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couldbestephen's reviews
202 reviews
The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
3.5
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Haunting of Velkwood is a touching paranormal drama that left me wanting more! I rated this 3.5 stars and would recommend this to fans of Annihilation by VanderMeer, The Hollow Places by Kingfisher, and The Haunting of Hill House by Jackson!
Talitha has spent her life trying to run away from her past. Her childhood neighborhood, Velkwood, is the site of a paranormal event that trapped friends and family in a ghostlike state. When a friendly paranormal investigator comes into her life to try and get her to return to Velkwood, Talitha chooses to revisit the neighborhood, dragging herself and the two other women who also escaped from the neighborhood back into a world of ghosts and shadows.
My biggest issue with this novel is that it needed to be developed more. There was the groundwork for intriguing paranormal exploration and worldbuilding that wasn't fully realized. 100 more pages and some tighter editing would have turned this from a fun, vibe read to a truly exciting entry into the modern gothic genre. For a character-driven story, I wish the character development was a little more consistent across everyone. Certain characters could have benefited from more exploration.
Otherwise, the writing was generally tight, the vibe of the book was right up my alley, and I loved the slow-burn romance between two certain characters. A solid read and one that I will be recommending when it is published in March of 2024!
The Haunting of Velkwood is a touching paranormal drama that left me wanting more! I rated this 3.5 stars and would recommend this to fans of Annihilation by VanderMeer, The Hollow Places by Kingfisher, and The Haunting of Hill House by Jackson!
Talitha has spent her life trying to run away from her past. Her childhood neighborhood, Velkwood, is the site of a paranormal event that trapped friends and family in a ghostlike state. When a friendly paranormal investigator comes into her life to try and get her to return to Velkwood, Talitha chooses to revisit the neighborhood, dragging herself and the two other women who also escaped from the neighborhood back into a world of ghosts and shadows.
My biggest issue with this novel is that it needed to be developed more. There was the groundwork for intriguing paranormal exploration and worldbuilding that wasn't fully realized. 100 more pages and some tighter editing would have turned this from a fun, vibe read to a truly exciting entry into the modern gothic genre. For a character-driven story, I wish the character development was a little more consistent across everyone. Certain characters could have benefited from more exploration.
Otherwise, the writing was generally tight, the vibe of the book was right up my alley, and I loved the slow-burn romance between two certain characters. A solid read and one that I will be recommending when it is published in March of 2024!
New Haven by Adam Kirstein
1.0
Reviews are not for authors. That being said, there’s a part of me hoping that Adam Kirsten reads this and understands what a horrifically bad book he wrote. This bland dystopian fails to deliver a compelling story and doesn’t have a message of its own to stand on. I do not recommend this novel and would actively warn people against reading it.
This novel was marketed as a YA thriller where “The Hunger Games” meets “The Handmaids Tale.” Do not be fooled. This book is not YA and you will see nothing that meaningfully resembles either book in Dr Kirstein’s novel. I have no idea where The Hunger Games comparison comes from. The Handmaids Tale shows up near the end of the book, when the author decides his book needed to be more misogynistic for absolutely no reason. New Haven is more like A Brave New World and 1984, if both of those novels were materially worse and offered no political commentary. The author does not address or deconstruct the deep misogyny (the female characters in this book are treated horrifically for no apparent reason other than shock value) and antisemitic tropes (a blood drinking evil shadow cabal runs New Haven) present in his book. The main point of conflict in this novel is that the authoritarian government, known as The Leadership, is bad and should therefore be overthrown. It’s so painfully bland and uninspired, you wonder why Dr Kirstein thought this story was worth putting on paper.
A reviewer on Amazon talked about how this work could have used an edit pass or two more before publishing to fix the typos and grammatical errors. I think Dr Kirstein needs to take several creative and general writing classes. The general prose feels like it was written by a middle school/high school fan-fiction author. Misplaced or missing commas run rampant. The author has very little idea of how write dialogue (please learn how to use quotation marks before publishing your novel). His characters are flat. The plot is so bland it hurts. As an avid reader and someone who studies English in college, this is a painfully bad read.
Dystopian novels work as “warnings for the future” because they are reexamining issues we currently face. The Hunger Games is about the dangers of turning trauma into entertainment and the cost of necessary revolutions. The Handmaids Tale cautions us against governments that make religious texts the cornerstone of their political system. This book has nothing. It’s empty. It wants to be a spiritual successor to 1984, but just because you have a big bad government that sees all doesn’t mean you have anything more than the world’s simplest take on what some of the greatest dystopian fiction has already said.
The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World by Alan Downs
emotional
informative
reflective
4.0
While I appreciated this book and would recommend it to most queer men, I first want to recognize the short falls of this book. It’s clearly written by and for cis, white, middle class/upper middle class men. Queer men of color, trans men, and men who come from less economically advantaged communities may have issues with how certain issues are addressed or how some things (like racism and transphobia) are ignored.
The author breaks down the Gay Male Life into three stages, which boil down to Shame, Post Shame, and True Acceptance. Trying to figure out which stage I was in was a trip. Reviewing past relationships and comparing how they failed with the examples the author used and wow, queer men and our trauma. It’s fun. There were some things I intellectually knew (queer men’s drive for “perfection,” our search for validation, how relationships with our parents fucked is up) that, when laid out in writing, hit harder.
Internalizing what I learned in this book is going to be an ongoing process. While there were definitely experiences and stories I didn’t relate to throughout the book, enough of it hit close to home that I’m going to be carrying the authors messages and lessons for a while.
The Darcy Myth: Jane Austen, Literary Heartthrobs, and the Monsters They Taught Us to Love by Rachel Feder
1.0
I wanted to rate this at least 2 stars. Reexamining Austen’s work through a “Gothic lens?” Cool, sign me up! Written in very accessible language even general Austen fans can understand and enjoy? Amazing! And then the author goes on to horribly misinterpret and misrepresent Pride and Prejudice.
Spoiler, trying to call P&P a “gothic horror” and force it into the gothic tropes as we understand them makes you take some astounding leaps in logic. It doesn’t work.
Right off the bat, Feder calls Darcy a literary monster we need to deconstruct and provides no textual proof for her claims. A few times she dances dangerously close to ruining her own interpretation of the character by referencing the text that goes against what she says, but she just brushes it off. It seems as though Feder is trying to deconstruct the Byronic Hero but understands that general audiences may not know what that is exactly. People do know Darcy and Lizzie though.
Listen, is Mr Darcy perfect? No! Looking back with modern eyes, are some of the actions he took, particularly with Lydia, problematic? Yup. But to brush off the historical context and demand we only look at Darcy as modern people is disingenuous and leads to poorly reasoned books like this.
An interesting read that tackles a straw man of the author’s own creation. 1/5 stars.
Spoiler, trying to call P&P a “gothic horror” and force it into the gothic tropes as we understand them makes you take some astounding leaps in logic. It doesn’t work.
Right off the bat, Feder calls Darcy a literary monster we need to deconstruct and provides no textual proof for her claims. A few times she dances dangerously close to ruining her own interpretation of the character by referencing the text that goes against what she says, but she just brushes it off. It seems as though Feder is trying to deconstruct the Byronic Hero but understands that general audiences may not know what that is exactly. People do know Darcy and Lizzie though.
Listen, is Mr Darcy perfect? No! Looking back with modern eyes, are some of the actions he took, particularly with Lydia, problematic? Yup. But to brush off the historical context and demand we only look at Darcy as modern people is disingenuous and leads to poorly reasoned books like this.
An interesting read that tackles a straw man of the author’s own creation. 1/5 stars.
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
4.0
As soon as I saw the trailer for the film adaptation of Poor Things, I knew I was going to have to get my hands on the book before I watched the movie. All I really knew was that this was a "gender-swapped version of Frankenstein." And while that's not entirely wrong... there's so much more to unpack.
Poor Things follows Godwin Baxter, McCandless, and a cast of strange characters as they interact with Bella Baxter, a woman brought back from the dead with her mind wiped clean. As she relearns what it means to be a person, her past keeps coming back to haunt her.
The language used in the novel, as well as most of the thematic elements, are immediately reminiscent of late Enlightenment/early Gothic authors like Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe. It's an older, denser style of writing that readers who are not fans of more "classic" works of literature may not enjoy or be able to break through. As someone who grew up reading the "English classics," it took me a bit before I was comfortably back in the rhythm of this type of work. Gray masterfully weaves his story with gothic themes of personhood, religion, and politics, along with more modern concerns of female autonomy and societal expectations.
The ending honestly shocked me. I kinda expected some sort of twist when I saw what one of the final "chapters" was titled, but to turn the entire story on its head right at the end like that, further cementing the themes of female liberation and lack of autonomy? I would 100% recommend this novel.
Poor Things follows Godwin Baxter, McCandless, and a cast of strange characters as they interact with Bella Baxter, a woman brought back from the dead with her mind wiped clean. As she relearns what it means to be a person, her past keeps coming back to haunt her.
The language used in the novel, as well as most of the thematic elements, are immediately reminiscent of late Enlightenment/early Gothic authors like Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe. It's an older, denser style of writing that readers who are not fans of more "classic" works of literature may not enjoy or be able to break through. As someone who grew up reading the "English classics," it took me a bit before I was comfortably back in the rhythm of this type of work. Gray masterfully weaves his story with gothic themes of personhood, religion, and politics, along with more modern concerns of female autonomy and societal expectations.
The ending honestly shocked me. I kinda expected some sort of twist when I saw what one of the final "chapters" was titled, but to turn the entire story on its head right at the end like that, further cementing the themes of female liberation and lack of autonomy? I would 100% recommend this novel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Racism, Misogyny, and Suicide
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
4.0
When I read this book when it was first released, I only rated it 3 stars. As much as I love and want more Hunger Games books, I didn’t see the point to a prequel book about evil President Snow and one of the earlier games. Revisiting this book in preparation for the upcoming movie, reading with a more critical lens, has improved my opinion of the book and just reaffirmed my admiration for Collins’ writing, world-building, and strong political themes.
Coriolanus Snow and his surviving family are not exactly thriving after the rebellion that tore apart Panem. The Hunger Games have been going on for 10 years, and now Panem leadership is looking for ways to spice up the Games and get the nation involved. Snow is paired with Lucy Grey Baird, a young girl from District 12. Together, they will change the history of the Games as they know it.
This is a Young Adult novel. The writing reflects the age group this is targeted at. I don’t want to call the writing simplistic, but this is an “easy” read. I loved the pacing for the first 2/3rds of the book, not a huge fan of the final 1/3rd, but it does an amazing job of cementing Snow’s character into the man we come to know in the OG trilogy. This book is in no way Snow apologist literature; from the language Snow uses when he thinks of Lucy Grey to the multiple times where Snow chooses “evil,” Collins practically beats us over the head with how Snow is unredeemable (and I say that in a good way, the lack of subtlety is incredibly necessary in a story like this).
If you just read TBoSaS and THG at face value, you’ll have an entertaining read. This book won’t hit the same and the final book will be frustrating. But when you take the time to unpack the themes of how propaganda is made and perpetuated, the effects of war on CHILDREN, and “The Human Condition,” gods, these books are good. So fucking good.
A Curse of Scales and Flame by Max Walker
2.0
I received this title as an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
If this book had focused more on the mystery/adventure element of the story and fleshed things out more, maybe I could have rated this higher. If this had just been a spicy fantasy romance, I’d definitely rate this higher. But the plot, world-building, and romance together did not a great story make.
In an alternate universe, magical creatures and humans mingle. The dragons are starting to die off mysteriously and Damien, a dragon with fire-based powers, is seeking a cure. He runs into Robby, a human who just can’t stay out of trouble. As the two try and help each other out, something more than just a friendship starts to form.
This book has decent writing. The author’s voice feels a little amature; the plot of the book doesn’t always flow best (the romance between the two characters is kinda rushed? And underdeveloped?), certain phrases are overused (you read about vampires “airbrushed skin” way too many times), and a good chunk of the characters come off a little flat. For the modern romance genre, it’s kinda what you would expect. The spicy scenes were fun but were always strangely placed plot-wise.
The biggest issue I have with this book (and honestly most AU novels) is the fact that the world-building of this “new world” leaves me with more questions than I think even the author can answer. The story takes place in California. The magical creatures came to our world in the 1800s. Does this mean Fae helped drive off the Native population to form the state? Did dragons help end slavery? How was the civil rights movement affected by all this? Were there World Wars? Was there 9/11? Was there an AIDS crisis (we know the dragons basically have had 2 now)? Every bit of lore dropped either left me scratching my head or had me wanting more explanations.
If you turn your brain off, this is a passable dragon/human spicy book. It needed to decide if it was going to be a good fantasy or a good romance.
If this book had focused more on the mystery/adventure element of the story and fleshed things out more, maybe I could have rated this higher. If this had just been a spicy fantasy romance, I’d definitely rate this higher. But the plot, world-building, and romance together did not a great story make.
In an alternate universe, magical creatures and humans mingle. The dragons are starting to die off mysteriously and Damien, a dragon with fire-based powers, is seeking a cure. He runs into Robby, a human who just can’t stay out of trouble. As the two try and help each other out, something more than just a friendship starts to form.
This book has decent writing. The author’s voice feels a little amature; the plot of the book doesn’t always flow best (the romance between the two characters is kinda rushed? And underdeveloped?), certain phrases are overused (you read about vampires “airbrushed skin” way too many times), and a good chunk of the characters come off a little flat. For the modern romance genre, it’s kinda what you would expect. The spicy scenes were fun but were always strangely placed plot-wise.
The biggest issue I have with this book (and honestly most AU novels) is the fact that the world-building of this “new world” leaves me with more questions than I think even the author can answer. The story takes place in California. The magical creatures came to our world in the 1800s. Does this mean Fae helped drive off the Native population to form the state? Did dragons help end slavery? How was the civil rights movement affected by all this? Were there World Wars? Was there 9/11? Was there an AIDS crisis (we know the dragons basically have had 2 now)? Every bit of lore dropped either left me scratching my head or had me wanting more explanations.
If you turn your brain off, this is a passable dragon/human spicy book. It needed to decide if it was going to be a good fantasy or a good romance.
The Underground by Ty Pape
1.0
It’s incredibly transparent when an unskilled writer doesn’t have anyone in their life to say, “Hey, let’s sit on this idea a little longer and run it through a few more revisions before getting it indie published, mkay?” When eager, unchecked authors push for publication, we end up with poorly written, underdeveloped novels like The Underground, by debut author Ty Pape.
If you stumble across this book in person while in a Lincoln Nebraska Barnes & Noble, you’d have to look it up online to read the blub, seeing as the back cover tells you nothing. The Underground is a post-apocalyptic, dystopian, subterranean novel about a group of people forced underground after some sort of nuclear war. Josh, our main character, has spent 10 years in this Colony (known as The Underground), working in the gardens and dreaming of life on the surface. As things (predictably) start to fall apart, Josh must search for a way back to life as they knew it.
The lack of care in the world building of The Underground frustrated me the most. Pape’s writing for the government and culture of The Underground is bland and uninspired. His premise could be interesting, but it’s clear he doesn’t understand the post-apocalyptic, subterranean genre enough to be able to tell a convincing story through it. The heteronormative, gender-segregated, conservative Christian-like government of The Underground is filled with cliche, mustache twirling villains. There are so many issues with the infrastructure of The Underground I could write a whole essay on them. As the book progresses and we leave The Underground, things do not improve. They actually get worse.
Papes’ writing style is incredibly amateur; I felt like I was reading bad City of Ember fanfiction on Wattpad. According to Barnes & Noble and Reedsy Discovery, an editor named Oren Eades helped with this novel, but I question his involvement with this piece. From over-written sentences to terrible dialogue, Pape beats you over the head with his ham-handed info-dumps, preferring to poorly “tell” everything instead of “showing” the reader. There is a fair amount of perspective hopping that detracts from the reading experience. The pacing of the book is abysmal. The choice to write using third person, present tense, omniscient narration was bold (and poorly thought out).
While this isn’t billed as Christian fiction, Pape’s religious beliefs are peppered throughout with the subtlety and grace of a bomb. Even the bad purple prose he tried to employ can’t hide the blatant Biblical verses and references he shoves in. His messages about mental and emotional wounds are laughably shallow and exactly what you’d expect from someone of Pape’s background and writing caliber. There are times the plot completely stops so Pape can cram a mini-sermon in. Near the middle of the book, a random Note to the Reader appears with a sermon that could have been written by a brand new youth pastor.
Pape urges his readers to “compare and contrast [their] life throughout this novel” in the misnamed “Prologue” of The Underground, clearly seeing his book as some deep, philosophical exploration of fear, self-love, and the human condition. His book is as deep as a leaking kiddy pool. I would not recommend this novel. If you want good books about people living under the earth during a time of upheaval, I’d recommend The City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau or The Silo series by Hugh Howey.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
3.5
"I can excuse [androidism] but I draw the line at animal cruelty" - The Novel
This was my first Philip K Dick novel and I'm kinda surprised it's taken me this long to tackle his work. The novel could be a little dense for "casual readers" to tackle. You're thrown into the world and all its terminology and you gotta figure it all out on your own. It's not a lot, but the book flows much better when you understand everything that is said and referenced. The writing is fast paced and snappy, keeps your interest. I enjoyed all the characters. I'm not sure what else to say really, it's a solid novel, worth the read, mostly for the philosophical musings about what separates us humans from our creations.
Dick examines humanity and what separates us from Others. Animals and our emotional attachment and response to them features heavily, dividing humans from Androids (or andys). The fact that humanity is so certain that empathy is what sets us apart has driven us to create a religion and machines that reward our emotions. On an Earth torn a part by war, in a society where leaving the planet to go to another off world colony is desirable before you're "special" (genetically altered and damaged from the radiation).
If you're looking to read more classic science fiction or enjoy heavier science fiction novels, this is worth the read. There's some issues with representation, one could call this a "product of its time," but it's very clear why Dick's work stays relevant and was worthy of film adaptations.
This was my first Philip K Dick novel and I'm kinda surprised it's taken me this long to tackle his work. The novel could be a little dense for "casual readers" to tackle. You're thrown into the world and all its terminology and you gotta figure it all out on your own. It's not a lot, but the book flows much better when you understand everything that is said and referenced. The writing is fast paced and snappy, keeps your interest. I enjoyed all the characters. I'm not sure what else to say really, it's a solid novel, worth the read, mostly for the philosophical musings about what separates us humans from our creations.
Dick examines humanity and what separates us from Others. Animals and our emotional attachment and response to them features heavily, dividing humans from Androids (or andys). The fact that humanity is so certain that empathy is what sets us apart has driven us to create a religion and machines that reward our emotions. On an Earth torn a part by war, in a society where leaving the planet to go to another off world colony is desirable before you're "special" (genetically altered and damaged from the radiation).
If you're looking to read more classic science fiction or enjoy heavier science fiction novels, this is worth the read. There's some issues with representation, one could call this a "product of its time," but it's very clear why Dick's work stays relevant and was worthy of film adaptations.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4.0
I’m kinda surprised I’ve never read this before. Feels like it’s a “classic” I should have read in high school (maybe not in HS now, all the promiscuity would definitely get this banned).
Though originally written as a critique of fascism, the totalitarian government in BNW works as a examination of capitalism today. Ford as “God,” “religion” based around technology and staying in the future, it’s really fascinating.
The show on Peacock, while being an aesthetically pleasing show, honestly took a shallow route tackling the themes. The bleak ending of the book works so much better than what the show does. It tries to give the audience that cathartic moment, where everyone rises up in the name of freedom, burning it all down. But the book let’s you sit with this new culture. The uprising John tries to start falls flat. He chooses to be alone. The other “dissenters” are sent away.
Tough read but worth it.
Though originally written as a critique of fascism, the totalitarian government in BNW works as a examination of capitalism today. Ford as “God,” “religion” based around technology and staying in the future, it’s really fascinating.
The show on Peacock, while being an aesthetically pleasing show, honestly took a shallow route tackling the themes. The bleak ending of the book works so much better than what the show does. It tries to give the audience that cathartic moment, where everyone rises up in the name of freedom, burning it all down. But the book let’s you sit with this new culture. The uprising John tries to start falls flat. He chooses to be alone. The other “dissenters” are sent away.
Tough read but worth it.