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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Rating: 2 stars.

Read from August 12th to 16th.

This was my evening read for about a week. I was reading this one in chunks because I just could not wade through it any other way. Frankenstein is everything I dislike with classics. We're being told a story from an outsider's perspective, in letters, while the language is such a barrier to entry. I also found that my preconceived notions of this story factored into my enjoyment. I thought it would be a lot more horrifying than it really was. I know that modern day horror is very different but I never thought anything about this story was horrifying (except for how Frankenstein and other humans treated the creature, maybe?). I often found myself bored and would sometimes fall asleep while reading.

Fear Farm by Vincent Ralph. Rating: 3.75 stars.

Read from August 14th to 15th.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Wednesday Books for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Fear Farm is the final book in the Bleak Haven horror series. The town of Bleak Haven has always been known for the monsters that lurk in their midst. A farmer chooses to let the town let off some steam with a fear festival they host every October. Only accidents keep happening at the Fear Fest: a guy falls off of a roof and breaks his legs, gasoline has been slipped into the sodas, and an actress is nailed into her fake coffin. But the actress's sister, Tori, doesn't think these accidents are truly accidents. She thinks there's a killer just waiting for their moment. To try to find this soon to be murderer, Tori joins the cast. Will Tori be able to unmask the murderer? Will she, and the rest of the cast, make it out alive? Fear Farm comes out on September 15th and is available for preorder now.

It was surprising to me that the final book in the series ended up being my favorite. I think the author has taken the time to ask the questions everyone has been wondering: why live in this town full of serial killers and accidents? Why choose to stay when all of the bad things keep happening? And how would you cope in a town that is constantly grieving? We also finally had a character who felt like a person I could really get behind. She was strong and stubborn and she also never stopped questioning everything. I loved that she never truly let her guard down until the Fear Farm of it all was over. There were also some 90s references which I really enjoyed. There weren't so many that it dated the book but it definitely got me feeling some nostalgia. I think between all of that and the pace it was easy to fly through this one.

I struggle with Horror in that everything is always so over the top. The mustache twirling villain of it all lowered the rating for me. I also didn't love the bigger twist of it all. It felt very Scream movie and it made all of the deductive work that we the readers have done up to this point feel wasted. I think it could have made sense if we had laid out a few more breadcrumbs or even just expanded the conversation when the big reveal for it happened.

The Gilded Blade by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Rating: 4.5 stars.

Read from August 11th to 13th.

This is how you end a series! What the hell. I've been reading for hours upon hours today so coming out of it into the real world is a bit disorienting for me right now. The plan wasn't to spend a whole afternoon and part of an evening reading on the couch but needs must. I found the middle to the end of the novel to be so compulsively readable. The pace of the story, the short chapters, the way those short chapters end on micro cliff hangers to keep you reading. This one reminded me so much of reading The Inheritance Games for the first time and feeling truly mentally unwell. And that's something that has been so lacking for me in my reading lately. I want a book I get absolutely lost in. I want a book I become obsessive over. I want a book that literally takes my breath away. And Barnes has done it again.

I loved the settings in this one because the other books really made me miss Hawthorne House and getting to visit it again felt a little nostalgic for me. But we know the real highlight of The Inheritance Games series(es) is the characters. I don't know how or when I fell in love with Rohan, Savannah, and the Rohan and Savannah of it all. Because I distinctly remember not liking either of them the first time I read The Grandest Game. But then this book has me crying over them and highlighting almost whole chapters of their nonsense. It was so deliciously angsty. I also loved Gigi for the entire time I've had her in my life. I love that there is someone who sees Gigi for exactly who she is and that they realize just how strong she really is when so many people underestimate her. The emotions this book made me feel were so overwhelming at times. I cried multiple times in the book. And then there's the angst and the drama. This book also harkens back to the first book in that I kept getting taken out of the story by things in this Hawthorne world matching up with my real life a bit. Libby, her past, her nicknames, her personality. The Gilded Blade being what it was and the reason for its existence. The epilogue takes place on my birthday which was a surprise. Also, the lemniscates of it all harkens back to my wedding and getting married on 8/8 so I definitely had a few moments of getting pulled out of the novel but that's definitely a me thing and not a book problem.

The plot itself does lean into the JLB of it all. I remember the first book of hers I ever read (The Fixer) and how I thought the ending was absolutely insane. And somehow this was even more so. But written better. I felt like there was so much that had to happen in this one to make it the final book and there was so much left to explain that we were just moving at a constant clip. It felt like there were things edited out of the novel for pages sake which I wish hadn't been. I know. I know. Yet again I'm saying that a long book should have been longer. There's something wrong with me for sure. But it would have been nice to have been able to take a few seconds to breathe between all of the action.