Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong 4 out of 5 stars Laney is a teacher and writer, struggling after a pandemic-fueled divorce, the death of her sister, and becoming the guardian of her teenage niece. To help make ends meet, she decides to rent out the private island her tech company CEO ex-husband bought for her. But renters can be a nightmare, and she keeps finding hex circles and other acts of ritualistic vandalism left behind. When the latest renters flee in the middle of the night after finding bloody scratches on the inside of a closet– as though something was trying to get out– Laney decides it’s time to take a look for herself. When Laney and her niece, Madison, go to check things out, she is less than thrilled to find her ex and his sister (and her former best friend). And then another old high school friend and her brother (now a cop) join, uninvited. Once they get to the island, Laney and crew expect to just find some pranks former renters left to spook other guests. Instead, they find more ritualistic drawings, vandalism, and a disembodied hand. As the situation escalates, the tensions among the group rise and the danger increases. Will Laney and the rest make it off the island alive? Y’ALL. I was expecting this to be another Kelley Armstrong thriller, but HOLY MOLY. It immediately had me enthralled, I didn’t want to put it down, and it was SCARY. I’m not usually one to find books particularly scary. Unsettling? Yes- but not really scary. This book? It had me afraid I was going to have nightmares. I loved the creepiness and the horror. While it was pretty graphic at times, it didn’t feel as gratuitous as some horror seems, but still beware if you don’t like gore. I would give this book 5 stars, but there were some side plots that created long explanations and conversations between the characters so they could work it out– which is fine. But when it’s thrown in the middle of a book filled with horror and jump scares and the tension is off the charts? It kills the mood a bit. Even though, I guess if you’re facing unspeakable horrors, you might as well finally have all the conversations with your loved ones that you’ve been putting off. Overall, this is a solid horror. Aside from the lulls when the conversations are happening, the action does not let up and it is just so gripping. I will absolutely be recommending this book to others, so they can have nightmares, too.
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The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan
4 out of 5 stars Sloan and Cherry are inseparable. Turns out you form pretty close bonds when you’re the only two survivors of a massacre at your summer camp. On that horrific night, 8 others were brutally murdered, but somehow Sloan and Cherry survived. Months later, the two have become like a single entity. They are always together because they understand each other better than anyone else. Sloan trusts Cherry completely– especially since Sloan has no memory of the traumatic events and relies on Cherry’s account of what happened that night. But as new evidence emerges, Sloan starts to question what really happened. Is Cherry telling the truth? Or is she hiding something? Could this person Sloan loves with all her heart have played a part in the murders? Whatever direction you think this book is going to go, I guarantee it will surprise you. There were multiple times I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong every time. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending, but I appreciated that it diverted from my expectations. I also liked that this book was less slasher and more psychological thriller. There are so many summer camp slasher books, it was interesting to read about how the characters cope (or try to) after the fact. Sloan’s inner dialogue was exhausting at times, as she kept debating whether she could trust Cherry or not. It got a bit repetitive, but it was also realistic inner dialogue, so it’s hard to critique that. I would say I didn’t like the characters, but this is a book filled with unreliable characters, so that’s kind of the point. This is all to say I was frustrated with the characters as I was reading, but that also made me read more because I wanted to know what they were going to do. So while it sounds like negative criticism, it’s actually not. I have so much more I want to say, but it’s all spoilers, so I will just say that the more I think on it, the more I think I like this book? I can tell I will be going back and forth a lot. But either way, I will be thinking about this one for a long time. |
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AuthorI'm HaileyAnne! I'm a queer librarian who loves books and kpop. Archives
August 2023
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