Mariana

This was a very interesting read. I learned a lot about LDS history and was very entertained. If you don't know much about mormonism, its origin and teachings, let me tell you, it's pretty wild. The book was hard to follow at times, since it cuts from one timeline to another quite often, and expects the reader to remember a lot of names, but in general it's well written. After giving you a lot of backstory on the church, it goes pretty deeply into the Lafferty murders. It is very sad to see how far an extremist approach can go, to the point of doing the unimaginable. The author managed to interview one of the culprits, making for an extremely interesting and baffling telling of the crime and what led up to it.

This book was not at all what I expected to be. It is not a spooky or mysterious story, as the synopsis paints it out to be. Instead, it is a reflection on life and death, told through beautiful, thought provoking tales. Even though it wasn't the fun ghost story I was expecting, I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and will probably be thinking about it for a while. 

What can I say. This was a magical experience, and spooky in just the perfect way. Neil Gaiman is slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved the mystery, the ghosts, the beautiful writing and characters. I more than anything had a lot of fun. Yes, there is a lot of tragedy at the heart of this story, but there is also so much love and sacrifice that comes from it. Neil Gaiman is the king of middle grade spookiness in my opinion, and I can't wait to read more from him.

This book is magical, terrifying, and heartbreaking. What the main character goes through is extremely dark in a way that I wasn't expecting. The idea of the book is very interesting, and I was intrigued by the world the author created, but it just wasn't as memorable as I wanted it to be. I can barely remember the plot to be honest, nor did I quite understand how the magic worked. I think the main things I did enjoy about the book were the emotions it managed to convey. I was truly disturbed, then terrified, then sad, disturbed again,  and terrified again for the rest of it. The writing is beautiful, which is expected of Neil Gaiman, and you can see his genius in it. It just wasn't my favorite of his works. Still good though.

This book is terrifying in a very unusual way. I was expecting to be bored, considering that most of the book happens inside a single room, and knowing that King can sometimes be overly descriptive, but I was somehow very invested throughout the whole thing. It also doesn't suffer from the problem that a lot of King's books do with the endings not making sense. Perhaps because this is not a supernatural book, he had to actually write a good ending instead of going for a deus ex machina or pulling something else out of his ass.
I listened to the audiobook for most of it, and the narrator was amazing. She put so much emotion and nuance into it. Her name is Lindsay Crouse. I was only slightly disappointed with her delivery of a certain line involving a cockadoodie car, but it's not the narrator's fault that Kathy Bates is so iconic. Overall, one of the best Stephen King books I've read.