For readers around the globe. :)

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

How to Sell a Haunted House

I went to see Grady on his book tour for How to Sell a Haunted House. His presentations are always so quirky and really get me hyped for his latest books.
 
This book was amazing.
The atmosphere, the vibes, the shock factor.
Everything.
 
Fair warning: If puppets or dolls give you the ick, you might want to avoid this book.

This was literally my nightmare growing up. Someone told me and my sister that if our Barbie dolls were still out at night, they'd come to life and attack us. I have vivid dreams of a Bratz doll scratching the lens of a camera, taunting me. We actually used to put our dolls to bed before we went to sleep, flipping all of them over onto their stomachs so they would be "asleep."
 
So yeah, this book definitely creeped me out a little more than I thought it would.
 
Louise and Mark's parents died in a freak car accident, leaving all their belongings to the kids. The house they grew up in, their father's work, and of course their mom's entire collection of puppets. Nancy started a Christian Puppet Ministry when they were kids. She had been carrying around a puppet named Pupkin since she was a little girl. The obsession grew from there. The puppets started to take on a life of their own. The love that Nancy showed them pushed them to be more than just the fabric and plastic that made up their bodies.
 
There were a few surprises that genuinely caught me off guard.
But holy shit, this book was great.
 
Looking for other Grady Hendrix books?
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Immortality

A few months ago, my sister and I had a chance to go to YALLFest, a YA book festival held in Charleston, South Carolina. We had the best time and left out of there with so many new books, new authors, and new ARCs.

I happened to snag a copy of Immortality, the much awaited sequel to Anatomy by Dana Schwartz.

We learn a lot about anatomy, home remedies, and magical tinctures in the first book. Immortality has much of the same. But I felt like it was lacking just a little bit. I know we all got caught up in the romance between Jack and Hazel, but their future is nonexistent. In Immortality, Hazel has to find a way to move on with her life's work without Jack. She continues seeing patients and helping others merely for the sake of humanity. Furthering her education with this hands-on approach is something Hazel lives for. It's making her a better doctor and helping her to finish her very own treatise, or medical manual for the average person.

After finding herself in an awful misunderstanding, Hazel is called upon to treat Princess Charlotte, the future Queen of England. While treating the princess, Hazel receives an invite to an incredibly secret society, The Companions to the Death. Honestly, their part of the story is by far my favorite. I wish instead of creating an annoying ass love triangle, that we could have seen more from the Companions.

Honestly, I did not love this book.
It did bring me a sense of closure from Anatomy but overall I felt kind of meh about the whole thing.
It was written very well, but the story was lacking some of the empowerment that came with the first book. Hazel was a strong woman who was determined to become a surgeon, but her confidence really faltered throughout this book. I know love will do that, but man I missed her.

Huge thanks to Wednesday Books for the ARC!

Immortality hits shelves February 28, 2023!

Looking for the rest of the series?
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Aurora

Ooh, this was a doozy.

I was in high school when James Holmes opened fire on a packed theater during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. But I had never read an account quite like the one in Aurora: The Psychiatrist Who Treated The Movie Theater Killer Tells Her Story. Dr. Lynne Fenton and Kerrie Droban wove an incredulous tale of horror.

For a mere six weeks, Dr. Fenton treated James Holmes. He left her feeling uneasy and overwhelmed. It didn't help that he mentioned homicidal thoughts in their very first session. Something about him just nagged at her very being. But we have to remember, psychiatrists can only treat symptoms if they're patients are sharing them.

James wasn't someone who had a desire to maintain relationships with anyone. He hated all of humanity. It was only a matter of time before he hurt himself or someone else. The only problem was he didn't qualify for a psychiatric hold based on what he was willing to share with Dr. Fenton.

So much of Holmes' story left me reeling.
He omitted things from these sessions specifically to see if he could continue out his "mission" without further interference. Part of me thinks he really did want to be stopped, but part of me believes he wanted to do this for a long time.

This book contains graphic retellings of that fateful night but focuses primarily on Dr. Fenton and what she went through while treating James Holmes. Psychiatrists aren't supposed to be outed in criminal trials, which is why she was fully unprepared for the hate mail, death threats, and security measures she had to implement into her every day life.

It was definitely an interesting perspective.

Looking for other books on James Holmes?
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Thursday, January 12, 2023

We Sold Our Souls

Okay, I'm actually obsessed with this book.

Grady Hendrix has a love for "music saves" as a theme and honestly, I love it. Now I'm not going to pretend like we haven't heard all the Illuminati conspiracies when it comes to the music industry. We Sold Our Souls does a deep dive into a world of conspiracy turned reality. The horror genre and metal music collide and it is so freaking fantastic.

Washed up, Durt Wurk guitarist, Kris leads us through the nightmare that is now her life. She's getting pissed on while working the front desk of the Best Western. This wasn't supposed to be her life, she was supposed to be legendary. But The Blind King took everything from her. One time friend and frontman of Durt Wurk, Terry Hunt ruined her chance for infamy. He took the money, he sold out, and left them all in their own personal Hells.

But that's all about to change.
 
Koffin announces a Farewell Tour, followed by Hellstock '19, a music festival for the lost, lonely, and pissed off souls. Hundreds of thousands of people flock to Vegas for this once in a lifetime opportunity, including Kris. If he's going to play his entire discography beginning to end, he's not going to do it without Kris dragging their "lost album," Troglodyte back out of the grave. She has a score to settle with Terry, might as well do it on stage.
 
There's so much happening in this book....murder suicides, cross country road trips, more murders, a cult-like camp, and the worst of all, record execs. It put the music industry and consumerism on blast and tied it all together with a graphic gory bow.
 
This might actually be my favorite of his books.
 
Looking for other Grady Hendrix books?
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Saturday, January 7, 2023

Our Book of Awesome

This was a great book to start my year with.

Within the last week, my life has all but fallen apart.
Which is why I grabbed Our Book of Awesome off my TBR shelf.
I needed some peace, happiness, and awesomeness.

If you haven't figured it out yet, The Book of Awesome and all it's subsequent titles detail all the little things in life that we take for granted. It's literally just a list of all the awesome things we as people get to experience and live through every single day.

Some of my favorite things from Our Book of Awesome include:
-Being so obsessed with books you read every single word on the copyright page
-Driving down an old road with trees that touch and form a canopy over everything
-Watching your fav movie with someone who hasn't seen it before (would also like to add, listening to your fav album with someone who hasn't heard it before)
-Dogs hanging their heads out of car windows
-Singing the guitar solo
 
These are all great examples of things that I love and would love to share with other people.
Our Book of Awesome did it a little differently this time, instead of Neil Pasricha just sharing his awesome thoughts, he included comments and entries from people all over the world!
 
AWESOME!
 
Looking for the other Awesome books?
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