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ahartfullofbooks's reviews
629 reviews
Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A beautifully written literary horror novella tackling grief, depression, and trauma through the tale of an indigenous artist’s haunting experience at a secluded cabin near a large pond near her recently deceased father’s former land.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this one but was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this novella. If you’re looking for a literary horror novella with eerie imagery and psychological horror elements blended with creatures and malevolent nature then you’ll love this one!
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this one but was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this novella. If you’re looking for a literary horror novella with eerie imagery and psychological horror elements blended with creatures and malevolent nature then you’ll love this one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Before the Coffee gets cold is a sweet magical book about a seat in a cafe that lets its patrons time travel. The book is split into chapters, each focusing on a different characters’ journey. While I did enjoy this short but sweet novel, it wasn’t as phenomenal as everyone has been saying. It is translated so the writing does come off as strange at points but not enough to ruin the story. I enjoyed this as a palate cleanser between darker reads and will be looking forward to continuing the series whenever I need a break from horror.
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Stephen Graham Jones is one of those horror authors I always come back to because his stories are dark and heart wrenching. His horror melds supernatural with real human evil in a way that’s truly terrifying.
This novella is often described as a house of leaves situation, but it is not that at all! The house is not the focus here, it’s just where the events happen. Junior is 12 years old and begins seeing his dead father roaming the halls of his ramshackle home. With a disabled brother, a single mother, bullying at school, a deputy making night visits, and an aggressive neighbor with vicious dogs, Junior first sees his dad’s apparition as a good thing. But soon he starts to see the apparitions true intentions.
While this book is short I found myself needing to put it down at times just to have a break from the sheer bleakness. I highly recommend this or any other Stephen Graham Jones novel.
This novella is often described as a house of leaves situation, but it is not that at all! The house is not the focus here, it’s just where the events happen. Junior is 12 years old and begins seeing his dead father roaming the halls of his ramshackle home. With a disabled brother, a single mother, bullying at school, a deputy making night visits, and an aggressive neighbor with vicious dogs, Junior first sees his dad’s apparition as a good thing. But soon he starts to see the apparitions true intentions.
While this book is short I found myself needing to put it down at times just to have a break from the sheer bleakness. I highly recommend this or any other Stephen Graham Jones novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Gun violence, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is the first book I’ve read by LaRocca and I am intrigued. The first novella in this collection was my favorite and definitely the one that stands out the most. Each story has characters desperate for connection with others in anyway they can get it, all three are dark and pretty disturbing. I gave this a 3.5 stars because while I did enjoy the novella the other three stories weren’t as memorable in my opinion. I look forward to reading more by LaRocca.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Infertility, Infidelity
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
1.0
Unpopular opinion but I did not like this book. I understand Maria is a comedian and an eccentric but listening to this audiobook was obnoxious, immature, and neverending.
Bamford narrates the novel and does many different voices and characters that shows off her talent in voice acting cartoon characters, but doesn’t do much in the terms of literary narration. Her voice just grated on my nerves and I didn’t find her humor funny or even entertaining, it was just annoying. The audiobook also has this gimmick of playing a mixing bowl sound at the start of each chapter to math her recipe theme and it was jarring to the say the least.
The flow of this book was also non existent, I finished it and honestly can’t tell you what it’s about beyond her mental struggles and her mother. I wouldn’t recommend this book to literally anyone, and I honestly don’t know why it’s being marketed like it’s groundbreaking because it’s not.
If you’re a big fan of Maria Bamford I could see you loving this book, but as someone that’s only vaguely familiar with her I see no reason to pick it up and wish I’d just DNF’d like I originally planned.
Bamford narrates the novel and does many different voices and characters that shows off her talent in voice acting cartoon characters, but doesn’t do much in the terms of literary narration. Her voice just grated on my nerves and I didn’t find her humor funny or even entertaining, it was just annoying. The audiobook also has this gimmick of playing a mixing bowl sound at the start of each chapter to math her recipe theme and it was jarring to the say the least.
The flow of this book was also non existent, I finished it and honestly can’t tell you what it’s about beyond her mental struggles and her mother. I wouldn’t recommend this book to literally anyone, and I honestly don’t know why it’s being marketed like it’s groundbreaking because it’s not.
If you’re a big fan of Maria Bamford I could see you loving this book, but as someone that’s only vaguely familiar with her I see no reason to pick it up and wish I’d just DNF’d like I originally planned.
Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Haunted Houses are my favorite horror genre so I’m always willing to try a new haunted house book. Man, Fuck this house I picked up at a horror convention and wasn’t sure what to expect. This book is not for everyone, it has some grammar errors, the characters aren’t that fleshed out, and the story is incredibly weird but overall I enjoyed it. If you’re a fan of weird horror or love a good haunted house story like I do you’ll appreciate the unique take on a haunted house in this one. Is this a phenomenally written terrifying story? No, it’s silly, it’s weird, and its characters are a little stereotypical but it’s a good time.
Mothered by Zoje Stage
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Zoje Stage is officially one of those authors that are hit or miss for me. This is the third book I’ve read by Stage and I would put it at the bottom of my list, I really did not enjoy this novel.
Grace is in the middle of a pandemic with no job and struggling to meet her mortgage for the house she just recently bought. With an offer to help ease the financial stress, Grace allows her mother to move into her spare room in hopes of mending their relationship and also easing the financial strain of being a homeowner in a pandemic. Soon Grace realizes her decision was a mistake as she begins to lose clarity and her mother becomes more nefarious.
This book honestly was a mess. The characters were boring and not compelling in anyway. All of the horror scenes were dreams and had no real impact so they were honestly boring to read. The dreams were so frequent I got to a point where I would just skip entire paragraphs if the dream was obviously there for scares and not to reveal anything relevant. If you took out all the dream sequences this novel would be half its length, but you can’t even do this because the dreams are part of the plot unfortunately.
Because of all these no se cual dreams the pacing was way too slow and nothing interesting was ever really happened because it was all just dreams. Even the ending fell flat because the lead up to it was so disjointed and Grace as a character was flat and not compelling. When your main character is boring and unlikeable in a mundane way that’s a problem. Even Grace’s close friend Miguel was boring, he felt like a cardboard version of a real person only there to trigger Grace’s “growth” as a character and act as a springboard for the story to progress at times. Honestly none of the characters were likable or interesting and pair that with slow pacing and a boring plot, you get a novel that was very hard for me to finish.
Seriously, the only character I was invested in this whole novel was Coco the Cat, and yes she remains unscathed at the end of the novel thankfully.
I still love Stage’s novel Getaway and recommend that to anyone looking for a survival horror/thriller with strong female characters, but Mothered will
not be one I recommend.
Grace is in the middle of a pandemic with no job and struggling to meet her mortgage for the house she just recently bought. With an offer to help ease the financial stress, Grace allows her mother to move into her spare room in hopes of mending their relationship and also easing the financial strain of being a homeowner in a pandemic. Soon Grace realizes her decision was a mistake as she begins to lose clarity and her mother becomes more nefarious.
This book honestly was a mess. The characters were boring and not compelling in anyway. All of the horror scenes were dreams and had no real impact so they were honestly boring to read. The dreams were so frequent I got to a point where I would just skip entire paragraphs if the dream was obviously there for scares and not to reveal anything relevant. If you took out all the dream sequences this novel would be half its length, but you can’t even do this because the dreams are part of the plot unfortunately.
Because of all these no se cual dreams the pacing was way too slow and nothing interesting was ever really happened because it was all just dreams. Even the ending fell flat because the lead up to it was so disjointed and Grace as a character was flat and not compelling. When your main character is boring and unlikeable in a mundane way that’s a problem. Even Grace’s close friend Miguel was boring, he felt like a cardboard version of a real person only there to trigger Grace’s “growth” as a character and act as a springboard for the story to progress at times. Honestly none of the characters were likable or interesting and pair that with slow pacing and a boring plot, you get a novel that was very hard for me to finish.
Seriously, the only character I was invested in this whole novel was Coco the Cat, and yes she remains unscathed at the end of the novel thankfully.
I still love Stage’s novel Getaway and recommend that to anyone looking for a survival horror/thriller with strong female characters, but Mothered will
not be one I recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Restart by Gordon Korman
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I read this book with my fifth graders as a whole group read aloud and they absolutely loved it. Chase was a horrendous bully before falling off his which puts him in a coma. When he wakes up it’s revealed he has amnesia and this begins his journey of discovering who he used to be and who he now wants to be.
This was an excellent read aloud for the beginning of the year because it talks about self-control, bullying, and how our actions affect more than just ourselves. If you’re a YA reader or also a teacher looking for read alouds I highly recommend Restart.
This was an excellent read aloud for the beginning of the year because it talks about self-control, bullying, and how our actions affect more than just ourselves. If you’re a YA reader or also a teacher looking for read alouds I highly recommend Restart.
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
A festive Christmas game turned murder mystery with actual anagrams hidden in each chapter sounded like a blast. It was not. At first this seemed to be going somewhere, the characters were cliche and dull, but the plot and the extra element of clues for the reader kept me going. Unfortunately, the pacing in this book is horrendous and it didn’t keep me going for very long. You can only drag this game out so far with such cardboard characters. The whole novel gives Lifetime Movie, and not in a good way.
This book goes so LONG before the first murder occurs and even LONGER after that. The deaths were so poorly paced and absolutely meaningless because all of the characters sucked due to their complete lack of originality and depth. I wanted characters to die, I wanted no one to take this stupid house. A character would die and I would have to go to the family tree in the front of the book to remind myself why I should even care and who they were, which did not make this an engaging mystery for me.
Along with horrible pacing, and boring, borderline infuriating , characters is the books complete failure to write a cohesive, intriguing, and gripping mystery. This book is so long because I swear there are chapters that are only 3-4 pages long and written solely for the purpose including one of her stupid anagrams. These long drawn out chapters to reach anagram goals or make the 12 days of Christmas relevant, really dragged the plot to the point where I’d read about 50 pages and NOTHING plot driven would happen. I would get another paragraph on the food, or Sara being a bitch, or Lily again being the entire source of her own problems but never fucking doing anything about it. I think if you took out the anagrams, 12 days gimmick, holiday food, and Lily’s annoyingly repetitive self involved narratives, this book would barely be a novella.
So a murder mystery with terrible pacing, a poorly executed plot, and the worst characterizations I’ve experienced so far makes this a 1/5, 1/10. I would say read anything else. I like mysteries, ive read Agatha Christie, I know good mysteries and this is very much NOT it.
This book goes so LONG before the first murder occurs and even LONGER after that. The deaths were so poorly paced and absolutely meaningless because all of the characters sucked due to their complete lack of originality and depth. I wanted characters to die, I wanted no one to take this stupid house. A character would die and I would have to go to the family tree in the front of the book to remind myself why I should even care and who they were, which did not make this an engaging mystery for me.
Along with horrible pacing, and boring, borderline infuriating , characters is the books complete failure to write a cohesive, intriguing, and gripping mystery. This book is so long because I swear there are chapters that are only 3-4 pages long and written solely for the purpose including one of her stupid anagrams. These long drawn out chapters to reach anagram goals or make the 12 days of Christmas relevant, really dragged the plot to the point where I’d read about 50 pages and NOTHING plot driven would happen. I would get another paragraph on the food, or Sara being a bitch, or Lily again being the entire source of her own problems but never fucking doing anything about it. I think if you took out the anagrams, 12 days gimmick, holiday food, and Lily’s annoyingly repetitive self involved narratives, this book would barely be a novella.
So a murder mystery with terrible pacing, a poorly executed plot, and the worst characterizations I’ve experienced so far makes this a 1/5, 1/10. I would say read anything else. I like mysteries, ive read Agatha Christie, I know good mysteries and this is very much NOT it.
Lucky Girl: How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story by M. Rickert
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A quirky holiday horror novella about 5 strangers that end up spending Christmas together to ease their loneliness. A strange tradition is started, ghost stories are told, and secrets are unraveled.
This was a fun little Christmas horror story with Krampus arriving as a guest star. If you’re looking for a quick but interesting Krampus tale, this one was entertaining and had all the vibes.
This was a fun little Christmas horror story with Krampus arriving as a guest star. If you’re looking for a quick but interesting Krampus tale, this one was entertaining and had all the vibes.