Tag: novella

Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Nothing But Blackened Teeth [review]

Sarah

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Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Published by Tor Nightfire on October 19, 2021
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 2.89 (as of 2022-01-12)
Spoiler-free review

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One girl each year. Two hundred and six bones times a thousand years. More than enough calcium to keep this house standing until the stars ate themselves clean, picked the sinew from their own shining bones.

Okay, I was genuinely shocked when I came on here to give my rating and saw the average goodreads rating. I can see how this wouldn’t work for some people — most of the characters are insufferable and the clarity is a bit lacking at times. But I found the writing so lyrical and the main character, Cat, so immensely relatable. As a queer person with depression, yeah I felt very seen. The atmosphere was truly immersive and I felt like I was standing right there with Cat as we watched our bad friends make bad decisions. It also had a little bit of a The Cabin in the Woods feel with its self-awareness, the characters knowing they were essentially living through a horror movie and making their decisions accordingly. I found that the dread built so well, even if it lost itself a bit in the climax. I was impressed by this and look forward to reading more of Khaw’s work!

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

A House at the Bottom of a Lake [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
Published by This Is Horror on October 31, 2016
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 3.23 (as of 2021-10-26)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop

disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own. Quotes have been taken from the advanced copy and are subject to change upon publication.

I was nervous to pick this up after seeing so many middling-to-low reviews of it, but am glad my curiosity won out! I thought Bird Box was fantastic and had to pick up more of Malerman’s work.

The concept itself is so interesting – a mysterious house at the bottom of a lake! It took me a few pages to gel with the writing (it’s a lot of teenagers being teenagers), but I was both literally and figuratively at the edge of my seat the whole time. The plot itself is relatively slow-moving, but the tension really got to me. It felt like I was holding my breath through half of this book and I had to put it down a few times to take a quick breather here and there. I kept texting people to be like, “this book is freaking me out!!”

I tore through this in just one sitting and have already recommended it to several other people. If the concept interests you, give this a shot!

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

The Empress of Salt and Fortune [review]

Sarah

This post contains affiliate links; if you use these links to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Thanks for reading!

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1) by Nghi Vo
Published by Tor.com on March 24, 2020
my rating: ★★★ (3 stars)
Goodreads avg: 4.07 (as of 2020-03-13)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop | Author’s Website

Obviously are reviews are subjective, but I want to emphasize that all my ‘issues’ with this book are purely personal preference. I think this was well-written and it is clearly beloved by many! I just didn’t really jive with the writing style, it’s very much a story-inside-a-story and I had trouble parsing it all out. The prose is truly beautiful though, and the characters are all distinct and interesting. I did feel like a lot of the relationships were implied rather than spelled out; I tagged this as ‘polyamorous’ and don’t even know if that’s canon but it is how I read it personally.

I’ll definitely be recommending this even if it didn’t quite work for me, and while I don’t intend to continue the series I’ll still be keeping an eye out for Vo’s future works.

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Book Reviews, Bookworm Blogging

Upright Women Wanted [review]

Sarah

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
Published by Tor.com on February 4, 2020
my rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads avg: 3.71 (as of 2020-08-06)
Spoiler-free review

Goodreads | Bookshop | Author’s Website

What kind of good man becomes a sheriff these days? What kind of good man joins his posse?

Queer librarians on horseback! Is there anything else for me to say? The cast in this is excellent, with many wlw characters as well as a non-binary love interest. There are also hints of polyamory, which I’m always a fan of. This is a Western that felt historic at first, but revealed itself to be a futuristic dystopia in which the US has reverted to the old days of horses and wagons. I would love more books set within this world to flesh out the setting, particularly a sequel to see what Esther gets up to next. The only thing I really struggled with a bit was the characterization of Esther, who I initially thought was much younger than she actually was. Even now, I’m not quite sure how old her character is meant to be. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to picking up more from Gailey!

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