Void’s Library

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And here we are, proof that reading on an ereader is an absolute slog for me. Never mind the fact that I didn't find this book as interesting as I thought I would, but part of me wonders if it's because the copy I was reading was just absolutely riddled with punctuation issues. Every other sentence that had quotes on it used a strange > character instead of a quotation.

The cover you see above is, allegedly, the cover of the book I read. Complete and unabridged. Just like with Dracula, I say allegedly, as this is such an old story. It's been republished and reworked so many times. And, I dunno, I don't think self-censoring was really a thing in the 1800s. But very single 'Goddamn' was completely censored out. So.

I went into Oliver Twist knowing that it wasn't going to be like any of the adaptations that I know and/or love. This is such a strange tale to adapt into a musical, especially considering my two favorite adaptations are Oliver! and Oliver & Company. I knew for a fact this wasn't going to be anything like them. (And yes, I know mentioning Oliver & Company is a poor choice, since it's veeeeeery loosely based off Oliver Twist... but it's still based off it and was one of my favorite Disney movies growing up so...)

What I wasn't expecting, however, was a good portion of the book to be Oliver either sick and on his death bed or shot and on his death bed, getting nursed back to heath by people who actually give a damn about him.

This book was... jarring. In some instances, it feel like the characters that you should hate feel sorry for Oliver and even, dare I say, care about him. But then there's other instances where they treat him like the dredge of the Earth and that he's no better than the mud beneath their feet.

One thing I will say is that this story lacks more descriptors that is desperately needed. Taking for example, Fagin. The only 'descriptor' used for him is "the Jew". Which like, given knowing when this book was written; your first thought is "well, it's gotta be an antisemitic caricature they want you thinking of". Which... most likely. But, and maybe this is fault of my own, I'd like to know what these characters looked like. Hair color, eye color. Were they tall? Were they skinny or fat? Something other than "the Jew" or "the thief". (To point out, when I think of these characters, I do think of Oliver! and how they're presented in that; which is most likely not what Charles Dickens had in mind)

It was hard to keep myself focused during this book. I'd be reading and they'd be at the pub, but then I'd scan over the next like and we'd be with Mr. Brownlow and company. And withe no recollection of what happened in between. This was another book where I was tempted to purchase a physical copy, just to finish it out a bit faster, but every single copy of Oliver Twist I'd take off the shelf was some sort of annotated version with footnotes and it's just like no. I just want to read the book and figure things out on my own.

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Alternate description: We literally have so many books that say why relying on robots is a bad idea and this is one of them.

The copy of this series I have happens to be the 2009 release with the cover you see above. The first story told in it, Robbie, was originally published in 1940 and revised in 1950. This book has nine short stories, with in between framing of an interview.

I could also call this: Does every Will Smith book-to-film adaptation have to be as loosely based on the book as possible. Because goddamn, you only have like... the rules of robotics and the fact that Sonny is an NS-5 (of which we read about one called Nestor in the book). That's... pretty much it.

The stories, of themselves, are nothing to completely write home about. They're good representations of the three rules of robotics, which are as follows:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Each story shows the delicate balance between humanity and robots; each having different morals. Of course, some of these morals do also have some more... real world applications as well.

In the first short we see little deviation from these laws. It's the second one that starts to show a flaws in these laws; as the robot is confused on what it's supposed to do. The task that it was asked to do will cause it harm, but it was given a task it needed to do. It put the robot on a loop, not knowing what to do.

It's the third story, Reason, that we really truly start to see where the flaws in robotics and entrusting them to completely follow these laws starts to break down. QT-1 basically creates religion, calling the humans it's supposed to be working for unimportant and expendable. That the only reason why they should listen to Powell and Donovan is because the "Master" basically speaks through them and tells them what to do, subsequently telling QT what to do. While still technically following the first two laws; they don't see anything else as important or even real.

We really don't start to see a breakdown until the short story Liar! where the robot, HB-34 (Herbie), having gone through a malfunction and having telepathic capabilities; lies to people so they hear what they want, following that first law. Unknowing to Herbie, a lie it tells one person harms another.

From that point onward, we do start to see a breakdown of the robots following these laws, particularly the violation of rule number one.

Reading this book, especially in this post "AI" world really got me thinking... why the hell do we have so many forms of media that explain why it's such a bad idea to rely so heavily on machines, robots, and computers... but yet we haven't learned a goddamn thing from them. I really wouldn't be surprised if we were heading into an I, Robot style future, only to have certain people be like "But how would we have ever known". I wonder how, it's not like this type of genre wasn't constantly looked at between the 20s and 80s.

At what point do we sit down and go "Hey, this is lining up a lot to I, Robot. We maybe shouldn't do that." Especially considered how so many of these stories are framed around self learning models. There was actually a "zeroth" law, where they cannot bring harm to humanity in the same way that they cannot bring harm to a human, either by action or inaction.

If you'd like to read this book without further influence from me, please consider purchasing it here!

Alternate description: What the fuck did I just read?

This was another one of those books that were sort of recommended by my mother, but also not. Amazon had recommended to her a different book, A Sorceress Comes To Call. At that point in time, I'd still been waist deep in the middle of Dracula; though had bought The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places on my eReader, as they were on a deep discount. And then? I just never touched them because I really do hate reading on eReaders.

But, I'd just come out of For Whom The Belle Tolls, still riding the high of having two books I absolutely adored back to back. And my mother was still talking about the other T. Kingfisher books she'd read. The Twisted Ones happened to be the first one on my list on my eReader. Her only words to me when I told her I'd finally started it?

Have fun.

The Twisted Ones is probably the first book I've read on my eReader that I finished in less than a week. I finished this book at eleven o'clock at night, promptly went downstairs, looked at my mother in the face and went "What the fuck did I just read?"

I didn't want to stop reading and that was the problem. Every time I finished a chapter, I wanted more, because it almost always ended on some sort of cliffhanger. But, y'know, when you work two jobs, it's kinda hard to find time to read for more than an hour a night; since sleep is a thing that humans kinda need to function.

These types of books are always so interesting to me; the stories that're inspired by or based on old tales. This one happens to be inspired by and references The White People by Arthur Machen and something that I have since added to my list of books I need to read, as I would absolutely love a better understanding of everything within The Twisted Ones as well.

T. Kingfisher has a rather unique writing style, to me. She writes in first person, which tends to be a downfall of mine. However! She writes the first person in a way that it's like the character is talking to you in some parts and narrating the story in others. Her descriptions of things manage to blend the vague while still knowing what an object is or what it's depicting. For example, when Mouse is in the field of the rocks with all the pictograms on it; she can't necessarily tell what all of them are, but she knows the basic shapes of some of them are animals, some are people. How some of the rocks and how their positions invoke the feeling of "this one is alive" and "this one is dead" among our titular character.

This story, of itself, could've easily been just the deer effigy haunting Mouse every night until she either fought back or ran away. A psychological terror of having an impossible creature coming to your house every night and never knowing why. Only getting stories from the townsfolk about cryptids. A play on the Appalachian Whistling in the woods. Taking it that bit further and actually tying in The White People and a whole hidden society? It played out in the story's favor.

The characters in this books all feel believable. I will say, I was kind of hoping there would've been more involvement with the characters in town; the barista, the sheriff. But, even with it just being Mouse, her dog, and the hippies across the street; you get that feeling of beyond rural dread when there's nobody else around. It's just you in the woods with no real connection to the outside world until you get into town. So, I can absolutely understand not having them have deeper connections to the story as a whole.

And lemme tell you, the whole thing involving the effigies in general. Once again, and I sound like a damn broken record every time I say this, I feel like if I speak too much about it, it's gonna spoil something.

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Now, I could be a little biased, as I absolutely adored Jaysea's Hell's Belles videos for quite some time while she was writing this book. Talk about one hell of a marketing strategy (no pun intended). The way she plays her own characters really made it so easy to jump right into this book and not feel lost.

We follow Lily, a girl who's already gone through reincarnation several times and always somehow seems to find herself down on her luck with each new life. Granted, she doesn't ever remember much, even after passing on; just little glimpses here and there. But, none of the vague bits she does remember are ever good.

So, when she, once again, finds herself in the Afterlife at a young age, she's really not too thrilled about it. But, throughout the first part of the book, we learn that the Afterlife isn't the way a lot of people want you to think. All religious beliefs are connected in one central station, so to speak. If you chose to subscribe to a certain religion, you are judged based on that religion's system.

Of course, we do follow general iconography of more Christian and Catholic based beliefs. A Heaven, Hell, and Paradise. We do visit some other Afterlife systems, such as Valhalla; though our two main places we stay at are Hell and Paradise. Lily? She gets to have Paradise; a little slice of her own land with a sentient house that can give her everything she ever wanted.

The Afterlife is pretty well just like the living world; except now you shouldn't be surprised if you wind up gaming with a deity. Lily happens to find a gaming group with a bunch of demon, one of which she absolutely adores the voice of. Eventually, they meet, fall in love. The whole nine yards.

No, what I want to talk about is how beautifully Jaysea actually portrays that conflict that tends to happen in romance novels and how the characters feel during that. In For Whom The Belle Tolls, another universe is trying to break through and wreak havoc. This sends Bel, Lily's sexy voiced demon lover, out to war. Getting to see things from both sides of the relationship; the antsy partner waiting for their love to return from war and the war-torn one, praying that they get to return to be in the arms of their love. It's crafted so wonderfully and realistically.

Books generally don't make me cry... at least not sad emotion cry. Angry cry? Absolutely. But never "this is heartbreaking, I feel for these characters" cry. This book did. Just that alone is enough for me to say that this book is amazing.

And lemme tell you. There aren't a lot of spicy scenes in the book, but the ones that are? Oh boy. Some of the best damn stuff I've ever read.

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Boy, oh boy, what can I say about Hope Never Dies? This book is truly one of those “don’t judge a book by its cover” type ones. But also… please do. Aside from the blatant $3 price tag at Ollie’s Discounts, the reason why I bought this book was because of that cover. My mother and I were rolling just from the cover.

And then I read the blurb and I just knew I needed to buy this book. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I had to have this book. I’m glad I bought it. Because I found out it also has a sequel that I’m going to need to read.

So, let me preface this by saying that I will not be letting my own political beliefs get in the way of my rating. While this book is very clearly in favor of left leaning beliefs, it does poke fun at both sides of the aisle.

This book was absolutely hilarious in that sort of Naked Gun style humor. It's on the nose about what it is, but also not. It takes itself seriously, but also doesn't. Andrew Shaffer absolutely knew what he was doing with this and it paid off, in my opinion.

Joe Biden, feeling quite down on the fact that he feels like his "best buddy" Barack has moved on from their friendship. I mean, how could he not? He keeps seeing videos of his former President out and about with all these celebrities and people surrounding him every step of the way.

Like a goddamn creature of the night, Obama comes to Joe with a warning and information about someone. Joe's favorite Amtrak driver, Finn Donnelly died after getting hit by one of the trains. And, apparently, Finn was seeking out Joe's help for something. What? They don't exactly know.

Of course, Joe wants to get the bottom of it. Finn's wife is on hospice care; his daughter is in college. He wants to get closure for them, especially once he hears that drugs might be involved. Because Finn would never do drugs, nor would he sell them.

What ensues is three hundred pages of Joe getting into every possible crevice he possibly can with his new detective partner, Obama. Dank motels, biker gangs, the potentiality of a corrupt police force. All the while, they're being babysat by one of the secret service members that's been assigned to watch over Obama; a man named Steve.

God how I wish I could describe more of this book without giving things away. It's one of those books that you just want to suggest to people, but when they ask you about it, your only response would be to "just look it up". Anything you say could spoil something.

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So. I'm not going to lie. I tried reading this book in 2024 and DNF'ed it about 40% of the way through. But, there's reason. Two of them, actually.

First off, as I said in the previous self published book I read, I am absolutely begging you guys to please proofread your books and have a trusted friend or family member also beta read your book. I thought The Girl In The Woods was riddled with spelling and punctuation errors, but this one was really bad. Wrong punctuation, missing ones, words improperly capitalized. The main cat's name spelling changed from "Reese" to "Reece" on the same page.

But, the original reason why I had initially DNF'ed this book was for the name of the deity that the big bad was worshiping. Bastet. Yes, Bastet. The same name as the Egyptian Goddess of protection. It feels wildly inappropriate to be using the name of a deity who's symbolism is fertility, childbirth, and protection.

Is that a petty reason to DNF a book? It absolutely is! At the same time, especially given this is a book geared towards younger audiences, I personally feel like just translating the word cat into another language may have been less of an insult. Or even mash names together into something new that sounded feline like.

Now, as I just mentioned, I am wildly out of the demographic for this book. According to Amazon, this book's age range is 12-18 years old. That being said, as somebody who was interested in all that sort of witches and spooky things at that age, I still probably wouldn't have been too interested in this book.

Almost every time a murder happened, the writing eventually glossed over it. The town glossed over it. Like that eventually it was just going to stop on its own. Just given how many happened, something like that would absolutely rock a small town. It doesn't just go away.

But, we seemed far more focused on Danny's day to day life, at least until his very blatant love interest Iris, starts getting weirded out by everything going on. Not even that he gets weirded out. She does. A little over half way through the book, everybody just starts talking with an accent. It's legit just, first they're talking in almost perfect syntax, and then heavy accents. It was extremely jarring to just completely change writing style.

And that's what I mean when I tell people who self publish to proofread and go back to fix things if you change your mind throughout the writing process. It's cool to change your mind, but it can't reflect as somebody's actively reading the book. You have to make sure that your entire book is cohesive and this one, unfortunately, is not.

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The first book of twenty eight in the Leaphorn and Chee Novels. Which, it does show it at first. The chapters are short, quick to pop through. And then they slowly start to get longer and more detailed. Which, if his bibliography is correct, this is also the first book he's published, so it makes sense.

This book was rather interesting! I've been reading this series out of order after I found three of them in a thrift store, and then another two in a little free library. So, no, I have absolutely no idea what's going on in any of them chronologically and I plan on actually trying to read them in order now.

Despite this being part of the Leaphorn and Chee series, Jim Chee does not appear in this book. And Joe Leaphorn here in book one is more a secondary character than anything. It had been the publishing company who had suggested that Tony make Leaphorn a main character. This obviously paid off, as Tony Hillerman's daughter continued on with the series after her father's passing.

I do want to point out to please take anything I say with a grain of salt. I don't know how accurate these books are to Diné culture. It was a white man who wrote this series and I cannot find anywhere how much research he was able to put into these novels. Just that his background made a difference in writing Native Americans because there was never an 'us and them' attitude in a school setting with Potawatomi children.

This book has a pretty big focus on one of the anthropologists, Bergen McKee and Joe Leaphorn's going out and getting their hands dirty, trying to find the person who killed Luis Horseman. All the while, we get bits and pieces of McKee going to meet with his colleague, J. R. Canfield, to do their research. Just as McKee's splitting his time, so is Leaphorn.

Leaphorn was the one going to the tribe, trying to get questions answered about where Horseman was, who could have possibly killed him, anything.

During the story, we see an enemyway ceremony which, from my understanding, is a ceremony for healing, reintegration, and exorcism. Again, please bear in mind that my wording of this is mostly likely extremely rudimentary. It's just very interesting, at least for me, that this book is called Blessing Way, but we follow the need for an enemyway ceremony. From what I can find, blessingway ceremonies are generally performed for mothers to be; which is absolutely not a factor in this book at all.

Now, one thing I try not to do in my reviews is spoil the endings in any way, shape or form. This book is short enough to be able to read in one sitting and if I say too much more about it, I will spoil the ending. I don't care how long a book has been in existence, everybody should be allowed a chance to read it without getting spoiled. I didn't know of this series' existence until 2025, when four of the books were in one of the thrift shops that I visit when I go on vacation.

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My only non-fiction book for the end of 2025 into 2026, and one that was absolutely fascinating.

We follow two men, an architect and Chicago World's Fair director Daniel Burnham as he goes through each and every hurdle to put Chicago really on the map after the Great Fire of 1871 and make a World's Fair larger than Paris' ever was. The other? Infamous serial killer H. H. Holmes as he built his small empire in Chicago, fulfilling a wide variety of crimes.

This book almost perfectly encompasses what happened with both men and the time frame set within the book. From the initial planning process of the World's Fair back in 1890 to H. H. Holmes' capture and execution in 1896; it's clear that Erik Larson wanted to make sure his facts were as put together and organized as possible. I think he did a wonderful job at this. My only gripe was having individual chapters for Patrick Prendergast, the man who murdered the Chicago mayor at the end of the World's Fair. Those parts, especially since they were generally less than one page on the Kindle, could have easily been added in divided notes onto the World's Fair chapters.

Books like this fascinate me in such a way because it really makes you stop and think about how close time truly is together. What do you mean there's a possibility that H. H. Holmes and Hellen Keller may've passed one another on the streets of the World's Fair? That they both could've sat down to watch a Buffalo Bill show? It doesn't feel like it's the same time period, the way it's taught in some schools.

It's hard for me to give a genuine review of a non-fiction book because what can I really say about them? The few I've read in the past weren't nearly as engaging as this one. Now, maybe it's because it's part of my interest; as I like learning about serial killers and, more specifically, what makes them tick. But the addition of also learning about everything that the World's Fair went through to exist. How it almost wound up not existing between strikes, banking establishments failing, and poor workplace conditions. It's all so interesting to me.

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Alternate description: Woman kidnaps writer to write fanfiction of his own novel for her.

When people told me I was going to be in for a ride reading this book, I started to fear for how much I was actually going to like this book. I grew up reading Stephen King books, more specifically the books that had covers that featured things I liked. One of my first full books I ever read was Cycle Of The Werewolf when I was like... five.

People told me it was messed up, that it got gross in some parts. I just felt a bit... meh... about it. Which makes sense, given that this book was originally supposed to be a Bachman release, and I'm not the biggest fan of that side of his novels. The irony, I know; I prefer his horror and paranormal thriller books over the psychological thrillers and crime thrillers.

So, the cover that you see here is the exact cover of my father's copy; the one that I read. As you can imagine, as I previously mentioned growing up reading these books, this didn't exactly catch my attention when I was young. I had wanted to pick up a Stephen King novel. Misery stood out for me because it starts off in the winter, so it ticked off my "December reading challenge".

With all of that being said... It was very middle of the road for me. I didn't get to finish off the year very strong with books. What killed it for me were the Misery's Return chapters. I won't lie, after the second or third time? I started skipping over the sections. I genuinely didn't care to read a novel within a novel; especially when it got to the point that he was hand writing the thing.

This book was just OK, in my opinion. Paul and Annie weren't characters that you could particularly write home about, but at did have some semblance of development. The pacing of the book felt off; some parts dragged on, some were glossed over.

With that being said, this book is a pretty decent telling of how parasocial relationships can be dangerous; both with real life people and fictional people. Annie had been trolling for a new victim and that victim just happened to be the person who wrote her favorite book series. She happened to have that parasocial relationship with the characters Paul had created. In all honesty, I feel like people who get parasocial with fictional characters can be just as, if not more dangerous than people who get parasocial with real people. We see Annie get violent because Paul "murdered" Misery in the end of the series. She forces him to destroy his only manuscript of Fast Cars because she find it inferior to the Misery series and won't do anything to help him until he does.

There was one part of the book; a tiny little section, that I really wasn't expecting while reading. At least, not from the character I thought would say anything like this. When talking about the characters, Annie just casually drops the n-word. The woman who gets mad when she so much as hears Paul even mutter the word shit to himself. Or any swear word for that matter. It was one of the reasons why she felt like Fast Cars was inferior; it was riddled with swearing. It was just strange for her of all people to be using that word. It's not the first time I've seen it used in King books, I know it won't be the last.

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I was hot off the heels from this book's prequel, He Sees You When You're Sleeping going into this. As I mentioned in it's prequel's review as well, this is a book that I will have to revisit down the line, as I don't feel like I really retained much of this book as I was reading it.

Sloane... confused me... as a character. We first meet her in He Sees You When You're Sleeping; she's Chloe's best friend and the one who designs the jewelry that she's modeling. But, she's a very different character from the first to the second book. In the first one, she's the one who encourages Chloe to be her authentic self, is the one who basically makes her go to the adult club.

In He Knows When You're Awake, Sloane is very shy, remissive. She doesn't like attention on her. Now, I suppose you could say that she felt more confident being around her best friend, especially knowing that her best friend liked the same stuff that she wanted to actually design. But, at the same time, it was also extremely jarring because she knows that the designs she wants to do are going to be attention grabbing.

She wants to break away from designing safe jewelry that everybody will draw attention to. Her idea is magnificent, a dark ice theme that blends beauty with danger and sexuality called Midnight Frost. But, investors won't bite. The owner of Moth To The Flame Designs wouldn't bite. Because the designs are different. They're attention grabbing in a way that most safe designers and investors fear would fail. They're not marketable.

That, in of itself, is what makes Sloane's character so confusing to me. She almost continually flips back and forth between being shy and self conscious about herself to pushing things to the limits of her own terms involving her staying at Cole's penthouse to work on Midnight Frost. She'd made it clear that she was there to work, but started to tempt Cole.

This book, just like the last one, pulls the joke warnings on the list of content warnings. But, much like it's prequel, at least doesn't miss any of the other content that are actual dark content warnings.

Now, we do have a true villain in this book, a man who goes by the name of Julian Voss. During the entire course of this book, Cole has his head of security, Knox, tracking Julian's movement. He knows that the man had a hand in a previous jeweler's death, Claire... who also happened to be Julian's wife. She was going to leave him after finding out that he had his hands in blood diamonds; something she was extremely against.

I'm not going to lie with this one, it wasn't as good as the first book. I don't know if both books were written at the same time, given their close release dates (meaning the first book was finished and then immediately started the second) or what happened, but this book was far less memorable than the first. The idea is interesting, following somebody who wants to be their own jewelry designer and not just make what other people find marketable. To create things that function and is fashionable.

But I don't think people realize how boring the process can actually be. This is where I feel like the book lacked. Yes, Cole would still watch her through the cameras, but he didn't really press his boundaries in ways he could have. There wasn't as much tensions as I felt like there could have been; having been forced to live with some guy whom you've never met up until that point that you know is watching you through cameras that you don't even know how many are there.

If you'd like to read this book without further influence from me, please consider purchasing it here!

This book was one of the first books I'd ever read not long after it came out. I bought this one at Spirit Christmas, and it's sequel, He Knows When You're Awake at Books-A-Million. I'm no stranger to the dark romance genre, though this one for me? It felt tame.

Let me get this straight, I say this because it's all the same tropes you generally see with dark romance. Stalking, morally grey characters, kinks that're generally considered taboo. Chloe lives a double life as essentially a camgirl for an OnlyFans-esque website called Dark Secrets; this can fall under the category of sex work, which is a touchy subject. Jack is a stalker. Stalking obviously is a bad thing; but the thought in a fictional romance setting can be exhilarating. There's a full on adult club. They are abundant in New York City, it seems, but I'm sure still rather taboo and get their fair share of people demanding their closure. Possession, voyeurism, hidden cameras. They're a little bit run of the mill for me. That being said, I am also somebody who doesn't have a very large "this crosses a line with me" list, so I feel like the contents of this book are good for someone who wants to venture into dark romance without potentially getting baited by missing content warnings.

And, I just want to get this out of the way, as the last three recently written dark romance books pulled this: Stop with having joke triggers in your content warning list. This book in particular has three; non-consensual snow shoveling, forced Christmas joy, and wearing of ugly Christmas sweaters. It's not cute, content warnings are to let people know that there's something in there that could be triggering to people. Where some people can find comfort or, yes, even pleasure, in certain dark content, others will find the content disturbing and if something isn't addressed, but is in the book, that's a big issue. Thankfully, this book, despite having joke warnings listed with their actual ones, didn't miss anything.

Unfortunately, this book didn't hold my attention. I actually am sitting with it next to me right now to make sure that I am writing things correctly because the content of the book just really didn't stick as well as other books I've read have. It's not a bad book by any means! It just felt... predictable. Nothing really threw me for a loop. The characters were basically 100% meant for one another, both living "double lives". Chloe's this influencer by morning showing off safe jewelry and at night she's putting on sexual performances on Dark Secrets. Jack's a firefighter by morning, but stalks Chloe at night.

There was such a good build up with Tyler, the person who I personally feel like would've been a really good antagonist throughout the entire book and not just a "I'm gonna be not so subtly creepy for a few chapters and then blackmail the female lead at the end of the book so the morally grey hero can save the day" character. But, he kind of fell flat, because he was only used to make Chloe uncomfortable and push herself towards Jack more.

I'll be completely honest here, I've only read about four books that fall under the dark romance category. This book, its sequel, One Cursed Rose, and Dream Shadow. Compared to the others, I would most likely reread He Sees You When You're Sleeping and He Knows When You're Awake.

Maybe I should've waited to read this book a little bit. I was coming off the heels of Damned and very much so wanted to read that book's sequel. But, I hadn't owned Doomed at the time, and I had wanted to get a jump start on my December reading choices. I'd told myself that I had only wanted to read books that took place or started in the winter, December, or holiday season. This is a book that I definitely will need to revisit, as part of me wonders if I had maybe rushed into it.

It was a decent book, given the context of what it is. I did enjoy a dark romance in a modern, real setting. I like that the characters were somewhat realistic. Jack knew what he was doing was wrong. Chloe knew she was risking it all being on Dark Secrets. Yes, there were some instances where you really had to stretch your suspension of belief (Clark Kent Effect running oh so true in the adult club scene).

If you'd like to read the book without further influence from me, please consider purchasing it here!

What can I say about Chuck Palahniuk's work that wouldn't be what you hear from most cover quotes? He manages to find a way to make books humorous, thought provoking, and without filter. Chuck doesn't shy away from harsh topics, even if sometimes using outdated wordings. But, especially given the context of this book, it fits in rather well.

You're following a freshly 13 year old who's just woken up in a cage in Hell. Madison was disgustingly sheltered her entire life, her parents never really letting her grow up by any means, but yet she also really couldn't act like a child either. But, what do you expect from a narcissistic movie star and a billionaire for parents?

She's a needy, sardonic child who thinks she knows everything. Much like how a lot of teenagers act when they're not raised properly. And when your schooling is getting thrown into the Swiss Alps with a bunch of other emotionally stunted, think they know it all teenagers? Yeah, I don't think she knows how well socialized children behave.

Was the obsession with her "adoptive" brother uncomfortable? Of course it was. That was also the point. Her parents actually encouraged it giving her that full reel of condoms. Did her being so neglected by her parents make her a bit annoying as a character? Yes it did. That was the point.

I feel like this book has the same effect on people that Rick and Morty does; it’s something somebody would unironically call “high IQ humor”. But, once again, that’s the point. Just as how Rick and Morty isn’t “high IQ humor”, but absurdist caricature humor and commentary; so is Damned.

The motley crew she essentially befriends in Hell are mostly one dimensional, yes. But here’s the thing; I found that each one was almost a caricature of either an aspect of life or a disability.

Babette and Patterson not only come off as better parental figures, but also a caricature of OCD (Babette) and not letting go of high school fame (Patterson). Jackson seems to be a caricature of hyperfixation. Archer is a literal rebellion caricature, but also that sort of older brother figure who encourages Madi to just let loose and have fun. You’re in hell after all.

Do I admit that the book lacks structure? Yes. It does feel like it jumps around a lot. But! I felt that with Lullaby too. It seems to be a Palahniuk style. But! We also need to remember that sometimes journeys are boring as hell and we don’t need to read about every single landmark they pass. Then the complains would’ve been that it was too long and just there for gross out purposes.

We also need to remember that, again, this book is being told through the eyes of an unsocialized 13 year old. She’s gonna gloss over things that seem boring to her, but might be interesting to the rest of us. I can’t begin to express how many times we get taken aback by things my 15 year old nephew does that he just glosses over like it’s nothing.

Yes, the book has a lot of repetition. Each chapter starts in a Judy Blume style. But here's the thing, that's the point. Madison references her Judy Blume books quite a bit. As a child who's emotionally (and most likely mentally) stunted, it's a structure for her. It also feels like a call to her attention seeking. The same goes for the whole "and yes I know what (x) means" bit as well. She acts like a know it all. Some people also do really need to put more faith in 13 year olds in what they do and don't know. Again, I’m currently dealing with a teenaged nephew. He thinks he knows everything.

Since I haven't read Doomed yet, I don’t want to speculate much about if these characters are going to feel more like how I see them as. Caricatures of disorders, of point of life, of lifestyles.

Now, there are points in this book that are going to make people uncomfortable; especially involving a minor exploring sexuality. I get it, it is uncomfortable! But! I think it also needs to be understood that children as young as Madison do know what sex is. Madison’s parents were. Weird.

If you're interested in reading this book without further influence from me, please consider purchasing from here!

Talk about a breath of fresh air after a chain of mid-range books. Generally, romance novels aren't my thing. They tend to be overly cheesy or focus too much on one thing or the other until the last few pages; and then everything happens all at once. Not this book.

Sara Raasch has been on my radar to read for a while. I've had The Nightmare Before Kissmas on my "I really need to buy thin and read" list pretty much since it came out. Unfortunately, I live in a red blip of a blue state, so finding queer novels isn't exactly an easy feat. So, imagine my surprise when I see this sitting on a bookshelf, freshly stocked. It was like it was meant to be.

And it sure was! I absolutely adored that this wasn't some mildly uncomfortable romance between a college student and teacher, but two students who're not necessarily enemies, but they're not friends either. They're differing department rivals; the two departments having been in the midst of a prank war. We actually start off with main man one, Sebastian Walsh, enacting on that prank war. Something that's very quickly discovered by main man two, Elethior Tourael. All right before the two have to meet with the heads of their department about who's getting the school's research grant.

What ensues is two twenty-something year olds who don't exactly play nice being forced to work together, as they both have a shot for the grant; school willing to give it to both of them. And a lot of realizations that the other isn't quite what they seem.

Something I adored is the flipping of the script where Sebastian (the blond on the cover) is the rebellious one and Thio is the broody essentially trust-fund baby. I just don't really get to see that very often and it's quite nice.

Yes, this is an 18+ young adult romance. This doesn't detract from it in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I feel like that there needs to be more like this, where there's a good balance of plot and spice. This book has exactly that.

As previously mentioned, I do want to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible. This book gets heavy. The characters feel real for twenty-something year olds; where two of which when through legit trauma. Like, "holy shit I knew these guys went through some shit but not like that" trauma. They don't completely understand the real world, but they're still trying to be their own people. They're still figuring out things about themselves, sorting through emotion they may not want to think they're feeling about situations and others.

If you are interested in the book yourself and want to experience it without any further influence from me, please consider buying it here!

I so desperately wanted to enjoy this one. I really did. Mom wants a new life for her son where both of them are no longer their abuser's punching bag, but also have to deal with a real life monster that transcends humanity. But it just fell so hard on it's face, it wasn't even funny.

First off, the book was written more like it was pitching a movie rather than a book. Everything was beyond overly descriptive, there were sentences that weren't actually sentences that riddled almost every single paragraph. About 30% into the book, as it was another one I was reading through my ereader, I actually did have to stop and google if it had been written with AI, that's how bad it got at some points.

This was another book that had too many view points, not enough focus. We continually switch back and forth between the 1920s, 1970s, and 1989. The 1920s follow Nellie's grandparents, August and Effie, and how they wanted to work the land to be a profitable business. August soon learns about "The Dweller" and the plague it brings when not satiated. The 1970s follow Nellie after she runs away from her father to live, briefly, with her grandfather. This part honestly really didn't need to be in the book at all, as it just gave vague backstory about Nellie that could have been introduced differently (or not at all for that matter as it had no bearing on the plot). And then finally, 1989, when Nellie and her son are actively fixing up the house.

On top of following Nellie, her son Max, August, and Effie, we also follow The Green family, Frannie Sullivan, Lonnie Baxter and his family dynamic, and eventually Hank Redfern. It was just way too much with very little actual substance. The Green brothers were only there to make idle commentary about how August let one of his friends and supervisor treat the workers. Frannie was there to be one of the brother's love interest and caretaker to August and Effie's children. Lonnie's existence was just because the county was named after his family history and he felt like the farm was supposed to be his, since it was his ancestor who gave the farm to August Redfern.

When we do experience things with The Dweller, you do get to see some of the creepy vibes come out. But! They're very short lived, it becoming almost a footnote until the end of the book. It's honestly hard to tell if the nightmares that Nellie and Max have are because they escape their situation or if it's because of The Dweller.

If you are interested in the book yourself and want to experience it without any further influence from me, please consider buying it here!

I don't remember how I came across this book, if it was BookTok or I just happened to see it at a bookstore and didn't want to overload with too many books. But, goddamn, do I wish I had read it sooner.

First off, I ask that everybody takes what I say about this book and the events within it with a grain of salt. I am a white American. I will never truly understand just how severe the war on drugs was/is in the Philippines. What I do know is that former president Duerte, the current president at the time in the book, was arrested at the beginning of 2025 for crimes against humanity because of the war on drugs and how fatally punished users and runners were.

And that's partially what this book is about. It's the main focus, at least for Jun's story and what Jay wants to find out. He can't believe that Jun had anything to do with drugs, be it using or running them. Jay's reaction is understandable! Jun was someone who treated Jay with respect, and was his closest family he had in the Philippines.

This book is also, very much so, a coming of age story, as well as learning how to process grief. Grief after losing a loved one, grief after learning the truth. Jay is only 17 years old, not really know just what he wants in life.

Jay's trip to the Philippines gives him a chance to see his heritage in a way he hadn't seen in a decade. To see what his family sees every day. What they have to deal with every day. He retraced his cousin's steps, all while reuniting with his roots as a Filipino. He makes friends, makes memories.

In all honesty, there isn't much I can say about this book without spoiling it. I want my reviews to be as spoiler free as possible. So, I'll talk about the emotion this invoked. I felt for Jay, deeply. I've been there, in the dark after a loved one's death. Not knowing what happened; everybody just sweeping it under the rug. At that age as well! But what he went through? So much worse than what most of us will ever know.

It was very interesting learning about the different family dynamics within Jay's extended family. His uncle rules over his cousins with an extremely harsh strictness and heavy scrutiny of everything that they do, whereas his aunts are kind and approach Jay with care and respect. We see how some things work in the Philippines.

If you are interested in the book yourself and want to experience it without any further influence from me, please consider buying it here!

First things first, the copy of Dracula I read was listed as "The Original 1897 Unabridged and Complete Edition". How true this is, I'm not sure. But boy was this book a bit of a slog to get through. Don't get me wrong, I adored the book and I knew I was going to love it, but the chapters were incredibly long and this book easily could have been a good 100+ pages less without the long winded monologues, especially from Dr. Van Helsing. I completely understand what people say when they call this book boring, because it puts on the brakes hard, turning into a very very slow burn.

The first few chapters follow Jonathan Harker in Dracula Castle. He's essentially imprisoned by Count Dracula, slowly discovering just how... strange... his client is. At one point, he catches Dracula lizard crawling across the walls of the outside of the castle. This is something I don't see commonly referenced, something I also think wasn't intended to be as silly as I made it out to be.

Dracula, himself, is a rather modern speaker, all things considering. He's eloquent in a way I'd heard a lot of people from this day and age speak, another thing I was rather surprised to have not seen spoken about often. He's rather eccentric and almost exceedingly clingy to Jonathan, though also isn't afraid to do things that he knows will raise suspicions to his unwilling captive.

After this is when the brakes are hit. What follows are a lot of letters between Lucy and Mina; many of which don't really set up much, in my opinion. We're introduced to Dr. Seward through these notes and eventually Lucy's wasting illness, but outside of this, I don't feel like much really comes of all of these notes.

I, personally, feel like there's far too many characters to follow, which definitely did affect my rating of this book, the jumping around between perspectives making it feel a bit chaotic. I can't fault it much, as I know this was the point; the characters knew less than we the readers did, but it was still a bit overwhelming. Especially when people started to monologue.

Having read this book on my ereader, the monologues were painful. Full on walls of text with no paragraph breaks or anything. I nearly purchased a physical copy of the book just to finish it. I can understand, especially with my copy having been supposedly the unabridged version, wanting to keep it to the original format, but maybe just a little bit of tweaking for ereaders would've been nice.