eggcatsreads's reviews
456 reviews

 

With an ominous town with traditions that may be difficult to survive, Curdle Creek lives off the belief that these sacrifices make them safer than anywhere else. After all, you might not survive to become an elder, but at least the town doesn’t have riots throughout the streets, right? What else could you want? (But if you ask too many questions, you may be asked to leave. Permanently).

Told from the perspective of a 45-year old widow, Osiria Turner, struggling to keep her head down and follow all the rules of her town, this book slowly brings you into her world. With many traditions that we only get glimpses of throughout - Moving On, Warding Off, Running of the Widows - we slowly begin to see the cult-like beliefs held in this town, and that no matter how close to someone you are, you can never fully trust anyone here. 

For the first 60% of this book, I was hooked on Osira’s struggle as she tried to appease her mother, the town, and make sure that her very own name would not be called for the Moving On ceremony. As she dealt with the disappearance of her children (Did they run away and survive, or are they dead somewhere? And with how dangerous the outside world is, would it be better if they didn’t survive?), to the death of her husband, and her failures to stop being a widow and to become a wife once again - bringing even more shame unto her family. I really liked the perspective of someone who believes the cult-like beliefs of her town, but isn’t a “true believer” and still has a few questions about the practices going on. 

I will say that I fully believe I think this book should have been at least 100 pages shorter, or possibly a novella, instead of the current 300+ pages it is. Once we moved to the chapter at the 61%, this book took a rather strange turn that made the rest of my reading experience a bit more confusing and convoluted. Without giving too many spoilers, our main character somehow discovers a strange magic briefly described and insulted throughout the book beforehand, and uses it to travel to a few separate places. However, none of these places make a great deal of sense, or are smoothly taken from one scene to the other, which I thought was rather confusing. As well as the fact that this section suddenly moved what felt like a book fairly grounded in reality to one more in the magical/supernatural sense, which I personally didn’t feel fit the vibe of the rest of the novel. 

The entire second 40% of the book felt strangely disconnected from the first 60%, and felt like an offshoot of what we had previously read before. I didn’t feel like how these last chapters ended the story to be satisfactory to the rest of the story, and I feel I would have enjoyed this book had they not been included. As well, there were a few times that I felt scenes could have been cut or shortened, which is why I think this book would have been a better read if the story was tightened to only about 150 pages instead. However, I do think this was an interesting read about being trapped in a cult-like town without anywhere else to turn, and I do recommend checking it out for yourself. 

 

 

Perfect end to this duology, and just what I wanted when I finished The Scarlet Alchemist last year. If you loved the violence, the stakes, the fighting, and the similarities to Fullmetal Alchemist from the first book, you won’t be disappointed with how the sequel bookends the story. As I was reading, I was never sure how this book would end, or who would actually come out victorious in the end - and whether our main character Zilan would even survive to see it. This book starts off strong and had me hooked back into this story from the first page, and I couldn’t wait to find out how this story would end. (And if you know FMA very well, you might have been able to predict the ending - but that doesn’t make it predictable or simply a copy-and-paste from FMA).

Continuing with the lore and worldbuilding of the first book, we travel with Zilan and her brother as they work to find the mythical Penglai Island to restore the lives of her siblings, her love, as well as everyone who lost their lives believing in her. Heavily inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist, this story is still fresh and exciting and keeps you guessing until the end what the true ending will be. This is absolutely a duology I will be recommending everyone to read.

 

<i>I can’t kill somebody who’s already dead.</i>

I was hooked from the first sentence, and once I finished the first chapter I couldn’t stop reading until I finished this book. <i>American Ghoul</i> is the jail time confession and explanation of our main character Lavinia, and what actually happened that led her to imprisonment - and her innocence of the crime of which she is accused.

Lavinia, a recently freed slave, winds up leaving the plantation she was working on when she meets Simone - a white teenager with a violent taste for blood. When the two form a connection that cannot be broken, Lavinia travels with Simone to feed her gruesome appetite - but doing so forces her to make choices she would have never done before. However, Simone refuses to be cautious about her newfound diet and slowly throughout the pages of this book places a target on Lavinia’s back. Lavinia must grapple with whether Simone truly sees her as a friend or equal - or if she is lying to force Lavinia to do what she wants. 

Taking place in post-Civil War America, this book tackles the ongoing presence of racism within the country after Emancipation, as well as the distinct ways this intersects with Lavinia being forced to help her (mistress or friend?), hunt people - and not be caught doing so. As this book goes on, we live with Lavinia as she tries to do her best to still have a “normal” human life - and how Simone will do anything in her power to prevent that. 

I really liked how the relationship between Simone and Lavinia was written. It was complex and not simply black and white. We want to believe the best in Simone, especially considering the trust and respect she gives to Lavinia, despite their difference in stations. However, as the rapport slowly breaks down between the two and Simone slowly stops becoming Lavinia’s top priority, we see how fragile the bond between these two truly is. 

This book is split between two distinct timelines - Lavinia’s recollection of the events we are taken on, and her talking to her jailer Martin as she tries to convince him of her story. This format of storytelling reminded me of Laura Purcell’s <i>The Corset/The Poison Thread</i> and <i>The Silent Companions</i>, and I think anyone who loved those books would love this one just as much. 

Any fan of horror and historical fiction would be remiss to not pick up this book, as it will hook you from the first page and won’t let you go until Lavinia has finally recounted her entire story. I wasn’t sure how this book would end, and I must say I loved how it did. As the story progressed, my idea of how exactly a happy ending for Lavinia would end was constantly changing - and yet, I still never anticipated how this book would end. 

Filled with vampires, bloodshed, and retribution, <i>American Ghoul</i> allows our main character to go from freedom only in name - to true freedom and control over her own life and choices. 

With such a strong debut, I cannot wait to see where this author goes next.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Blackstone Publishing for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

 

 

This book is best gone into knowing almost nothing about the plot, in my opinion. All you need to know is that it’s about a woman who takes on the job as an advice columnist after the predecessor has been murdered, and winds up desperately trying to solve it before she winds up with the same fate. Everything else? Unnecessary, you’ll find out as you read. 

I found this book to be fairly fast-paced, and once I began reading it I couldn’t put it down until everything was solved. I really liked how many red herrings were present during the events in this novel, as we (the reader) are running as blind as Alex is while she tries to stay alive, keep her job, AND solve the murder. This book has a lot of moving parts, some more related than others, but in the end everything comes together in a coherent manner and we end the book with absolutely no loose ends that still need to be tied up. 

One thing I really liked was that, as the main events of the story are taking place, we get bits and pieces of some mysterious person writing into the “Dear Constance” advice column to try to work through her own problems. Not to spoil anything, but I found this to be a clever way to kind of give us a “flashback” scenario to before the events of the novel, without actually just giving us flashbacks. Instead, we follow this mysterious writer as the events within their life unfold and we can slowly connect the dots into how it will eventually end - and how this will affect what is currently happening. There were also quite a bit of hints thrown into the novel to give us an idea into what will unfold, but not so obvious that you could clearly see the ending coming. In fact, there was one such thing that I only realized literally a few pages before the actual reveal happened - but in hindsight, it made so much sense. 

All in all I suggest this book if you like a combination of mystery and thriller, and are looking for a quick and twisty read that will absolutely take you on an adventure. I really enjoyed this book, and found it to be a fairly quick read that provided just the level of stakes and twists and turns I was looking for when I opened it. 

I would caution a trigger warning for abuse from a romantic partner, as that is a big plot point within this book and it goes into fairly explicit detail during the events of the novel.