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While I love the fact that gods and monsters from a whole lot of pantheons make appearances, Unclean Spirits wasn’t my cup of tea. It’s not often that I can say this about a book, but I liked the characters better than the plot. I kept wishing that these characters had a better story to star in, because I’ll remember them far longer than I’ll recall the actual plot of the novel. So while I got some entertainment value out of the side characters, I found myself looking forward to finding what I should read next. Ended up skipping the novella included in the edition I read, mostly because I just didn’t care to read more about that particular world.

Mary Roach has an amazing ability to make whatever topic she chooses into the most interesting thing in the world. This time, the every-woman science writer decided on the epic and endless battle between humankind and nature, and she knocks it out of the park. From gulls ruining flowers at the Vatican to “danger trees” this book gives you the thinking behind how humans deal with nature when nature doesn’t play by our rules.

I love Roach and her style. She’s thoughtful, not afraid to ask ANY question, and her humor rides the pages like a surfer on a perfect wave. I highly recommend this, or any of her other books.

When assigning stars to reviews, I am loathe to give five out of five. Generally, my highest rating is 4.5, because I know that there are actual five-star books out there and I’ll know them when I read them. This book is a five-star, and I didn’t even pause to think about it.

I don’t want to say anything about the story because it’s so well-written and amazingly tight that any plot or character discussion could easily spoil the experience. Let’s just say that it was emotionally surprising and leave it at that.

Additionally, I’d add that I believe it’s the only “horror/thriller” fiction I’ve ever read that has a multi-page bibliography. Catriona Ward did her research, and she has a new fan in me. A beautifully written, superb piece of fiction.

I say literary thriller because this book isn’t a thriller in the usual sense. There is far more to Hawk Mountain than a thrilling story. It’s thoughtful, terrifying, fascinating, and made me stay up WAY too late reading.

At its center, it’s a deep look into how hate and love are inextricably tangled, and I hate to say much more than that. You’re best coming into this one without knowing anything, trusting that the book will give you what you need.

Apparently, this is Habib’s first novel. I think it’s amazing, and I hope he’s a fast worker, because I can’t wait to see what’s next.

This is one of the authors I decided to check out after reading his story in Body Shocks. I don’t recall which story he wrote, but I liked it and wrote his name down. I’m glad I did, because I enjoyed Sandman Slim quite a lot.

I’m a fan of hard-boiled magicians, and while I new I’d never read Sandman Slim before, much of the novel felt familiar. It was a beloved old story told by a new (to me) voice - well-written comfort food.

If you’re a fan of The Dresden Files, this’ll be right up your alley. Just be aware that while I’d rate Dresden a PG, Slim gets an R.

As I’ve said in other reviews, anthologies are always a numbers game. You’ll like some stories, love others, hate a few, and probably forget most of them within a month. Those that stick with you, though? They make an impact.

This collection was really strong for me, although I’m the exact audience it’s looking for. I love graphic, visceral body horror, and Body Shocks has it one vicious story after the next.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay is this: After reading many of the stories, I looked up the author and added a pile of novels and collections to my must-read list. If a collection makes me want to read more by the authors it anthologizes, then it’s a dang good collection.

Don’t want to say too much about this one, as it could easily be spoiled. In short, while the science is likely laughable, the story was engaging and a lot of fun. This is a perfect airplane book - entertaining and fast-paced.

It’s quite difficult to say much about this book without spoiling something, so I’ll make this short. The story takes place in a turn-of-the-century insane asylum, the narrator is unreliable, and all of the tropes of gothic literature are well in place all the way up to a mad woman in the attic. It reminded me of Crime and Punishment, the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, and Whuthering Heights, among many other pieces of classic literature - and in all the right ways.

And the blurbs on the back are right in saying no one is who they seem.

…short stories, this one is a mixed bag. Some grabbed me, and some didn’t. I’d expect that if you read it, we’d pick different stories as our favorite. Many of these stories read like episodes of the original Twilight Zone, and that isn’t a negative critique. Without spoiling, I can say that a couple of the twists were telegraphed, but in one case I felt that it actually improved the story to see the twist coming. Only one story was actually ruined for me by a twist ending, but it was still worth the read as the twist was very sudden. Really, it just tried to tie up the events of a story that was more compelling without big answers.

Really, though, a pretty solid read. Well-written, thought-provoking, and engaging. Reads a bit like if Black Mirror were written by Rod Serling.

With the seas rising, an unnamed area surrounds itself with a barrier wall to keep out both the sea, and the people outside who are barely surviving on boats and rafts. Without spoilers, I’ll say that readers get to see both sides of this wall.

There are so many correlations between the dystopian world of The Wall and today’s world of class division, and fear of ‘the other’. It’s allegory, satire, and warning all in one.

Grim, but fascinating.

Whenever anyone asks me for a recommendation on a book, I give them House of Leaves. As a fan of experimental novels, nervous tension, lingering dread, beautiful and sometimes baffling prose, and reading as a physical experience, this book ticks all my boxes.

I seldom read a book more than once, but I’ve read House of Leaves several times. It’s constructed and printed such that it’s like reading a different book every time. Not a different story, but a different telling of the same story. Reading it the second time was a bit like overhearing the same conversation from the other side of the room, if that makes any sense.

It’s a great book. It’s inventive, challenging, and beautifully terrifying. In movies, they talk about elevated horror. This is an elevated haunted house book in all the right ways.

The way it’s sold in the blurb, I thought this was going to be a classic “patients in charge of the asylum” Grand Guignol story. It was not. There was promise in the first half, though none of the characters were very likable. The second half, and especially the last act, was scattered and uneven, and I lost interest. I finished it, but it’s not going to stick with me.