The nitty-gritty: Disturbing and atmospheric, The Chrysalis combines traditional horror elements with solid character development and delivers a cautionary tale about addiction. The Chrysalis is being described by a lot of readers on Goodreads as “science fiction,” but I just don’t get that. To me, this was pretty clearly a horror story, and while it […]
The nitty-gritty: A tense and violent thriller with surprisingly sympathetic characters and surprises at every turn, Vicious Rumer will be a hit with readers who like their stories on the gritty side. I did a thing I don’t normally do: I accepted a review request directly from an author, and I actually had a blast […]
The nitty-gritty: A compelling story, exciting action and TITANS make this YA novel a whole lot of fun! I had so much fun with this book, and I have to thank Quirk Books for bringing it to my attention, because I had never heard of it until it was pitched to me. And this review […]
The nitty-gritty: Brutal and thought-provoking, One of Us is Southern Gothic with a touch of the fantastical. I went into One of Us not knowing much about it, and it turned out to be one of those stories that caught me completely off guard. This is not an easy book to read, in the respect […]
The nitty-gritty: A bloody good time, Awakened has plenty of twists and will appeal to fans of survivalist horror. I featured Awakened on a Waiting on Wednesday post some months back, and author Darren Wearmouth actually contacted me to see if I’d like a review copy. And I’m so glad I had the chance to […]
The nitty-gritty: A lovely blend of history and fantasy, The Mermaid is a beautifully written ode to the sea and one of the iconic creatures who lives there. Those eyes were not of the shore, he thought. They were grey as the storm that boiled below them, the constant swirl and crash that was the […]
On humanity’s first extra-solar mission, the exploration vessel Magellan discovers an alien construction. Deciding that finding advanced alien life is too important to ignore, the ship’s captain chooses to return to Earth while reverse engineering technology far beyond anything back home. Meanwhile, at mission control, the governments struggle to maintain the existence of aliens a […]
The nitty-gritty: A fast and furious science-based space thriller with plenty of surprises. The minute I read the synopsis for Obscura I knew I had to read it, and I’m so glad that I did. This was a fast-paced, twisty mystery in space that kept me guessing and scared the pants off me more than […]
The nitty-gritty: Scalzi expands on the fascinating world of Lock In with this sports-centric sequel that won’t disappoint his many fans, and will likely earn him some new ones. Four years ago I read my very first Scalzi book and loved it. Lock In takes place in a near-future world where a crippling disease has […]
The nitty-gritty: An unexpectedly delightful and varied collection of stories about a most magical place, the underwater ballroom. Having enjoyed Stephanie Burgis’ adult fantasy novels, I was thrilled to receive a review copy of her new anthology. I had never heard of underwater ballrooms—I mean, really, is that a thing?—but Burgis has based her idea […]