The nitty-gritty: A lively adventure with plenty of romance, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels lost me when it came to the unexpected fantastical elements. “You are a scoundrel,” she whispered furiously. “Yes,” he agreed. “I’m thinking of starting a Society of Gentlemen Scoundrels.” “You’re millennia too late. It already exists and is called the […]
The nitty-gritty: I enjoyed the mystery and Scalzi’s cool concept of “dispatching,” but overall I wanted more from the story. After my debacle of unintentionally rereading The Dispatcher, I finally downloaded the correct document and was able to knock out Murder By Other Means pretty quickly. This is the second novella in John Scalzi’s The […]
The nitty-gritty: Sylvain Neuvel’s latest is an ambitious look at the history of the space race with an intriguing, speculative twist. This is an odd book that I think is going to have a tough time finding an audience, but I absolutely loved the concept, and I think Neuvel probably achieved what he set out […]
The nitty-gritty: Small town secrets and teenagers coming of age meet head-on in Christina Henry’s latest horror story, a book that worked for me on some levels but not on others. To be honest, until about the halfway point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book much. It’s quite different from […]
The nitty-gritty: A lighthearted, humorous “found family” story with plenty of laughs and even a few sweet moments. I enjoyed this unexpectedly humorous and touching novella, even though it didn’t really rock my world. The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water is Zen Cho’s ode to the Chinese wuxia genre of martial arts […]
The nitty-gritty: Lam’s latest is harsh look at what our own future could be, full of thrilling action and interesting morale questions, but the uneven second half made this a mixed bag for me. Goldilocks has a fantastic premise and uses one of my favorite sci-fi tropes: leaving our dying Earth and striking out to […]
The nitty-gritty: A bloody, scary good time, skillfully written and paced, Bent Heavens kept me flipping pages, even though I had some issues with a few elements. I’ve seen some fantastic reviews for Bent Heavens, and so I went into it with high hopes, knowing this was a thriller/horror story revolving around aliens. And without […]
The nitty-gritty: Alma Katsu’s signature atmospheric prose elevates this eerie, domestic thriller set on the ill fated Titanic, with mixed results. The Deep was one of my most highly anticipated books of 2020, and I’m sorry to say it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I was expecting a ghost story set aboard the […]
The nitty-gritty: A solid follow-up to An Easy Death, unfortunately I wasn’t as wowed by this book as other readers. I really had high hopes for this book, since I loved An Easy Death so much, but I felt the plot in this sequel lacked the excitement and punch I was looking for. Don’t get […]
The nitty-gritty: A fast-paced mystery with plenty of creepy moments, Ghoster gets off to a strong start but ends up a little too WTF for my taste. This is probably going to be the most disappointing book of the year for me. I absolutely loved The Last Days of Jack Sparks, and I’ve been waiting […]