Holy shit. A world where women hold all the (impressive) power, unapologetically blood-soaked vampire sex, and guys who tell you that you never have tHoly shit. A world where women hold all the (impressive) power, unapologetically blood-soaked vampire sex, and guys who tell you that you never have to clean anything? Sign me up for this fever dream.
This isn't going to be for everybody, but I'm so glad I took a chance on it. The writing is so evocative, with intensely visceral descriptions of wielding power, blood lust, and magic. I've never felt closer to being a vampire myself. :D...more
Precision plotting and tension lead up to a shocking revelation. All throughout, we know Sara has been kidnappStunningly, unbelievably prescient. Wow.
Precision plotting and tension lead up to a shocking revelation. All throughout, we know Sara has been kidnapped along with a CDC officer and they are being held by a loony cult that is planning something big. (view spoiler)[Towards the end, we discover that a large group of men--many of them white supremacists and ex-military--are storming the Georgia Capitol. The Last Widow was published in 2019, which means Slaughter wrote this a minimum of three years before the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (hide spoiler)] There are so many direct parallels between the lead up to the two events, and when I first realized what was happening, I literally got chills and screamed a little in my bed.
Re-reading in 2023, I appreciate the masterful character work, incredible action, and emotion even more. To be more than two decades into a series (and I do count Grant County + Will Trent as one big series, so please don't @ me) and still deliver so many surprises, revelations, and thrills is an unbelievable feat. Probably my favorite Slaughter book after Triptych....more
1.5 stars Uninspired writing, loose plotting, unconvincing leaps in "intuitive" investigative work, reliance on coincidences to further hero's success1.5 stars Uninspired writing, loose plotting, unconvincing leaps in "intuitive" investigative work, reliance on coincidences to further hero's success, cliche interdepartmental strife, insulting portrayals of most of the police force in order to prop up the savant psychological profiler, half-hearted characters, thoroughly uninteresting romantic relationships, mildly annoying sexist and anti-LGBT comments (without payoff/nuance (view spoiler)[and yes, I'm aware of the author's orientation, which makes this doubly surprising. I'm sure the inclusion was meant to show what prejudices people have to face, but this wasn't conveyed well in the way the characters were written (hide spoiler)]), and violence that's somewhat graphic/meant to be shocking, but fails to punch you in the emotional gut.
I admit fully that this book suffers the unfortunate timing of being read a day after I reread the first two books in the Jack Caffery series, which are incredibly violent and sadistic, but also contain well-plotted, well-written mysteries, expertly detailed police and medical examiner work, layered but restrained character development, and some of the most genuinely sad and haunting story arcs I've ever read.
That series is also filled with crazy tension, unlike this limp thing. No surprises here at all.
I also don't really care about anyone in this book, except the one victim POV, but only in the most abstract sense because she's relegated to a teen character that seems written by marking off checkboxes. Also, portraying all the cartoonish sicko's victims as virgins ripe for sex and fame leaves a bad taste in my mouth, since they don't get any more developed than that. They--and we--deserved better.
Second book I've tried from this author, I don't even remember the first from several years back. That's it for me....more
Fact and fiction are woven together in the infamous Whitechapel murders, ghosts, and the peculiar case of London H4.5 stars Love love love love love.
Fact and fiction are woven together in the infamous Whitechapel murders, ghosts, and the peculiar case of London Hospital's The Elephant Man, all from the perspective of a girl who has been severely disfigured by phosphorous necrosis. This story doesn't shy away from the gruesome nature of the crimes nor the rough realities faced by a woman without position, or a man who was put on display as a sideshow attraction. And yet it is imbued with a transcendent awareness of human dignity, and the beauty of soul and intellect.
Writing is textured and sharp, yet exquisitely restrained, the setting is vivid, and the historical details are seamlessly integrated. (I had such a good time looking up various figures and events referenced in the story!) I hope this author writes more historical fiction, because he has a knack for storytelling, an ear for dialogue, and an empathy for his characters that gives readers the rare sense of being completely immersed in the world he created. I felt the same level of excitement when reading this book as I did when reading my first Marcus Sedgwick and Sarah Waters novels, and I don't say that lightly.
Review to come. If you liked certain elements of THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER or THIS MONSTROUS THING, you'll love this. ...more
3.5 stars A woman's fiancé disappears at a rest stop, and she's terrorized by a sadistic unknown person who directs her to do unspeakable things in or3.5 stars A woman's fiancé disappears at a rest stop, and she's terrorized by a sadistic unknown person who directs her to do unspeakable things in order to save the one she loves. Some mild but very general spoilers below.
The first half of this book is like a slasher torture porn-type horror movie. (If you're at all squeamish, this is definitely not the book for you.) Kristine is relentlessly pursued and pushed to her limits, forced to debase herself and harm others; while the fast-paced callousness of these acts are pretty mindless, credit is due for the adrenaline-spiked sequence of events.
By the middle, it's revealed who's doing this to her. I don't think it's that hard to guess, and the reasoning behind the sadist's fixation on Kristine seems specious at best. Still, once you get past the usual confrontations, things become interesting in the last third or so as the stakes are suddenly raised for Kristine and she begins to fight back. I wasn't sure the level of detail in her flashbacks was entirely necessary, but eventually I appreciated how they revealed a hidden strength in her that you wouldn't have previously guessed, and how this sets up the final climactic fight.
This isn't on the same level as the genre thriller writers I enjoy most, though; while there's one scene that has a bit of sicko Gretchen Lowell to it (actually, it's very similar to a scene in BIRDMAN that is much more horrifying in its subtlety), the book lacks Karin Slaughter's nuanced characterization, methodical procedure, and moments of piercing vulnerability. It also doesn't have the delicious cat-and-mouse quality of Chelsea Cain's books, nor the undercurrent of fascinated repulsion or numb despair that makes her victims seem human and real. SWERVE's killer has the exact back story you'd expect, and the relationships displayed aren't terribly convincing or complex. Kristine and her daughter could use more development as well, particularly in the first half. This is the author's first thriller, however, so I'd be interested in seeing what she does with her next one; she definitely has enough inventiveness and a certain gift for frenetic pacing that keeps you on your toes.
This should've started out as a $7.99 mass market paperback, though. It's the kind of thing that's entertaining plane reading, not necessarily something I'd buy as an expensive hardback and keep on my shelf to reread. It's fun but not of the same caliber as other thrillers of this type. (I know, I know, when has that ever stopped them from over-charging.)...more
3.5 stars The diary structure, especially with the snarky, cluttered narrative, wore me down before too long. And yet this story had to be told this w3.5 stars The diary structure, especially with the snarky, cluttered narrative, wore me down before too long. And yet this story had to be told this way, and it has moments where it's genuinely funny as well as a little creepy--and I think the mystery is resolved in a mostly satisfactory way. I enjoyed it, though the style is going to be a turnoff for many.
So if in some twisted universe, a Laura Ingalls Wilder type accidentally got pregnant and moved onto a farm that may or may not be cursed, would she:
aSo if in some twisted universe, a Laura Ingalls Wilder type accidentally got pregnant and moved onto a farm that may or may not be cursed, would she:
a. abandon her home and force her sister to raise her child until she can return for it b. lose the baby and fear that it watches her from the woods with its dead eyes c. run for her life as Ma and Pa go crazy and chase everybody with pickaxes d. find a boy with a twisted smile who helps her battle the unknown forces and live happily ever after with him e. turn into a vampire and suck out her best friend's soul?
Depending on which of these appeals to you, I can tell you whether or not you'll like this book, because it sure ain't for everybody. (view spoiler)[I mean, the girl fantasizes about her baby sister dying in the first chapter. (hide spoiler)]
I have to admit, the writing, overall plot, and characterization didn't quite gel for me, but there are some really great creeptastic moments in this book--not just your typical banging closet thing either, but closer to the seething, feral nature of Another Little Piece. Between the horrible things conjured out of the Amy Lukavics' mind and the atypical ending, I'd definitely try another book by this author.
2.5 stars Karin Slaughter tops my list of favorite crime writers, and she's certainly the one who writes the most engrossing police procedurals, as we2.5 stars Karin Slaughter tops my list of favorite crime writers, and she's certainly the one who writes the most engrossing police procedurals, as well as the one who usually succeeds in leaving you gasping after she's punched you in the emotional gut. But while I was excited about the idea of a new book outside of the Georgia series, this one didn't quite work for me.
I appreciate the author's tackling a difficult time period in showing the rampant racism and sexism of the 1970s, but this book was so unrelentingly grim and violent that it was really difficult to read. I know Slaughter's been criticized for her portrayal of violence against women in the past, but I never thought that was fair--her Grant County and Will Trent series were unflinching about their gruesome crimes, sure, but that was tempered with gravity and humor and genuinely poignant relationships of all kinds.
In Cop Town, the moments of finer emotion are scarce, and it feels as though you're constantly on the verge of being backhanded across the face and called a filthy slit for daring to want more of that. ("Slit" is used many, many, many, many times, as are countless other appallingly derogatory terms for women and minorities. The point is hammered in pretty heavily.) The story is about the oppressed being further beaten down and follows Maggie and Kate, new partners who (eventually) take control of their lives, as they investigate a series of execution-style cop killings. But even the two main characters we're supposed to root for are often hard to relate to or care about. Kate's transformation from "fucking new girl" to hardened cop isn't as memorable as I'd hoped ( and her dumb personal choices often made me want to shake her), and Maggie goes through so much abuse that it overshadows everything else we know about her.
I did enjoy undercover officer Gail's batshit crazy story arc, and I'm perfectly fine with how things turned out for just about all the characters. It's not the most complex or engrossing of Slaughter's mysteries (the killer's motivations as well as his fixation on Kate are hastily explained in the end, which is disappointing after so much build-up, and I don't love an overabundance of killer POV chapters anyway), but her characters are so indelible that you hardly notice until it's all over. But given that there is so much violence in this story, and specifically so much violence against women, this was just extremely difficult to get through on a number of levels.
Cop Town is well-crafted, but was it an enjoyable read? Not really, at least for me. I'm feeling more tired and battered after finishing it than anything else. If you're curious about this author, I'd recommend her other series instead. The order in which they should be read is on my Blindsighted review.
I will still probably read the next book in this series out of curiosity since things are marginally getting better climate-wise in the end, and I also find it hard to resist any Slaughter novels. But in the meantime, I'm going to go wait quietly in the corner for the next Will and Sara book. (view spoiler)[I'm hoping Angie gets what's coming to her soon! Yeah, that'll never happen. (hide spoiler)]
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for this review....more
3.5 stars I liked this, but it felt overly long, and could have used better pacing. It's also kind of weird to essentially rewrite what we know of his3.5 stars I liked this, but it felt overly long, and could have used better pacing. It's also kind of weird to essentially rewrite what we know of history to recast a murderer as a heroine. At first glance it seems like a Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer-type mash-up, but it's really closer to the idea of giving Jack the Ripper good reasons, albeit supernatural reasons, to commit his gruesome crimes. I also wish we'd spent more time on the actual Borden murders--everyone here seems to avoid talking about or even thinking about it too much.
Still, the old-timey horror style is interesting, as is the nature of the creature feature. Whether we saw enough of all that, and whether there's enough here to sustain a sequel, is another story. I'd read book two, though....more
3.5 stars I have such mixed feelings about this one. It started off great, and what Mo Hayder does extremely well is to build up tension and create me3.5 stars I have such mixed feelings about this one. It started off great, and what Mo Hayder does extremely well is to build up tension and create memorable characters. This story is also filled with a lot of twists and turns, some of which I thought were too convoluted and involving human behavior that wasn't entirely convincing, but others that were also really intriguing and offering genuine surprises. The payoff was good, (view spoiler)[in that that little witch gets what's coming to her (hide spoiler)] but I do wish it had felt a bit more emphatically satisfying. A little more time wrapping that up probably would have let us revel in the climax more.
As someone who revels in the previous books in this series, as well as in Karin Slaughter and Chelsea Cain and other thrillers, I'm no stranger to boundary-pushing extremes of human behavior and violence, but what's portrayed here felt mostly like shock-value material rather than stuff that really gets to you. It's terrible and violent and traumatic on paper, yes, but I didn't experience the kind of visceral reaction I normally would with descriptions and writing and character development that truly put me inside a character's head and made me care about them (or made me fascinated by them, in a killer's case).
I'm glad, however, that we finally, FINALLY get more of the overarching story arc involving Jack's brother that was so riveting in the first two books. It's been 13 long years since the second book The Treatment, the last time any significant developments have occurred--we've known about Ewan's fate for a long time (I still think about that haunting final scene), but Jack never did. But to have this major storyline relegated to a relatively minor role in this book, particularly in a book already stuffed full of perhaps too many details and characters, and with the additional "mystique" distraction of The Walking Man, felt unnecessarily cruel and did not allow for it to be infused with nearly as much poignancy and guilt and regret as it should have been. I know this will change him--I just hope that in the future Caffery books, it's in the kind of meaningful way that we saw in the first two brilliant books in this series....more
3.5 stars This thriller has a pretty great reveal--and while I think it was telegraphed fairly early, the premise holds up under scrutiny and the twis3.5 stars This thriller has a pretty great reveal--and while I think it was telegraphed fairly early, the premise holds up under scrutiny and the twist won't be spoiled for you even if you guess it.
I do wish, however, that the entire book had been written with the same tautness and electricity as its last three chapters. I didn't love the writing style or the characterizations (the boyfriend Michael is particularly cartoony) before that, and almost everything that wasn't specifically related to the central mystery felt underdeveloped. Still, the mystery part is well-plotted and structured, and the twist is a good one--and even delivers on the shock/recoil factor even if you'd been paying attention ahead of time and anticipated what was going to happen. That, and its untraditional ending, are enough to bump up this book's rating considerably in my eyes.
You might enjoy this if you liked certain elements of Fury and Complicit, though again, the writing style is a far cry from those. I did like that the author doesn't pull punches (view spoiler)[in making the female narrator/main character a manipulative, flat-out liar (and more besides) (hide spoiler)], though.
Maybe a bit more of a review to come. A promising debut....more
I'm sad that I didn't end up enjoying this book more. I try not to use these comparisons too often, but there are so many similarities that this is thI'm sad that I didn't end up enjoying this book more. I try not to use these comparisons too often, but there are so many similarities that this is the best way I can think of to describe the story: it's sort of like The Hunger Games as a punishment/crazy justice system combined with Divergent-ish tests using Star Trek TNG's holodeck. The premise is pretty interesting, but I felt pretty disconnected from the drama and the characters, as well as confused by the plot throughout most of the book. The constant flashbacks didn't help, nor did the deliberate withholding of information (that the main character knows) so that the reader stays in suspense. I was also not crazy about any of the motivations, especially this reveal that comes late in the book: (view spoiler)[
Casey and I committed unthinkable crimes because we were so desperately in love with people in our lives. We felt as though we had no choice.(hide spoiler)]
I think the writing was solid, but I wish it had been more dynamic. I felt pretty disinterested by extremely dramatic things that were going on, even when people were taking off their clothes. Some of the writing or dialogue also could have used some smoothing out:
Mine and Casey's breathing rattles in sync.
I mean, that's just an awkward sentence, and it distracted from what should have been a relatively important moment.
While this is dystopian/scifi and there are certainly elements that make it so, the style felt like more of a paranormal/horror book to me. Which would have been fine, I guess, if I'd enjoyed it more, but because I had a hard time getting engaged, it all felt a little jarring. And the horror elements were pretty gross. I'm really glad to see more NA being published that aren't always angsty contemporary romances, but somehow this one feels like it might've slotted better for an upper YA audience if it weren't for all the sex in it. (Or maybe it would have worked for an adult MIRA-type imprint? I haven't read that many Intermix titles yet, but this wasn't what I expected.)
I was originally interested in this book because I'd seen the author refer to its sequel as "insanely sexy lesbian NA," but I think I might wait to see what else she writes outside of this series. Other readers seem to be enjoying this, so I'd recommend sampling the ebook previews when they become available to see if you like the style.
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for this review....more
Horrifically gory and intense, in a way you don't see that much in YA. Billy Dent has nothing on Marvin Burke. Horrifically gory and intense, in a way you don't see that much in YA. Billy Dent has nothing on Marvin Burke. ...more
I love that these are horror stories from some of the best YA writers working today, some of whom don't normally write horror. Each story takes inspirI love that these are horror stories from some of the best YA writers working today, some of whom don't normally write horror. Each story takes inspiration from films, books, or music, and half the fun is seeing if you can guess the source.
I rated the stories as I went along:
Nova Ren Suma's "The Birds of Azalea Street" 5 stars Carrie Ryan's "In the Forest Dark and Deep" 3.5 stars Cat Winters' "Emmeline" 4 stars Leigh Bardugo's "Verse Chorus Verse" 4 stars Megan Shepherd's "Hide and Seek" 5 stars Danielle Paige's "The Dark, Scary Parts and All" 2.5 stars April Genevieve Tucholke's "The Flicker, the Fingers, the Beat, the Sigh" 3 stars Jonathan Maberry's "Fat Girl with a Knife" 3 stars Jay Kristoff's "Sleepless" 3.5 stars Stefan Bachman's "M" 3.5 stars Marie Lu's "The Girl Without a Face" 3.5 stars McCormick Templeman's "A Girl Who Dreamed of Snow" 3.5 stars A.G. Howard's "Stitches" 4 stars Kendare Blake "On the I-5" 3.5 stars
I knew that Jay Kristoff and Leigh Bardugo would have good ones--their usual writing is so well-crafted (and obviously, Kristoff's tinged with blood already), and I liked that they both switched from their usual genres and styles to try something totally different. Of course, Suma, Tucholke, Shepherd, and Winters delivered the kinds of eerie stories you'd expect, and I was pleasantly surprised by the new-to-me author Stefan Bachman (who's known for middle grade, but really must write more YA).
Overall, it's probably the strongest YA short story collection I can recall from recent years, and well worth seeking out if you like your stories not terribly gruesome or frightening, but a little grimy and torn and bloody.
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for this review.
Wendy Darling
>
Books:
gory
(69)
Loading...
