what it says on the tin. books I've read and what I feel about them. I give hearts instead of star rankings because how much I like a book doesn't always correlate with how good I think the book is
a bookbug pick and my second time (attempting?) to read lispector. I liked this one less than the apple in the dark because I think I need some nebulous thread of a plot to grasp onto and this book is essentially just a stream of conscious style musing on various topics. there are some beautiful pieces of prose in here, but I just want something more concrete to anchor myself to.
read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
another horror book club book and one that I feel kinda let down by...? as in, if you come in swinging with "the most terrifying novel ever written" I'm going to expect a lot. and yeah there were gross and grotesque parts to it but mostly I felt like it dragged on too long? I feel like we didn't need the detective since his sidequest was kind of nothing in the end. of course I have the benefit of reading this wayyyy after it was published so the subject matter is less crazy to me than if I had read it when it was first published in the 70's. they didn't even have the re-animator movie then...
a book that was brought up during book club's discussion of lovecraft. I wasn't able to find a digital copy at the library so I listened to the audiobook. the narrator is... okay. I really liked whenever the story would dip more into horror than mystery but the ending kind of threw me off entirely. still gonna try the second book in the series because I do think it has potential to be a really interesting interpretation of the lovecraft mythos.
if I had a nickel for every bookbug book that made me confront my fear of aging I would have two nickels. there is a sadness throughout this book, but I also got the feeling of "every day is all there is" in a sort of making the best of every day sort of feeling. not a lot happens in the book it feels and yet I was interested in the lives of those at the claremont...
read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
maybe it's just because I was burnt out on anything super wordy after lovecraft, but I really enjoyed the hellbound heart! short, punchy, and brought us the iconic cenobites. the characters are (mostly) unlikeable and I think that's really fun! I also like that barker isn't afraid to tackle the intertwining of sex and violence present in horror.
another horror book club pick. there were a handful of stories in here I did really like and thought were neat, but also shotgunning a large chunk of lovecrafts work at once made me feel like the stories were repetitive. also while we had a lengthy discussion about The Racism there were some parts of this collection where it was very much woven into the story as opposed to being something you could maybe rewrite. sad that the scariest thing to lovecraft was The Other.
Sighs. sighs. a horror book club pick and my second and final riley sager book. I had almost the exact same problems with this as home before dark where like 2/3rds - 3/4ths of the book is a solid 3.5 and then sager decides that the book is too predicable and needs like 13 twists to jazz it up except the twists make it suck ass. I was less generous with this because a Lot of the choices near the end either made no sense or were for shock value alone. do better!!!
apparently I read this sometime over the past few months but I do not remember anything about it so I will give it a middle of the road rating. I think some of the concept art for the movie was more interesting than the original novella.
someone mentioned this book at book club and my interest was further piqued by reviews comparing it to the phantom tollbooth, one of my favorite books as a kid. the hike was interesting and unique, but it felt a bit like a serialized story that had been put together into a novel rather than something that had an overarching plot except in the loosest sense. still something fun to break up all the horror I've been reading
no-voting this one not because I thought it was bad, but becasue I have yet to sit down and take notes on the book and put into action the strategies given. I thought it was plenty interesting and def has some bits I can take out and implement into my own life, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet... jury's still out on if I have ADHD but like. gestures at this entire site.
despite what the cover looks like I promise this has much less weird sex stuff than the previous book LMAO. castle (the show) was a comfort series for me growing up and so when I saw this at a used book sale I thought I would pick it up for funsies. it's pretty alright. very much like an episode of castle but I feel like it's missing some of the castle sauce.
no hearts because I genuinely don't know how to rate this! 80 pages of weird sex stuff. only picked this up because it was mentioned by name in maeve fly and as weird and fucked up that book was I was expecting something equally weird and fucked up. and like, it was? but also not. extremely unerotic erotica, I guess.
I didn't know that this was originally a story on r/nosleep but while reading it I did notice some hallmarks of nosleep stories. not necessarily bad things, but things that marked it as yeah this was a serialized story on reddit at some point. the middle section is good and creepy, but I think the very beginning is absurd and the ending is kind of a letdown. there's a whole bunch of lore outside of this book apparently? which like, I don't really care about but it's there I guess. bro wants to be house of leaves so bad
I really wish I liked this more. there are parts I really like. and the overall setting and vibes are up my alley. but I think unfortunately I really didn't care about the characters and I kind of thought they were for the most part kind of unpleasant. wish it had leaned more ghost story, perhaps.
read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
horror book club pick. and absolutely not a book for everyone. this book is really gross!! very much an example of women's wrongs. and I support it. if you can get on board with maeve being absolutely balls to the walls insane and killing people left and right with no regrets then maybe you'll like this. there are some plot threads that kinda go nowhere so I knocked off a star. but otherwise I really loved how bonkers this was.
equal parts poetry and prose, the book of disquiet felt like reading a diary or a scrapbook more than a straightforward story. a lot of interesting ideas I will be spending more time digesting. a lot of talk about dreams and dreaming and the creation of art... the anthology section felt somewhat disjointed from the rest of the pieces though.
read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
I read this first back in 2023 and reread it in 2025 for one of my horror book clubs. I still feel really okay about it. like, it is impressive to have a book about walking for hours on end not be an absolute slog. but it simultaneously is Too Accurate to a teenage boy's perspective and not accurate enough. also the ending was a flop as is standard for stephen king LMAO. I do like that it is like. entirely non supernatural for the most part. I kinda think king is at his best when he deals with that sort of grounded real horror.
and speaking of stephen graham jones. finally got around to reading the sequel to my heart is a chainsaw. I think I will probably reread this after rereading chainsaw purely because I had forgotten a lot of the characters from that book and so starting reaper was a little rocky. but still really loved it. SGJ has a really visceral and almost action movie way of writing that jives with my brain well... I didnt like it quite as chainsaw but that's because the central theme of reaper didnt speak to me as deeply as chainsaw did.
a horror bookclub pick. this... didn't really do it for me. I think part of it was one of the blurbs comparing the book to the likes of stephen graham jones which is a Lofty Comparison for me, since SGJ is one of my favorite authors. the characters in piñata didn't really feel fleshed out, and the plot beats felt kind of tired. some really cool imagery at points which was unfortunately hampered by grammatical/spelling errors throughout the book. the ending kind of flopped also.
I loved veen's first book, so I eagerly snapped up her second one as soon as I could. I like blood on her tongue only slightly less than my darling dreadful thing; the lesbians are less front and center in this one. its still got a lot of the visceral imagery and creeping dread that I loved in dreadful thing, and the ending was satisfying. I also thought the main creature (said vaguely for spoilers) was really interesting and I would absolutely read another novel about a different one in the species...
another horror book club pick, another really ok horror book. I enjoyed the atmosphere and setting, and the creepy cult-y stuff. I did not like how towards the end of the book the author has a pretty unbelievable explanation for all the things that have been happening, and things just kind of. end. when there could have been one or two more scenes to tie things up (not that everything needs to be wrapped up nicely in a horror novel, but the way that this one ended felt stilted.)
enjoyed this vastly more than mexican gothic. mentioning that because they share some genre threads. I think I am also just more enthusiastic about romance in books when it's gay LMAO. the cover bangs also. the depiction of love in this... I eat it up... it's like upsetting in a way that I like if that makes sense. because throughout it all... there is love...
may 2025's bookbug pick! god this book... immensely depressing. I enjoyed reading it but also it kinda sucked the soul out of me. beautiful, evocative writing that really put me in the shoes of the protagonist... it ends rather abruptly, which surprised me, but in a way it feels fitting.
read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
a book I read for horror book club. I think I really do like gothic horror things, but I felt like this swerved away from fully committing to gothic horror. like the alternative to the supernatural it came up with was pretty cool, but I kinda wish it led with that instead of burying it halfway through the book...? maybe tried to tackle too many concepts in the end... still a fun read.
I liked the structure of the novel of having a book within a book and I thought the hints at the house itself doing the haunting instead of a particular spirit being the cause was intriguing. however. near the end there are twist after twist that kind of neuter the entire rest of the book and make it a lot less interesting. authors like. it's ok to make a predictable plot because it means that the readers have the brainpower to pick up on foreshadowing... you don't have to throw in like 4 twists at the end to make it unpredictable...
I thought the structure of this book as a journal interpersed with articles and interviews was fresh and interesting. I just wish the content was better LOL. I did go into this feeling like the premise was a little silly (as in, I don't view bigfoot as being a particularly murderous being) but the setup in the book works enough to make it plausible. I feel ultimately that the book tried to tackle too many themes and tried to tie everything up in a too messy manner. maybe if it had another 50-100 pages I would be more satisfied.
april 2025's bookbug pick. having seen the golden temple in person (or at least, the rebuilt kinkakuji after it was burned down in the event that inspired this book) I can understand on a level what would make a person immensely obsessed with it. I guess I can even understand to a lesser extent that sort of all consuming obsession with a thing that leads people into ruining their lives. there is an interesting contrast with the obvious good and evil battle that is going on in the book and yet the narrative doesn't make a judgement on it. I suppose if I had to say anything about this book as that it was missing a sort of special sauce for me that kept me from getting fully invested.
read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
I think it's important to read books that are just kind of okay so it makes the books that are spectacular that much more spectacular. this was a horror book club pick, and for the first act it's much more meet cute romcon than horror and then it takes a sharp turn into insanity. normally I love that kinda shit but it feels very... disjointed? here? like half the threads from the first part of the book kind of fall away for new things. and nothing feels satisfying.
this isn't so much a book as an experience. an internal fever dream where the concrete world is less important than what is going on in the protagonist's mind. I related to this book in ways I am not fully willing to divulge but it is an evocative journey through a person's psyche... a book about trauma and how that manifests and all the raw ugliness that comes with it.
a horror bookclub pick. less horror than melancholic, but still something I enjoyed immensely. I love angsty gay shit LMAO. also love the ocean as a source of horror. really delightful depiction of grief and coping (poorly) with it. [said with the greatest praise]
march 2025's bookbug pick. a book where not a lot happens! and yet I felt compelled to keep turning pages. a lot of inner monologuing that felt reminiscent of my own navelgazing at some points. but had enough weird (positive) turns of phrase and metaphors that I enjoyed it. read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
a horror book club pick. weird from the start, which grabbed me. I thought I knew where this book was going, and then I didn't!! I really can't say a lot about the plot because going into any depth beyond the blurb on the back is spoilers. I will say it felt like more of a thriller than a horror to me...? also another book I need to reread now that I have the full picture.
february 2025's bookbug pick. I'm really torn on how to feel about this book, because I think it only "clicked" for me in the last quarter of the book. the protagonist is extremely unlikeable but I think that's kind of fun to read a book praying for a guy's downfall. very much a "stream of consciousness" style book... read my full thoughts on my bookbug page here.
found out about this book through a vocaloid song of all places. the song contains spoilers for the book (specifically the culprit) although I enjoyed the book throughly even with the spoilers. sprightly, fast paced mystery thriller. I will have to pick up more from this author, and more japanese murder mysteries in general... I also really liked the main detective; I think he has gap moe (does not explain further).
brought to my attention through "the stranger beside me", it was another interesting perspective on ted bundy from another person in his life. I always feel weird critiquing autobiographies like this because it's like. who am I to complain about a person's lived experience. that disclaimer given I feel like maybe there should have been more space between bundy being put on trial and kendall writing this book... she does acknowledge her flawed feelings in the updated preface, but it still feels weird to hear this guy being talked about with adoration.
january's bookbug pick. very light on the plot, but the descriptions of the various cities were beautiful. as per usual I liked the magical realism and the vivid descriptions they were accompianied by. there's some throughline of themes of travel and how every city has bits that can look like other cities that I thought was interesting to meditate on. read my full thoughts on my bookbug review here.
starting off 2025 with a bangerrrr. I will fully admit that part of the reason I loved this was because I figured out who the killer was very early on and so I felt very smart when the killer was revealed. it was tense and kept me reading (I kept saying like one more chapter... one more chapter....). classic slasher movie in a book; there was some critique of the characters I saw in reviews but tbh I just took it in stride with the slasher tropes.
having read a few things by SGJ now I had high hopes going into this and was blown away. the slow burn of the novel into absolute batshit insanity about midway through was fantastic. vivid visuals and characters that feel real and grounded even in the midst of chaos. this particular novel was also good at illuminating aspects of native life I am not familar with. I love stories that are tinged with grief and guilt the whole way through.
december's book for my horror book club. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from a christmas horror anthology, but I was pleasantly surprised that I either liked to loved most of the shorts. "christmas in barcelona", "fresh as the new-fallen snow", "mistletoe and holly", and "honor thy mother" were my favorites but I really only thought there were one or two stories that were absolute stinkers/otherwise didn't resonate with me. gave me a bunch of other author's works to check out !
a book that got under my skin and gripped my brain within a mere sixty pages. gives you big sweeping questions about mortality and what it means to live "right" and how will you come to terms with that on your deathbed. I did really enjoy the book but god is thinking about its themes making me teeter on the edge of an existential crisis. read my full thoughts on my bookbug review here.
a uniquely playful and light novel with the narrator digressing and looping back over himself repeatedly. does not take itself too seriously while still revealing some deep insights about humanity. vibrant, interesting characters that kept me turning the pages long after I said I would go to bed. read my full review on my bookbug page here
I'm begining to feel like joe hill has a penchant for making extremely unlikeable characters. I've read a couple of his novels and they all seem to write the protagonist as like. wow! this guy sucks! but the person they are up against sucks more!! horns felt like that premise but with a generous dollop of shock.. humor? horror? thrown in that got stale about 50 pages in. I think it had an interesting premise but man I could not get myself to care about anyone in this book.
read for a horror book club! this was a solid four stars for about 2/3 of the book, then abruptly towards the end a new plot element is introduced that kind of dampens the satire of the Alpha Male TM that the book unsubtly deals with. there's an interesting seed here, as a guy who loves haunted house horror where the horror Is The House Itself, but in turning the short story that was the inspiration into a full length novel a lot of extra themes were added that muddied the waters. could have been better had the plotlines been tightened up a bit. still, I tore through it in an afternoon because the descriptions and visuals were gripping.
I realized halfway through this book that I've read it already, back in college when I was checking out every single book about ghosts or occult shit I could find out of the library. it's just okay. published in 2010, so nothing really recent; and there's a good chunk of stories in here that have no relations to ghosts. still interesting to refresh myself on (relatively) local ghost stories.
october 2024's bookbug pick. I don't think I "got" this book until the last 10 or so pages, and even then it took me reading some other reviews to fully understand. but once I did, I realized how clever it was. hauntingly beautiful prose with many layers to the story. read my full review on my bookbug page here
september 2024's bookbug pick. peak fiction. the entire breadth of human emotion is in these ~400 pages, blended masterfully with the supernatural that has become natural. honestly I wrote a lot on my bookbug page so read my review here
a book that's been on my radar for a while since horror brushes shoulders with the true crime genre every now and then. finally got around to reading it, was floored by some of the details of the case I wasn't familiar with (namely, how long ted bundy was able to postpone his execution). certainly a unique perspective on bundy, and the additions I had in my copy of the book from rule updating every handful of years were appreciated.
jemc's writing is concise and crisp; chapters pass in the span of a breath. things get more and more progressively unhinged. in some respects it felt like a trimmed down house of leaves and I say that positively. the ending was unsatisfying and not in a "I'm gonna be pondering this for the next few days" way.
as with most anthologies, there were some good stories and some bad to mediocre ones. there were a handful that weren't even horror adjacent. "deadwood" stuck with me for some reason, despite only being a page long. something about it was fantastically evocative.
august's bookbug pick. a short and charming little novel. the titular pnin often finds himself in unfortunate situations, but his quirks make him someone I have to root for. read my initial review here
I'm so torn on this book. like there were really high highs and also really low lows. I think the length (1168 pages) is to its detriment. there were parts that could have been trimmed. beverly deserved so, So much better. I think the concept of It as this cosmic evil is really cool but the book didn't focus as much on it as I would have liked. also I feel like the scene in the sewers that happens 90% of the way in the book with the kids was incredibly offputting and if I wasn't almost finished with the book at that point I probably would have dropped it. take that how you will.
picked this up as a "blind date with a book" package I saw at a local fair. thought the supernatural elements were interesting and I liked the interweaving of the two stories being told but I thought the ending was a letdown.
read for july's bookbug pick. not my favorite of the books so far for that group, although as time goes on and I'm meditating on it more I like it more. read my initial review here
read for june's bookbug pick. overall I enjoyed this book as a fun, quick thriller. read my review here
read for geega's community book club. I thought it was Just Ok. finding out that it was a serialized web novel make sense because uh. there sure didn't seem to be any overarching plot. still the rpg setting was easy and entertaining to read about.
read for may's bookbug pick. a little confusing, but super interesting in the latter half. read my review here
a horror anthology where the stories stop just short of giving the full picture. very evocative imagery. I liked "the dust" for being the most fleshed out, and "any corpse" for being unexpectedly funny.
a nonfiction book about the fraud study that led to mass paranoia about vaccines, and the doctor who pushed it through. interesting stuff, but somewhat dense at times
a horror novel about a vacation in mexico gone horribly wrong after the tourists venture nto the jungle. I thought it was miserable but in a fun way LOL. more sad than scary imo. and sometimes I am in the mood for media that will suck the soul out of me
a horror novel that is a fictionalized retelling of the donner party's unfortunate end. I think I expected this book to be more gruesome and it ends up being more sad and contemplative than gory. I'm also not a huge fan of historical fiction so I think even being interested in the topic it just didn't hit.