westernskynaida's reviews
106 reviews

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

4.25

This picks up almost immediately after the first book. This has a little bit of a slow start, but the first one did as well. Once you hit the rhythm, things go fast

I enjoyed following the little ragtag group of people who helped Jane and Katherine on their journey. Some parts shocked me (I definitely gasped out loud a couple of times)

Definitely a good follow up to Dread Nation

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

4.5

I read this fairly quickly - which is nice because I’ve been on a big struggle bus for consistently reading the last few weeks

The science in this book isn’t hard to follow and makes sense for someone who really has no idea about quantum mechanics or astrophysics

There were some parts in this that made my heart just hurt but I highly recommend it to someone who may have heard about this book on social media

I will mention that I’m not going to go into plot points for this as I feel like you need to experience it yourself without too many precognitions

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

4.0

I’d heard good things about this book (and series) and I was finally able to read it thanks to a book club I’m in

The world-centric phrases were a bit hard to wrap my head around but I also liked that it wasn’t hard to follow. I’d love to get a glossary in a future book with some translation/context for some of the words

There were also a good handful of characters that I thought I’d have a hard time keeping track of, but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be

All in all, a good start to this universe/series

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

3.5

I don’t have a lot to say about this, but I thought it was really good. The copy I had was just over 150 pages which was a nice short book for what I’ve been reading

I went into this mostly blind, which wasn’t bad but I probably should have looked it up a bit more than I originally had

The climax of the book was tense and made me feel stressed. I thought it was very well done

If you’re wanting a somewhat short book, older book I’d definitely recommend this

Keep It In The Family by John Marrs

3.75

I’ll give this a number rating in the morning because I need to sleep on what to give it

Oh man, this book. This one is full of twists. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it definitely keeps you on your toes. I was really hopeful about this book but it’s definitely one that I’m not sure about

This book flips between a couple of narrators in present time, an unknown past narrator and periodic articles - which make an interesting break of all the drama. At one point I thought I needed a spreadsheet because of all the characters and connections

The reason I’m torn on this book is that while I loved the rapid succession of twists that happened, I’m also really annoyed. I feel the ending makes sense for all the characters (and is an interesting take on generational abuse), but I’m annoyed because some characters who I actually enjoyed got dealt a crappy card. Maybe I’m just bitter about it, but it’ll be the reason this isn’t given one of the higher numbers

All in all, if you’ve heard things and were recommended this book, I’d recommend reading it yourself

I was trying to figure out why I didn’t enjoy the ending for this book and my wife gave a very good reason for it. Unlike other books that have a whiplash of twists and turns, usually there is a sense of justice at the end. This one really didn’t have the justice for the characters I felt had a terrible card dealt - like George

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

4.75

I’m giving this just below a 5/5 because there were some unanswered questions - though I think those were left ambiguous on purpose. That might change as I sit on the ending, but need to think about it some before I decide if I put it at full 5

I really enjoyed this flipping between Alicia’s journal entries and Theo’s perspective. I feel it really helped to understand how Alicia worked before and after the events unfolded

One of my favorite psychological thrillers is Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane) and I really feel like this held up the suspense and the thriller aspect of things. I’d seen a lot of reviews/comments about this book having a twist and when people asked what kind they mostly just reply “you need to read it yourself” and I totally agree

Go into this as blind as you can, I think it helped the experience a lot

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

4.25

This was my first book by Kate Alice Marshall and I was pretty impressed. I know usually the books are YA, so I was pleasantly surprised at this being an adult fiction book

I kept some notes and I kind of called some of the twists, but wasn’t sure of how they were going to unfold

I read a quarter of this book in a sitting because I was hooked on the intense climax that was happening. It was also nice to try and piece together the mystery with Naomi

The Fold by Peter Clines

4.5

I really enjoyed this. Which is saying a lot because I loved 14. Though I think I liked this one more than 14

This book seems to throw you right into the weirdness. I feel like Mike as a narrator also really worked, which is surprising because most characters who have eidetic memory could be obnoxious but he was actually really likable and actually hated having the eidetic memory

I’ll probably read the other two books, but I’m not sure if I’ll read it in publication order or timeline order. But I liked this one a LOT 

Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan

4.0

This started a bit slowly but once it picked up I read about half of it in a sitting

It took a bit to get to the actual “horror” aspect of it, but I feel like it was a pretty good payoff when we finally got it. I’ll be honest since I thought for a bit there that it was going to be “the horror was the trauma we experience along the way” and then actual horror stuff happened

For a book that I picked up because the cover interested me, I’m glad I read it

Malice by Heather Walter

3.75

This one I’m really torn with. I ended up listening to the audiobook while I was working as I had time to listen. There were some times that I just didn’t want to stop listening but needed to focus on adult life stuff

The reason I’m torn is that I feel this was a great slow burn that made me really happy with how things were unfolding. And then I saw how much I had left and realized I had 3.5 hours left and dreaded the climax I hadn’t actually reached…

The ending, while exciting and action packed, made me feel…very empty. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. Am I glad that I read this? Yeah, I’m glad. It was better than I thought it would be. Will I read the second book? Probably, but not right away…I think I need to think about some things with it before I go into the chaos of how this book ended…