The nitty-gritty: Tidhar’s latest is a challenging but ultimately satisfying read that deals with histories, both real and imagined. Reading a Lavie Tidhar book is like being in a fever dream. Events, characters, places and impressions swirl around you, creating a sense of unease, or confusion, or sadness. Tidhar pieces the parts of his stories […]
The nitty-gritty: Full of dangerous magic, secret gangs and books that can conjure monsters, Matt Maxwell’s noir vision of 80s Los Angeles is an addictive treat. Well, this was a strange little book, but I enjoyed it! I had never heard of Broken Eye Books until the author got in touch with me. And when […]
The nitty-gritty: Welcome back to Donovan, where the human population is just as dangerous as the killer alien species on the planet. Abandoned is the sequel to Outpost, a book that completely surprised me when I read it earlier this year. And because of that, you should definitely read Outpost first. I love this series, […]
The nitty-gritty: A delectable mystery with Southern charm, interesting characters and plenty of twists makes this an unexpectedly fun read. This book completely caught me off guard. It was so good, and now I understand the hype surrounding Jennifer Lynn Barnes. She is a slick and polished writer. Her dialogue is full of snark, sarcasm, […]
The nitty-gritty: Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Stranger Things in this addictively creepy tale of evil entities, friendships and girl power. This is my first Claire Legrand book, believe it or not, but it won’t be my last. I had a great time with Sawkill Girls, a young adult horror story that draws its strength […]
The nitty-gritty: A unique combination of elements comes together in this lush, fairy tale-inspired story. The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a beautifully written story with elements I loved and others that didn’t work quite as well, so I guess you could say this was sort of a mixed bag for me. I’m pushing […]
The nitty-gritty: Gritty, fast paced and full of humor, C.T. Phipps takes the tried and true vampire genre and gives it a unique spin. A good half of the thugs present pulled out pistols, crossbows, swords, and bats with silver spikes, and one guy grew what look to be Wolverine’s claws. “Damn,” David said, surveying the […]
The nitty-gritty: Full of mystery and adventure, The Night Crossing offers up fascinating history and supernatural eeriness in equal measure. I had no idea what to expect when I started reading The Night Crossing, only that real life author Bram Stoker was the main character in the story. I was sort of expecting a tale […]
The nitty-gritty: Lush imagery and beautiful writing make this a stand-out YA fantasy, despite some issues I had with one of the characters. Keeper of the Bees, as I found out after I requested it, is a companion novel to Blackbird of the Gallows, which got lots of rave reviews from the blogging community last […]
The nitty-gritty: Delightfully twisted and disturbing, The Mouth of the Dark is part Tales from the Dark Side, part Poltergeist, and completely bat shit crazy. The launch of small publisher Flame Tree Press caught my attention last month when they were blasted all over the internet—good marketing, guys!—and I was curious enough to head over […]