I'm an avid reader, who enjoys writing book reviews once I finish a book, I tend to read 60 to 70 books a year. My process when finishing a book is to review it and thought I should start a blog. I love being a book blogger and would love to be apart of a book tour. I love recommendations of all sorts. I was a screenwriter back in the day and I sold two scripts.
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man – Volume 17 by Len Wein is a fun-filled Spiderman adventure from 1977-78 featuring the return of The Green Goblin. The Green Goblin is Spiderman’s biggest nemesis first it was the father of his best friend Norman Osborn then it was Harry Osborn, Peter Parker’s former roommate and best friend, both know the secret that Peter Parker is Spiderman. Harry starts the book in good spirits but will be pushed to his limits and become the Green Goblin again. The book’s first half is all forgettable stories but the second half makes up for it as it is full of great stories. The Punisher returns and now knows Spiderman is a good guy and must work together to save J. Jonah Jamison. Molten Man returns from the dead to seek a cure from Liz Allen his step-sister. I have to say every time I read these old Spiderman stories Molten Man has a killer story arc and is one of my favorites if you asked me before I would have just said Molten Man was lame. Nova is brought into Spiderman but with a weak two-parter storyline that is forgettable. The Rocket Racer is only briefly introduced and the scene is weirdly short like a page and a half. Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man – Volume 17 collects issues The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) #169-180, Annual #11 and Nova (1976) #12.
Plot Summary: J. Jonah Jamison confronts Peter Parker about being Spiderman he has pictures that were taken of Spiderman getting rid of the Peter Parker clone. Peter Stumbles into bad guys led by Doctor Faustus who uses a drugged cigarette to poison Spiderman’s mind and help him rob a high-tech lab. Nova believes Peter Parker is a suspect in the murder of his father, Spiderman helps to prove his innocence and find the true killer. Spiderman saves a stuntman in a bad Spider Monster costume that makes a costume designer. Spiderman dresses in the costume and is attacked by costumed Spider monsters on the set. Rocket Racer appears and Spiderman easily defeats him after a chase. Liz Allen is arrested for stealing drugs from the hospital. Molten Man is back and he needs his step-sister Liz Allen to administer a drug formula to him to turn him back into a man again. A hitman is sent after J. Jonah Jamison and The Punisher with Spiderman end up interrupting at the same time. The Green Goblin is back with a big 3 issue twist.
What I Liked: Seeing Harry Osborn driven by anger back into the Green Goblin costume once again. The big twist revealed in the Green Goblin story, no spoilers but it was fun. The Punisher and Spiderman jumping through windows at the same time to save Jonah was fun. The brutal way the hitman dies in a Spiderman comic by The Punisher. Molten Man goes out like a boss. I love the cure angle and the twist with it. I liked that this is the first comic where Aunt May becomes political and becomes a huge part of her character further in the comics.
What I Disliked: The Nova and Spiderman story didn’t do anything exciting to get me to read Nova and I did not like what it did with Peter Parker and Spiderman. The quick Rocket Racer intro was bizarre. The Doctor Faustus storyline was kind of a rehash of what Mysterio has done in the past. I could have gone with a brief explanation of what happened to Silvermane, since the last time he was in a Spiderman comic he was turned into a baby.
Recommendations: Half of this novel is really good and half of it is not so good. I would read the first issue then skip to where Molten Man appears then read to the end. I have to read everything which can sometimes lead to disappointment. The Green Goblin 3-part saga is good with some surprising twists and turns that make it the highlight of the novel.
Rating: I rated Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man – Volume 17 by Len Wein 3 out of 5 stars.
Dear Readers, November was a good month for reading books. I read six books this month. I did read every book but one on my TBR this month. This year has been a low one for five star reviews and I had three this month my best month so far. My ratings for this month are 3 five stars, 1 four star, 1 three star, and 1 two star. My job has started 60 hour mandatory overtime days that will last until Christmas so I will not make a TBR list for December.
Five Star Reviews:
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang is a groundbreaking contemporary fiction about a stolen story from a dead Asian writer by a white one. The novel is so much more than its logline about a stolen novel as it is an in-depth look at the good and bad of the publishing industry and analyzes what intellectual property is and whether it can be stolen. The book asks: If I have a conversation with someone and use it verbatim in my story is that theft? Can a person tell a story of a different ethnicity other than their own? If you get a prompt sentence or paragraph that you include in the writing is it theft? Can an ethnic writer branch out and not lose their audience? Kuang asks these questions throughout the novel while answering some of the questions by telling a story from a white woman’s point of view, breaking away a little bit from what she is known for writing heavily ethnic stories. The writing is smart and shows an insider glance at the publishing industry that I have not read before. The book takes an unlikeable character who makes horrible choices and yet humanizes their desperation. Kuang says in the Acknowledgments that this is her attempt at a horror novel about loneliness in a harsh industry, I feel this fits especially what happens at the end. Despite it being a horror story the story is a love letter to writing at its heart and full of deep quotes about writing. The book takes an educational approach to diversity and shows both the positives and the negatives of it. The pacing for this book was perfect, I was pretty riveted in every twist and turn of the story. The ending I found satisfying, it could have gone in a million different ways.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann is a harrowing true story of an English ship in the 1700s that is masterfully told. The story of the ship The Wager is interesting, but the way Grann moves events around adds suspense to the story. If the story were written straight it would be just okay. The way Grann writes it he foreshadows the events that are in the title a shipwreck, a mutiny, and a murder, and it is up for you the reader to figure out which character is going to do the mutiny and the murder. The characters are laid out like an Agatha Christie mystery where we learn about their background, what drives them, and how they came to the ship. Just like a good mystery, I was wrong about who the murderer and the mutineer were. The mystery is one aspect of the book the other is sailing and surviving the elements and the diseases. The diseases are the true killer of the story that wipes out half the ship before the shipwreck even happens. The story is told in 3rd person with lots of journal entries to back up the facts.
Goosebumps – Ghost Camp by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book 45 in the original series. Ghost Camp is scary as it plays with the reader’s mind asking what is real. This book has the fear of abandonment, the fear of fitting in, the fear of ghosts, the fear of possession, and the fear of being trapped. Stine usually lets off the tension by saying it’s a joke and having the kid believe it, but the same thing happens in this book. Still, Harry does not believe it and only plays along so as not to worry his little brother Alex. This book has the strongest brother bonding, the brothers are not annoyed with each other and praise the other’s abilities. The pacing is one of the best, there is tension in the opening scene and doesn’t let up until the end. The final twist wasn’t too surprising but was set up from the beginning and worked well for the story. The side characters were fun and served a purpose. The two ghost stories told within this story are so good and haunting.
Four Star Reviews:
Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn by Katana Collins is an offshoot graphic novel in the same universe as Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean Gordon Murphy. The Murphyverse started when The Joker started to go sane and chastise Bruce Wayne/Batman for never stopping him and not giving the police any of his resources to better protect Gotham City. Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn is listed as book 2.5 in the Murphyverse series since the creator did not write it. The book keeps the focus on the psychological aspects of its character just like the previous books in the series. Bruce Wayne/Batman is a side character as Harley Quinn takes the lead. Harley Quinn had been a supporting character in the last two books. The story starts a year after the events in Batman: The Curse of the White Knight, where Batman has been outed as Bruce Wayne and just defeated Azrael, upon his victory Batman turns himself in to the police and sits behind bars. He has specifically asked for Harley who is somewhat reformed to be his doctor.
Three Star Reviews:
Stranger Things: Six By Jody Houser is a prequel graphic novel in 1970s Hawkins, Indiana centering on Doctor Martin Brenner and the character Six not featured in the show Stranger Things. Through Six’s eyes, we get to see how obsessive Doctor Brenner is about children’s powers and amplifying them. Six can see a glimpse of the future but not the whole thing, Brenner wants her to see more. At first, I thought this was a novel about Eleven’s mother, but it is quickly shown not to be. A young 7-year-old Eleven is shown briefly but acts as a catalyst for Six to go to the extreme that leads to the finale. We meet other special-ability kids one with the power of suggestion and pyrokinesis. We see a glimpse of the Demogorgon as Six is pushed with her powers to show the future. The graphic novel is a fast read since it was so loosely tied to the show it added that what will happen factor to the book. The climax was good and unexpected. The story is told out of order which worked well and added to the intrigue. The portrayal of Doctor Brenner was intense in his balance of caring and pushing to get results.
Two Star Reviews:
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand is the first approved return to the Hill House in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House from Shirley Jackson’s estate. Hill House is a character that Elizabeth Hand respects and adds more mystery to it. No characters from the original The Haunting of Hill House or relatives of characters make an appearance. There is a bit of dialogue that Shirley Jackson had in the original that was used in a cool way. The history of Hill House was glossed over with only a little bit added in the 64 years from the original, which I feel was a wasted opportunity. The book is very female-centric with only one male in the new cast of characters, which I liked since Hill House has had a deeper connection to females. The LGTBQ longing or relationship that was read between the lines in the original The Haunting of Hill House is front and center with a lesbian couple and a bisexual. The narrative is told from the perspective of the four main characters which usually change with every chapter. The pacing of the story is very slow at the beginning, a couple of times I thought about not finishing. The pace finally picks up a little after halfway when the stuff at the house starts happening. The second half is way better-paced than the first half and leads into an exciting climax. The horror aspect is psychological and leans more into the threat of horror that only slightly manifests. This is the same thing I said about The Haunting of Hill House which I found slightly more terrifying than A Haunting on the Hill. I read A Haunting on the Hill thanks to Netgalley and Mulholland Books in exchange for a review. A Haunting on the Hill was published on October 3, 2023.
Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn by Katana Collins is an offshoot graphic novel in the same universe as Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean Gordon Murphy. The Murphyverse started when The Joker started to go sane and chastise Bruce Wayne/Batman for never stopping him and not giving the police any of his resources to better protect Gotham City. Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn is listed as book 2.5 in the Murphyverse series since the creator did not write it. When I was reading this book I did not know Sean Gordon Murphy did not write it, so at first, I thought it was a step down not a big step but a slight loss in epicness. I felt the other books were like movies and this story felt like a limited TV series. The book keeps the focus on the psychological aspects of its character just like the previous books in the series. Bruce Wayne/Batman is a side character as Harley Quinn takes the lead. Harley Quinn had been a supporting character in the last two books. The story starts a year after the events in Batman: The Curse of the White Knight, where Batman has been outed as Bruce Wayne and just defeated Azrael, upon his victory Batman turns himself in to the police and sits behind bars. He has specifically asked for Harley who is somewhat reformed to be his doctor. The novel features a guy that I’ve never heard of the Starlet who kills legends of the silver screen. The book features Poison Ivy, Neo Joker, and The Grey Ghost (who I haven’t seen since Batman: The Animated Series and famously voiced by Adam West the first Batman). The psychology in the story works well and makes the narrative interesting. The story is mostly told linearly but we do get flashbacks of how Harley first met the Joker and became Harley Quinn, as well as her first run-in with Batman. The pacing of the story moves pretty well as the story is a whodunnit mystery. Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn includes Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn #1-6 and Harley Quinn Black + White + Red #4. Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn was published on June 29, 2021, by DC.
Plot Summary: Harley Guinn has just had two kids with the Joker when he was sane. The Joker is no more and she’s trying to do better for her kids but some of Harley’s DNA is found at a murder scene of a new serial killer who kills Silver Screen legends. The Batman who is now in prison and is being treated by Harley as his doctor knows she has nothing to do with this and is not breaking bad but thanks it could be someone from her past. Harley investigates Neo Joker who was the previous Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, but doesn’t think it is any of them. The Grey Ghost Actor Simon Trent survives and offers further clues and a note to Harley Quinn from the killer who has a plan for her.
What I Liked: The psychology of this whole series is so good and interesting. The Joker Flashbacks were great and had a different origin for Harley than I’ve seen before. I loved The Batman and Harley scenes, the scene where he said you saved so many people by not ever letting him go full Joker and pulling him back was the best. I loved how the two hyenas are like nursemaids to the twins. I liked the look of the villain Starlet how she’s painted in Black and White. The relationship between Bullock and Batman is great they have some good back and forth.
What I Disliked: The story while it was decent wasn’t as epic as the last two were. They set the bar so high with this series that this installment was good but not great. I liked Starlet but wasn’t impressed by the bad guy the producer.
Recommendations: Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn is a good installment that for the most part belongs in the Murphyverse and nailed the psychological tone of the series. I would recommend reading the first two graphic novels Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean Gordon Murphy before reading Katana Collins Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn(who I just found out is Sean Gordon Murphy’s Wife).
Rating : I rated Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn by Katana Collins 4 out of 5 stars. Her new graphic novel is Batman: White Knight Presents: Generation Joker which is published on April 16 2024 I will check out. It is all about the Joker twins growing up.
Goosebumps – Ghost Camp by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book 45 in the original series. Ghost Camp is scary as it plays with the reader’s mind asking what is real. This book has the fear of abandonment, the fear of fitting in, the fear of ghosts, the fear of possession, and the fear of being trapped. Stine usually lets off the tension by saying it’s a joke and having the kid believe it, but the same thing happens in this book. Still, Harry does not believe it and only plays along so as not to worry his little brother Alex. This book has the strongest brother bonding, the brothers are not annoyed with each other and praise the other’s abilities. The pacing is one of the best, there is tension in the opening scene and doesn’t let up until the end. The final twist wasn’t too surprising but was set up from the beginning and worked well for the story. The side characters were fun and served a purpose. The two ghost stories told within this story are so good and haunting. The Camp trilogy as I’m calling it consists of Welcome to Camp Nightmare, The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, and Ghost Camp is the best of the themed Goosebumps writing. Ghost Camp was published on July 1, 1996, by Scholastic Inc..
Plot Summary: Harry and Alex are the only kids on the bus as they head to a camp in the middle of summer. They get off the bus to find no one there and the bus driver tells them to walk down a short path to the camp. The camp seems abandoned when they get there, but the other campers and camp councilors come out of the forest to surprise them, saying it is a joke they always do to the new campers. The owner of the Camp tells a ghost story of a black mist that comes with ghosts, which Harry finds funny but no one else does, and shortly after he’s finished a black mist appears. Then everyone laughs uncomfortably. Harry starts noticing strange things when he drops his hot dog in the fire another camper reaches in with their bare hands to retrieve it and calls it a trick when questioned, a camper stabs himself in the neck with a fork as a joke. Harry knows something is going on but tries to act cool for his younger brother who starts noticing things too. Harry is going to find out the mysteries of the camp if it kills him, but it just might.
What I Liked: The pacing and the tension work so well in this story it makes it hard to put down. This Goosebumps book is scary since we the reader do not know what is going on. The story is well told Stine writes camp very well. I loved the brother’s bond which is very supportive and nurturing. The ending worked well on two levels it made sense for the story and released the tension at the same time. The two ghost stories within the story are great and if read out loud would unnerve kids today. I liked the side character of Lucy a lot Harry and her had chemistry that is usually ignored in goosebumps, it remains friendly but Harry likes her, you can tell.
What I Disliked: I would have wanted a little back story on the camp and how it got started. I wanted one backstory on how another kid arrived at camp.
Recommendation: Ghost Camp is one of the Best goosebumps stories so far. It is also one of the scarier ones. The way Stine writes camp is the best and some of my favorite stories are the camp-themed stories. I fully recommend Ghost Camp for any of my Goosebumps book lovers out there.
Rating: I rated Ghost Camp by R.L. Stine 5 out of 5 stars.
Ranking: Here’s my full ranking of the 45 Goosebumps books that I have read in order from my favorite to least favorite: 1) A Night in Terror Tower, 2) Stay Out of the Basement, 3) The Headless Ghost, 4) Ghost Beach, 5) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, 6) The Haunted Mask, 7) Ghost Camp, 8) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, 9) One Day At Horrorland, 10) Night of the Living Dummy, 11) Welcome to Camp Nightmare, 12) A Shocker on Shock Street, 13)The Phantom of the Auditorium, 14) It Came From Beneath the Sink, 15) The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, 16) Say Cheese and Die, 17) Let’s Get Invisible, 18) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, 19) Welcome to Dead House, 20) Monster Blood II, 21) The Beast From the East, 22) The Girl who Cried Monster, 23)Deep Trouble, 24) The Ghost Next Door, 25) Say Cheese and Die – Again! 26) Night of the Living Dummy 2, 27) My Hairiest Adventure, 28) Be Careful What You Wish For…, 29) Return of the Mummy, 30) Why I’m Afraid of Bees, 31) The Haunted Mask II, 32)How I Got My Shrunken Head, 33) Attack of the Mutant, 34) Go Eat Worms!, 35) Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, 36) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, 37) Bad Hare Day, 38) Cuckoo Clock of Doom, 39) Monster Blood, 40)Night of the Living Dummy III, 41) The Barking Ghost, 42) Egg Monsters from Mars, 43) The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, 44) You Can’t Scare Me!, and 45) Monster Blood III.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann is a harrowing true story of an English ship in the 1700s that is masterfully told. The story of the ship The Wager is interesting, but the way Grann moves events around adds suspense to the story. If the story were written straight it would be just okay. The way Grann writes it he foreshadows the events that are in the title a shipwreck, a mutiny, and a murder, and it is up for you the reader to figure out which character is going to do the mutiny and the murder. The characters are laid out like an Agatha Christie mystery where we learn about their background, what drives them, and how they came to the ship. Just like a good mystery, I was wrong about who the murderer and the mutineer were. The mystery is one aspect of the book the other is sailing and surviving the elements and the diseases. The diseases are the true killer of the story that wipes out half the ship before the shipwreck even happens. The story is told in 3rd person with lots of journal entries to back up the facts. The story follows many different people but Grann does a good job of making us know the survivors of the shipwreck and being sad of the people that I wanted to survive but died in the shipwreck. David Grann is known for writing well-researched nonfiction stories Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. This is the first book I have read by him I’m not a big reader of nonfiction, and tend to read 1 or 2 a year. Two things made me read this book. It has been in many Best of 2023 book lists and this is the next collaboration from Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio to adapt for a film. The Wager was published on April 18, 2023, by Doubleday.
Plot Summary: In the 1700s Britain sent a fleet of ships to stop and steal from Spain, operating a lot of provinces in what would become South America, and finding a lot of silver and gold that was funding Spain’s war effort. The Wager is one of those ships, what is interesting is the Wager is not originally a warship but has been recommissioned to become one. We meet the gunner for the wager who is the hardest worker on the ship and is the guy you want on your side in battle, Byron a 16-year-old in training to be an officer one day, and Cheap a not-yet captain of the Wager but will soon be due to circumstances. This group will be at the heart of the murder and mutiny story. In a boat of 500 souls only a handful make it back who will survive, and who will be first to tell their side of the story the mutineer or the murderer?
What I Learned: I already knew that Vitamin C and loss of Collagen were a factor in the disease scurvy, but hearing the horror stories of a boat full of people who don’t know how to stop it will be imprinted in my brain just how bad the deficiency can get. I did not know that typhus the disease came from lice and how horrible that is. I learned that the boat’s speed measurement knots came from counting knots, which makes sense but reading about how they did it was interesting. In the 1700’s they knew how latitude worked but could not figure out longitude and they had a big prize for the person that could figure out the calculation that Newton could not figure out. Winter in parts of South America is not paradise, I knew of the snow-capped Andes mountains in Chile but not the snowy weather from the ocean below it. How the society in the 1700s was both polite and vicious all at the same time.
What I Liked: How the story was told made the story. The pace of the story is great thanks to the way Grann told it. Learning all the cool things about ships and how they worked. Learning the horrors of ships in the 1700s, will not go there in a time machine or at least will stay on land. How a black former slave was treated on the ship, which was surprisingly well. I learned a ton about how cannon fire worked on the ships. My favorite real-life person was Byron, I liked his conscience and moral code. The story of Byron and the lost dog crushed me. The painting at the end showing the ships and some of the events of the shipwreck of The Wager.
What I Disliked: I wanted more from the court case at the end, we were given the facts but I guess I wanted more facts on why it went down like it did. I kind of wanted to from my own opinion why it was done like that and I felt there just wasn’t enough.
Recommendations: This story has a lot of meat to it and I think it will make a great film adaptation. I always like to read the books first before I see the movie. I recommend this book and do believe it is one of the Top books of 2023 and will make my top five list of best books written in 2023. my only trigger warning is that scurvy disease in particular is in detail what it does to the pretty horrific body.
Rating: I Rated The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann 5 out of 5 stars. Reviewing this novel has made me want to read Killers of the Flower Moon before I see the movie.
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang is a groundbreaking contemporary fiction about a stolen story from a dead Asian writer by a white one. The novel is so much more than its logline about a stolen novel as it is an in-depth look at the good and bad of the publishing industry and analyzes what intellectual property is and whether it can be stolen. The book asks: If I have a conversation with someone and use it verbatim in my story is that theft? Can a person tell a story of a different ethnicity other than their own? If you get a prompt sentence or paragraph that you include in the writing is it theft? Can an ethnic writer branch out and not lose their audience? Kuang asks these questions throughout the novel while answering some of the questions by telling a story from a white woman’s point of view, breaking away a little bit from what she is known for writing heavily ethnic stories. The writing is smart and shows an insider glance at the publishing industry that I have not read before. The book takes an unlikeable character who makes horrible choices and yet humanizes their desperation. Kuang says in the Acknowledgments that this is her attempt at a horror novel about loneliness in a harsh industry, I feel this fits especially what happens at the end. Despite it being a horror story the story is a love letter to writing at its heart and full of deep quotes about writing. Here’s my favorite: “Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much.” The book takes an educational approach to diversity and shows both the positives and the negatives of it. The pacing for this book was perfect, I was pretty riveted in every twist and turn of the story. The ending I found satisfying, it could have gone in a million different ways. This is my first novel from R. F. Kuang and it will not be my last as immediately added the Poppy War trilogy and Babel to my TBR list. Yellowface is a book I’ve been seeing on a lot of Best Books of 2023 and it did not disappoint. Yellowface is a part of Reese Witherspoon’s book club. Yellowface was published on May 25, 2023, by William Morrow.
Plot Summary: Athena Liu is a powerhouse writer who tops the bestseller list, June Hayward is her friend (sort of) and also a writer who has found modest success. June is jealous of her career but also likes living through her friend’s success when a freak accident happens in Athena’s apartment June cannot save her she takes a just-finished manuscript The Front Line. Athena was old school and worked on a typewriter and would not tell anybody what she was working on until she finished. June has a killer first draft that no one knows about from a leading top-selling author. June reads it and knows it’s good the novel is a historical fiction about Chinese laborers who fought and died in World War I. June’s rationalization is it is good, not great and she can make it better as she contributes writing and fledging out characters tightening up the story. Her agent is overjoyed with the book and a big step up from her previous novel. She finds a publisher that thinks it could be a hit, but with it being about Chinese laborers the publisher needs June Hayward to be more exotic and she is now Juniper Song. The novel is a success but soon the backlash and accusations begin.
What I Liked: The writing is fantastic and so clever. The pacing was good throughout with very few slow moments. The story was full of insider information about the publishing industry and what happens to a bestselling author. The way race and ethnicity were handled was so educational in its approach that I came out learning and looking at things from a different perspective. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins the controversial novel gets acknowledged and compared. I liked the horror angle the paranoid June gets to in the end. I loved the perspective and the insight of the author’s background and how it was used. The passages on writing are very inspirational. I liked how June is a horrible person/character but through Kuang’s writing, you feel empathy for her.
What I Disliked: I had issues with the aftermath of the climax, I felt it was a lose-lose situation but there was a clear winner in the end. I felt both characters had blackmail material on each other and for me, the only solution would have been working together like the ending of the musical Chicago. I just felt there were still loose ends.
Recommendation: Yellowface is a great novel that is going to be in my top 3 books that were published this year, and could take number one. This book is fantastic. I loved so many passages about writing and what goes into it. The book looks at diversity in interesting ways. I recommend all my followers to read this book!
Rating: I rated Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 5 out of 5 stars.
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand is the first approved return to the Hill House in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House from Shirley Jackson’s estate. Hill House is a character that Elizabeth Hand respects and adds more mystery to it. No characters from the original The Haunting of Hill House or relatives of characters make an appearance. There is a bit of dialogue that Shirley Jackson had in the original that was used in a cool way. The history of Hill House was glossed over with only a little bit added in the 64 years from the original, which I feel was a wasted opportunity. The book is very female-centric with only one male in the new cast of characters, which I liked since Hill House has had a deeper connection to females. The LGTBQ longing or relationship that was read between the lines in the original The Haunting of Hill House is front and center with a lesbian couple and a bisexual. The narrative is told from the perspective of the four main characters which usually change with every chapter. The pacing of the story is very slow at the beginning, a couple of times I thought about not finishing. The pace finally picks up a little after halfway when the stuff at the house starts happening. The second half is way better-paced than the first half and leads into an exciting climax. The horror aspect is my psychological and leans more into the threat of horror that only slightly manifests. This is the same thing I said about The Haunting of Hill House which I found slightly more terrifying than A Haunting on the Hill. I read A Haunting on the Hill thanks to Netgalley and Mulholland Books in exchange for a review. A Haunting on the Hill was published on October 3, 2023.
Plot Summary: Holly is a writer/theatre director and has just received a grant to be used for her play which is an old stage play about a witch and a devil that she is turning into a musical. Nisa her girlfriend is a singer-songwriter who will bring soul to the musical influenced by jazz and blues. Holly has tried and failed at staging a production before and wants everything to go smoothly and have a retreat to finely tune the writing, acting, and songs. Holly on a trip ends up getting lost and discovers Hill House which draws her in with its gothic look and knows this will be the perfect location for her workshop. Holly is warned slightly about the history but is determined to rent the place and the owner gives in. Holly is accompanied by Nisa, Stevie, a bisexual actor/soundman that Nisa has had an affair with but Holly doesn’t know, and Amanda, an aging star who has been out of work since her castmate was killed as she pushed them from the catwalk and the rigging failed. Hill House at first welcomes them, then starts revealing secrets that will mess with the guest’s psyche. Practicing a play about a devil possessing a witch is just what guests think they need from Hill House, but Hill House needs its guests to stay forever.
What I Liked: I Liked the LGTBQ relationship was out front and harkens back to the original The Haunting of Hill House secret between-the-lines lesbian relationship. The comparisons to acting as embodying the souls of those who passed. The descriptions of Hill House and how it is treated like a character. The neighbor Evadne is a witch who tries to protect others from the house and is the best character (only in three scenes) if only she were in more scenes or forced to enter the house. The musical numbers were very poetic. The climax was exciting and well done. I liked how Jackson’s dialogue was worked into the story I picked up on it right away.
What I Disliked: The story goes all in with a mysterious hare. I never found it to be creepy or scary and yet the hare is in so many scenes. There is a verse that I did not find that compelling that does talk about hares, but too many hares. The one scene in the fireplace was the only time it was needed and would have been creepy if it was the first time the reader saw it. The play within the story sounds like a mess I needed a lot more explaining to get behind the story. The pace was way too slow at the beginning. The lack of history of Hill House in the last 64 years was disappointing. All the characters seemed very wishy-washy and could not connect to any of them. I wanted more connection to the original novel than what we got. Stevie’s psychical description was all over the place from muscular to scrawny, I did read an early copy so hopefully this was caught and changed on publication.
Recommendation: The original is classic because of its characters, dialogue, and creepy setting which is Hill House. A Haunting on the Hill has one of those elements Hill House, and it wasn’t enough for me to recommend this to all of my followers. The people who will like this novel are thespians with great introspection on acting and what it does for and with the soul. I don’t think there is enough for me to recommend this to fans of the original. I liked the LGTBQ representation but it needed more interesting characters to hold the reader’s attention. This is the second book I have read by Elizabeth Hand would recommend Curious Toys over A Haunting on the Hill.
Rating: I rated A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand 2 out of 5. The novel was close to the two-and-a-half mark but not enough to change my rating to a three.
Stranger Things: Six By Jody Houser is a prequel graphic novel in 1970s Hawkins, Indiana centering on Doctor Martin Brenner and the character Six not featured in the show Stranger Things. Through Six’s eyes, we get to see how obsessive Doctor Brenner is about children’s powers and amplifying them. Six can see a glimpse of the future but not the whole thing, Brenner wants her to see more. At first, I thought this was a novel about Eleven’s mother, but it is quickly shown not to be. A young 7-year-old Eleven is shown briefly but acts as a catalyst for Six to go to the extreme that leads to the finale. We meet other special-ability kids one with the power of suggestion and pyrokinesis. We see a glimpse of the Demogorgon as Six is pushed with her powers to show the future. The graphic novel is a fast read since it was so loosely tied to the show it added that what will happen factor to the book. The climax was good and unexpected. The story is told out of order which worked well and added to the intrigue. The portrayal of Doctor Brenner was intense in his balance of caring and pushing to get results. The Six graphic novel is a short easily readable 96 pages. This is the second graphic in the Stranger Things world with the first being Stranger Things: The Other Side also written by Jody Houser. Stranger Things: Six was published on November 26, 2019, by Dark Horse Books.
Plot Summary: Francine moves to Hawkins, Indiana in the 1970s and has the power to see a glimpse of the future. I was a power she discovered young but the power is getting stronger. When her deadbeat dad finds out he keeps her trying for the lottery, but she is one number off. This causes her dad to drink more and abuse her. She meets a neighborhood boy that she has an instant connection with. The novel jumps to the future with Francine now Six in an underground testing lab with other kids with abilities run by the stern Doctor Martin Brenner. Six is more miserable than when she lived with her abusive dad. She gets really upset when the neighborhood boy is at the facility and he is known as Three and had a and in her coming here. Dr. Brenner pushes Six to the limits but she starts seeing a future full of horror but one that Dr. Brenner gets put in his place. Six is going to test her abilities to the limit and see if she can not only predict the future but change it.
What I Liked: The glimpse of the stranger things future for Hawkins was cool to see since if you watched the show you know what some of the images mean. I liked that Six hid the images she saw and only told Brenner she saw waffles that were being served for breakfast. The story told out of time led to a lot of surprises that wouldn’t have worked as well if told in order. I liked the brief cameo by Eleven. The climax was good and left me surprised.
What I Disliked: I wanted to see more of Dr. Brenner’s personality. The Three and Six romance angle was just okay it felt like three was too easily forgiven. Six took me a long time to like as a character. I like the ending, but I don’t know if it was necessarily earned.
Recommendations: The story Six is interesting and a quick read. It offers only a slight window into the Stranger Things Netflix TV show, but I like that it expands the Stranger Things Universe. I will slightly recommend this story but also staying you could skip this story as well. I like Stranger Things: The Other Side quite a bit more.
Rating: I rated Stranger Things: Six by Jody Houser 3 out of 5 stars.
November 2023 TBR list: last month was a success I read 5 books out of 6 books on my TBR. I’m going to place 6 books on my TBR with me carrying over A Haunting on the Hill which I started reading last month and 5 new books. I have 2 advanced reader copies on the list to review. I have two books on many Best of 2023 Books list. November is the month I tend to read the buzziest books so I can vote in the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2023. I’ve read 5 books so far that I think will make the nominations for Romance: Happy Place by Emily Henry, Science Fiction: The Ferryman by Justin Cronin and Starter Villain John Scalzi, Horror: Black River Orchard by David Wendig, and Mystery: I Have Some Questions for you by Rebecca Makkai.
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang is on a lot of best of 2023 book list. Yellowface looks at race, diversity, and cultural appropriation through the eyes of a woman taking her Asian girlfriend, novel and claiming it to be hers after death, by using a pseudonym that sounds Asian. I do not read that much contemporary fiction and really looking forward to it. I have not read any books by Kuang, but Babel and The Poppy War are highly recommended. Yellowface was published on May 25, 2023.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann is a crazy nonfiction that on a lot of 2023 best of list. A group of marooned crewmen were hailed as heroes as a flimsy boat washes up in Brazil, then six months later another decrepit boat shows up with three sailors in Chile and tells a tale of mutiny and murder about the so-called heroes. David Grann is the author of Killers of the Flower Moon and Lost City of Z. Martin Scorsese is already planning n making this novel his next film. The Wager was published on April 18, 2023.
The Mystery Guest by Nina Prose is the sequel to The Maid which I quite enjoyed last year and had it on my Best of 2022 list. Moly Gray the autistic maid is back with another mystery. This time a famed mystery writer drops dead in the hotel’s tearoom floor. Molly must solve the murder. The maid was a fun cozy mystery that was a lot of fun. I received an advanced reader’s copy thanks to Netgalley and Ballentine Books. The Mystery Guest is published on November 28, 2023.
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand is the first ever authorized by Shirley Jackson’s estate too return to The Haunting of Hill House. I’m reading the original first then the continuing of the story. I watch the Haunting of Hill House Series on Netflix and will be telling how these stories relate to that. Thanks from Netgalley and Mullholland Books for giving me a free copy. A Haunting on the Hill is published on October 3, 2023.
Stranger Things: Six By Jody Houser is the second Stranger Things graphic novel. Six is a prequel set five years before the events in Stranger Things. The story follows Six a character that can see in to the future, which I’m sure will include events that will happen in Stranger Things.
Goosebumps: Ghost Camp by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book 45 in the original series order. Some of my favorite Goosebumps have involved a camp Welcome to Camp Nightmare and The Horror at Camp JellyJam, so I have high hopes. The cover is very cool. The description doesn’t give anything away so I will have to be in the dark with this one, the scary dark.
Dear Readers, October was my best month for reading books. I read seven books this month way better than my three from last month. I think I was finally able to break my reading slump. I did read every book but one out of the six on the TBR post for this month. I read 3 Advanced Reader Copies books from Netgalley. My ratings for this month are 1 five stars, 4 fours stars, and 2 three star. I read all books with a horror element for the spooky month.
Five Star Reviews:
Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig is a one-of-a-kind horror that involves possessed apples and the people who eat them. The story is a happy medium of both weird and scary. It takes a great storyteller to make a horror about possessed apples work, but man does Chuck Wendig make it work. The story takes every trope about apples and applies it, the bad apple, the forbidden fruit, the golden apple, the bad seed, and the poisoned apples. The horror is greedy, cultish, cannibalistic, gory, and body modification. Wendig taps into descriptions of apple eating that will turn your stomach, and he’s just getting started. I don’t know how this novel has not given me bad dreams but all so I’m okay with it. The beginning of the novel is all set up it is a little slow but I was fascinated by the history of apples and orchards in America, as well as the characters being set up. The story has a mystery aspect that takes us through the middle which is interesting and a little surprising and leads to the finale. The finale is pure chaos and super tense, you feel that no character is safe and that anything can happen. The pace is consistent throughout and I found myself very entertained. I received an early copy of the book from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del Rey in exchange for a review. Black River Orchard was published on September 26, 2023.
Four Star Reviews:
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is not your typical haunted house story. The Hill House is a place of foreboding dread all the characters don’t fear the terror but feel something very off-putting. Eleanor is the one character who feels the most terror, but the way Jackson wrote it, you kind of ask if it is all the house or if this character always going to hit a breaking point. I was super impressed with the witty dialogue, which made me look forward to the moments that did not have horror. Is The Haunting of Hill House scary? Not really it is deeply psychological and there are some moments of terror (things that go bump in the night) but the horror is all in the mind we do not see any horror, but the characters feel it. The creepiest moment is when one character thought another character was holding their hand when it was physically impossible. This is a good novel for a book club because parts of it are open-ended is this only happening to one character? Is one character manifesting this on others? Can we trust the dialogue of other characters when Eleanor is around? Does the novel have an LGTBQ subplot? What did the caretakers Mr. and Mrs. Dudley know to have the rules they set up for the house? and finally, Why is Dr. Montague married to Mrs. Montague? She’s the worst. The Novel starts a little slow but we see how Eleanor’s brain works which is important. The novel gets going when everyone meets up at the house and we learn the history of Hill House. The first bumps in the night don’t happen until almost halfway through the book. Once they start the tension increases with every night until we go to the finale. I liked the ending which is subtle but it sticks with you.
The Hunger: A Marvel Zombies Novel by Marsheila Rockwell is a fun, gory female-led time-traveling superhero adventure. Doctor Strange is a zombie on the cover, so it is not a spoiler to say he doesn’t last long, but he sets the events to fix the zombie outbreak for his young librarian and apprentice Zelda Stanton. I have never read a Doctor Strange comic, I only know of Doctor Strange from the MCU, so I had never heard of Zelda Stanton. I liked her character who would rather be with books than dealing with deadly super-powered zombies, but she rises to the occasion in this fish-out-of-water story. She recruits Nico Minoru from The Runaways, Whom I have read most of the Runaways Marvel comics, Elsa Bloodstone, the monster hunter 2022 MCU Halloween special Werewolf By Night, and Deadpool, The Merc with the Mouth whom I’m familiar with in comics and movies. This is the gang of superheroes left to defeat the super-powered zombie horde. The story is fun and gets off to a fast start. The novel does slow down after the characters debate too long about how to defeat zombies and the plan is very convoluted. The plan eventually starts to make sense but it takes a little too long, I needed Zelda to explain it in simpler terms to probably Deadpool, who screws up the plans anyway. The last two fights of the novel are pretty epic the first one I did not think they were going to the top but they did. The action comes all at the end, for most of the novel they avoid the zombies until they have to, I would have preferred the fights to be more spaced out but boy do they deliver. I was given a free copy by Aconyte Books through Netgalley for a review. The Hunger: A Marvel Zombies Novel was published on October 3, 2023.
Stranger Things: The Other Side by Jody Houser is a good companion book to Stranger Things Season 1, as it shows what happened to Will Byers when he went to the other side. I have not watched the first season of Stranger Things in a couple of years but this graphic novel took me back and made me want to watch the whole season again. The art is good and captures what the other side of our world looks like really well. Eleven is the only character I felt that did not look like the actor portraying the character (Milli Bobby Brown), I felt like that did a great job on everyone else. This novel starts on the other side with Will already trapped. So if you read this graphic novel and haven’t seen the show you could be a little lost, the graphic novel also doesn’t set up Eleven’s character at all. Will Byers has become the heart of the show and the story did a good job of showing how emotionally scarred the character is and will become. The conclusion is the same as the show with Joyce and Hopper breaking through to the other side and saving Will Byers. I enjoyed this short four-issue graphic novel that is just 96 pages long. Stranger Things: The Other Side was published on May 7, 2019, by Dark Horse Books.
Goosebumps: The Beast From the East by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book 43 in the original series order. The story starts fast-paced and is pretty scary for the first 35 pages until the creatures speak their first words, You are it. Then you know what kind of Goosebumps story you’re in for. The story has its lame moments but for the part, I was entertained and enjoyed the pace of the story. The cat and mouse game is changed to the creature and human in this story which makes it fun and exciting. The kids play a deadly game of tag for their lives with the threat that if they lose they will get eaten. The creatures start off scary but ruin it a little when they start to talk. This story is the kid-friendly version of Richard Bachman’s aka Stephen King’s The Running Man. In which unwitting players play a game of life and death where the rules aren’t fully explained and easily broken. I felt the scene and setting were described well, I could easily envision the forest the kids were trapped in. The brother and sister relationship was excellent as the kids worked well together, and the older sister tried to stay calm for the younger brothers. The twist at the finale was lame but it set up a final twist that was decent and made sense. I seemed to like this story more than my fellow reviewers it is not great storytelling but fun. The Beast From the East was published on May 1, 1996.
Three Star Reviews:
Slime Doesn’t Pay! by R.L. Stine is a middle-grade horror novel that dips into the horror a little more than his Goosebumps series. Slime Doesn’t Pay! is a rip on the popular slogan Crime Doesn’t Pay! This story deals with crime and slime so the title fits. The horror setup in the beginning is very good with a slumber party where a monster joins and then a break-in. The opening scene did give me some goosebumps when I felt the trapped isolation that the slumber party felt. The opening scene was the best and it went on for 60 pages, and it introduces the real monster of the story Arnie the little brother to Amy who throws the slumber party. Stine has written some horrible little siblings, Tara from Goosebumps: The Cuckoo Clock of Doom comes to mind, but Arnie is double the trouble, and in the end, you will want Amy to have her revenge. The story has a Stephen King’s Carrie event that you can tell from the cover but with a twist. The ending is too long and overstays it’s welcome. The ending made me roll my eyes because it didn’t make sense and made the audience have to overlook a lot. This was my first non-Goosebumps book from R. L. Stine while I appreciate was a little scarier the novel could have been 40 pages shorter and wrapped up after one of the best twists from Stine. I read Slime Doesn’t Pay! for free in exchange for a review thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing. Slime Doesn’t Pay! was published on September 26, 2023.
Goosebumps – Say Cheese and Die Again! by R. L. Stine is a sequel to the original Say Cheese and Die with all four of the characters returning. The worst invention ever lives, is the camera that makes bad things happen. The camera is the best part and it stinks that in the story it takes 30% of the book for Greg to get it again. The first Say Cheese and Die was all about the kids not believing or finding out that the camera is evil, in this story they know it is evil, and is almost a treat to take someone’s picture since they all know something bad will happen as does the reader. I wish the story could have leaned into the revenge aspect of the story since that was the best part of the story. Oh, you accidentally took a photo of me lets take a photo of you. The pace is slow at first until the camera is found. The reason to get the camera again could have been better but it worked. Only 5 photos are taken with the camera and I wanted to see more. The final twist was good since we know and can imagine what the consequences will be. Say Cheese and Die Again! is one of the seven Goosebumps books to get a sequel from the original series
Reading with My Eyes 
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