Review: Savage Lake

Savage Lake by Nick Medina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for the pre-release copy of Nick Medina's Savage Lake. Below is my honest review.

Trauma has this way of infecting places, and the brutal events of Nell Marin's young-adulthood definitely changed Torchlight Lake for her. She swore she'd never go back, but she's taken her teenaged son there to the dilapidated cabin that her parents left her, so they can get it ready and sell it.

But things take a turn, as the places seems to drain the life and energy out of her.

We follow Oscar, her son, as he tries to take care of her and figure out what the mysteries of this place mean to her and to him as history decides its going to rear its violent and ugly head.

While we are in the head of the teenager, this definitely isn't a YA book. It's brutal and dark and full of trauma, and it's absolutely delicious in the way that only seeing someone else's darkness on the page can be. As the past begins to intertwine with the present, we get to see Oscar discover the things that bind his family's history, and he's racing against time to understand it.

Highly recommended for fans of isolated settings, family/generational trauma, dual timelines, and twists and turns. Oh, and horror movies, because there are a LOT of references to so many good ones.

View all my reviews

Review: When the Night Comes Knocking

When the Night Comes Knocking by Katherine Daniel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for the pre-release copy of When the Night Comes Knocking by Katherine Daniel. Below is my honest review.

First things first - there are some trigger/content warnings for this one, so be prepared going in.

Atmosphere? Check. Dark histories and secrets to hide? Check. Sibling drama? Check. Evil monster dead set on destroying everyone it can to get what it wants? Check. Dog that doesn't die? Check.

While this is mostly plot-driven, the characters aren't one-dimensional in the slightest, each providing more than enough depth to understand them (and for most of them, sympathize/empathize).

For a debut? Excellent. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from Katherine Daniel!

Recommended for horror fans, locked room/isolated locales, and really disturbing monsters.

View all my reviews

Review: Off the Reservation

Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Saga Press for the pre-release copy of Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones. Below is my honest review.

This one baffled me a bit, mostly because half the time I felt like I was in a fever dream of confusing hallucinatory moments that built up to create a wild story. But I got the framework down so just went along for the ride and I loved the weirdness of it all.

I really loved the characters of Christian/Christiana and Nate Yellow Tail, but the rest were... hard to root for or downright awful in the right way (come on, we're supposed to hate the bad guys!).

I think my issue with the book that lost it a star was the huge pacing problem for the first 50% or so of the book. It just dragged on for a while. After that, the poo hit the fan so it raced towards the end, but that first bit was kind of a slog for me.

Also, make sure you read the acknowledgements. Jones lays out so many inspirations for details from his story, and it's a really cool glimpse into the mind of a writer.

Four stars, go enjoy this one!

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Party

The Murder Party by Cindy R.X. He
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the pre-release copy of The Murder Party by Cindy R. X. He. Below you'll find my honest review.

I quite enjoyed this one for a YA thriller. It wasn't super heavy, despite the grief/loss in it, as the burn to solve her sister's death drives the story more than the grief part. It had some twists and turns, for sure, but nothing groundbreaking. The MC made some obvious mistakes that had me annoyed with her for parts (like telling multiple suspects her suspicions! dudette, what are you doing?!), but overall she was relatable. I loved the best friend - I want someone so eager and on board in that situation like Zoey!

All in all, it was a decent book. I would say I'd give it 3.5 stars out of 5. And since no one lets me give partial stars and it wasn't a round down situation, I'll round it up to 4.

Recommended for fans of mysteries, thrillers, and YA high school situations (without it being annoyingly high school, if you know what I mean).

View all my reviews

Review: Dive Bar at the End of the Road

Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's for the pre-release copy of Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong. Below is my honest review.

I am not sure if you know this about me or not, but you should if you've kept up with my reviews for a while - I adore Kelley Armstrong. She's pretty much instant-buy/must-read for me. I still have some of her back catalog to work through, but I'm trying not to race through them so I don't catch up completely and have long waits for more. Luckily she puts out multiple books a year!

I'm really glad she's taken her recent steps into horror. Hemlock Island? Great. The Haunting of Payne's Hollow? SO GOOD. I'll Be Waiting? More please!

So when Dive Bar hit Netgalley, I immediately hit request.

I love the show From, and this book has some similar story set up items as that, so if that show is your jam, you might enjoy this one. Other than the set up similarities, it's wildly different.

The atmosphere is spot on for horror - mysterious backroad, surrounded by the creepiest of forests, random dive bar in the middle of nowhere.

The characters are diverse and deep - you probably know most of these people in different forms in your own life.

The feelings are relatable - loneliness, fear, depression, feeling insignificant or invisible... Armstrong has really driven some points home about how people feel unimportant and the truth surrounding that feeling with the backdrop of a horror novel.

And the terror? It's real. The fear, the monsters in the woods, the different forms they take, the realization that it's not just some shadow in the woods that is out to get you, but that people can be evil as hell as well, all coagulate into this brutal nightmarish night on a backroad in the middle of nowhere.

Did I mention that I love Henry? What a gem.

Five stars, highly recommend for horror and thriller fans.

View all my reviews

Review: The Chain House

The Chain House by J.H. Markert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane for the pre-release copy of J. H. Markert's The Chain House. Below is my honest review.

Pros: The pace was at break-neck speed, one reveal after another, one action scene after another, one character moment after another. The characters were likeable/hateable in just the right amounts, and there were characters you were really rooting for.

Cons: So much of it was predictable - most of the twists, most of the reveals, pretty easy to see coming if you read more than a small number of books (especially mystery/thriller) a year or watch a lot of movies.

Overall, I'd probably have given it 3 stars but the fast pace and compelling "what's next" writing bumped it up to a 4 for me. This was my second Markert book, and I have a feeling it won't be my last (especially because I happened to pick up some of his back catalogue on a Kindle sale recently).

View all my reviews

Review: A Divided Duty

A Divided Duty by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for the pre-release copy of Seanan McGuire's A Divided Duty. Below is my honest review.

Well, Seanan's done it again. Another grand Toby adventure full of found family, the ties that bind, and a lot of bleeding. LOL

The Raysel, Sylvester, Luna storyline has been really well done. She's really plumbed the depths of these characters to show the darkest and brightest sides of personhood and how each can express in the same person.

In this one, we get a little more closure on some of the fronts - a little more of Blind Michael's lands and victims, a little more for Raysel's penance, a little more for Luna's obsession, and some touches of how changed characters are after the big Titania world-shifting spell storyline.

I absolutely love this series, and really hate waiting for new ones. *sigh*

The attached short story/novella brings some serious character study for Quentin after Titania's spell, and for showing a hint of The Luidaeg's vulnerable side, which were both welcome and well done.

Five stars, and I highly recommend, but you can't just jump in on this one if you want all the meat of the story. This is book 20 after all. BOOK 20!!!

View all my reviews