This Bright Future

A month ago I couldn't have told you a single thing about Logic. I was vaguely aware that he was a rapper but other than that....no idea.

My sister started telling me about his novel, Supermarket and how it deals with a lot of mental health topics like anxiety, bipolar, derealization, and things like that. So she loaned me Logic's novel and memoir and told me I would be absolutely shocked at his story.

But I wasn't. His story is one that I've heard a million times from people incredibly close to me. Some of his stories are word for word the same stories I've been told. The unstable home life, the drug and alcohol addicted parents, the stark reality of mental illness in poverty ridden areas. I've heard this all before. It breaks my heart to hear anyone has gone through the abuse and mental torture that comes with this way of life. But it's amazing to see a story that doesn't end with arrests or overdoses. It's so illogical that Bobby Hall became Logic.

 

The rawness of his story really grabbed my attention because most celebrities don't talk about being a child in this environment. Most rappers and rockstars created this life for themselves, they weren't born into it like Logic was. This was his every day reality and yet he somehow managed to pull himself into stardom with the help of AIM chatrooms and early Internet rap battles.

I'm not going to lie, I've never listened to a single one of his songs but when he started talking about how he came up with the song 1-800-273-8255 I was hooked. This dude really took Mac Miller's death to heart, wrote a song, and used the National Suicide Prevention Hotline number as the title. It's incredible.

This is a come up story focused on mental health. I just think we need more truly candid entertainers like Logic in the world. We need peace, love, and positivity.

Looking for other books by Bobby Hall?

Supermarket

The Last Thing He Told Me

Protect her.

 

That is all Owen's note to Hannah said.

Then he disappeared.

 

Owen and Hannah had been married for a little over a year. So, it's safe to say Hannah was still getting used to her stepdaughter, Bailey. This was uncharted territory for the new family. Owen and Bailey were on their own for nearly a decade after Bailey's mom was killed in a freak car accident. Hannah was nearly 40 with no previous marriages or children. Not to mention, she barely had a relationship with her own mother. So becoming a stepparent to a teenager didn't exactly come easily.

I don't know if I just overhyped this book in my own head or if everyone else overhyped it. I was expecting Little Fires Everywhere vibes based on the cover (and yes, I 100% judged this book based on it's cover). It does have many of the same undertones but it was a completely different kind of story. Don't get me wrong; it was good, if not a little predictable. It was a quick read though, finished it in a day. Definitely could have imagined myself laying on a pool float, soaking up the sun, and devouring this book. That's honestly the vibe.

 

You Can't Be Serious

You Can't Be Serious is honestly a great title.

Kal Penn is such an enigma. I hardly knew anything about him when I picked up his memoir. But I knew he was in some of my favorite shows, like How I Met Your Mother and New Girl. Not to mention he's half of the dynamic duo, Harold & Kumar. Oh, and he casually left Hollywood to fulfill his passion for civic duty by literally working in The White House with the Obama administration. 

I've read a lot of celebrity memoirs, but the one thing I always love is when I can hear their distinct voice while reading their book. Kal Penn's voice rang true throughout his entire story. He doesn't shy away from his personal life but it does take a backseat throughout the story. He reflects upon important moments, like his Grandfather marching with Ghandi, or his dad driving him to auditions in the middle of a blizzard, even to how his soon to be husband won him over with NASCAR and beer koozies.

It's a quick read filled with Hollywood humor and D.C. professionalism and I loved it.

A History of Wild Places

 

 Hoooooooly, oh my god.

A History of Wild Places has everything I'm looking for in a book. A disappearance, a man with a knack for locating people, and a small community where no one would look. I'm honestly still trying to wrap my head around everything that just happened.

Children's author, Maggie St. James has been missing for five years. Desperate to find their daughter, Maggie's parents hire Travis Wren. His specialty lies in the objects the missing leave behind. He can read them in a way that gives him an insight into what might have happened. Having been out of the game for awhile, he's reluctant to look for Maggie. But after a cryptic interaction with Maggie's mom, he sets out to find the small community of Pastoral.

This book is incredibly difficult to review without giving away major spoilers. It's not your typical missing person, mystery, thriller, story. It's a story that creates doubt in everything you've ever believed in. It makes the reader question everything. It's not predictable in the sense that I saw it coming, but in the sense that I fully believed the path the story was on. It led me straight to the answers I was looking for. Honestly, I think that's what it set out to do for the characters too.

Definitely one of the best books I've ever purchased on a whim.

Without Pity

In Without Pity: Ann Rule's Most Dangerous Killers, Rule details 12 true crime cases that have haunted her throughout her career as a crime writer. I've always loved her writing style but this book just was not my favorite. Since we're reading about 12 cases, it doesn't let the reader really sit with the facts of the crime. Most of the case studies stayed around 40 pages each, which isn't bad but I felt like I couldn't dive right in and let the case consume me like some of Ann Rule's other works.

But let me tell you, the second to last story really got to me. It was titled "The Lost Lady" and detailed the disappearance and eventual death of Marcia Moore. This one bothered me for a number of reasons. So this is the one I want to talk about in my review today. Marcia Moore studied psychology and astrology and her much of her published works showed the interaction between the two. Shortly after marrying her husband, a well known anesthesiologist, they began experimenting with daily Ketamine use while trying to find a way to market "Ketamine Psychotherapy." Ketamine was a relatively new drug in the 70s and they had no idea what injecting 50 mg a day would do to Marcia. But they did it anyway.

 

Her husband came home one evening to find Marcia missing. Her kimono was thrown on the floor and all her personal belongings were on the table. But she was nowhere to be found. Two years later, her partial skull was found a mere 15 miles away from her home. They believed she wandered away in a drug induced haze and her death followed soon after.

 

Ann Rule shared updated details on this case in 2003. So I decided to do some internet sleuthing and discovered that this case has never been solved. But what is even more weird....Marcia's son, Christopher, went missing in 2010. His family assumed he was distancing himself from them, so they never filed a missing person's report. But several of his students created the Facebook Group, Where Is Mr. Roof? A former student was listening to a true crime podcast about an unidentified John Doe who was found in November 2010, in the woods, wearing a beanie with the name Chris stitched into it. She had a gut feeling that she knew it who it was. Christopher Roof remained a John Doe for over a decade before he was positively identified in September 2021.

It just feels like an odd coincidence that both Marcia and Christopher died mysterious deaths. Nearly 40 years apart and on opposite coasts, they both died in the woods, alone. I'm about to let this case completely consume me, so get ready for more books on this one.

Looking for other books by Ann Rule?

The Stranger Beside Me

Lust Killer

Lying in Wait

Supermarket

My sister loaned me her copy of Logic's book, Supermarket.

I honestly was a little on the fence about reading this novel for a few reasons. Mainly because I had no idea who Logic was but also because my mom and sister both realllllllllly hyped this book up to me. All my sister told me was that it deals with mental health issues that the author had gone through himself. So I decided to give it a shot.

Main character Flynn is an aspiring author who decides the best way to finish his novel is to completely immerse himself in the story. If you haven't guessed it yet, his novel is set in a supermarket. So Flynn sets out to find himself a job at a grocery store. Everyone in the store quickly becomes inspiration for characters in his book. There's Ted, Ronda, Kurtis, Rachel, Becca, Cara, Bianca, Ann, Mia, and of course, Frank.

It's menial work but Flynn is getting good content for his novel. Plus, he gained a best friend and a girlfriend just by showing up at Muldoon's every day. But this is kind of where the story gets tricky to talk about.....

I was 32 pages in when I had a hunch.

I was 66 pages in when I knew.

I was 157 pages in when everything really came together.

I was flying through the last 100 pages.

 

It was honestly worth the hype.

 

Looking for other books by Bobby Hall?

This Bright Future

The First 21

I was a teenager when my mom handed me a copy Nikki Sixx's The Heroin Diaries. We regularly shared music books so this wasn't a big thing, but this book was insane. It detailed Nikki Sixx's descent into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. So when I saw that he was publishing another book, The First 21, detailing his life leading up to his rockstar lifestyle, I immediately preordered it.

Where The Heroin Diaries was raw and unfiltered journal entries filled with unbelievable stories, The First 21 drops the facade of Nikki Sixx and lets us into the life of Frankie Feranna. A young man who had been taken in by his grandparents who allowed him to be who he wanted to be. They believed in him when neither of his parents did. Strangers along the way created the man we know as Nikki Sixx. But little did I know, he borrowed or straight up stole aspects of his stage persona from literally everyone he came in contact with, even his name.

It's not really the book I was expecting it to be, but it was a good quick read into the life of an average kid with Idahoan roots who actually made it as a rockstar. It's not about the raw unfiltered version we all know and love, it's about the kid who made it.

Looking for other books by Nikki Sixx?

The Heroin Diaries

Looking for other books by Motley Crue Members?

Tommyland

Looking for other books featuring Motley Crue?

Life on Planet Rock

Answered Prayers

By now, you all know I'm obsessed with Truman Capote.

So lets talk about his infamous unfinished novel, Answered Prayers.

 

For years, the publication date for this book kept getting pushed back. There are so many theories surrounding why this book was never finished. Personally, I don't think he ever intended to finish writing it. He even makes jokes in the very first chapter that he may never get around to finishing it. But regardless of how many stories were lost, or destroyed, or whatever may have happened, Answered Prayers contains three fantastic stories.

Answered Prayers follows a fictionalized version of Capote, as P.B. Jones. This character seems to be hellbent on writing a novel that exposes all the secrets of his closest friends. It's filled with sex, alcohol, and socialite drama. "Unspoiled Monsters" dove headfirst into the sex fueled "service station" that made Jones start selling his body. "Kate McCloud" was basically Holly Golightly 2.0. The depression, the anxiety, the worldview. But it embraced the queer undertones in a not so subtle way, quite the opposite in Breakfast at Tiffany's. But "La Cote Basque" really brought the gossip to the table. Lady Ina wasn't afraid to tell Jones the goings-on in their upper-crust circle.

Now, I'm well aware that this book fractured many of Capote's friendships, but I don't believe that's why he stopped writing the book. I think the drugs and alcohol, mixed with blatant honesty about his life caused him to stop writing. I really think this was it for him. His life's work became an illusion of truth.

Looking for other books by Truman Capote?

In Cold Blood

Other Voices, Other Rooms

 The Grass Harp

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

Music for Chameleons

 

Looking for other books featuring Truman Capote?

Tru & Nelle

Tru & Nelle: A Christmas Tale

No Saints in Kansas

The Dating Game Killer

In 1978, The Dating Game introduced Bachelor No. 1. He was described as a successful photographer who enjoys skydiving and motorcycling....his name was Rodney Alcala.

 

But before his television debut as an eligible bachelor, Alcala spent time in prison after being charged with the sexual assault and attempted murder of an eight year old girl. Believe it or not, he lured her into his car with the promise of pretty pictures he had taken. Yet, somehow he was recruited for the game show which he shockingly won.

I didn't know much about Rodney Alcala, dubbed The Dating Game Killer for obvious reasons. So I was fully unprepared for the graphic rapes, assaults, torture, and murders of so many young women. It infuriated me that Alcala got not one, not two, but three separate trials for his last suspected murder. With two death sentence reversals, he somehow managed to keep his case in court for nearly 30 years. But the early 2000s had a new trick, DNA testing. After obtaining DNA from Alcala, investigators were able to tie him to four other women who had been brutally raped and murdered in California. After a third trial, Alcala was sentenced to death for his attacks on Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb, Jill Parenteau, and Robin Samsoe.

 

A few years later, the same DNA was tied to a case in New York on Cornelia "Michael" Crilley. He was also considered the prime suspect in Ellen Hover's murder. Since The Dating Game Killer was released in 2010, Alcala has been tied to several other murders in California, Washington, and Wyoming. After spending most of his adult life on Death Row, Rodney Alcala managed to avoid the death penalty and died of natural causes in July 2021.

Seven Dirty Secrets

Oh. My. God. THAT ENDING.

I was picking my jaw up off the floor at 2 am when a freaking bomb was dropped like 10 pages before the end of the book. I thought I had it figured out too and I was WROOOOOONG.

You guys all know Natalie D. Richards is one of my auto-buy authors. But I'm not even kidding when I say Seven Dirty Secrets is her best book yet. It's believable, has just enough twists to keep you on edge, and really truly will make your jaw drop.

The premise includes a weekend long scavenger hunt and some cryptic clues.

"One caused the fall.

One did nothing.

One saw it all.

One didn't care.

One used their head.

One played the hero.

One was left for dead."

 

This hunt wasn't what Cleo had in mind for her birthday, but she was willing to play along. That is until she realizes the dates, times, and clues are all focused around time she spent with her abusive ex-boyfriend.....oh and he died on a camping trip for her birthday the year before. With her best friend and brother in tow, they set off to find whoever is taunting them. The whole thing just felt so believable. Natalie D. Richards really created such an amazing character. Cleo had her eyes set on college, an abusive past, and a dead ex. I just felt incredibly connected to her and honestly it made me love this book more than any of the others.

Looking for other books by Natalie D. Richards?

One Was Lost

We All Fall Down

What You Hide

Six Months Later

Gone Too Far

My Secret to Tell

Five Total Strangers

Tacky

It's no surprise that I'm obsessed with the early 2000s.

 

I have an odd mix of Britney Spears, Fall Out Boy, and a variety of one hit wonders on my playlist and I bump that shit regularly. I can now stream reruns of MTV's most cringe-worthy shows. I still wear my mass produced Nirvana tee that I begged my mom for at Hot Topic. Hell, I probably still have a bottle of Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion tucked away in a memory box too. So if you're looking to walk down memory lane, you need a copy of Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer.

 

Rax King hits all the high points and low points of 2000s pop culture. Since we're basically the same age, we had arguably the same experiences as every other preteen in the early 2000s. I don't know what the fascination is with this era, but I'm here for it. Rax King writes in a way that vocalizes how important it is to be yourself, but does it in a way that is so incredibly relatable.

We take away little things from every experience we have. Whether it be music tastes from CDs the neighbor burned for you, learning the art of seduction from rom-coms, or even watching Guy Fieri yell about Flavortown in an attempt to heal a broken heart. We've literally all been there. So yeah, my walk into adulthood had a lot of the same stops along the way and I wouldn't change it one bit.

Dracula

Sooooooo it's 2021 and I've finally read Dracula.

I actually decided to buy a special edition book box from The Literary Book Club which features a classic novel and bookish gifts to open on specific pages. Honestly, it enhances the book reading experience every time I get a box like this but this Dracula box was by far my favorite.

As for the book itself, I was so surprised when I realized it was written through journal entries, letters, and newspaper clippings. I'm OBSESSED with books written this way. Throwing a vampire into the mix makes it even better.

We've known about Dracula forever. We know he's the original vampire with a kick-ass castle. Instead of talking about him, I'm gonna talk about some of the things I was completely caught off guard by. For example, I didn't realize Van Helsing originated here! I also loved reading Dr. Seward's journals because who doesn't love a psychologist nonchalantly observing the effects of vampirism?! It also blows my mind how modern vampire stories pretty much follow the same outline of what it means to be a vampire.

I originally got caught up with Dracula after I accidentally found a copy of Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Bram Stoker actually drew inspiration for Dracula from Carmilla's story which was published nearly 25 years before the release of his iconic vampire tale.

A Professor's Rage

I was expecting this book to chronicle the story of Amy Bishop's life. Little did I know, it was a life filled with crime.

Bishop is most widely known for methodically murdering half of the Biology staff at the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) in 2010. Bishop was driven to murder because she was denied tenure and would not be continuing on as a Professor at UAH. Violence and disappointment seem to be a common theme in the Amy Bishop crime catalog.

It took 24 years and a mass shooting before the Braintree Massachusetts Police Department finally brought the Seth Bishop shooting to light. In 1986 Amy decided it was time to teach herself how to use her father's shotgun. After it "accidentally" went off in her upstairs bedroom, she attempted to find her brother, Seth, to see if he could help her unload the weapon. Upon running downstairs, the shotgun "accidentally" went off again, this time striking and killing Seth. Instead of staying with him, she ran and unsuccessfully attempted to carjack several drivers before threatening Dinger Ford employees at gunpoint. Realizing they weren't going to give her a car off the lot, she continued running. She was still clutching the gun when police finally attempted to apprehend her.

That's just the beginning of her life of crime.

There's also an incident involving a pipe bomb being sent to one of her bosses after an explosive incident in a research lab. While Amy and her husband have been cleared in this crime, there is still significant evidence that they were involved.

Oh, and she straight up decked a woman in an IHOP because her kid was using the last booster seat.

So, yeah.

Valley of the Dolls

It's 1 o'clock in the morning and I'm angry.

But, I think we can learn a few things from Valley of the Dolls.

 

 Things like....men ain't shit.

Or build your own way in life.

Or don't turn on the ones who love you.

Honestly there was a lot more going on in this book than I expected. Booze is flowing, pills are poppin', and everyone's mental health is a little bit shaky. Not to mention the insomnia, the eating disorders, the suicide attempts, and the abortions. What I think was the most interesting aspect of this book is that these topics weren't really portrayed in a negative or positive light. It felt more like they were just facts of life. It felt real. It felt like Anne, Neely, and Jennifer were real.

I can't really wrap my head around the way I'm feeling about this book right now. It's going to stick with me for a long while. I understand why some people read this and think it's just a trashy piece of literature filled with celebrity gossip. But it's so much more than that. It put the spotlight on mental illness when not many people wanted to talk about it. It shifted the focus to working women who wanted to create a life for themselves, with or without a man. It was raw and powerful. I don't know why it took me so long to read this classic novel but I'm so glad I finally did.

Marilyn Monroe: The Last Interview

Marilyn Monroe is an icon. 

I've never really known much about her, but when I was reading Truman Capote's short story, "A Beautiful Child," I quickly became enthralled by their friendship. I don't think I ever looked beyond Marilyn's persona to think about who she was until I read that story. Seeing Truman Capote write about his friend and her struggles, I had an inkling that she might have a much deeper story than what Hollywood wanted us to see.

I finally found a copy of Marilyn Monroe: The Last Interview in a local bookstore. I snatched it up and devoured it in a few hours. Topping off at 100 pages, this book narrates Marilyn's last interview just weeks before her death. It also features several journalistic conversations where we get real insight into who she was. She didn't set out to become an icon, hell she didn't even want that kind of responsibility. She wasn't the dumb blonde she was typecast as. She was passionate, brilliant, beautiful, and complicated. She just wanted a life to call her very own.

I love her.

I love this.

 

Looking for other books featuring Marilyn Monroe?

Music For Chameleons

Blonde

My Story

 

Looking for other books in The Last Interview Series?

Anthony Bourdain

Kurt Cobain

Gods & Monsters

Okay Shelby, we need to talk about that epilogue because I was not prepared to be crying at 1:30 in the morning.

Gods & Monsters is the final book in the Serpent & Dove series and arguably the best one. This was 612 pages of pure madness. The amount of action in every scene made me not want to close the book. I was immersed in every fight scene, every love scene, just every. single. scene.

I can't even say much about this book without giving away too much of the story. But I'll try.

Lou, Reid, Coco, and Beau are the most wanted people in Cesarine. They're still running from Morgane but they've changed their tactic. They need to eliminate her. Upon seeking new alliances, they decide the best course of action is not running from her, but running towards her. When Reid's magic gets away from him, he creates a nearly ideal world Morgane forgets she ever had a daughter. She can't kill Lou if she doesn't even know she exists. But with every spell comes consequences for the one who cast it....

This book brought forth a lot of grief, understanding, rekindling, and closure.

Honestly, I just love this series and I'm incredibly sad that it's over.

Looking for the rest of the series?

Serpent & Dove (S&D #1)

Blood & Honey (S&D #2)

As Good As Dead

The final book in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy is finally here!!

Quick recap for those who don't know....Pip hosts a true crime podcast aptly named A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (AGGGTM). Based on the ending of Good Girl, Bad Blood, I made the comment about how messy the third book could get. And jesuuuuuuuus, does it get messy.

Pip takes up jogging in As Good As Dead and sees some mysterious chalk figures on her driveway on her way home. Couple that with a few dead pigeons and Pip decides she has a stalker. Obviously based on previous experience with the local police, she knows they won't believe her. So she takes matters into her own hands and decides to investigate on her own.

Her investigation leads her to believe the DT Killer is after her, which makes no sense because he's been behind bars for the last 6 years. Unless......maybe they got the wrong guy. It wouldn't be surprising given the history of shoddy police work in Fairview.

In typical Pip fashion, she quickly gets in over her head.

She needs an alibi and she needs one fast.

 

Looking for the rest of the series?

Kill Joy (AGGGTM #0.5)

 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (AGGGTM #1)

Good Girl, Bad Blood (AGGGTM #2)

Hush Little Babies

I firmly believe that Darlie Routier did not kill her children.

 

Yet, Darlie has sat on death row for nearly 25 years.

So quick recap of what happened the night her boys, Devon and Damon were killed. Darlie and her two oldest boys were sleeping downstairs in the living room while her husband Darin to their fussy 8 month old, Drake, upstairs to sleep. Around 2:30 am, Darin is woken up by Darlie screaming that someone killed the boys. Darin runs downstairs, sees the boys laying in pools in of blood while Darlie is gushing blood from her neck. Paramedics and police are on the scene in less than 10 minutes. Within a half hour of assessing the scene, Jim Cron had already decided the intruder theory was bogus and that Darlie was the perpetrator.

I'm bothered by this case because they immediately honed in on Darlie. While she was recovering from her wounds in the hospital, detectives popped in to take a statement from her. Comparing the 911 call with her hospital statement, there are some differences. But let me ask you two things. 1) If you were just attacked in your home and are watching your boys die while trying to explain what happened, do you think you'd be 100% coherent? 2) If you just woke up, groggy from medication given to you during emergency surgery, would you be able to give a coherent statement?

That's one of the many issues I have with this case.

But I also want to know how they convicted a woman with no physical evidence. Darlie's trial was 100% based on circumstantial evidence. Not to mention the prosecution's theories are absurd. They truly believe Darlie stabbed her children to death, staged a crime scene, planted a bloody sock on the street nearly 3 houses away, and then stabbed herself 5 times with her non-dominant hand AND made them look like defensive wounds.

 

I just don't buy that. I don't believe she's responsible for this.

The Book of Accidents

I know I'm about to be in the minority here, but this book was not for me.

After reading a few of my friend's reviews, I decided to impulse buy The Book of Accidents. This book has received so much praise and I just don't get it.

It was horror meets sci-fi meets coming of age. It kind of felt like he took every single season of American Horror Story and mashed them together into this weird book. There's a haunted house, an impending apocalypse, multiple dimensions, a book of magic, a serial killer, and it even incorporates weird political undertones. But I suffered through all 525 pages because I thought it might get better.

The premise is simple, Nate's abusive father dies. Soon after Nate's family is packing up and moving into his childhood home. Nate transitions from big city cop, to small town Fish & Game warden. His artist wife, Maddie is ready to tackle bigger and better projects. She'll have her own workspace and can be alone with nature to craft whatever her heart desires. Their son, Olly, is ready to start over. He might finally have a chance to forget all the dark, evil, and painful things happening in the world. But, of course, that darkness seemed to follow them.

That's pretty much when things get weird.

It's all downhill from there.

You Got Anything Stronger?

I went on my first date with Gabrielle Union in October 2020.

September 2021, she finally decided we should know each other a little better.

 So, I poured myself a glass of wine, and took a seat.

 

I felt like I had really gotten to know Gabrielle Union in her first book, We're Going to Need More Wine. She revisits many of the same topics in You Got Anything Stronger? But she also jumps straight into the new things happening in her life. She talks about motherhood, finding balance, and creating a family friendly workplace in Hollywood. Still, it wouldn't be a date with Gab if she didn't also bring up strippers and dance battles.

I heard all about the kids.

Kaavia James seems to always be on the go, running around without any care in the world. Zaya is busing living her truest self, exploring her sexuality while educating her family on what it means to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

We even went back and talked about how she feels like she let down Isis, her character in Bring It On. Even though she voiced her opinions on how Isis should speak and act, she ultimately didn't get to see her dream on the big screen. While her opinions definitely helped create a more authentic character, it still feels like it was watered down in a way that was easier for white people to digest.

I fee; like I got to meet a truly authentic version of Gabrielle Union. One that can joke about herself but also be downright honestly about the things troubling her. That's what made this book so enjoyable. I'm sure we'll meet again.

Looking for other books by Gabrielle Union?

We're Going to Need More Wine

What About Will

Ellen Hopkins writing middle grade novels makes my heart so happy.

 

Like most of her books, What About Will was written in verse. This writing style makes it so easy to fly through her books, which is probably why I read this entire book in like.....4 hours.

 

What About Will is the story of two brothers, Will and Trace. The story is told through Trace's point of view and details Will's downward spiral. Trace tries not to upset Will because he knows his anger is related to the traumatic brain injury he suffered while playing football. But Trace misses the brother he used to have. He wants to help, even if he is only 12.

Trace notices Will becoming more and more withdrawn everyday. He tries to tell his overworked dad and absentee mom, but they both brush it off as high school stress. At one point, Trace's mom tells him she's sure he'll go through this phase one day too. But Trace knows deep down that this is different.

What I love about Ellen Hopkins is that even in this middle grade novel, she refuses to shy away from tough topics. This book deals with absentee parents, prison, addiction, and even rehab. Kids today need books like this because there's a good chance someone in your class is going through the same things. Hopkins knows that first hand and regularly writes about things going on in her life. The kids she's raising are all familiar with these topics because they're living it.

Looking for other books by Ellen Hopkins?

Middle-Grade Fiction:

Closer to Nowhere

YA Fiction:

Crank (Crank #1)

Glass (Crank #2)

Fallout (Crank #3)

Flirtin' with the Monster (Crank Anthology)

Burned (Burned #1)

Smoke (Burned #2)

Rumble

Tricks (Tricks #1)

Traffick (Tricks #2)

The You I've Never Known

 People Kill People

Adult Fiction:

 Love Lies Beneath (LLB #1)

A Sin Such as This (LLB #2)

Collateral

Triangles

Anthologies:

One Death, Nine Stories

Behind the Song

Life Inside My Mind

Meddling Kids

I know what you're thinking....

"Isn't meddling kids the catch phrase of literally every unmasked villain in Scooby-Doo?"

Well yes, yes it is.

In the summer of 1977, four teenagers and a dog formed the Blyton Hills Summer Detective Club. They ran all over town looking for crimes they could help solve. Their last case helped unmask the Sleepy Lake Monster. After 13 years, the man behind the mask was released from prison. That's when Andrea "Andy" Rodriquez hunts him down in an attempt to uncover the mastermind behind the actual crime.

Soon enough, Andy's kicking misogynistic ass in Kerri's bar. They grab Kerri's dog, Tim, and head towards the Arkham facility to bust out Nate. They have unfinished business in Blyton Hills.

So this basically took the teens from Scooby-Doo, aged them up to mid-20s, gave them much darker backstories, and handed them weapons. Oh, and throw in some necromancy for spice. It was an odd little book that didn't really do much for me. But I think anyone who grew up watching Scooby and his pals would probably enjoy this book.

Generation We

Generation We: The Power and Promise of Gen Z caught my eye on Goodreads for a couple of reasons. I happen to be one of the youngest Millennials (1995) and my sister is one of the oldest Gen Zs (1997). I always believed we grew up in a fairly similar world since we're only a year and a half apart. It was crazy reading this book and being able to relate back to my sister and so many of my close friends. I have Gen Z friends out here killing it as parents and some who still live at home with their parents. Some of them have started their own businesses and some are still working for the man. But the one thing we can't deny is how powerful this generation is going to be.

I have fought with southern old white women about gender equality, systemic racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and even healthcare. It blows my mind that some people are willing to argue that some people don't deserve equal rights. But Gen Z is fully prepared to face lawmakers head. They are not sitting idly while legislation creates a less than ideal world for the future, they're taking action and holding major corporations accountable for their wrongdoings.

Author, AnneMarie Hayek, acknowledges that she is Gen X and used a team of Gen Zs to help create this book and received input from Gen Zs all over the US. Hayek is a partner of the company Global Mosaic, which is who published this book. 

All that being said, I had a few issues with it. Just doing a basic google search would discredit several topics brought up in the book. At one point, the author begins talking about Billie Eilish's career and how she became famous after posting a song on SoundCloud. When mentioning Eilish again, the author states that Eilish actually uses they/them pronouns. Now, I can't find any information stating that this is true. But if it was, someone on her team missed the potentially harmful use of she/her instead of they/them when discussing Billie Eilish.

Hayek also discusses something she refers to as Eco-Anxiety and Eco-PTSD. The idea behind these disorders is that Gen Z is struggling to cope with the deteriorating climate and what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint. Hayek claims that many teens are struggling with these new disorders. While the American Psychology Association has acknowledged Eco-Anxiety as a stressor, no psychologist is currently treating this as a diagnosable disorder.

I am glad that I read this book. I just wish some of the topics were researched a bit more.

The Dead and the Dark

Was I expecting a horror novel when I bought this? Yes.

Is that what I got? Not at all.

What I got instead was an incredibly unique ghost story with a mostly queer cast.

The story begins with Logan and her dads moving to Snakebite, Oregon. It's been 13 years since Alejo and Brandon have set foot in the dark and gloomy town they grew up in, but their paranormal TV show has them scouting locations in the area. So they packed up and moved home.

In typical small town horror story fashion, teenagers start going missing and turning up dead pretty much as soon as the Ortiz-Woodley family shows back up. Of course, secrets never stay hidden for long and when there are teenagers involved. You know they're bound to do their own sleuthing. Logan and Ashley quickly strike up an investigative friendship. If her dads can hunt ghosts, so can she. She steals a few ghost hunting devices from their bags and sets off to a cabin in the woods.

The ending is what really made me love this book.

Everything was tied up so nicely.

 

I thought I was crazy when I told my friend it felt like Murder House meets Riverdale. As I was reading the Acknowledgments, I realized I wasn't alone in that description. But, like I said earlier, it was missing the horror aspect that I was craving. Still a great story but definitely could have used a few more scares.

At The End of Everything

I'm obsessed with everything Marieke Nijkamp writes.

At The End of Everything is set in the fictional Hope Juvenile Treatment Center, essentially a detention center for juvenile offenders. The government gets away with calling it a "treatment center" by having one therapist work with literally all the teens there. All the guards are concerned with is getting the teens to follow the rules, however ridiculous they may be.

 

This book is told through multiple characters' points of view. There's Grace, the girl who somehow got promoted from solitary confinement to leading the teens through a literal plague. There's Emerson, who feels like they just don't belong in this facility. Then there's Leah's nonverbal twin sister, Logan.

While all their story lines coincide, reading Logan's chapters were my favorite. Social cues are a critical necessity when interacting with someone nonverbal, which is why it's absolutely amazing to me that Marieke Nijkamp managed to portray Logan as such a spunky and charismatic character in this book.

Okay, so let's actually get into the plot of the book.

Most of the novel takes place within the confines of Hope Juvenile Treatment Center. Right away, Grace notices something weird is going down but she never expected all of the staff to disappear. The guards, the wardens, the therapists....gone. All these teens have been left alone, but why?

A group of them gather up the courage to leave the facility they've all lived in for months. During their trek for answers, they get stopped at a roadblock. The National Guard informs them of the virus/disease spreading rapidly all over the country. The Guard then gives them the chance to head back to the Hope Facility or be met with gunfire.

Realizing there's no help coming for them, the teens are left to fend for themselves. They have little skills, little food, and little hope of getting out of there alive.

Immense thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an advanced copy of this book! At The End of Everything hits shelves on January 25, 2022!

Looking for other books by Marieke Nijkamp?

This Is Where It Ends

Before I Let Go

Even If We Break

The Lucifer Effect

If you've ever taken a college psych class, you've probably heard of Dr. Philip Zimbardo. If his name doesn't sound familiar, you might recognize his famous psychological experiment. Dr. Zimbardo created the Stanford Prison Experiment designed to study the psychology of imprisonment. What Dr. Zimbardo and his research team failed to realize was how quickly their makeshift prison would become a real prison for a handful of average college students.

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil explores the concept of good versus evil and the gray space in between. It explores situational factors that allows the reader to step into the role of the research subject. It creates the impossible task of  hypothesizing what the reader would do in these instances. Would you, the prisoner in this scenario, adhere to the demanding and demeaning prison guards? Would you, the guard, force prisoners into sexually explicit stances? Would you stand up for what you believe in or would you face emotional defeat willingly?

 

This makeshift prison was shut down within a week due to the emotional distress the prisoners were facing. Of course, that doesn't mean the study was a failure. It became a real prison for the boys involved. Guards and prisoners alike were distraught with the way they acted during the experiment.

Dr. Zimbardo focuses on the Stanford Prison Experiment for roughly half of the book. The other half is spent drawing parallels between the Stanford Prison Experiment and the abuses at Abu Ghraib, a U.S. Military run prison in Iraq. The blatant torture and abuses between guards and prisoners were recorded through a series of photos that the guards passed around to the other service members. Dr. Zimbardo was invited to discuss the nature of these photos and the situational factors surrounding them. While never dismissing or condoning the abuse, he does his best to explain why these things could have been happening in this prison. He goes on to describe how he experienced a similar phenomenon in his makeshift prison.

 

This book is nearly 500 pages of in depth darkness.

I'm glad I finally got to read this insane case study but I'm very glad to be putting all this evil behind me.

Poison for Breakfast

"Reading a book makes me feel as if I am in conversation with the author."

That line is amazing. It completely describes the feelings I had while reading this book.

I've been obsessed with Lemony Snicket books since I was a kid. Weirdly enough, I found A Series of Unfortunate Events through the little excerpts stuck to my Lunchables.

So when I saw Mr. Snicket was releasing a new book called Poison for Breakfast, I immediately pre-ordered it and then read the description.

Written in typical Lemony Snicket fashion, the book begins with a scrap of paper that reads "You had poison for breakfast." Which sets Mr. Snicket off on a journey through his breakfast. That's really all a book is, someone going on a journey or someone losing something. But in reality those are really the same story. It's told completely through stream of consciousness and honestly felt like I was walking through town with Lemony Snicket while he investigated who or what may have poisoned his breakfast.

 

Honestly, I just love this book.

 

This is easily one of the best books I've read all year.

The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You

Y'all know I'm obsessed with books set in the South, right?

Maurice Carlos Ruffin is a New Orleans Native, which means he's more than qualified to write a collection of short stories set there. Somehow, someway, Amazon suggested The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You and I jumped on the chance to read it. I grew up visiting my family there and have been desperately trying to find my way back.

Now, there were a few stories that I enjoyed more than others but I think that's just because I like longer stories. I've said it before, but when the story is longer the characters and storyline are just that much more complex.

Many of the stories in this collection are set in a Post-Katrina Louisiana. They deal with hardships families faced after the aftermath of the hurricane that rocked their world. Families were torn apart, memories were lost, homes were absolutely destroyed but they bounced back. It seems like most of the stories in this collection are about getting back on your feet, about rebuilding, about life after loss.

Another unique topic featured in these stories is the Pandemic. As of August 2021, we're all still recovering from a virus that has hit literally every part of the world. New Orleans thrives on in person gatherings like concerts and tours and Mardi Gras. During the Pandemic, no one could work. Parents couldn't send their kids to school and people all over the planet fell into hardships that they never expected. The story, "Ghetto University" details some of those hardships and in my opinion is one of the best stories in the entire book.

Night of the Mannequins

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book.

I actually was looking for new horror authors a few weeks ago and Stephen Graham Jones kept popping up. I decided I wanted to get his book, The Last Final Girl. The bookstore didn't have that one, but they did have Night of the Mannequins, so I figured I'd give this one a try.

It was weird.

This horror novella is 131 pages but honestly might have worked better as a full length novel. It definitely has the slasher feel to it, but working in the psychological aspect of the story line didn't really work given how short the story was. But it has a few promising traits.... like a unreliable, mentally ill narrator who happens to be killing all of his friends for the sake of their families.

In typical teenage, angst ridden fashion, Sawyer and his friends decide to prank their friend Shanna while she's working at one of the local movie theaters. They dust off their old friend, Manny (short for Mannequin), dress him up as a movie-goer, and let the staff freak out around them. Instead, Sawyer begins obsessing over their past summers with Manny, the antics of their friendship, the way they discarded Manny when they got "too old" to keep dragging him around.

Obviously, a teenager who is off his medication probably should have been stopped a lot sooner....but not for the sake of his novella. Honestly, I'll probably give Stephen Graham Jones another shot, but this wasn't a promising start for me.

Annie and the Wolves

I'll admit, I don't know much about Annie Oakley.

But a historical fiction book about her happened to catch my eye, so I grabbed a copy. That being said, I have no idea how much of her story was changed for this book, but the main character is a historian who has dedicated the last few years of her life to researching Annie Oakley. So I'm hoping it's fairly accurate.....

Annie of the Wolves in told through several different timelines by several different characters. The most important two are Annie Oakley and Ruth McClintock. Ruth is contacted by Nieman, a man looking into buying letters written by Annie Oakley but first wants to know the authenticity of them. He mails Ruth a journal that seems to be written by a psychoanalyst. The curious thing about this journal is when the doctor begins writing notes for patient ZN, an American woman who begins discussing her childhood; a childhood that sounds very similar to the one Annie Oakley wrote about in her unfinished memoir. In a moment of angst, Ruth tells the man not to bother buying the letters, they're obviously fake.

Days later, Ruth realizes she jumped the gun a bit and tries to research Annie's psychotherapy sessions a bit more before trying to get Nieman to purchase the letters. Along the way, Ruth is discovering new things about herself, her late sister, and even Annie. The parallels are uncanny when it comes to the violent events both Ruth and Annie survived. But that doesn't mean we should have been introduced to time travel more than halfway into the book.

Yeah, this happened.

I had heard a few things about it while reading reviews of the book but I thought, there's no way it can be that important for the book......but the entire second half of the book detailed Ruth trying to prove that time travel is possible and that she and Annie could both exist in multiple timelines. It was almost as if "what if" became fact and literally changed the course of history. The second half of the book still had a ton of information that I enjoyed reading, including the letters Nieman finally sent over to Ruth. But the time travel aspect of this book really was kind of frustrating.

Overall though, it's a pretty good book and I definitely will be reading more from this author.

Lying in Wait

I was fully unprepared to be reading a true crime story set in my home state, Alabama.

 

While there are six stories in this collection, the first three stories are probably the most intriguing ones. I think they just had more substance than the last three stories, which were roughly 10-20 pages a piece. So I've decided to focus this on the three in depth stories.

"Baby Seller"

This immediately grabbed my attention because it's set in Alabama and other Southern states. In the 1980's, several young women were killed and their newborn babies were kidnapped. Jackie Schut posed as a photographer for a newborn baby competition. She wandered around with her own children and husband, looking for babies who might make them a quick buck on the black market. Besides the obvious trouble of this scam, Schut actually killed a woman in front of her own child. This whole story was crazy from start to finish. They started in Alabama, worked their way over to Louisiana, Texas, and wound up in Washington before all this came tumbling down.

"Secrets of the Amorous Pizza Man"

This was your classic tale of husband kills wife and moves his mistress in. Al Baker and Kathie Hill met while working together in Antarctica. Both were well into their 50's but they were absolutely smitten with each other. Kathie had been burned in the past but knew the screening process for the company they both worked for, therefore she knew he couldn't be hiding anything devious or he wouldn't have been granted employment. Somehow, Al slipped through the cracks. Days after Kathie went missing from their Whidbey Island home, Al picked up their mutual friend Trudi from the airport. Police showed up a few days letter to perform a wellness check on Kathie. That's when they discovered Trudi believed Al and Kathie were divorced. She was told Kathie no longer lived in the house. Al had been feeding lies to Kathie, Trudi, and detectives. It wouldn't take long before Kathie was found and Al was trapped in his own web of lives.

"Road Trip to Murder"

This story was crazy from start to finish. DeeDee Pederson welcomed everyone into her home with open arms. When her husband's son came into town with his girlfriend she welcomed them in without asking any questions. It didn't matter that they were both recently released from prison. She was willing to create a relationship with them. How could she have known they were planning to kill her in her own home? After DeeDee was found, it was discovered that her husband, Red and his car were both missing. By the time they found video surveillance of the trio, Red would be dead and so would an innocent 20 year old boy.

Looking for other books by Ann Rule?

The Stranger Beside Me

Lust Killer

Without Pity

Carmilla

Let me tell you about Carmilla.

Months ago, I started looking for a book featuring a female vampire. Mainly because male vampires are just so overdone, and honestly are kind of creepy. So when I stumbled upon Carmilla in the horror section of my local bookstore, I snatched it up.

This book is a mere 139 pages with gorgeous illustrations throughout.

Carmilla is a young, beautiful girl who needs a place to stay after her carriage crashes outside Laura's home. Laura's father immediately takes in this poor girl without thinking of any of the nefarious things that could happen right under his nose. While the story is told through Laura's perspective, it's implied that the disease spreading all over town is the result of vampirism.....which happens to coincide with Carmilla's arrival.

Laura was desperate for companionship and found Carmilla to be charming, thus starting their mild love affair. When Laura begins showing signs similar to the illness running rampant through the town, her father calls for the doctor to come and check out both girls.

Chaos ensues soon after.

The only thing that I didn't love about this specific edition was the editor's explanations found within the footnotes. Some of the things Carmen Maria Machado interprets differ from my own interpretation. But regardless of what edition it is, the storyline itself is exactly what I was looking for.

What amazes me is that this story was originally published in 1871. It's also believed that Carmilla may have been the inspiration for Dracula.