Ghost

I didn't realize until I came to add this book here that it was in the middle of a multi-author series (there were signs I just didn't pay attention because that's how I roll), it was still easy to follow and I didn't feel like I was missing anything crucial. The experiment side was the weakest part of the story in my opinion because it just didn't really seem even remotely plausible, maybe there's a reason for that given in the previous installments though. I really liked the way the religious aspect was done. There were a lot of “surely it won't go THERE” moments with this book and yet it managed to never come across as over the top and goofy (a problem I routinely find with gore heavy stories), Robitaille really managed to effectively keep a sense of dread and anxiety going which made for a surprisingly quick reading experience.

I don't know why Goodreads has this book listed as having France as a genre since it's set entirely in Quebec and the author also appears to be a Québécoise, if you're looking for something about France you won't find it in this book (even the type of French the book is written in is pretty darn typical of Quebec).

On a side note, last week I read 3 Québécois books all featured pretty darn unflinching bleakness and this is a book that I would consider to be under the extreme umbrella (spoiler ahead: it features detailed on page animal and human torture that most EH I've read does not rival in terms of viscerality) and yet I first encountered it in the small book section or my drugstore all of that got me thinking about the way Quebec's society approaches gore and violence in the context of the whole “extreme horror should be behind the counter” idea that just refuses to go away which I so vehemently dislike. Sure, we've had our share of contested stories but, on the whole, I have this feeling that we are more uncomfortable with censorship of literature and film than with violent content. Could it be that Québécois culture more so than who I am as a person has made me so “comfortable” with the presence of extremely graphic content in my reading material?

I didn't really care for this one, I kept waiting for something to happen, for something to shock the main character out of being the most boring and annoying version of herself or something but it never happened and by the time I came to terms with the fact that it wasn't happening I was so near the end that I figured I might as well finish it. I don think I would have cared much for this one as a teenager either, I feel like it sort of falls into a weird in between of being too literary for one category and not quite literary enough for another.

Concussion was a pretty engaging biography containing a lot of charming anecdotes about Dr Omalu contrasting too many tragic stories of football players whose lives were cut short or whose quality of life was greatly reduced through sports injuries.

It made a great case for why the research about a problem shouldn't be left to people who have a vested interest in the problem going unaddressed or outright denied (or to people cherry picked by aforementioned people).

I've often credited this book for being the work that made me realize that I do like body horror a lot as long as it's in the context of the body doing/becoming the horror not the horror being visited upon the body via torture. So, I figured maybe I should reread it and see if it stood the test of time since I was very easily impressed back when I first read it.

The body horror held up as did the general plot, but the banter and how insufferable the characters were not so much. I understand Perry is supposed to be a hard to love but somehow sympathetic figure but with most of the other characters being in the same vein and with the inappropriate edginess that passed for witticism at the time (yes the late 2000s were an era of unrelenting cringiness) it just got tedious at some point.

The cover immediately spoke to me, after all I do have a tattoo of a Skelanimal fox so undead fox? Sign me up, no need to read the blurb I'm already sold. That being said, it represents the book very well so if you like that vibe you'll probably like the book too.

The world building was very effective and honestly I want more in that world. The writing style was most pleasant and I thought that Silva managed to inject moments of humor in the story in a most effective way to make the story even more potent, she's definitely an author I'll look forward to reading more of.

Do you need to be emotionally punched in the gut? If so, read this. The grief here is messy and laced with bone deep anger and it just radiates off the page.

This one was really just kind of a slow burn thriller with horror elements so I just waited and waited for the horror to happen and it never really did until the very end. My expectations were really not in the right place and that didn't help my enjoyment.

I really struggled to connect with Harry as a character, surprisingly because we have a lot in common (horror lovers, millennial single moms to a generally easy to parent gen Z kid...). The real horror in this book was one most people are too familiar with: the job market and how hard it is to find even a semi-decent rental.

With that title and that cover (the cartoony version with the orange background) I didn't expect something quite that heavy (no I did not read the blurb or look into it before I started reading). There are some charming moments in there and the writing is absolutely fantastic but this book is HEAVY in a way that feels entirely intentional. There are charming moments in there and they are carefully placed to further the devastating weight of the events in the book.

There's a point in my life where this book would have been a favorite. The characters were great, there's plenty of drama and intrigues and I can see younger me getting utterly obsessed with the characters. Now, I think I'm just not really the audience. It's really a space opera and I would have liked a less opera exploration of the universe the author created, alas, this book was what it said it was.

3.5 rounded up.

I'm not a ballet person, I can't say that I have even a passing interest in it, that would be overstating my level of interest in the topic, I picked up this book because it was one of last week's new nonfiction titles at my library and went in with no idea of what it was about.

There's a rather big chunk of this book that I found a bit meandering and sometimes a little hard to follow (even though these ladies are really bad ass and I assume that someone who has an interest in dance company dynamics and is better at remembering names than me might feel differently about just how meandering that part is) and that I was therefore not crazy about. That being said, the last 20/25% of the book is so packed with poignancy it made the more meandering part worth sticking with. The parts about remembering the dance partners they lost to the AIDs epidemic and the reunion between the older ballerinas and Misty Copeland were so beautifully and impactfully described that it was downright devastating.

Seriously though, this book would make a fantastic movie or show.

I liked that at the end the author shows that even when people do want to remember it's easy to lose track of people who paved the way and that it's important to share the duty to remember and honor them especially when they are part of a marginalized group which is routinely erased from their own history.

DNF adjacent finish. I was really into for about 20% of it between the 20 and 40% mark but after that I could hardly make myself care, too many characters none of which felt particularly interesting to me.

I finished it, technically, but in reality my attention was wandering so much that I don't think I'll remember much of anything so it wouldn't be fair of me to rate it.

This book is part of what I like to call the cozy feminism genre. It's not a bracing call to the barricades that asks you to completely reconsider the world we live in but it's a validation of (some of) our experiences and an honest look at the absurdity of diet culture (and how it morphed into the more pervasive wellness culture) and how we fall for it.

DeRuiter shares her experience of being a woman with an online presence in a way that I found quite refreshing and very validating.

My reading experience was akin to sitting with a friend, it's not necessarily going to change your life but it's going to make you feel seen and somewhat sane for a moment.

There are a lot of eminently quotable lines in there and great quips about Florida (who doesn't love dunking on Florida these days?).

There's a bit about how in Quebec people eat the sacred host wafers that didn't quite meet the standard as a snack and I would like to add that we don't just eat retailles d'hosties we also eat the wafers that would have made it, it's like a whole thing here, we like our guilt that much (I can say that I'm technically still a Catholic with all the guilt that comes with it).

No rating because I do not rate memoirs but I really enjoyed my time with this book.

I should just stop picking up books which have blurbs that start with “whip-smart”.

I came for “its indicting portrayal of mental health and public obsession, fandom, and cancel culture” and to be honest I didn't get much of that. There's a couple of scenes that deal with the fickle nature of fandom and media but what I really got was a psychologist who confirmed most of my negative assumptions about psychologists and a story told largely from what I assume to be the least interesting POVs. Even with all that nicer prose or a more engaging style could have easily saved this book and there were moments where it was clear that the author is capable of writing engagingly so I'm not sure why this padded outline is what we ended up with.

Neutral 2.5 rounded up,

With that title, cover and premise I was immediately drawn to this book, so maybe my expectations were a little too high.

The ideas behind this book are great but I think it needed more work. For something that's supposed to be about someone's discovery that they haven't been the best to themselves or others the introspection is conspicuously lacking. Arguments and tensions are at most hinted at but largely it just seems like the guy was a bit critical maybe and while that doesn't necessarily make for the best relationships that seems a little underwhelming. His progression would have benefited from his character being better established.

Stylistically it was rather plain and different elements of the book came across as disjointed, if the writing had been more stylized it would have came across as more intentional however because the style was what it was it came across as somewhat rushed. It felt like the book never fully committed to being one thing or another and that's one of the areas in which it really fell short.

Jimmy's relationship with Beatrice was really the strongest aspect of the book and the one aspect that felt like it was given appropriate time to develop.

I also hate it when a book ends in a "surprise, there was no stake to all of this because it was all in his head" kind of way and that's what happened in this one so that really didn't help my overall enjoyment of the book.

I received an eARC of this book, many thanks to BookGoSocial on Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Heads in Beds is a generally entertaining read about how Tomsky got stuck in the hospitality industry (how many of us unintentionally end up pigeon holed in industries they never intentionally picked?) and how tipping makes the world go round in the hospitality industry. It also made a good point about the importance and value of unions. I wasn't super keen on the part where the author spent an entirely uncalled for amount of words speculating about a beloved customer being a sex worker which I found rather childish but otherwise it was a good palate cleanser type of read.

No star rating because I don't rate memoirs.

Most of this book made me want to give up on it and it pains me to say but until the last 20 pages or so it was quite insufferable (if like me you hate Sabrina and Lexi after 20 pages skip to the end when it's just Maxwell and Trevor I promise it's worth it).
The good:
The author clearly has a knack for world building and by the end you really want to know more about the place he created.
The story has solid bones and didn't pull punches.
Makes good use of the tendency some of us have to root for background characters.
The bad:
Lexi, nothing about that child makes sense, is she 10 years old or 10 months old? For a while I thought she was a developmentally delayed child but then she went all teenage sarcasm and I was back to wondering what the heck was wrong with her.
The progression through time can be confusing, it seems only a matter of hours has passed but it's been days. That makes the characters' interactions seem really weird.
Overall it seems like the first part of the book needed a few more rounds of edits and that was perhaps the most frustrating part about this book it has so much potential to be excellent but as it is it seems unfinished.

4.5 Rounded up.

This book had an almost nostalgic feel to it. It's not a typical action-packed zombie novel but something of a more tender nature with zombie-like people in the mix. After really has a charm that is all of its own.

Ali and Joss are precious and it's hard not to root for them. There's quite a bit of world building and character exposition in this but it is, in my opinion, well crafted enough that it doesn't come across as too much.

Will I come back to read the next installment? Most likely.

I didn't realize this book was way deep into a series until I came to add it here. I might have missed some things because I didn't read the previous books (I guess the biggest thing I missed for this story was the context for the situation between Cath and Blake) but it didn't stop me from enjoying the story. The story is pretty fast paced and the main character is endearing. I particularly liked the fact that even though she could talk with the cats they remained cats more than cat shaped humans, I think that aspect of the story was well executed. The creature they dealth with in this story was pretty original too. The only thing that I didn't like was the part with Tom at the end that felt rather unearned. Will I come back to read the next installment? Absolutely!

Mr. Khalidi is an excellent narrator, honestly, I'd probably listen to him read just about anything. I think the information was well presented from someone who doesn't shy away from their relationship to the participants so it was sometimes very hard to listen to. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a 101 on Palestine from a Palestinian perspective.

3.5 rounded up.

The story is interesting but while some characters are a bit out there in a way that is funny or endearing (shout out to Jimmy Don Booth) the main characters aren't, they're just insufferable. Anna and Jared are deeply annoying whenever they have a moment to settle down. When the action is intense they're okay but the second they start talking they do too much of it and it's just grating. Granted their being annoying might have been done intentionally to show some character growth and add some levity to the story. That being said while Jared is grating he is also a decent human being and not a total creep which after some of my recent reads I feel deserves some credit.

I liked that most survivor groups they encountered were not immediately hostile, it was refreshing. The type of zombies is pretty neat too (chameleon zombies anyone?).

Will I come back to read the rest of the series? I don't know.

Will I ever know if the J-Dog thing was an intentional reference to Hollywood Undead? Probably not.

Do you enjoy stories that do not end well for anyone involved? Do you want to inflict emotional pain and small existential crises on yourself? Yes? Excellent, read this collection.

In this book you will find a collection of well written and engaging stories that confront mortality with different scenarios and protagonists (not all of them human), this is all about the end on the most personal level and it is brilliantly executed. It made me think of the movie Melancholia where the apocalypse is a background character to the characters inner lives and to how they face their own finality, it's emotionally heavy and there's a lot of potentially triggering material (do check the trigger warnings). There were a few stories I would have wanted more from but that's just me being greedy for a good story. While I had my favorites, I can honestly say that every entry in this collection was strong, and it took me a day or two to process before I could review.

There's a wide array of apocalypses and the characters are about as diverse as you can hope for which kept the collection from getting stale. Applegate really has a knack for putting together anthologies that keep their topic fresh.

I received an eARC of this book through Booksirens and this is my honest review.

A very good and quick read.
Now, I'll level with you this book has a lot of common tropes to the genre, it evokes 2004 Dawn of the Dead a lot and I'm not surprised to hear that the author is a fan of The Walking Dead. That being said, it was well balanced between character exposition and action and the pacing was great.
Vivian has a tendency to just blurt out her story to anyone who asks and I liked that about her even if it did mean she repeated herself a few times. Someone tell me I'm not the only one who read her as neurodivergent and liked her all the more for it?.
Will I come back to read the rest of the series? Hopefully, yes.