was able to waste away an entire day reading and I remember loving it to bits. This time around I listened to it on audio because I can...

Little Eve gave me a little struggle but I'm not sorry I read it. Little Eve by Catriona Ward Released October 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon A heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist “A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.” On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth. The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction. A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong. And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered. My 2 Cents for Free! I loved The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial by Catriona Ward. Both leave you off kilter and force you to keep reading becau...

This is an ARC that fell through the cracks. I hate it when I do that. The Moor by Sam Haysom Released May 2018 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon 'There's a delightful bit of sleight-of-hand at the heart of the novel that I particularly enjoyed.' – Owen King, co-author of Sleeping Beauties It begins with a ghost story around a campfire. Teenagers out on a walking trip, trying to act brave in front of each other. But as the walk gets underway and the boys begin to fall out, odd things start to happen. Noises in the night. A severed rabbit’s foot outside someone’s tent. Soon, the boys begin to disappear. As panic sets in and a storm approaches, the remaining boys must band together to face a darkness not even the local ghost stories could help them predict. My 2 Cents for Free! I requested The Moor from Netgalley in 2018 and I just now made time to read it. I’m sorry Netgalley, publisher, and author. But better late than never (I hope!). I just re...

But what is she eating?! Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda Released March 2022 Source: Borrowed from Library Goodreads   | Amazon A young, mixed-race vampire must find a way to balance her deep-seated desire to live amongst humans with her incessant hunger in this stunning debut novel from a writer-to-watch. Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try Japanese food. Sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside - the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and iced-coffee, ice cream and cake, and foraged herbs and plants, and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But, Lydia can't eat any of these things. Her body doesn't work like those of other people. The only thing she can digest is blood, and it turns out that sourcing fresh pigs' blood in London--where she is living away from her vampire mother for the first time - is much more difficult than she'd anticipated. Th...

Evil girls doing evil girl things. Missing Dead Girls by Sara Walters Released January 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads  | Amazon What is friendship without a few secrets? It wasn't Tillie's choice to leave Philadelphia. But after everything that happened junior year, her mom insisted the quiet suburb of Willow Creek was the perfect place to get a fresh start, to put the trauma and rumors behind them. Madison Frank is the perfect distraction. Beautiful, fun, and from the wealthy side of town, Madison is the kind of girl who has a pull stronger than gravity. She commands attention, even inspires obsession. And by the end of summer, Tillie's forgotten everything—everyone—she left in Philadelphia. Almost. Then Madison goes missing. A photo of her bloody body is texted to the whole student body...from an account with Tillie's name on it. Tillie's caught in a tangled web of secrets that will destroy her if they surface...and will destroy everyone...

Hmmmm Devil House by John Darnielle Released January 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon From John Darnielle, the New York Times bestselling author and the singer-songwriter of the Mountain Goats, comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling. Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him when he was a child. Years later, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success—and a movie adaptation—to his name, along with a series of subsequent less notable efforts. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: to move into the house where a pair of briefly notorious murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected teens during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Chandler finds himself in Milpitas, California, a small town whose name rings a bell—his closest childhood friend lived there, once upon a time. He begins his research into the murders with diligence and enthusiasm,...