Thursday through Sunday was a three day readathon where you try to read as many horror or thriller books as you can. The hosts put together a couple of wheels full of prompts for both genres which helped motivate me to read more. I finished the second half of one book and read four more during the 72 hours.
Day 1: Horror
Prompt: This is the only prompt I won’t be sharing since I think it spoils the reveals in the book.
I will have a full review out for this on the day it comes out, March 28. Just know that I absolutely loved this book. I was not expecting where this historical fiction book went and it was flawless. Adelaide and the people she meets are the epitome of strong women and I know that this is a book I will reread in the future. It is a well done horror but also a well done feminist tale of strength and self discovery.
Prompt: Cosmic
Uzumaki is one of Junji Ito’s most popular works and I am so happy that I finally decided to pick it up. It is quite a large manga at just over 650 pages but it is so engrossing that it doesn’t feel big at all. Each chapter is pretty much a standalone story set in Kurouzu-cho and in some way involving our protagonist, Kirie. Ito’s mind is a fascinating place and it is incredible to see his ideas play out in his words and art. Some of the stories were more horrific then others and of course it is further compounded by some truly disturbing images. The only downside to the story was that I would have left this town so fast after the first couple of stories and there isn’t really any mention of why people won’t leave. It is recommended to Kirie at one point early on but then it is never followed up on.
Day 2: Thriller
Prompt: Domestic
I’ve had The Lies I Tell sitting on my Netgalley shelf for so long and I’m kicking myself because I loved this book. It takes a lot for me to love a domestic thriller and everything about this one worked for me. I loved the dual perspective and multiple timelines. Meg Williams is a con woman who is back in her hometown of Los Angeles to finally get revenge on the man who wronged her as a teenager. Kat is a reporter who had a brief interaction with Meg ten years ago that had a devastating effect on her life and she has been waiting to expose her. The interactions between the two of them gave a cat and mouse feel and Clark really played with reliability and who to trust. I enjoyed the past timelines that we got for each protagonist because we could clearly see their motivations and got to develop a bond with them. I also appreciated how Clark tells a “Me Too” story about how terrible men always get away with it in a way that is light handed enough that it adds to the story but doesn’t take it over. This story is firmly about women and how powerful they can be.
Day 3: Horror
Prompt: Cozy
This is another book that I cannot believe that I waited so long to read. This has become one of my top ten favorite books of all time. I adored all the creepy vibes and the way Jackson told this story. There is something about Jackson’s writing that is just flawless for me. The atmosphere, the dialogue, the tension, the buildup of the third act was just brilliant. This is a methodical story about a family and the community they live in all centering around the poisoning of the majority of the protagonist sisters family. I could honestly gush about this book for ages since I loved every single thing that Jackson put on paper but this is meant to be a short wrap up. Bunny is another of my top ten favorite books and I think that if you love one you might love the other.
Prompt: Cosmic
When I spun cosmic again I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is high on my priority list but I didn’t have a lot of time left in the readathon. So I decided to pick up this horror novella by Cassandra Khaw. I have previously read and loved her other novella, Nothing But Blackened Teeth so I felt confident that I would enjoy this one. And I did even though it was weird and I don’t really understand the world. However, I love novellas and I am ok with reading one and not getting everything fully fleshed out. This one was interesting because the narrator is some other world creature that is in the skin of an older man named John Persons who is a private eye. A boy hires him to kill his stepdad and Persons starts to investigate. I liked the story for what it was but I’m not sure if I will pick up the second book in the duology.
Books With Cassie 