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koosli@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 1 year, 8 months ago

aka @koosli@aus.social. I'm almost exclusively reading horror fiction, truly the greatest of genres.

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Kat's books

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2025 Reading Goal

30% complete! Kat has read 6 of 20 books.

Monstrilio (2023, Zando) 5 stars

So lung and thanks for all the flesh

5 stars

Oh dang, there I go giving another book five stars. But this was so good! Even when part way through I realised this could pass as magical realism, and I don't like magical realism!

Monstrilio weirdly reminds me most of a Paul Auster family drama, despite all the blood, guts, fur and fangs. Every character is so well realised yet I didn't notice when this happened. The structure, where each act is told through a different character, kept the story fresh and continually building. I was expecting a different ending, I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilers. I just really loved this. I've run out of books again.

The Grip of It: A Novel (2017, FSG Originals) 4 stars

House is always haunt

5 stars

This is a very incremental psychological horror about our propensity to absorb and assimilate the not-quite-right in ways that aren't good for us. It's quite brilliantly done as sort of a haunted house story, but also a story about two people and their relationship. I really loved it.

The Reformatory (2023, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) 4 stars

Gracetown, Florida - June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at …

Inside, it's too tense to read

4 stars

My main worry when I started this book was that it wouldn't do much but cover the well-trodden ground of US race politics. That worry was founded, but at the same time this is such a we'll-executed book it doesn't really matter. It was evident early on what was going to happen, save a few minor plot twists. So it was a bit predictable, but also meant that the book was very tense all the way through - I was terrified of reading the climax. At the time I was going through a difficult period in real life so I avoided reading more than a little bit at a time. The scares in this book aren't supernatural. They're real and they're pretty sadistic too. I know I'm not selling this book but it was good - the characters, even, especially the minor ones, were well-written and the world fully realised.