The Cat's Tale

I am just a girl who likes reading. My credentials include having 6 library cards and multiple librarian friends. I mostly read fantasy and horror but will branch out if someone absolutely loves a book in another genre.

Hopefully we can talk about books together!

I will also post pictures of my cat Mr. Man. He is a 2 year old cat with a tooth sticking out at all times. We rescued him from a bad situation about a year ago and have loved him ever since.

Graveyard Shift

Graveyard shift by M.L. Rio was a book I was looking forward too. It sucks to say I was let down pretty hard.

They have one area to smoke on the campus, the graveyard. On the night the story is set, they find an empty hole dug in the ground and left there. Is it an empty grave set for a funeral to come? Was something there before and just moved? After seeing this they all work together in different ways to solve the mystery of the empty grave.

Unfortunately, it was boring.

Besides describing relationships each character has with each other and current issues happening in their life, nothing happened. We get introduced to each character and a different POV for each which is nice. A mystery ensues that you think will be the major plot and every character will be willing or wanting to solve the mystery. You would be wrong in thinking that. The main plot of the story is put on the back burner so often that when you finally have the answer, you ask yourself what the point even was. The writing makes each character's own personal life issues so much bigger than the issue we want to be solved, why even write the mystery in the first place?

The Lamb by Lucy Rose is a gothic, cannibalistic, coming of age story told in the perspective of a 12 year old girl. Margot and her Mama live surrounded by a forrest, waiting for strays to pick up. They sometimes set traps for the strays to get them to their rotting home quicker. The strays are people that have no ties, Mama can smell them. She takes her time with them, likes to make them happy, has no care or shame. They then consume and feast, but it never lasts long enough for Mama's insatiable hunger. A stray comes along that Mama decides is not a stray at all. As Margot starts to change, family dynamics start to change as well.

The writing in this story is poetic and gut wrenching. The descriptions of death, rot, and gore are written like a light melody you are drawn in by instead of something you are disgusted by. The dialogue between Margot and Mama is the most gut wrenching part in the way that the relationship changes between them. Even with both of their flaws and a toxic abusive mother, they both describe woman hood in different ways. Mama is much less relatable to me in her actions and thoughts of life but as a woman, some things she says you can still understand and empathize with. Writing the main character in a perspective of a young girl just sprouting through life and growing into her own opinions was done so easily and no thought felt out of order. There were still the unrealistic ideas we all think while young while also discovering she is different from her Mama.