Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, twenty-two year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George – publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide – and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite – heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors – they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.
At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn – led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb – which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his – and the whole Turner clan’s – destruction.
My thoughts:
The thing that drew me to this book was the trailer for the HBO series that I haven’t watched yet), and I decided that I needed to read the book before watching it.
I’ve read quite a bit of Lovecraft, and I love the stories (not the white supremacist author), so I was intrigued to find out how another writer would incorporate Lovecraft’s stories into their own. I thought Matt Ruff did an excellent job of making the story his own and giving it that Lovecraft vibe. I also think that it’s so wonderful how Ruff took inspiration from a racist author and made this story with such an incredible cast of black characters and also portraiting racism as the real monster of the story at the same time. I always appreciate it when our author reveals that the real monsters to fear are often the ones that live inside the people we see every day.
Lovecraft country follows a cast of fascinating characters but does an excellent job of giving them each a unique voice so that as a reader, I never got confused. That being said, I wish we would’ve had more time to get to know them all. With so many lead characters, I felt like I missed a bit of the depth that would’ve made me more invested in them. We also got introduced to some places and creatures that I would’ve liked to know more about. But the story was fast-paced and action-packed. It was filled with mystery and well-developed characters. It all wrapped up quite quickly at the end, and I felt like it left me with quite a few questions unanswered.
Lovecraft Country was a fun, dark, and interesting ride. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Ruby will get her own book someday!
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I read a digital edition of Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Self published
Originally published: June 13th, 2020
Pages: 247 (Kindle edition)
Synopsis by the publisher:
After the death of her two-year-old son, Susan lost her will to continue. Unable to move on, she agrees to her Greek husband’s plan on a summer in Greece for the sake of her three living children. His family’s mansion waits for them. A house with a dark past and a bleak future. Travel with them to Greece and explore the mystery surrounding the ancient lands. join Susan as she crosses the thin line between sanity and the supernatural. Nothing is as it seems. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!
My thoughts:
I don’t often read books that give me the creeps, but this one definitely did just that!
This book follows the perspectives of several of the family members while they are trying to navigate their ways through this family vacation, while also going through the struggle of having lost a family member. In the midst of all this, we quickly find out that what seemed like would be the nice summer break that the family needed, nothing is as it seems. The characters each have a depth to them, and we get to unravel that together with them as they experience the horror of their own pasts, their own minds, and the supernatural and horrific events they experience while living in the house.
I want to add the trigger warning for child abuse and violence to this story. You will encounter both in this story, and I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea. In my opinion, even though the events in the story are hard to read and absolutely horrible, I thought it added to the depth of the story and the characters.
There were a few minor writing mistakes in this, and it felt like it could’ve needed another round of proofreading, but it wasn’t so much that it bothered me or took away from the quality of the story.
I would’ve loved for this story to have been just a little bit longer, just because I felt like I was still left with some questions unanswered at the end. But then again, it might have been the author’s intent to leave the reader with a little bit of mystery after everything was wrapped up.
All in all, I thought Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts was a well-written horror novel that played out like a creepy and utterly terrifying horror movie in my head as I was reading it. It was easy to picture all of the scenarios and they definitely got under my skin and made me shiver.
Highly recommend if you are a fan of horror!
Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛
On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive, cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova – a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than 30 years.
For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.
Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.
The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.
My thoughts:
I’ve had Night Film on my shelf for a few years, and although I’ve always found the premise very interesting, I’ve been slightly intimidated by the size of the book. But from time to time I ask my son to pick out my next read for me and he finds great pleasure in picking out the chunkiest books on my shelves, so this time it was Night Film’s turn. It’s a good way for me to get a randomly selected book to read, as well as it is a way for me to finally get to the books that I keep putting off because of their size.
As I said, I’ve found the premise of Night Film interesting ever since it came out. It sounded very dark and mysterious, so definitely something up my alley. I’ve heard mixed reviews of Night Film over the years, but most of the reviews were on the more positive note, at least from reviewers who tend to like the same books as I do. So I wouldn’t say that I had super high expectations for this book, but I had a feeling that would like it before I even picked it up.
Night Film hooked me from the beginning. It has a very dark and mysterious atmosphere to it that I really liked, and I also really enjoyed the way the layout of the novel, specifically the added websites and files. It made it feel like I was a part of the investigation to find out what happened to Ashley. The story has a really good pace, so even though it is a long book, I never got bored. I was constantly at the edge of my seat wanting to know what would happen next. The story also took quite a few twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting and that is always a big plus with a mystery novel like this one.
I really enjoyed the characters in this story as well, and the ones that I found to be most interesting was probably the most mysterious characters; Ashley and Stanislaus Cordova. Reading this book made me wish that Mr. Cordova was a real person so that I could’ve watched his movies afterward. There was just so much history and mystery around these two characters, and even though I quite enjoyed getting to know Scott McGrath and his “team”, I was more interested in getting to know the Cordova’s and their story. It also felt like McGrath and his “team” lacked a little bit of character development, and they ended up coming out a little bit flat for my taste.
Let’s talk about the ending (without spoiling you). Even though I didn’t predict the exact way that this story would progress and end, I had a gut feeling as to what kind of ending Night Film would have (if that makes sense), and on some levels I was right. When I turned the last page of the story I had conflicted feelings about it, and I still do. In one way I feel like the ending was perfect to the whole Cordova mystery of it all, but in another way I feel like it left me slightly unsatisfied. Even so, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to the horror lovers out there. It’s dark, eerie, and very atmospheric. When it comes to the ending I think it comes down to personal preference if you’ll like it or not. I’m somewhere in between. The book felt a bit unnecessary long as well, even though I got through it pretty quickly. I still feel like it could’ve been condensed just a little bit. But overall it was a very interesting and enjoyable read!
Would love to know your opinion on the book if you’ve read it💛
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Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson participated in a drug experiment run by a veiled government agency known as The Shop. One year later, they marry. Two years later, their little girl, Charlie, sets her teddy bear on fire by simply staring at it.
Now that Charlie is eight, she doesn’t start fires anymore. Her parents have taught her to control her pyrokinesis, the ability to set anything – toys, clothes, even people – aflame. But The Shop knows about and wants this pigtailed “ultimate weapon”. Shop agents set out to hunt down Charlie and her father in a ruthless chase that traverses the streets of New York and the backwoods of Vermont.
My thoughts:
Firestarter is one of those Stephen King novels that has been mentioned and recommended to me several times as a King classic. I’ve also talked to several readers who told me that Firestarter was their very first King book. I stumbled across a first-edition of Firestarter at Mockingbird Used Books last year and I was excited to finally read it myself (even though it stayed on my shelf for a while before I finally got to it).
Firestarter starts with a bang, as Charlie and Andy are on the run from agents from The Shop (a secret government agency). (✨The Shop is mentioned both in The Stand and The Dark Tower series. It has also been compared to The Institute and the agency is suspected to have a part to play in several other Stephen King stories as well) And this story is one that never gets boring. Even the passages that are not as action-packed are filled with interesting character development and great storytelling. I know a lot of readers have an issue with some of the King stories dragging out too long and having unnecessary parts in the story, and I think Firestarter is a better choice for those readers. Its fast pace and overall engaging story will take a hold of you and not let go before the story ends.
Charlie’s pyrokinetic ability is scary on its own, but the really terrifying thing in this story is a secret government agency who sees themselves above the law (isn’t that a secret fear a lot of us carry around with us?), and the terror that grows in Andy as he fears for his daughter’s future, life, and the limits (or possible lack thereof) to her abilities.
My favorite part of this story is the bond between Charlie and Andy, and how it grows with all their experiences throughout the book. Their relationship is the thing that keeps the story going and engages the reader. Another favorite of mine was the character Rainbird, an agent/assassin of The Shop. He’s the perfect villain in the way that he’s a psychotic and amoral person, but his intelligence and lack of conscience makes for an extremely dangerous character and a whole new level of creepy. And he truly loves Charlie in his very own disturbing way.
Firestarter is one of those King novels that I feel like deserves more attention than it has gotten. It’s a gem of a story with all the right elements of a thrilling psychological horror read, with a dash of science fiction, that will keep you at the edge of your seat.
Highly recommend!
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My review of Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky 📚
Stephen Chbosky
I read a hardback edition of Imaginary Friend.
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Originally published: October 1st, 2019
Pages: 720 (hardback)
Audiobook length: 24 hrs and 32 mins
Synopsis by the publisher:
IMAGINE… Leaving your house in the middle of the night. Knowing your mother is doing her best, but she’s just as scared as you.
IMAGINE… Starting a new school, making friends. Seeing how happy it makes your mother. Hearing a voice, calling out to you.
IMAGINE… Following the signs, into the woods. Going missing for six days. Remembering nothing about what happened.
IMAGINE… Something that will change everything… And having to save everyone you love.
My thoughts:
It’s been five years since I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and to be completely honest, even though I really enjoyed that novel, I haven’t read anything else by Chbosky.
But then all of a sudden, Imaginary Friend started to pop up in my feed and was recommended to me a few times. It sounded like something that was up my alley. I then stumbled across a signed copy while I was in London last year and so it ended up traveling back to Oslo with me (adding quite a bit of weight to my luggage).
Imaginary Friend is a chunker of a book, coming in at 720 pages! So, if you’re not reading it on a Kindle or listening to it as an audiobook, be prepared for some heavy lifting.
I’m not really sure what I was expecting going into this one, but what I didn’t expect was forgetting several times throughout the book which Stephen had written this book. Because the truth is that it felt like reading a Stephen King novel!
This book is filled with interesting characters, and quite a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. And even though there’s much focus on the “monsters” and mystery of this imaginary friend that Christopher encounters, what really gives this story depth is the people and the horrors and evil that lives in them. This is what makes it feel like an early King novel. At one point I was almost certain that it must’ve been a prank of the Stephens, and at the end, Stephen King would jump out and reveal himself as the one with pen in hand.
I get the frustration that many readers might feel if they jumped into this novel with their utter love for the writing in Perks of Being a Wallflower, and what they got was a haunting horror story with a completely different writing style. But my horror-loving heart absolutely loved it and found it to be a pleasant surprise.
I (like so many others) struggled a bit with Christopher’s age. He’s supposed to be 7-8 years old, but he reads like a character of 10-12 years. Some of it does make sense though when you know what it is that Christopher goes through in this story. There are many ways of forcing kids to grow up too fast.
It is rare that I read books of this size and don’t find myself bored at any moment. Imaginary Friend definitely grabbed my attention and kept it from beginning to end. That being said, it still felt like the book could have been 100 pages shorter. Some parts of it felt just a tiny bit repetitive and unnecessary. That, and the vast amount of biblical references was the thing that made it into a 4.5 rating instead of a 5.
If you love your Stephen King novels, and you like to get lost in horror stories, I would definitely recommend giving Imaginary Friend a go! It’s dark, twisted, mysterious and haunting!
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I listened to an audiobook version of Tick Tock on Audible.
Genre: Horror, fiction.
Publisher: Bantam
Originally published: January 1st, 1996
Pages: 340 (paperback)
Audiobook length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
Synopsis by the publisher:
Tommy Phan is a successful detective novelist living the American Dream in southern California. One evening he comes home to find a small rag doll on his doorstep. It’s a simple doll, covered entirely in white cloth, with crossed black stitches for the eyes and mouth, and another pair forming an X over the heart. Curious, he brings it inside. That night Tommy hears an odd popping sound and looks up to see the stitches breaking over the doll’s heart. And in minutes the fabric of Tommy Phan’s reality will be torn apart. Something terrifying emerges from the pristine white cloth, something that will follow Tommy wherever he goes. Something that he can’t destroy. It wants Tommy’s life, and he doesn’t know why. He has only one ally, a beautiful, strangely intuitive waitress he meets by chance–or by a design far beyond his comprehension. He has too many questions, no answers, and very little time. Because the vicious and demonically clever doll has left this warning on Tommy’s computer screen: “The deadline is dawn.” Ticktock Time is running out.
My thoughts:
Dean Koontz is an author who’s been on my radar for a long time, but for some reason, I haven’t gotten around to give his books a chance. That was until my good friend Alex talked about Tick Tock, and I found the premise to sound very much up my alley.
Wonderfully horrific with its Ragdoll that comes to life with what seems like a mission to kill Tommy Phan.
The whole story kicks into drive pretty quickly, and it didn’t take me long for the story to grab hold and take me along on its journey of horror and wonder. And the story took another interesting turn when the character Del was introduced into the whole mix. I found her to be brilliantly weird, but also the kind of open-minded person that gave depth to the whole story. Kudos to Koontz for introducing an absolutely wonderful female companion character.
I’ve come to find that the horror that I enjoy the most are the ones that focus more on the people in the stories, and what the monsters or the horrific setting makes those people do. Because it’s in the times of despair and fear that our true selves often gets a chance to come out and play, for good or bad.
The other thing that really made this into such an enjoyable read was the humor that’s present throughout the whole book. It’s hard to review this story in much more detail without spoiling the plot. So, it’s fast-paced, funny, creepy, and stays true to the horror genre.
I highly recommend Tick Tock to the horror lovers out there!
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A disturbed high-school student with authority problems kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, Charlie Decker explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence.
The Long Walk
In the near future, where America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple – maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you’re out – permanently.
Roadwork
Barton Dawes’ unremarkable but comfortable existence suddenly takes a turn for the worst. Highway construction puts him out of work and simultaneously forces him out of his home. Dawes isn’t the sort of man who will take an insult of this magnitude lying down. His single-minded determination to fight the inevitable course of progress drives his wife and friends away while he tries to face down the uncaring bureaucracy that has destroyed his once comfortable life.
The Running Man
It is 2025 and reality TV has progressed to the point where people are willing to wager their lives in exchange for a chance at enormous wealth. Ben Richards is desperate – he needs money to treat his daughter’s illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the objective is to elude police and specially trained trackers for a month. The reward is a cool billion dollars. The catch is that everyone else on the planet is watching and willing to turn him in for a reward.
My thoughts:
First of all, I want to thank Alex Ochoa, the wonderful YouTube subscriber that sent me a hardback copy of this book! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I was very excited to get my hands on the stories that Stephen King chose to publish under a pseudonym. This edition also has “Rage” in it which is a story that is no longer being printed. This is because a real-life event in 1998 was inspired by the book and Stephen King felt morally obliged to let the book die from the publishing world.
The typical Stephen King voice and references are definitely easy to spot when you already know that it is his work.
So let’s go through each of them, story by story.
Rage
The story of a young man named Charlie Decker who has been sent to the principal’s office because of an assault on a teacher. After that, he goes on a tirade in the school and holds a class hostage.
I thought it was interesting to read a story like this with the thoughts in mind of how often events like this take place nowadays. It’s equally as current now, and maybe even more so than it was back then. It is hard to try to set oneself in the shoes of someone who acts out in such an extreme way, and maybe even more interesting to see just how confusing it can all be inside the head of that person as well. The story is one of slow-burning suspense and I thought it was quite interesting.
I can definitely understand why King felt it necessary to take it off the market, but in the same way, it seems like all the school shootings around are not specifically inspired by the literature that takes on that specific setting but more inspired by other events like them. Even so, I highly respect King’s decision to take the story out of print. Rage was an interesting read, but it didn’t quite grab me.
The Long Walk
And what a long walk it was indeed! I have no idea why it took me what felt like forever to get through this story. It’s a really interesting story about the will to live. You have 100 boys setting out for The Walk where they have to hold a certain pace and always stay on their feet until there’s only one boy left who will win “the prize”.
It touches on some really good subjects of mental strain and mental health. Showcasing the way a mind can completely fall apart when it’s put under too much pressure. It’s also a take on a very conservative futuristic America.
It is a gruesome tale of staring death in the eye and trying to find the will to survive when everything feels hopeless. I also really enjoyed the friendships that we got to see between the contestants, as well as the rivalry. The pressure put on humans can bring out both the best and the worst in us all.
Roadwork
Roadwork tells the story of Mr. Dawes who has a lot of anger towards the new highway extension project in his town that forces him to move away from what has been his home for many years. We also get to know a lot of Dawes’s emotional hardships, and his unwillingness to let go of the past throughout this story.
We follow a man on a mission. A man who completely unravels. Reading Roadwork is like watching a train crash in slow motion. You know it’s going to end in horror, but you just can’t look away. It’s a detailed and interesting journey of how a single thought or an idea can grow into something truly insane when fuelled by hate and unresolved issues.
I enjoyed it as much as I found it uncomfortable, but in a good way. If that makes any sense?
The Running Man
In The Running Man, we visit a dystopian US in 2025 where there’s a television game show that hunts its contestants to their death. Ben Richards joins the game show in the hope of winning enough money to get medicine for his gravely ill daughter. The contestants earn $100 for every hour they stay alive, an additional $100 for each law enforcement officer or Hunter he kills, and a grand prize of $1 billion if he survives for 30 days.
It’s a suspenseful cat and mouse kind of story, with an interesting and mysterious countdown going on throughout that has you guessing. I really enjoyed this story and found it to be the only one in the book where I felt like I was kept at the edge of my seat and did not want to put it down. It touches on some interesting subjects of the economy and society. How far are we willing to go? How much are we willing to accept as entertainment instead of cruelty? How easily do we eat up the information fed to us by the media?
Again, this truly is a story of how horrible and selfish some people can be. I loved it!
Overall I found The Bachman Books to be a solid collection of good stories. It took me forever to get through them, but not because I didn’t enjoy them. I kind of wish that I would’ve read them as separate books instead of a collection. It might not have felt as intimidating as individual books.
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Here are three books that have shaped me as a reader through the years 📚
I’m pretty sure that all of us bookworms have certain books that shape us as readers, both as kids and later on in our adult lives as well. We change, our preferences too, and sometimes a book can surprise us into a whole new genre we never even considered being our thing.
I thought I would share some of the books that has shaped me as a reader over the years.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
My dad was the one that introduced me to Anne Frank. I was about 8 years old and I already knew quite a bit about World War II as my fathers side of the family has Jewish heritage, and actually had to get away from the Nazis by moving to Sweden at that time. So the interest in WWII came at a pretty early age for me, and The Diary of a Young Girl definitely shaped my reading a lot. It was where I truly discovered how horrific, but also interesting and fascinating that time of history was, and still is. I’m still a WWII fanatic, just like my dad. I love reading non-fiction and historical fiction, and the well-written ones (especially those who are based on true stories) always breaks my heart and fill my eyes with tears. Reading Anne Frank’s diary was also what made me start journaling back in the days, which is something that I still do.
I think every kid should read this book. It’s so important and captivating. My dad also took me to Anne Frank’s house later on, which was a really interesting but also intense experience. If I remember correctly, I believe my dad has told me that I didn’t speak for a good while after we got out of there, and it is something I will never forget. I also would highly recommend going there if you ever get the chance to.
Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Bag of Bones is not my favorite King novel, but it was my very first. I remember browsing one of my local bookstores as a teenager and coming across this particular book. I can’t remember exactly what it was about Bag of Bones that compelled me to buy it, but buy it I did, and it has been quite the journey ever since.
I remember bringing it with me on a family vacation (but can’t for the life of me remember where we went), and was so captivated by this story that I was unable at times to put it down. It’s one of those stories that just made such a lasting impression on me that I actually remember quite a lot of what happened even though it has been years, and I’m pretty sure I would be surprised to find out how much I’ve probably forgotten if I tried re-reading it today (which is something I’m considering doing).
Let’s call it love at first sight, and King’s writing and I have been in a happy relationship (for the most part) for many years now, and it will continue to be that way for two reasons.
1 – The man has written so many books that I hardly doubt I will get through them all.
2 – It’s first book love, and that lasts a lifetime. Everybody knows that, right?!
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Did you just roll your eyes at the screen?! Well, if you did, I don’t blame you. Twilight is not great. It’s not even really good, but never the less, it is a book that played a pretty big role in my reading life. At the age of about 20, I found myself not having really read much in a few years. I don’t know what started that massive reading slump, but I do know that the easy entertainment that Twilight offered was what got me back into reading, and with a whole new love of fantasy and paranormal fiction. And because of that, I got to discover so many great books! So, even though I fully agree with the eye roll (and I have tried re-reading it some years later and wish that I hadn’t) it still deserves a spot on this list, and it will always hold a special place in this book lover heart of mine.
These three books are not my top three of all time, but they are all very special to me. If I hadn’t crossed paths with them, I probably would’ve had a very different reading journey than I’ve had so far.
Do you have a book that defined you more as a reader than any other? I would love to hear about it💛
Christina de Vries 